Put No Confidence in the Flesh
First B Jackson
2026-01-18

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. For whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Thank you, Philip. I will be drinking a lot of water. I have already been drinking a lot of water. I'm not used to the dry air yet. So, bear with me.

Man, what a joy it is. Good morning, everybody. So so thankful to be here. The circumstances that Ray had to leave are really sad and he felt bad about just dumping the responsibility of preaching this morning but I was like, hey, man. That's what I'm here for.

So, yeah, this this this past week has been really really good for me to to reflect on Philippians three. It has been such a comfort for me because you know, really the the gist of what we're going to talk through today is not placing confidence on the flesh. Not not placing confidence on our own abilities but you know, but I have been wrestling with that because I'm coming from construction in Alabama to being your new associate pastor in Wyoming. I mean, they're quite different things, right? But I'm not placing, I am trying hard not to place confidence on by experience or how many sermons I preached or whatever but truly doing all that I can to to only place confidence on who Jesus is, the spirit that dwells in me, in us, and and preach from that point and and so, I hope we all are encouraged today by Paul's words to the Philippian church in in chapter three.

Blake, you got the slides up? Yes. There we go. All right. So it wouldn't be a sermon here without a map, right?

So we've got a map. You can see Philippi, which is who is where the Philippian church is in Philippi. Paul is in Rome in prison writing to them. We have so much to go over. That's all you get on the map.

This is just kind of an overview where we headed today. We are covering verses one through 14. Paul in verse one through three gives encouragement and warning and then goes into his like resume kind of like Paul's fleshly confident resume in verses four through six and then seven and eight, there's this twist where he's counting the gains as loss. He's counting them as rubbish. So, we'll talk about that and then verse nine through 11, he goes over the eternal gains that he had like he's gaining Christ.

So, in comparison, all his resume is counting as rubbish and then at the end, we'll we'll get a challenge of this journey to the prize, okay? So, encouragement and warning. He says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. Try the same things to you. It's no trouble to me and it's safe for you.

So, remember, he's in prison right now and he's telling them to rejoice like he still has reason to rejoice even though he is experiencing suffering and imprisonment. He says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for the mutilators of the flesh. For those who mutilate the flesh.

What's he talking about here? There's all throughout the region. There are these people called Judaizers and they are holding a tradition or traditions up here and they're saying, yeah, the gospel to the Gentiles. Yeah, you know, you might believe in Christ but you've gotta do this and this and this. You need to be circumcised and Paul is condemning that.

He is saying, look out for these people, the dogs, like our neighbors across the street have some awesome dogs. They're really kind, sweet. They're used to coming in our house, you know, and that's we we're like, come let them in and they're like, no, you really don't want them in your house but here in America and I'm assuming this part especially like anywhere where there's an outdoor focus. We love our dogs. Man's best friend.

We don't have a dog yet but maybe one day, don't get your hopes up though. So, this doesn't really make sense though to our culture, right? But overseas, even today in The Middle East, in Arab culture, dogs are not seen as great cuddly things. They're gross, mangy, like, oh, dog, the dog, like, oh, get the dog out of here. You know, like it's not a positive thing and so that's that's why he's saying, look out for the dogs.

He's calling these people that are placing this un healthy, wrong value of physical, fleshly things and he's saying, look out for them, okay? And then he continues on. So, everything kind of streams from there. He says, for we are the circumcision. He's talking about the people, the believers, the follower, followers of Christ, Jews, or Gentiles, doesn't matter.

We are the circumcision, okay? What does that mean? In Romans two, I hadn't even turned my page up. I'm out of out of order. Alright, Romans two twenty nine, you don't have to go there but he he explains that it the circumcision is a matter of the heart.

It's not a it's not just a fleshly thing, okay? We could camp out there longer. We're going to keep moving. Let's see. So, yeah.

Verse three, we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So, here he goes. He's setting us up for this, for for this difficulty that people have, all people have of placing that confidence in the flesh and what I thought of when I read that, he's saying, who, you know, we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God. Reminds me of the the woman at the well, right? Like, she's asking like, who, where do we worship God?

And Jesus tells her, hey, those who worship God worship in spirit and in truth and so he's he's he's Jesus is pushing against this idea that you've gotta be all of, you know, cross all these Ts and dot, all these Is is it to be one of God's people, okay? So, his fleshly gains. We'll we'll just read them right there. Though I, myself, Paul, have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has confidence, anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh.

I have more. And he lists them out. He's circumcised on the eighth day. Excuse me. Gosh.

He's circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel. He's of the tribe of Benjamin. He's a Hebrew of Hebrews. As of the law, as to the law, he's a Pharisee. So, remember, Pharisees, man, Jesus gave them a really hard time, right?

Why? Because they were, they were missing the point. They were trying hard to on in their own power and strength to be one of God's people and and Paul is recognizing, hey, he was a Pharisee. He did this really strict sect of order of these extra laws that they would put on themselves. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Wow. Like he's listed out all this stuff. Right? All of these things that he accomplished. Why does he mention that?

Now, I think one of the reasons is he is really like gaining some credibility with some of these other guys that are in Philippi or Galatia and he's tell he's telling them like, look, you might be confident and you're telling this church that they should be doing these things but look, I've done like way more than than than y'all have and I'm telling you, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Wow. And like, really? Yes. He says it again in verse eight.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. So, how? Like, how does Paul get from think about maybe your own life? Like, you've made all these achievements and you've reached this pedestal or this point in your life based, you know, maybe it's wealth, maybe it's, you know, properties, maybe it's your family lineage, and now you've got what like all the physical worldly things that could happen. Paul has a lot of gains.

He is a man of prestige. Right? But how does he get to this point where his losses or his gains? Like he had all of this stuff, right? All the things he counts as gains, let's say, is on this side.

Jesus was like down here, like he's persecuting the church, right? So in his mind, everything here about Paul is awesome. Everything about Jesus is wrong. Like, remember how the attitude of the Pharisees like he's blasphemous. That's why they killed him.

Right? And now everything switched. But what happened? Remember, Acts nine, y'all just went through Acts and Acts nine. Jesus meets Paul on the road like Paul's on the road to go persecute Christians.

And Jesus with blinding light, a thundering voice is like, Paul, Paul, why are you what are you doing? Why are you persecuting me? And he has this completely huge shift, this radical change from who he was to who he he he died as where everything went like this. And he's challenging the church in Philippi to understand that's what it looks like to follow Christ. And it's really interesting to think, you know, he had physical blindness, right?

Like, remember he had somebody had to hold his hand like to get to where he was going. But in his physical blindness, he received spiritual sight. Think about the zeal that he had, right? Like he's persecuting Christians, not because he hates God, because he loves God. Like he thought that's what he needed to do.

But then he realized like in Acts nine, Jesus shows him like, look, dude, you missed the point, right? It's wild to think about. Okay. So and and so he really goes like, make sure that everyone understands that these gains and things that he had, he's counting them as lost three times. The repetition, right?

Like, that's how our brain is helped by this repetition. So, in verse seven, his gains are counted as lost for the sake of Christ. In verse eight, he counts everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. This exclusive relationship, only the Lord is his lord. Verse, the second part of verse eight, for his sake, he suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

Rubbish. Like, the word rubbish, they, you know, maybe it's too gross to put in in the in the Bible. It means poop. That's what it means. He's saying all this stuff and all the things that my parents and parents' parents and all the the benefits that I've received and all the studying and all of the acts and all the things that I've been doing my whole life to get to this status is poop.

And yeah, you've got to laugh and think, how do you get to like, how does he get there? And it's because of the eternal gains that he now sees, right? Now his spiritual eyes are open and he can see the whole like everything he had been missing. So there's kind of like three main sections in here, and I've underlined each one as we go through them. So it says, For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

And be found in Him. Kind of skipping ahead, I was studying a book that Lauren had read in her seminary training called Justification by N. T. Wright, and he's trying to help the reader put things in perspective. The sun has risen and it turns out we are in its orbit, not the other way around.

The conclusion is not so that He can be my savior, but so that I may be found in Him. Do you hear the difference? He's so big, He's so great, and we can be found in him. And then also thought about Jim Elliot's quote that probably most of you know, he he's actually quoting Philip Henry from the sixteen hundreds. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

What is he saying? He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep. So, all those fleshly gains, you know, that Paul had, he can't keep those things. They don't add up to anything in eternity. Right?

But the gain that he has when he gives those things up, he can't lose. He can't you can't lose Christ. You gain Christ. You gain getting to know him. Be found in him.

To to receive the righteousness that he gives. You can't lose that. So that that's what Jim Elliot's talking about is he gives up his life to go be a missionary. Next next section. Paul saying not having a righteousness of righteousness of my own that comes from the law, which is what he was pursuing as a Pharisee.

Right. But that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Man, so good. Like, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, of gaining Christ and and there's no work that we can do to to gain this this this righteousness from God, the gift of righteousness from God that depends on faith. And when you think about like how well Paul knew Jesus, right?

How well do we know? How well do we know Jesus? Is he like an acquaintance? Or maybe he's someone that we intentionally like spend some time reading about every day or but but is that enough? Like, do you really know him?

You know? Just one thing that that is interesting that he puts in chapter two, he's it's this poem about who who Jesus is. Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's so much there.

We see humility, we see power, we see obedience to God the father that leads to the like the worst death. This is like a great summary of of the Jesus that we know and that came to save us. I know Ray had mentioned or had was in Jeremiah last week and Jeremiah nine twenty three couldn't couldn't just lace into what we're talking about today much better. Jeremiah is having a a tough time with Israel, right? Like Israel is kind of missed the point also and he's the Lord is saying, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.

Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boast, boast in this, that he understands and knows me. Should have capitalized the M. That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.

For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. The new the New Testament, you know, version or that we're already in but when Paul is writing to Galatians, he says, but far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Like the world's no longer attractive to Paul anymore. Like he's he's so far beyond that.

And and God has been asking his people and coaching his people and explaining this for so long. The people back in Jeremiah's time needed to hear that. The people that were in Paul's time needed to hear that. And, y'all, we need to hear it today, too. It's the same gospel message.

The the last gain he talks about. So so we see, you know, gain Christ that we may be found in him. Gain Christ. We may know him and the power of his resurrection and then and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So do you all have cicada bugs here?

Yes. Okay. We have them in Alabama. It's a really fun thing for Piper, our oldest, and some of the other kids to play with. They'll they'll grab that shell of a bug, and they'll go put it on mommy's shoulder, and she won't notice until, oh gosh, like what is that?

But it's just an empty shell. Right? It's the live bug the kids aren't as excited about. They're big and loud, you know? And but how cool of a like illustration that God has made?

Like, this is God's design right there. I don't know the science behind why. I'm sure some of you do. But how cool the picture like we die to our flesh like that brown empty shell will add up to nothing. Right?

It does nothing. And we're raised to newness of life. Like, don't cling to this empty shell of your life, you know, like leave it behind, die to it and be raised to newness of life. Like it's so much better. Right?

This huge shift that we see in Paul's life, right? We see it other times in the new in the New Testament, too. Like if you think about the apostles, they went from hiding in the room after Jesus dies to going out and proclaiming the gospel to the point of death. Or there's there's other examples too, like Hebrews eleven twenty six is really interesting. He's saying he, Moses, considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Like he could see being obedient. Remember, he doesn't want to be a public speaker like Moses is not jazzed about this thing that he's been called to do, but he can see like the Lord has let him see. This is what I have called you to in this life is so much greater than like the treasures of Egypt. You know, he could have just stayed there and he was already in like Egyptian royal status or like the man in Matthew 13 when I like to imagine that he's walked by this field several times. Okay.

He sells everything he has when he finds the treasure in this field. Everything he had is now counted as loss. Everything he had in the field was like this. But then he finds the treasure in the field, and then all of a sudden he sells all of it and buys this field because of the treasure there. Right?

Do we live like we actually think that all our stuff is down here and Jesus is here? I know I struggle with that so much. And if we're honest, I think all of us struggle with that. The end, like we could end the sermon there and I've still got a little bit of time. This last section journey to the prize, like we can't leave this part out.

It's so good. Verse 12, not that I've already obtained this. Paul is saying, I'm I know I'm not already to the end of my life yet serving God or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Wait a second. Like, is this like one of those circular references? It's like work, don't work. Like, you can't work for your righteousness, but go to work. And you're like, wait, what?

Like what? That doesn't make sense. It's not a circular reference though. Like the work, the straining, the pressing on is not to achieve righteousness. Jesus has got that part done, sealed.

Like if you put your faith in him, done like you're saved, you're eternally secure no matter how you feel. But he presses on because Christ Jesus has made me his own. He is Christ like Jesus has called like he's found in Christ, right? So what does that do with our life? It's like the little dead shell and the live bug.

Like, we don't want to live like that anymore. Like, we want to work hard and honor the name that that died for us. Right? He's not afraid. Paul's not afraid of talking about work.

He says in First Corinthians fifteen ten, I worked harder than any of them. I've worked with superintendents that say that, I'm the hardest worker out here. I don't know if Paul says it like that, but Colossians one twenty eight to 29, he says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, and I love this right here, okay? Pay attention.

For this I toil struggling with all his energy, not Paul's energy. Jesus, God's energy that He, God powerfully works within me, Paul. Philippians four thirteen, one of the most like famous verses that's just taken out of context all the time. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. These things that we're doing is all about serving our King, our Master, and we can do them because it's Christ who strengthens us.

Right? And then this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I was thinking about John nine. Yes. In John nine, almost the whole pretty much the whole chapter.

Remember, Jesus heals this blind man who's been sitting there born blind and Jesus heals him on the Sabbath day. Of course, he likes to do that. And then everybody's like, oh my goodness, like, who healed this guy? Or was he really born blind? Like the Pharisees just can't stand it.

And they quite, they even go find his family like, hey, mom, dad, like this is your son, right? Yeah, yeah, that's my son. Was he born blind? Yeah, yeah. Are you sure?

Like, yes. Like, it's our son. Like, what are you doing? And and they talk to this the guy that can now see it like multiple times and they come up to him and they're like, hey, were you born blind? He's like, yes, I was born blind.

He's like, what do you think about the man that did this? He's like, hey, one thing I know. I was born blind and now I see. Right? I was born blind and now I see.

We were born spiritually blind. And with Jesus, He's opened our eyes to see. So what are you gonna do with your spiritual sight? Forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

So we should rejoice, like he says in verse one. He's given us new life. The the life that Jesus offers is so far better this way, so far better than all these things. May we know Him and worship Him in spirit and truth and praise Him, and may we toil joyfully submitting ourselves to Him so He may work in us and through us to accomplish his will. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you. Thank you for opening our eyes to to that which has real eternal worth. God, we love you so much and we pray that you help us to die to ourselves and that you help us to raise to the newness of life that you called us to. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen.