The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E90 - Justification

Episode Date: September 28, 2020

Hey, church family, if you've got your Bible, and I hope you do, Philippians chapter three is where we are in our study of Philippians. And it is Devo time. We'll just pick it up. Three one. Finally, my brothers, which is, this is how you know, Paul is a preacher, because he says, finally, and he's halfway through the letter. So he's still got two chapters ago. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe. for you. Once again, Paul uses this word, rejoice. And just in case you've forgotten, remember where he has written this from. He is writing this from prison. And yet, in like, per capita, the word joy or rejoiced is used more in the book of Philippians than any other book. And the reason is because Paul, he was not pursuing happiness found in happenings, but he found his joy in Jesus. And since Jesus never changes, then his joy,

never changes. And so he says, rejoice. Verse two, he's going to give a warning. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil doers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. What he's talking about here, he talks about it also in the book of Galatians, is, was dog was a derogatory term. By the way, it is one of my favorite verses. And as the season starts out, look out for those dogs. So I always love that.

But what he's talking about is a group of people called Judaizers. And what Judaizers would do is they believed in Jesus. They just believed it was Jesus plus obedience. Jesus plus works. And the specific work was that your salvation was dependent on the old covenant symbol of covenant, which was circumcision. And so this is why Paul calls them mutilators of the flesh. And what he says here, he says it in the book of Romans too.

Basically, he says, we are the circumcision. He's talking to the Philippians. And what he's talking about is not a physical act done, but he's talking about the circumcision of the heart. He's saying that in order to be in right relationship with God, it has only to do with your relationship with Jesus. It has to do with faith and not works. We are not saved by works.

We are saved by faith. So he says, don't put any confidence in the flesh. Don't put any confidence in your works, in your church attendance, in who your grandma and granddaddy are, in some religious ritual that was done to you when you were a little baby. So a modern day equivalent of this could be,

like baptism. If somebody, if you, when you were a baby, somebody baptized you, that, and you think that makes you a Christian, then that is putting your confidence in flesh, putting your confidence in that work that you had nothing to do with. Then in verse four in following, what Paul is going to say is, if anybody has any reason to believe that they have confidence in the flesh, then it would be the Apostle Paul. In other words, if I, if, our righteous activity could save us, then Paul is saying, then for sure I would be saved. And what he's going to do in the next bunch of verses is he is going to roll out his religious pedigree. He's going to, he's going to roll out all of the things in his life that everybody would have thought made him

closer to God. And ultimately, he's going to say, and none of these things, none of these things count as compared to my faith. Verse four, he says, though I, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. And then here comes his religious resume. Circumcised on the 8th day. Of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law,

law, blameless. I mean, who could say that? He's saying, I never broke the commandments, I never broke the law, I kept the dietary laws, I kept the religious laws, I kept the moral laws, I did it all. If anybody has reason to put confidence in their right deeds before God, I have the boast. I was born of the right people. I have worked very hard to be a Pharisee. And as for righteousness, according to the law, blameless. Verse seven. But whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Now, if you've been to 1122, you know.

that this word translated here, rubbish, in Greek, is scubilon. Now, if you look at it up in a concordance, it's going to say slang for animal dung. And I don't think, Paul's not being rude or crude to hear, but he is trying to make a point. He is trying to say a word here that would be shocking to his readers. He's saying all of my works, all of my good deeds, all of my good deeds, all of my religious pedigree are meaningless compared to my relationship with Jesus, compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. And this word is, you know, again, a slang term for animal dung. So call it BS or call it crap, whatever it is. He is saying that my

religion, my right deeds in order to try to provide a right standing before God, though the list is impressive and the list is, is long, it is crap. It is scubilant compared to knowing Jesus. And for his sake. And listen. So oftentimes, oftentimes we can begin to believe that, um, that it is our good deeds that make us right before the Lord. I read a Pew Research poll very recently, came out this year,

and over 50% of Bible-believing, church attending, evangelicals that regularly attend church don't get the gospel. Because over 50% of those people polled, again, church people, people listening right now, they said that their good deeds play a key role in whether they get into heaven or not. Paul says that's scubilon. Now again, this doesn't mean that we don't do good deeds. Ephesus chapter two makes it very clear that we are saved, we are saved by grace through faith,

and this is no, no work of our own so that no one can boast. However, we are saved to good works. So are we supposed to do righteous acts for sure, but it comes as an overflow of our right standing with God. It does not earn our right standing with God. And it's so hard for the Christian mind to get around that idea that we are saved by grace through faith and not works. And honestly, the longer you hang out at church, the more likely you are to begin to write up your own religious resume about all the great things that you do. Because then what begins to happen is you think God is somehow proud of you as if you earned your salvation. and when we do that, we believe that we bring merit to the salvation experience. And the only thing that we bring to our salvation experience with the Lord is our own sinful,

utter depravity. That is all we bring. And so he says, indeed, I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, scubiland, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. This is important. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,

but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. I don't know how he could say it any more clearly. How do you have a right standing before God? Is it based on your righteous deeds? Is it based on your righteous deeds? Is it based on your morality? Is it based on your effort?

The answer is absolutely not. In fact, it's easy to understand this reality on a bad day. Like when you lie, cheat, steal, when you lose it and scream at your kids, when you're tempted by that same thing over and over and over. In those instances, it's easy for us to think, well, yeah, it's by great. that I'm saved, because I'd certainly don't deserve it. But in the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah says that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before God. Our righteousness, even on your best day, if you woke up, if Jesus himself grabbed you by the toe and woke you up in the

morning and opened your Bible and brought you a cup of coffee, and you got up and you spent hours in His Word, and you memorized Romans chapter 8, and then you just, you said, you, you said, you, you went up and down your street and you evangelized your entire street. And then you went to an under-resourced part of the community and you fed the naked and you visited the poor and you did all of these kinds of things. And if you bring those things to God as if they are going to somehow earn a relationship with him, those things are like filthy racks. And when Isaiah uses that word, you probably know this. It's, we translate it filthy rags because people got to read it on Sunday morning in church,

but it literally is used menstrual cloths. That's what it means. So that's not just, that's repulsive. That's offensive. If somebody gave that to you as a gift, you would be offended. Here, he calls it scubilon. If somebody went after the neighbor's dog and scooped up the dog poop and then wrapped it in a present to bring to you and they were being seen.

serious. You would not be honored by that. You would say, what is wrong with you? That is so offensive. That is what it's like when we try to stand before God on our own righteousness. Good deeds won't save you. Right activity will not save you. You are saved by works, just not your works. You're saved by Christ's finished work on the cross. But you're not saved by that alone. You have to have faith in his finished work. That's what saves you. He says, and to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, that

depends on faith. Let me ask you, have you ever put your faith in Jesus? Have you ever trusted? That's what that word means. Pustuo is the Greek word. It means to believe, to trust, to commit your whole life into, to surrender. Have you ever put your faith? Have you ever put your faith in Jesus. And he closes up this passage this way, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may sharing his sufferings becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So Paul says, church in Philippa, even though I'm in prison, I rejoice because my faith is not in my circumstances. My faith is in my sovereign

Savior, and because he doesn't change, I don't have to change. And he says, and let me warn you, watch out for those dogs. Watch out for those men that are going to try to teach you that there's some kind of outward activity that determines your eternal destiny. That is not how it works. That you remember that righteousness is your right standing before God and your right deeds, your right activity does not make you right before God. That by definition would be self-righteous. and you are not self-righteous, but you have an alien righteousness that has been imparted to you,

that when Christ died on the cross and when he says, it is finished, not only was your sin debt paid for, but for anyone who would believe then his righteous life was imparted to imputed, excuse me, imputed to us, not imparted.

Imparted means if I do something, then it's given to me. Imputed means credited to my account. Paul will say it this way in Corinthians. He says that God made Him who is without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. When we put our faith in Him, we have a right standing before God. Does that lead to right activity? Yes and amen. But always, identity precedes activity. The gospel is not, if you behave, then you will be accepted. The gospel is because of of what Christ did at the cross, you have already been accepted.

And if you have been accepted by God, then it totally changes the way you and I behave. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the gift of faith. We thank you that it is not by our works that we can be saved. And Lord, a part of the reason we're so thankful for that, because if we had to earn it, then we'd have to keep up with it. if it was a good deed that saved us, then a bad deed could damn us. And so, Lord, I thank you that we can't lose our salvation because our salvation,

it's not hard as to lose. It is a gift from you that we have been saved by faith and that no one could pluck us out of your hand. God, we know that faith is a gift. And so, Lord, I pray, I pray for every single person that it's tuned into this, Lord, that you would give us an increase in that faith. And God, I thank you, and I praise you, that it is the object of our faith and not the amount that makes all the difference in the world.

And God, I thank you that even when we are faithless, you are always faithful. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.