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[0:00] seen Paul talk about joy that he has, that he has found in all kinds of situations. Chapter one, he talks about shared ministry. I pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel with me.

[0:13] I get joy from you joining me in ministry. He talks about joy in his own personal affliction, that though there are those who are trying to afflict him while he's in prison, he still is able to rejoice that Christ is preached by those who preach Christ from true motives and even from those who try to preach Christ in order to give it to Paul. They're still preaching Christ and that he rejoices in. He finds joy in uncertain expectations. He doesn't know if he's going to live or die.

[0:49] So his conclusion is to live is Christ, to die is king. But whatever happens, to live is Christ. And I look forward to your joy as I believe God will bring me back to you.

[1:05] He talks about selfless unity. He says, complete my joy. I've got a lot of joy already, but if you would begin to seek selfless unity together, if you would begin to kind of cut back on the grumbling and the self-interest and begin to think about others, man, that would just fill up my cup of joy. I will get joy. I find joy when you work together and think together. Think like Jesus did. He talks about joy and sacrificial witness, how we are lights in the world and how we can be glad and rejoice in that sacrificial witness. And then last time we looked at the end of chapter 2 where he talks about joy and cherished servants. He talks about Timothy and Epaphroditus.

[1:59] And he talks about receiving them with all joy and honoring such men, finding joy in others, joy in particularly those who model a servant and selfless kind of act. They're not the upfront folks.

[2:17] They're Timothy and Epaphroditus. But man, they deserve honor. They deserve our attention, our focus. So he's been talking about that. Now we come to chapter 3 and he begins with finally. Now that sounds like he's ending the book, doesn't it? Finally. And actually the word simply just means as to the rest.

[2:47] Obviously he's not ending the letter because he's got two more chapters. And sometimes it means finally. He puts that at the end of it. But here it just means as to the rest. Now there's more I want to talk to you about. So as to the rest, brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

[3:03] Rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, but safeguard for you. He's talked about rejoicing a lot already. He's talked to them in person about rejoicing in the Lord. And he says, to say the same thing again is not just idle. It's not just, I'm not just saying words. I'm not just, it's not just a motto that doesn't really mean anything.

[3:26] He says, oh, rejoice in the Lord. He says, no, I mean it. And to say the same thing, I say deliberately, I repeat myself because rejoicing in the Lord is a safeguard for you.

[3:41] Which makes it interesting because now he's going to go into some warning. So what does this involve? This rejoicing in the Lord? How does it look?

[3:52] Remember this word rejoice is not the same word as happy. I've said it before, it bears repeating. It's not idle for me to repeat this. This is for your safety.

[4:06] Happiness is about what happens to you. So it's totally dependent on circumstances. So if good things happen, I'm happy. If bad things happen, I'm not happy. But joy is different. Joy doesn't matter. Even in hard things, as Paul talks about in my personal affliction, I don't know if I'm going to live or die. I can find joy because it's a perspective. It's a mindset.

[4:34] And now I think he's getting to the heart of it. It's not just joy in the circumstance, not just joy that Christ has preached, but joy and delight in the Lord.

[4:46] That's a daily thing. Joy in the Lord. What does that look like? So we're just going to look at the opening here. I think Paul gives two applications.

[5:01] Verse two, some warnings. Beware of the joy stealers. And then verse three, he gives some descriptions of a true Christian.

[5:16] Who are those who find joy in the Lord? Okay, so first application. Beware and avoid the joy stealers.

[5:31] Those who would steal your joy. Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evildoers. Beware of the mutilators. Who are these? This is odd language.

[5:43] Clearly, Paul has something in mind. Clearly, the Philippians are going to understand what he means by them. He must have talked to them before about that.

[5:54] But for us, 2,000 years later, reading this, kind of going, who are the dogs? What's that? And who are the evildoers? And who are the mutilators? What is he getting at?

[6:05] Do notice that at the end of verse two, he talks about for those who mutilate the flesh, verse three, four, we are the circumcision. So based on that, so he's contrasting this group of people versus us who are the circumcision.

[6:25] So what he uses in verse three is the words, the normal word for circumcision, which means to cut around. Okay, circumcision is a cutting around. When he talks about the mutilators, he uses a different form of that.

[6:40] It's a play on words. It's a cutting off or a cutting apart. So who are these mutilators? I'm convinced that the three descriptions of verse two are all about the same group of people.

[6:54] And this group of people, Paul is sarcastically using reverse terms to refer to the Judaizers. These are the Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but they haven't given up the law.

[7:15] And they haven't given up Judaism. They're still, it's like Jesus is an add-on. None of my Jewishness changes. Circumcision, keeping the law, doing all that is the same.

[7:30] And so what they're trying to do is get Gentiles to now become Jews. With Jesus, of course. So they've adopted Jesus, but they haven't adopted the new righteousness.

[7:46] They've adopted Jesus, but they haven't adopted the new covenant that Jesus brought. They go this way. Paul writes the book of Galatians about these people.

[8:02] The whole book of Galatians is about how they've been fooled. They've been bewitched. They've gone to another gospel because this is not the gospel. It's a gospel about Jesus, but it's about Jesus plus.

[8:16] It's a mixed gospel. So I think all these terms refer to the same people. And he's using reverse terms. They would not call themselves this. They would call themselves the circumcision.

[8:29] They would call themselves good doers. And they would not call themselves dogs. That's what Jews called Gentiles.

[8:40] Paul's using the term on them because they've reversed God's righteousness to be their righteousness. So dogs, beware the dogs.

[8:53] Beware means to look out for, to be on guard, watch for. These people are not there in Philippi yet, but they're coming because they come to every church that Paul has founded.

[9:04] They're dogs. They're dogs. So what's dogs? What's wrong with dogs? We like dogs, don't we? Dogs are good. They're cute. Well, most of them.

[9:16] But you got to, dogs were not pets for people in the first century. At least not in the Jewish and Roman and Greek society.

[9:28] For the most part. Dogs were scavengers. They're wild dogs. They're scavengers. They're unclean. That's why Jews would call Gentiles dogs because, you know, dogs will eat anything.

[9:43] Right? They're indiscriminate. They'll eat anything. And that's why, oh, Gentiles do the same thing. Yeah, yeah, eat anything. You're a dog. That's the phrasing.

[9:54] And remember, dogs were referred to in a negative sense in the Old Testament. It was a dog that would come after Jezebel died and the dogs that would come and lick up her blood. Which to a Jew would be like the worst thing to do.

[10:09] But a dog will do that. Okay? So dogs. And I think Paul's kind of using a play on words here too. These are dogs because they've dogged Paul.

[10:20] Everywhere he goes, they follow dogging him and scavenging on his converts. So after he founds a church and then he goes away, they don't dare come when Paul's there.

[10:33] But after Paul's moved on, they'll come in and, okay, let's get some converts here. They did that to the Galatian church. Oh, you guys, yeah, Jesus is great.

[10:45] Got to have Jesus. Yeah. But, you know, God given us a law. And there are things we need to do. And you're not a full Christian.

[10:57] You're not a full Jewish Christian. Unless you, first of all, you got to get circumcised. I mean, that goes all the way back to Abraham. You got to do that. Then you got to keep the law. Jesus wouldn't change any of that, would he?

[11:12] He's our Messiah. That's what they're doing. Remember in Acts 15, this was a crisis. What do we do with Gentile converts? This is a Jewish church for the most part in Acts 15.

[11:25] You got Paul, Peter, James, John. They're all Jews. What do we do with the Gentiles coming to Christ? And they had a big debate. And they said, you know what?

[11:41] I don't think they need to be circumcised because they have the Holy Spirit. They believed and God gave them the Holy Spirit just like they did to us at Pentecost. So, I mean, that's God saying they're okay.

[11:56] That's my stamp of approval. That's my badge. Circumcision isn't the badge anymore. It's not the mark anymore. It's not an external mark. It's an internal mark.

[12:08] So, what do they do? They're the dogs. What do they do? Well, they're evildoers. Now, they don't think they're evildoers. They think they're doing good works. They think they're okay because they rely on their own works.

[12:24] They put their confidence in the flesh. They have rejected God's righteousness, which is through Christ by faith, for their righteousness.

[12:37] They trust in their own work. God has told us to keep the law. That must mean we're able to do it, right? It still goes that way, by the way.

[12:48] I see here Christians teaching that. If God says for us to do it, that means we must be able to do it. Really? Okay. So, be perfect as I am perfect.

[12:59] You good with that? We've talked about this one before. Love the Lord with all your heart. Do you do that? Oh, and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

[13:14] You good? Well, I can do that for about maybe 10 minutes. My mind wanders. My strength fails. My soul's way over there. Come on.

[13:27] As Paul tells us, the law was given to prove to us that we're sinners. It's given to us to show us we can't. We can't keep our promises.

[13:39] We can't keep up those obligations. Now, we want to. We can't. That's why we do it by faith. So, these guys are evildoers because they think they're good enough.

[13:54] They think they're righteous enough. It's a mixed gospel. In Galatians, when Paul talked to the Galatians about these folks that came in, he said, you've adopted another gospel.

[14:10] Just because the gospel has Jesus in it doesn't mean it's the right gospel. Because they're preaching a gospel of Jesus, but it's Jesus plus works.

[14:22] Or it's Jesus plus some experience. So, we're not going to face these Judaizers today. That's not a threat for us.

[14:32] But there are other people that will threaten us. Well, not threaten us. Tempt us. To follow their way. They'll say you're not a full Christian unless you add this experience.

[14:49] Unless you, you know, if you don't speak in tongues, you know, you're not a full Christian. Well, are you? That's a hot button.

[15:02] Oh, I don't know. I don't want to do that one. I'm not saying don't speak in tongues. I'm saying people that tell you that's what you need to do to be a full Christian.

[15:16] Uh-uh. Not how I read Paul. But that's one example. Or say you need to have this experience or this deeper life experience.

[15:28] You're not a real... I felt some of that in the denomination I used to be in. There was always a press for a deeper life thing. And I'm in it. I want deeper life. But if you don't have it, you know, you're missing.

[15:42] Well, talk to Jeremiah about that. Huh? Let's be real. I want that. But if God's not going to give it to me, well, you got to do this and this and this.

[15:55] What I'm saying, if it's Jesus plus something, an external work you do, an experience that you must have, beware.

[16:10] Watch it. Okay? Adding something as a badge, as a confirmation. And he calls them the mutilators.

[16:26] Because they focus on, here's the badge. Here's the thing that you need. Here's the first step you must do. Here's the thing you must add. And that's circumcision. You must get cut. Who'd want to go through that?

[16:41] And I'm glad I was, what, two days old when that happened to me? Because I don't remember a thing. But man, if I was an adult and I had to go through that?

[16:54] I don't know. Well, I had to really be motivated to do that. But if that's what means, if I became convinced that that's what it took to be a child of God, okay, I could see doing that.

[17:14] See, that's what they're saying. So he plays on the word. Instead of being cut around, it means cut apart, to mutilate. These are folks who think that Christianity is simply Judaism plus.

[17:29] It's not a new way. It's an add-on. It's a focusing on an outward act in order to identify. And what it does is it stirs up the souls of folks who are truly saved.

[17:45] It causes them to be unsettled in their souls as to, ooh, have I not done everything I need to do? And Paul's saying, beware of these folks. They're coming in. You have the gospel.

[17:56] The gospel is Jesus Christ trusting in him by faith alone, in grace alone. And by the way, you're not just saved that way.

[18:09] We had a reformation a few hundred years ago that saved the gospel. Away from works. It was saved to, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

[18:23] We need another reformation because there are Christians today who believe that, okay, yeah, I'm saved that way, but now it's up to me. Now my sanctification, now my growth, now my going on depends on me.

[18:37] Oh, I need grace, and I need faith. Yeah, but it's, I gotta do some stuff. I'm saying that because I see it in Christian movies.

[18:51] And I see it in Christian sermons. We're sanctified. We grow in Christ the same way that we are saved.

[19:02] By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The book of James writes about, right?

[19:13] What kind of faith do you have? Does your faith work? The early Christian reformers had a trouble, Luther particularly had trouble with the book of James because, oh, it's all about works.

[19:30] Well, he misread it, and then he read it later and thought, no, no, it's actually good. He's not criticizing, he's not saying it's either works or faith. He's saying, James is saying, what kind of faith do you have?

[19:41] It's about your faith. Does your faith work? If your faith does nothing, it's dead. But if you have real faith, it'll work.

[19:53] It'll show works. There will be results. There will be fruit. That's all he's saying. If you don't have any fruit, then you need to look at your faith. So it's not a crisis of your works.

[20:04] It's a crisis of what kind of faith do you have? Okay? So what is the Christian sign?

[20:14] How do we know? What's our badge? How do we know we're God's child? It's not an external act. It's not, did I get baptized? Did you get baptized?

[20:28] Good, if you did, because Jesus said we should do that, but that's not the mark. What's the mark?

[20:40] How do I know I'm the child of God? What can I look for? Is it going to church every week? No, but that's good to do.

[20:52] Is it reading my Bible? No, but that's good to do. What is it? Huh? Fruit? Fruit is a good mark.

[21:04] But how does that fruit come? By the Spirit. So as long as I'm producing fruit, I'm good, right? Oh, I'm bearing fruit.

[21:17] Fruit. Is that important difference? Yes. Fruit. According to my pastor. According to your pastor. Bless, bless his heart. Because he's, he's reading carefully.

[21:30] What church do you go to? Notice every time the scripture talks about fruit, it talks about bearing fruit.

[21:42] And abiding in Christ like the vine, right? And you bear fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But abide in me, you will bear fruit. It's not me producing fruit.

[21:55] It's not me starting that. It's me. Now, it's not like I'm doing nothing. It's like, okay, God, bear fruit. I'm abiding. I'm living.

[22:05] I'm drawing my life from him. I'm relying on him. And he will pump through into me the power to bear fruit.

[22:16] I will find him actually loving sometimes. Love, joy, peace, patience, kind, self-control. Self-control, where does that come from? That's got to come from the Holy Spirit.

[22:29] Right? The sign is the Holy Spirit. When we are saved, what does God give us? We've been forgiven.

[22:41] We've been washed. We've been cleansed. We've been made a new creature. But Paul tells us he gives us a gift that we have forever. And this is the sign, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[22:53] When we look at membership here, we're looking for not have you been baptized in water. We're looking for have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that?

[23:05] Well, has there been a change of your heart? Has there been a change of your desires? I don't mean you have no longer any bad desires.

[23:15] I mean, are there now good ones? Do you actually want to obey God? Do you actually want to walk with him? Not just, oh, I should. Right?

[23:26] That's how I knew I was converted finally after years and years of being convicted and trying to walk the aisle and get saved. I actually recognized, oh, my heart's changed.

[23:38] Actually, it's not a burden to keep his commands anymore. I actually want to keep his commands. Well, that's a change of heart. That's a change of desire. That's something that God did. So, in other words, these warnings for us, who are the dogs and the evil workers and the mutilators for us?

[23:57] Well, they're anyone that's seeking to enslave us to externals. We're trying to add a work to us and get us to focus on something else besides Christ.

[24:09] So, Galatians 5, he talks about this. He says, What's he talking about?

[24:23] Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to everyone who accepts circumcision that he is, watch this, obligated to keep the whole law.

[24:44] See, that's what they want. They want you not only to get circumcised, but they want you to come under the law. Because they're not convinced that Christ has set you free from the law. They believe the law is still the law, and that's how you get righteous.

[24:57] That's how you get righteous, by keeping those things. You are severed from Christ.

[25:10] You who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

[25:24] See, righteousness comes through the Spirit, by faith. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

[25:41] See, Paul boils it down. Christian, you have been set free from the law. If you have come to Christ, if you have trusted in Him, if you have accepted His righteousness, you've been set free from the law.

[25:53] Does that mean the law is no longer relevant? No, the law is still righteous and holy and good, but it's not your daily guide.

[26:04] Your daily guide is the Word of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. That's your daily guide. Set us free from the law because He fulfilled the law.

[26:19] Do not let anyone subject you to it again. Follow Christ, abide in His words, His words in us. We walk according to the Spirit.

[26:33] So, the first application is to beware the joy stealers, those who would cause you to focus on external things to be okay.

[26:46] So, what's the other side? Look at verse 3 now. He makes some tremendous statements here. We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

[26:58] Now, three statements. Just like he had three warnings, now he has three statements on the positive side. We are the circumcision. So, interesting. That's what the Jews would call themselves.

[27:10] Paul says, no, we are the circumcision. Well, what does he mean? He says, he's just said we don't need an external circumcising. What kind of circumcising do we need? You know, of the heart.

[27:25] Romans 2, 28 and 29, Paul says, here's what a real Jew is. A real Jew is not somebody who's been circumcised in the external, in the flesh. A real Jew is somebody who's been circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of God.

[27:42] Even the law, Deuteronomy 30 says, you know what you really need? You need a circumcision of your heart. That's what you need. That's what the law is telling you.

[27:54] If you pay attention to the law that you're trying to do and realize you can't do. You need a change of the heart. So, what does the true circumcision look like?

[28:08] Well, he mentions three things. Worship by the Spirit. Glorying in Christ Jesus. And putting no confidence in the flesh. Let me summarize the application this way.

[28:20] Whereas the other one is avoid and beware of the joy stealers. Here, I think it summarizes this way. I'm picking the middle description here. Boasting in Christ. Boast in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

[28:33] I think that summarizes all three. Boast in Christ. Glory in Christ by the power of the Spirit. So, let's look at these.

[28:46] Worship in the Spirit. He says, verse 3, part 1. We are those who worship by the Spirit of God. This word for worship, not the normal term for worship.

[28:58] It's actually borrowing it from the Old Testament. It's a word that meant service in the temple. Service to God in the temple. So, we think of worship, sometimes we limit the idea of worship to what we do while we're singing here in this service.

[29:16] Now, that's worship by song. That's only one kind of worship. We worship by reading the Word. We worship by talking to God. We worship by hearing from Him. We worship by how we live.

[29:29] It's like a ding, ding, ding. I get that right? So, this word talks about service to God.

[29:43] It talked about all the things that the priests did in the temple. They were offering sacrifices. They're preparing sacrifices. They're not just doing an act that was actually the actual praising of God.

[29:54] They're doing all the work preparing to do the offerings and the sacrifices. So, every kind of service. So, serving God and offering their lives, not by the flesh, but by the Spirit.

[30:09] So, He says, worship by the Spirit. That sounds familiar. Didn't Jesus talk about worship in the Spirit? Remember when He talked to the Samaritan woman in John 4?

[30:20] He talked about worship, what it used to be. Worship was in the temple, in a place, in Jerusalem. And He said, but now there's an hour come and now is when we shall worship in Spirit and truth.

[30:37] That is changing. It's not about a place. It's about how we worship in Spirit and in truth. By the Spirit, by the prompting of the Spirit, by the enabling of the Spirit.

[30:52] And remember, worship isn't about something we just do during an hour of one week. Or as you listen to a song and sing along on the radio in your car or whatever.

[31:04] It's not just singing. Worship is all of life. Worship is all that we do. Remember, Paul talks about present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

[31:20] Your whole life is an offering to God. Well, then the Spirit leads us to glory in Christ Jesus. We are those who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.

[31:38] Glory in Christ Jesus. Boast in Christ Jesus. We have this word for boasting. It has the idea of confidence, full trust.

[31:51] You know, so if I boast in myself, I'm like, aren't I great? Let's see how good I am, what I did. I'm really confident in what I do. But how do you boast not in yourself but in Christ?

[32:05] How do I show off Christ? How do I brag of Christ? How do I glory in Christ?

[32:16] Well, I got to thinking, you know, the word Christ, I think it's something like 27 times in this four-chapter little book.

[32:28] He just keeps mentioning Christ. Let me walk through those, see if he's glorying in Christ here. Chapter 1, verse 1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ. Okay, serving Christ could be glorifying in him.

[32:41] To all the saints in Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So grace comes from Christ.

[32:53] Verse 6. Christ has affection for us.

[33:16] Can we glory in that? Can I boast in that? Christ has affection for me. Down to verse 11. You have been filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

[33:29] To the glory and praise of God. Well, there's glory and praise of Christ there. That I have righteousness that comes through Christ.

[33:40] Not me. Christ. Down to verse 17. Talks about those who preach Christ. Some from envy and rivalry. Others from goodwill.

[33:52] The former proclaim Christ, verse 17, out of rivalry. Not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.

[34:04] And in that I rejoice. I can glory in his gospel. Verse 19. I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

[34:16] Ongoing help from the spirit of Christ. I can glory in. Well, now he's getting to it. Verse 20. So it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or death.

[34:35] For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I can glory in Christ because he's the meaning and subject of my whole life. To live is Christ.

[34:47] It's all about him. 23. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ. Okay, I can glory in that. Depart and be with Christ because that would be better.

[35:00] Verse 26. So that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. There's a specific example of glorying in Christ.

[35:14] Through Christ preserving Paul's life and bringing him back to them. There we can glory in Christ because Christ has been the one who has protected Paul and brought him back and now is benefiting them.

[35:25] I can glory in just that daily thing. He talks about in verse 27. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Remember that was literally be citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ.

[35:40] I can glory in Christ because his gospel gives me a standard for all of life. Verse 29. It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.

[35:57] I can glory in the fact that he is worth suffering for. If I'm going to suffer for anything, let me suffer for Jesus because he's worth it.

[36:15] I can glory in that. Chapter 2 verse 1. If there's any encouragement in Christ. Okay. Any? All right. Anybody find any encouragement in Christ?

[36:28] Glory. Glory. Verse 5. 2-5. Have this mind in yourselves which is also in Christ Jesus.

[36:38] Who, what did he do? Though he's in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be manipulated but made himself nothing and humbled himself and humbled himself to a point of obedience on a cross.

[36:49] Can I glory in that? Yeah. Yeah. There's lots of reasons to glory. And then at the end, verse 11. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

[37:00] I can glory in that. My Savior who gave everything for me is at the highest point of all. He sits on his throne over all that is going on today.

[37:13] Say, why isn't he doing anything? He's doing something. He's doing something. He has a reason for what he's doing. He will stay his hand or he will move his hand depending on his will and desire and plan.

[37:32] We're sitting down here going, okay, what is it? I don't know what it is but I trust him. Because he will always do good. He always do what is right.

[37:43] It goes on and on. You follow the name Christ throughout this chapter.

[37:55] And then again, three. We got talking about the glory of Christ in verse three. Look down how Paul speaks about Jesus also. Verse seven. Whatever gain I had accounted as loss for the sake of Christ.

[38:09] So if I'm going to lose everything, who am I going to lose it for? Christ. He's worth losing everything for. Indeed, verse eight.

[38:20] I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Talk about glorying in Christ.

[38:32] I mean, what a statement. Everything I had. Everything I had that was a gain, that was an advantage, that was a worldly achievement, that was a great accomplishment.

[38:45] And by the way, what Paul says about himself in verses four through six, there are not many Jews that could say what he said. Do not have his heritage.

[38:56] Do not have his accomplishments. Do not have his zeal. Do not have his heritage. Do not have his heritage. Do not have his heritage. How many persecutors of the church were there? And when they said, we've got to attack this false religion, we've got to cut this off, who shall we send?

[39:12] Paul. Well, he was Saul then. Saul. He'll get it done. And did he ever. Right?

[39:23] Even to the law. To the keeping of the law. Oh, he's blameless. He's unaccusable. Doesn't mean he was perfect, by the way, but it meant he was unaccusable.

[39:35] You could not nail him. Oh, I know. I caught you coveting there. No, you didn't. Well, I think you're coveting. Oh, unaccusable. Did you catch me murdering?

[39:48] Stealing? Taking God's name in vain? Missing a Sabbath? You can't catch me on the law. You can't catch me on the law. How many people can do that?

[40:00] If there was a model Jew, Paul was it. Because he said, hey, if anybody could say they have confidence in the flesh, I'm more.

[40:11] Talk about boasting. I'm more. Because he's going to turn that boasting into humility, though. That's where I was. I could boast. I could boast. Glory in Christ is finding what Christ has done for us, what Christ is doing for us, what Christ is to us, and delighting in that and speaking about that and reminding ourselves.

[40:41] Boasting. You ever boasted in Christ? The word actually means to have a loud tongue. Because that's what you do when you do it yourself.

[40:54] Hey, look at me. But to do that with Jesus. Have you ever done that? That means praise God. It's kind of like, what does that look like? What do you mean, Pastor? Yeah, I think it's praising him.

[41:05] I think it's on your alone times, even, you know, you're seeing some, gosh, Jesus, you are so awesome. I think it's between you and him. You might share that with somebody else.

[41:16] You might say, oh, you know what I saw the other day? I saw how Jesus takes me for his own. I never thought about that before. He took me for his own. That's really personal.

[41:30] Boy, I like that. Doesn't he do good thing? It's kind of like that. I think, you know, if you're like an introvert like me, it's kind of like you don't want to do. What I do up here is not what I normally do in life.

[41:44] Okay? So don't get a different impression of me. So like when you're alone, it's kind of like I don't really do that. But I'm thinking, man, I need to do that a little bit.

[41:55] You know, to speak out loud. Just verbalize. Remember how we learned some time ago about not just listening to ourselves but talking to ourselves?

[42:06] Kind of that. We always listen to ourselves. There's always somebody talking inside our head, right? Talk back. Talk back. Why are you, O soul, in despair?

[42:20] Right? Talk back. Preach to yourself. So I think this might be an application of this glorying in him, talking loud about him.

[42:30] Just for my soul. And then he says, put no confidence in the flesh. By contrast, I put all my confidence in the Lord, not in myself.

[42:42] So what does that mean? I mean, it's easy to say, put no confidence in the flesh, but actually that's the most natural thing for us to do. To put confidence in the flesh.

[42:52] It's what we've done our whole life. It's what we've been taught. It's what we've learned. We learned that growing up at home, that you need to do certain chores and you need to, which are good things.

[43:06] That's not bad. It's just you need to do certain things. Right? You go to school and you don't pass school unless you perform, unless you do, unless you apply.

[43:20] Right? Then you get a job. What happens? Well, I don't have to have any confidence in the flesh. They'll just give me a check whether I do anything or not. Right? No, I've got to work.

[43:33] I've got to perform. I've got to do my duty. And those are all good things. What I'm saying is that every other area of our life, we must perform. We have to do.

[43:46] To get a grade, to get a paycheck, to get whatever. And then we become a Christian and it's not like that. Now it's like, oh, it's not about me performing.

[44:00] Because if I do the performing, that's trusting in myself. It's not trusting in Christ. So how does that work? How all of a sudden do I think about walking with God when it's not about, okay, I have to do this.

[44:15] And I've got to do this. I've got to do a little checklist. I've got to do that and that and that and that. How am I okay with God? What makes me okay with God?

[44:26] Keeping the Ten Commandments? No. What makes me okay with God? Faith. Trust.

[44:39] Sometimes that results in doing things. Sometimes it's just trusting what he has said about me. He has said, you're forgiven.

[44:54] You're okay. I love you. When the Spirit will come along, kind of like, hey, why don't you read the Word?

[45:06] I don't know. Come on. Come on. There's some good stuff in there. You know how the Spirit does it? He doesn't do this. Oh, you didn't read the Word.

[45:16] Bad you. That's the devil that does that. And that makes us withdraw. Right? Because that's how I respond to that. The Spirit comes and just tickles a little bit.

[45:29] Don't you miss a good word? I love when he does that. Put no confidence in the flesh.

[45:39] I don't trust myself. No faith in my natural ability or production or accomplishments. When it comes to walking with God, when it comes to abiding and bearing fruit, I don't trust myself.

[46:05] I have no confidence in the flesh. Does that mean I don't think I could go show love to some person? No, I could go show love to some person. It could be in a total fleshly way.

[46:15] It could be a total just, you know, whatever. I mean, they may know no difference. But as far as what the Lord is doing, I'm not relying on Him for that. On the other hand, when I go to meet with somebody and I pray beforehand and I say, Lord, just give me wisdom.

[46:31] Give me the words. I don't want to have an agenda beforehand. I just want to go let you just work through me and use the situation. When I do that and I just trust Him to do that, cool things happen.

[46:43] I mean, not, you know, earth shattering a thing. It's like, oh. But it's just like, oh, the conversation totally went a different way than I would have planned it.

[46:55] I remember recently somebody I talked to, I remember thinking, okay, this is what I got to say to this person. And then the Lord said, maybe you got to pray first.

[47:05] So I did. And then I determined, okay, okay. I know what I was thinking of saying. I'll just go. And it was so cool. Because if I had done that, what I planned, it would have pushed this person away.

[47:21] And what happened instead was the person, we were able to kind of draw and kind of discover some stuff that God had. No confidence in the flesh.

[47:36] Proverbs talks about not leaning on your own understanding. You heard of that one, Proverbs 3? You know, it's in the section that talks about trusting in the Lord and acknowledging Him and not leaning on your own understanding.

[47:50] And that's the most natural thing to do as well, too. Because we've learned that. We've learned to lean on our own understanding. Because I've learned some things and I understand some things. So I think I know some things.

[48:02] Right? And then God puts you in a situation and you're going, oh, A, B, C, got it. Know what's going on. Really? Oh, yeah. How come God's not doing something here?

[48:15] Because my understanding is God should do something here. And God's not doing anything here. Well, lean not on your own understanding because His ways are a little bit higher than my ways.

[48:28] Right? His understanding is way higher than mine. So that's kind of what it's about. In other words, if we don't activate our faith in our walk with Christ every day or throughout the day, you know what we will do?

[48:46] We will do what's natural. We will just do what is my own understanding. I'll do things according to my own strength. I'll just kind of go do, go fix, go respond, go tell.

[49:01] I basically will trust. I will have confidence in my flesh. So walking by faith is more, it's a deliberate, intentional thing.

[49:19] As I go, as I go to work, as I go to a new situation, as I go to a meeting, it's just taking a moment and going, okay, Lord, I know what I would do. Let me hear from you.

[49:32] Show me what to do. Give me the wisdom. Provide. And then just go. Trust that He will give you whatever you need. Maybe it will even end up being what you plan to do.

[49:44] Or He might just, yeah. It's natural. A natural self is prone to weakness, prone to self-reliance, prone to self-seeking. It's natural to think that I can achieve and I can do things.

[50:03] So a Christian does not trust in themselves. So why is joy found in boasting in Christ? Talks about this boasting, glorying in Christ.

[50:14] His glory is my gladness. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1, 23. He says, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.

[50:26] But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is what? Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God, that's an interesting phrase, isn't it?

[50:37] The foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. Consider your calling, brothers.

[50:47] Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is what?

[50:59] He's talking about us now. Who did God choose? When God chose you, who did He choose? You're the wise, mighty, powerful. Look at us. I'm sorry.

[51:09] He chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. He chose what is low and abased in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.

[51:25] Why? Why did He do it that way? So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Again, boast in ourselves. It's because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus.

[51:39] It's not because of you. It's not because you figured something out. It's not because somehow you came to your senses and now I remember that. That's how you remember it. But it's really not because you came to your senses and saw God and chose God.

[51:52] You did, but that's not why you did. Because we find out later that, oh wait, He was drawing me. He was convicting me. He was working in me. Right?

[52:05] Because of Him, you are in Christ. Who became to us what? Wisdom from God. Righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

[52:17] So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. What does it mean to boast in Christ? There's nothing for me to boast of in myself.

[52:31] Even the good stuff that I have is because of Him. If I have an ability, it's because He gave me an ability. If I have figured something out, it's because He's given me the ability to figure something out.

[52:45] He did it all. He called me. I wasn't there when He called me. Well, I mean... No, I wasn't there when He chose me. I was there when He called me. Because I answered. Sorry.

[52:58] Although... He adopted me. I mean, we think of all the things that He has done. He's adopted me. He saved me. He saved me. He saved me. He made me alive when I was dead.

[53:10] He gave me Christ's righteousness. He gave me Christ's wisdom. His redemption. His holiness. He gave me His Holy Spirit. That's not a temporary gift.

[53:22] That's a full-time, everyday gift. That's not an it or a force or a power. That's a person. Jesus goes out of His way, by the way, in the Gospel of John to say, the spirit, which is neuter, He makes it masculine.

[53:39] He says, this is a person. Not an it. Not a force. Not something ambiguous. He's a person. Just like Christ.

[53:55] He gave me a hope. He gave me a family. He's given me heaven. He's given me an inheritance.

[54:10] He's given me His Word. Okay. You want joy? Want joy?

[54:23] I do. I could use it. Look at what Jesus has done for you. And then thank Him for that.

[54:39] Kind of internalize that. And as you consider Him, look to Him for renewed joy. Because we can easily lose that perspective that gives us joy.

[54:52] I mean, we can be rejoicing in the morning, you know, thinking through, praying through something. And then work happens. Or whatever happens. And that's just life. Psalm says, in His presence is fullness of joy.

[55:09] Let me end with this statement from Jeremiah 9. Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might.

[55:24] Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts, boast in this. That he understands and knows me.

[55:35] That he understands and knows me. Who are you? That I am Yahweh. Who practices steadfast love.

[55:47] Justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight. Declares Yahweh. That him who boasts, boasts in the Lord.

[56:02] Let us pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the focus. We pray, Lord, that You would glean for us what we need.

[56:13] Help us to be those who learn more and more every day to rejoice in You. And to glory in You. To brag in You.

[56:24]  Boast in You. Teach us what that means. Because that brings us joy. And it brings You glory. In this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen.