Watch Out

Series on Philippians

V Warning against Evil Workers, Text: 3:1-3

Title: Watch Out

Introduction

Paul is warning the Brothers. In Florida we get innumerable hurricane warnings. If you are on the beaches you get warnings about storms and sharks. If you are on the golf course a horn blows when lightening is present. The roadway is filled with warnings about construction workers and speed limits. Warnings are a large part of our life. We hear them in Scripture all the time. Jesus told his disciples to watch and pray. Watchman is another name for a prophet and is used numerous times in the Old Testament, and Paul says in I Cor. 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith. However we must admit that most people are more inclined to heed the physical warnings than the spiritual ones. We all know about red lights and red flags, but when a red flag goes up in the Bible people tend to ignore it. This is a red flag. Paul starts off with a kind reminder. Rejoice!

I Rejoice

Paul tells the Philippian Christians to rejoice in verse 1, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. In the face of opposition Paul says in 1:18 that he continues to rejoice. Then in Chapter 4 he says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Many people are rejoicing over many things, but rejoicing, like repentance can be good or bad. Paul says in II Corinthians 7:10, Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. The emphasis here needs to be placed on the phrase “in the Lord.” Rejoicing in the Lord means we have experienced God’s grace. We know what real rejoicing is because we are not rejoicing over a new job or a new grandchild or a wedding or the Tampa Bay Lightening winning the Stanley cup, or a Tampa Bay Buc’s victory. We are rejoicing in what Jesus has done on the cross to redeem us from sin and death. The great preacher, Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “Christians, it is your duty not only to be good, but to shine; and, of all the lights which you kindle on the face, joy will reach farthest out to sea, where troubled mariners are seeking the shore. Even in your deepest grieves, rejoice in God. As waves phosphoresce, let joys flash from the swing of the sorrows of your souls.” This is Paul’s point when he writes as a prisoner of Rome and a prisoner of the Lord. Rejoice in Jesus. This is why he tells them that must reject the dogs.

II Reject

in verse 2 we read, Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. Now a dog is man’s best friend in our culture, but in the middle east they were despised. And this is the way that the Jewish people referred to the gentiles, who were not kosher. In fact even our precious Lord uses this term on different occassions. He says do not give what is holy unto the dogs, Matthew 7:6, and then in Matthew 15 when a Cannanite woman comes to be healed and pleads for mercy and Jesus says, it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs. She says, even the dogs eat the crumbs from their master’s table and he healed her. But the one I like best outside of our passage is in the parable in Luke 16. The Rich man ignored the beggar at his gate and ended up in hell, but as Jesus unfolds the story of Lazarus, the beggar sitting at the gate of the rich man he says, even the dogs came and licked his wounds. What a marvelously wise savior we have. While accommodating their ignorance he confronts their self-righteousness. The dogs in our verse are Jews. They are insisting on following the mosaic law. They insist on circumcision for all new converts to Christ. Paul calls them mutilators of the flesh. We call them Judaizers. Paul, a Jew, says they are the dogs because they do not trust the Messiah. He has inverted the situation and turned their world upside down. Now they are the dogs and the gentiles are received by God because of Jesus work on the cross.

III Rely

Circumcision in the flesh is unnecessary because, Paul says in verses 3 and 4, For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh though I myself have reasons for such confidence. In telling them to reject the false teachers, Paul also tells them what they should rely on. It is Jesus Christ whom they worship through the Holy Spirit. Circumcision in the flesh was what the false teachers were insisting upon. Paul says that everyone who believes in Jesus has been circumcised spiritually. Circumcision was originally given to Abraham as a sign of grace and favor. In Romans 4 Paul writes that Abraham received that sign as a seal of his being righteous by faith. In Colossians 2:9-13 Paul writes, For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Baptism is the same sign of grace that God gave to Abraham in circumcision. The reason that we Presbyterians baptize our children is the same reason Abraham circumcised his offspring. They belong to God. However the main point of our text is to teach us that we must not rely on our own efforts for salvation. Paul says his performance was sufficient to create a false confidence. However he puts no confidence in the flesh, that is, his performance.

Conclusion

Many many years ago my family was traveling in Maine. We came upon this bakery that had a sign that said, “As you travel on through life, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole.î” Translated into Christian terms the hole is your own performance, your righteous acts, and the doughnut is Jesus’ righteousness and atoning sacrifice. I hope that you like Paul have your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole.