The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ
Philippians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 28 viewsDo we desire Christ above all else? To simply know Him is the greatest treasure we can possess and we possess Him by faith and not by works
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If you have a Bible around you, go ahead and grab that. We are going to be in Philippians 3:3-11 today. In the last video, we got through verse 3 but we are going to use that verse as our springboard into the remaining verses. There are 2 main headings that I would love for us to get through in our short time together today and those headings are the beauty of salvation by faith alone and the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. For times’ sake, let’s just go ahead and read these verses and then we will break them down. Paul writes in Philippians 3:3-11
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 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: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted 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 and 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— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
What Does Paul Mean?
What Does Paul Mean?
We began with verse 3 because it connects directly to verse 4, which should go without saying but I bring this up because verse 3 ends and verse 4 begins with a reference to having confidence in the flesh. What does Paul mean by that saying? We started discussing it in last week’s video, but let’s really seek to define it here. To put it as simply as possible, to have confidence in the flesh means that man has his own confidence that he will be able to save himself. It’s the mindset that states, “I can be good enough on my own to merit eternal life.” John MacArthur puts it like this, “By flesh Paul is referring to man’s unredeemed humanness, his own ability and achievements apart from God. The Jews placed their confidence in being circumcised, beind descendants of Abraham, and performing the external ceremonies and duties of the Mosaic Law- things that could not save them.” To have confidence in the flesh is to have confidence in yourself. It is to say, “I am not as bad as I could be, I am righteous in my own eyes, and I have a pretty good track record of good things that more than likely cancel out any of the bad things.” The problem with that mindset though is that it is totally contrary to what God has already revealed about man in His Word. The Lord says in Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
None of us meet the mark of what God requires. Sin cannot stand in the presence of God. If we were to put all of our good deeds and righteousness on one side of a scale and the righteousness that God requires on the other side, you could be Mother Teresa and you still wouldn’t have a chance of those things leveling out. The scale would go crashing through the floor in favor of God’s righteousness. Paul is very much aware that no one will ever be saved by their good works, their racial, geographical, or family background. Nothing will save apart from faith alone in Jesus Christ and Paul knows this and uses himself as the prime example in verses 4-6.
Paul and a Works-Based Salvation
Paul and a Works-Based Salvation
We won’t read these verses again so hopefully you have a Bible near by so that you can cross-reference what I’m saying. If anyone was to ever be saved by their works or their background, it would have been the Apostle Paul. On the outside looking in, if anyone was gonna make it to heaven on works, it would have been Paul. The man was a genius, even before he was saved, he knew the Old Testament inside and out. From the very beginning of his life, Paul did what the law required by being circumcised on the eighth day. He was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin. For Paul to say that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews meant that he came from Jewish parents and raised according to the customs and laws of the Hebrews. In terms of being a Pharisee, Paul was likely the greatest pharisee of them all. He was blameless in the eyes of the Law and he was very determined. He persecuted the church because he believed that they existed contrary to what God desired. Paul walked the walk and talked the talk but that wasn’t enough. His future looked bright as a Pharisee but he did not possess that which he truly needed. I love this quote about Paul from Steven Lawson, “If a person does not have Christ, they have nothing. Paul had everything except everything that he needed.” Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the great reformer Martin Luther suffered the same problem that Paul speaks of in this passage. Luther was a member of the Catholic Church and the church had insisted on salvation being faith + works and Luther did all that he could to meet the mark. Luther himself said that if there was ever a monk that would have been saved by monkery, it would have been him. Luther would spend hours upon hours confessing sin to the priest until the priest just got fed up with him. Luther would confess for hours, leave the confessional, and then immediately turn back around because he had forgotten something. It got to a point where Johann von Staupitz, Luther’s greatest mentor in his earlier years said, “Brother Martin, if you are going to confess so much, why don’t you go do something worth confessing! Kill your mother or father! Commit adultery! Quit coming in here with such flummery and fake sins!” What we need to understand is that if we have to earn our salvation, we will never be able to. Back when we were meeting in person, we talked about how Paul says in Philippians 2 that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and we talked about how their is a major difference between us working out our salvation and working for our salvation. To work out our salvation is to pursue holiness, to work for our salvation is an impossible task. I’ve always been able to understand why Catholics convert to Protestant Christianity but I have never been able to understand why a Christian would convert to Catholicism. You’re just adding a weight that is impossible to take off. Understand, you cannot be saved by works but also understand that it is the greatest blessing in the world that you can’t be saved by your works. Jesus Christ accomplished on our behalf that which would have been totally impossible for us to do. We are not saved by works, we are saved for good works. Now does this mean we as Christians can live however we want? Absolutely not. We are not saved so that we can live however we want under the mindset of, “God has me covered.” We are saved by faith but we will be judged by our works. All will stand before the throne one day and the things that we have done on this earth will be judged. Those works will not condemn us but they won’t reward us either. Let’s look at verses 7-11.
The Surpassing Beauty of Jesus Christ
The Surpassing Beauty of Jesus Christ
Paul writes in Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever gain I had, I counted 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 and 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— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
I wish we had the time to dive into this more but this is where we see the surpassing beauty of knowing our Lord, Jesus Christ. As a Pharisee, Paul had a lot of good things but he did not possess the greatest thing. Paul could confidently say while sitting in a Roman prison, to have Christ here far surpasses me having the greatest kingdoms of the world. Paul counts all things as rubbish, the stuff you leave behind in the toilet, so that he may gain Christ. He understands that his righteousness is not his own. Paul’s righteousness is outside of him because he does not produce it. Paul’s righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. All throughout this series, we have talked about how our greatest treasure is in Christ. Anything that we give up on earth to follow Christ, God will see to it that our reward far surpasses what we give up here. The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs said, “There is as good reason why you should expect, that God will reward you for all that you are willing to suffer, as well as for all that you are willing to do; now if you be willing to be without such a comfort and mercy, when God sees it fit, you shall be no loser, certainly God will reward you either with the comfort, or with that that shall be as good to you as the comfort; therefore consider, how many things have I that others want? and can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want what others have? I have the blessing of all that they have, and I shall either possess such things as others have, or else God will make it up one way or other, either here, or hereafter in eternity to me.” If Christ isn’t your everything, He might as well be nothing because nothing could surpass the beauty of seeing Christ and the reward that He has in store for us. Are we willing to part with 80 years of trinkets for millions upon millions of years of the greatest joy and treasures that could ever be possessed? We don’t have to be content with the leftovers in the dog bowl when there is a feast being sat upon the table. I see once again that I am getting close to going over my time so we will continue to talk about this next week and see how what Paul says here in these verses connects so well with what he says in verses 12-16. Let’s pray together.