God-Given Identity | Philippians 3:1-8

Philippians 3:1-8  |  Andrew Hendrick

Transcript

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We're gonna be in Philippians chapter three this morning. If you would go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter three, starting in verse one. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you. Look out for the dogs and look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship 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 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 fair 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. Lord, let us never depend on our own identity. Never let us depend on our own actions that can gain us nothing here on earth apart from you. But God, let us do exactly what the song just said. Let us depend on you for everything. Because, Lord, if we depend on you for our eternal life, then we can depend on you for everything in life. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you for today. And in Jesus' name, amen. You can have a seat. Today we're going to be continuing our study in Philippians that we've been in since February. And if I have not met you yet, my name is Andrew Hendrick, and I serve here at the Orchard as the worship pastor. Last week, Cody took us to the end of chapter two, telling the story of Epaphroditus and Timothy. And it was a wonderful charge for us to really just understand that, yes, our focus can be on the eternal things that Christ Jesus has given us. The promise of the future is absolutely true. And we should celebrate that and we should focus on that a lot of the time. But the reality is we can also have joy in the moments that God gives us now. We can truly rejoice in every moment that God's given us now because in every single one of those moments, we are being sanctified completely for his glory. So today we're going to be in uh chapter three, mainly the first half of it. So imagine you're uh at a five-year-old's birthday party, a five-year-old little boy. Now, even if you've never been to a birthday party for a five-year-old boy, you can imagine it. So they spend about an hour outside playing, and then finally somebody says, All right, it's probably time for birthday cake and presents. And so they come inside completely and 100% absorbing all dirt, all grime. There's grass all over their hair. There's they've they've kind of you know gotten some kind of substance on them that we have no idea where it came from. They come in and they're all hot and sweaty, and then they start taking their shoes off and throwing them everywhere. They're all around the house, and and they start to make their way towards maybe the kitchen table where there's a pile of presents awaiting to be opened. And you you can imagine the scenario. There's there's little shoes all over the house. There's socks that you really probably don't even want to find the other match to, and there's something stinking in the corner. You have no idea what's going on. This is just a typical, like, five-year-old boy's birthday party, right? So they blow out the candles, and before they're about to open the presents, all the kids are focused on what's behind that wrapping paper and gift bags. Still with the lingering smell of the birthday cake candles being blown out, usually with a decent mixture of saliva and breath from the five-year-old that blew the candles out. You all know what I'm talking about. There's balloons everywhere. There's a blower in the backyard keeping the infamous bouncy house from losing its structure. And then the moment happens. The first present gets opened. The room goes silent for just a separate second as you hear the tear of the tape and the wrapping paper, and all the kids' eyes are doubling in size, and all the parents are dreading whatever is behind that wrapping paper because you know that they're gonna get asked for it on the way home. Mom, can I have that for Christmas? I want what he had. Yeah, again, you know what I'm talking about. And then they keep opening the presents. One after one, the presents are open. There's a parent searching for a screwdriver around the house with double-A batteries to make half of the presents work anyway. And then they get to the present, the big present. You know, because at every little kid's birthday party, there's always that one present that the little kid has been just really holding out for. It's like, yeah, I like all these other things, but I really want this thing. But you see, this present for the little kid, the little boy, it wasn't just something that he wanted, it was something that he needed. You see, he had been waiting to be adopted. He had been in a foster care situation, and his father, the man who he called father, had been waiting and hoping and trying to adopt him. So he gets to this present, and it's a little box, and he opens it up, tears the paper off the top of it, and inside is just a little note that's kind of crinkled up, and he unfolds it, and all it says is, Will you be my son? Right? But then something weird happens. He he celebrates, he's excited. All the little kids are that that knew the situation, they're all excited for him. The parents are trying to dry their eyes, all the dads in the room are pretending they don't have tear ducts, even though they're turning aside, trying to wipe the tears from their face. And he goes to his his new father and is like, Okay, dad, what what do I have to do to earn this? What do I have to do? Do I need to like go clean my room? Do I need to help you wash your car? Do I need to like take the trash out? What do I need to do? And the dad's like kind of puzzled, maybe perplexed, even a little saddened. And he's like, What? Nothing. You're gonna be my son. But the little boy just couldn't understand it. He's like, no, this has to be a transaction, it's cause and effect, right? So he starts going around the house searching for things he can do. And the father's going, stop, what are you doing? And he just doesn't hear it. And he keeps doing it. He tells his friends that he has to prove his worth in order to gain adoption. And then he gets prideful. He starts going, Well, uh, look, I've done this so well, I've done this so well, I've done this so well, I'm I'm clearly earning my adoption, right? And the dad just keeps reminding him that no, there's nothing you have to do. But he just can't understand it. So then he begins to get upset, and he's more frantically now searching for things to do around the house to prove his worth to his father. And his father just sees him and he says, He can't understand this in his own power. He cannot understand this. So the father just goes, picks him up, bear hugs him, squeezes him, and sits him down on his knee and just looks in those little watery eyes as this child has now understood that there is no amount of work he can do to earn this. The debt is too big, it's too great. He can't earn it. And the father just looks at him and he says, There's nothing else you have to do. I did this because I love you, and you are now my son. I know that story might strike you, but I meant for it too. The love of his father for him did not depend on any of his the little boy's own actions. It was a choice that the father made. I want to point you to the truth today, how much God the Father loves us in spite of our actions. See, our identity is not something that's earned, it's something that is given. I'll say that again. Our identity is not something that is earned, it is something that is given. The love of the Father for us is so hard for us to understand. It just doesn't make sense. That amount of grace, we don't deserve it. It's a gift we don't deserve, it's a kindness not earned, it's a citizenship not based on our own merit. It's an adoption not based on any worth or value of our own. Not one of us in here has any merit to gain salvation. I want you to look around the room for a minute. Just take a second and look around the room. Look at all the people in this room. Everybody in this room is capable of every sin that has ever been, that is, or is to come. Every one of us in here are sinners. But those of us in Christ Jesus are saved by his grace because of no work of our own doing. See, the things that we get to do now, they're not to earn Jesus' love for us, they're to love him back with a heart of gratitude and joy for giving us life when we were dead in our trespasses, because we are now children of God forever. We probably just going home after understanding how much God loves us today. But I want to I want to point to a few things that Paul felt it so necessary to break this myth of works-based salvation. So the first thing he tells us to do in the first few verses is to beware of false identity. Beware of false identity. I love how Paul starts this. One of the first things he says in this passage is rejoice in the Lord. He's said this a lot, y'all. He's said this a lot. To rejoice in the Lord, rejoice. I say again, rejoice, be thankful in every circumstance, rejoice in the Lord. He has said it over and over and over. He's telling them basically now that not only do they need to hear the truth, but it's safe for them to hear the truth. I'm like, why would he say it's safe for them? Because the people that he is going to outline in this passage is not the people that he is writing to. Because the people that he is writing to, they are not proclaiming works-based salvation. The people who are trying to influence them are claiming works-based salvation. He says in verse 2, now to be on the lookout for in his words, dogs, the evildoers, the ones who mutilate the flesh. It's funny how he says dogs describing these people, because the term at the time was a Jewish term that was meant to describe the Gentiles or those who were unclean and unfit for the kingdom of Israel. And now Paul is calling the Israelites, the Hebrews, the dogs. So back then, dogs were not the cute, cuddly, fun family, you know, companions that may get out of the house every once in a while and have to chase them around the neighborhood. I apparently witnessed that yesterday in my friend Connor's uh uh house. But um they're not those kind of dogs. Back then, the kind of dogs that we're talking about, they were tools or a nuisance. That's about it. Mainly back then, dogs were used for tools, or they were just viewed as the scavengers who would get anything possible and just become a nuisance after a while. Able to be discarded when uh they're finished being a tool, or cast aside when they became an irritant. You see, these dogs had no value or identity of their own to be prideful of, even though their bark was really loud, proclaiming their own species, yet it was still just the bark of a dog. So Paul is using that term to describe the Hebrews who were influencing the church in a way that was proclaiming works-based salvation. He says something in verse three that is kind of peculiar. I kind of wished he had said, you know, something to the effect of like a brave heart, you know, type thing where you've got one guy standing in front of the army or military and he's getting them all riled up and they're all like, ah, and he's like, ah, you know, and they get all excited about it. I kind of wish he had said something like that. Maybe, maybe even something like, we are the rebellion against evil, or we are the Christians, or or maybe even we are the children of God, right? And then he goes, We are the circumcision. What the heck does that mean, Paul? What in the world? It's like, what does that even mean? You know, it's funny, somehow I always get tasked to preach the verses that are about circumcision. I think this is like the third time, y'all. Thank you, Cudi, for this one again. But seriously, what on earth is Paul talking about? Why is he saying that we who worship the Lord in spirit and truth, who depend not on our own flesh, but only on the power of Jesus Christ, why is he saying that we are the circumcision? Look, I'm just gonna tell you, kids in the room, when you're older, you can ask your parents what circumcision means. Enjoy that conversation, parents. But at the time, it was ceremonially and physically required in the Old Testament law and Old Testament covenant for someone to be a part of the kingdom of Israel, they had to be ceremonially and physically circumcised. At the time, there were those who began to infiltrate the church of Jesus Christ, proclaiming that no, you actually, in order to know Jesus, in order to have salvation in Christ, you actually have to be physically and ceremonially circumcised. These people were called the Judaizers, and they were spreading a false truth and a false gospel that is saying that believers could not have salvation without following all of the laws of the old covenant that Jesus Himself fulfilled. He had already fulfilled them. And these people were saying, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we believe in Jesus too, but you can't have salvation, you can't have grace, you can't have forgiveness and mercy of Jesus Christ unless you take matters into your own hands and unless you do these things. This is works-based salvation at its worst. They're saying you can't be forgiven and you are destined for hell until you take those matters in your own hands. Y'all, we have to be on guard against all forms of false teaching. We have to be on guard against all forms of false teaching. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Galatians 1.8 when he says, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. See, Paul's not just saying that we don't need to listen to them. He's saying that those people who preach a false gospel, a works-based salvation to you, they're not only preaching false gospel, but they are preaching their own destruction. Church, you can either pursue your own self-righteousness and gain hell, or rest in Jesus' righteousness and gain heaven. The call that Paul is making here is not only to be on guard from those who preach the works-based gospel, but he's saying that we ought to make sure we never adopt that into our own preaching and how we view others. So Paul calls us the circumcision because we have had the filth and impurities of our hearts removed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and have no obligation to fulfill the law that Jesus already fulfilled. Our works are not based on our merit now, our works are based on our love for Jesus. So he gets to the second mindset of rejecting self-made identity. In John Calvin's commentary on Philippians 3, he calls what Paul says about the flesh. He says that he gives the name of flesh to everything that is apart from Christ. He gives the name of flesh that is at to everything that is apart from Christ. What did Jesus say in John 15 that we just sang about a couple of minutes ago? In verse 5, he said, That I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. We must not put any confidence in the things that we do in our own power and flesh, because when we do those things that are apart from Christ, they are useless for his glory, but they are very useful in the devil's hands. Paul is about to go on a trip down his own memory lane here for a minute, really defining that we can truly do nothing apart from Christ that is of any value. He starts in verse 4 by telling the church in Philippi that his earthly status, his status in his own power, his upbringing, his ethnicity, his work, his activities, his identity were so far superior to most everyone that he was encountering. He says in verse 4 through 6, though myself, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, also, if anyone 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. He's basically saying, You think you're good? You think you have status? You think that your works are righteous? You think that you're holy and perfect? You've got nothing on me. He basically then introduces himself by giving his resume of his past and his accomplishments. He starts in verse 5, straight out of the gate, by telling them how his parents clearly followed Hebrew custom by law, by his circumcision on the eighth day after he was born. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin, who was the zealous warrior kingdom, or warrior tribe of the kingdom of Israel. Actually, they are the ones that produced the first king of Israel named Saul, which, if you remember, that Paul's name, Paul's Hebrew name is Saul. He was named after the king, the first king of Israel who was of the tribe of Benjamin. And that's actually the same name that Jesus used to call him out on the road to Damascus when he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul's miraculous transformation. And we know him by his Greek name of Paul. Y'all, he was a hundred percent righteous according to the law. He was essentially a perfect Hebrew that had earned his Hebrew identity by the resume of his own legalities. And he was a hundred percent qualified to talk to them, but also to tell them that he now understood that our identity is not something that we make, it is something given to us by the Lord. It is given. Think about this when it comes to the modern day church. What do you see the church viewing today as a righteous person or maybe a quote, good Christian? What are the attributes that our culture would say a good Christian person, the person should have? We can probably make some pretty good guesses, maybe some educated guesses. Maybe, you know, someone who attends church regularly, who tithes faithfully, who shows up for all the events, who attends all the missions trips, who takes communion, who sings the songs in church, who opens their Bibles when the preacher is preaching and doesn't fall asleep. Yes, I see you who's fallen asleep, who whose kids are at every church event and are all buttoned up nice, and who you're never late to church and never says a bad word in the building. I can I could just keep going. We're all like the little boy who's trying to prove his worth. You know, and those things that I just outlined, those are those are all good attributes. Those are great things. If you do all those things, praise the Lord. But guess what? All of those things can also be done by any unbeliever in the entire world. But those are not the things that make you a child of God. If this is the way that most of us would share our testimony, how in the world are we set apart for God's glory in our identity when it's able to be accomplished by an unbeliever? I love the way the way that James, the brother of Jesus, writes. And he was a little bit sarcastic, kind of tongue-in-cheek, when he would write. When he was talking about faith versus works in James chapter 2, he basically said, Okay, you believe that you believe in the Trinity? You believe that God is one? Well, congratulations. Good for you. Even the demons believe that, and they're terrified. So, what makes you so special? Because you're not even terrified. I love his sarcastic way of writing. But you know, I could say the same thing about all those attributes that I just outlined for us. Say the same thing. Congratulations. You say you're a righteous person because you do all these things? Well, congratulations. Even an atheist, a Buddhist, an agnostic could do all those things, and yet still be as far from Jesus as Paul was when he was a murderer of Christians. Take all your accomplishments that you think make you a righteous person. Set them aside. If Jesus is the only author of salvation, you cannot ascribe your way into heaven by telling Jesus how awesome your works are. He's the author, not you. What does their regular dialogue look like with their peers at work? What would their internet history show? What would their kids tell you? Uh how would they describe who how you are at home? What's the response when you hit a ball out of bounds on the golf course? That'd be a fun one. I should go play golf with some of you and see what happens. See, the apostle Paul was righteous according to his heritage and earning his identity as a Hebrew of Hebrews. The irony is that he was the dog before he met Christ. In fact, he was even worse. Not only was he murdering Christians and was he doing these things, but he was resting in his own performative righteousness as opposed to the identity of Christ Jesus Himself. He didn't even have a clue that he needed to have God's forgiveness until God broke him. God broke him and scooped him up and held him and called him his son. Saved him in a miraculous way. See, this is not a Paul problem, church. It's a human problem. It's not a Paul problem. It's a human problem. He was relying on an identity earned rather than an identity given. Look, many of us will live our lives in a very prescribed way. How we should behave, what clothes we should wear, what vehicles we should drive, what kind of houses we should have, what kind of just where we send our kids to school, all for the sake of being socially acceptable, right? Think about it. What would your identity be if you decided to go sell your luxury car? Move outside of Germantown carriable bubble? Start buying secondhand clothes instead of Lululemon? Sell the lake house and boat? What if you stopped doing your job to gain admiration of your peers and started doing your job to bring the Lord glory? What if we stopped maxing out our credit cards and living paycheck to paycheck in order so that we can appear more than we actually are? If you did all of those things, what would your identity be then? Would you still be okay in your own skin? You see, we craft and we craft and we craft and we craft these perfect appearing identities. Our entire life is an Instagram filter. But it's just a sandcastle. It's just a sandcastle. The whole structure is able to be completely decimated by one small wave that hits it. Our accomplishments, they're of no value at that point. Y'all, we're all gonna reach the point we have to come to grips with the fact that we, at the end of our life, we're all gonna wind up in that spot where our resume doesn't matter. Our accomplishments are gonna be buried with us, our occupations are gonna be given to somebody else. So why do we keep working so hard at faking an identity that is temporary when we should be focusing on our identity in Christ that is eternal? And sometimes you might hear the concept that God's love for us is not transactional. Man, I love that. I am so thankful for that. God's love for us has nothing to do with our abilities. Think about the little boy in the story. He didn't earn his new identity through his abilities or actions. There was no transaction he made to gain him, his father's love. He was chosen by his father when his father didn't have to. He didn't choose his father, his father chose him. Not because he had to, but because the father loved him. Brothers and sisters, our worth in this world is meaningless compared to knowing Christ Jesus. But our worth to the Father was proven by the death of Jesus Christ. That was the transaction needed for us to receive forgiveness. It is done, it is finished, it is written, it is never able to be undone. We have to receive the Christ-given identity now. Can't fight against it. We've got to receive it. In verses seven and eight, which is where we're gonna wrap up this morning, and where Cody's gonna pick it up next week, Paul essentially outlines the status of anything that we have gained on earth by our own abilities is loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus. In verse 7 and 8, he just lays it out. He says, But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I need to be clear on a couple of things, though. Paul's not saying that there is not usefulness of the experiences we've had, our upbringings, our lives, our choices, our struggles. No. In fact, he's the one who said it in Romans 8.28 that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love him according to his will, his plan, his purpose, his desire, his design. But those things cannot be our focus and our purpose and our identity. It's just going to lead to the same type of idolatry and bigotry that he is preaching and writing this letter to fight against. Think about it. We so often introduce ourselves by our own accomplishments and earthly identities. We meet someone new and we tell them our name, where we work, where our kids go to school. For those of us who are maybe a little bolder, we might tell somebody where we go to church, what we like to do. We trust our resumes over the finished work of Christ Jesus. How many of you, just out of curiosity, how many of you, when you meet someone new, say, hi, I'm Andrew? Well, hopefully you don't say Andrew unless your name's Andrew. But how many of you say, hi, I'm Andrew? I was a deep, dark sinner, eternally separated from the Creator, but Jesus died to save me, and now I bear his imputed righteousness, my true identity. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We don't say that. I don't say that. It's the first time I've ever said it to you. Or maybe a more simplified version. Hi, I'm Andrew. I love Jesus. Do you know Jesus? We probably don't say that either, do we? You know what? What's something that is deeply impactful to me that takes place among one of my sons? My youngest, Luke, has never met a stranger. That dude, he's fun. He has never met a stranger. I mean, y'all, he even talks to like the bugs and the animals. Now, if they start talking back to him, then we're gonna have a different conversation, okay? But uh he just often, though, because he loves to tell people everything about himself. Oh, wait, no, he doesn't. He tells people about Jesus all the time. And that's why he quickly makes strangers. Y'all, I'm telling you, like, he loves saying, Hi, my name is Luke. I love Jesus. Do you know Jesus? He says it to almost everyone we encounter that he's never met. I mean, literally, there was a guy that came to the house the other day to pick up something that he had bought from us on Facebook Marketplace. He's down the driveway, and I guess Luke was like inside like a vulture, like watching to see if anybody's new, come down our driveway. Before I even knew it, he was out in the driveway talking to this guy who I had never met, but he had also had never met. He was like, Hi, I'm Luke. I love Jesus. Do you know Jesus? And the guy, luckily, he said, Yeah, I do know Jesus. Most of the time, when when Luke does that, he gets the either the uh, all right, I'm gonna go the other way now, or maybe he gets the laxadaisical, yeah, yeah, I know Jesus. Anyway. And sometimes, very rarely, he gets the somebody bends down and looks him in his eyes and says, you know what, I do know Jesus, and I love Jesus just like you. I love that about my boy. You know what's hard to accept, though? My faith doesn't seem as strong as his. Our faith is lazy sometimes. You know why? Because our faith isn't childlike enough. Our faith, just like we sang a few minutes ago, our faith is not dependent upon the Lord enough. Pride creeps in. We have identity crises and selfishness that we want to promote ourselves, our own accomplishments, our own identity over that of Christ Jesus because of these fleshly desires in order to get instant gratification rather than bringing glory to Jesus Christ. It's just like I said a minute ago, our lives, you know, being an Instagram tilter. You get it? Instant, instant gratification, Instagram? We throw something up there and all of a sudden we expect everybody to respond, and then we get that instant gratification, think that we're really awesome when we are just not. I'm just as guilty of it as well, church. It's hard for us to accept the fact. But this is the truth. There is nothing we can do to earn God's grace, but yet he gives it. There is nothing we can do to earn his forgiveness, but yet he gives it. There is no transaction we can make to gain salvation, but yet he gives it. When we reach the point that we realize that we are not in charge of our salvation, but Jesus is the one who eternally keeps us. Man, that is a beautiful rest and a beautiful promised land that we can enter into. Praise the Father for undeserved forgiveness. Praise Jesus for his unmerited sacrifice, praise the Spirit who now empowers us to do what he's called us to do for the love of Jesus Christ. Look, y'all, we're all gonna have those moments. You might be in a moment right now. We're all gonna have those moments where we try to earn God's love and make ourselves look better than we are. We're all gonna have those pride, prideful moments, and we're gonna pride ourselves in things that have no value compared to Jesus. We're all gonna have moments where we struggle with our own identity. But when we do, when we do, we must plead with the Spirit for help. We must remember the sacrifice of Jesus and we must run into the arms of the Father. We are all like the little boy who needs our Father to pick us up and calm us down and whisper to us Shh there's nothing else you have to do. You are now my child, and I did this because I love you.