Tonight, we turn again to Philippians, Philippians chapter 3, considering tonight verses 4 through 9. 4 through 9, a couple of weeks ago we began to consider that section where Paul issues a warning against those who put confidence in the flesh. Tonight we consider verses 4 through 9 as he talks a bit more about the confidence that one might put in the flesh. And along with that, please turn to Psalm 146. As we read together Psalm 146 as well. Psalm 146 as we give our attention to the Word of God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground. On that very day, their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. The Lord who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever. Your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord. And turning over to Philippians chapter 3, I'd like to begin at verse 2. Our text again being verses 4 through 9. Beginning at verse 2, Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 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. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put 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, in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal persecuting the church, As for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Well, beloved in Christ the Lord, do you have Christianity's credentials? Do you have the credentials of a Christian? When God sees you, does He say, there goes one of mine. Does He see you as one of His Christians? If so, why? On what basis? Why would God claim you? Do you have Christianity's credentials? What you need to be acceptable in the sight of God. Now, boys and girls, credentials are proof, we might say, that one has the power or the authority or the right or the experience, we might say, to do something. For example, think of your doctor. When you go to the doctor's office, you might see on his office walls, you might see his diplomas and certificates that he has received from his medical school where he attended. And those things point to the fact that he has completed the work that was necessary. And as well, he has given proof that he is competent and capable to practice medicine. that it's okay for him to examine and treat patients, those diplomas, those certificates, that they are his credentials. Or I remember when I graduated from college, the college helped us to put together what was called a credential file. And in that credential file, there was a resume which had information about myself on it, including the schooling that I'd had and the work experience that I'd had. And also in that file, you could find reference letters from employers that I had had talking about me and the work that I was to do for them and how I did that work. Hopefully, pointing to the fact that I was capable of doing certain tasks. Those were my credentials. You see, we earn credentials in this life through education and by way of work experience. But we also need credentials to be a true Christian. We need credentials to be a child of God. What I'm talking about is we need credentials for God to accept us. And the necessary credentials for God to accept us is perfect righteousness. And the question then that we must ask is what makes us true Christians then with confidence of being right with or being righteous before God? That was Paul's burden throughout his letters. And in this letter to the Philippian believers, he teaches here with a powerful contrast, he teaches Christianity's credentials, first of all, that they are not acquired through human virtues. Or they're not acquired by way of the flesh or anything in this life. And instead, he teaches that Christianity's credentials are divinely gifted through faith. First of all, Christianity's credentials are not acquired through human virtues, not acquired by way of privileges that you and I might receive in this life or by way of achievements that we might earn. But now we must also admit, though, that we cannot help but notice there is somewhat of an attraction when it comes to earthly privileges and achievements. Now, we recall, of course, that Paul was issuing a warning to the Philippian believers and as well to you and me, but issuing a warning against those who would put confidence in the flesh. And we're talking in the spiritual realm here in the sense of being right with God, of being accepted by God. And he was warning against those who put their confidence in the flesh. They put confidence in the things of this life. And you recall that he was talking about the Judaizers, those who claimed to believe in Jesus, but they said that the way to be saved by Him was through Judaism. The credentials one needs, they would say, is to become a Jew. You just have to have a Jewish card. You needed to be circumcised. You had to celebrate the feast days and to offer sacrifices. Salvation, they said, was by Christ plus. Not Christ alone, but Christ plus in order to be accepted by God. They would say that salvation was not the supernatural work of God for man, but that it was the work of man for God. And of course, as Paul is issuing this warning against those who put confidence in the flesh, he gives really quite an impressive inventory of earthly credentials. In essence, he says, you know, if you want to play that game, I can play it better than you can. Again, beginning in verse 4, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put 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, in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. See, anything that the Judaizers might put before the people to boast about, Paul says, I have greater reason to boast. I have everything that they have and more. And he lists seven particular things here. In the middle one, he says, He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. And I believe that that, in a sense, ties together the first three, which point to his privileges given to him by birth, and the last three, which point to his accomplishments or achievements by which Paul earned the distinction, he would say Hebrew of Hebrews. And therefore, considering the first three, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, we might say by position. Now, we know that he was a native of Tarsus in Sicily. He wasn't born in Palestine, yet he was of Hebrew descent. He was from a strict Hebrew-speaking family, very possibly a wealthy family, and he grew up with a number of privileges, the best that the Greek culture had to provide for him. But as well, he was sent to the best Jewish school of theology in Jerusalem. He studied under a very great teacher named Gamaliel. And along with that, he says that he was circumcised on the eighth day, and that simply points to the fact that he was a full-blooded Jew from birth. And he was born into a family that kept the Old Testament regulations with precision, the eighth day, the very earliest that one could be circumcised. Not like these Judaizers and their converts who were circumcised in adulthood. And then he says he was of the people of Israel. Again, the Judaizers taught that it was circumcision then that would bring one to enjoy the full privileges of God's Old Testament covenant people. But Paul says, you know, I was given that privilege by birth. It's mine by birthright. And he goes a little bit further and he says that he's of the tribe of Benjamin. He was even able to trace his family origin all the way back to a particular tribe, which none of these other people really could do. And Benjamin, though small, was somewhat highly thought of. You remember that the first king of Israel, Saul, came from the tribe of Benjamin. When the kingdom split, Benjamin, along with Judah, stayed true to the true king, to the Davidic line. And then along with Judah, Benjamin formed the foundation of the restored nation after their time in captivity. And all of these, you see, pointed to Paul's privilege by birth, his inheritance, we might say. He was indeed a true Hebrew. More so than any of these Judaizers could boast of. But he was also, looking at the second three, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews by practice. Not just in name only. To put it in our language today, we might say he was a Christian, but not only in name, but also in practice. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews by practice. His confidence into the flesh included what he added by faithful practice. his achievements in regard to the law of Pharisee. Now, the Pharisees were an elite group, we know. We know that they were separatists in their origin, and in their origin, the Pharisees were deeply committed to pure religion and to study of the law. And they had a zeal for the strict observance of the Mosaic law, of course, complete with all of their additions. And Paul demonstrated that zeal, as he says, as for zeal persecuting the church. Now, he's not boasting of that in and of itself. He's not proud of that fact, but with regard to his previous life and the zeal that he had, his zeal for the law led to an untiring dedication to stamping out this Christian movement, which was a threat to Phariseeism. Then the last thing he says, as for legalistic righteousness or righteousness with regard to the law, faultless, blameless. He's not talking about status there before God when he's talking about righteousness, but he's talking about his visible conduct with regard to the law as it was interpreted by the Pharisees with all of its regulations and requirements that they had added. And we might say especially with regard to feast days and food laws and cleanliness, rituals and so forth. But Paul was blameless when it came to right living, he would say. He had it all. As far as the credentials of his day, he had it all. And compared to those who would boast, he truly was a little better than all of the rest. And again, we must also notice that as far as men go, as far as this world goes, sometimes we do see a little bit of profit gain in the sight of men when it comes to earthly credentials. No doubt in his pre-conversion days, he was envied among men. Who knows, maybe because of his zealousness, he was being considered to become the president, the chairman of the Pharisees. Who knows? He was admired for his zeal among his own. Those who have a list of accomplishments and successes that we say are a mile long are often admired by others. They have earned the respect of others. And with regard to the things that Paul is talking about, with becoming right with God, today it would be like us saying that I was baptized as an infant, I'm of the people of the Reformed Church, I'm of the tribe or the Dutch or whatever you might be, I'm a good one at that. And as far as the church, I'm a professing member. And then we might add all kinds of things. I go to this Bible study and I attend that society and I do this and that and the other thing. And we pack it full. I have all these things that I can boast about. But then dangerously at times, we tend even a little bit at times to find comfort, a little bit of comfort in these things. Thinking that somehow they gain us something in the sight of God. Surely, God must look on me and see all of these things that I am engaged in for Him. And certainly that must make him happy. At least happier with me than someone who isn't doing as much as I'm doing. Even a little bit sometimes, beloved. We think there is profit in these earthly credentials. But what does Paul say? Verses 7-9. But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish 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 is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Paul uses the analogy of a balance sheet ledger. Profit and loss or gain and loss. Think of, again, the many fire victims. In their profit column, they had all of their assets. It's all wiped out. It's gone. It's simply not there anymore. And that's what Paul is saying here. You see, Paul was brought to know Christ literally face to face on the road to Damascus. He was brought to see the truth. He was brought to see that true righteousness and acceptance with God comes completely from outside of myself, of His self. Completely outside of myself, only in Christ. He was brought to see that you can't have it both ways. You can't live on Christ's righteousness, and you can't live by your own as well. Christ and me is not a majority, as some would have us believe. But as Paul is teaching us here, I am completely a liability. And therefore, we are to understand, beloved, the danger of earthly credentials. Now, as far as the list that Paul gives, except for persecuting the church, really, as we look at the other things, there's nothing wrong with the other things all by themselves. There's nothing wrong with them. But the danger of them is in boasting in them. In finding comfort in them. In believing that somehow, even only if it's a little bit, somehow believing that they gain us some sort of status with God. In believing that these things make us better than others. In thinking that these things are necessary for salvation. But Paul teaches us that they have nothing to do with that. They have nothing to do with making us righteous in the sight of God. He confesses that He had relied on them. He had put His confidence in them. He had a false view of them. But then He was brought to see the danger of them, that they only stood between Him and Christ. And He was brought to see that to challenge Christ and His sufficiency to be right with God is a deadly, dangerous thing to do. And therefore, He teaches that we must lose, We must see these things as loss, lose these earthly credentials. He came to see that these things were unrelated to being righteous before God, to being justified before God, and instead of qualifying Paul for heaven. Depending on these things only disqualified Paul for heaven, and therefore by the grace of God he turned his back on his earthly credentials. He said, I don't even want to see them anymore. I want nothing to do with them. And we know, of course, that that resulted in a loss of status for him, possibly a loss of status among his own family, certainly a loss of status among the Pharisees and losing the respect and the envy of others. And as well, it was a gain of persecution. We know that Paul suffered. We know that he was stoned, he was left for dead, he was beaten, he was arrested, and eventually he was put to death for his faith. But Paul would say, so what? So what? Along with that persecution that I've gained, I've also gained something far better. I've gained true freedom in Christ and I've gained acceptance with God. And he came to see his earthly credentials as nothing more than rubbish when it came to being acceptable to God. That word rubbish is an interesting thing. It means garbage, of course, but it's not the garbage that we often throw away. We're a disposable society. We throw away things that are perfectly good yet that someone else might be able to have a use for. But this word is translated various ways. For example, it's translated as human waste. It's translated as food without nutrition. It has garbage thrown out for the dogs to rummage through. We might think of the junk, the foodstuffs, the leftovers that we stick down our garbage disposal. It has no value. It's worthless. And that's what Paul is saying about his earthly credentials. They are nothing. They are worthless. They are without value. In fact, worse, they devalue the one who depends on them in the sight of God. Beloved Christianity, and again, I'm talking here about being acceptable to God. Being acceptable to God is not determined by any earthly credentials that we might have. Just because you were born and raised into a Christian family or faithfully attended a Christian church or went to a Christian school. That's not a credential for Christianity. Or it's not determined by our practice because we might worship faithfully or again participate in Christian education or live for Jesus or have a reputation for witnessing for Him or working honestly at our company. None of that, you see, determines acceptance in the sight of God. None of those things are credentials in the sight of God. But these indeed are the result of being a Christian. They're good and necessary and right. They are the outworking of our faith. But instead, the credentials of Christianity, again, is righteousness, perfect righteousness before God. And Paul teaches here in the second place that that is divinely gifted through faith. It is given to us only by God. It is received by faith. And we come to see that and understand that through a transformation at his conversion on the Damascus Road, Paul was given new life. And with that new life, he was brought to see with the eye of faith, the Lord of glory. He was brought to see the majesty of Jesus Christ and he was also brought to see the truth. He was brought to see the truth of himself that he was a sinner. And that all of his earthly credentials were worth zero. Even though he might be applauded before the sight of men for those things. In the sight of God, they were worth absolutely nothing. He was brought to see that he could only keep himself from being acceptable to and being accepted by God. And he came to see himself as the chief, as the worst of sinners. which is to be true for all of us as we grow in faith, hope, and love. Beloved, that's how we are to see ourselves more and more and more and more as we grow by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to recognize our unworthiness, our despicableness in the sight of God, and our complete inability to do anything that would cause God to look upon us and smile. Paul learned the truth of himself. But along with that, he learned the truth of Jesus Christ. He was brought into fellowship and union with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that made Paul to clearly see the benefits of Christ's life and death and resurrection and ascension. And it made Paul to realize that his salvation depended fully and completely on Jesus Christ alone. Imagine how radical that was for him. Imagine how liberating that was for him. That new life of faith, beloved, resulted in an excellent knowledge. He speaks of the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. The surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. That is the most excellent knowledge. Nothing is more important. Nothing excels over knowing by faith Jesus Christ. Who He is and what He has done. And knowing Him as one Savior and Lord, there is no greater news than that. And this excellent knowledge, beloved, includes a knowledge of what God requires. And again, as we've said all along, it's righteousness. It's knowledge, learning that there is nothing more important than our status before God. But sadly, it's also knowledge that in ourselves we are unrighteous, that we stand as sinners condemned before a holy God. And the question, as we have said, then it's how do we become righteous? You see, this excellent knowledge, which includes knowledge of what God requires, brings us face to face with two problems. And the first problem is this. The first problem is God's justice because of sin. That God's justice must be met. That payment must be made for the sins that we have already committed. It's a problem, isn't it? Because we can't make that payment. But the second problem that we are brought face to face with, then, is God's requirement, which is perfect obedience. Again, a problem. Because we cannot give God perfect obedience. And both of these, both of these, God's justice because of sin and God's requirement of perfect obedience, both of these are a part of that surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. You see, by themselves, there's nothing great about it. By themselves, they are only depressing. but they are part of that excellent knowledge in the context of what God supplies in Jesus Christ. You see, Job asked, how can a man be righteous before God? The answer, Jesus Christ. He is the answer of how does God deal with our problem of righteousness or a lack of righteousness. Again, Paul says in verse 9, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. The righteousness that comes from God. You see, beloved, Paul is talking there not about what God demands or requires, but he is talking there about what God provides through Jesus Christ. His righteousness alone is the answer to that two-fold problem of sin. Because He is perfectly righteous, He was able to pay, He was qualified to pay the penalty for our sins. He was able to satisfy the justice of God in your place and mine. That takes care of the first problem. And because He was perfectly righteous, He gives to me His perfect righteousness as my very own. And God then sees me clothed in Christ's righteousness. He doesn't see me coming to Him with the righteousness of my own making that comes from the law which is filthy yet. But he sees me clothed in Christ's righteousness. As the Catechism says, he sees me as if I never had nor committed any sin and instead been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. That takes care of the second problem. Christ's righteousness takes care of both those problems. And that's that excellent knowledge. That is that surpassing greatness of that knowledge. Understanding who we are, our inability, our despicableness in the sight of God and understanding the greatness of what Jesus Christ has done for us and His righteousness freely given to us. And that was the reason for Paul's confidence. Paul knew that it was foolish to try to boast in himself. He knew that the only true answer to looking for comfort in himself was to cry out, What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? His hope was not in the righteousness that God required from Him because that was only hopelessness. But His hope was in the righteousness that God gives through Jesus Christ received by faith. And beloved, that excellent knowledge includes a knowledge of the greatness of the person of Jesus Christ, as Paul says, who loved Him and gave Himself for Him. Paul knew a lot of great teachers. He knew the great Gamaliel. He knew the great philosophers of his day, but none of them compared to the greatness of the person of Jesus Christ. And that excellent knowledge also included an understanding of God's marvelous way of salvation through Jesus Christ. And that gift of the righteousness of Jesus Christ became Paul's passion. He spoke of it in 1 Corinthians 1. And in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, he says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He spoke of it again in Romans 3. He spoke of it in Galatians 3. And because Paul understood this truth of Christ's righteousness for us, because he understood justification by grace alone through faith alone so well, he couldn't help but to burst forth into praise about it. He couldn't help but to live for it and to die in defense of this truth of the only way of salvation. And we know that that's true of many throughout history, isn't it? And we especially think of another. One that we think of in this season of the year, Martin Luther, whom we were reminded of in our Reformation celebration the other evening. When Martin Luther was brought to understand this truth of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and its power, for him there was no more excellent knowledge than he could have ever been given. That knowledge set him free from human achievements, from human traditions. It prepared him to risk everything, even his life, rather than to give up this blessed assurance of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The question we must ask tonight is, what about us? What about you and me? Is this truth of the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ that is freely given to us Is this truth the most amazing and thrilling news you have ever heard? Is it? I hope it is. It must be. Because in truth, this is what life is really all about without this truth. This life is a dead end. Like the psalmist says of princes, do not put your trust in princes. When they die, their hopes and plans, their dreams, they return to the dust. But we must understand, beloved, that the blessed result of Christ's righteousness is an excellent knowledge and assurance of having all of our sins erased, of having God's full and complete forgiveness, of being saved and delivered from hell. And as Paul will talk about in the verses to come, a glorious life in the presence of God for all eternity. But we must also remember that this is only for those who completely turn their back on their own efforts and their own credentials in order to be right with God. Now, Paul is not telling us not to live a Christian life here. He is not telling us here not to strive to be righteous because in plenty of other places he calls us to be obedient, to put off the old man, to put on the new man. But he is telling us here to put off these things in order to try to be right with God. And instead, it's only for those who receive by faith the credentials that only Christ can give His righteousness. And when it comes to His righteousness, beloved, there is no requirement for you and I to meet. There is nothing that you and I can do. And there is nothing that can disqualify those who forsake everything but Christ. There is nothing that can disqualify them from gaining all that He has to give. And what a gain it is. To be found in Him. To know Jesus Christ by faith is to be found in possession of all that He has to give, all that He has earned. And of course, we know that that includes all the blessings of salvation. We can talk about all the details of His saving work. It includes every bit of it, but even more than that, as we were beautifully reminded this morning, we have the Lord, the King Himself, who reigns in glory over all, we have Him on our side. We have Him for us. We have Him holding us in the palm of His hand. We have on our side His power, His majesty, His victory, this one, as the psalmist says, who remains faithful forever. This one and only God has given us exactly what we need to qualify us to be His. The righteousness of His Son. But someone might still ask, well, so what? That's all fine and dandy, it sounds great, but so what? How does this blessed truth affect my life? It doesn't put bread on the table. It doesn't pay my mortgage. It doesn't help me when my boss isn't happy with me, does it? So what? You see, beloved, this blessed truth transforms how we look at and how we live this life. We do not have to live looking over our shoulders, seeing who's out to get us. And as well, we do not have to live looking over our shoulder, wondering if we have done enough to please God, hoping that He will accept us. Instead, we live as those who have been given the assurance of already being acceptable to and accepted by God for Jesus' sake. We live with the comfort that He gives to us every day exactly what we need. He provides for us, He protects us, and He will complete His purpose for us. And beloved, we live as those who desire that others would have this excellent knowledge by faith of having gained in Jesus Christ. We live as those who cannot help but to defend the truth of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and desire that others know about it. We live and work with joy knowing that we do so as those who are righteous in Jesus Christ, striving to demonstrate that excellent knowledge and assurance through thankful living and obedience to God. And in times of trouble, we live with joy that God's grace is sufficient for us. It's sufficient. We can see the trouble in the world in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We can look at the political climate in our own nation and it seems frightening. We can sometimes see the value of the dollar drop and we can see the stock market crash. We struggle to make ends meet. Yet, beloved, because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we are able to rejoice in the Lord. We have the comfort of a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us perfectly and who will deliver us. And in times of persecution, we can joyfully confess with Paul we are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. Why? Because as the psalmist said, God frustrates the plans of the wicked. Beloved, we will fail in this life in many ways. But our comfort is that that will not remove us from being acceptable to God. At the same time, we will succeed in many things and in many ways in this life. But we need to remember that that will not join us or make us acceptable to God. Our comfort is only in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As someone has said, we may grow in grace. Lord willing, we all grow in grace throughout our lives. We may grow in grace, this one says. But on your deathbed, your only hope will be the righteousness of Christ. It won't be that grace that you've grown into, but only the righteousness of Christ. Anything in this life, our accomplishments, our plans, our ideas, our hopes, will die with us. Yet for those who are found in Christ Jesus, they have everything they need in death. They have Christianity's credentials. They have the credential of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because of which God the Father will say to you, you are mine. I claim you. Welcome home, my child. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we do rejoice and give thanks and sing praises because of the truth of Your Word. Indeed, O Lord, we must confess that sometimes these truths and this blessed truth of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which alone makes us acceptable in Your sight, that this truth often seems like some far-off detail. And sometimes we do have a hard time figuring out what this has to do with us where we are at today, right now. But Father, help us to see with ever greater clarity Your grace for us in giving to us the perfect righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Yourself, making us acceptable in Your sight. Making us to be Your children, those whom You will claim and Father may we live with that joy each and every day of our lives rejoicing because indeed you are our God for Jesus' sake that we are safe forevermore that no matter what may come upon us in this life that we have nothing to fear because we have a God and Father who protects us forever for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and may our prayer truly be that one day we be found in Christ not having a righteousness of our own, for that we may be proud, O Lord, to display the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. In His name alone we pray these things. Amen.