Paul's Spiritual Biography

Introduction: God's Sovereign Providence in Our Spiritual Biography

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, September 13th, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to follow in your own Bibles, not only as I read from Philippians 3, but as, together, we study a portion of this chapter this morning, that you keep your Bibles open, that you think through the Word of God with me as you have the Word of God itself before you. I shall read this morning the first seven verses of Philippians chapter 3.

0:37 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not irksome, but for you it is safe. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision or the flesh mutilators. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who have no confidence in the flesh.

1:12 Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man thinks or seems to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, as touching zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. How be it? What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

1:56 As a child of God grows in grace and in knowledge, one of the things that happens in that process of growth is that he becomes more and more aware of the many faceted dimensions of God's gracious dealings with him. And these discoveries of the manifold grace of God become the occasion of amazement and of wonder and often draw from the heart of the child of God prayer. Grace and thanksgiving. Now, not the least of these occasions of grateful wonderment is the ever-growing realization that God was sovereignly directing, guiding, and overruling events and circumstances in our lives even prior to the revelation of his grace to us in Jesus Christ. And as we discover more and more, what God was doing in us and with us even before he revealed himself to us, we can only stand amazed that that providence was bringing us into a posture in which we would have an even greater appreciation of the grace of God in Christ.

Paul's Biography as an Argument for Salvation by Grace

3:23 Now, in no Christian is this principle more vividly displayed than in the life of the great Apostle Paul. When we piece together the details of his spiritual biography, both from the book of Acts and from the epistles, it becomes very evident that prior to the revelation of God's grace to Paul, the events of his life were so ordained as to constitute Paul's experience of grace one of the most unanswerable arguments for the doctrine of salvation. Salvation by grace. And the Apostle himself in his writings indicates that he became increasingly aware of this principle. Now let me explain what I mean. Once men hear that the divine method of forgiving sinners and accepting them as righteous in his sight is that of freely giving to them the righteousness of another, even the righteousness based on the doing and the dying of others, and the righteousness of Christ, two great objections emerge again and again. On the one hand, there is the objection of despair that says, I am too sinful.

4:43 You proclaim to me a righteousness adequate for all the demands of God's law. But I have so broken that law in thought and word and deed for so long a time and in such aggravated measures that that righteousness is not enough. That righteousness is not enough. That righteousness is not enough.

5:01 That righteousness is not enough. That righteousness is not adequate for me. I am too sinful. Well, the Apostle Paul could trace in what God allowed him to become and do in his pre-conversion days an unanswerable argument to that objection.

5:18 And he records that in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Turn there for just a moment, if you will, please. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, the Apostle can write to Timothy saying, verse 1, verse 12 of chapter 1, I thank him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service, though I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, albeit I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord Jesus abounded exceedingly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering for an example of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life. You see what he's saying? He's saying that there is no sinner to whom the gospel comes with its promise.

6:42 Christ Jesus is freely, unfetteringly offered to all men as sinners. No sinner can exempt himself and say, I am too sinful. Paul says, no. I am the chief of sinners, and I have become a pattern of how the grace of God can take me.

7:00 He says, blasphemers, those who feel it their duty not just to break the law of God, but to obliterate the gospel of God and the very author of that gospel, Jesus Christ himself. And the only way Paul could do it was by trying to obliterate his people. And when the Lord accosted him, he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? In other words, if Paul could have got his hands on Christ, he'd have killed him too, as well as all his followers.

7:27 And he says, if grace can come to such a sinner, it can come to anyone. Now, on one end of the spectrum, that's the great objection that always comes forth when salvation by grace is preached. I'm too sinful. That's the objection of despair.

7:42 Well, you see, God's dealings with Paul prior to his conversion became in the hands of the Spirit a powerful argument from Paul's own spiritual biography to buttress the preaching of salvation by grace. But now, on the other end of the spectrum is the objection when people hear there is a righteousness based upon the doing and the dying of another. They say, well, I'm not so bad as to need an alien righteousness. What I am by heredity and what I have become by my own efforts is such that I can construct a righteousness that is passable in the court of heaven.

8:26 So this is the objection, you see, not of despair, I'm too sinful, but the objection of self-confidence and self-righteousness. I'm too good to need an alien righteousness. And in a marvelous way, God's dealings with Paul become the unanswerable argument to that objection as well. And the classic passage is the passage that is before us this morning.

Paul's Introduction to His Fleshly Advantages (Philippians 3:4)

8:52 And so we're going to examine Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 7, in which we have spiritual, human biography set forth as the unanswerable argument to the very assertions that the apostle has made in this chapter and then will amplify and make in greater detail in the remainder of this more lengthy paragraph. And so this morning our attention in our verse-by-verse study of this epistle is riveted upon verses 4 through 7. Now what we have in verse 4 is Paul's introduction to the list of his fleshly advantages. Note the language.

9:37 Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man seems to have confidence, that is, seems to have a legitimate ground of fleshy confidence, I yet more. Now what is the apostle doing? Well, he's doing here what he often does. In attacking his enemies, he often does what he often does.

10:00 He often takes up his stand on their own ground and takes their own weapons and with their own weapons on their own ground he kills them.

10:11 And in the previous verse you'll remember he describes who are the true people of God. Having warned the Philippians about these Judaizers, these dogs who would devour them, these evil workers, these flesh mutilators who would come along and tell the Philippians Christ is not enough, if you would have a perfect righteousness you must have Christ plus circumcision, plus adherence to all the Mosaic framework. Christ is not enough.

10:43 And having warned them and then described the marks of those who are the true people of God, the true circumcision, the last mark he gave was this. They are those who put no confidence in the flesh. That is, when it comes to the question of their acceptance with God, they put no trust in any carnal religious right. They put no trust in any natural inherited privilege.

11:15 They put no trust in any personal attainments. They put no confidence in the flesh. Now knowing that this struck at the very heart of the Judaizers' error, that it went right to the heart of the Jews, to the very nerve center of their thinking, the Apostle moves from the we of verse 3, something that is true of all the true people of God, Jew and Gentile. They worship by the Spirit of God.

11:47 They glory in Christ Jesus. They put no confidence in the flesh. Now he moves to the personal I and introduces spiritual biography beginning with verse 4 and does so all the way to the heart. So all the way to the heart.

12:01 So all the way to the heart. So all the way to the heart. So all the way to the heart. So all the way to the heart.

12:01 So all the way down through verse 14. But he does not do this simply because he forgot his train of argument or because he wanted to push himself forward. No, no. He did this because he understood the principle that I articulated at the outset.

12:21 That God's dealings with him in his own spiritual pilgrimage were a tremendous display case of the great principles of salvation by grace. And so he's saying in essence to these Philippians in the face of the Judaizers, someone may say to you, ah, that man Paul, he downplays fleshy advantages. He downgrades all the privileges of being part of the visible covenant people of God and having the covenant seal in the flesh in the form of circumcision. And he downplays these distinctive Hebraic privileges because he's never really known them.

13:05 Paul says, is that so? If any man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I have everything he has plus some more. In other words, he says, this is not sour grapes. Now you kids know what sour grapes is.

13:18 When we use that term, a kid on the block gets a new bike and all the other kids see the bike and they're jealous. They really like to have his bike but they don't have a new bike. They got their old junky bike. So what do they do?

13:31 When they see his bike, one of them says, ah, I don't like the color of that bike. It doesn't look good. Another one comes and says, oh, that make? And he names the make.

13:39 He said, my dad says, that's the worst kind of bike you can buy. Someone else comes along and says, you got a 26 inch wheel? Oh, that's no good. You ought to have a 28.

13:49 That's just a little kid's thing. And all the kids begin to make little critical remarks. Why? Because they're really jealous.

13:56 They don't have what he has. That's what we call sour grapes. Now, the Judaizers would no doubt upon hearing what Paul wrote, some of them, try to take the sour grapes attitude. Oh, the Apostle Paul, he can downplay this business of having no confidence in the flesh.

14:13 But what does he have? He says, all right, I'll tell you what I have. I'll tell you what I have. And I've got as much as any one of the Judaizers and more than most, if not all of them.

Paul's Description of Inherited Fleshly Advantages (Philippians 3:5)

14:24 And that's what he sets before us in verse 4. Paul's introduction to the list of his own fleshly advantages is this masterful stroke by which he occupies the enemy's ground, takes his very weapons in his hands, and now will turn and slay those enemies of the gospel. Now, then that brings us to verses 5 and 6 in what I'm calling Paul's description of his fleshly advantages. From this introduction to why he's going to list them, we now have his description of these fleshly advantages.

15:01 And they obviously break down into two basic categories. The first category is what I'm calling inherited fleshly advantages. And the second category is those attained fleshly advantages. All right, what were the fleshly advantages which the apostle inherited?

15:26 Well, there are four of them listed. Look at them. If any man thinks he has a ground of blood, boasting in his flesh, I'm all. And now among these things are these privileges and advantages which I inherited.

15:41 Number one, circumcised the eighth day. More literally, with respect to circumcision, an eighth dayer. He uses an idiom that would really strike home to these Judaizers. You see, circumcision, the mark of identification with the covenant people, was given in differing circumstances.

16:05 If you were a Gentile and you wanted to join yourself to the covenant people, then upon becoming a joiner, and that's what the big word proselyte means, kids, you get joined to the people of God, then you would have to be circumcised. And so you might be circumcised at age 15, 17, 22, 35, whenever you join the covenant community. And then the Ishmaelites, we're told on good authority that they would be circumcised at age 13. But the requirement of the law of God for every true Israelite was that he was to be circumcised on the eighth day.

16:47 And so Paul says as to circumcision, I'm an eighth dayer. I've had the real thing according to the strictest demands of the law. And that's what he's saying here. That was a privilege which he inherited, and no doubt among some of the Judaizers, were those who had come over to the faith of the Jews and had been circumcised in adulthood or in their teenage years.

17:11 But Paul could say, if you're going to boast in fleshly privileges, if you're going to press circumcision upon the people, I say that the true Israel, the true circumcision, put no confidence in the flesh, not even in circumcision according to the strictest demands of the law, and I'm not manifesting a sour grapes attitude concerning circumcision. I'm an eighth dayer. What are you? Then he goes on to give the second inherited privilege, he says, of the stock or of the people of Israel.

17:48 In that day, there were many Jews that in a sense were not pure Jews. They could not trace their lineage purely back to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Paul says he could do this. He said, as to inherited fleshly privilege, I am not only as to circumcision an eighth dayer, but of the stock or the people of Israel.

18:20 That is a true son of Jacob who became Israel, a position which can never be changed. You can't alter your bloodlines. And Paul says, mine are pure. And furthermore, he goes on to say of the tribe of Benjamin.

18:39 Now it's difficult to fix with precision the precise significance of this fleshly advantage. And I could weary you if I desired to do so with the varying opinions as to this precise or as to the precise significance of this. Suffice it to say that one thing that is very plain from the Old Testament record is that Jacob had two favored sons by his favored wife. And those two sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

19:12 And this put, as it were, the descendants of Benjamin in a place of peculiar privilege. And furthermore, when we read Old Testament history, we are informed in 1 Kings 12.21 that when the kingdom was divided, it was part of the tribe of Benjamin's people, along with Judah, that constituted the true Israel, or the true people of God in the southern kingdom. And then, after the captivity, when there was a restoration, it was the tribes of Judah and of Benjamin that were foremost in the restored Israel.

19:53 And you can read this in Ezra chapter 4 and verse 1. So what Paul seems to be saying is this. If becoming an Israelite has viability any merit or advantage, if it is a ground of confidence in the presence of God, then surely I have more confidence than most of these Judaizers who are trying to move you from your confidence in Christ. I am not only as to circumcision and eighth dayer, pure Israelite bloodlines, but more distinctly of the very tribe of Benjamin, and then as a sort of summary statement he says, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

Paul's Description of Attained Fleshly Advantages (Philippians 3:5-6)

20:39 We use the term sometimes he's the purest of the pure, or he is the most bold of the bold. And Paul says if we put all of this together, I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. If there is anyone who can lay claim to the distinctive fleshly advantages inherited by good bloodlines and by a strict observance of mosaic law, Paul says, I above all people have a ground of confidence in the flesh. Now then he adds to this list of four inherited advantages, three attained fleshly advantages. And these are marked out very clearly in the original by three parallel prepositional phrases. As to the law, as to zeal, as to the righteousness which is in or of the law. Now let's look at them briefly.

21:42 As to the law, dash, of Pharisee. Now the moment we hear the word Pharisee, we say that's nothing to boast about in the light of the way the Lord took their hide off in Matthew 23. But what we must remember is that in spite of the decadence of Phariseeism which brought forth the just censures of our Lord, and may I just digress to say, they are scathing censures,

22:11 scathing censures, whitewashed sepulchers brewed of snakes, full of dead men's bones in all uncleanness. And for anyone who has irritation with scathing preaching, you have an irritation with your Lord.

22:30 The Apostle reminds us in spite of degenerate Phariseeism, there was a sense in which the Pharisaic sect was the purest of the sects in that day. In fact, in Acts 26, he describes himself in this way. Verse 4, My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And the Pharisees were the supernaturalists as opposed to the Sadducees.

23:14 They accepted all of the Old Testament revelation. They believed in miracle. They believed in the existence of angels. They believed in the resurrection from the dead.

23:25 And furthermore, they sought to regulate all of life by the word of God. Now granted, many of them had so extended the word of God by their own traditions that they were nullifying the word of God. I think I know my Bible well enough to be aware of those passages. But in spite of the degeneracy of Phariseeism, there was a sense it was the best thing available.

23:51 And Paul can say, as to the law, I was of that straight, strict sect seeking to work out all of the principles and precepts of the law, both moral and ceremonial. I, I was a Pharisee. And then in that capacity as a Pharisee, he says, in the second place, these are his attained fleshly advantages, as to zeal persecuting the church. Now you see, the Pharisees were a zealous people.

24:23 Our Lord said they compassed land and sea to make proselytes. Even now, the apostle fears that they are there seeking to insinuate themselves into the life of the church at Philippi. Like some kind of a creeping, crawling scum, he fears that they are about to ooze through the walls, as it were, of that living temple and infect the life of God's people. And so the apostle can say, with respect to himself as a Pharisee, he said, I not only had zeal to make proselytes, I went further.

25:01 I not only tried to make friends to our position, I went after the enemies and sought to kill them. As to zeal, persecuting the church. And the language of Luke in Acts 9 is graphic language. You kids, when you see the pictures of the so-called dragons that dwell in caves and they snort and breathe out fire from their nostrils, well, that's kind of the picture you get of the apostle Paul.

25:30 Look at the language of Acts 9. But Saul breathing,

25:38 threatening, and squatter against the disciples of the Lord. Now think for a moment of that imagery. As you've been sitting here this morning, you've been inhaling, and then you've been exhaling. Inhaling, exhaling.

25:53 A very natural physical exercise.

25:56 Unconscious. Reflexive. You don't even think about it. You've been breathing.

26:01 Well, the apostle Paul had become so obsessed with the with this desire to blot out the name of Christ. It became a matter of reflexive spiritual activity to breathe out threatenings and more than that slaughter against the church. He was a violent man. He calls himself a murderer as well as a blasphemer and a persecutor of the people of God.

26:30 You talk about zeal. I mean, this man was consumed with it. Consumed with it. As to zeal, persecuting the church, and then thirdly he says, as to the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.

26:48 What does he mean? He means that as a Pharisee, viewing the letter of the law in its moral demands, his external conduct was such that nobody could point the finger and say, he's one of those Pharisees Jesus condemned who says, but who does not. You remember when Jesus condemned the Pharisees, he says, you bind burdens, but you won't bear them. They sit in Moses' seat, whatever they tell you, do it, but don't follow their works, for they say and they do not.

27:17 Not this Pharisee. He wasn't like many of them, who delighted to lay moral demands and ethical and ceremonial demands upon others while he cheated, as it were, when he was out of sight. No, no. He said, as touching the law in the external pattern of its moral demands and in the details of its ceremonial demands, no one could justly fault me for falling short of the standard of God's law,

27:49 as touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.

27:56 Now, do you see what a masterstroke this was with respect to the Judaizers? Here the Judaizers are coming along to Gentiles who have no Hebrew bloodlines, who can never be eight-day circumcised ones, who can never be of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, who have no desire to become so committed to what the Judaizers are saying that they will turn against the church and manifest their zeal by persecuting it. And the apostle Paul comes along and says, look, if these Judaizers have any argument, he said, I had much more to commend to you in the way of fleshly attainments by heredity and by personal effort than these Judaizers do. Why did I come preaching Christ and Christ alone? Why was I totally silent about any necessity for circumcision in keeping the law of Moses? Because, he says, they are no true ground for confidence in the presence of God.

Paul's Evaluation of Fleshly Advantages: From Gains to Loss (Philippians 3:7)

29:01 And I do not say that because I didn't have those things. If anyone has grounds to boast in them, I yet more. And then he gives his list, four inherited fleshly advantages, and then he gives these three attained fleshly advantages. Now in the third place, consider with me what is really the climax and the heart of our study this morning.

29:27 In verse seven, Paul's evaluation of these fleshly advantages. We've seen his introduction to the list of them in verse four, and then his description of them in verses five and six. Now let's look at his evaluation of these fleshly advantages. And there are three units of thought in verse seven.

29:52 The former evaluation, the present evaluation, and the cause of the change in this evaluation. Notice then, the former evaluation. What was it? The language of the text is this.

30:07 Such things were not gained singular, but in the original it's in the plural. Such things were gains to me. Now he's like a mathematician or like an accountant sitting down and he's got a ledger book in front of him. And he says, in my past this was my former evaluation of all of these fleshly advantages.

30:35 When I sat down and reflected upon the matters of my bloodlines, my orthodox circumcision, when I reflected upon what I was and what I did as a Pharisee, next to every one of these seven realities, four inherited, three attained, I saw nothing but pluses. And I looked upon them on my ledger as one page full of pluses. When I contemplated the great and ultimate question, how shall I, Saul of Tarsus, stand in the presence of the God of Israel and be accepted now and in the last day? He said, oh, I was so glad I had a ledger book full of pluses. I had all kinds, we would say, of solid and substantial assets. I had nothing but gains. The things that were gains to me.

31:36 And whenever my mind was exercised about the question, how shall I be accepted with God, he said, I was so glad I had a ledger book, not full of blank lines or full of red ink called debits, but it was full of black ink. On the plus side, on the asset side, nothing but assets. I regarded these things as gains to me. That was his former evaluation.

32:03 But now what is his present evaluation? Look at the text. The things that were gains to me,

32:12 I have counted loss. And I have called this his present evaluation because he uses a form of the verb which refers to something that happened in the past, the results of which continue into the present. And if we were to paraphrase the force of that form of the verb, we would say, the things that were gains to me, I counted and continue to count them as loss. That's his present evaluation.

32:49 And the only other place where you find this word loss used in this particular form, the family of words, is often used in the New Testament for lose, but as loss is in that well-known passage in Acts 27 where Paul's involved and others in a shipwreck. And he speaks of great loss of life and of cargo. And that cargo that was thrown overboard was considered as loss. At one time it was considered in the minds of the ship owners and those who placed it upon that ship as something that would bring gain, but when it stood between them and life, they now had a totally different evaluation of it.

33:31 They chucked it overboard in its entirety.

33:36 Now Paul says, everything that I had in my ledger book with plus marks, I chucked it overboard in its entirety. I counted all loss.

33:47 And he said, that was not something I did in the passion of a moment. It is the settled judgment of my mind and heart to the present hour when I penned this letter to you, Philippians. That's his present evaluation. Now the great question is, what caused this change in evaluation?

34:09 What caused this kind of radical disruptive spiritual mathematics? Paul learned the new math in the realm of the spirit. And I mean it was radical new math. When you look at a ledger that has a whole list of things and next to all is a plus, a plus, a plus, a plus, so you look at the page and you say, all of these things are gains in the plural.

34:35 Now suddenly you look at the same list and you add them all up and you don't get a zero, you get one big minus.

34:43 That's what he's saying.

34:46 All the pluses have now become in their total aggregate one glaring minus.

34:55 And he says the key to this new math was this, on account of or for the sake of Christ. And that's all the explanation he gives to start with. And in our next study we shall see him amplify upon that particularly in verses 8 through 11. But here in the text he says the cause of this change in evaluation was Christ.

The Cause of Paul's Changed Evaluation: The Revelation of Christ

35:22 Now what does he mean? He means simply this, that in the cluster of those truths connected with the revelation of Christ to his heart, there was brought to him this new spiritual mathematics. And what were some of those truths brought to him in the revelation of Christ to his heart? Well, certainly among them was these.

35:51 The fact that in spite of all of his good Benjamite Hebrew Israelite bloodlines, he had a blood relationship to another which was far more significant in the presence of God. He had bloodlines with old Adam.

36:14 And he came to understand as he himself expounded so perceptively later on in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, in Adam all die. Eighth dayers, yes. Hebrews of the Hebrew, yes. There is no privilege by bloodlines nor attainment by personal effort that can negate the gruesome reality that in Adam all die.

36:49 And he came to that discovery. That it was of far greater significance that he was a son of Adam than that he was a son of Israel, a son of Benjamin. He came to the discovery that it was this gruesome, this frightening reality that indeed determined his standing before the court of heaven. Furthermore, he came to the discovery of the fact that in spite of all his legal righteousness he was a miserable sinner.

37:24 He records it in Romans 7 verses 7 to 13. And he says, I was alive apart from the law once. In other words, he said, when I was looking at the law as a code of conduct touching external activities, he said, I felt myself alive unto God. But he said, when in the revelation of Christ to my heart, the spiritual demands of the law, and in particular the tenth commandment were laid bare to me, I saw that the law touched not just my external deeds and the conduct seen by the eyes of men, but he said, I saw that that commandment which said thou shalt not covet was touching the deepest springs of desire and motivation of the heart. And when that was laid bare to me, he said, I saw my heart a seething cauldron of filth and uncleanness. And he said, I died. I no longer could stand with my ledger and its plus signs in the presence of God.

38:29 I had to hide my head with shame, because I realized that in the midst of all of my doing, I was an unclean sinner in the presence of God. And then he came to the discovery of the fact that all of his attainments fell short of the perfection which the law demand and supremely. He came to the discovery of the fact that in Christ, in his person and work alone, a perfect righteousness was to be found. So when he says in verse 7, the answer to the question, Paul, what changed your evaluation?

The Application: Learning the New Math of a Saving Revelation of Christ

39:12 The things that were gains, you have counted and continue to count and reckon them lost. What's the answer? He says, on account of the Christ, because for the sake of Christ, it was all that clustered around the revelation of Christ to his heart that changed his spiritual mathematics. Well, we've opened up the verses at least in a cursory manner.

39:41 Paul's introduction to the list of fleshly advantages, verse 4, his description of the fleshly advantages, verses 5 and 6, his evaluation of them in verse 7, and now you may ask, at least you ought to ask, what does all this say to me? Is this just a nice, interesting bit of spiritual biography? What's good to sort of get on the inside of the apostle and see how God dealt with him? Isn't that marvelous?

40:07 Isn't that wonderful? No, no, my friend. Remember when Paul wrote these words, he wrote them with the passion of a pastoral concern for a real flock of real people living and dwelling in a real place called Philippi, exposed to the real dangers of the current influence of the Judaizers. And as I had occasion to remark several Lord's days ago, would to God that the Judaizing tendency of the human heart had died with those first century Judaizers, but it hasn't.

40:40 It is as much with us as the air we breathe. And so, as we've looked at this text, it brings home to us, in a very real sense, one of the most fundamental, if not the most fundamental of all questions. And the question is this, have you come to learn the new math of a saving revelation of Christ?

41:05 Have you come to learn inwardly the new mathematics of a saving revelation of Jesus Christ?

41:15 If not, my friend, if God has surrounded you with great privileges by heredity, and if you have attained anything in the way of religious respectability by your own efforts, you will rest upon what you have by inheritance and attainment and go down to hell with your plus signs.

41:44 And so I press the question upon the conscience of every man, woman, boy or girl in this place today. Have you personally, inwardly, experimentally learned the new mathematics of a saving revelation? Have you ever experienced any of these things? Have you ever experienced any benefits that may have come to you in terms of what you have inherited?

42:09 And some of us will go to our graves grateful for the privileges we inherited.

42:17 My friend, when it comes to the great question on what basis will a holy God accept the likes of me and admit the likes of me into his presence with joy when it comes to the answer to that question, every inherited advantage must be put in a column and at the bottom a line drawn. And under that line one big minus. And if you do not forsake from the heart as having anything to do with your acceptance with God, every single privilege inherited by virtue of your relationship to your parents or friends, my friend, those very privileges will damn you instead of help you on your way to heaven.

43:12 Thank God if for whatever motive, whether just a sensitive conscience constitutionally or to please your parents or to please others, you outwardly conform to the law of God so that you do not have the scars of all pain of abandonment to profligacy and immorality and thievery. Thank God if you can say as touching the law my life was blameless. Thank God if you've been kept from all forms of external sin and as touching as we might call the demands of New Testament law with regard to attending upon the worship of God and the stated day of God found amongst the people, don't despise those attainments of a good Sunday school record and church record. No, no, they are not to be despised as a thing of naught. But when we come to the question, on what basis will a holy God accept the likes of me in his presence now in the last day, we have to say concerning all our attainments, though we have been the strictest of the strict Orthodox Bible believers, the most zealous of the same. We must say I count all of those things one big minus

44:40 on account of Christ.

Warning Against Reverting to Old Math or Abusing Grace

44:45 And my friend, listen carefully to me. Having learned the new math in conversion, don't ever revert to the old math.

44:56 That's the great danger. That's why Paul had to write this letter. They learned the new math when he preached at Philippi. For what did he preach when the Philippian jailer cried out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

45:11 He was not directed to Christ and then to circumcision and everything else. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And it was to a people who had learned the new math under Paul that the Judaizers came and said let's go back to the old math.

45:32 Child of God, what God taught you in your conversion is to become the very atmosphere and climate of your spiritual life.

45:44 Having stood initially on the ground of Christ and his righteousness alone, there we must continue to stand with reference to having a conscience at rest in the presence of God before the burning light of the law of God. And if at any point you look to anything that is in you, even that which God himself works in you by the Spirit as the ground of your confidence for acceptance with God, you are setting yourself up for spiritual failure and instability.

46:27 Christ is not only the door by which we enter into the kingdom, it is Christ and his righteousness alone in which we stand continuously accepted and before God.

46:44 Now does that mean we have no passionate desire to grow in grace, to advance in holiness? Well, you'd never learn that from this paragraph, as we shall see one of the sequels to the new math is not a smug contentment. Oh, well, I'm perfect in Christ, fine, wonderful, that's it. We go on to the language, I press on that I may know him.

47:10 There is much in his attachment to Christ as his only ground of righteousness, which produced in Paul and produces in everyone who is taught new math by the Holy Ghost, a longing to be more like Christ, to pursue Christ, to pursue a life of holiness. But my friend, all of that has nothing to do with the ground of the sinner's acceptance. That is Christ and Christ alone. The things that were gains to me, these I have regarded and continue to regard them as loss for the sake of Christ.

47:55 And as long as our minds are rooted and grounded in the most essential elements of the gospel, we will never grow weary of singing, Jesus, by blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. We'll never grow weary of saying to ourselves or confessing to the Lord on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

48:28 I dare not trust my sweetest frame. When I feel most elevated in mind, most detached from the world, the flesh, and my own indwelling sin, I dare put no confidence in what I've attained, even by grace.

48:47 I dare not trust my sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is bad math, my friends.

49:06 And in that sense, there's a mathematics of the spirit that will send you to hell. A mathematics of the heart that will send you to hell. Am I speaking to a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl who has despaired of becoming a Christian because you say, I see the way my mom lives, my dad, and others around here who are Christian? I can't live that way until I'm assured I can live that way.

49:30 I can't become a Christian, my friend. You're getting the cart before the horse. If anyone exemplifies anything of likeness to Christ in this place, it's because first of all they've come in nakedness and undone-ness saying, nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. Foul, not all fixed up, but foul, I to the fountain fly.

49:57 I don't get fixed up and go to the fountain. I come as I am in all my filth and undone-ness and I say concerning all that I thought was a basis of acceptance with God, it's one big minus. All that I inherited, all that I've gained, oh Lord, for Christ's sake alone, I chuck it all overboard and I put the weight of my soul nakedly and supremely and exclusively upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

50:32 Now some of you need to remember what I've preached this morning because you know it's going to happen because you've got a controversy with God in the area of practical sanctification. When I get preaching as honestly the next verses as I've sought to preach these, you say, oh there goes Pastor Mark, he just doesn't know anything about free grace. There he goes putting the screws on us again about being more holy and all. I just wish to preach about the objective.

50:58 My friend, God have mercy on you if that thought even comes to your mind in the subsequent weeks. You may be on the high road to hell thinking you've learned the new math when you've learned the devil's perversion of it. That is, let us continue in sin that grace may abound. For never is free grace preached purely but what the disposition of remaining sin in men will abuse that grace and turn it into lasciviousness.

51:28 And I sound that warning to some of you who desperately need it.

Clinging to Christ Alone: The Foundation of Confidence

51:34 But there are others of you who desperately need the emphasis of the text as it stands this morning. Dare you venture upon Christ and Christ alone? And having ventured there, do you dare to stay there? Can you imagine a little child who's flying in an airplane for the first time and he's got a hundred questions.

51:56 Mommy, how's that big airplane get off the ground? Daddy, how's that thing get off? Once it's off, how does it stay up there? And so mommy and daddy try to assure him without going into all the principles of aerodynamics and the shape of the wing and how the air pressure beneath becomes greater than the air pressure above because of the air flow and all the rest.

52:14 They try very simply to explain to him and the little kid gets quieted down long enough to stop asking questions. For 13 seconds and get into the plane, sit down, get strapped in and he's sitting there very nervously and looking out the window. Mommy, how's it going to get off? And when it gets off and they quiet him down and sure enough in a few minutes the announcement comes.

52:32 We're prepared for takeoff, we're cleared and the plane gets off the ground, gets up to altitude and everything's going along fine and suddenly the little kid gets all nervous and says, mommy, I'm scared, I see the farms down there and all the rest. I want to get outside the plane. He said, why do you want to do that? He said, I want to flap my arms and make sure that we stay up.

52:55 Well, he said, pastor, that's a rather crude illustration. Well, it may be crude but I hope it gets the point across because you see that temptation is always with us. When the heart becomes anxious with the question, how shall someone be taken from the depths of sin and uncleanness and undone-ness into the very presence of God and the troubled heart is quieted with the message Christ will take us there and the strength of his own performance alone. Entrust yourself to him.

53:26 And may I say without I hope being irreverent, we get seat-buckled into Christ and all is well until we've gone a long way and then we start to do something very foolish. We begin to see problems in the area of our growth and development as Christians and we say somehow there must be some imperfection in Christ and we feel that we've got to get outside of Christ and flap our wings to help our standing before God. No, no, my friend, at the lowest point of your Christian experience, Christ and Christ alone must be the ground of your hope and the foundation of your confidence. And it's only in that posture that you can begin, as it were, to come back into a stage of flourishing spiritual health and vigor. Oh, may we not be so foolish that having begun with Christ, we may not be so foolish that having We move on to Christ plus something else. But having learned the new mathematics of the Spirit as Paul learned them, may we ever go back to its basic principles. Whatever we would count as gains in terms of inherited advantages, attained advantages, they are lost with respect to acceptance with God.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Application

54:51 Christ and Christ alone must be the ground for our confidence. Let us pray.

55:07 Our Father, we are so thankful for your dealings with your servant centuries ago, for the kind providence that mapped out even his pre-Christian experience, that mapped out his bloodlines, the family into which he would be born, all of his religious experience and attainments, so that he might be a model for the people of all who follow, demonstrating that what we've inherited and what we've attained by our efforts can never be the basis of our acceptance with you. We thank you that you allowed him in your blindness to become a murderer, a blasphemer, a persecutor, so that those who have stooped to the depths of sin might not despair in the knowledge that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. O Holy Father, bless the opening up and the application of your word. We plead with you that it may bear fruit in bringing some to rest in Christ and in Christ alone, and that it will confirm every true believer in his resolution to cling solely to your beloved Son as the ground of his peace.

56:34 And of his pardon. Seal then the word to our hearts, and to your name be praise and honor and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.