A Reality Check

Well, can we turn back to your reading in Philippians chapter 3?

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

We're going to focus on verse 4 through to verse 11 this morning together.

We can just read again there at verse 8.

Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Last Sunday morning when we had Scott preaching to us, he was preaching in the book of Acts and had Paul and Ananias there for us,

showing us the remarkable change that had taken place in the life of Paul and how he was to be an instrument in the hand of God.

And his life was completely transformed.

And there's a number of different places that we see the power of that transformation that took place in his life.

In the book of Acts chapter 9, you see there an account of his conversion experience.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And as Paul is writing his letters to various churches throughout the New Testament,

we see there him outlining his own experience in life, the wonderful work of grace in his life.

And the question that it all boils down to is what he was looking at and trusting in.

And how initially he was trusting in his own righteousness, in his own works.

But how when the Lord changed his life and opened his eyes and showed him the grace that he had to offer,

he realized that that counted for nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord.

And leaning not on himself, but on Christ's righteousness.

And it's a question again and again we have to ask ourselves.

Paul was given a reality check as to what he was trusting in and leaning on.

And again and again we have to ask ourselves.

Give ourselves a reality check and examination.

And ask ourselves, well what is it that we are leaning on?

Are we trusting in ourselves for our salvation?

Or are we trusting in Christ Jesus as my Lord?

And what we see here in chapter 3 in verse 4 to 11 is Paul outlining the real change that has taken place in his life.

What standards he is looking at now and what standards he had previously.

In the world of manufacturing, whenever something is being produced,

it has to pass a quality control check to make sure that it's up to being used in certain circumstances or certain places.

If you are looking for something that's going to be reliable,

it has to be marked with a stamp that shows it's approved for that task.

There's a standard to be met.

In other parts of our lives, we ourselves come under examination.

We come under scrutiny.

Whether it's going through school and sitting exams or university being challenged and tested along the way,

we have to see what standard we are at.

Sometimes it's in the workplace where we're having a review of how things are going.

Other times it's in a medical way.

When we go to the doctor, we maybe have to answer questions about our lifestyle.

And if we don't answer honestly, well, the doctor is still going to tell us the reality.

There are so many ways in life that we are examined.

There are so many things in life that we use that need to be examined to make sure they meet a standard.

But what about when it comes to ourselves and this other examination that we need to face when we come under God's Word?

And when that Word examines us, what standard are we at?

And what standard should we be at?

Paul, as you see here writing to the Philippians, is going through this process of examination.

And he's looking at himself and he's looking at what he used to put his confidence in.

But now he's showing how the Lord has changed that.

And how the Word of God is so much more probing, so much more deeper than a doctor's examination.

Not any other examination we sit in, it goes right into our hearts, right into our core, right into our being.

And God's Word asks, well, what are we standing on when it comes to eternity?

What are we standing on when it comes to our salvation?

Is it ourselves?

Are we merely looking in the mirror and looking to ourselves and thinking how good we are?

Or are we looking to Christ?

So much of our examination of self highlights all that is wrong with us.

We often look in the mirror and all we'll see is what we see as our faults and our weaknesses.

And sometimes that is what Paul does.

He looks at his faults and he looks at his weaknesses, as we all have to do at times.

But it goes further than that.

This examination that he looks at here, it goes deeper.

So it's not just looking at our faults and thinking there's nothing we can do.

But it's looking, well, what can happen?

What can change me?

In the same way as we find a faulty device, we're going to look at some other alternative to it.

Something that's going to be more reliable.

Or if we're looking to ourselves and we're under a doctor's examination and something's wrong,

we ask, well, how can we make it right?

Well, this examination that Paul shows is, yes, looking at what is wrong,

but also looking at, well, how is it going to be made right?

How is our eternity going to be right?

How is our life now going to be right with God?

Well, it's not putting confidence in self,

but putting our confidence in Christ.

The only way we can meet this standard of standing before God on the day of judgment,

the only way we can meet his standard,

is not to come with our own works and our own righteousness

and say, Lord, here is what I have to offer you.

We have nothing to give.

But what we have is to know Christ Jesus as my Lord.

And when we come to God with that, we are stamped approved.

We pass the quality test because it's not our own righteousness, but his.

And that's what Paul is examining in himself, but also for ourselves here today as well.

What is our confidence in?

And whom is our confidence?

And Paul does this, first of all, by outlining what he had.

What he was looking in the mirror and so proud of in himself.

That's where he begins, what he had.

In verse 4, he speaks about confidence in the flesh.

In light of what he had and what others were teaching in the midst of the people,

he speaks so strongly about what his previous confidence was in.

He says,

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh,

I have more.

You almost see this as a proud boast.

But yet that's not what he's using it for.

But he's saying,

This is what I used to have.

What he previously put his confidence in.

And the list is long.

One commentator puts it like this.

Here we have the rags that Paul mistook for robes.

Robes.

So as you read through this list,

This confidence in the flesh he has.

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 seal, a persecutor of the church.

As to righteousness under the law.

Blameless.

He's got all of this to offer.

This is how he would stand before God.

And say,

Look, this is my CV.

This is all that I have to present to you.

Surely I am worthy through my righteousness.

He was standing in front of the mirror,

Admiring himself in all of these things.

Thinking they were beautiful robes.

When actually they're just rags.

He could stand up to the best of them.

He could put any of them to shame as he saw it in his own eyes.

But at the heart of it all was pride.

Pride and self.

And self-righteousness.

You see,

What he was doing was comparing himself to others.

And aren't we all so guilty of that at times?

Don't we all stand in the mirror and look to ourselves

And look at what's good in us?

Compared to others,

I'm so much better.

Like the rich young man who came to Jesus.

We're putting our boast in everything that we've done for the Lord.

I've given.

I've done this.

I've done that.

But just like the rich young man,

Paul,

Here there was something missing.

It was all about self.

Pride and boasting in self.

And when you look at the different things that he had confidence in,

So much of it can resonate with ourselves as well.

Look at the teaching that he had learned.

You know,

He describes himself here as confident in so much.

Circumcised on the eighth day.

The people of Israel,

The tribe of Benjamin,

A Hebrew of Hebrews.

You see,

Like at the heart of it all is a people he sees as he belongs to.

And this is what counts.

He sees this teaching that he's been under.

He's learned so much.

He's done so much for the Lord.

And this is what counts.

But what was missing?

He didn't know Christ.

He didn't know Christ Jesus.

Jesus as his Lord.

And for ourselves,

Maybe we know so much of the Bible.

Maybe we know so much about church.

We know how things operate.

We know how things work.

Or we think we do.

We read our Bibles maybe every day and think we've learned so much from it.

We can quote the Psalms.

We can repeat their catechisms.

We can do all of that.

But do you know Christ?

Do you know him as your Lord?

Do you know him as the one who died on the cross for you?

What he had was all this wonderful teaching.

But with no wisdom.

No application of it as to what does it actually mean.

He speaks about his family line.

How he belongs to this proud family with a long tradition.

And again, it's something we can fall into a trap of.

Well, I belong to a Christian family.

We've been brought up in a Christian home.

And these are things to be thankful for.

But is our confidence in that?

Or is it in Christ?

Our works, as Paul is outlining here.

He's done so much.

Sell us for the Lord as he sees it in his own heart.

But being busy and sell us is fine in and of itself.

But not when it's not for Christ.

And not for when it's not knowing Christ in the middle of it all.

But it's his final boast.

As to righteousness under the law.

Blameless.

His own self-righteousness is what's his greatest downfall of all.

He was sincere.

Totally committed.

Sell us faithful.

Outwardly righteous.

And yet utterly wrong.

So far from God.

And so far from Christ.

He was like the fake counterfeit products that will flood our markets at this time of year coming up to Christmas.

Things that seem like a great deal at the time.

So much cheaper.

And yet they maybe last a week.

Or turn out faulty after a few days.

They'll fail.

Buy cheap.

Pay dear.

And that's what self-righteousness is like.

It's counterfeit.

It's not fit for purpose.

And it's not going to stand the test of judgment.

What he thought he had.

And it was also worth so much.

It was nothing.

His own self-righteousness.

It was what he thought counted for everything.

So that's what he had.

Perhaps it's what you have today.

And what you're putting your confidence in.

But the second thing we see is what's it worth.

Paul outlines again for us here what it's worth.

But whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

It says in verse 7.

What happened in the life of Paul to change things?

The Lord spoke.

The Lord convicted him.

The Lord challenged him.

And so often what we need ourselves is the word of God just to speak into our hearts and tell us,

You are so far wrong.

When you go right back to the beginning with God's question to Adam in the Garden of Eden,

after they had sinned,

the Lord asked him,

Where are you?

The Lord knew where he was.

But the question was going deeper.

What have you done?

Where are you now with me?

And that is what happens when we meet with Christ.

Where are you?

When Paul met with the Lord on the road to Damascus.

He said to him,

Why are you persecuting me?

Are you persecuting Christ today?

Are you failing him?

In thinking that you can stand in your own righteousness and your own works,

when actually that is worth nothing.

Everything that Paul was doing to find favor with God,

you know,

it was actually making him an enemy with God.

And that's what we are like too,

if we think that we can find favor with God through our own works,

our own righteousness.

We're just making ourselves enemies with God.

Is that where you want to be?

Is that where you want to stand before God as an enemy?

Surely not.

And that's what Paul highlights for us here.

Whatever else we have,

as we count as gain,

is actually loss before God

compared to the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus,

my Lord.

There is nothing else that counts.

We are always warned about that,

about laying up for ourselves treasures in this world.

Jesus warns us so clearly about it

in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

where he says,

Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth

where moth and rust destroy,

where thieves break in and steal,

but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven

where neither moth nor rust destroys

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

Where was Paul's heart away from Christ?

It was in the flesh, in the world,

and in everything it had to offer,

in self and in pride and in self-righteousness.

But at the end of the day,

it's worth nothing.

And that's the warning to ourselves too.

Are there things that through pride in our own hearts

are keeping us from God,

keeping us from salvation?

We're not right with God.

We wonder why,

but it's because of our confidence in ourselves,

our lack of confidence in Christ.

When zoos became popular,

and when they were trying to attract animals

that they could display,

put on display for people,

it meant that there was a market

where money could be made.

And many people would travel to different parts

of the world to catch animals

so that they could be sold to the zoo.

And one of the most popular animals

that people would often try and capture

were monkeys,

and all kinds of monkeys

that could be caught and put on display in zoos.

But there was one particular monkey

that people would try and catch.

It was called a ring-tailed monkey.

And they proved really hard to catch

until they found the secret,

until they found the weakness of the monkey.

They found that in just a simple way,

they could trap the monkey

and get a hold of him

and then sell him on.

And all they needed was to have

a melon on a vine.

And what they did was

they cut a little hole in the melon

so that the monkey could get his hand

inside the melon

because the seed inside the melon

was one of the monkey's favourite food.

But as the monkey would put his hand in,

the hole was just big enough

to get his hand in through the hole.

But as soon as the monkey

would take a good bunch of the seeds

and try and pull his hand out,

he couldn't get his hand back out.

Because it was bald enough fist now,

it was too big to come back out the hole.

And the monkey would stay there.

It wouldn't dare let go of the seeds

because they were so precious to him.

And this made it easy for people to catch them.

And doesn't that ring through for ourselves?

The sins in this world

that seem so appealing to us

are just like the seeds inside the melon.

And we'll just go and we'll hold on to them,

not realising the trouble

that it brings our way.

They're too much, too precious to us

these things of this world to let go.

But they'll be your downfall.

But we have to let go.

In order to be saved,

we have to let go.

And there are things in this world

that we are holding on to,

the things that we see as gain,

but that are really loss.

What do you need to let go in your heart today?

What is keeping you

and what are you putting your confidence in

that you believe is gain for you

but is actually loss?

And what compares

to the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord?

It is that alone

that will save you.

And that's what Paul shows us.

He shows us what these things were worth.

Everything that he has confidence in,

he counted as a loss

for the sake of Christ.

I count everything as a loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

And he's saying,

this is what I needed.

This is what you need.

Again and again,

he repeats himself in these verses,

in verse 7, 8, and 9.

And look at the way he puts it.

Whatever gain I had,

I counted as loss

for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake,

I have suffered the loss of all things

and count them as rubbish

in order that I may gain Christ

and be found in him,

not having a righteousness of my own

that comes from the law,

but that which comes through faith

in Christ.

Again and again,

he's repeating there what we need.

What every one of us needs

is Christ.

Gaining the Lord Jesus.

Being found in Christ Jesus.

Standing in his righteousness.

That is what you need.

That is what I need.

That is what Paul comes to see for himself

and is showing to the church at Philippi

and all believers since.

Nothing compares to knowing Christ Jesus,

my Lord.

But the question often is,

do you know him?

Are you standing there

in front of the mirror

looking at yourself and saying,

oh the good that I've done?

I'm nothing like that person

down the road.

I'm nothing like him

who goes here and there and everywhere

doing all these wicked things.

I'm a good person.

I do right.

God will accept me

for what I've done.

If you're looking in the mirror,

you're looking in the wrong place.

If you're looking to self,

you're looking in the wrong place.

You need to look at the gospel.

You need to look to the word of God.

You need to look to Christ.

Because there and there alone

you can stand.

The offer of the gospel

is before us all.

It's a worthy,

it's worth more than anything else

this world can offer us.

And yet we put it away.

We put it away so often.

We don't count it

everything else as loss

because it seems

what we need is before us

in this world.

To be comfortable.

To be well off.

To have food.

To have cars.

To have homes.

All of these things

have their place.

But they're worth nothing

compared to knowing

Christ Jesus

as my Lord.

And that's the challenge

that Paul puts before us.

That's the reality check

that he puts before us today.

Are we standing confident

in our own righteousness

or Christ's?

In one we will fall.

In the other we will stand.

And stand secure

in the righteousness

of Christ.

Are you trying

to do it yourself

and failing?

Well he says

to come.

To come

to Christ.

And to find

your rest

in him.

There was a story

from a pastor

in the Philippines

who said

that he once heard

this story

about a man

who was driving

along the road

in his wagon.

A flat bed

in the back.

So when he was

driving along

and he saw

this man walking

along the road

with a big weight

on his back

a big basket

on his back

going to the market

he thought

he'd be kind

to him

and offer him

a lift.

So he came

alongside him

and he stopped

and he says

look

jump in the back

of the wagon

I'll give you

a lift

into the town

save you

carrying

that heavy load

by yourself.

And the man

was delighted

so he jumped

in the back

of the wagon

and the driver

drove on

but after a few

moments

he looked

in the back

to see if his

passenger was okay

and what he saw

stunned him.

The man who had

come on board

his wagon

instead of putting

his basket down

and resting

was standing

in the back

of the wagon

with his weight

still on his back

and he thought

what was the point

in that?

He doesn't get it.

But isn't that

how we are

so often

ourselves?

Christ has come

and he's come

to take the burden

of sin

from us

to take it

all away

from us

and yet

we go along

and we just say

well I can carry

it myself.

I'll manage fine.

I'll try and have

a little bit of Christ

in my life

but the rest

I'll take care

of myself.

And we're not

resting

in Christ.

Friends

it's worth

nothing

at the end

of the day.

What you need

is that burden

of sin

removed

and the only

way is not

through your

righteousness

but Christ's.

And that's

what Paul

is showing

us here

to know

Christ Jesus

as my Lord.

is he

your Lord

today?

Are you

looking in the

mirror

and proud

of yourself

and your own

righteousness

or are you

looking to the

light of the

world

Christ Jesus

who to know

is worth

so much more

and the

difference

between life

and death.

Don't stand

in your own

righteousness

righteousness.

It's worthless.

Come to

Christ

and stand

in his.

Let us

pray.

Our

Father in

heaven we

thank you

for the

gospel and

for its

offer to

us.

That offer

of rest

in Christ.

The offer

of rest

that we so

often fail

to grasp

or to think

that we can

manage without

we can manage

by ourselves

but teach us

Lord not to

be so proud

in ourselves

but to see

our weakness

to see our

faults

but to see

Christ who is

able to take

them all for

us.

So Lord lead

us to him

and to his

righteousness

that we may

stand in him

to be presented

blameless in that

day of the

Lord's return.

Lord we pray

these things

confessing our

sins but thankful

for the mercy

that there is in

Christ as we

ask it in his

sake.

Amen.

We're going

to sing in

conclusion in

Psalm 36

in the Sing

Psalms

page 44

of the

Psalm books.

Psalm 36

we'll sing

from verse

7 to

verse 10

three stanzas

the tune

of Prince

Edward Island

Psalm 36

Psalms 36:7

verse 7

how precious

is your

steadfast love

what confidence

it brings

both high and

low find shelter

in the shadow

of your wings.

We'll sing from

verse 7 to 10

to God's

praise.

How precious

is your

steadfast love

what confidence

that

before

know

what

is your

way

large Watch

and go find shelter in the shadow of your way.

A feast within your house and drink from streams of your delight.

For with you is the source of life and your life is delight.

And your life is delight.

And your life is delight.

For with you is the source of life and your life is delight.

To those who know you as their God, your steadfast love impart.

Maintain your righteousness to those of you and of my heart.

Of pure and upright heart.

Of pure and upright heart.

Maintain your righteousness to those of you and of my heart.

After the benediction I'll go to the door to my left.

We'll close with the benediction.

Now may grace, mercy and peace from God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon

and abide with you all now and forevermore.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.