Religious Credits that Don't Impress God (Philippians 3:4–8) John MacArthur

We come in this particular message to  Philippians chapter 3 and I want to read   for you verses 4 through 11, though we will not  cover the whole section I want to read it to you   and then we will discuss the first half of it  this morning and the second half next time and   I'll describe what I mean in detail in a moment.  Philippians chapter 3 and verse 4, Paul writes: Although I myself might have confidence  even in the flesh, if anyone else has a   mind to put confidence in the flesh I far  more. Circumcised the eighth day of the   nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a  Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee,   as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the  righteousness which is in the law found blameless.   But whatever things were gain to me those things I  have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More   than that, I count all things to be loss in view  of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus   my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all  things and count them but rubbish in order that   I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him not  having a righteousness of my own derived from the   law but that which is through faith in Christ, the  righteousness which comes from God on the basis   of faith that I may know Him and the power of His  resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,  

being conformed to His death in order that I  may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now, in those marvelous verses is one of the great  personal testimonies in the New Testament. It is   also one of the most significant statements on the  matter of salvation found in the New Testament.   It is Paul's own testimony as  to the dramatic attitude that   occurred in his mind at the juncture  at which he met the living Christ.   It takes us into the very heart of  the sinner's attitude in conversion. And you will notice as we read that Paul sees  this matter of salvation from the viewpoint   of a transaction, or an exchange. He even uses  business and accounting terminology. The heart   of the passage is in verses 7 and 8 and you  will notice in verse 7 the word "gain" is used,   kerdos, it means profit. And if you were an  accountant you would indicate this as the   term to describe the profit column,  that's what its use is related to.

You will also notice in verse 7 the word  "loss," again that word, zemia, is used in   extrabiblical Greek to describe a business  loss and so this would be the loss column.   So the Apostle Paul is talking about profit  and loss. You will notice also in verse 7 the   word "counted," that word, hegeomai,  means to count or account or reckon. So, Paul here is talking about a business  transaction that involved a profit column   and a loss column. There were certain things  which he felt were in the profit column which   he switched over to the loss column when he met  Christ. In fact, he says very clearly in verse 7,   "Whatever things were profit, those things I have  counted as loss." Now what you have here is a   transaction. You have the Apostle Paul spending  a life time accumulating spiritual profits and   filling up a column of spiritual profit banking  on that column of spiritual profit to earn him   salvation. That's what he means in verse 9 by  the righteousness of my own derived from the law.

So there he has his profit column filled up  by which he hopes to earn salvation. But he   encounters Jesus Christ. And upon encountering  Jesus Christ he comes across, verse 9,   a righteousness not his own, but righteousness  which comes through faith in Christ. And   instantaneously he counts everything that he once  saw as profit as loss and gives it all up in order   to gain Christ. He realizes that everything he had  been accumulating to buy his way into the Kingdom   was rubbish, that's the word he uses in verse  8...rubbish. And he gives it all up for Christ. Salvation then was a transaction. Here was  a Jew, here was a pedigree Jew, here was the   ultimate Jew with all of the credentials who looks  at all of his Jewish credentials and assumes that   he has thereby gained entrance into the Kingdom  and impressed God greatly...only to find out in   confronting the living Christ that all of that  which he assessed as profit was in fact garbage,   loss, detriment, negative. And he  willingly gives it all up for Christ,  

exchanging a righteousness which he  thought he could earn but couldn't   for a righteousness which God gave through  faith. That's the theme of this great passage. And what Paul is saying is that I am willing  to give up trusting what was once valuable to   me as a means of salvation to trust Christ  instead. It is an exchange and that's what   salvation is. It is self­denial. Jesus said,  "Deny yourself and follow Me." In other words,   consider all that you have attained  as useless, worthless and follow Me. This particular attitude is described most  magnificently in the words of Jesus. Turn   with me to Matthew chapter 13 and here we have  from the very lips of our Lord Himself the clear   insight into what Paul is saying in his personal  testimony. In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44,   the Lord Jesus says this, "The Kingdom  of heaven is like a treasure hidden in   the field." Now the phrase "the Kingdom  of heaven" means the sphere where God   rules. That is the sphere of salvation.  We could even use the word "salvation,"  

so let's read it that way. "Salvation  is like a treasure hidden in the field,"   we could even say Christ the Savior is like  a treasure hidden in the field. "Which a man   found and hid and from joy over it he goes and  sells all that he has and buys that field." Now the idea is this, you have a man who  has accumulated wealth. He has accumulated   a certain profit. He has certain possessions. But  he stumbles across a treasure that is so valuable   that he will gladly give away everything  that he has to get that treasure. That's   the exchange. He will sell everything,  liquidate it to gain that true treasure. Verse 45, the same idea is given in  another parable, "The Kingdom of heaven,   or the sphere of salvation, is like a merchant  seeking fine pearls." Here is a man who is going   around seeking fine pearls, the assumption is that  he has accumulated a lot, he has many possessions,   he may have many pearls. But verse 46, "Upon  finding one pearl of great value he went and sold   all that he had and bought it." And again you have  the same idea. Here is a man who has accumulated  

much but sees it as worthless when compared to  the great value of the pearl that he discovers. A man with many possessions finds a treasure,  gives up all his possessions for the treasure.   A man with many pearls gives up his pearls for the  one pearl of great price. This is the exchange.   We accumulate a lot in our life and we  assume that it has value and we tag it   with certain value. But when compared with  Christ it is rubbish. Such was the teaching   of Jesus and such was the experience of Paul.  Of the experience of Paul, F.B. Meyer writes,   "He was a man with a rich religious nature,  capable of an infinite hunger after God who   passed from one stall to another amid the  religions of the world seeking for the   best. But finally when he came where the gem of  heaven and earth and sea the pearl of great price   lay, translucent and glistening, he gladly  sacrificed all he possessed to win it," end quote.

That's exactly what Paul is saying here.  That's exactly what Jesus said salvation   was all about. The attitude of a man at  the crux of salvation is "I will give up   everything I have depended on to earn my favor  with God for Christ. I'll give it all up." The word "rubbish" deserves our attention. You  will note it there in verse 8 at the end of the   verse. He considers everything that was in the  profit column as rubbish. It is the word skubalon,   the word refers either to human excrement or to  garbage thrown away, something useless, waste,   rejected, filth, refuse. Some Bibles translate  it dung, some Bibles translate it manure. Some   say rubbish. Some might even say garbage.  Some might say waste. But Paul is saying   all of my profit column I saw to be manure,  useless, waste, get rid of it. It has no value.

That is a very strong statement when you consider  what was in his profit column. What was in his   profit column is listed in verses 5 and 6 and  there are some pretty heavy-duty credentials   there. But Paul treats them all as if they  were manure, absolutely useless. Now listen,   vice...listen carefully, vice is not the only  muck of life. Vice is not the only useless   refuse. Vice is not the only garbage. Vice  is not the only rubbish. Religion is rubbish,   too. Any manmade effort to gain salvation  is as much rubbish as vice is rubbish. And   Paul is speaking out of personal experience.  He said that Christ saved him and he said,   "I was the chief of sinners." And listen, he  was the chief of sinners not because he lived   a vice-filled lewd licentious life because  he didn't, he lived an eminently moral life.   But he saw the deepest vilest rubbish of life as  religion...not immorality. It's one thing to act   immorally, it's something else to believe that God  is so low that you can earn acceptance with Him.  

One desecrates God to one degree, the other  desecrates God to a greater degree. One violates   His law, immorality, one assumes Him to be less  than He is and violates His nature. Thus religion   is a rubbish. And the rubbish that Paul viewed in  his own life was not the rubbish of vice, but it   was the rubbish of religion...of trying to please  God through self-effort and religious works. Now Paul is giving his personal testimony  starting in verse 4. Why does he do that?   Well at the end of verse 3 he said that true  Christians put no confidence in the flesh.   True Christians do not trust in anything they  do to earn salvation. They put no confidence,   zero confidence in the flesh. True Christians,  those who have the true circumcision,   which is a spiritual circumcision, they  worship in the Spirit of God, verse 3 says,   and their joy and their glory and their boasting  is all in Christ Jesus and they put no confidence   in the flesh...none whatsoever. The flesh  provides nothing even when it acts religiously.   There are people, plenty of them, the world is  filled with them, who live under the deceptive   illusion that they can work their way to God, that  by religious duty and ceremony and all of that  

they can earn their way into God's presence. They  can acquire the privilege of eternal life. That's   confidence in the flesh. Paul says true believers  have none of it. Paul wants none of that illusion. Now remember the Philippians were being assaulted  and pelted by a group known as Judaizers.   These were Jewish people or people in the Jewish  religion who believed in Christ to some degree,   but also believed that in order to be saved  you had to be physically circumcised and   keep all the laws of Moses. And so they came  into the church at Philippi and they said,   "You people who are believing in Christ and  thinking that's enough for salvation are wrong,   you must be circumcised and you must keep all the  Mosaic law." And so they were imposing upon these   believers this two-fold emphasis...circumcision  and the Mosaic law. Paul then is writing and   saying, "Beware," verse 2, "of those people,  they are dogs, they are evil workers,   they are the false circumcision, beware of  them. Don't let them push this off on you."   True Christians worship in the Spirit of God,  rejoice in Christ Jesus and put no confidence   in the flesh, that is in circumcision or  works. And he wants it made clear. What   he is saying here is Christians are the true  covenant people and these Judaizers are not.

Now, having said that in verse 3 he anticipates  their reaction. What's going to happen?   The Christians are going to say, "Boy, Paul,  you've really made it clear here, we're to have   no confidence in the flesh." And the Christians  are going to say to the Judaizers, "Hey, Paul says   have no confidence in the flesh." And what are the  Judaizers going to say? Well they're going to say   something like this, they're going to say, "Ha,  well you're a Christian, you don't understand the   value of Jewishness, you don't understand the  privileges of Judaism because you're a Gentile   Christian. And what does Paul know? Paul's a  Christian, too. What does he know about this?" So Paul wants to settle that once and for all.  So what he does is he recounts all his Jewish   credentials. And in effect what he is saying  is...Look, I can tell you put no confidence in   the flesh as one who has every reason to have  confidence in the flesh, and you can't say I'm   a Christian so what do I know, I am first before  I was a Christian a Jew and I am a Jew of Jews.   I know the privileges of Jewishness. I know the  benefits of Judaism. I have experienced it all.   And I am telling you out of that experience it is  rubbish." He is not disparaging Judaism because   he is jealous of something he doesn't have, he's  not disparaging Judaism because he is envious of  

what someone else has, he is not depreciating  Jewishness in the sense he couldn't have it so   he's going to castigate everyone who does. Not  at all. He is saying I've been there, I've stood   on that same ground, I have impeccable Jewish  religious credentials and I can tell you put   no confidence in the flesh, it is garbage...it is  garbage. It is waste, it is useless, profitless. For every advantage that these Jews could claim,  he could claim the same thing. They could say,   "Oh, it's a great thing, boy, when you follow  the law, it's a great thing when you're zealous   for the law of God, it's a great thing when  you go through circumcision and all of that,   it's a great thing, what do you know?  You're Gentiles. It's a great thing." Paul says, "I know and I know it very well  and I know it first hand and it's garbage."   That's what he's saying. Now let's look at his testimony in verse 4.  "Although I myself might have confidence even in   the flesh." The end of verse 3 says, "Christians,  don't put any confidence in the flesh, although I   myself...that's an emphatic form there...might  have confidence even in the flesh." I mean,   it's not that I don't know what I'm talking  about. Listen, if there was confidence in the   flesh I might have it. I might have it. If anyone  else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh,   I far more than anyone else. Literally to a  higher degree. Certainly to a higher degree  

than most if not all of the Judaizers who  were plaguing Philippi. So he is saying if   there was anybody who should have confidence  in the flesh legitimately, it would be me.   And if anybody else has a mind to have confidence  in the flesh, I have more reason to have it. Now he's not saying this to build his ego.  He's not saying this to convince people of   his spiritual superiority. He is simply saying it  for the sake of argument. He doesn't really want   to boast in his flesh. He doesn't really  have any confidence in his flesh. In 2   Corinthians read chapter 11 verse 16 through  chapter 12 verse 1 some time and he uses the   same argument of boasting there but he calls it  foolish. It's foolish to boast, I only do it for   the sake of making a point, just for the sake of  argument. He says, "If anybody might boast in the   flesh it would be me because of my impeccable  Jewish credentials, my religious credentials."

You see, he knew what it was to be a Jew, to  be a Jew in the highest sense of the term and   yet he deliberately knowingly willingly  abandoned it all for the sake of Jesus   Christ. He counted it all as worthless.  He sold it all to gain the true treasure,   the true pearl, even Christ. Now in verses 4  to 7 he tells what was loss and in verses 8 to   11 what was gain. And in the middle is Christ.  He says this is what was loss, verses 4 to 7,   and this is what was gain in Christ. I gave up all  this stuff and this is what I gained. Next week   we'll look at verses 8 to 11 and see what was gain  in Christ, but now let's look at what was loss. Now keep this in mind. It didn't start out  as loss, it was all in his profit column.   It was all his profit, his credentials, his  Jewish achievements, privileges and rights.   But he saw Christ and he understood the gospel and  he realized it was useless. I'd like to entitle   this message, "Religious Credits That Don't  Impress God...Religious Credits That Don't   Impress God." Paul is saying...In every sense I'm  an authentic Jew, I have a consummate pedigree,   I have had it all, but I consider it worthless  when it comes to Christ because none of it  

can gain salvation. Do you understand that's his  point? He isn't saying it's of no value socially,   he's not saying it's of no value educationally,  he's not saying it's of no value historically,   he's saying it's no value salvifically...to  borrow an old theological word, it can't save you,   it can't redeem you. But if it could, I could  boast in it. And he is saying how foolish it is to   boast in your religious credits. And by the way,  listen to me carefully when I say this, most of   the people in the world believe they will attain  eternal life by accumulating religious credits.   Most of the world believes that. The only people  who don't are Christians, the rest do. They are   deceived. And that is particularly true among Jews  because there is Old Testament precedent for their   religion. And so they believe if they live by that  they are amassing in the profit column the credits   that impress God and by which He will grant  them salvation. Paul says not so, it is manure,   it is waste, it is garbage, worthless. Because  I have discovered, he says, in my encounter with   the living Christ that salvation is by grace  through faith, it has nothing to do with what  

you have received by way of heritage,  it has nothing to do with human effort,   it has nothing to do with religious duties, it  has all to do with Christ...all to do with Christ. So, here is his list of things once considered  profit, now considered loss. And they are all   his Jewish credentials. Look at verse 5  and I'm going to give you seven points,   I want you to get them very carefully,  they go by very fast...just brief. Number one, salvation is not by ritual...salvation  is not by ritual. He says the first thing that   was profit to me and I came to count as loss  was that I was circumcised the eighth day.   Now the literal Greek reads this way, "With  respect to circumcision, an eighth dayer." With   respect to circumcision I was an eighth dayer.  You say, "What does he mean by that?" Well in   Genesis 17:12, Genesis 21:4, Leviticus 12:31, God  institutes circumcision, that physical operation   as a sign of His people. And He said it is to  be done on the eighth day after a male child is   born. That was a strict Jewish rite. And what is  Paul saying? He's saying...Hey, with regard to me,  

I went by the Mosaic book, I was circumcised on  the eighth day. I went through THE basic ritual   of Judaism, the rite and ceremony by which  you are initiated into the covenant people.   And by the way, he uses that one first because  circumcision was the Judaizers big issue. So   he says, "I'm no Ishmaelite." Ishmael, you'll  remember, wasn't circumcised till after his   thirteenth year, according to Genesis 27:25.  I'm no pagan who proselytes to Judaism and in   adulthood is circumcised. I am a legitimate  Jew by birth, circumcised the eighth day,   faithful to the cardinal ritual at birth, a  true blooded Jew, nursed in the ceremonies of   my ancestral religion. I followed that basic  requirement, my parents had me circumcised. So he's saying I was born into Jewishness, I  was born into the Jewish faith. I followed the   rituals from the very beginning. I started with  the most essential rite and sacrament which they   felt was absolutely necessary for salvation.  So he said I look at that circumcision that   you see as so vital to salvation and I'm  telling you it's rubbish...it's rubbish.   Because salvation is not by ritual, it is not by  rite, it is not by ceremony, it is not by symbol,   it is not by sacraments, it is not by masses, it  is not by routines and rituals and washings and  

baptisms. I don't care whether you're talking  about Jewish symbols and Jewish sacraments and   Jewish ordinances and rituals and ceremonies or  whether you're talking about Roman Catholic ones,   Roman Catholic rites and rituals, or whether  you're talking about Protestant baptism or   Protestant sacraments or the Lord's table or  some other ritual, or whether you're talking   about lighting candles or praying through  beads or praying certain formula prayers,   ceremonies, rites and rituals don't bring  salvation. That's what he's saying. So I   considered that truest Jewish rite of  all rites, circumcision, as manure. As   far as salvation is concerned it's useless. It's  waste, it's garbage, throw it out, it can't help. Secondly, he says salvation is not by race either.  If anybody had a right to boast I might because   not only was I circumcised the eighth day, but  I am of the nation of Israel. The implication   here is that some of the Judaizers probably were  Gentiles converted later. They were circumcised   later in life and they weren't really of the  nation Israel. They were proselytes. But Paul   is saying, "I'm of the people of Israel."  And you know as well as I do that the Old   Testament is filled with the teaching that the  children of Israel were the covenant people,   they were God's chosen people, it was on them  that He set His love. According to Romans chapter  

9 verses 3 through 5 they are greatly blessed.  It says they are the Israelites to whom belong   the adoption as sons and the glory and the  covenants and the giving of the law and the   temple service and the promises whose are the  fathers and from whom is the Christ. They had   all the privileges. "Israel only have I known,"  Amos 3:2. They were God's chosen beloved people,   He loved them sovereignly. And so he says I'm  an Israelite, I am of the nation of Israel. Could all the Judaizers claim such religious  heritage? Do they possess by race the rights   of God's chosen people? Paul did. And  Paul understood the meaning of that. Let me help you with that. All true Jews  came from Abraham through Isaac through   Jacob because Jacob wrestled with an angel  in Genesis 32 and after that wrestling,   you remember, his struggle with God, his  name was changed to...what?...to Israel.

So that's where the children of Israel come  from...Abraham through Isaac through Jacob   who was Israel. There are other people who can  trace their heritage back to Abraham because   Abraham had another son by the name of Ishmael.  He was an illegitimate son born of the handmaid   Hagar. He fathered the Arab people. There are some  people who can say I am a child of Abraham but   the Ishmaelites are not the children of Israel,  they are the children of Abraham through Hagar.   There are some people who can say I am through  Abraham and Isaac because Isaac had two sons,   Jacob and Esau. And Esau produced the Edomites,  more Arabic people. And there are people who can   say I am of Esau, so I come through Abraham and  Isaac. But only those who come through Abraham,   Isaac and Jacob are Israelites. So Paul is  saying I am pure in terms of my Jewish heritage,   pure descent from God's chosen people. That's a  credential. And I'll tell you right now the Jews   believed that if they were circumcised the eighth  day and if they were of the pure line coming out   of the loins of Jacob and coming through the  twelve tribes that were the children of Jacob,   they were therefore the chosen people of God who  were the saved, the redeemed, the inheriters of  

eternal glory. Paul says...the fact of the matter  is, that's useless, that is absolutely useless. No religious virtue is gained by birth.  Understand that? There are people today who   want to affirm household salvation. They twist the  Philippian jailer's story that he was saved and   his whole household and they assumed that when a  family...when parents are saved that the children   born of those parents are in covenant relationship  to God. And that's why they engage in infant   baptism which is a form of covenant identity.  Infant baptism is how you identify a child as   having been born into covenant identity, household  salvation by virtue of parents. Not so...not so.   Your religious family grants you no standing with  God. The fact that you were born into a Christian   nation grants you no standing with God. The fact  that you were born into a Christian family grants   you no standing with God, no salvation,  it's useless, it's garbage, it's rubbish.

Thirdly, salvation is not by rank. Salvation is  not by rank. He says in verse 5, "Circumcised the   eighth day of the nation of Israel of the tribe  of Benjamin." Now this is a ranking tribe. Of all   of the tribes, certainly the two most elite  were Judah and Benjamin. We talk a lot about   Judah because out of the line of Judah comes the  Messiah, but we can't forget Benjamin. Benjamin   was a very very elite tribe. Let me tell you  why. Benjamin, first of all, was the younger   of two sons born to Rachel. And you will remember  the story in Genesis chapter 30 that Rachel was   Jacob's favorite wife. And that made Benjamin  a favorite child. In fact, he was the last and   thus he was the baby of all and the baby of the  beloved wife, the tenderly beloved Benjamin.

Benjamin, furthermore, according to Genesis  35:9 to 19 was the only one of the sons of   Jacob born in the promised land. And thus he  had a very unique identity and title to that   land. Benjamin furthermore was given unique  military priority. Read Judges 5 verse 14,   Hosea 5:8 and you will find that apparently  when the troops went to battle, Benjamin was   the front line. They must have been loyal,  courageous, great soldiers. Furthermore,   when they went to find a king to what tribe  did they go? Benjamin. And they found Saul,   1 Samuel chapter 9, who was out of the tribe  of Benjamin. You remember when God divided   up the land, the promised land, He gave certain  sections of the land to the tribes. I don't know   if you remember this but the section He gave to  Benjamin included the city of Jerusalem. So the   holy city itself was in the territory of Benjamin  and thus Benjamin was a very very noble tribe,   for in their territory was the great holy city  of Jerusalem, Judges 1:21 points that out to us.

Furthermore, according to 1 Kings 12:21,  you remember after Solomon the kingdom split   because there was a revolution, and the northern  kingdom and the southern kingdom were divided and   Benjamin stayed loyal to the Davidic dynasty and  stayed with Judah in the south. And Benjamin and   Judah formed the legitimate southern kingdom,  the northern kingdom went off in rebellion   and eventually was carried away into captivity  in 722 B.C. So Benjamin was loyal to David at   the time of the kingdom being split. Benjamin  and Judah then forming the southern kingdom. A very famous man came out of the tribe of  Benjamin, the man that God used to spare the   entire nation of Israel from being massacred, that  man's name was Mordecai. And Mordecai was used by   God in the story of Esther to preserve the people  of Israel. Mordecai was of the tribe of Benjamin. So it was a noble group for a number of reasons,  it stood above the other tribes. Not perfect by   any means, and I don't want to be misunderstood,  Shimei that fool who cursed David and threw rocks   at him was a Benjamite, 2 Samuel chapter 16 and  19 record that. He did repent later on. But Shimei   was a Benjamite, certainly not someone you'd want  to claim. And maybe the worst of the activities   of the Benjamites is recorded in Judges 19 and 20  where they perpetrated a gang rape that ended up   in a victim being chopped into little pieces and  mailed around to all the tribes. A gross thing,  

it ended up actually 25,100 Benjamites were  massacred. So not all of the history of Benjamin   is worthy of, you know, copying, but they were a  noble group. They were considered a ranking tribe. What is also interesting is this, that by the time  Paul wrote Philippians most of the Jews didn't   know their tribe. Two reasons...the records were  lost in the Babylonian captivity and secondly,   intermarriage had blurred the lines, the tribal  lines. What Paul is saying is I have never been   involved and my family has never been involved in  intermarriage, we have stayed pure Benjamites. So   he is really a blue-blood. He is a Jew in  the purest truest sense who even knows his   tribe...which was not the case for all the Jews  and perhaps the Judaizers in this case, none   of them may have known their tribe, none of them  been from the tribe of Benjamin perhaps as well. So, what's he saying? I come from a ranking  tribe. I come from ranking people. I come   from privileged class. That means nothing,  that is not adequate to save me from sin,   that is not adequate to make me right with God,  that is worthless in that regard. The highest   aristocracy in Israel couldn't make me a child of  God and that's obvious even for us today. No noble   religious heritage can make you right with  God. You can even be a priest, you can even  

be a religious person, you can be a religious  leader, you can be a teacher in a religion,   you can be in a religious family, you can be  a PK or an MK, that's a preacher's kid or a   missionary's kid, you can be born into  a religious family, a ministry family,   God is not impressed. Rank has nothing to do with  salvation. And where you are in the social strata   of religiosity is immaterial to God...immaterial.  He's not impressed. Being right with God is not   gained by ritual, ceremony, rite. It is not  gained by race, it is not gained by rank. Now all three of those are received  by inheritance. Paul got all those,   he really couldn't earn them. His parents  circumcised him. His parents determined   that he was in the nation of Israel  and the tribe of Benjamin. So he says,   "This I received by inheritance." But now, he  says, here are four things I achieved by effort.   So he adds to his inherited profit his achieved  profit and then says I consider this rubbish, too.

Number four, the last four he achieved. Number  four, salvation is not by tradition...salvation   is not by tradition. He says, "A Hebrew of  Hebrews." Now there might be several ways to   understand what he means by that, I prefer to  think along with a number of commentators that   what he is saying here is, "I am a Hebrew  child of Hebrew parents." In other words,   I've maintained my tradition, I have maintained  my tradition. This is directed, by the way,   at the dispersed Jews who had been scattered all  around, including perhaps these in Philippi. And   having been scattered around they were greatly  impacted by Greek culture. Many of them lost the   Hebrew language and when they lost the language  they lost the culture, they lost their tradition.   You have a lot of Jews today who are trying to  get their tradition back but they'll never really   get it back without the language. But they in  those days had the same problem. They had become   Hellenized from the Greek word hellen which means  Gentile. They had become victims of Greek culture,   so they lost their language, they lost  their tradition. He is saying...Not me,   I had Hebrew parents, I'm a Hebrew child. I am a  Hebrew of the Hebrews, I maintained my tradition.

He was raised in a pagan city. He was  raised in Greek culture in Tarsus,   in Cilicia which is near Galatia on the  northeastern part of the Mediterranean Sea,   not in the land of Israel. He was raised  in Gentile territory under Greek culture   and Roman rule. But he says, you know his  testimony, "I was faithful and personally   committed to the tradition of Judaism and  the language of my parents." You remember   according to Acts 22:3 he left his country  and he went to Jerusalem to study under   Gamaliel who was the chief teacher among the  Jews. According to Acts 21:40 he could speak   Hebrew fluently. He was a Jew. He was a Hebrew  son of Hebrew parents. He followed the language,   he followed the traditions, he followed the  customs, he never deviated. According to Acts 26,   listen to this in verses 4 and 5, he says, "All  Jews know my manner of life from my youth up,   which from the beginning was spent among my  own nation and at Jerusalem since they have   known about me for a long time previously, if  they are willing to testify that I lived as a   Pharisee according to the strictest sect of  our religion." He was an unwavering Hebrew.   And everybody knows it, he says. All the Jews know  it. He was a well-known young man because he had   eminent gifts. He was known widely even as a young  Jew. And everyone knew his devotion to tradition.

You know what God said? I'm not impressed. I'm  not impressed. No manner of loyalty to your   traditional religion can save you. No amount of  loyalty to your ancestral worship can save you.   This is worthless. This is rubbish, manure,  garbage, get rid of it. There's no treasure   there. There's no pearl there. Just because  you're loyal to your parents Catholicism or your   parents Judaism or your traditional Protestant  background, you're a Lutheran because your   parents are Lutheran, or you're a Presbyterian  because your family has always been that way,   or you're Baptist because everybody's been  Baptists, that kind of loyalty to a tradition   is worthless as far as a means of salvation. It's  worthless. Salvation doesn't come in those terms. Number five, salvation is not by religion. Not  only not by tradition but by religion, but on   a religious level Paul had really achieved, look  at verse 5, "As to the law, a Pharisee." I just   read out of 26:5 of Acts where he said he lived  his life according to the Pharisaic law and here   he says the same thing. He says, "When it comes  to the law, I was a Pharisee." In other words,   when it comes to my view of God's Word, I took the  Pharisaic perspective. What does that mean? That   is the highest level of religious achievement  in Judaism. You can't get any higher than   being a Pharisee. The Pharisee was the religious  radical fundamentalist, that was the Pharisee, the  

narrow-minded legalistic literalist fundamentalist  who interpreted the Word of God specifically,   directly to life. You know where they came from?  They came out of the intertestamental period   between the end of the Old and the beginning  of the New, there was 400 years in there when   there was no writing going on. And during that  time the Jews began to drift into liberalism,   they began to question the authority of Scripture,  they began to compromise and at that time came   this group called Pharisees which comes to  mean separatists. And they were affirming that   there must be an adherence to Scripture, that  there must be an adherence to the Word of God,   that there could be no deviation so they felt  they had to guard the Scripture, they had to   study the Scripture, they had to interpret the  Scripture, they had to proclaim the Scripture,   they had to apply the Scripture, they had  to castigate people who didn't apply it,   that was the Pharisees. They started out with  a noble cause, they started out as noble men.   Obviously over a period of time they degenerated  and the point of their degeneration was when they   came to believe that their strict adherence to the  law was what saved them. That was the fatal flaw.

They were a very elite group. During the time  of Christ the best estimate is that there were   no more than 6,000 of them, that's all. No  more than 6,000. Because it was such a strict   demanding circumscribed legalistic life style  that very few people desired to live according   to that standard. Paul says, "My view of the  law, a Pharisee, that means I know the law,   I can interpret the law, I have guarded the law,  and I have lived by its strictest interpretation. Not all of the Pharisees were snakes and vipers  and fools and hypocrites and blind leaders and   robbers and envious, jealous, proud fakers.  Some of them were serious minded. They were   trying their best to achieve status with God  through religion. So this little small group   of elite people included in their number Paul.  And not only Paul, but apparently he says not   only was I a Pharisee but I come from a line of  Pharisees. We don't know whether he's talking   about other Pharisees in the line of Pharisees or  the fact that his father may have been a Pharisee   as well. But you read it in Acts 22:3, Acts  23:6, Acts 26:5, Galatians 1:14, he often refers   to his Pharisaic background. So he said I took  religion to the highest level, very religious.

Do you ever look around the world and see  people like this? Very religious...up to   their ears in religion, you see them all over  the world. I've seen them all over the world,   wearing robes and doing all of their  religious activities, many of them   functioning as priests, sacrificing,  taking on themselves unbearable burdens,   living in poverty and loneliness.  Many of them in pain and deprivation,   functioning to fulfill a religious pattern that  they believe will please God. The bottom line,   He's not impressed. He's not impressed with  any of it...whether it's Judaistic religion,   whether it's Buddhistic religion, whether  it's Islam, whether it's Roman Catholicism,   whether it's Protestantism, the religious form  does not impress God. And religious devotion can't   save you. Paul says I considered my Pharisaic  devotion to the law of God as rubbish...rubbish.

Number six, salvation is not by  sincerity...salvation is not by sincerity.   In verse 6 he says, "As to zeal, boy, if anybody  should have confidence I should, because as to   zeal, I was a persecutor of the church." I was a  persecutor of the church. How zealous were you,   Paul? So zealous I killed Christians. That's  pretty zealous. That's pretty zealous. By the way,   to the Jew zeal, zelos, zeal was...mark it...the  single highest virtue of religion. Did you get   that? What is zeal? It's two sides of a coin,  okay? Zeal is the coin. One side is love,   the other side is hate. What do I mean? Zeal  says I love God so much I hate whatever offends   Him...that's zeal. I love God so much I  hate whatever offends Him. Paul loved God,   he loved the law of God, he loved the community  of God, that's the Jewish people, he loved all   that God had revealed to such a degree that he  hated anything he thought offended God and he   thought Christians offended God. Why did he kill  Christians? Because of zeal. He loved Judaism so   much that he hated anything that threatened it  and Christianity threatened it. So he persecuted   Christians. To what degree? Read the book of Acts.  He breathed out threatening and slaughter on them.   He created havoc in the church. He killed  Christians. He pursued them. He chased them. He  

wanted to take their life. Hey, he's one up on the  Judaizers. All the Judaizers did was proselyte. He   persecuted. You think you've got zeal? I've  got more. I went after them to kill them. In fact, he says, "I am the least of the  Apostles," 1 Corinthians 15:9, "I am the   least of all Apostles." Why? "Because I persecuted  the church, I'm not even worthy to be named as an   Apostle. I persecuted the church." Why did you  do it, Paul? "Zeal for God, I loved Judaism so   much I hated Christianity because it threatened  it. That's zeal." You know what? He was sincere,   wasn't he? I hear people say, "Well, it  doesn't really matter what religion you are,   as long as you're sincere." It's like saying  it doesn't matter what poison you drink as   long as you're sincere, you'll be all right.  Mental attitude has nothing to do with it,   it's a matter of truth. Paul was sincere,  he was zealous for God. He was so zealous   for Judaism that there was nothing he wouldn't  do and relentlessly unsparingly untiringly and   mercilessly he tried to stamp out Christianity  because of his zeal for God...very sincere.

The world is filled with the religiously sincere,  people very sincere in their religion, make great   effort, personal sacrifice, high cost, pay the  price...wanting to please God. Very sincere. Go   to church, some people, every day...every day,  many Catholics go every day. People in religions   pray certain prayers every day. Protestants go to  church every day...every week, I should say, on   the Lord's day...fulfilling a function. Very  sincere in their heart, wanting to do what is   right. God is not impressed. God is not impressed.  Salvation is not by ritual. Salvation is not by   race. Salvation is not by rank. Salvation is not  by maintaining tradition. Salvation does not come   through religion and salvation does not come  by sincerity. You can have a lot of zeal and be   absolutely wrong, and Paul says, "I thought it was  right, I considered it garbage when I met Christ." Lastly, salvation is not by  law-righteousness...salvation   is not by law-righteousness. Or you  could say righteous works. Verse 6,   "As to the righteousness which is in the  law...what was my approach?...I was found   blameless." What does that mean? Found has the  idea of those who watched his life couldn't find   anything to hold against him as a transgression.  Outwardly the man lived according to the law.

Now he's not saying I was sinless. He's not  advocating sinless perfection. He's not saying,   "Before I was saved I was sinlessly perfect,"  otherwise he wouldn't have needed to be saved.   And by the way, read Romans 7:5 to 11, when he's  giving his preconversion definition of himself,   he says, "I was fighting sin on the inside and  when I came across the law of God, sin was in   me revived and I died, boy, I was in a battle with  sin." He's never denying sin in him. That would be   denial of Jewish theology, that would be a denial  of his personal testimony in Romans 7:5 though 11   where he says as an unbeliever he was battling sin  that was in him. But what he is saying is this,   that in general with regard to the righteousness  which is advocated by God's law or the standard   of righteous living advocated by the law  of God, no one could find me blameable. I   lived a blameless life. By human judgment  I was a model Jew and lived by God's law.

Boy, this is some testimony. Listen, if you could  be saved by works, he would have been saved,   right? What a list. This guy's got the profit  column filled. And he says..."Look, I was fine,   I had filled up my profit column with all the  things that earned my salvation until I met Christ   and I found out that the righteousness of my own  wasn't adequate but there was a righteousness in   Christ by grace given to me by faith received and  that was the pearl of great price and that was the   true treasure and so I counted all this other  stuff as manure and I came to Christ." Verse 7,   "Whatever things were gain to me, all the  stuff of verses 5 and 6, those things I have   counted as loss, they aren't a plus, they aren't  a positive, they are a negative." Why? They damn   you. They send you to hell under deception, under  an illusion. And so I saw them for what they were,   they were detractors, they were loss not gain for  the sake of Christ. "And I count all things to be   loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing  Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered   the loss of all things and count them but rubbish  in order that I might gain Christ." That's it.

Could I give you a final contrast? Two men, two  men came to the same crossroads. Paul was one,   the other that I would like you to think  about is a rich young ruler in Matthew 19.   Jesus came to a rich young ruler and He said  to him, "You must obey the law." He said,   "Which part of the law?" Jesus gave him some  commandments, he said, "All those things have   I kept." In other words, I've been blameless,  as to the righteousness which is in the law,   I've been found blameless. Here was a man who  had his profit column all filled up. He too   was likely a Jew. He too perhaps faithful  to the tradition. Certainly he was a young   ruler which means he was probably a ruler in the  synagogue which mean that he was a very honored,   ranking, traditional, faithful Jew or he wouldn't  have ascended to that level. He was extremely   religious and he was very sincere or he never  would have come to Jesus and asked how to get   eternal life. So you had a sincere, religious,  traditional, loyal Jew called the rich young   ruler in Matthew 19. And he comes to Jesus  and Jesus asks him about his life and he   says I've always kept the law, just like Paul.  And then Jesus shows him a better way. He says,   "Give up everything you have and follow  Me." And the young man said no, walked away.

Paul said just the opposite. Paul said I've got  all these credentials, man, I've got race, rank,   ritual, I've got tradition, religion, sincerity,  works-righteousness, I've got my profit column   filled up. Jesus said, "Drop it all and  follow Me." Paul said yes. And he counted   it all but loss to gain Christ. The rich young  ruler counted it all gain and forsook Christ.   Every person in the world is in one of those  two categories. When you meet Christ you either   drop all the stuff that you've been counting  on for your salvation and take Christ alone,   or you hold to all the stuff you've been  holding on to for your salvation and turn   your back on Christ. Those two categories,  you're in one of them, everyone is. That's it. So, whose child are you? The child of  Paul? Or the child of the rich young   ruler? What are you counting on, who are you  counting on for your salvation? You're either   trusting yourself and your achievements, or  Christ. And when you come to trust Christ,   all the achievements become  rubbish. That's the exchange.

Father, we thank You, this morning,  for Your Word. Such a clear cut text,   such a great testimony from this marvelous  man as You moved in his life. Father,   thank You that You have given us the same  opportunity, You have shown us again this   morning the rubbish that most people count  valuable and they are accumulating manure,   waste that will buy them nothing when they  could drop it all and turn to Christ and receive   everything. Father, I pray for the salvation of  many who will sell all they have to buy the pearl,   the treasure, salvation in Christ by grace  through faith in His perfect work on the cross.   Thank You for the gift of salvation which we  can receive as You offer it to us, to that end   we pray that many may receive it this day that  it might be to Your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

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