Philippians

[0:00] The Lord may help me this evening. I will direct your attention to the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, 3rd chapter, 3rd verse.

[0:14] The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, chapter 3, verse 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

[0:38] For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

[0:56] There were two remarkable characters in the church at Philippi.

[1:10] They were remarkable because their calling was quite different and yet equally real.

[1:24] One, as you will recall, was the Philippian jailer and the other was Lydia. But this is but to name two of those precious souls that were gathered together in the church at Philippi and to whom may be, Paul was making reference when he said, For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit.

[2:04] The word circumcision here is not to be confused with the sign that God had given to Abraham in connection with his seed.

[2:28] The word here has reference to the circumcision of the heart. That is, God having done that to the heart which has taken the veil away from it, which has enabled the heart to see and to believe.

[3:03] The person is delivered from worshipping in the letter and changed to worship God in the Spirit.

[3:18] The Word of God says this, The letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive.

[3:30] One evidence of our being among the circumcision will be our desire for live worship as distinct from dead worship.

[3:51] A thought came into my mind earlier this evening which is familiarly heard amongst some sects and denominations.

[4:14] It is an act of worship I never realised at all how apt the expression was an act of worship in how many cases that's just what it is only an act nothing more than a pretense.

[4:52] It will be good therefore for us this evening if our desire is that our worship may not be an act but it may be real and that it may have the inspiration of the Spirit in it.

[5:19] But this can only be applicable to those that are circumcised in heart. We have to turn over the pages to Deuteronomy to see even in those days there was an acknowledged necessity for the heart to be wrought upon.

[5:55] In the 30th chapter we read And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live.

[6:17] we have therefore a distinct outcome of what circumcision of the heart means.

[6:34] Can we have it and not be aware of it since the change is radical because it brings about this to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live.

[7:06] Not everybody that is engaged in worship that is in the act of it has love to the Lord Jesus Christ but it will be good if we can make a simple testimony that we are numbered amongst those that are circumcised in heart those from whom the veil has been taken away so that we no longer seek to be justified by the works of the law but seek for justification and salvation in Jesus alone.

[8:03] what a blessed experience it is for Paul to be able to write this letter to the church at Philippi with such confidence in his spirit for we are the circumcision future in other words we are those upon whom the Lord God has done something has given to us a heart that feels a heart that is touched a heart that is able to love a heart that trembles that rejoices with trembling a heart which longs after the

[9:08] Lord Jesus Christ must we not say that it wasn't always so and if we can say this evening though perhaps with trembling lips it is so now I love the Lord with mind and heart his people and his ways envy and lust and pride depart and all his works I praise then we shall have something to praise God for for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit well now

[10:09] God is a spirit and when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to one of those women that came to him it was a woman at the well I believe and the question of worship is brought into the conversation our fathers worship she said in this mountain and Jesus said that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Jesus said unto her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers is it not established therefore that the

[11:25] Lord himself makes this distinction it is necessary for him to say true worshippers evidently he was well aware that there were false worshippers but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh us to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth and that which the Lord Jesus so clearly taught because Paul was of the circumcision could speak about the same thing and cannot some of us at least speak about the same thing which worship God in the spirit this must necessarily be then individual worshipping of God because the spirit is within it is carried about within our body the activity of the spirit is not always seen sometimes the fruit of the Holy Ghost upon the spirit of the newborn person are declared and by that we know that such and such possesses the spirit of Christ but when we come to worship we which worship God in the spirit how personal that is it is a lifting up of the heart to God we cannot lift up another's heart to God why cannot we do that because if we worship God in the spirit we are the recipients of the Holy Ghost and his activity

[14:16] I believe that which is written holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and so he was moved to perform those great exploits and if we are of the circumcision I believe we shall prove this that it's when the Holy Ghost moves comes upon our spirits the newborn spirit that we truly worship and we worship the Father which worship God in the spirit in the spirit in the spirit in the spirit you see the Lord uses a very similar expression when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him the Godhead is a deep mystery and it always will be but it is a mystery which faith believes and it is a mystery which faith feels have you ever felt favoured that you truly believed in God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost so that you drew near to God and as you drew near to God to worship so there was a feeling in your soul that there were three persons in front of you as it were three persons before whom you bowed your head bent your knee and that was God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost which worship God in the spirit this is true worship and it will be true worship when we can see that the three persons in the Godhead were all concerned in the salvation of our souls the Father loved us chose us sent his Son to die for us as we draw near to worship have we ever been favoured with the view of faith so that we've worshipped the Father and then at the same time as the Spirit of the Lord has led our thoughts on we have worshipped the Son for that everlasting love which caused him to lay down his life he might take it again but nonetheless in laying down his life redemption was in it atonement was in it salvation was in it and as our thoughts were let on still in these moments of worship did we not also see so clearly the blessed and eternal

[18:31] Spirit and observed his not only observed but felt his everlasting love manifested in the regeneration of our souls giving us that capacity to love God giving us that capacity to rejoice in God giving us that capacity to enter into such a verse as this and so in our worship we have set before us the great and glorious Godhead three persons in one God which worship God in the Spirit they were not presented to our faith as persons that is as persons in the flesh but they were equally real blessed worship is that which has substance in it worship cannot be engaged in without faith because who so cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him which worship

[20:18] God in the Spirit and this is holy worship because it proceeds from the new man of grace which cannot sin it is delivered from all this of the flesh we may think it is impossible for us to separate the flesh from the spirit may we remember this part of God's word the things which are impossible with men are possible with God and God is able in his appointed moments to separate the spirit from the flesh so that we enjoy true worship then it is no act and rejoice in

[21:41] Christ Jesus now there is a distinction to be made here if we recall what the Lord Jesus said concerning eternal life 17th of John 3rd verse and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent why is a distinction made between God and Jesus Christ it is necessary in all true worship we are to approach unto God we must do so through a mediator and that mediator is the

[22:43] God man Christ Jesus frail creatures sinful creatures as we are could not possibly draw near to the most high since our God is a consuming fire were it not for this blessed and wonderful provision which God has made Jesus Christ Jesus is the way to God a new and living way the words of Joseph Hart are surely very precious when he says and lest we should mistake the way he lined it out with blood now associated with true worship is a rejoicing in

[23:52] Christ Jesus it will be worship when there is a savour of Christ whatever pretensions we make or may make to worship unless there is a savour of Christ then we are deluded now Psalm Solomon tells us that his name is as ointment poured forth now ointments give a very sweet savour and there is a blessedness in the name of

[24:54] Jesus Christ when his name is as ointment poured forth it is that scented environment which will play upon our spiritual senses and cause us to rejoice in Christ Jesus may we ask what do you give Christ it is such an important question and our thoughts will be very different the thoughts of those uncircumcised of those circumcised will be in diametric opposition so how blessed will our case be if

[26:05] Jesus Christ has been made precious to our souls I felt that when I knew the opening hymn that the text was right because the opening hymn savoured so much of Christ and I did hope that my poverty would not mar a similar savour permeating the rest of our worship this evening and rejoice in Christ Jesus now we shall rejoice in Christ Jesus right from his birth to his death to his resurrection to his ascension and we shall rejoice in Christ

[27:23] Jesus in the gracious and blessed anticipation of one day being where Jesus is have we ever felt your sweetness in anticipating the day when we shall leave this earth and fly away to mansions love all day we have hearts which are we have minds which are carnal minds and because of this there's the cleaving to the things of time and we like to pay much attention to our own comfort but what will the circumcision of the heart do for a person what did it do for the apostle

[28:30] Paul because what it did for him it will do for every one of the children of God in God's appointed time but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ so he thought a lot of Jesus Christ in order to follow Christ the word of God declares that we must take up our cross daily and follow him we may well observe that word daily it's not just now and again that God gives us a daily cross and this will have the effect of keeping us as it were in balance preserving us from excesses or extremities oh the cross if we were able to describe our cross and perhaps we may not be able but if we were able it may be that our process would be very different but they would all have the same effect and the effect would be this that God alone could support us under them who shall deliver me from the body of this death in the 84th psalm we find the exercises of a godly man but at the end of it he says this the

[30:52] Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly it may seem strange to think that God giving a person a cross to bear will be the means of his walking uprightly indeed the proverb saying heaviness in the heart make it a man stoop though we may stoop outwardly yet our hearts may be very upright and how can we walk uprightly what is it to walk uprightly well I believe a good part of it is found in these words of our text rejoice in

[31:57] Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh the cross is given that the works of the flesh might be destroyed whatever our cross may be shall we say in things providential in affections of body in weaknesses of one way and another yet there is a daily cross which every one of God's people has to bear and that is the cross of myself how it has prevented us sometimes when our very spirit has longed to worship

[33:04] God but myself and its pride and its enmity and its rebellion and its envy and all the wickedness that is bound up in it oh what a trust this has been when it has seemed so powerful as to appear to prevent us from worshipping when we weren't because of this the apostle says the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do or many that are actors in worship don't understand Paul at all in this but we should understand Paul if we can associate with the words here for we are the circumcision which worship

[34:10] God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh it's a hard thing to have no confidence in the flesh because our flesh will plead so hard for it have you no confidence in yourself what a remarkable person you must be we may make this distinction though that there is a right confidence that God gives to do the things which we have to do in life but this is very different from a self conceited confidence if we had no confidence at all then we should not be able to engage in our everyday duties but the confidence here or rather no confidence is that which is seen when God reveals the weakness of the flesh the weakness of the acts of the flesh the weakness of the flesh attempting to keep the law of God and to impress

[35:53] God rejoice in Christ Jesus but these sad knowledge this sad knowledge which God brings to us that we've got no help in self but the hymn writer says though oft I've sorted well the hidden treasures of my mind of sin and death and hell all these are so many preparatory workings of God in order to make us rejoice in Christ Jesus now what is Jesus Christ to us is he God's anointed do we see in him that glorious person that came down from heaven to die for our sins thou shalt call his name

[37:08] Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins that means from the sins of your flesh from the enmity of your mind from the baseness of your spirit and of your thinking from the evil which is within he shall save his people from their sins sins and that means all their sins it means if you care to use the expression the small sins as well as the large sins the sins which are seen but also the sins which are unseen by others the sins which bring you into great distress the sins which heap guilt upon your conscience and guilt is something personally known we may look at the person's face sometimes and say well he looks guilty it's very different thing to feel guilty there's this searching word from

[38:36] Moses be sure your sin will find you out for there is nothing hid that shall not be made manifest I sometimes have greatly trembled when I thought about my sins being found out some of them because if they were found out and brought to light I know it would mean this it would mean a disgrace upon my family it would mean a disgrace upon the church of God it would mean a disgrace every way and there have been times when God has found out my sin rejoice in

[39:37] Christ Jesus you see the Lord God is compassionate and it is not his purpose to make you a gazing stock it's not his purpose to hold you up before all and say look what a wicked and wicked sinner this person is but it is his purpose to cause that person to confess the same to God and then to say can there tell me can there be in thy presence room for me and let us now remember what the gospel of Jesus Christ declares to us I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy sins and as a cloud thine iniquities and I will remember them no more forever the sin that has been found out the sin that has been brought to your light now

[41:01] God says I have put it away the Lord Jesus says I have died I've laid down my life I have atoned for that sin for every sin that means that we are clean one thus blessed says I'm blessed I'm blessed forever blessed my sin is gone and I am dressed in raven white snow and then another says I'll tell the father in that day and there shall witness what I say I'm clean just God I'm clean rejoice in Christ

[42:01] Jesus when the spirit of God takes of these things of Jesus and reveals them unto you then you will rejoice and this rejoicing will be with trembling and therefore you will be preserved from presuming and this rejoicing will be in love love to him as the apostle says who loved me and gave himself for me rejoice in Christ Jesus well it is wonderful to behold him on the cross enduring the agonies of his soul as well as the pains of his body

[43:09] I think it is in the hymn we have just done faith sees him laid in the tomb and does that cause us to rejoice in Christ Jesus you know there's a day coming when each one of us here is going to be laid in the grave and the grave very often looks very cold and uninviting place but shall we approach it as seeing Jesus laid in the tomb and leaving there a sweet perfume if we die in the

[44:09] Lord then we shall be laid as it were in the same blessed tomb we shall not be there alone as it were it is a blessed expression asleep in Jesus but then Jesus rose from the tomb and this is very important to faith though we may rejoice in the fact that the Lord Jesus died upon Calvary and was laid in the tomb yet it is so important that he rose again you see when the disciples were on the way to

[45:09] Emmaus they weren't very happy at first they were very distressed and the Lord Jesus saw them afar off have you ever thought about that sometimes when you have been distressed Jesus himself drew near but he was afar off he drew near and not only so but he went with them and he went with them in their sorrows a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief what a suitable person to go with them what a suitable person to go with you sometimes when you have been in deep sorrow Jesus himself drew near and went with them and then he asked some purposeful questions such questions that would draw out the inner feelings of their soul and if he has drawn near to you sometimes and gone with you perhaps he has asked you some questions which had a definite purpose in them which would draw out from the depth of your soul the reason of your sorrow we thought that this was he that would save

[46:48] Israel oh how how their faith staggered and yet there was this lingering upon their mind and today is the third day since these things were done and then this man of sorrows and acquainted with grief which drew near and went with them he said to them oh fools and slow of hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into his glory beginning of Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself and subsequently he was known unto them in breaking of bread then he vanished out of their sight and then they discussed the matter talked about the matter between themselves and this is what they said did not our heart burn with us while he talked with us and while he opened to us the scriptures they rejoiced in

[48:26] Christ Jesus and had no confidence in the flesh and they didn't want to have any confidence in the flesh their sorrows were healed and they were healed by the Lord Jesus Christ joining himself to them and going with them associating himself with their sorrows lending a sympathetic heart and a sympathetic ear and then graciously drawing out that which would attract their faith causing them to rejoice in Christ Jesus and in this rejoicing oh how love would come forth do not I love thee dearest Lord could then well be said behold my heart and seed and tear each idol down which dare survival thee rejoice in

[49:43] Christ Jesus now just notice that the effect of a circumcised heart is an ability or rather a capacity to love God with heart and mind and God brings his children sometimes into this favoured experience has your heart gone out sometimes to God to the Lord Jesus Christ have you told him and blessed him for the blessings and the favours that he has bestowed upon you going back to one of those psalms we read this the

[50:44] Lord hath been mindful of us he will bless us he will bless the house of Aaron he will bless those that fear the Lord both small and great if we rejoice in Christ Jesus we shall say the Lord has been mindful of us and it will give us confidence not presumption but humble confidence to look forward and say he will bless us he will bless the house of Israel and so on for we are of the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh oh my favoured lot is the lot of these people oh happy people in that concluding word in the 33rd chapter of

[51:59] Deuteronomy we read these words happy happy art thou oh Israel who is like unto thee oh people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places oh may we be found a living stone in Salem's court above and if we are it will be because we are the subject of the spirit operation and the rejoicing in

[53:12] Christ Jesus which is spoken of in the words that we have meditated upon this evening that I have kind of an church komen sixthrés so