Philippians 3:1-11

Okay, somebody tell me how you know you are going to go to Heaven when you die. How do you know for sure?  Or do you? If you don’t know for sure, then we will change that before you leave here today if you want. But first, somebody tell me why you deserve to go to Heaven. Anybody?

I’ll tell you why I know I am going to Heaven. It is this right here. My family calls it the Mayflower Document. My cousin documented back fourteen generations and proved that my family on my mother’s side is descended from two families that came to America on the Mayflower. I don’t want to brag but it’s kind of a big deal. Not many people can prove their ancestors came over on the Mayflower but here I have proof that I come from two different families.

Not only that, the oldest relative was William Brewster who was responsible for their spiritual training and was the preacher for their worship services. That is absolutely the truth. I promise. Now, that ought to be enough to get ya into Heaven right there, right? But wait! There’s more!  Four generations later, my great, great, great, etc. grandmother married Hancock Lee of Virginia and their descendent was the illustrious Confederate General Robert E. Lee. So, now you know I’m going to Heaven, right? Now, almost all of my family is mentioned to have gone to church. That has always been important since the very first, even though some of them were Presbyterians, which may or may not get you into Heaven but let me skip down to my grandfather, from generation number twelve. Harvey W. Graham was a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Baptist churches all over Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia for over 50 years.

Then my father, Richard B. Blair, was a pastor for about the same length of time all over Texas and now I am a pastor and have been for nearly ten years. So…that proves that I am going to Heaven, right? That’s how I know. I mean, what else could God want? I have a very spiritual bloodline. And except for great grandpa Eustice who was indicted for swearing in a county court, they all lived very moral lives. And if that wasn’t enough, I’m pretty sure that at this point in my life, my good deeds now outweigh my bad deeds. I’m getting closer, at least. Surely that’s plenty to get me into Heaven! Do you want to hear about some of all my good deeds? No? Why not? What do you mean that’s not how it works? If I were God, that’s how it would work! But aren’t you glad I’m not God???

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to work your way into Heaven or be dependent on your family history to get you there? In fact, not only is this Mayflower Document not helpful to get me to Heaven, it could actually be a hindrance if I put any stock in it at all to do that. In that case, it’s less than helpful. It’s actually harmful and it’s the same with anything we try to do on our own except to have faith in Jesus.

As we go through the beautiful little book of Philippians, we come to chapter three and we see that Paul has his own Mayflower Document and it puts mine to shame. He will tell us about it but he will also tell us what we need to do to go deeper in our relationship with the Lord. Let’s read it in Philippians 3:1-11.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

I love how Paul starts off here with the word “finally.” Like a good preacher, he says finally as in “Finally, I’m halfway through.” It’s like a preacher saying, “Let me close with this…”and he goes on for thirty more minutes. No, actually Paul is saying “furthermore” or “also” but he’s shifting gears here just a little bit in his letter but he wants to make sure that you remember that in all of this, “rejoice in the Lord!” No matter what happens, whatever is said and done, we will always have joy.

Now, how many of you were a little bit insulted when Paul said to watch out for those dogs and compared evil men to dogs? Us dog lovers don’t like it when people talk like that, right? But in those days it was a good insult to people to call them dogs. And all through here Paul is comparing people who have wrong ideas about how to get to Heaven with what he and we now know to be truth. Just know that Paul could get away with it. If you are trying to witness to somebody today, calling them a dog is probably not going to help your case.

I said earlier that if I were God, getting to Heaven would be a matter of good deeds outweighing your bad deeds, right? Doesn’t that just make sense? You have to earn things in this world. There’s no free lunch. You have to work and try and work harder and try harder and maybe, if you are a really good person, then you get to go to Heaven. That seems right to me and it has always seemed right to people just like it did for those people Paul is calling dogs and evil men. They just were living out what makes sense and what seemed right. But Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that seems right to a man and in the end leads to death. And it’s talking about eternal death in Hell separated from God and everybody else. Paul calls it having confidence in the flesh. Do you see that in verse 4? Confidence in the flesh is thinking that you can do or be or have anything of your own making or in your own ability any way to get to Heaven and be right with God.

In the world that most of us live in, not many people put much stock in being a Pharisee or Hebrew or any of the other things that Paul had a claim on but there are a lot of people today that think that because they are a good person, they are going to Heaven. Some people think you have to go to church or give your money to the church or be baptized in the church. Or maybe their mother was a Sunday School teacher and their daddy was a preacher, so they are automatically headed to glory. None of that is true.

I have a good friend who is another denomination who has people in his church that believe that when you die, Jesus is going to ask if you had musical instruments in your worship and if so, adios right to Hell baby. I will call those people misguided. Paul called them evil-doers and dogs and would say that their religion is rubbish as he says in verse 8 about his own good deeds.

Let’s make sure that we are all on the same page here and after we do, I want us to see how Paul says we should live. But first, how do we get to Heaven? Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9not by works, so that no one can boast.” We are saved and go to Heaven as a gift of God. In John 14:6, “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” We are saved by God’s grace and through faith in Jesus and when we are He will change us.  Now, all that stuff I mentioned earlier: the church attendance and baptism and giving and doing good things; those are all commanded for us to do. Those are all things that Christians do but they don’t make you a Christian. People that are going to Heaven do those things but just doing those things won’t get you to Heaven. Make sense?

Now, I want to show you another word here that Paul uses. We talk a lot about going to Heaven and being saved and that is right and good but look at the word that Paul uses in verse 9. He says all that other stuff – the heritage, the good works, the outward obedience – is all rubbish compared to “a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” Paul uses the word “righteousness” here. What does it mean to be righteous? It simply means to be right with God. Our sin – anything that displeases God – makes us automatically unrighteous. We are not right with God. We are out of His favor and doomed to Hell. One sin gets you there, big boy. I have to tell you.

But we become righteous when we put all our faith and trust and hope and belief in Jesus. Then Jesus takes our sin and gives us the ability to be right with God. It’s a crazy good deal. We get to be righteous based on what Jesus did, not on what we have done. Now we are getting to the good stuff here. From verses 1-9 we see how not to do it and we see how we should do it but in verse 10 we start to see what to do now. Now that we are right with God, how should we act? What should we do?

Well, let me ask you a question. And you are going to think this is a weird question but here me out. What’s the purpose of marriage? Is the purpose of marriage to get to file differently on your income tax and get a financial break? I hope that’s not your plan. Is the purpose of marriage to have somebody to help you make the bed in the morning? That’s nice but it’s not the reason people get married or it shouldn’t be. There are some good reasons to get married and there are plenty of bad ones but if you really love someone, you marry them to know them better. You marry that person so you can love them more and know them more and know them better and more intimately. You want to spend your time with them and grow old with them and you want that more and more as you know them better.

Paul is madly in love with Jesus – as we should all be – and he just wants to know Jesus better. See, so many of us get caught up in just getting to Heaven. That’s the goal and when we hit that goal then we are done. I got my fire insurance. I’ll put in a little time in church and Bible study and I’ll pray when I need something but let’s not get carried away, right?

No! Paul is saying he has gotten way carried away! And he wants to go further because he knows that is where the blessings are. His love for Jesus started the ball rolling but then it became obvious that the closer he got to Jesus, the better his life became WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES!  More Jesus, more love, more Jesus, more peace, more Jesus, more joy, more blessings in this life and more treasures in Heaven. This life is a wisp of smoke. Eternity is forever and ever and ever. Paul wanted to know Jesus so bad he even wanted to understand the suffering of Jesus.

You know, there is a lot to be learned by suffering. Malcolm Muggeridge once said, “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness. Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990.

There is a lot to be learned by suffering but the greatest thing we can learn is more about Jesus; how He lived, how He died, what He thought, what He felt. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If you truly are a believer, a disciple, a child of the One True King, then you are loved and because we are loved, we love Him and will suffer for Him and with Him by crucifying ourselves and allowing God to work in us and through us to do whatever He wants us to do.

And our lives will reflect that. Our language will reflect that. Our attitudes will reflect that. Our habits will reflect that we don’t even live anymore but it is Jesus who lives in us and through us. Does that describe you today? Would your spouse agree that describes you? Would your boss agree? Would your friends agree?

If not, then make that change today right now in your heart. Come to the altar right now if you want. Don’t wait until you go home. That’s Satan telling you to just wait. Do it right now.

If you don’t have that kind of relationship with God through His Son Jesus, then do that right now. You can. Right where you are. Ask God to forgive you of your many sins. Repent – turn away – from those sins and lose that lifestyle. You don’t have to understand everything. You never will. I don’t but I trust Jesus with my life and you can too.

Pray this prayer right now: Father God, I come to you a sinner in need of a Savior. I realize I can’t do it myself. I can’t be good enough or smart enough or ever be right with you on my own. I trust that Jesus has provided that way by dying on the cross to pay the price for my sins and coming back to life after three days and I want to have a relationship with you on that basis. I know I can do that because you tell me so in scripture. So please forgive me of all my sins. I apologize and want to live for you the rest of my life. Please help me do that starting right now. I trust you. Amen.