No Confidence in the Flesh
I heard a story once that influenced my addiction to the internet. I am not sure if this story is true, but whether or not it is, I took this story to heart and allowed it to change my life, eventually turning away from it completely. The story goes like this:
There was a beautiful young professional girl. She was in her mid-twenties, working successfully at a professional Law Firm in New York City. Fresh out of school, she was one of the most successful young attorneys the Firm had seen in a while. She had devoted her whole life to being successful in school, and now in her job. She never found the special someone in her life; she never had time. She decided to get on one of these dating websites to see what turned up. A few months had gone by and she started talking with a nice young man, around her age, unfortunately, he lived in Los Angeles. The developed their relationship, placing her trust in him that he wouldn’t hurt her. He kept bugging her that they should meet in person, and finally, she gave in. She took some long awaited vacation time and took off to Los Angeles. She stayed in a nice hotel and he came to stay with her every day. They had the most wonderful week of her life. It was blissful. She had the faith that she had found the right man. As she was on the plane home, she opened up her carry-on luggage and found a card. In this card, she found a note from her man. This is what he wrote. “Hello my love. This past week was the most wonderful of my life. I hope it was for you too, because I want to welcome you to the world of AIDS; because you now have it.” Scared to death, she got off of the plane and tried to call him. The phone had been shut off. She wrote a letter. It got returned saying “no such address”. She realized what kind of mistake had happened. She trusted a man she didn’t even know.
As sad and heartbreaking as this story is, this kind of thing is something we humans fall victim to all the time. We place our trust in things that we shouldn’t. Today’s scripture is Philippians 3:1-11. Let’s read.
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 men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has 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 legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I’ve titled today’s sermon “No Confidence in the Flesh” because of what Paul says here in the early going of our verses for today. In Paul’s day, the dogs he was referring to were the Judaizers. They were people in fact, who were trying to combine Christianity with Judaism. They insisted that works of the flesh were necessary for salvation. This is what the Pharisees problem was. They were not Christians obviously, but they insisted that the laws were what were important. Good works, according to the Judaizers, was an essential part of gaining entrance into heaven.
The Judaizers had put their confidence in their salvation not in Jesus, but in the flesh. Paul refutes this and gives plenty reason for confidence in the flesh…for himself. Paul is saying here that if anyone should have confidence in the flesh it is him because of everything he lists here in verse 5. 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; Paul here gives a huge reason that, by all rights, he should have confidence in the flesh. However, Paul goes on to again state that he has no confidence in the things he had as a Jew, because Jesus Christ himself indeed had no confidence in flesh as well. Humanity has failed repeatedly, but Christ is the only one who has been able to get beyond it all. Therefore, Paul counts what he has gotten in the flesh as loss, because of the sheer greatness of Jesus.
Only by our faith in Jesus can we know the righteousness that we may gain in the everlasting life Christ offers. In this, we share in the sufferings of Christ, and therefore as well, only by the grace of God, gain resurrection from the dead, like Christ.
Obviously, we know better than to think good works gains salvation, right? Our salvation comes from Jesus Christ alone. Good works are not essential to gain entrance to heaven. However, good works come as a natural process when we give our lives to Jesus. Good works come natural to those who live their lives according to God’s will through Jesus. This type of confidence in the flesh, we have doctrinally come to know as fact.
However, there are things we put our confidence in that can cause problems for us as well. Unfortunately, I cannot sit here and pinpoint exactly what it is that may cause a problem for you individually.
In the beginning today, I stated briefly that I struggled with an internet addiction. I was out of high school a year perhaps, (it was back in ’98) when my stepbrother introduced me to the internet, email, and chat rooms. I had heard of the internet spoken of before by friends of mine, but I had not ever been on it. It was like the floodgates had been opened. I went from an honest, naïve, sheltered young man to a lying and deceitful person. I started cutting class to chat on the internet. Shortly, it turned to dropping out of classes altogether. The next four years of my life I spent chasing women on the internet, having multiple girlfriends at the same time, and moving across the country for a month, then moving back because of the mistake I had made. You see, I grew up strong in my faith. I was as solid as any teen could be. However, I made one mistake. I put confidence in the earthly, fleshly desires. It consumed my every being. It was 5 years later by the time I finally hit rock bottom, and realized I could not continue living this way. I was miserable. I still didn’t want any part of church life, which in fact is what I needed, but I had begun the down the path toward gaining my life back from this fleshly disaster.
Naturally, this is an extreme example. There are many others who had it worse, but I still feel blessed that I was taken out of the fire. Other people aren’t so blessed. They just cannot see the forest for the trees. Unfortunately, much of what we put our confidence in is things that we just don’t question. We put confidence in our jobs, money, the media, our government, nature, electronics, medicine, and the list could go on forever. After last week, I realized that some of the things I said were not very clear. In retrospect, I realized I put science in a hole. I personally love science and wanted to be a meteorologist or a paleontologist when I was a kid. Science obviously, was my favorite subject.
This week, I want to be clear about what I am indeed saying. What I am not saying, is that these things I just listed earlier cannot be trusted. In fact, they can. We can trust that modern science can come up with cures for diseases that plague us. We are on the verge of a vaccine or cure for HIV, cancer and other diseases. We can trust the media to give us information that we need to keep up on what is going on in the world. They provide information that we need to be aware of so that we can live Godly in a world full of sin.
However, what I am saying, is that when the media is all we trust to keep us safe, that is where the problem lies. When we put all of our trust in the government that they will provide what we need, that money will always be plentiful, that our job is secure and will always need us, we trust that our computer will always work and won’t erase our hard drives…some of these things are just plain silly, but I pray my point has gotten home. I want to urge you to take stock of what you put confidence in, and in a healthy way, question it. It is pure? Is it Godly? Are they following what God has to say? Am I? We should always question in a healthy way our surroundings and what we do.
As we learned a year or two ago, our economy collapsed and we quickly learned that in an instant, our economy can be withered away to virtually nothing. Our government then proceeded to spend billions upon trillions of dollars to bail out various industries, stimulate the economy, and so forth. It is still being debated on whether or not it worked. The point is, there were those in our country who believed this kind of recession was virtually impossible. Confidence was put in something that was not as solid as Jesus is.
If we are going to put confidence in anything, let’s put our highest faith and confidence in the only man who was able to break the bonds of death. Jesus is the only one worthy of putting our faith, hope and trust in.
I want to urge you this week to evaluate what you put your confidence, or faith in. Look at the multiple things, evaluate them on a healthy level, and put a plan in action to bring Christ to the forefront of your confidence.
There was a beautiful young professional girl. She was in her mid-twenties, working successfully at a professional Law Firm in New York City. Fresh out of school, she was one of the most successful young attorneys the Firm had seen in a while. She had devoted her whole life to being successful in school, and now in her job. She never found the special someone in her life; she never had time. She decided to get on one of these dating websites to see what turned up. A few months had gone by and she started talking with a nice young man, around her age, unfortunately, he lived in Los Angeles. The developed their relationship, placing her trust in him that he wouldn’t hurt her. He kept bugging her that they should meet in person, and finally, she gave in. She took some long awaited vacation time and took off to Los Angeles. She stayed in a nice hotel and he came to stay with her every day. They had the most wonderful week of her life. It was blissful. She had the faith that she had found the right man. As she was on the plane home, she opened up her carry-on luggage and found a card. In this card, she found a note from her man. This is what he wrote. “Hello my love. This past week was the most wonderful of my life. I hope it was for you too, because I want to welcome you to the world of AIDS; because you now have it.” Scared to death, she got off of the plane and tried to call him. The phone had been shut off. She wrote a letter. It got returned saying “no such address”. She realized what kind of mistake had happened. She trusted a man she didn’t even know.
As sad and heartbreaking as this story is, this kind of thing is something we humans fall victim to all the time. We place our trust in things that we shouldn’t. Today’s scripture is Philippians 3:1-11. Let’s read.
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 men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has 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 legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I’ve titled today’s sermon “No Confidence in the Flesh” because of what Paul says here in the early going of our verses for today. In Paul’s day, the dogs he was referring to were the Judaizers. They were people in fact, who were trying to combine Christianity with Judaism. They insisted that works of the flesh were necessary for salvation. This is what the Pharisees problem was. They were not Christians obviously, but they insisted that the laws were what were important. Good works, according to the Judaizers, was an essential part of gaining entrance into heaven.
The Judaizers had put their confidence in their salvation not in Jesus, but in the flesh. Paul refutes this and gives plenty reason for confidence in the flesh…for himself. Paul is saying here that if anyone should have confidence in the flesh it is him because of everything he lists here in verse 5. 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; Paul here gives a huge reason that, by all rights, he should have confidence in the flesh. However, Paul goes on to again state that he has no confidence in the things he had as a Jew, because Jesus Christ himself indeed had no confidence in flesh as well. Humanity has failed repeatedly, but Christ is the only one who has been able to get beyond it all. Therefore, Paul counts what he has gotten in the flesh as loss, because of the sheer greatness of Jesus.
Only by our faith in Jesus can we know the righteousness that we may gain in the everlasting life Christ offers. In this, we share in the sufferings of Christ, and therefore as well, only by the grace of God, gain resurrection from the dead, like Christ.
Obviously, we know better than to think good works gains salvation, right? Our salvation comes from Jesus Christ alone. Good works are not essential to gain entrance to heaven. However, good works come as a natural process when we give our lives to Jesus. Good works come natural to those who live their lives according to God’s will through Jesus. This type of confidence in the flesh, we have doctrinally come to know as fact.
However, there are things we put our confidence in that can cause problems for us as well. Unfortunately, I cannot sit here and pinpoint exactly what it is that may cause a problem for you individually.
In the beginning today, I stated briefly that I struggled with an internet addiction. I was out of high school a year perhaps, (it was back in ’98) when my stepbrother introduced me to the internet, email, and chat rooms. I had heard of the internet spoken of before by friends of mine, but I had not ever been on it. It was like the floodgates had been opened. I went from an honest, naïve, sheltered young man to a lying and deceitful person. I started cutting class to chat on the internet. Shortly, it turned to dropping out of classes altogether. The next four years of my life I spent chasing women on the internet, having multiple girlfriends at the same time, and moving across the country for a month, then moving back because of the mistake I had made. You see, I grew up strong in my faith. I was as solid as any teen could be. However, I made one mistake. I put confidence in the earthly, fleshly desires. It consumed my every being. It was 5 years later by the time I finally hit rock bottom, and realized I could not continue living this way. I was miserable. I still didn’t want any part of church life, which in fact is what I needed, but I had begun the down the path toward gaining my life back from this fleshly disaster.
Naturally, this is an extreme example. There are many others who had it worse, but I still feel blessed that I was taken out of the fire. Other people aren’t so blessed. They just cannot see the forest for the trees. Unfortunately, much of what we put our confidence in is things that we just don’t question. We put confidence in our jobs, money, the media, our government, nature, electronics, medicine, and the list could go on forever. After last week, I realized that some of the things I said were not very clear. In retrospect, I realized I put science in a hole. I personally love science and wanted to be a meteorologist or a paleontologist when I was a kid. Science obviously, was my favorite subject.
This week, I want to be clear about what I am indeed saying. What I am not saying, is that these things I just listed earlier cannot be trusted. In fact, they can. We can trust that modern science can come up with cures for diseases that plague us. We are on the verge of a vaccine or cure for HIV, cancer and other diseases. We can trust the media to give us information that we need to keep up on what is going on in the world. They provide information that we need to be aware of so that we can live Godly in a world full of sin.
However, what I am saying, is that when the media is all we trust to keep us safe, that is where the problem lies. When we put all of our trust in the government that they will provide what we need, that money will always be plentiful, that our job is secure and will always need us, we trust that our computer will always work and won’t erase our hard drives…some of these things are just plain silly, but I pray my point has gotten home. I want to urge you to take stock of what you put confidence in, and in a healthy way, question it. It is pure? Is it Godly? Are they following what God has to say? Am I? We should always question in a healthy way our surroundings and what we do.
As we learned a year or two ago, our economy collapsed and we quickly learned that in an instant, our economy can be withered away to virtually nothing. Our government then proceeded to spend billions upon trillions of dollars to bail out various industries, stimulate the economy, and so forth. It is still being debated on whether or not it worked. The point is, there were those in our country who believed this kind of recession was virtually impossible. Confidence was put in something that was not as solid as Jesus is.
If we are going to put confidence in anything, let’s put our highest faith and confidence in the only man who was able to break the bonds of death. Jesus is the only one worthy of putting our faith, hope and trust in.
I want to urge you this week to evaluate what you put your confidence, or faith in. Look at the multiple things, evaluate them on a healthy level, and put a plan in action to bring Christ to the forefront of your confidence.
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