Beware of Dogs - Part 1

My message this morning, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Will you go with me to Philippians, please, third chapter of Philippians.

We'll start with verse 2. Doesn't take me long to get into the message here. The first three words. Repeat them with me, please.

Beware of dogs. All right, that's enough. I'll read the rest.

Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

We have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day, the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee.

Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. What things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. A doubtless and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

Heavenly Father, teach us this morning your ways. Teach us what it means to have righteousness of God by faith and not by works of man's flesh. Lord, we pray for the opening of our eyes and our understanding.

Spirit of the Lord, I yield my body, mind, soul, and spirit to you. Control me, possess me that the truth of the Lord may flow freely. I honor you Lord in giving this word because you have blessed me with it and I pray Lord that you do a special work of changing us to the power of the gospel.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Paul stands before the whole body of Christ and he cries out, Beware of dogs. Now we know Paul's a kind, tender teacher, church.

There's not a vicious bone in this man's body and he's not given to senseless name-calling, but when it comes to defending the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he spared no words, he had no qualms about rebuking anyone who twisted the gospel. No one in Paul's presence could pervert the gospel without his rising up and rebuking it. He withstood Peter to his face and Barnabas and certain Jews that came from Jerusalem down to Antioch because he said they dissembled.

He said they were out of order and according to Paul they were separating themselves from Christian Gentiles refusing to eat to them and when Paul saw that, now Peter when the Jews from Jerusalem were not there, he was eating and worshiping with the Gentile Christians, but when the Jews came down who still considered Gentiles dogs, who still wouldn't eat or worship with him, Paul spoke bluntly because Peter went off and dissembled with them and the Jews ate separately in the same room but separate tables. And Paul said bluntly, you are not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. You're going back to justification by works, is what he's saying.

You have moved away from justification by faith. You are frustrating the grace of God. And he says, gentlemen, you're in error.

Now, Paul loved Peter. He loved Barnabas. He respected his Jewish brethren that had come from Jerusalem, but he says there's one issue that the church cannot compromise on.

He said there is one truth that we cannot give up on and he said, I stake my life on it and we dare not give in on this one issue. And that issue is that the gospel is simply this, that the unrighteous are justified before God by faith alone in the victory of the cross of Jesus. They are not justified, they are not accepted by God through any human effort, through the works of the flesh of the law.

And Paul said, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. And it was in this context of his determination to defend this truth with such passion, because he said this is the heart of the gospel. This is the very heart of it.

You give up on this point, you have no gospel left. And he says it was in defense of the gospel that he said, I will fight any deviation from the heart of this gospel. I will stand up against anyone trying to lure my believers, those who I've taught I will not allow you to come here in my territory and lure these new converts into some fleshly effort to save oneself by your own abilities, by going back to the law, doing this and not doing that.

He said you're not going to bring that gospel here. I love you, but I tell you you cannot bring that gospel in here to Antioch. Paul added, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

Now, concision was a contemptuous Hebrew word that stood for mutilator or cutter. He said you're mutilators. You're trying to mutilate the flesh.

You're trying to beat it down with all your rules and regulations. You're trying to beat down the lust. You're trying to beat down by your works and your human effort and your striving, your sweating.

You're trying to mutilate your flesh. You're trying to come to God after you've cleansed your own flesh. He said you're trying to work out your own salvation through your own ability, through your own laws, your rules and regulations.

And then he says the gospel then is a gospel of debt and not of grace. You could come to the Heavenly Father then and say, why do I need Christ? Why would I need grace? I have justified myself. And then he said it's not by grace.

And then Paul the Apostle said the problem with this idea of working out your own salvation, beating down your flesh, mutilating yourself, trying, trying, trying to be holy, the problem with that when you do achieve a certain amount of victory, it's going to turn you into a proud boaster. And he said it is by faith that no man may boast in his presence. By grace alone lest any man boast.

This is the problem with Christians today who say if I just try a little harder, if I can just dig down deep into my innermost and find some kind of inner strength that I've not yet found, if I can just go down deep inside my guts and pull some kind of strength out of my own being, I can lick this thing. And the problem is even if you conquered every lust in your flesh, if ushers, will you deal with the gentleman? That's fine. This must really be the word for this morning.

Only in New York City. Even if you could conquer every lust of your flesh so that you could stand before a mirror and say I have no lust, I have no temptation that I have not been able to conquer, my thoughts are clean. And you could stand honestly and say I'm clean.

God would not accept it. And you would be boasting and you become very proud and judgmental. That's what always happens when man wins it in his own power or thinks he's won it and sin is still lying at the door.

You can be sure you're going to fall again anyhow. Because son, we've been on that merry-go-round, sin confess, sin confess. And that little short victory you got by your own willpower made you feel great and made you judge everybody around you.

Why don't you have the power I have? Mm-hmm. Paul despised the hypocrisy of this perverted gospel. The Jews from Judea went everywhere teaching, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't be saved.

No, they are believers. They believe in Jesus Christ, but they're saying you have to add the law. You have to add circumcision or you can't be saved.

It's Jesus plus circumcision. They were mostly converted Pharisees, the Bible said, which believed. And they taught it was necessary to circumcise and to command them to keep the law.

And you know what the law, he's not talking just about the moral law, he's talking about the ceremonial law of Moses. The washing of hands, you dare not eat. I'll tell you, you'll grieve God if you didn't wash your hands before you ate.

You wash every pot, you wash every pan. Over 400 rules and regulations and they're saying, yes, you're saved by faith, but then after you're saved by faith, you have to work this out. You come back under the law and all these do's, all these don'ts, that you may please God.

And Paul preached that all believers are purified one way only and that is by faith, that through grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, but not by the works of the flesh. And Paul says you're preaching another gospel. That is not the gospel of Christ.

He said, I marveled that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to this other gospel. Then he added these words, you have perverted the gospel of Christ, Galatians 1 7. Believe me folks, any gospel that promotes confidence in the flesh is another gospel. It's not the gospel of Jesus Christ whatsoever.

Any gospel that yokes you to a burden of striving to please God is not the gospel. It's another gospel. It's a perversion of the gospel of grace.

Now Paul looked these Judaizers in the eye and in essence this is what he's saying. He said, you claim to be born again by the Spirit of God. You call him Lord.

You testify that you're clean in Christ and still you call the Gentiles dogs. He said your legalism has robbed you of all love for hurting people. And folks, that's the problem with legalism.

It is so judgmental. There's no love to it. There's no love whatsoever.

And this is the problem with these people, these Judaizers who are coming from Jerusalem, trying to conform, trying to glory in the flesh of these people. And Paul said, you call my Gentile friends dogs. You won't eat with them.

You won't even worship with them. And yet you're trying to come down here and conform them to your perverted gospel. He said, you're like hound dogs is what he's saying because the word in Hebrew is hound.

He said, you hear of a new convert and you take off after him and you hound him. You're trying to bring him under subjection to all your rules and regulations. Say yes, you're safe.

And I'll tell you what, if you sat and listened to these Pharisees, most of them were converted Pharisees. And if you listen to them teach, you would have heard a gospel of Jesus. You would have heard about Christ died on the cross.

They would tell you about his resurrection. They would tell you about how they walk with him, about intimacy. They would tell you all of these things.

They could tell you all about Christ. But then came the mixture. Then suddenly came the perversion.

Yes, you're saved by faith, but once you're saved by faith, then God expects you to come in now and you have got to get victory over your flesh. This is an incredible thing. Paul is a loving man.

He's a forgiving man. In fact, he wrote to the Galatians, brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore this man in the spirit of meekness. Now this is a loving man.

He said, I can put up with any man's fault. I can put up with any man who's failed me or even the body. I can forgive a man who's repented of adultery, fornication.

He said, I'll restore that man in meekness. He said, that's what we're called. That's the gospel.

But he said, on this issue, no. On this issue of holding fast to justification by faith alone and not by human works and human ability, I will withstand you. I don't care if your name is Peter.

I don't care if it's Barnabas. I don't know who it is. I love you, but your gospel is wrong.

He said, I will not bend. I'm not going to show mercy on this one issue, this gospel of grace. He said, beware of these hounds.

Beware of anybody comes to you trying to put a burden on you that you have to do something to get saved other than believing on Jesus Christ. They'll come to you and say, well, you can't be saved if you are not going to cut your hair a certain way, and if you're going to wear those things under your ears, and if you're going to have some paint on your face, and if you're going to wear, you're a woman and you're wearing trousers, they're going to come in.