Gospel Testimony

Introduction

Well, good morning! If you have your Bibles, open ‘em up with me to Philippians chapter three…Philippians chapter three. This is our third week in this chapter…and if you remember, we started by looking at the idea of joy and then we examined Paul’s warning last week to the church about the dangers of religion and how religion distorts the message of the gospel. And so, as we kind of continue through this chapter this morning, Paul talks to us a little bit about his life and how Christ transformed it…He gives us his testimony. And not just any testimony, it’s not about him, but he gives us his gospel testimony.

If you remember, when we ended things last week, Paul said one of the marks of true Christianity, one of the things people do…is they no longer place confidence in the flesh but they glory or they boast in the Lord. Things aren’t about them anymore. Their authenticity, as he mentioned in verse 3, it’s all about what Jesus accomplished. The gospel and the transformation a Christian experiences, every bit of that, it’s about what’s already been done…these people’s confidence, it isn’t found in what man can do or accomplish…its found in Christ and Christ alone. That’s been Paul’s main idea and it’s the reason we can rejoice in the Lord as he says in verse 1.

And listen, as we come to verse 4 this morning, he shows his reader how he, himself, has been shaped and changed by the gospel message. He gives us a snapshot of who he was prior to Jesus…How he found confidence in the things he did. How we was considered righteous among men. And then he shows us what happened when Jesus delivered him, how his whole perspective changed. And then, he finishes by showing how his confidence, at the time of writing this, was found in what was to come…in the future…in the work Christ was doing in him. Guys, he was giving us his gospel testimony. He was giving the Philippians an example compared to the false teachers that were among them trying to tell them they had to perform or do certain things to be considered righteous. He was showing them that Christ was all they needed…that He was enough.

You know, when you talk to a contractor…they’d tell you that one of the most important elements to building a house or some kind of structure…it’s to make sure that the foundation’s solid, right? It doesn’t matter how good the house looks or what materials were used in its construction…if the foundation’s junk, then eventually it’ll have to be rebuilt. It won’t last. The foundation’s the most critical component to building anything.

Guys, in this passage, that’s exactly what Paul’s showing us in a spiritual sense. He’s showing us how his old foundation, it was broken up. He realized it wasn’t his own righteousness that saved him. Christ torn down Paul’s structure and He gave him a new foundation. Paul’s showing us how he’s being built into something new and better.

And listen, if we’ve truly been impacted by the gospel of Christ, I want you to pay attention this morning because essentially we all have the same testimony. We’ve all been impacted in the same way. We once looked to ourselves to bring salvation…we looked at who we were or what we did or what we chose to do…but since being transformed, we realize that every bit of that belongs to Christ...and now we just strive to be like Him in everything we do. And listen, this is important because if we’re not careful…just as Paul warned the Philippians in the last couple of verses...we start placing that confidence back in the flesh, in the things we chose to do, we emphasize things like us choosing Christ, or us doing certain things, and when that happens…when we lose focus on the gap that exists between us and God and what bridges that gap…when we lose focus on what brings us together in unity as God’s children…we lose the joy that’s found in Jesus and we become a bunch of unjoyful Christians that only look to ourselves.

And so, pay attention as we go through this because if you really wanna know where you stand in the family of God…if you really wanna know if you’re authentic as Paul mentioned, then you should have a story just like this…you should have desires just like this.

And so, if you’re there with me this morning…Philippians chapter three…let’s stand together as we read what Paul wrote to the Philippians. Verse 4 says, “4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for 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; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Thank you, you can be seated.

Listen, as we kind of walk through this text this morning…there’s three things I wanna show you…number one, Paul’s former life…number two, Paul’s conversion…and then finally, Paul’s new life in Christ.

1.) Paul’s Former Life: Confidence in the Flesh (vv. 4-6)

Listen, when we think about our testimony…or when we give our testimony, an important element of that is understanding who we were prior to coming into a relationship with Christ. It’s communicating the hopelessness we experienced at that stage in our lives. And typically, while our hopeless…while it all looks different between us, it’s all geared around our self-centeredness. Look at what Paul says here in these first couple of verses. He found confidence in the flesh.

First he says, “If anyone wants to look to the flesh…if anyone wants to put confidence in themselves and what they’ve done…I have more reason to do so…I have reason to boast in what I’ve done because among men, no one could be considered more righteous.” Listen, he’s expressing the confidence he once had in the flesh. He’s saying if it was religious efforts that gained God’s acceptance then he was at the head of that list. “If anyone could find salvation through self-righteousness, that was me.” That’s what he’s saying.

And if you pay attention, Paul lists out 7 different things that he really found confidence in prior to Jesus. Seven things that dealt with his pedigree or his performance.

The first 4 things he mentions all deal with Paul’s background, who he was, his pedigree. These were things he inherited at his birth. Look at verse 5. He says, “I was circumcised on the 8th day…I’m of the people of Israel…and not just from God’s people but from the best tribe there is, Benjamin…I’m a Hebrews among Hebrews…the best of the best.” That’s his credentials and listen, among the Jews, this was a big deal…He was somebody!

And listen, if anyone had qualifications to speak out against the Judaizers at this point in time, it was definitely Paul. Guys, look at what he said…he had an impressive background. There wasn’t another Jew that could’ve had a more proper beginning. His family followed the Mosaic Law to the “T.”...He couldn’t have had a more impressive nationality and linage. He was born of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. There wasn’t another nation on earth more privileged. But even among those people, he was from the elite tribe. That tribe always remained loyal to King David’s descendants. It was even the land assigned to Benjamin where the temple was built…where all the sacrifices were made. If you were an Israelite, being from this tribe…it was a big deal....He had an impressive upbringing. He was “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” He was born to Hebrew parents and because of that he was raised according to the Hebrew traditions. No one could be more Hebrew than Paul. He was a diehard. He was as religiously a Hebrew as anyone could’ve possibly been…This was his pedigree…his background.

And listen, maybe you can relate to that…Maybe when you sit back and think about your own upbringing, it’s the same. Maybe you were raised in a Christian home…or maybe you attended a Christian school or learned the truths of Scripture as a young person because you were brought up in a church...Listen, I know some of you, you don’t think this is an issue, but I’m telling you…this is the greatest issue plaguing our churches today…people finding confidence in their own doings…in their upbringing or whatever it is. You were raised in church or attended church…and because of that you don’t listen to the gospel message anymore because you don’t think you need it…guys that’s your pedigree and it doesn’t save you. That’s you finding confidence in the flesh.

And then, after he kind of talks about his background…Paul gives us his accomplishments…he talks about his performance. Listen, he says, “I was a Pharisee…I belonged to the right sect of Jews.” That word Pharisee, it literally means “the separated ones.” These guys were the most conservative, the most meticulous law-keepers there was in Israel. They were zealous for the law…I mean, Paul had a impressive standard…so impressive, he persecuted the church…those that spoke against their customs and laws. He was the standard of Israel. And it also shows his impressive sincerity to the Jewish customs because he did persecute the church and his impressive morality to the law. Paul says he was blameless according to the law. He upheld it. He was faultless.

And listen, the reason he’s saying all this…it’s because none of that impressive stuff had the power to save him. He looked at his life according to all these external measurements of the law, but there was still so much he was missing. There was still a weight he carried around…he was still a slave to this world. And it wasn’t until he understood the inward import of the law of God, that he began to see his sin problem. That’s what he says in Romans 7.

And listen, while none of us can actually say we hold the same kind of pedigree or even accomplishments as Paul, we’re all still tempted to do what Paul’s fighting against here. We all have a problem at looking to what it is we can achieve. It’s why some of us still get mad when we say the Bible says Jesus chose you as His child. That He did all the work in our salvation…because we all want some kind of responsibility. We want a small part of the glory that belongs solely to Christ. We have a problem with putting confidence in our flesh and in our ability to make decisions. If the Bible teaches me anything...its that if I really have that kind of power, I’ll never choose righteousness. And if I did, then Jesus is irrelevant because I don’t need Him in that matter.

D.A. Carson, in his commentary, says that “most who read these pages, I suspect, will not be greatly tempted to boast about their Jewish ancestry and ancient rites of race and religious heritage, but we may be tempted to brag about still less important things—our wealth, our status, our education, our emotional stability, our families, our political or business successes, our denominational alignment, or even about which version of the Bible we use.” Guys, there are so many out there that boast in all the wrong things. That find confidence in all the wrong things. And because of that, they refuse to listen to the gospel…they refuse to let the gospel transform them because they’re still placing their confidence in the flesh.

Part of Paul’s testimony here, it’s identifying that he was wrongly putting his confidence in things he controlled. In things that gave him the ability to boast in himself. And guys, we don’t have to be religious people to do this. Listen, when you’re looking to justify your existence…or looking to prove that you’re right in this world…that’s something’s right about your life…all those things, they’re expressions of this self-salvation attempt..the drive to prove ourselves. And listen, all that, it’s part of the old foundation. We don’t need to prove anything…we have Jesus and He’s enough. His work’s enough. You don’t need to justify yourself in this world because Jesus does that for you. And if Paul struggled with this, we certainly do as well and we need to recognize that and deal with it. We need to understand who we were…or in some cases, who we are now…and find confidence in things other than ourselves.

2.) Paul’s Conversion

But look at verse 7. Paul says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”...Everything changes when he meets Christ. His conversion, it completely torn down his old foundation...it gave him something different…something new. Listen, everything Paul thought was in the credit column…his list of privileges, his accomplishments....they were all transferred to the debit column. You understand what I’m saying? He began to shift his confidence in the flesh and place it in Jesus.

At his conversion, all the things Paul found confidence in…all the things that he thought brought him worth and value…he came to understand, all those things, they were taking from him. They were costing him exactly what it was he really needed, which was Jesus. They were pulling him away from Christ and living this life he thought originally he was living on his own. At his conversion, Christ gave him eyes to see and a heart to understand.

That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 5, the sermon on the mount…He starts with this, 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Listen, the Beatitudes, what Jesus is saying here…He’s giving us the stages of salvation. Blessed are the poor in spirit…or more literally, those that recognize their sin…their separation from God, they’re poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn…those that mourn because of their sin. Those that aren’t okay with their sinful state. Blessed are the meek…or the humble…those that recognize their inability to do anything about their situation…for, as Jesus says, those are the ones that’ll inherit the kingdom of God.

Guys, that’s what happens at conversion. That’s what happened to Paul. It’s almost as if Paul’s giving us a profit-loss statement and saying, “All the things I used to judge myself on…it’s all a loss…Jesus is the only profit…He’s the only thing that brings me salvation…He’s the only one that gives me worth.” The things he once counted as a gain, they’re all a loss now. Conversion…it meant that the ledger of Paul’s life, it had radically changed. And the first thing conversion caused Paul to do was to take everything in the last several verses and move them into the loss category.

Guys, take a minute and think about the moment you were changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The moment, where, just like Paul, you realized this separated state you were living in. When the Spirit of God was tugging on your heart…were you humbled to the point that you realized there wasn’t anything you could do to bridge the gap between you and God? Did conversion show you that your efforts and your privileges and your accomplishments, they mean nothing? Because that’s part of placing your trust in Him…It’s believing that He is enough…that He alone gives you salvation and changes you. Guys, that means you have to stop clinging to your own efforts…or in your ability to choose. Jesus chose you, He drew you to Himself, He humbled you, He changed you…And it’s in those moments, where you began to realize that, everything else in your life is counted as a loss for the sake of Christ.

Guys, do you cling to something you did or you’re doing? That’s why you never grow or you struggle in your walk…because you never made it past the point of meekness in the stages of salvation. You haven’t died to yourself because you’re still clinging to own efforts and what you can do. Guys, Paul says count it as a loss…humble yourself...recognize that Jesus does it all.

When Jesus allows you to feel His presence…when you’re able to believe and repent…which for the record is all you have to do to receive salvation…that’s the moment of conversion where everything changes. And from that moment on…as Jesus says in Matthew 5, that’s when we begin to thirst and hunger for righteousness.

3.) Paul’s New Life

Look at what Paul says, “9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Listen, because of Paul’s conversion, he says he gets three things....Not only does he get Christ but look at verse 9. He says, “…that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in...”who? In Christ, right? So the first thing Paul gains is righteousness. Going back to the Beatitudes for a second, after being poor in spirit, and broken, and meek, what’s next? It’s hungering and thirsting for righteousness, right? And notice when it comes to righteousness, Paul kind of gives us two examples of it here…First, there’s righteousness from himself that comes from the law…his own pedigree…his Jewish credentials....and then there’s this faith righteousness that comes from God, right? It depends on faith in Christ. And listen, it can’t be both…either we depend on our own righteousness or we depend on Jesus’s righteousness. It can’t be Jesus plus whatever you do. Through salvation, we gain Jesus’s righteousness…we’re considered righteous solely because of what Jesus has done…His work on the cross. And guys, this is important because it deals with how we’re justified. How our sin’s forgiven and dealt with. If we don’t get this right, there’s no do-overs in eternity. We have to understand how our sin’s justified. And guys, what Scripture tells us…what Paul’s been saying, it’s Jesus alone…He’s the only One that can make us right before God. It’s His righteousness we have to receive.

I love the words of Sinclair Ferguson when he says that “it’s full, it’s final, it’s invincible.” He says, “Justification’s full because it gives us Christ’s righteousness. It’s final because it doesn’t depend on our keeping the law, but on God’s gift of his Son. It can’t be reversed, it can never be destroyed. It’s invincible because it’s the judgment of the last day brought into the present day.”

And so, this is what we gain when we gain Jesus…we gain His righteousness according to Paul…the verdict that we’re right with God, that we’re not guilty, that our sins are forgiven, that God accepts us and receives us as righteous in His sight. That’s the first thing we see here.

The second thing Paul says, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” We gain a relationship. Listen, we gain a relationship with the God of creation. The God of life and death. The God who’s name’s above every other name. We don’t just make Jesus Lord of our lives, but we gain a real, intimate relationship. Listen to Paul’s words here…his whole desire’s to know Jesus more, right? That’s his ambition. You remember what Paul said in chapter 1? “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Listen, for Paul, living meant he had the opportunity to know Him more deeply…more intimately. Jesus gave him that ability through the relationship they shared. Paul’s not talking about just a mere intellectual knowledge of Jesus here, it’s a knowledge of deep experience, personal acquaintance, friendship. I mean just look at the words Paul uses here…that word “shares” it also means fellowship when he says, “share his sufferings.” It’s koinonia, we looked at that back in chapter 1....but it means partnership.

And the idea he presents about “knowing the power of his resurrection.” It means that we have the very power of the risen Christ active and present in our lives as a believer. It means that you and I, we can grow in an understanding and an experience of that power…allowing it to change us, transform us, resurrecting us spiritually.

But that partnership we have in His sufferings…it means we’re now suffering with Christ as believers in this world. We share that together. It means we’re willing to give it all up for the sake of Christ. It means we’re willing to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. It’s all about growing in our likeness of Jesus…being sanctified, as we talked about a couple weeks ago.

And then finally…we gain righteousness, we gain a relationship…but we also gain resurrection. Look at verse 11. Paul says, “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”...Here he is looking forward again…looking at what Christ’ll complete in him at the day of His return. It’s not just about the present day relationship Paul has with Jesus but about the future relationship they’ll have in eternity where he can experience Jesus fully in his glorified state. And listen, when Paul says, “by any means possible I may attain this.” He’s not expressing doubt here…asking whether or not he would gain this…he’s saying, “I don’t know what the course of my life will be. I don’t know whether I’ll live or die. I don’t know what my trials’ll be.” He’s saying, “Whatever the case, whatever the means this may involve, this is what I’m aiming for…this is what I’m running for. It’s the resurrection from the dead…because to live is Christ and all those things draw me closer to Him now.”

And so, Paul went from placing confidence in his flesh, to placing confidence in Christ, to placing confidence in what Christ would do in the future. That’s a gospel testimony.

Closing

Guys, this is what we gain in salvation…we gain Jesus....we gain righteousness…a relationship…eternal life. We get Jesus when we turn our backs on sin…when we turn to Him…we get Jesus when we look past our self-righteousness and look to His. We get Him fully when we make it all about Him…when we let Him do all the work in us. And guys, it’s like chains being broken…it’s like being set free from the bondage of this world. It’s liberating to know I’m Jesus’s. It’s freeing knowing I belong to the God of my existence and that He’s at the helm of my life.

Listen, as we reflect on Paul’s testimony for a minute, would you bow your heads and close your eyes.

Guys, reflect on your own testimony for a second. How has Jesus changed you? How has your perspective changed since that time? What’s different about you since that day? If you were writing your testimony like Paul here, what would it say? Would it be full of the things you did? The things you chose to do? How you chose to walk down the aisle…or how you chose to bow at an altar? Guys, what parts of your testimony are you willing to give to Jesus? What credit in your salvation are you willing to say He did?

Listen, I know there’s still some processing the things I just said this morning…thinking, “Did he say Jesus chose me and changed me all on His own.” Listen, if you’re mad about that…then it’s proof you’re still clinging to your own efforts…and Paul calls that a loss…it’s worthless. Let that go and turn completely to Jesus this morning. Would you do that? Would you submit everything to Him?

Listen, if that’s you…if you’ve struggled to give it all to Jesus…or maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve never responded to the gospel…you’ve never placed your faith and trust in Christ…in just a moment I want you to be bold. I wanna ask you to turn your life to Him, fully. I wanna ask you to take a step a faith. Listen, if that’s you this morning…if you feel that tug on your heart right now…it’s pulling at you…listen, that’s the Spirit of God and He wants to give you those things we just talked about…He’s wants to change your life. He wants to make you new. Give in to that…guys, He’ll do all the work. But you gotta give in to that…that’s the humility piece…you have to recognize that you need Him…Listen, if that’s you would you just slip your hand up? Listen, no one’s looking around…you say, “I need Jesus…I’m broken…I feel lost…hopeless…I’m putting everything into the things I’ve done…I’m going in circles…I need a savior.” Listen, would you raise your hand for me?

Listen, if that’s you this morning…maybe you were too embarrassed to raise your hand...would you just repeat after me…these words, they have no power but it’ll help you turn to Jesus…it’ll help you place your trust and faith in Him...would you repeat after me.

‌"Lord Jesus...I believe you are who you say you are....I believe you came into this world and I believe you lived a perfect and sinless life...I believe you went to a cross and wore the weight of my sin....I believe you experienced the punishment met for me...I confess to you now that I am sinful and wicked....I am in need of grace and mercy and forgiveness...Jesus come into my life and fill me with your Spirit....Help me live in your ways and grow me to be more and more like you....We pray this in Jesus's name...Amen!"

Listen, I have no idea how God’s working in your heart right now but would you just seek Him today? Maybe you need to get up from where you are and just come down to these steps. Listen, there’s power in you humbly getting up, in front of everyone, and seeking Him. Listen, give it to Jesus this morning…make everything about Him.

Church, however God’s working on you right now…you take some time as the deacons and I prepare the Lord’s Supper this morning. Make sure your hearts right…make sure it’s found complete confidence in Christ and Christ alone.

[Prayer]

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 says, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” [Pray for the bread – eat the bread]

Continuing in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 25 through 26 say, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” [Pray for the juice – drink juice]