Philippians 3_1_11 A Proper Account

Philippians 3:1-11“A Proper Account”

Intro: A story is told in which an accountant answered an advertisement for a top job with a large firm. At the end of the interview, the chairman asked, "One last question—what is three times seven?" The accountant thought for a moment and replied, "Twenty-two." Outside he checked himself on his calculator and concluded he had lost the job. But two weeks later he was offered the post. He asked the chairman why he had been appointed when he had given the wrong answer. "You were the closest," the chairman replied.

Far too often in our lives we count wrongly ourselves; especially about ourselves until we meet Jesus then things become clear. In Chapter one we focused on the theme “The Single Mind,” in chapter two we focused on the theme “The Submissive Mind,” but here in the third Chapter Paul gives another mindset, “The Spiritual Mind” which carries the idea of setting your mind on the heavenly things. To evaluate things as God would see them.

There are two key words in this text, the first is “count” in the Greek it is the verb hēgĕŏmai, hayg-eh´-om-ahee it means to consider, it is an accounting term which carries the idea of taking things into account. It’s like a ledger card, on one side you have Credits (Deposits) and the other Debits (withdrawals) you count your credits up then your debits when you subtract the two to get your balance or worth.

The second key word is “righteousness” dikaiosynē it means what is right in the eyes of God; it is the idea of being in right standing (relationship) with God.

Often times we count righteousness by adding our good and bad and as long as the good outweighs our bad then we must be good. However in God’s eyes you can never be good enough. Before Paul’s conversion he thought he was a good religious man with great morals. But the truth is, Paul had enough morality to keep himself out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven. But then he met Jesus and took a proper account of his standing before God. What he thought was righteousness he learned was garbage and the only righteousness on earth is that found in Christ.

Paul had to lose his religion in order to find salvation. He lost his religion but found Jesus.

CPS: Today I want you to see that we count all things as a loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus personally and that your righteousness by works are futile and the only righteousness in this world is the righteousness of Christ Jesus which is imputed to the believer by grace through faith.

An Account of Work Based Righteousness VS. 1-6

Paul’s Exhortation 1-2

Rejoice in the Lord (he is our source of joy and our only occasion to rejoice)

Beware of the false Circumcision

Dogs Judizers (Law and Grace)

Evil Workers

Concision (Mutilation of the flesh)

ILL: Rowboat, one oar good works the other faith, the problem is you cant get to heaven is a rowboat

Paul’s Contrast (the true circumcision) 3

Worship in the Spirit of God

Rejoice in Christ Jesus (Glory/Boast) Eph. 2:8-9

The only boast the Christian has is Romans 5:6 “While we were yet sinners”

Paul’s Reason for confidence 4-6

His Circumcision

His Nationality

His Tribe

His Hebrew (100%, Spoke the Language, not Hellenized)

His Dedication

-Pharisee

- Persecutor

- Blameless

With his ledger card before him he now looks at it with a spiritual mind and sees in spite of heritage, his morality, his dedication he was spiritually bankrupt

An Account of Faith Based Righteousness 7-11

Paul compares his ledger card beside’s Jesus and sees His is absolutely perfect

Paul’s True Loss

Things (Tangible and intangible)

all things as Dung

Refuse cast to the dogs, excrement

In order for something to be a loss it must have value but refuse is thrown away as being unworthy to even look at

Paul’s True Gain (gain = winnings)

Paul’s ledger card compared to Jesus’ ledger card, Jesus’ ledger card becomes Paul’s ledger card

Found in Him

Righteousness of God (Imputation) BASED ON FAITH!!!!

Know Him

Know the power of His resurrection

Fellowship of His suffering

Participation in His death

Attain His resurrection

Conclusion: The Spiritual Mind views all things as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. No wonder Paul had joy, his life did not depend on the cheap “things” of this world but on the eternal values found in Christ. Paul had the Spiritual mind and looked at things from heaven’s point of view. Perhaps it’s time you become an accountant and evaluate your ledger card.