Sermon Tone Analysis

——Please open up to Philippians chapter 3, verse 4——

I must be honest – I struggled in writing this sermon.

Because as I wrote out my thoughts, I kept writing, and deleting, and writing, and deleting...

Nothing seemed sufficient to adequately communicate, with soberness, the weightthis text should have upon our souls.

And I shudder to think that I may poorly represent what God has spoken in this text.

The reason this text is a trembling matter is because Christianity has a disease.

I’m not speaking now of genuine Christians.

I’m speaking about Christianity.

What has become a name separated from its meaning, a political force, a system of morality seldom kept by those who espouse it…

…this “American Christianity” of the 20th century is on its death bed—decaying before our very eyes.

And it crumbles because of this: it doesn’t know Jesus.

It quickly calls everyone who says they follows Christ a Christian – but this is not the truth.

We have all been told what a Christian is.

We have had it defined by debaucherous celebrities, media, news, churches who know nothing of the Scriptures.

A Christian knows Jesus.

And this is the subject of our text this morning: Christ Himself.

Christianity has forgotten her Christ.

She has no regard for His work.

She knows not His voice.

She’s ignorant of His instructions.

Our world knows nothing of Scripture, it doesn’t know it, and it doesn’t care about it.

And we’ve been told that a Christian can be generally uninterested in the Savior and His teachings.

That is a lie.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone.

The foundation of that greatwork of God which wrung out the hearts of men and convictedheretics of truth.

If American Christianity knewthe Scriptures, then it would know its Christ.

And if this Christianity KNEW its Christ, then it would be vibrantin its holiness and truth.

But America is filled with churches totally empty of the presence of Christ.

They leave with encouragement – but it is the encouragement of the flesh.

They leave feeling uplifted, as they do violence to the teachings of our Lord.

My aim is not such things: but that we would let Scripture speak to us of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

Christianity has seen such ignorance of its Christ before, in that time when the church forgot His word.

You see – in the days prior to the Reformation, Christ was obscured, his offices robbed by deceitful men.

No longer could burdened and weary men come freely to Christ… Christ was made to be distant.

A newmediator was invented – one to bridge the gulf between us and Christ, one to distribute grace on His behalf.

Mary—blasphemously called the one “full of grace.”

So too did the pope intercede, providing some means by which men may receive grace.

Christ’s graces gave us a foundation, but without our own efforts, we could never be worthy of God’s Kingdom.

To supplement our unrighteousness, special ceremonies were devised, extrabiblical sacraments, even indulgences: the promise of grace for money.

The Pope and the church would help us in our weakness to be righteous enough,

…That perhaps we could squeak into at least purgatory.

Christ was only the first link in this chain, each link being equallycritical to our final salvation.

With Scripture obscured, and its Savior distant, the purityof the Gospel was at risk, the heart of Christianity under siege…

But the Lord had promised: the gates of HELL would not prevail against His Church.

And so – on October 31st 1517, 504 years ago this very day –

…the Lord used Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to speak a reform of Christianity in the west—and to prompt a return to the Gospel of grace.

The Reformation recovered Scripture as the only reliable ground for Christian life.

And also toughed men to see Christ as the center of all things.

That He ALONE grants eternal life by means of faith alone, all this given by grace alone to the glory of God alone.

The recapturing of Scripture resultedin the recapturing of the person, work, and officesof Christ.

And if we claim to be Christians – we can not continue even one more secondwithout His Word.

Observe the undercurrents of the age: Christ has once-more become obscuredto so-called Christians.

He is now only a political revolutionary.

A championfor the oppressed.

His love overcame all judgment….

He was a moral firehose…..insightful, intelligent…..

He can help you, he can free you so when you want to sin—just feel bad, you won’t have to go to hell.

Pray this little prayer, your life will be so happy.

#Blessed.

[Pause]

This is not our Lord.

This is not Jesus.

I don’t care who you are – I don’t care if you’ve been a Christian since you were in diapers…

I don’t care if you were dragged out of bed to this building by guilt…

I don’t care if you had a dramatic salvation experience last night…

If you have been fooling yourself with this nonsense, you don’t know the Savior, and you are no Christian.

Church – learn to be enraged at this:

Your Messiah has been cheapened, reduce to a trinket, a good luck charm.

Christian solider – pull out your shield, strap on the sword of the Spirit, stand against these flaming arrows of deceit in their tracks.

[Pause]

Today: Let’s consider our Great High Priest.

May the Spirit of God lay Him bare before us.

May he give us eyes to see His divine glories.

May He cut through the cultural fog that fills our minds with silly nonsense and obscuresHim.

May we see the value of our Lord, and would that our hearts delight in Jesus.

May the darkened and wicked soul be roused from the mundane world…

…and come as a weary traveler to rest in his arms: safe and secure.

May you be compelled to forsake all things that by any means youmay possess Christ.

Let us read today’s text, and pray.

[Read Philippians 3:4-11]

Paul, writing to the “saints in Philippi” from a prison cell, begins this chapter by commanding:

[Read v2 “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”]

(Verses 2-4 will be considered mostly that we may see the context of our main text.

There’s much to say about them, that are for a different sermon.)

Paul is warning about a grave threat to the Church: those who reject the Gospel of grace.

The Greek word translated mutilate the flesh sounds very similar to the word for circumcision.

The Jews—who are physically circumcised—oppose the Gospel by teaching a righteousness based on works.Paul is warning about them.

Forcefully opposing such a twisted teaching, Paul explains in verse 3:

[Read V3: For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—]

The true circumcision are those who "worship by the Spirit of God"and "glory in Christ Jesus" and "put no confidence in the flesh"

No longer by temples, rituals, or ceremonies do God’s people worship.

Now – we worship by the Spirit of God.

God’s people boast in Christ Jesus, not themselves, nottheir ceremonies, not their physical circumcision or bloodline.

The true circumcision party puts no confidence in the flesh.

Here the Apostle expounds, seeking to bring heavenly clarity to the issue which so plagues mankind.

You see – the chief error of manmade religion is to see ourselves as a critical part of our salvation.

Paul exposes the debased thinking of such ideas.

He vigorously refutes it in the following verses.

[Read V4-6 - "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: 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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless."]