Sermon Tone Analysis

Look out for the dogs

Who are the dogs?

Who are the evildoers?

Who are the mutilators?

They are the ones who cause discourse within the body.

They are the ones who ones who will look at the speck in other peoples’ eyes and ignore the plank they have in theirs.

They are the ones who will hold others to a higher degree of accountability than they will themselves.

Do you believe in the Bible?

Do you believe every word in the Bible was written by men who were inspired by the Spirit of God to write it down?

The Bible tells us ways we need to handle conflict within the church.

When we bypass these ways, we are the mutilators whom this verse talks about.

This verse is very point blank about what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to forgive others.

Matthew 6:15 follows this exact thought.

I think when we look at people who we see as leaders within the church, one of the characteristics we will see is they have a very forgiving spirit.

They will be people who look for ways to build other people up.

They will be the ones who the world will look at and say people are walking all over them, but in reality, they are imitating Christ’s forgiveness to others.

We’ve preached in previous sermons about how we are to be second to others.

We are also to be doing things to serve our Lord out of love for Him and no other reason.

The dogs, the evil doers, the mutilators will be doing things which will serve their own purpose and not the purpose for which God had them here for, nor the purpose God had in mind for them to serve the body of Christ.

Paul should’ve been one of the most confident people in his life as to the way he followed the Bible.

He was one of the most loyal Pharisees there was during his time.

In the first part of verse 3, Paul talks about how we are all part of the circumcision of the Spirit - no longer in the physical sense.

Then he begins to list things he could’ve claimed to have had all the confidence in the world according to the old covenant the Jews followed and were following.

So if we take a look at each one of these things Paul talks about, you can see he has a legitimate claim about his “worthiness” as a Jew.

Circumcised on the 8th Day

This was following the law as set by the scripture.

The religious leaders would even perform this ceremony on the Sabath.

It was one of the allowances since it was a rite which had to be performed according to the laws Moses had given them.

He was an Israelite

Now you’re going to tell me of course he was and Israelite.

He lived in Israel.

You need to realize during this time, there were what you might call half-breeds or mutts within the Jewish community.

This is exactly how these people were looked upon.

The Edomites and Samaritans were looked at this way.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau.

The Samaritans were Jews who were left behind when the kingdom was taken into exile.

They had married outside of the Jewish faith.

Paul also didn’t come from parents who had converted to the Jewish faith.

He was a pure Jew through and through.

He came from the Tribe of Benjamin

This group was called “the beloved of the Lord” by Moses.

The tribe of Benjamin could trace their genealogy back to Jacob and Rachel.

Benjamin held a special place in his father’s heart.

Benjamin remained with Judah while the other ten tribes had gone astray.

A Hebrew born from Hebrews

He was the absolute cream of the crop by his heritage he just listed.

Because of the stock he came from, there were so many things he could claim just because of his heritage.

A Pharisee by law

He observed every part of the ceremonies according to the Jewish law and even more as the religious leaders added to what the law of Moses had said.

He would hold everyone else to these same high standards.

If he caught you doing something that was contrary to the law, He would make sure you knew about it as well as the other other religious leaders, and you would have to pay the price, for some things literally, and make a sacrifice to atone for whatever the offense was.

A persecutor of the church

There was no one who persecuted the church more vehemently that what Paul did as Saul.

He was the protector of the old covenant.

He would not only be the one throwing stones at those who were being convicted of their heresy of the Jewish faith, he would hold the coats of those who were carrying out the order if he wasn’t actually participating.

As Saul, he was feared by those who had converted to the new covenant and were believers in Christ.

He was blameless in the righteousness of the law

Paul as Saul didn’t fall into the trappings many of his kindred had.

He lived a life full of zeal for the law and followed it to the letter.

As far as he knew, he was blameless in the eyes of God before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Once this happened, he realized who he was in the eyes of God.

It literally turned his world upside down.

If we take a look at a letter Paul wrote to Timothy, we see how Paul now looks at his life according to being held up against the life Jesus lived for us.

Upon his conversion, Paul realized what he had been doing.

He was working against the work of the Lord he thought he was serving.

It was Saul was made to look at his life, he realized who he was.

He realized his works preconversion meant nothing.

Everything I listed above was no counted as nothing.

As a matter of fact, Paul calls it rubbish.

This is a very nice translation of the Greek word.

skybalon

dung; refuse; garbage

Dung.

All that Paul, preconversion, had been doing is now dung.

Paul isn’t only talking about his persecution of the church, he is talking about the high esteem he held because of his genealogy as well as his position within the Jewish faith as a Pharisee.

It all meant nothing.

It meant worse than nothing.

Dung.

All of what Paul had listed through verses 4-6 were things he either counted because of his heritage or his works.

There was nothing God did through any of those acts.

It was all things he either was born into or did on his own.

Saul, who was considered one of the highest, most righteous and pious leaders within the Jewish faith, now counts all of his life and things he did preconversion as dung.

Why? Let’s go back and read verse 8 and the rest of the verses in our text this morning.

IT’S ALL ABOUT WHAT CHRIST DID!!!!

The righteousness now that Paul has found has nothing to do with his works, but totally relies on the salvation work which was done on the cross by Jesus.

It has to do with the work that was done three days later in the tomb when Jesus rose from the dead.

It has to do with the promise that one day the dead in Christ will rise first and those still alive will follow shortly thereafter.

What have you based your own salvation on?

Do you base it on being raised in the church?

Saul did.

Do you base it on what you were taught in the church?

Saul did.

Do you base it on the faith of your mother and father?

Saul did.

Do you base it on your church attendance?

Saul did.

Do you base it on the things you do in the church?

Saul did.

Do you base it off of the works you do inside and outside of the church?

Do you base it off of being a good person according to society?