Philippians (Lesson 30)

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m trying my best, surely that counts,” Paul answers with a shocking testimony: his best didn’t count at all. We open Philippians 3 and let Paul lay out his unmatched religious credentials, then watch him call it loss compared to “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.” The point is not that discipline is worthless, but that it is powerless to save.

We also tackle a sobering idea: Satan’s most effective weapon isn’t always open rebellion, it’s religion that borrows the name of Jesus while replacing faith with works. We talk about how rituals, sacraments, and moral striving can become a counterfeit refuge, and why Scripture warns about spiritual leaders who shift people away from simple trust in Christ’s blood.

From there we follow Paul into Romans 9 and Romans 10, where zeal without knowledge stumbles over Christ Himself. Then Galatians 3 lands the final blow to self-confidence: the law brings a curse because it demands perfect obedience, and none of us measure up. The good news is just as clear, Christ redeems us by taking the curse and offering His righteousness to everyone who believes.

If you’re weighing your record against God’s standard, listen closely and decide where you’ll place your trust. Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend who’s trying to “be good enough,” and leave a review so more people can find the message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Transcript

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Welcome And Scripture Reading

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And a very pleasant good day to each and every one of you. I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And I welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. This program is a ministry of the Bible Baptist Church of Deland, Florida, and reaching by the grace of God around the world, into your home, into your automobile, into your place of work today. And we are very, very happy that you've tuned in to today's broadcast. I believe, I sincerely believe, that the topic at hand, the subject matter at hand, will be a help and a blessing to every one of you. If you'll listen carefully and study along with us, I believe that God will help you today as we study his word. We are in Philippians and have been for quite some time. We are in the third chapter of Philippians, and in this portion of Scripture the Apostle Paul is writing as the Holy Spirit directs, so that he is recording the very words that God would have us to read. And the Bible says in Philippians three, starting at verse four, 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 of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

Satan’s Strategy: Religion As A Trap

SPEAKER_01 2:50

If the New Testament is correct, and I believe it is, Satan's great work in our day is not the building of bar rooms to promote drunkenness. The flesh will take care of that. Satan's great work in our day is not the explosion of methamphetamine labs and date rape drugs and cocaine trafficking. That drug trade is not Satan's major offensive, if you will. With all the perversion and all the lewd and vile behavior that surrounds us, even that, as offensive as it is to decent people, is not Satan's great work. According to the New Testament scriptures, following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Satan got religion. You ever hear that term on your job well so and so got religion? Satan got religion when Jesus rose from the dead. You see, the Bible says when Jesus rose from the dead he had conquered sin and death and hell. Revelation one makes that clear. He had rendered the devil powerless. The Bible says in Colossians two fifteen he spoiled principalities and powers. The Bible says in Matthew twenty eight eighteen that he triumphed openly over Satan and all his hosts. Satan once had the power of death, but now all power, and here's the Matthew twenty-eight verse, all power is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the devil found himself after Jesus rose from the dead, a big bad boogeyman with no weapons left in his arsenal. You read rapidly of the decline of devil possession and unclean spirits as the book of Acts runs its course, where the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ arrives on the scene the devils clear out. And Satan quickly found that he needed another method of operation if he was going to continue to drag souls into the fires of hell. And so quickly Satan began establishing religions. Oh, I don't mean the Buddhist religion, the Mohammedan religion, I don't mean anti Christian religions, I mean religions that bear the name of Jesus Christ. Why, if you go back and find the oldest and earliest writings of those men who lived in the first century after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, men strangely enough called church fathers, when Jesus said, Call no man on earth your father, Matthew twenty three nine. But not seventy years after Jesus rose from the dead, not long after the last of the apostles had been buried, men in the church who called themselves fathers were teaching that water baptism could get you to heaven. We're teaching that sacramentalism and rituals could get you to heaven. We're teaching that doing good deeds in Jesus' name could get you to heaven, and suddenly we find as Second Corinthians chapter eleven warned us that Satan has become an angel of light, and his devils had become ministers, and the warning went out from the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter twenty to beware of leaders among you in the church that would turn you away from simple faith in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That is the devil's work. The Apostle Paul stands in Philippians three and says to all who would seek to gain heaven by religion, to all who would seek to gain heaven by good works, that if anybody, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit recorded these words as true, if anybody could get to heaven by being religious, it would be Paul. He says, I am more religious than you, and my religion is more acceptable to God than yours is.

Paul’s Credentials And Religious Zeal

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Verse 5, circumcised the eighth day. God commanded that. Way before the law, back there with Abraham, God's friend, God's chosen man, the father of God's chosen race, Abraham gave, was given by God the sign, the seal of circumcision. That separated them from the Hindus, the Mohammedans, the Confucianists, from the white man, from the black man, from the Oriental man, that made that family of Abraham, that Hebrew family, separate and distinct, chosen and set apart by God, Paul says, I'm of that people. If you're not, I'm ahead of you two to nothing. Verse 5. Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew, the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee. Now all the Israelites were God's people, but the two southern tribes stayed true to God, and I'm one of them. All the Hebrews had God's law. The Pharisees held on to the law and held true to the law, and I'm one of them. However, the Pharisees said, but didn't do. But Paul not only said he did, he did. So he says, My religion is better than yours, my race is better than yours, my tribe within the race is better than the others, my sect within the tribes is better than the others, and my obedience to the teachings of that sect is better than the obedience of the others who adhered to those teachings in that sect. He's the finest religious man who ever lived. Then the Bible says in verse 6 concerning zeal persecuting the church, you say, Now wait a minute, how can that be good? It's simple. It's simple. God's law said in Deuteronomy 13 that if a man showed up among the Israelite people and claimed to be sent from God, don't go after him unless he can prove God sent him by working miracles. But if he works miracles and then tells you that you don't have to keep the law of Moses, don't go after him. And and Deuteronomy 13 says, This man and anybody who follows him is to be put to death. That's what it says. So Jesus Christ showed up and he said, I am God, I am changing the rules, you are not to follow Moses anymore, but to trust me. Listen to me. If he's just a man, you are bound by the law to kill him and all his followers. That's what the Old Testament scripture said. So when Jesus came and wrought miracles, and Jesus told people they didn't need the law of Moses, they needed him, Paul said, We're supposed to kill those people. And the rest of the Pharisees and the rest of the religious leaders of the nation were compromisers and unwilling to go to such extremes, but not Paul. He was so zealously committed to obeying God's law, he didn't care what you thought, he didn't care what public opinion was, he didn't care what the peer pressure was dictating, he just stood up and said, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we must kill these Christians. That's how zealous he was for the God-given religion. Now, when he found out on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9 that Jesus Christ was God, and as God he could set aside Moses and make grace through faith in the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ, the way of salvation, as God he could do that, and as soon as Paul recognized Jesus as God, he repented of his sin and of persecuting the church and was made a brand new man.

Why Law Keeping Cannot Save

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Now turn to Romans 10. If one thing's absolutely clear from Philippians 3, it's that you cannot be saved by keeping the law because Paul kept it and he wasn't saved. He couldn't be saved without faith in God. Romans 9 31. Romans 9 31. But Israel's Paul, which followed after the law of righteousness, that's Paul, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Look what God said. Back in Old Testament times, Israel had the law, and they were looking at that law, and they were trying to be righteous by keeping that law, and they fell flat on their face. They got up, got their eyes back on that law, tried to be righteous, and they fell flat on their face. And Romans 9 says what happened is that they just kept looking at that law and didn't realize they were falling over him. No matter how many times he brought them down, they never turned their attention to him. They got back up and turned their eyes on that law. And one day Saul of Tarsus going down that Damascus road and he put his eyes on him. And that changed everything. Romans 10 1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God. Sounds familiar? If anybody'd recognize zeal for God, it would be Paul, he had it. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. There's something they don't know. Philippians 3 8. Yea, doubtless, I count all things but laws for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. How about that? You know what the Israelite nation had? They had the law, and they were zealous for the law. They had commandments, and they were zealous for the commandments, but God Himself they weren't so keen on Him. They tripped and fell right over Him because they never knew Him. They knew His rules, they knew His regulations, they knew His ordinances, but they didn't know Him. Romans ten three, they could have. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Paul had the righteousness that came by keeping the law. He went as far as one could go keeping the law, but knew that would only get him to hell. When he found a righteousness that God imparts to a man solely on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ, he had to abandon all hope in the righteousness that came by keeping the law and put full and complete hope in the righteousness that God gives to those that trust Jesus Christ. And when he trusted God's righteousness, not his own righteousness, he found salvation in Jesus Christ. Verse five, for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, see not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ again from the dead, but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved for. And one day I put my faith and my trust in God through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And man, when I look at that righteousness, that righteousness, compared to the righteousness I had by keeping the law, I just abandoned every shred of confidence I ever had in myself, and I have opted to depend wholly and completely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How about you, my friend? Are you still trying to be good enough to get to heaven? Or have you trusted Jesus Christ in him alone?

The Curse Of The Law And Christ

SPEAKER_01 21:46

In Galatians 3, verse 10, the Bible says, For as many as are of the works of the law, as many as are of the works of the law are under the Curse. You say I'm a good person, but you're under the curse. You say I've never done this, I've never done that, but you're under the curse. God, God set the requirement. No church on earth sets the requirement. No religion sets the requirement. God requires the only way you can get to heaven is through the perfect, sinless, spotless, ever-pure, ever-holy, never failing righteousness of Jesus Christ. Nobody else measures up, never will. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Black, white, red, yellow, brown, cursed, male, female, cursed, Shinto, Buddhist, Mohammedan, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Atheist, Agnostic, cursed. If you don't do all things written in the book of the law, that's everybody. That's everybody. Verse 11 of Galatians 3 says, But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. Where's the evidence? Nobody keeps the law. It is evident for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Now look. Verse 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Jesus Christ is willing to trade his righteousness for your faith. If you will stop trusting your own righteousness and put your trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, God will save you. Not on your merits, but on the merits of Jesus Christ. Not by your good works, but by the good work of Jesus Christ, not by your law keeping, but by the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus to the law. Now hear me. Before you try, before you make any attempt to be a good person, let me tell you that the Bible says you can never be good enough. Before you make any effort to earn heaven by your deeds, I must tell you as a minister of God's word, your deeds will never earn you a place in heaven. That's not my opinion. That's what God said in his word. And if the best the best man, the most religious man, the most faithful man who ever lived gave you his testimony and said, On my best day I wasn't good enough. My friend, you must know on your best day you will never be good enough. So there's two options die in your sin and end up in hell, or trust Jesus Christ and Him alone. And by trusting Jesus Christ and Him alone, God will give you the righteousness that is needed to be saved by virtue of your faith in His grace. What a Savior. What a wonderful thing.

Trusting Christ Alone And Closing

SPEAKER_01 26:31

As we come to the close of the broadcast today, let me let me tell you that we have available in print of all of our books, this is probably the most essential and the most beneficial to those who will take the time to read it and study it. The book is called The Law, The Law, and it explains in complete detail all of these matters that we have touched upon today. And I believe with all my heart that this book on the law, what is the law? Why was it given? To whom was it given? What are its requirements? What's the relationship of Jesus to the law? What's the relation of the Krishna to the law? It's all there. And it will be a help to you, I'm sure of it. So when you visit our website, just look for that, or when you when you write to us, you may inquire about it. Either way, our web address is JamesKnox.com. All the good names were taken. JamesKnox.com. Our mailing address is 872 Glenwood Road. That's in D Land, D-E-L-A-N-D, B Land, Florida. The zip code number 32720. And that mailing address is in the United States of America. Now when you write, don't forget to inquire about that book on the law. When you visit the website, be sure and check. Take a look for that book on the law, as well as the entirety of this Philippians study. We are very blessed to be able to broadcast on many different radio stations around the world. We will leave it up to the announcer to tell you when this program will be heard again over this particular radio station. And we hope and pray at that time you and a friend that you invite to listen with you will join us for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast. Until then, I'm Brother James.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

May the Lord richly bless you and the five.