The Unknown Bible - Pastor Bevans Welder

The Religious Life

Phil 3:1-21

1-20-08

We are going to look at the religious life portrayed in this text during the first hour and then we are going to look at the Christian Life portrayed in this passage during the second hour – there’s too much good stuff to leave some of it till next week and there is too much good stuff to rush through it all in one hour – so we have found a convenient way to handle everything today and give you the complete picture of this chapter.

Paul unveils the Religious life in this chapter in a way that exposes its utter wickedness – these things he says about religion he did not believe nor could he see until he got saved – and then as a saved man he looked back on his religion and realized how ugly and detestable it really was – and so he gives you the plain view of religion from the eyes of God and from the eyes of a man formerly deceived by its deficiencies.

The Nature of Religious Men – Dogs, evil workers, [v.2], and enemies of the cross of Christ [v.18] – it is amazing to me that the sign of the predominant religion in this area is a cross when the preachers and practitioners of this religion care nothing for what the cross of Christ has done for them – everything they believe is absolutely contrary to what Christ did for us on the cross – dogs [without are dogs; 2 Pet 2 the dog has returned to his vomit; wolves in sheep’s clothing; ravening wolves] – in Europe we saw a statue of priest standing outside of a church with a wolf coming out of his robes – these guys are the ones who killed Jesus, Stephen, and James – in the Inquisition there were 5 million Christians killed by the religious crowd – they may be the sweetest, kindest appearing men you have known but they are evil – in 1 Jn 3:12 Cain was more religious than Abel but he was evil – the religious guys in Paul’s day were the concision [Gal 5:2; Acts 15:1]

The Righteousness of Religious Men – their righteousness is outward and in the flesh [v.4-6], it is their own righteousness [v.9] – and all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags [Is 64:6] – their righteousness is a form of godliness [2 Tim 3:5] – their righteousness is according to their own rules and standards [Mk 7] – nothing about the law would have compelled Paul to kill Christians – religious men do not “love thy neighbor”

The View of Religious Men – they live in the Past [v.13] – they look back on what they have done [confirmation, communion, confession, baptism] – all funerals of religious men regard their baptism as their inclusion in Christ and their guarantee of heaven – v.19 they mind earthly things – all the things that Paul mentioned about his religion were accomplishments of the past

The God of Religious Men – their belly [v.19] – the Catholics have the wafer – the Pharisees were worried about washing hands before eating [Mk 7:2; Matt 15:2] – Jesus showed them that an evil thought in their heart spoken through their mouth is what would really defile them Matt 15:11 – they didn’t realize that they must have a heart change Matt 15:18 – see Rom 16:17-18

The Glory of Religious Men – shame [v.19] – religion is designed to make you feel inadequate and guilty; to live in a state of dishonor – the thing they pride themselves on they cannot do [Jn 7:19] - there is none good no not one - all have sinned and come short of the GLORY of God – Paul gloried in his religious zeal and persecution when he was religious but after he got saved, he was so ashamed of it – they trade God’s glory for their religion and then when they see God’s glory they will be ashamed that they traded his glory for the glory of their religion [Rom 1] – when you strip a religious man of his glory, there is nothing left [it’s all outward] – strip a saved man of all of his outward appearance and there is God’s glory

The End of religious men – eternal destruction [v.19] – Matt 7:22-23 – Matt 23:33 Jesus assured the Pharisees that as religious men depending on their own righteousness, there was no way they could escape the damnation of hell