And with the word of prayer, we will begin. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us together here, few here, a few online, a few around the world and our great full to be able to study the word together and look into the book of Philippians and be blessed by it today. And then in our sermon and preaching time as well to gain some insight into the world around us. And we pray that today, above all things, we're faithful to you. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. And Philippians, the 11th time we come together to the book of Philippians today. And we begin where we left off last week in Philippians chapter two, verse 28, which was a longer section on Timothy and apaphrodites. As he wanted to send Timothy, he said, I'm not able to send Timothy. I need him here. So then he said, I'll send Epiphroditis back to you. Epiphroditis came from Philippi. We believe that he probably was delivering a care package, if you will, to Paul. And then when he got there, he must have gotten sick and it must have been a long sickness. In fact, he was dying to death in verse 27. But they had heard in verse 26 that he had been sick and they were worried about him. And so he desires to send him back and says, Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow, that is, one sorrow was that Paproditus got sick. The second sorrow was that you heard he was sick but didn't know anything more and you wanted to know more about it. And so with that, we pick up in verse 28. And this little section here goes down to verse 30. And I left this in the black letters because it is so specific to their situation that we can't really apply it to ours, although we did make last week, I'll just mention once again tied in a dispensational change, and we'll see more dispensational change here in a moment, or we'll see the same dispensational change mentioned in a little different way, that he was sicknying to death. And we talked about how it hadn't been that many years, eight or ten years ago, that from the time of this, that Paul, they were able to send out pieces of his handkerchief and to provide healing. So I would surmise that somewhere between I don't remember the dating that we had, let's say a 54, 55, when Paul was doing these great miracles to now about let's call it 64. And you could give or take either side of that. So you got an eight or ten year period somewhere between. There is the point in which God ceased to dwell, to deal directly with the nation of Israel. Certainly he has plans for the nation of Israel. He's going to bring those plans about. But his direct dealing and offering of the Kingdom, I think the miraculous gifts or the sign gifts attach themselves to the Kingdom. They are manifestations of the Kingdom. So somewhere between sending out handkerchiefs and here's this guy that has come to help you, and you can't even help him. He's lying there almost dead. That offer of the Kingdom was withdrawn. And shall we call it the full age of Grace began. And by the full age of Grace, what I mean is we don't have any overlap anymore. Now it is just the age of Grace that is being dealt with. There's not a national message, even though the nation still stands. And I usually put the end of the national message at 70 Ad, because I suppose there's a chance that Israel between, let's say, 56 to 70 during that almost 15 years, there's a chance they could repent and come back and God would begin dealing with them again. But I would say God's just not dealing with them. And that's just the time period it takes for the nation to lose any credibility at all. And the Russians, I think it was the Romans. The Romans come in and destroy it by 70 Ad. So there we see the dispensational change. I guess you would say that there it is, subtly down a little bit. We're going to see it given more on the surface. So now we begin with new material. In verse 28, I sent him, therefore, the more that him is apaphroditis, I sent apathitis, therefore, the more carefully that when you see him again, Ye may rejoice that, and that I be less sorrowful again. He didn't want this sorrow upon sorrow. And so it just picks up where we left off. Then we come into 29, which it's not directly to us, but you could certainly take some principles and apply it. And he says, receive him, therefore, the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation. Now, that last part there is the one that we could really apply is when there is the Philippian Church. Of course, he just wanted to say, hey, welcome him home, give him a big party when he comes home, have potluck supper with pork tenderloin and give them the big welcome that comes out and hold such in reputation. That's the part that we can take and value those that are willing to go to any degree to serve the Lord. It's one of the reasons why we have, say, the Missionary of the Month program. Even though we don't get a lot of missionaries traveling right here through towers, we get to meet them through kind of long distance through that way. But we look and say, okay, who are a paproditis kind of people, that they're the ones that say, yeah, I'll go take him the gift. I realize the risk. I realized that things could happen. Obviously, traveling was a little more risky in that day than it is today with all the things. And so hold such in reputation. Lift them high, I think. And I wrote about this a little bit in evangelical garbage that right there hold such a reputation. Let me take it broader than it is right there. The values that the local Church has are the things that are going to keep going and be promoted. And I know this because I've been a pastor for 30 years. That's how I know it, that whatever the congregation values, the pastor is pretty much going to go along with it. He reads the congregation and he knows this is really important to the congregation. Yeah, I'm going to take that. I had a conversation just this week with a fellow who has been a Minister of music for many years, and he told me something that I had forgotten, but it was so well, he told me something that I had told him that I had forgotten that I told him this is a number of years ago, and he was going back into local Church Ministry after having done some evangelism Ministry. And he wanted to ask me, as the pastor says, okay, I'll be the Minister of music. How do I make the pastor happy? And I said to him, there's 20% of your job that the pastor really cares about. The other 80%, you can do whatever you want. He doesn't care about that. But there's 20% he really cares about. So I said, figure out what that 20% is and do it really well. And then you can do whatever you want. You've got a wide open door. As long as you do that 20%. That's all he cares about. Well, I think it's really kind of the same in the local Church. You don't have to so much verbalize to the pastor, hey, here's our 20% stuff that we really got to do, but the pastor picks up on it. Now, all that to say if the people in the Pew will value that which is important instead of that which is garbage, the Church will avoid garbage. That's how it came up in evangelical garbage. As I said, the preachers may have bought totally into the garbage, but if the people in the Pew would change their values and express their values and let it be known what their values are, and again, you don't even have to write a list. Say these are my values. It gets communicated in so many different ways, then that would change. I think even a Church that had a lot of garbage in it, when the preacher figures out, okay, my people, they like verse by verse Bible teaching. Well, I think I'll drop the sermons for Christianity, and I'll do verse by verse Bible teaching because they Pat me on the back when I leave, when I do that, and so they figure it out. So all of that was just very much jumping away from the immediate context here. But hold such in reputation. What is the marginal note that is given there? Honor. Such, okay, so honor of Aphrodite is holding reputation. And again, I would just bring that down to in the local Church or even in your Christian life, figure out what it is that would be God honoring that you should honor or hold in reputation. And I think just again, as you live your Christian life, that will be made known. Now it goes on back to that which is really specific to the situation there, because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service to me. Again, he's honoring him for the work that he does. Now when we hear that in English, it sounds like a little bit of put down epiphroditis regarded or supplied your lack of service to me, you all didn't ever do anything but pathoditis. He came through and did what you should have done. That's kind of the way it sounds in English. I am convinced just by the tone of the entire letter of the book of Philippians, that's not at all what he means. That's not the way we should take it to supply your lack of service to me is you couldn't all come, you couldn't all be here, but a pathhoditis came in your behalf representing you and supplied your lack of service toward me. And again, that's really kind of like we take Travis and Terry or missionaries the month, and we're not doing any service in the United Kingdom, but we care about service in the United Kingdom. And so they're doing it on our behalf and our lack of service is covered by them. And that's what he's saying of Aphroditis. So there concludes the little section 19 through 30 of Timothy and Papaditis, of a personal section, I guess you would say, of Paul's Ministry. And then we go into chapter three, verses one through three, and we see what I am calling on the outline, a new dispensational confidence. And that dispensational confidence begins in verse one. I have put this in blue. I think we can take this and say, okay, he's talking in a general sense to the brethren at Philippi. And we dispensationally can fit right in with where the brethren at Philippi are. So we can put on this and wear it. And in putting it on, he says, finally, brethren, rejoicing the Lord to write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Okay, finally, brethren. Now, obviously, this is one in which everybody loves to make fun of the preacher because he says finally and he's not done it's going to continue. The Greek word finally is actually I'm calling it a separator word. It's a word that says, okay, let's move on to another issue. But it's also a word that says, hey, this is of ultimate importance or a final importance, I want you to know. So by separator word, I mean it's one of those that you could pretty much look up and use it as a was it last week we were talking about tattletes and something. You could use it as a tattletale. If you're trying to make an outline, you could take this word and find everywhere it is used. And without even studying the context, you could say, I think that's the beginning point of an outline, because it's a separator word that says something like Moreover or moving on or the next subject is that kind of thing that moves us on. So Moreover, finally, of the utmost importance, now something different. Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. That really is his word to rejoice in the word. This section, by the way, will go on to this is chapter three, verse one. It'll go on to chapter four, verse nine, and after chapter four, verse nine, he has the final comments. And those final comments really are personal in nature, Greetings and such. So this is his final doctrinal push that he begins here in chapter three, verse one, going down to chapter four, verse nine. And so that's what we'll look at now here in our Bible study. So finally, brethren, Philippians, chapter three, verse one. Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Again, that's the heart of it, of what he would like. And he gives them that word to rejoice in the Lord. Now he is going to, I think, display or he's about to give a dispensational truth that he wants them to rejoice over. So rejoice in the Lord is not just a stand alone here. It is all by itself this kind of word to rejoice in the Lord. Maybe you could find that. And later on in chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice, would you like to sing it? And maybe that's just in a general way, but here I think it's a specific way. Rejoice in the Lord. Okay, rejoice about what? Well, he's about to tell us what he would like them to rejoice over. Rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you indeed is not grievous. But for you it is safe. By the way, when I repeat myself, it's not grievous to me. It's just safe for you. Paul, shall we call that an apologetic note to write the same things to you? Indeed, it's not grievous. It's almost like, pardon me, I'm going to repeat myself here a little bit what we're about to read. It doesn't appear that he ever said it in the book of Philippians. So to write the same things to you almost implies I've written to you before, and some of this is also in that letter. And here I come and I'm repeating myself to write the same things to you. That is the same things that I already wrote to you in the other letter that gets back, as we've talked on a number of occasions, is there first Philippians and second Philippians. And we only have second Philippians again, I think there probably are other writings of Paul, and they were not preserved for us in the Providence of God. He writes something that he had written to them before, not grievous, not weighty, not a burden to me, but he rejoices in that and says they would be I like this word here for you it is safe. The word safe. The Greek word is asphalis. We get the word asphalt from it for you it is asphalt. Now when you're driving along the road at 70 miles an hour, the safe place to stay is where? On the asphalt to stay on the asphalt. Shelley's grandfather, my grandfather in law, I guess you'd say, used to say before we would leave there, we would go and visit them and have a big drive home. And after when we were leaving, he would always say, now, remember, Randy, there's a ditch on both sides. That was his way of saying stay on the asphalt. The asphalt is where it's safe. So there really is a good word picture right there in that asphalt word for you, it is safe. So what he's doing is saying here is something that is this is asphalt Incidentally years ago. I don't know, it's been eight or ten years ago, but now probably if not longer than that. I was preaching in Romania, and I don't think it was this passage, but it could have been this passage. It was a word that had that asphalis. And so I spoke in the Romanian Church. Romanian churches are very I would say conservative think almost like here, if you go to a very strict, independent fundamentalist, put your coat on, button it up, have your King James Bible stand when you're supposed to stand. Sit when you're supposed to sit. Say Amen. Don't clap, say Amen. That kind of very formal type of environment. That's the way the Baptist churches in Romania are. Anyway, I preached a little bit and somewhere I remember talking about asphalt and staying on the asphalt and all that. This was all through an interpreter. Well, afterwards there was an American group there that was not associated with me, and they sang kind of the songs that are typical in the United States, which is what do they call them, 711 songs, seven words repeated eleven times. We wouldn't think much of it because we hear way too much of it here, but it wasn't the kind of music that they have there, and it didn't certainly had any depth. Well, afterward the pastor got up and in Romanian he talked a long time, and all the people were of course, none of us could understand it because we don't speak Romanian. But he told me afterward he said, you know, when I talk after that song, I said, yeah. He said, I was talking about your sermon. I said, oh, what did you say? He said, I told him that that song we just sang was not asphalt. That's the benefit of two languages. You can kind of correct right there in the point. But anyway, he says, okay, this is something that's asphalt for you. This is something that's safe. It's not grievous. I want to bring it about to you. And then it gives this interesting word in verse two. Here's the safe stuff. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Okay, this three fold. Beware or an interpretive question. Two interpretive questions, I guess you would have here. One is, are the dogs and the evil workers? Excuse me. And the concision, are they all the same group or are there the dogs over here? Beware of them. And just as soon as you're safe from the dogs, here come the evil workers, and then you take care of them, here come the concision. Now, it's an interpretive question. The language certainly allows for three different groups, but I don't know who the three different groups would be. It would be pretty impossible for us to figure out. Okay, here's what he means when he's dogs. Here's the evil workers. Here's the conclusion over here. Excuse me. Once again, what we've got here is collectively one group of people, the enemy, so to speak, to the truth and especially to the dispensational truth that he is bringing about. So I mentioned two interpretive issues. The first interpretive issue is are we talking about one group or three groups? I'm going to go with one. The second group is who are they? Who is this? So beware of dogs. Now, obviously, here I don't think anybody would ever say he's talking about canines, actual dogs. And there are certain canines maybe you should be aware of, but most of them aren't, quite frankly. But I did look it up as I was studying here the particular word here, Kuano or something. We get the word canine from it the Greek word. I looked it up and then I also looked up just the English word dogs. And it appears I don't remember on the outline if I gave you the count of how many times dogs appears in the Bible. But Interestingly for us dog lovers, it never presents dogs in a favorable light. Dogs in the Bible are always a look down upon animal, kind of like cats should be. And in the Middle East, even to this day, dogs are not looked upon like for Americans. We have our dog. The dog comes in, he sits on our lap, he sleeps in the bed, all that kind of stuff. The dog is part of the family in the Middle East. Even today, the dog is the animal out there, that's kind of the mangy old thing and kick that thing, chase him out, get rid of them. He's a pestilence animal in the mind of the Middle East. And yet cats, you see cats everywhere in the Middle East. They are sort of the house pet, if you will, of the Middle East. So I suspect that that culture has been that way for at least 2000 years and really into the Old Testament, too. Remember, in Psalm 22, verse six, Psalm 22 is about the crucifixion and I'll paraphrase it, but Jesus says the dogs have encompassed me or it's prophetic of Jesus and the dogs have encompassed me and it's referring to those who are crucifying him. So that's kind of the tone that you get of dogs through the Old and the New Testament. So again, clearly, what would you say a metaphor that it's talking about now, evil workers, that's not so much metaphor, I think. Evil workers. He's talking about evil workers, workers of evil. And there is a similar warning in that Paul gives it to the Corinthians on evil workers. Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, verse 13 says seen for such our false Prophet, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into Apostles of Christ. Now here they're called deceitful workers, deceitful workers, he associates with false prophets, false prophets who are transforming themselves into Apostles of Christ. So if we connect that here to verse two, beware of evil workers, we're talking about those who are false prophets. They come and they claim to be Apostles of Jesus Christ, but they're not. So again, putting them all in the same category, the enemies of Christ, the fake workers of Christ that come in deceit. And then he says, beware of the concision. Now the question is what or who is the concision? It's an interesting phrase, both, I suppose, in Greek and in English, because you're thinking about it and you're thinking what is the concision? I know of the circumcision, but what is the concision? And that if you were to look up that word in English, this is the only place you're going to find it. Confision. If you were to look up the word in Greek, this is the only place you're going to find that particular word. So there's nothing to compare it to. On what is the. But the word catatome is tome is a form of the word to cut. We've talked about it before. Ortho Tomeo is to make a straight cut to rightly divide Tomo. Tomo is all the same root word. And of course the word Atoma. You cannot cut atom when it was named anyway. And so Tomeo is cut. Kata, you may remember, is the Greek prefix that fortifies the word as far as you can go with it. So catatomay is the three blind mice. Three blind mice. Is that the one with a farmer cut off their tails with a Butcher knife? It is the one, isn't it? Three blind mice. She cut off their tails with a Butcher knife and it's completely cut. So it's used a couple of times in the Septuagen. One of these days we're going to talk about the Septuagint and some of the myths about the Septuageint, but that's just a sprinkling for another day. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and it uses it, Leviticus 21, verse five and one, Kings, 1828. And both times it's used in the sense of mutilations, heathen, pagan cutting rituals, and not in a good sense. Now, I think that becomes then similar to Galatians, chapter five, verse twelve, though Paul does not use the word catatoma here, but Galatians five, verse twelve, they were even cut off, which trouble you now? He's talking about there in the book of Galatians, he's talking about how the Judaizers are coming and requiring circumcision for those who are not under the law. And circumcision, they don't need circumcision to be saved. And he gets, shall we say, somewhat graphic here when he says, I wish they were just cut off. It's a play on words that he brings here. And so when we come here, beware of the mutilators, I guess you could say beware of the mutilators. And I think what he's talking about again, it is an interpretive matter, but I think what he's talking about is Judaizers. Those who have taken the law misused it, misapplied it, for example, trying to take the law and provide Salvation through the law for those who are Gentiles. And every time you take the law and you begin to apply it outside of its application, you always extend it. It's always worse. So, of course, the easiest example would be the instruction that we've talked about a number of times, the instruction not to boil a kid in his mother's milk. And from that the Jewish people today would say, don't have cheeseburgers. Now, don't mix meat and dairy is what they say, don't boil a kid and it's mother's milk. Well, you go from cutting to mutilating, you expand the whole thing. So I'm going to put this in the category of Judaizers and maybe even the whole thing, because I think he's about to tell us about this dispensation of the Grace of God under which the Philippians are living. And who would be the enemy to the dispensation of the Grace of God. Honestly, it was not those who worshiped Greco Roman deities. They were not the ones coming out and saying, oh, you all should not live free from the law. It was the Judaizers. We're about their only enemy that we're coming out and doing this. So here beware the dogs, the evil workers, beware the concision. I think these are those who want to put them under the law and even expand what the law can do on their behalf. And here we are, free from the law. And so he gives this warning about this group of people, those who are requiring, say, a circumcision for those who are not of the circumcision. In fact, if we look at Romans chapter two, verse 25, it says, for circumcision Verily profit us if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Now, this was a little bit different dispensationally. But notice what he says here. Circumcision, profiteth if thou keepth the law. But he's telling the Philippians they're not under the law. What's the profit of circumcision? None. So he calls them the mutilators, if you will, beware of the dogs, beware the evil workers, beware of the concision. And once again, this fits the premise that we've had that by now, when you get to Paul's writing to the Philippians, there is no Kingdom offer being offered to Israel. He's pulled that off the table, put it in pause. He's going to give it to them at the end of days. But for now, he's saying God is not dealing with Israel anymore. He's just dealing with individuals. And individuals are not saved by their obedience to the law. That was something that was nationally for Israel. God's not dealing with Israel, so he's dealing with individuals. Well, when he's dealing with individuals, do you follow all the Ten Commandments and keep the Ten Commandments and then the 603 that go beyond the Ten Commandments? Are you doing all this? No. So beware of those who want to put you under the law, if I can interpret that and paraphrase that real quickly. Now, he goes then in verse three and he says, for we are the circumcision. Wait a minute, that's a very unusual thing for Paul to say, because every time Paul talks about the circumcision, he's talking about the Jews and the Philippians don't appear to be all that Jewish. So he says now in the dispensation of the Grace of God, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. Now I'm going to reorder this so we understand exactly what he says. We which worship God and spirit are the circumcision. Basically, he says, there's a new game in town, there's a new dispensation. God's not dealing with the circumcision of the flesh. He's now dealing with the circumcision of the heart, and we which worship God in spirit. Now we are the circumcision. Now, again, he's speaking a little metaphorically as he does. What is the passage? Is it Colossians two, verse eleven. He talks about the circumcision of the flesh. The Colossians. He says, we don't have the circumcision of the flesh. We have the circumcision not made with hands. And so here is what he's talking about. Those who worship God and spirit have the circumcision not made with hands. We are the circumcision and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, whether it be circumcision or bringing your sacrifice or whatever the Jewish Torah law required. We have no confidence in the flesh. Now, I think that even that statement right there, we have no confidence in the flesh. That is one that tells us of a dispensational change, because in the past there were deeds of the flesh that had to be done and had to be carried out. And so Paul is about to say, hey, during that day, I had more confidence than anybody. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was of the tribe of Benjamin. I was circumcised on the 8th day here's my fleshly credentials he's about to list. And he says, now, all of that's on the dung heap, none of that matters anymore. We have no confidence in the flesh. So this, again speaks dispensationally to where we are today. How do we stand complete in him, or how do we stand confident in him? Well, it's by Grace through faith not works. And in that way, we can stand before him. So I think, though, again, it's a little bit let me back up again to verse 27. So here in verse 27, last week, we looked at, we said, hey, suddenly here there's been a dispensational change. Something is very different because Paul used to send out his handkerchiefs and heal people. And now a papaditis was sickened to death right there in Paul's presence. And Paul's not doing anything. So what's up here? Either he doesn't like epaphroditis, which he tells us he does here, or there's been a change, which means all those manifestation, miracles are not being exercised. Now something has happened. Something has changed, definitely. And so we surmised, hey, the dispensation of the Grace of God now is in full effect. It's not overlapping with the offer of the Kingdom anymore. There's not that overlap. We're completely overhearing the dispensation of the Grace of God now. It's not on the surface, but by logic said something's got to be different here. And then we come into chapter three and he says, beware of the conclusion again, I think this is the group over here. But even more, I would say the unbelieving group of Israel, the concession, those who want to just add law upon law, if you will, and says, hey, we who worship God in spirit, we are the circumcision. We are the ones that God is. We're the body of Christ, if you will. And so, again, it's not completely on the surface, but if you read the Bible dispensationally, you have to say, or if you just read the Bible closely and literally, you have to say something has changed here. The circumcision used to be a certain group of people. And now he says, we're the circumcision. What's up with this? We're not even circumcised and we're the circumcision. And he goes from, it's not a thing of the flesh anymore, which the elect nation. It was all about the flesh, really. Certainly there was a faith aspect to us, but you had to be a child of Abraham, right? I mean, that's the thing in the flesh. If you weren't a child of Abraham and you wanted to proselytize, of course, circumcision and other aspects of the flesh were brought in and you had to be able to come with this confidence of the flesh to say things like circumcised. On the 8th day, the stalk of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin Hebrew, of Hebrews touching the law of Pharisees. All this was that's Leslie stuff and he says that's what we used to trust in. But now we've got a dispensational change. And so though he doesn't just bring out the words, I don't know how you can read it without saying, yeah, there's been a dispensational change here and things have certainly changed in the way that God is dealing with individuals. Okay, I put verse four on the outline, But I'm out of time and the Church service will start here in a little bit. So I better stop right there. But we'll put verse four. I only put it on the outline Because I thought, well, I'll finish early. I don't know myself very well, do I? Anyway, wait, next week we'll pick up with chapter three, verse four, which works better anyway Because that starts this kind of new. I'll call it what I call it here. Paul's journey as Paul is going to kind of tell us how he went from the circumcision of the heart. His theological journey, in a sense, through this dispensation, Though he's going to share it in a very different way Than he shares in some other places Where he talks about receiving the mystery and whatnot. He's not going to talk about it here. He's just going to display what happened in his life. So that is the book of Philippians on our 11th session. And with that, we'll stop right there and take a little break before our worship service starts. Let me lead this in prayer. Heavenly father, we are grateful that it's not the confidence of the flesh upon which we rely today, dear heavenly father, but rather it is a free gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. And in this, dear heavenly father, I rejoice and rejoice that we are complete in Christ Because of the work of Christ that he has done in the death Bureau and resurrection. We ask this looking forward to a wonderful worship service And I pray that you would bless that time and the fellowship together. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen. And in just a few moments we'll start our worship service and let's see where are we? We got a weird one today. Transhumanism becoming ethical issue. That will be the sermon as we begin our worship service here in just a moment. So let's take a little break as the others come in and we begin and get going. God bless ya.