Following the Right Examples in Pressing for the Prize - Part 1

Alright, let's take our Bible. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. I don't know about you, but my copy of God's Word that I study with primarily and preach from on Sunday morning, it's kind of worn in some of these places. It's worn there in Philippians. It kind of knows where to go when I open it up. But Philippians chapter 3, we're going to be in verses 17 to 21. Now in two messages, we examine the previous verses. That would be verses 12 to 16. And those verses are titled Paul's example, pressing on for the prize. Of course, that was a part one and a part two.

Now in those verses, we saw that Paul was calling the Philippians to follow after him as he pressed on for the perfections of Christ as they are seen in Christ. He was calling them to follow after him as he pressed on and knuckled down for the upward call of God, which was and is the ultimate finish line of heaven. Now more specifically, we saw in those verses that Paul had a proper perspective about his spiritual life. He was dissatisfied, but he was not discouraged. We saw that he had a strong striving after the perfections of Christ as seen in the person of Christ.

And we saw that he had a focused fixation, which meant that he was forgetting what was behind and straining forward to what was ahead. We saw that he had a proper perspective in thinking this way and that he had a continual conformity in this way of thinking and living. And I challenge you if you've not gotten those messages, go back in and get those messages because so much of this teaching, especially in this chapter, really goes together. Now the overall lesson for us out of that teaching is this. We cannot allow ourselves to have a lazy view of the Christian life. And I'll use an illustration.

We cannot allow ourselves to have the lazy boy view of the Christian life. Anybody know what a lazy boy is? Anybody have a lazy boy? Yeah, I have a big recliner. It's not in my den. It's in our little back den in the back part of our house. Years ago before my father-in-law died, they were visiting at our house and I had an old recliner that was worn out. He was a rather large man and he leaned back and went all the way to the floor. And so he went to T.H. Perkins Furniture and he bought me a new lazy boy. But we cannot have a lazy boy Christian life. We've got to have a runner's Christian life. Isn't that what Paul had here?

We have to press on and sometimes knuckle down. So let's make sure we don't have a lazy boy Christian life. And you know, that's easy for us to do. You know, we grow in the Lord. We're doing good in our walk with the Lord. We get older. Life is a little easier and we can get comfortable. So let's be on guard for that. Now tonight we transition into verses 17 to 21. I've already mentioned that. And the teaching here is similar to what we've seen in chapter 3. But we cannot allow that to cause us to relax or discount the importance of what we have here. These verses all go together, especially chapter 3.

And they form a body of teaching that we really need in our Christian life. So let's read our verses, verses 17 to 21. Paul says to the Philippian church now, "Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself." Now if we have paid attention to what I have just read and what we've read together, we notice something new in what Paul says. In verse 18 he says that he had spoken to them often or he wrote to them often, but notice, "in tears." Now I'm reading from the English ESV so it says, "in tears." And we need to ask, is this odd that we find Paul in tears? Now in the original it really means weeping. As a matter of fact, the King James uses the word weeping.

Is it odd that we find Paul in tears or even weeping? And we also need to ask, what was he weeping about? Was he weeping about his situation? Was he weeping about his difficulties? Was he weeping because he was discouraged? Well we've already seen that he was not discouraged, although he was dissatisfied in his Christian life. Now we need to ask these questions and we need to see the answer to those questions. Paul was certainly not weeping over his circumstances, no matter how difficult his circumstances may have been.

Even though he was not satisfied in his spiritual walk, in that he was pressing on for the perfections of Christ, he was encouraged. We've seen that. He was not depressed. He was not down and out. Simply he was walking in joy and walking in victory even though he was not satisfied. So who was he weeping for? Well he was weeping for the Philippians. He was weeping for their circumstances. He loved them and he was greatly concerned for them, so he wept for them. And we will come back to that a little later on. But I want us to see that it was out of this great love.

It was out of this great concern for them that he wrote what he wrote and he wrote how he wrote. Now as we examine what he wrote, I want us to see that Paul right here is calling them to do three things. First of all, Paul called them to follow their examples. Then he called them to flee from certain examples. That's really easy to see. And then third, he called them to focus on what was before them. So number one, Paul called them to follow their example. Now before we get into Paul calling the Philippians to follow their example, we need to see Paul's heart in these things, and we can skip over this, but I think we need to see it.

He starts off this exhortation by using the word brothers. And this is the third time Paul has used this word in the letter. This calls me to go back and go back and look. We see this in verse one. We see this in verse 13 and then right here in verse 17. In verse one, he says, "Finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord." In verse 13, he says, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own." And here he says, "Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." And what we see in Paul using this kind of language is this, his love for these believers, his love and his affection and his care for these brothers and these sisters.

He knew these people. So he wasn't just writing to the church. He wasn't just writing to a church that he knew. He wasn't just writing to brothers and sisters, these brothers and sisters that he knew. He was writing to brothers and sisters that he loved, and he weeps. He literally wept for them out of a great love for them, out of a great affection for them, and out of great concern for them. Now, this is a tremendous, tremendous lesson for us. We should be a church that loves one another. We should be a church that really loves one another. We're concerned for one another, and we even express our affection for one another.

Think about it, the apostle Paul, the great apostle, he says, "Brothers, sisters, I'm so concerned for you that I weep for you." Seems real personal. And we should be a people that love one another. Have you ever come across Christians who look at you and talk with you and say, "Brother, I love you." Have you ever seen that? Usually the first time you hear it, it stops you. Why are they talking to me like that? It could be that they really love you, and we should be a people who love one another. We're concerned for one another, and we share that concern. We share those affections.

We even say that we love one another, and you know this takes time to develop. You can't have this overnight. It takes time to develop. In a lot of ways, it comes from the top down. Isn't that what we see with Paul in the Philippians? He was the great apostle, comes from the top down. And this should come from leaders in the life of the church. We should have concern for each other. We should love one another. We should share those affections with one another. And it was out of this love, it was out of this affection that Paul calls them to follow two examples. First he calls them to follow his example.

Now here it's easy to see what Paul was calling these Philippian believers to do. The English standard says, "Brothers, join in imitating me." The legacy standard says, "Brothers, join in following my example." The new American says, "Brethren, join in following my example." It's obvious. But what we need to see is Paul's heart in his motive here. He was in no way prideful. He was in no way prideful or sinful in calling these brothers and sisters to follow together his example. And these believers knew that Paul was not sinful in any way. They knew Paul very well. They knew how Paul lived. They knew his example.

And they knew his example was a true example for them to follow. And notice just how Paul kept things in order and how important his calling for them to follow his example was. First, he could call them to follow his example because he had already called them to follow Christ as their example first and foremost. In chapter 2, verses 5 to 8, Paul set Christ before them as their chief example. So Paul kept things in order. He says, "You follow Christ first and then you follow me as I follow Christ." And second, he could call them to follow his example because he had explained to them that he was not perfect.

They could not put him up on a pedestal as though he were perfect because he had just showed them that he was not perfect. In fact, he had just explained to them that he was dissatisfied in his Christian walk. So Paul kept them from putting him on a pedestal. And then third, he could call them to follow his example because they desperately needed a concrete example. They were surrounded by pagans. They were surrounded by pagans in a pagan culture. And the Judaizers were pressing in. They were a legitimate threat. So they really needed a living, breathing example before them who was living out all of these things.

So they needed a real life example in these things. So Paul called them to follow his example. Now there is a lesson here and I know I keep saying this, but we need mentors. We need mentors. We need mentors in our lives. Now I said this before, heroes are those that we might not know. In my opinion, your heroes need to be those who have lived and died in time and history has told us if they are worthy of being our hero. But mentors are those in our life that we can see and we can touch. They can interact with us. They can see how we live. We can see how they live. And we need mentors in our lives. We need to be connected to mentors.

And we need mentors that we can see and we can identify with. They can be concrete, especially in certain areas of our lives. I can't tell you how many times I have mentored men as they have made decisions about their work life. I've spent hours with them, talking with them about jobs and promotions and opportunities. You might say, "Pastor, that's not very biblical." Yes it is because I'm helping them work out and find and discover God's will for their lives. And sometimes it's really come about because of my age. I'm a little older and I can look into their life and say, "Brother, I've had to deal with the same things.

I've had to explore the same opportunities." That's just a specific thing because my children are a little older. It doesn't mean that my parenting is true. I have spoken into the lives of some of the younger couples. They have children who are younger because I'm a little older. I can speak into that. And I'm talking about mentoring relationships and I'm talking about specifics. We all need mentors and our goal should be that we grow to the place where we can mentor others. You might say, "Pastor, I'm 28 or I'm 30 or 32. I don't know how many I can mentor." You might mentor one of these teenagers.

Not that you would ever take the place of their parents. I'm thankful that my girls have mentors in our church, ladies. They just go visit them and spend time with them. And I love it. But then second, he calls them to follow the example of others. Now Paul calls them to broaden their list of mentors. Paul calls them to look beyond looking to follow him into following a certain group of others. Now notice that the ESV says, "Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." The New American says, "Observe those who walk according to the pattern you have seen in us." And there are two things we need to see here.

First he calls them to observe or to keep their eyes on certain people. And here the idea is to fix your eyes or attention upon. It means to observe. It means to focus on. I thought about an example. I asked Kemp earlier in the hall, "When is he going to play baseball this spring and this summer?" A lot of times I try to go see some of the activities of our little ones and our teenagers. But you know baseball, a baseball player must keep their eye on the ball. What happens if someone's up to bat and they don't keep their eye on the ball? Well they might get hit by the ball. I remember when I was a kid playing ball.

I was playing third base and they were throwing the ball to me to tag somebody out and I didn't keep my eye on the ball. I turned my eye to look at the kid who was sliding at me because I took my eye off the ball. The ball hit me. So here Paul is calling on these believers to focus on, to keep their eyes on certain people. But who? Paul says those who walk or live according to the pattern that has been put before them. And that pattern would be the way of living the Christian life that Paul has taught and lived. He says those who walk or live according to the pattern that he has put before them. But a question, who are these others?

He says keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Well who are they? Who are the us? The others or the us Paul was referring to were men like Timothy. They knew Timothy. They knew him. He knew them. And men like a piperiditis. It's been a while since we talked about a piperiditis. Piperiditis and we could argue that a piperiditis would have been one of their finest examples besides Paul. And I say he is one of their finest examples for several reasons. First a piperiditis was one of them. He was out of their church. He was not an outsider coming in but he was an insider. He was one of them.

You know it's something about it when it's someone who is one of us. Then second a piperiditis was one who had been tested. He was sent out from the Philippian church to serve Paul. We know that. He almost died in his Christian service as he was sent from the church to travel a long distance to Paul. So a piperiditis had been tested. He had been proven. He had been proven and tested that he indeed could live this pattern. And then third a piperiditis had been sent back to them. He had been sent out. He had been tested. And he proved those tests and he came back to them a better man.

He came back to them a better pattern of living out this way. So Paul called them to follow other examples but notice they were certain examples. Not just any example. Those who had lived according to what Paul had taught. Those who had lived and did live like Paul. And again because I have brought this to us already I know we need these type of examples in our lives. And we need to be these types of examples and patterns for others. And look I know this takes time. We can't force this. But we must see that this is our spiritual responsibility. We should be patterns for others. We should be examples for others. And we should look for those.

Look if you were older oh the responsibility is really on you. If you're in some kind of a leadership position the responsibility is really on you. You might say pastor I just teach the children in the church. You have a big responsibility. They're watching you. And I put this in my notes this afternoon. This has to happen organically. You can't force this. This happens spiritually and it happens organically. So Paul called them to follow their examples. Well this gets us to the second thing I want us to see. Paul called them number two to flee from their enemies. To flee from their enemies.

We read verse 17 earlier we read it throughout the message but let's read verses 18 and 19. Paul says for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears weeping many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. Now Paul has clearly and repeatedly called the Philippians to follow many examples. Christ himself and others who live according to the pattern that he has put before them in Christ in his life and in all of this teaching.

Now Paul flips the coin and he clearly calls the Philippians to flee certain individuals. He even calls these enemies of the cross of Christ. That should get your attention. Enemies of the cross. But before I get into these enemies I want us to notice two things about the warning here. First this is a repeated warning. In the verses Paul says that he had often warned them about these enemies. But when did he do this? We can see this as a reference to earlier in the book specifically in chapter 1 verse 28. There Paul did warn them about their opponents.

But this very well could be referring to the warnings that he gave them when he was in person. Remember he had been with them before. But either way it is clear that Paul warned them often about the enemies. There's a lesson there. We should warn, be warned about these kind of enemies often. Then second this is an emotional warning. In verse 18 we see that Paul warned them even with tears. The ESV says tears while the new American says weeping. That is because in the original it actually refers to weeping which was much more. It is much more than shedding a tear or two.

So here we see that Paul warned them of their enemies and he did this often most likely when he was with them and also in the letter and he warned them through tears. He warned them through weeping. I love what the scholar William Hendrickson says about Paul's weeping and I'm quoting here. He says, "Because of his great love for the Philippians the apostle actually weeps when he reflects on the fact that these enemies of the cross are trying to seduce the members of the church, the church established in Europe." The first one.

He weeps as Mary of Bethany because of her brother's death in John 11.31 as did Mary Magdalene on the morning of Christ's resurrection in John 20 verse 11 and he continues. One of the greatest secrets of Paul's success as a missionary was his genuine personal interest in those whom the Lord had committed to his spiritual care because his love for the um was so real and tender. His heart was stirred to its depths when danger threatened them. And my question for us is this. Do we feel this way about our brothers and sisters in our church? Do we feel this way about those we minister to in our church?

Those who are under us in small groups, the children that we teach, those that we mentor and help disciple, do we feel this way and do I feel this way about you? If we see others possibly tempted by enemies of the cross, are we moved to tears and weeping as we would warn them? Now if we look at verse 19 we can see that Paul describes these ones, these enemies that he is calling the Philippian brothers to flee from, we can see that he describes them. But before we get into describing these enemies we need to ask who are the enemies?

Now Paul does it specifically say and when you look at different scholars and commentators you'll see two or three opinions. Some of you do some study so you'll run across that. Some say that Paul is referring to the Judaizers that were a real and legitimate threat to the church. Warren Wiersby says the Judaizers were the enemies of the cross in that they added the law of Moses to the work of, they added the law of Moses to the work of redemption that Christ wrought on the cross.

Their obedience to the Old Testament dietary laws would make a God out of the belly and their emphasis on circumcision would amount to glorifying, glory in that about which they ought to be ashamed. MacArthur offers three opinions. He says the enemies of the cross were either Jew or Gentile or both. Of course if these enemies were Jews then Paul was referring to the Judaizers. But as MacArthur points out if these were Gentiles then these were the false teachers that held to the dualistic philosophy that was prevalent in contemporary Greek thought.

MacArthur says and I'm quoting, "Those heretics, forerunners of the dangerous second century heresy known as Gnosticism, they taught that spirit was good and matter was evil. Since the body is made of matter it is intrinsically evil. Salvation ultimately involves not the redemption of the body but deliverance from it. Thus since the body is incorruptibly evil it does not matter what one does with it." MacArthur goes on to say that the Judaizers added to the gospel and the Gentile false teachers subtracted from it. Now I question, well who were the enemies? Who's Paul describing? The Judaizers? These Gentile false teachers? Or both?

Now for me I believe that Paul is referring to the Judaizers for two reasons. First he has been warning the Philippians of the Judaizers all throughout the letter. Second the Judaizers were a real and an imminent threat to this congregation. We've already seen that they are really lurking outside the door. They're not just across town. Now was there a Gentile threat? Possibly. It hadn't been mentioned yet. So I'll take the path that Paul is addressing the Judaizers and he is warning them with weeping. He is warning them with great emotion to flee from those enemies of the cross and their influence.

Now if we look at verse 19 we can see that Paul describes these enemies and he describes them in four ways. He gives us four things about them. Now tonight I'm going to briefly describe the enemies and next week I'm going to describe the enemies and I'm going to go a little deeper and we'll finish the rest of the message and I'm going to show us two ways this applies. We're going to see how this applies to the Judaizers, those who add to and then we're going to see how this applies to those Gentile false teachers, those who subtract from them. But first Paul says they face destruction. Look at verse 19.

Their end is destruction and their end is destruction for one reason and one reason alone. They have rejected salvation in the cross of Christ and the cross of Christ alone. They have rejected salvation by grace alone and Christ alone and by faith alone. So their end is their ultimate destination, eternal destruction. Second Paul says they serve their own appetites. Look at verse 19. Their end is their destruction, their God is their belly. Here Paul speaks of their appetite but he is speaking of a spiritual appetite not their physical appetite like we hunger for food.

And Paul is saying that their appetite is their own fleshly sinful desires, those of their bodies. And if Paul was speaking of the Judaizers, he was speaking of their sinful desires in keeping the Jewish dietary laws. But if he was speaking of the Gentile false teachers, he was speaking of their sinful desires in their unhindered physical pleasures that they sought. Now I think he's speaking of the Judaizers but I can see where it would apply to the Gentile false teachers. Third, Paul says their glory is their shame. Look back at verse 19. Their end is their destruction, their God is their belly and they glory in their shame.

Now this seems strange but what Paul is aiming at here is this. These enemies of the cross, these false teachers bragged and boasted in the very things they should have been ashamed of. They bragged and they boasted that what they did was spiritual and godly but actually the things they did should have been shameful. Then fourth, Paul says their minds were on earthly things. Look back at the verse. Their end is their destruction, their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. Finally Paul is saying that their minds were on temporal things, not on eternal things.

William McDonald says eternal issues and heavenly things did not disturb their groveling in the muck of this world. MacArthur says their earthly focus offers evidence that they, that the false teachers were not saved. I think that's obvious. What Paul called these Philippian believers that he loved, brothers and sisters, that he went far. He called them to flee from those enemies of the cross and then he described them. Now for us, what should we learn and see here? Of course I've not covered it all. Why don't we just move on? Why would I come back and flesh out more who these enemies were, what these enemies were?

Why would I even describe how it applies to the Judaizers and the Gentile false teachers? Look, listen church, we must seek to fully understand who these enemies were, how they operated, what that meant for the Philippian church and how we can face the very same dangers. We must understand the Judaizers and how they added to the gospel and how that goes on today. We must understand the Gentile false teachers, how they subtracted from the gospel and how that goes on today. We must understand how these two types of enemies can attack us and what that looks like. I'll give you a clue as to why this is so important.

We've had some enemies of the cross come into our church before. We've had some who came and added to the gospel and praise God they're not here. Now in closing, I want to give you the title of the message. Following the right examples in pressing for the prizes later on in the verses, verses 20 and 21. Look at how simple this is. Much needed but simple. We need right examples to follow. We need to know and understand those wrong examples and then we need to flee from them and our goal is pressing on for the prize.

Now let me tell you a real short quick story that for me makes this kind of teaching so important and taking our time so important. I have an old friend, a believer, he would say that God used me to greatly influence him to Christ. Doesn't live here. And I saw him running his race, pressing on like we see here. I saw him running his race, stretching for the prize but he was interrupted by some enemies of the cross. He got involved in the church that was very legalistic, very legalistic. Ultimately they added to the gospel and he became so mean and so bitter and so engrossed in all of that kind of teaching.

Look folks, legalists are always mean. Remember that. They're always mean. I literally lost contact with him, a brother. He got to the place, all I could do was pray for him and I did. And Brother Keith and I made a little covenant together and we prayed and prayed. We prayed for him for a solid year and God rescued him out of that and I'll never forget. I spent hours many times on the phone helping counsel him through that. I'll never forget when he turned the corner on the phone, he sobbed like a baby and he said, "10 years I wasted, 10 years I wasted." And I just listened.

All because he was seduced by enemies of the cross and no one was there to warn him adequately. So don't think we can never be seduced by the enemies of the cross. And if we've walked with God long enough and been in the church long enough, we've seen others who have been either been seduced by those who add to or take away. So following the right examples, pressing on for the prize.