Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
Someone once said that the most powerful thing in the world is an idea. This is true because it’s like a seed that, once planted, takes deep root in our minds and hearts and influences how we think, feel, and act. Everything we think or do is directly related to the ideas we hold. We can almost trace everything wrong in our lives to some deeply and stubbornly held wrong idea.
That is why I always say that, next to sin, the greatest danger for your soul and mine is false teaching. Nothing can do us more harm than false teaching. It plants a wrong idea even in a true believer’s life and can waste many, many years of his life on a wrong path, but it takes billions of souls to hell using that false idea. The great work of all false teaching and teachers is to never allow people to come to the true gospel and be saved.
The true biblical gospel is the amazing truth that an infinitely holy and inflexibly just God accepts depraved, wretched sinners as perfectly righteous in His sight on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. When we preach that glorious message in its freedom and its fullness, the devil, in every century, always twists that gospel truth in men’s minds and plants one of two horrible, false, extreme ideas… the two greatest perversions of the gospel. It is like in Pilgrim’s Progress, where the path to heaven is a straight road, but if you go to the right or left, you will be eaten by one of these two monsters. One monster is called legalism and the other is antinomianism. They are very subtle, and they may be robbing some of you of the joy and blessings of the gospel without you even realizing it. In Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan shows how the protagonist was turned from the path to heaven to either go to Mr. Legality’s house or listen to the antinomian worldly-wise man, and he went the very wrong way. These are two terrible, infectious diseases that have infected even today crores of people. It has infected some of us sitting here.
The disease of legalism infects us by telling us that believing in Christ’s work alone for salvation is not enough, that something must be added to the work of Christ for God to accept sinners like us. In the apostles’ time, this disease worked through a group of people called the Judaizers. As churches began to grow in the first century, there were Jews who not only knew the Old Testament but also claimed to believe in Christ. They were nice people outwardly… they would look very holy, strict, and divine… they would pray, read, and fast so much. You will see them in Acts 15; they will come to the churches that the apostles and Paul planted and say, “Hello, brothers, we are Jews but we also believe in Jesus, Hallelujah. Do you know that if you believe the full Bible, you cannot be saved only by believing in Jesus? You have to be circumcised and follow a few Mosaic rituals.” It became such a big issue in Acts that all the apostles had to gather and write a kind of confession of faith letter, defending the truth and saying that teaching was wrong. But that false teaching didn’t stop and continued to affect churches. It affected the Galatian church. Paul powerfully deals with that error in Galatians. Paul’s rebuke is that they are “perverting the gospel of Christ.” He called it “a different gospel,” Galatians 1:8, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is one extreme disease. They didn’t deny faith in Jesus, but they added to that faith. That is legalism. Even today, our country is filled with this in different names.
Now, the second extreme infectious disease is antinomianism, which takes us to the other extreme. They offer a devilish logic. My brothers, if Christ’s work is perfect, Christ has fulfilled all the law—the ritualistic law and the moral law. We stand as perfectly righteous before God. All past, present, and future sins are forgiven. Hallelujah! We are elect; we have the imputed righteousness of Christ on us. So what I do and how I live is not at all important. There is no law, no 10 Commandments for those who are in Christ Jesus in the New Testament; that is all for Old Testament Jews… Christ has freed us… no rules for us… so we can dance, sing, drink, lie, covet, commit adultery, steal, and break the Sabbath. There is no Sabbath for us… because when we sin, where sin abounds, grace abounds, we get more grace. The word “antinomianism,” like anti-India, is “anti-law.” No law. Paul terribly rebukes this teaching in Romans 6. He explains that if you believe Christ has really died for you, the wonderful truth of the gospel is that Christ not only forgives all our past sins, but He also gives you a new heart, a new nature, and He writes His law in your heart to obey as the fruit of His salvation, for we are dead to sin. Antinomianism tries to remove what Christ produces in a sinner’s heart as part of the gospel.
You see how two diseases twist the gospel: legalism tries to add to what Christ has done for sinners, and antinomianism tries to remove from the gospel truth what Christ produces in the sinner’s life as the evidence of salvation. One of the Reformation fights against the Roman Catholic Church was this. The Roman Catholic Church was saying, “Faith plus works = salvation.” The Reformers said, “Wrong.” The Bible teaches, “Faith alone = salvation plus good works.” They put good works on the right side as a fruit of salvation. That is the correct formula. Good works are the fruit of true faith. Legalists add that on the left side, saying you are saved by works, not by faith alone. On the other hand, antinomians completely remove it from the right; it’s just faith, and you are saved, with no works in their math. So you see, if you don’t have your theological mathematics straight, you’re going to land up in tremendous problems.
“Pastor, we have come to hear about Philippians; why are you teaching all this?” Because as we open a new chapter in Philippians 3, these two false teachings are going to be a central theme. The overall structure of this letter is that Paul greets them, he calls them to live a life worthy of the gospel as a united church with humility following Jesus’ model, and at the end of Chapter 2, he tells them about his decision to send two great men of God, Timothy and Epaphroditus, to them.
Now as he comes to Chapter 3, he starts with “finally,” and in the whole chapter, he attacks these two false teachings broadly. He addresses the false teaching of legalism in verses 1-14 and the false teaching of antinomianism in verses 15-21 to the end of the chapter. Paul realizes that this new, wonderful, and growing Philippian church, only ten years old, will be attacked by these diseases. They are in grave danger, and the church may become weak or even die. As a faithful Shepherd wanting to protect his sheep, he warns them of the great danger of these two diseases.
It is important for all of us to learn this. If you are infected with any of this, you and I cannot see the glory of the gospel or enjoy its blessings. Our country is 95% infected. If we live in such an infected community, what do you need? A vaccine. I am sure many of us may be affected with this or may get it in the future. So today, as we open the chapter, we will look at the first two verses under three headings.
Three Antidotes/Vaccine Doses Against the Infection of False Teaching
Remember RRR—not the Oscar-winning Indian movie, but my sermon title today. The three vaccines are Rejoice, Repeat, and Rebuke. Rejoice in the Lord. Repeatedly learn foundational truths. Beware and rebuke all kinds of false teachers.
First: Rejoice
There is a transition in this verse from the earlier chapter with the word “finally.” When a preacher says “finally,” people all get excited—”oh, he is going to finish.” When Paul says “finally,” there are two more chapters left. The word “finally” can be translated as “furthermore.” It is a word used by Paul to get all of our attention. As if to say, “Philippians, for a moment, forget about all I have said and concentrate all of your attention upon what I am going to say.”
With deep affection and deep concern, he calls them “brethren.” The warnings in this chapter may seem cruel, but they are all coming in a climate of family affection and an expression of deep, brotherly love. We have a wrong thought that if we are loving, we should not rebuke wrong teaching. If we have true brotherly love for souls, we will speak against false teaching.
The first vaccine/antidote to overcome false teaching is the main theme of the apostle. Notice verse 1: “Rejoice in the Lord.” It comes as a command. Philippians are to learn a lifestyle of regularly knowing and rejoicing in who Christ is and what Christ has done, is doing now, and will do in the future. That should be the highest joy of their lives, their inseparable bond, and their exalted relationship with Christ. It should be their position and privilege, who they are in Christ. Rejoice in that. This joy is different from all worldly joy that depends on circumstances. How wonderful that it is given to us as a command by God through Paul… he wants us to always rejoice… We can always rejoice in the Lord… because whatever may happen in my life… what Christ has done and what I am in Christ will never change… right? It is always well with my soul. Even an Old Testament believer knew that even if the fig tree did not blossom and nothing went right, “I will rejoice in the Lord.” If I know Christ as the sovereign Lord, my life is in Christ’s control, and there is nothing that will come into my life without His wise providence, and His promise is that all things will work for my good. It is joy in a relationship with the Lord that never changes. He is always present, ever close, ever loving, ever securing, and ever strengthening and providing. And we trust Him. Rejoice in the Lord.
This is the first antidote to all false teaching infections, especially legalism and antinomianism. You see, it is when we are not rejoicing in our relationship with Christ, when we feel Jesus is not enough, and when we don’t realize the supremacy of Jesus, that we open the doors for all these false teachings.
You see, the Judaizers came along and said Christ is not enough. To Christ and His righteousness, you must add circumcision and the rituals of Moses. Today’s Judaizers come and say being saved in Christ and reading the Bible is not enough. You have to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, fast and pray for 21 days, attend this church or mass, go to that pastor so he can lay hands on you and pray, and 101 other subtle ways you have to do this and that. They try to shift our faith from Christ to boosting our self-righteousness. Counterfeit Christianity is a strong danger for all of us because we’re all prone to pride and self-righteousness. We all want to take for ourselves at least some of the credit for our salvation. It will even teach us to twist the means of grace—Bible reading, 3 am prayer, or other good works like helping the poor and social work—as a means of salvation.
You see 101 ways today’s churches are all self-focused… “what I did” and “what I can do.” But the true gospel is all about what Christ did and is doing, right? Some preacher said, “Christ died for you because you are worthy. You deserve God’s mercy… You are saved because of your free will, you made the right choice, you are wiser.” What is all this but a cursed, false gospel that glories in the flesh, human worth, or merit? It is so dangerous and subtle. We all secretly like it; you go sit in such churches, and they make you feel so good. The moment you are infected with that teaching, our minds are so poisoned that we will not be able to see the true gospel of grace. Because you would begin to glorify the flesh in what you have done and can do, like a peacock spreading its self-righteous feathers, instead of rejoicing in what Christ has done.
So the apostle uses the theme of this epistle, “rejoice in the Lord,” as the first antidote against all false teaching. To the extent that the Philippians rejoice in the Lord, and in the Lord alone, they will not fall prey to the Judaizers. And likewise, they will not fall prey to the antinomians or the sensualists. For you see, the latter would make them rejoice in their so-called liberties—”oh, I don’t have to follow the law… I can live as I want.” For if one is rejoicing in the Lord, he cannot help but be transformed into that image from one stage of glory to another in that context of rejoicing in the Lord. We will become more holy instead of living an antinomian sinful lifestyle, where Paul will say their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame.
And so the great first antidote is to rejoice in the Lord. And so the apostle clearly understood that the practical result or tendency of all doctrinal error was to move the heart away from a simple, single-minded rejoicing in the Lord. I have seen in our own church that it is not those who regularly attend services, weekly meetings, and who are growing in the knowledge of who Christ is and rejoicing in that who fall to false teaching. When you stop growing in that knowledge and rejoicing, that is when you get all kinds of infections and doubts. You listen to false teachers and slowly drift and fall away.
Second: Repeat
“For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” Paul is conscious that he is repeating himself; he would have repeated the theme of joy or whatever he is going to say again and again to them earlier. So he says, “For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” But most pastors and churches don’t realize this. When a pastor repeats himself, people say, “Oh, I know this… he is again repeating himself… let me go to sleep.” They wonder why he is repeating; maybe he didn’t prepare properly or is tired. Even pastors have a wrong idea that true, Holy Spirit-powered, faithful preaching is being fresh and original and that a pastor should not repeat. Some even think that when Pastor Bala preached Thomas Watson’s book on repentance or when I preached on killing sin from John Owen… oh, we should not repeat, we should be original. For many years, I had the foolish idea that we should always be original, fresh, and never repeat.
Let me tell you that idea is nothing but foolish, egotistical pride, with nothing godly about it. I would never want to repeat some truth or even review what I taught last week. I want to be interesting and original always… while people are so forgetful and lacking an understanding of basic truths, you are fawning over your features as an original preacher, always new and fresh. Nothing but ego.
See, the great apostle says as a concerned pastor, “I want to repeat again and again.” Doing that is not tedious, irksome, hateful, or difficult for me, but it is safe for you. Because as a good teacher, Paul knows that repetition is the mother of all learning. He says my repetition will protect you. The word he uses is “safeguard”… More than anything, it will protect you like a fortress, like a vaccine against all these infections, so you don’t get infected. It will not cause you to fall and destroy yourself, or be overthrown by the enemy.
We learn from this example the great lesson that repetition of essential and central truths is a vital part of pastoral duty. It is a great antidote against false teaching, the central truths of our faith.
You see, I have probably repeated the 1689 Confession of Faith over 100 times, teaching different people. Before anyone takes membership, I spend months together teaching them that. Why? It’s not a burden… I have come out of the foolish and proud idea of originality. Doing that now is not difficult; I want to do that not only when taking you into membership but with all of you members again and again until you are thorough with the 32 chapters of the confession. Why? I can trace every problem you have in life as being directly linked to not understanding a truth in that or forgetting that truth. This is an accurate summary of the central truths of the Bible. If you are not grounded and thorough, mark my words, you will be infected with hundreds of false teachings today.
When there is class, some of you will say, “Oh, again 1689… we learned that… he will repeat…” and you don’t attend. We ask a few questions… no idea. We have members who are here for 10 years… not grown in truth… still babies. People who faithfully go through it, in a matter of one year, have acquired a clear understanding of the truth and have grown in a way that people with 30 or 40 years of experience don’t have. Oh, may God help us to learn this lesson of repeating the central truths to ourselves… don’t be foolish with the idea of originality… we need to repeat… Do you know that the 1689 Confession was the finest book written to defend the truth and guard us against false teaching? Every paragraph in the confession is a defense and an attack on the false teachings of the last 2000 years. It is so important that you learn that thoroughly.
Let me say with Paul as a pastor, “For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” Let me remind you, we continue to teach the 1689 on Tuesday at 8 pm. You are welcome to join if God makes you realize this.
Okay, so what are the antidotes against the infection of false disease? First R, rejoice in the Lord; second R, repeat central truths again and again. Third, beware and rebuke false teachers. “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!”
Third: Rebuke
We can see two things in this verse: the nature of the warning and the objects of the warning. First, see the nature, the way this warning comes… there is nothing like this in the Bible. I wish I can help you feel what Paul felt when he wrote this through the Holy Spirit. He uses that word not once, twice, but thrice. “Beware, beware, beware.”
It is like a man standing in a big crowd of people all talking about different things. He takes a big hammer and bangs it against an iron wall. Some people turn to him. Then he bangs it a second time, and half of the people turn to him. And a third time, he bangs it with full strength and makes a big noise. A hush falls upon that assembly. So the apostle, with a stroke of rhetorical genius, tries to grab all of our attention.
He says, “Beware of dogs.” We would have seen this on gates. It means to be alert and careful. If we are not careful and go carelessly, we will probably lose half a kilogram or a kilogram of body weight. You see the context; it doesn’t just come as a caution but as an apostolic command. The form of the verb is that of a present imperative—a command that has to be continuously obeyed. It calls for constant, vigilant looking. Imagine you are surrounded by these dirty dogs… not sure when they will bite… this command calls for a constant lookout not to be bitten by them. It is a spiritual command to be obeyed not only with the physical eyes but also to pay attention with the eyes of the soul, to be alert, to watch out, and to be continually on the lookout.
By pounding three times, trying to get attention, he summons the Philippians to the most intense and continuous watchfulness. The dangers to you, Philippians, are real. Don’t be naive or careless. “Beware,” the dangers are imminent. “Beware,” that’s the essence of the warning.
But now look at the objects. He gives three descriptions of one basic group of people, the Judaizers. Those are the people who claim to believe the fundamentals of the Christian faith but are determined to add “plugins,” putting plus signs where God put full stops in their math. There’s no indication that they were presently at work at Philippi. But they did enter the Galatian church, and the entire Epistle to the Galatians is this white-hot attack on this false teaching.
Here, he warns them before they come. Because if you observe the past track record of the Judaizers, they are like cuckoo birds who don’t build their own nests but sit in some other birds’ nests. So wherever Paul goes, he risks his life and works hard day and night to build the Gentile church. When the church is formed and is growing and believing and rejoicing that they are saved by grace alone with no works, these Jews are upset. “How can we observe all these rituals, and then Paul teaches that none of our Old Testament rituals are required?” After Paul leaves, like a cuckoo, they will try to come to that church and say, “Oh brothers, Hallelujah, we also believe in Christ, we were originally converted from the mother religion of Judaism.”
They will be very lovable, outwardly very devout, and carry an air of achievement and maturity in godliness. They will agree with all our basic Christian truths… but deceive the church with their false teaching. They would probably say, “We will teach you how to mature in Christ… You can’t be a Gentile and just directly come to Christ; you’ve got to be circumcised, and follow a few Mosaic rituals.” When we are new and growing, we don’t clearly understand the full purposes of God’s work in the Old and New Testaments. These Jews can easily deceive them by showing so many commands in the Old Testament to be circumcised. They made a big show of how they were following the entire Bible accurately, and “you are not.” Like today, so many get deceived by false teachers using Old Testament commands… Pentecostals use mostly all Old Testament verses… curse breaking… prosperity teaching… So these Christians are confused by these commands of circumcision… not knowing how it is fulfilled in the New Testament and that rituals are not needed, they start following these Jews, thinking we have to be circumcised to be saved. They will start spreading their heresy within the church. But this completely convolutes the gospel of God’s free grace. These teachers were called Judaizers because they were “Judaizing,” telling people you cannot be saved unless first you become a Jew and follow their rituals.
So Paul is talking about one group, but he uses three descriptions for them.
First of all, he calls them “dogs.” “Beware the dogs.” This is not talking about dogs as we think of them in our culture—man’s best friend. All children love pets, Amy loves a dog, a lovely, helpful pet, a guardian. In that world, it is different. Paul uses the word for packs of wild, ferocious dogs that would roam about eating whatever they could get their dirty mouths upon, packs of wild dogs that used to raid the garbage and eat anything they could find. If they were ravenously hungry, their packing together gives them a sense of strength, and they would even turn on human beings and eat them. Today, if you see a “beware of dogs” sign at a gate, at most if you go inside, you will get bitten, but you can get an injection and be healed. If you got caught with those dogs, they would not leave until they torturously ate and killed you, not leaving even after you die. Even just being bitten by them was so diseased and infectious that you would surely die in a few hours or a day; there was no injection. The idea here is that the danger is life-threatening. Even for Gentiles, dogs would be a ravenous, unclean scoundrel kind of creature.
Now for the Jew, the dog was a very sign of an unclean, defiling, and infectious animal. When a Jew wanted to use a term to describe his feelings about Gentiles who would eat anything, with no care for defilement, who were unclean and unfit for communion with the Jew? The term they used was “dogs.” You don’t allow them into the house, let alone the city. That is why Revelation 22:15, talking about heaven as the perfect Jerusalem city, says, “Outside are dogs.” “Dogs” is a metaphor used for wicked, unclean, condemned, defiling, dangerous men who are cast out of the presence of God eternally from heaven.
Can you imagine Paul’s first word for these legalistic Jews is “dogs”? Remember, he is a Jew; he will talk about his Jewish background in the next few verses. But when those same Jews try to add to the gospel and twist the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn’t say… “Oh, Philippians, beware of our dear misguided brethren, poor, dear, but simply ignorant brethren. They’re trying their best to get to God.” They believe in Christ… but they also continue to observe some old Jewish rituals. No, they are dogs. “Beware of the dogs.”
Are you amazed by this statement, that Paul would call these Jews, who say they believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah, but their only problem is they want to add a few rituals to the perfect work of Christ, “dogs”? We understand why Paul was not popular in his day. What will Paul say about a system that teaches that Christ will come and again build a temple, establish rituals like circumcision, and sacrifices—all these things—and add to the perfect work of Christ that He already fulfilled? Think about it…
Many will advise today, “Paul, if you speak like this, how will Christian unity be formed? We need an ecumenical movement. I mean, these are not pagan Gentiles. These people believe the Bible, they believe also in Christ. These people believe in salvation by the blood. Oh yes, they have a little problem with their plus signs and putting commas where they ought to put periods, but let’s be gracious. The Lord will help them to understand. Let’s be like the Lord Jesus.” Paul would answer… “no, no… I am being like Jesus.”
Because my Lord knew the danger of these false teachers, and the greatest and most terrible warning he gave was against false teachers. I am calling them “dogs,” but Jesus called them “ravenous wolves [who] come in sheep’s clothing” in Matthew 7. He called them “whitewashed sepulchers,” clean on the outside but full of dead men’s bones on the inside. He called them “children of hell,” and a “brood of vipers.” He called them “blind leaders of the blind.” “Both you and all you follow will fall into hell.” I am calling them “dogs” because I have the same love of Jesus for the Philippian church; I want to protect my children. So, “Philippians, beware of dogs.”
Then, the second description: he moves from metaphorical language to blunt, plain language. He calls them “evil workers.” “Oh yeah, they’re workers, all right.” Like their spiritual forefathers, the Pharisees, they “compass land and sea to make a proselyte.” They’re full of zeal, as Paul says in Romans 10, although it is not a zeal according to knowledge. They thought they were obeying God’s law, outwardly moral people, zealous for religious activities. But their religious works to save themselves were evil in God’s sight because the root of all their works was pride; they trusted in their good deeds as the means of saving them. Such trust in human works brings glory to man and nullifies what Christ did for us on the cross.
They run here and there to convert people, influencing synagogues and churches, and influencing believers. But the product of their work is not the good work that the gospel produces. It is evil. They make their disciples doubly worthy of hell. They are evil workers.
And then he adds a master stroke when he calls them in the third place: “Beware of the mutilation!” This is unbelievable. Talk about offensive, that is offensive. It’s a terrible way to describe them. They prided themselves on circumcision. Paul was using a play on words for the word circumcision. You see, the Judaizers came around saying, “We are of the circumcision,” teaching that if you are to be saved, you have to be circumcised. Paul doesn’t give them the dignity of calling them the circumcision party. He calls them the “concision,” “mutilation.” You know what the word means? It means “mutilators,” “butchers.” The NAS translates it as “false circumcision.” In fact, the word “mutilation” means these false teachers can poison your soul so severely that they will utterly distort your view of the gospel and ruin your soul. You get into them, and they will butcher you. They go around saying they are God’s preachers teaching circumcision, but they are nothing but mutilators. Not just mutilators of your flesh, but mutilators of your souls. They can damage and cause an utterly ruinous effect on a man’s soul.
Oh, they come with their speeches; they come with plausible arguments and acceptable reasons, but they are out not simply to cut off foreskins but to mutilate souls and take them to hell with their works righteousness. So Paul says there are three antidotes against false teaching, RRR. You have to not only positively rejoice in the Lord and repeat central truths, but you also have to be on your guard continuously, watch out, and be alert to the danger of these Judaizers. They are dogs, they are evil workers, and they are mutilators. Paul is actually turning the tables, as these Jews would call Gentiles “dogs,” “evil workers,” and “mutilators.” He turns it around and says, “these are they.”
Application
Now, what are we to learn from this warning? Well, let me set before you three very simple but vital lines of application this morning.
Number One: Constant Watchfulness
Constant watchfulness for false teaching is not a small part of continuous Christian duty and responsibility. There is no evidence that the Judaizers had already come into the Philippian church, but knowing their patterns, they will attack the church. Paul says, “Beware, beware, beware.” They are not good, harmless people; they are spiritual dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. They will bite you and infect you with their virus, and make you join their evil work, and they are mutilators who will butcher your souls.
Would to God these infections would have died in the first century; these monsters still lurk around our church, seeking whom they may devour. With our remaining sin, there is a subtle attraction you and I have for these teachings more than for the gospel truth. Give them a little room, and we may fall. Therefore, constant watchfulness is not a little but a great duty.
And as with the Philippians, so with us. You see, it is not enough to be positively rejoicing in the Lord and growing by hearing central truths repeatedly. Some people think, “Oh, if we grow in truth, we can escape false teaching.” If that were enough, and if it were enough for Paul to say, “rejoice in the Lord” once, why did he say “BBB” three times? He should have just said “RRR.” Some people say, “Oh, Pastor, let’s not talk about false teachers or what others do. Why simply judge them? God will judge them. Let us only positively learn and preach the truth and rejoice in the Lord.”
Do you realize that is a wrong, unbiblical mentality? This passage teaches that rebuking and exposing false teachers is part of a Christian’s and a church’s duty. What can be a worse rebuke than this… “dogs,” “evil workers,” “mutilators”—and then to be watchful, to be on alert for false teachers? It is a vital part of the ministry and Christian duty. When men get wiser than God, that is when we become infected with all forms of spiritual sickness and evil.
I, as a pastor, and the deacons and members, all need to obey this command and cultivate a spirit of military, spiritual watchfulness… like the military who guard the borders of our country so that enemies don’t cross. We have to stand on a watchtower and observe any kind of slight wrong teaching at the church’s borders. The challenge today is that they may not physically come into our homes; they come to us through TV and mobile phones. In just a one-minute reel, you listen, and they bite you and inject you with their poison and leave their infection in your souls. We are not sure how many of you are getting affected. Think about it… some of you don’t take Bible truth, church, and confession seriously because of some kind of poison working in your souls. Maybe you are already infected. Brethren, learn… if your mind gets infected with their ideas, they will twist and throw you into hell. It is so important… “beware, beware, beware.” Will you take false teaching seriously? If you are not alert, you will get infected… and it’s no use crying after getting infected.
Second Lesson: Holy Harshness
Holy harshness, and angry rebuke against false teaching are not inconsistent with biblical love and gentleness. We saw from the beginning how Paul was so emotional with love for the Philippians—”I yearn with the compassion of Jesus Christ.” He spoke about the sensitive, empathetic love that Timothy and Epaphroditus had for the Philippian church. All of Chapters 1 and 2 are overflowing with love. Yet, in the very next verse in Chapter 3, when he turns to false teachers, the same apostle, with the same heart of love and empathy, says, “beware the dogs, beware evil workers, beware the mutilators.”
You see, the language of holy harshness and a rough rebuke to false teachers is not at all inconsistent. Some people tell us when we rebuke false teachers, “There is no love or compassion in the church; we should not judge others.” How wrong are those arguments? In fact, this will be the language if you have true love. Why? Because the dangers to the church at Philippi are real dangers; their eternal souls will perish if they get infected with false teaching. He knows the dangers of false teaching.
Do you see that some of you sitting here… your whole mindset and emotional state are so against the Bible? When I taught about the love of Paul, how he longed for the Philippians, and we saw Timothy and Epaphroditus, all with empathetic love, he almost became sick. You just enjoyed it… “wow, so nice to hear.” Now, “oh, calling others ‘beware of dogs,’ ‘evil workers’… Pastor is so harsh.” Yesterday, I saw your title… “oh, what is he… has he gone mad… We probably should skip this, not study in detail.”
If that was the inner reaction of your mind and spirit, you have a defective inward biblical Christian religious experience. I repeat, you have a defective inward religious experience. If your heart does not rise with an equal desire and zeal to embrace the holy harshness of Philippians 3, then please listen carefully. All that sentimental love you feel… is not really Holy Spirit-produced love. Some of us may naturally have some feeling of love and think that is Holy Spirit love. You have a wrong Christian mindset. Your inward religious experience is defective. You have to pray to God to bring you into line with the biblical mindset. Because we saw in Psalm 119 that the true work of grace is, “When I see all your commandments, I will not be ashamed. I esteem all of thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. I hate every false way.” There are emotional feelings of hatred. If you don’t have that hatred, a harsh, unempathetic hatred for a false way, your Christian experience is wrong. I hate all the ways that do not match up to the way of Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. I hate it so much, I abhor it, and consider it as unclean dogs, evil work, and the work of mutilators.
If you have not developed that hatred… you are all fussy and sentimental. Examine your Christian experience and state. Every true Christian who is born of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit that produces the fruits of a mindset and emotional reactions of love, joy, and peace—all emotions. We have to test if these emotions are from the Holy Spirit. How? If they are aligned with the emotions He has expressed in this book. There is an affinity of the Holy Spirit-produced experience within believers to every word that the Holy Spirit has inscribed without in His word. Jonathan Edwards wrote a classic book, Religious Affections… many emotions that may seem 80% Christian may be coming from the devil. Not all emotions or good feelings are Holy Spirit-produced. Scripture says, “test the spirits.” We don’t know… unless we compare our emotions with God’s word. That is why we commit ourselves to verse-by-verse exposition… that’s not a ritual or tradition, and it is certainly not the easiest course to take in terms of preaching; it is labor, labor, labor. We want to get into the spirit and emotions of those words… our experience should be aligned with the Holy Spirit-expressed emotions in Scripture. Otherwise, we are living in a great deceptive world.
We have to examine our emotions… our mindset… is it coming from the Holy Spirit? The same Holy Spirit who made Paul love so much also made him hate false teachers. The same Spirit was in Jesus, who loved so much but hated the false teachers and their teaching; He called them “children of hell.” If you don’t have their emotions and reactions… how can you say your experience is Holy Spirit-produced? Your sentimental love or compassion which does not have this hatred for all false ways is all Holy Spirit-produced? Oh, what a searching application. We all have to pray with the Psalmist, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” We have to do this.
Now, where do you stand? If you don’t have this kind of reaction to false teachers, this hateful emotion, you may be having some wrong spirit. Your experience has to have both emotions: on one side, this empathetic love of the previous chapters, and the emotion of hate in this chapter, the harshness of “dogs,” “evil workers,” and “mutilators.” Otherwise, it is not a true biblical experience. You have to pray to God to get this true experience and be aligned with the Holy Spirit’s writings.
Final Point of Application
It is essential to paint error in its most ugly colors so that the people of God may not be deceived by its fair speech. You see, when the Judaizers approach people, their speech was fair. It was impressive. It was believable… They would appeal to the flesh, which is noble in the flesh… their arguments are very strong… “Don’t you respect the whole of God’s revelation? See the whole Old Testament history; how much it emphasizes circumcision. It was a sign of God’s covenant… Abraham was circumcised, all the seed of Abraham should have this sign, Jacob’s children killed a whole town in this matter, God was about to kill Moses because he didn’t circumcise his child…” and so on.
The apostle wishes to fortify the Philippians, and he does so by painting error in its ugliest colors, so that no matter how fair its speech may be, the Philippians, the moment they hear speech that says “Christ plus circumcision,” these words will come to their mind: “Dogs, evil workers, mutilators.” That’s why he did it. And when the sensualist would come along and say, “Oh, isn’t it marvelous to be absolutely free from the law? It can never touch you with condemning authority. You’re accepted in the beloved, your sins are pardoned… what a freedom… no law for us… no Sabbath for us… so don’t worry about holiness…”
Paul says, “I want you armed beforehand with a strong language, scathing language.” Again, he is painting error in its most ugly colors so that the people of God may not be deceived by its fair speech. In Acts 20, he says, “I have not ceased to warn you at Ephesus night and day with tears for the space of three years. I’ve warned you about perverse men rising up from within; I’ve warned you about grievous wolves from without.” A warning ministry was a part of his life.
Don’t we do that as parents if we truly love our kids? And we know the danger of an accident… we will probably use all harsh language to explain what will happen if they run into the road and are hit by a lorry… what will happen to their heads and hands… they will be crushed… blood… they may die as a child… that is not harsh… that is the language of concerned love and warning. Or we want to explain to them the dangers of gang rapists… will we use nice words… “oh, they are men created in God’s image… we should be kind… not insult them.” If I love my child, I will say, “My daughter, beware of dogs… evil workers… mutilation…”
And so, dear people, it’s not a matter of a temperamental or envious spirit when we speak of other churches and false teachers in rebuking languages. If they preach the truth, we will be the first ones to praise them. They don’t… but they are hindering people from coming to the gospel and getting saved. Their only job is to take people to hell.
We sometimes say the Roman Catholic Church is not Christianity at all. This is not an insult to anyone, but when you really read the Bible and see what happens in the Roman Catholic Church… there is no relationship… Martin Luther listed 95 things; we can list 9,500 things the Roman Catholic Church does against the Bible. Just as those who thought religious rituals like circumcision save people, the Roman Catholic Church twists the gospel, changed baptism to baby baptism, and made the Lord’s Supper into an idolatrous ritual, and church service into a mystical mass. It blinds and deceives crores of people from coming to the true gospel and being saved by adding works… starting with infant baptism, burning candles, prostrating before Mary, running down the beads, then all life is works, works… never attaining an assurance of salvation. No one there dies with an assurance of salvation; the best is purgatory… what a twisting of the true gospel.
When Pentecostals come to you and say that believing the gospel and Christ alone is not enough, you need anointing and tongues. They gather big crowds in the name of Christ, give all false promises to people, and deceive people. They never explain one verse in the Bible properly. There is no Holy Spirit-written truth at all, and their experiences don’t match with any of these Bible experiences. In the name of offering worship, they are offering strange fire and worshiping a calf in the name of Jehovah.
Starting from Dinakaran, Mohan C. Lazarus, Paul Thangiah, Bethel AG Johnson, and John Jebaraj, we call them false churches and false preachers. If Paul had been there… he would have called them dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. They are butchering souls and earning money. They do not serve God or spread the true gospel work.
Likewise with liberalism, which has abandoned the gospel of the grace of God for the gospel of social action… there is no strict truth; doctrines are all important… “you just do good works… you are saved…” That is liberalism. Twisting means… that time, circumcision… now, how many dogs teach you have to be baptized to be saved? Beloved, salvation is by grace and grace alone.
If you sit here this morning and don’t know anything about Christ, I hope one thing has come through to you. It does make a difference what you believe. You believe wrongly, albeit ever so sincerely, and you’ll be damned. Men are saved by the truth. And it’s only as that truth is known and believed and submitted to that you can have any hope of salvation.
Let me tell you the gospel truth… you can be saved only when you throw everything from your mind and believe this… Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You are saved by grace through faith alone… not by any works… you believe what Jesus did… you are saved.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 