This is Connect with Skip Heidzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, our mission is to help you know God's Word and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement every day. And if you'd like to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, Sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resource offers straight to your inbox.
Everything designed to help you stay strong in your faith. It only takes a minute to sign up. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip.com.
Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skiff Heitzig. The folks back in Jerusalem, the Judaizers, they were Jewish people, Messianic Jews, converted to Jesus Christ, trusted in Jesus, but thought, Peter, you can't do that. You can't go into a Gentile's house and have a meal with him. They're like unclean people. They got all upset.
Why? Because they said you have to come through Judaism in order to get to Christ. Paul the Apostle had the same problem. He goes on his first missionary journey. He goes into the synagogues first, to the Jew first, also to the Greek.
They kick him out of the synagogues. He preaches to the Greeks at the Areopagus, at the Agora, in every city. Gentiles, non-Jews here respond.
Well, by the time this filters back to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. They're like, they're beside themselves. They throw a fit. Acts chapter 15, this is what they say, verse 1. Unless You are circumcised.
and keep the laws of Moses, you cannot be saved. Those were Judaizers. They attached themselves to the church. And they said the Gentiles had to submit to Jewish rules. and they opposed Paul wherever he went.
So he warns them. By the way, if you're thinking, well, those days are long gone, we don't have people like that around today, do we? Are you nuts? There's always people who have a list of rules to keep. And you have to go through those rules.
To be right with God. And by the way, not much different. Then back then. There's been a movement, it's been popular for some time, it's called the Jewish Roots Movement. That's what apologetic teachers will call it.
Jewish roots movement sounds beautiful. That is, let's get in touch with our Jewish roots and find out about the festivals and the prayer shawls and the Hebrew prayers and light the candles and wear the keep and blow the shofar. And that's cool, but what they do is a lot of times these are Gentiles, not Jewish people, who are going back to Jewish roots. and believe that you have to be under the laws of the Torah. in order to be right with God.
And so it's dangerous.
So Paul says, beware, beware. Beware, why? Because he knows that being joyful means being careful. And we learn a lot about the characteristics of these legalists just from looking at this verse. Notice, first of all, the legalists can be scavengers.
That's why Paul says, beware of dogs. That's a term of contempt, by the way. You may want to try that. Go up to somebody and go, you dog. No, don't do that on secondhand.
It was like a cuss word. Yeah. The origin of the term dog In Hebrew parlance, it goes back to Deuteronomy chapter 23. It referred to a male cult prostitute. In Deuteronomy 23, It says, You shall not bring the wages of a harlot, nor the price of a dog to the house of the Lord.
Very stark language to describe a male cult prostitute.
Well, as time went on, Did you know that Orthodox Jews started using the term dog to refer to non-Jews, Gentiles?
So, Jews, Orthodox Jews, would often refer to Gentiles. as dogs interesting that Paul decides, I'm going to throw that term back at them. These Judaizers who say that we have to keep the laws of Moses to be saved, beware of dogs. He's saying that's who they are.
Now you probably have figured out that The dogs he is referring to are not your groomed little pets. That jumps up on your lap, that you put those goofy sweaters on and all that stuff. These were vicious, ferocious scavengers who roamed the streets. They were dangerous. They ate filth.
They bred disease. And just as a dog tears and devours, so do legalists tear and devour the grace of God.
So Paul says: watch out for them. Legalists can be scavengers. Beware of dogs. Second warning, beware of evil workers. That's part of their characteristic.
Legalists. can be evil. while thinking that they're good. They think they're good, but Paul calls them evil workers.
Okay, so what we have here is a plan words or a plan concept, you might say. Legalists Believe. that you get right with God by doing good works. I'm going to go through a ceremony and a ritual and do good. I'm going to try hard.
I'm going to earn my way. And Paul says, Those are evil workers. Why would he dare do that? Because when anyone ever says, I get right with God by doing good works, what they are in effect saying, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was not good enough. I need to add to that.
some of my own goodness and righteousness to make that a completed finished work.
So, I don't want you to think that I'm disparaging good works and saying, hey, you're a Christian, don't worry about being good. Of course, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that good works Are a byproduct of a relationship with God. Once you come to Jesus Christ, if you've really come to Him, if it's really authentic, And there's repentance and faith, he'll change you. There will be good works.
But the good works are a byproduct of the relationship. Once they become the basis of a relationship, they are evil works. Because you are saying, I need those works in order to be right with God. One commentator writes this: There are people who do not want us to be free. They don't want us to be free before God, accepted just as we are by His grace.
They don't want us to be free to express our faith originally and creatively. They insist that all look alike, talk alike, and act alike without being aware. We become anxious about what others will say about us. obsessively concerned about what others think we should do. We no longer live the good news, but anxiously try to memorize and recite the script that someone else has assigned to us.
We may be secure. But we will not be free. Once in 2 Corinthians, Paul says, That there are false apostles. who corrupt you listen to the words who corrupt you from the Simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. It's just so simple.
Trust him. Just embrace the work he has done for you. It's so simple. And when that gets convoluted. You have legalists who think they're good, but actually.
It's evil. Here's a third mark in that third beware. When he says, beware of the mutilation, I'm going to explain that. Legalists can be destructive.
Now when he's talking about mutilation, the old King James renders it Concision. Beware of the concision. If you ever read that, you're going, what on earth is a concision?
So here it says, beware of the mutilation. Other translations say, beware of the false circumcision.
So did you know that the covenant for Jews In ancient times, of their covenant relationship with God was the outward mark of circumcision: a male child at eight days old. Was circumcised, that is, the foreskin. Uh of the flesh. of his organ was cut off. And that was the symbol of the national relationship the Jews had with God.
What was it a symbol of? The symbol was to speak of the reality that my flesh life is cut away, that my focus is on spiritual things, not on fleshly things. It spoke of a beautiful reality, but As time went on, The ritual became a formality. Just became a formality. It's not unlike baptism.
For a lot of people, baptism is a formality. You know how I know this? Ask somebody: are you saved? Do you know you're going to heaven? Often they'll say, I've been baptized.
Nice. That wasn't what I asked you. Let's go back to the question: Are you saved? I've been baptized. Great, you got wet once.
Are you saved? You see what they're doing? They're equating the ritual they went through, the formality, with being saved.
So they did with circumcision. Judaizers, as I mentioned, taught that circumcision was vital to salvation. Acts 15:1. Unless you are circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.
So Paul says beware of the mutilation. It's a very strong term. The term he uses here refers to the pagans cutting themselves, mutilating themselves. Flashback to 1 Kings 18. If some of you know that story when Elijah's on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal, and it says they started cutting themselves for hours, dancing around, calling to their gods.
Remember that? That's the mutilation.
So, what Paul is saying is that their circumcision is as meaningless as pagan mutilation. if there's no reality behind the ritual.
So le legalism does that. It mutilates the grace of God. It mutilates the work of Christ. If you were to boil all belief systems down to their irreducible minimum, I like to do that. You could say that all religions in the world.
have one of two approaches. There's only two religions in the world. You've heard me say this before. See, people go, oh, there's so many different religious systems and so many beautiful examples of expression. No, there's really only two religions in the whole world.
There is the religion of human Achievement. And there is the religion of divine accomplishment. Every single religious system, including sects of Christianity, many of them, fall into the category of the religion of human achievement. I'm right with God because I've been baptized and I go to church and I've been confirmed and I try hard and I pray. That's what you've done.
That's human achievement. Only biblical Christianity is in that second category, the religion of divine accomplishment. It's what Jesus did for you, it's his finished work on the cross. That's divine accomplishment. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Every day, your generosity helps reach more people with God's Word, changing lives through clear, practical Bible teaching. And this month, as you grow in your own faith and leadership, we want to thank you with a powerful new resource, The Making of a Biblical Leader, a Practical Guide to Leading Others by Robert L. Furrow. This inspiring book, featuring chapters from Skip and Lenya Heitzig, Gary Hamrick, Daniel Fusco, and others, shows how to lead with integrity, humility, and a servant's heart following Christ's example. Request your copy when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skiff Heidzig.
Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithsk.com/slash offer.
Now let's return to today's teaching.
So joy must be guarded. Legalism must be avoided, and the third defense to leaking joy is: your identity must be comprehended. Look at verse 3. It's our last verse for the day. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit.
Rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the flesh. I'm amazed at how Paul the Apostle can take one verse. and put so much in it. In one verse, He describes A true believer, a Christian believer.
It's a synonym of what a true believer is. Verse 3 is a description, and it's a contrast. As opposed to the false religious legalists We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
So what is our identity? First of all, True followers. I'm not saying we all are, everybody here is, but if you are like Paul, And he's identifying with Philippians a Christian believer. is a true follower. Look at what he says.
For we are the circumcision. Stop there. You could translate this because it's implied. We are the true circumcision. We are the true circumcision.
Um What he means by that is spiritually we are circumcised. We are not those who have just a meaningless outward mark. We are those who have a true inward cleansing. We are the true circumcision. In Romans chapter 2, Paul says, he is not a Jew who is one outwardly.
And the circumcision is that of the flesh. But he said, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and the circumcision is the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. See, there's an inward reality that the outward ritual needs to speak to. It's like my ring. I have a wedding ring.
I am ashamed to say it's the second one I've owned. I lost my first one in the Pacific Ocean, so I quickly went to a second-hand store and got another ring. But The ring itself is not as important as the relationship that I have. What if I wasn't married and I had this ring on this finger? You would look at me and you'd say, oh, he's married.
But I'm not married unless I have a Spouse or wife.
So the ring points to the reality of having a spouse. I do have a spouse, by the way. And so I have a ring to prove it. You may have a cross around your neck. And you may have a baptismal certificate on your wall, but do you have a Savior in your heart?
That's the crux of this. We are the true circumcision. So we are true followers, we are true worshipers. Look at the next phrase. We are the circumcision who worship God.
In this spirit.
Now, you know what that means. in the spirit as opposed to the flesh. It's not only outward, it's not only rituals. It's real. It's authentic.
Now, you will notice around here, we always do this, we always emphasize the inward. As opposed to just the outward. And the reason we do that, people say, why do you do that so much? Because I'm a biblical expositor, and the New Testament does that a lot. That's why.
It's the inward over against the outward because anybody can go through the motions. Anybody can say, I'm a Christian, here's my Bible, I know these songs. I get together with other people who believe. I do this once a week. But the outward needs to speak to the inward.
We worship God in the spirit.
So do you remember? When Jesus met a Samaritan woman, And he started asking her questions and talking to her, and he was getting really personal with her about her marriages and her previous love lives. And she's getting really kind of anxious about that and squiggling out of it.
So she does what a lot of people do: they deflect. Let's talk about something else. And her deflection was on outward worship. She said, This: Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. See what she's talking about?
She's deflecting to the emphasis on something outward. It's like saying, well, we go to church here and you go to church there.
So, what's the right church to go to? I love how Jesus answered it. He said, woman, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father, for God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It has to be authentic in and from your spirit and based upon the truth of scripture. The question isn't Do you stand when you worship?
Do you sit when you worship? Do you raise your hands when you worship? Or do you sway when you worship? The question is, do you worship? Is it real?
Is it authentic? Is it you? in your spirit, in your heart, authentically worshiping God.
So, our identity as believers must be comprehended. We are true followers. True worshipers. Third description, we are true celebrators. He says, We worship God in the Spirit and we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Now, here, he loves the word rejoice. But here it would be better translated we brag on or we boast about. We're not boasting about how good we are. We are bragging about and boasting in what Jesus Christ has done for us and his accomplishments.
Now, here's the dead giveaway. You can always spot a legalist this way. A legalistic person always minimizes the work of Jesus Christ and maximizes the work of man. And by the way, that's why they have no joy. Because it's always I'm working hard to get to heaven.
And if they're never sure if they've worked enough.
So there's never any satisfaction. There's never any joy. There's continual shame and hope. Hope I'm doing enough. And I've got to tell you what.
I've been around legalistic people who have these set of rules and regulations, but then they act so proudly and smug like they've actually kept all of those rules and regulations themselves. And Mark Twain Said, having spent considerable time with good people, I can understand why Jesus liked to be with tax collectors and sinners. Give me them any day over religious folks. The fourth thing we are, and we'll close. Finally, brethren.
We are true believers. We are true believers. Notice the last six words. and have no confidence. In the flesh.
We depend totally on Jesus Christ.
Now this is the place where we ought to just go. Yeah. Yeah. We had to just sigh a breath of relief. Because you see, the humanist message is: you got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, son.
Because God helps those who help themselves, which, by the way, is not in the Bible. unless you wrote it there yourself. That's the humanist message. The legalist message Yeah.
Well, you gotta work your way to heaven and keep the rituals and keep the ceremonies and cross your fingers. But that's not our message. Our message is: Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain, he washed me white as snow. That's our message of the gospel.
And listen, that'll bring joy back to your life. That'll bring joy back to your life. He did it all. That'll bring you joy. Because Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and have it more.
Abundantly. Abundantly. He didn't say, I have come that they might have bummer. And bummer more abundantly. I know a lot of people with abundant bummer in their life.
Come that they might have joy and have it to the full, one translation says. The skipped translation, the NSV, to the max. Joy to the max. Abundant joy. Hey, let me close with this.
Suppose that you get a new car and you're going on a driving vacation. You're going to Rocky Mountain National Park, so you fill your car up with gas and you're driving up. You're so happy, your whole family's there.
Okay. But you get out of town and you start noticing there are people. outside of their vehicles pushing. on the road. They're pushing their cars.
They're pushing. That's kind of weird.
So eventually you stop and get gas and one of these pushers comes up next to you while you're pumping gas, going, Hi. Yeah. Where are you going? You go. I'm going to Rocky Mountain National Park.
And I'm driving. Yeah. I notice that. I used to drive too.
Now We're pushing. You're going, yeah, I noticed that you're pushing, so what's up with that? And they say, well, you know. Uh We used to be like you driving and But now we're...
Well, we're a little more mature. And we've grown a little bit more. We know just a lot more than we did at first.
So we've discovered that it's really good to push because, well, you get good exercise, first of all, and it's good for the environment.
So, you know, you ought to just get out of your car. You gotta push. And so let's just say you're dumb enough to go, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now that I'm smarter. I'm gonna go do that.
So you're out there pushing. And let's say you go on vacation with your family and you push your car all the way up those passes to Rocky Mountain National Park and back home.
Now I have a question for you. Are you joyful? Are you kidding? You are miserable. Why?
Because you pushed. This is what Paul meant when he said to the Galatians: why is it having begun in the spirit, you are now trying to be made perfect by the flesh? Or, with our illustration in mind, you might put it this way: once you had a full tank of gas in the spirit, why are you trying to push your way through life? It's like people get saved, there's a joy in the Lord, and they read some stupid book or listen to some lame teacher, and it's like, here we go, I'm pushing, I'm working really hard to get God to smile at me. Jesus paid it.
All, all to him I owe. And it could be because I was one. Maybe you are a person who could be best described as A religious person. Not a righteous person, because the only righteousness God Will ever allow any human to have is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. You might be religious, but not righteous.
You may be moral. and sincere But I'm going to ask you this. Are you saved? Are you saved? And if you go, well, I've been baptized.
You know now it's the wrong answer. If you go, well, I go to Calvary.
Sorry. God won't check. Oh, you went to Calvary.
Well, come on in. Are you a saved individual? Do you know Jesus personally? Do you worship Him in the Spirit as opposed to the flesh? Is your approach The approach of the gospel.
Do you trust Jesus alone? I hope so. I pray so. If not. Why not?
Why not now just say Yeah, I'm gonna stop pushing this car. I'm giving Jesus the keys. I'm going to hop in the back seat. Uh Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heidzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus.
And this month, we'll send you The Making of a Biblical Leader, a practical guide to leading others by Robert L. Furrow as our thanks for your gift. With chapters from Skip and Lanya Heitzig and other trusted pastors, this book will equip you to lead with integrity and purpose in 2026 and beyond. Give now at connectwithsgift.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skiff Heitzig.
Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot. Of the crisis. I cast your burning.
Some music. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
