The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian, Part 2 B

Wicked people can do bad bad. They do bad things for bad reasons.

Now listen to this. Unregenerate people can also do bad good. It's good in the sense that they can help the poor, they can relieve the widows, they can visit the prisoners, they can adopt orphans, they can do good. But it's bad good because it's motivated by pride rather than the glory of God. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When a church group feeds the needy, that's a helpful and good activity. When Hollywood celebrities raise money for a worthy cause, that's also a good thing. But what if a hardened, unrepentant criminal donated a large sum to a worthwhile charity?

How would you describe that act? Actually, we need to take a step back and ask the question, what really constitutes a good deed and why is understanding that so important? Today, John MacArthur offers a perspective you may never have considered as he continues his study here on Grace to You titled The Road to Nowhere. And now here's John with a lesson. You can join him in Philippians chapter 3. Paul says, keep on rejoicing in the Lord. That's command and a characteristic of a true believer.

And having punctuated his major theme, he then moves into what's on his heart in this new subject. And he begins with an introduction in verse 1. He says, to write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you. So he is saying, I want to provide this for you so you won't trip, you won't fall, you won't be overthrown.

This will be your protection, your dependable safeguard. This is part of Paul's duty, isn't it? Paul is no dumb dog, as it mentions in Isaiah 56, 10. He's no irresponsible watchman, as we would see in Ezekiel. Paul is a faithful man to warn his people.

In fact, 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. He says, I have no trouble in warning you again because it will protect you. Now, who is he warning about? Now, who is he warning about? Who is he talking about? Well, let's find out in verse 2. He uses the word blepete in the Greek, beware, three times. All three times in the imperative, beware, beware, beware. You could translate it, be on the constant lookout for, be on the constant lookout for dogs, evil workers, and here's the key, the mutilation.

Who's he talking about? Well, if you take that mutilation at the end of verse 2, which is translated in the NAS, the false circumcision, and then you compare it with verse 3, the true circumcision, we know who he's talking about. May I remind you that the Jews believed that circumcision was the sign of God's favor, right? That if they had that physical operation, that was the external identification that they were the seed of Abraham and thus they were to be blessed. They somehow missed the point that the outward circumcision was only to be a symbol of the circumcision on the inside. But the Jews had long departed from the reality of circumcision's symbolism and left themselves committed only to the symbol.

Now, let me tell you what happened. You have a Jewish community who believe in circumcision as the mark that is necessary for God's people. They also believe in the Old Testament economy, they believe in the Mosaic ceremonies, they believe in the Mosaic rituals and laws, and they feel that they are bound to keep them. So here comes the Apostle Paul, right? He comes into the Gentile world and he preaches salvation by grace plus or minus nothing.

No works at all. There's nothing you can do, nothing you must do. You're saved by grace, period. God's marvelous grace. In an act of faith, you simply receive the gift of grace.

The work has all been done. So Paul goes through the Gentile world, people come to the knowledge of the grace of the gospel, they are saved, churches begin. And Paul goes through the same. There are even Jews who believe the gospel. They believe Jesus is the Messiah. They believe that Jesus died on the cross.

They may believe that He was raised from the dead. But they also believe that in order to be pleasing to God and to have God accept you, you have to be circumcised and keep all the ceremonies of Moses. So when Paul goes along and says, the old covenant has been set aside, circumcision is unnecessary, Mosaic ceremony is unnecessary, you cannot do any externals to please God or gain your salvation, they are very upset, these Jews. And so no sooner does Paul leave town after establishing a church than they rise up and say to that church, you must be circumcised and we'll show you why, and they point to the Old Testament. You must keep the ceremonies of Moses, I'll show you why, they point to the Old Testament. And because some of the younger Christians are undiscerning about the old economy and the new, they are confused by these commands that are in the Bible. They do not understand that they have been set aside in the new covenant. And so these Jewish people are then leading Christians to believe that they are Christians to believe that in order to be saved, they must be circumcised. In order to be saved, they must do certain ceremonial things and perform certain good works. And this is being propagated not only to the church, but to those who are around the church showing interest in it. And it is a gospel that convulates the true gospel because it says, Christ yes, circumcision yes, and works yes. And these became known as what?

These teachers were called what? Judaizers, because they were Judaizing. In other words, they were saying, you can't come into Christianity unless you go through the foyer of Judaism. You can't be a Gentile and just come to Christ.

You've got to be circumcised and you've got to follow a Mosaic economy and subscribe to that. This was a big issue in the early church. To show you the proportions of it, turn for a moment to the fifteenth chapter of Acts. Acts chapter 15, verse 1. This sums it up. Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren...here's what they taught...unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

That's right, that's it. And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them because they denied that, you didn't need to be circumcised to be saved. So the debate. Well the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning the issue and thus the first church council was held, the council at Jerusalem, and the whole issue was about circumcision and Mosaic ceremony. And verse 5 says, a certain one of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed...so here's a guy who had believed...he stands up in the middle of the council and says it is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the law of Moses.

And that's what they were trying to say. So everybody got together, apostles, elders, to look into it. After much debate, Peter brings resolution. Verse 7, brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe...listen to this...and God who knows the heart, He knows whether their faith was real, He knows whether it was true, bore witness to them. What?

To what? To the validity of their faith by giving them...what does it say? The Holy Spirit. Now if God gave them the Holy Spirit, then they were what?

Saved. And they weren't circumcised. And verse 9, He made no distinction between us and them, He cleansed their hearts by faith without circumcision. Verse 10, now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? Why are you going to try to bind them to a law that we couldn't even keep to earn something which God gives freely? This was a major issue and they resolved it at the Jerusalem Council. In Galatians we find it is also an issue. Paul even calls it another gospel and he says anybody preaching it should be accursed in Galatians 1-9. In Galatians 5, he says in verse 2, if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

What a statement. Listen to what he's saying. If you think in order to be saved you've got to be circumcised, then Christ won't do you any good because you are believing in salvation by what? By works.

Forget that. If you are going to receive circumcision, verse 3, then you're under obligation to keep the whole law and you've been severed from Christ and you are seeking to be justified by law and you have fallen away from the principle of salvation by grace. That's exactly what was happening. Into Philippi came these Judaizers, just like they had come to Jerusalem, just like they had come to Galatia. And when they came to Galatia, there were a lot of cities they went to. Galatia is a region, not a city.

Philippi is a city. So they were pretty widespread in their effect. Paul says at the end of Galatians that they really were interested in making a big show in the flesh, compelling you to be circumcised so they could be circumcised.

So they could sort of put notches on their belt like they've converted you to circumcision. And here they were a threat to the Philippian church. So Paul says to them, beware, beware of these false teachers. Now he calls them by three names, most fascinating.

Briefly listen carefully to what I say. Beware of the dogs. Boy, you just didn't call people dogs in that world. Two words in the New Testament for dogs, both from the same root. One is konaryoi, that means a little dog, a little pet dog. It's a diminutive term.

It's used in Matthew 15, 26 and 27 and Mark chapter 7 around verse 27. It means a little diminutive pet dog. The word here is kion. That word does not mean a pet dog. That word is used of dogs that were not pets and most of the dogs in that culture were not pets. They were scavengers and there are many, many histories that you can read about that day and you can look it up in a biblical encyclopedia and find it. Dogs roamed the streets. Dogs were scrounges. They were scavengers.

They roamed in packs. They hunted the garbage of the city. They were often rabid.

They snarled. They were wild, would literally prowl the ancient streets without an owner and without a home. They would feed on the garbage, on the filth. They would fight one another.

They would attack people. In some cases, people would lose their lives because the dogs were diseased. To show you something of the character of these kinds of dogs, do you remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? And you remember in that story that part of the torture of Lazarus was that he was sick and in his poverty he was lying in the street and it says the dogs were what?

Licking his sores, the filthy, vile, scroungy scavenger dogs of the street, unimaginably licking the sores of this poor beggar. In the book of Revelation, when it wants to identify the people who are not allowed into the gate of the holy city, in Revelation 22.15 it says, outside are the dogs. They are not the warm and fuzzy little diminutives that we have as pets.

These dogs were very, very different. They were the lowest of the low, the scavengers, the scoundrels, the useless, filthy kers that moved in the streets and were a threat to people and children. And because they were so base and such filthy animals, the Jews had come to use the term dog as a title for Gentiles. In fact, the Talmud says the nations of the world are like dogs. The Gentiles were dogs, Gentile dogs, unclean, filthy, scrounging scavengers who savagely attacked the truth and were dangerous. So the Jews would see the Gentiles as dogs. The Judaizers trying to protect the Jewishness that was so precious to them would see even the Gentile Christians as dogs until they went through a circumcision. Jews called Gentiles dogs. What is startling here is that Paul, a Jew, calls Jews dogs. That's turning the table. That is a serious statement. You wonder sometimes why Paul was not popular.

That statement would not make him popular...not popular. He is saying, in effect, beware of those people who self-righteously call others dogs, but they're the dogs. They accuse others of shamelessly attacking the truth and they are shamelessly attacking the truth. Are dogs unclean and filthy? So are they. Are dogs snarling and howling and vicious? So are they.

Are dogs dangerous and able to wound and even kill? So are they. Stay away from them. Stay away from those dangerous, filthy, snarling, howling, wild, attacking false teachers who parade themselves as if they are the virtuous ones, but they are deadly, they are dangerous, they are dirty. And he's talking about people who are religious. He's talking about people who say we must obey the law of God. Listen, anybody who comes along in this time and day and says you have to be baptized in water to be saved is a dangerous dog. Anybody who comes along in this day and says in order to be saved you've got to go through some certain kind of ceremony, you've got to say some certain kinds of prayers, you've got to go through some kind of a ritual is a dog, an unclean thing, a dangerous beast.

Beware. Beloved, salvation is by grace and grace alone and anything else that comes down the pike is nothing but a filthy, unclean beast. Secondly, he says, they are evil workers. They are evil workers. You see, the thing is they pride themselves on being workers of righteousness.

That's how he turns the table on them this time. Typically those who are involved in those kinds of external religions of works see themselves as the workers of what is good, that they please God. They're earning His favor. They're earning salvation. They're the noble upholders of the ceremonies and the rituals of their religion. They deserve God's pleasure.

They have lit their candles and bowed their knee and genuflected to the east and they've gone through the water and they've gone through the ritual and they've run down the beads and they've done the good deeds and they've filled up all their agenda with those required things. And they've done all that good and the fact of the matter is they are not good workers, they are what? They're evil workers.

Well you say, why so? Because it is the wickedness of all wickedness to think that you can earn anything with God. Why is that wicked?

Because it is pride at its apex and pride is a what? Sin. Unregenerate people, even religious people, can't do really what is good.

Let me put it to you simply. Wicked people can do bad, bad. Bad, bad.

You say, what's that? They do bad things for bad reasons. You say, what's a bad thing? Any kind of sin. They can do wicked things and they do them with bad reasons, bad motives. They're motivated by their wicked, selfish, self-centered nature.

Now listen to this. Unregenerate people can also do bad good. You say, what do you mean by that? Well it's good in the sense that they can help the poor, they can relieve the widows, they can visit the prisoners, they can adopt orphans, they can do good. But it's bad good because it's motivated by pride rather than the glory of God. The best that the unregenerate can do is bad good. They can do bad, bad, or bad good, but only the redeemed can do good, good. A good deed motivated to the glory of God. So what is it when these religionists do all of their ceremonies and all of their activities and by their own works try to attain the favor of God? It is bad good. It may appear good on the outside, it is bad on the inside because it is nothing but the expulsion of pride which believes that you can please God on your own. They are merit-mongers. The Judaizers were among them, evil workers trying to earn God's favor. It doesn't mean that they were doing evil deeds, they were working to please God, but they were evil because it was all motivated by the false belief that they could be pleasing to God.

What a deception of pride. So Paul flips the table and says, you're evil workers. Everything you do is wicked. Everything you do is bad.

Why? Because they did it out of the illusion of pride and pride is the driving sin of unregenerate man. Then finally he literally scorches them with a blowtorch of terms. He says, beware of the mutilation.

This is unbelievable. You talk about offensive, that is offensive. You see, they prided themselves on circumcision. The word for circumcision in the Greek is peritome, it means to cut around. Paul says, you're not the circumcision, you're the circumcision. You're the catatome. You're the mutilation. You're the castration.

That's what you are. Boy, you think you're circumcised? You think you fit God's design in the symbolism of circumcision?

Forget it. There's nothing spiritual about it. All it was was physical mutilation. In Galatians 5, 12, he says, you say you're circumcised, I would that you were castrated. Galatians 5, 12.

Very strong. You see, we can't just say to these people who add works to salvation, well, they're close. Boy, they're certainly lovely people. They certainly are nice. And they're religious. And, you know, they're trying their best to get to God.

They are dogs. Beware of them. They're filthy. They're unclean. They're vicious. They are not workers of good.

They are doing at best bad good, motivated by their own pride. And they go through their religious ceremonies and they are useless. They have nothing to do with their heart and their life and their relation to God.

They're simply external. It is merely a process of mutilation with no spiritual value, no inner cleansing, no spiritual change. Why? Because that's all of grace and nothing more, right? Nothing more. And as soon as you stick anything else in there, all is lost. In fact, these people, called the mutilation, who thought they could come to God through circumcision, had to be told that their circumcision was of no more value than the gashings of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

You remember that? Up there was Elijah cutting themselves, gashing and mutilating themselves, trying to please their deity. Absolutely useless. So is circumcision. So is any external thing that does not reflect a transformed heart. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly.

He is a Jew who is one, what? Inwardly, Romans 2 and what? Inwardly, Romans 2.28, for circumcision is of the heart. What's Paul's message here? He's saying, look, we're the true circumcision. How are we characterized?

All internally. We worship in the Spirit of God. We glory in Christ Jesus. Who gets all the glory for our salvation?

Christ. Our worship isn't external, it's what? It's in the Spirit. He gets all the glory and how much confidence do we have in our flesh?

None. That's the difference. You see, they worship on the outside. They glory in their human achievement, their religious activity, and they have a lot of confidence in the flesh.

They think it can perform. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, showing you that if you are trusting in good works for salvation, you are headed down the road to nowhere. That's the title of John's current study here on Grace to You. Well, you may have been challenged by today's lesson if only for some of the terms John used. Words like Judaizers and the Mutilation and the True Circumcision.

Not exactly everyday language. And of course, John, just because a passage may take extra effort to understand, the reward for pursuing understanding is usually greater than ever, right? Absolutely, and very often when you don't understand and you take that extra effort, you wind up going from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word.

And I would suggest that this would be a good way for you to start digging deeper. You need to order a copy of the commentary I've written on Philippians, verse by verse, phrase by phrase, word by word. Teaching the Bible is not about turning this ancient book into something modern, tweaking it so it fits the experience and idiom of people today. Rather, helping people understand God's Word is about taking them back into the original biblical context.

That process is what commentaries do, and it keeps the Bible teacher out of the way as much as possible and lets the truth of Scripture do its work. It's that stay out of the way approach to biblical truth that you'll find in the commentary on Philippians. And Philippians is a great book. This is a wonderful place to start reading commentaries because it includes a detailed analysis of things like joy, spiritual stability, unity, sanctification, contentment, and even the distinguishing qualities of a true believer, which is the focus of our Road to Nowhere study. Very useful for Sunday School teachers, pastors, and every believer serious about understanding God's Word.

Hopefully that includes you. So, Philippians and the rest of the New Testament is available in the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series. You can order the Philippians volume or you can go all the way and get the complete set.

Just contact us today and you can order it. Yes, friend, you're going to benefit from this commentary, whether you're a Sunday School teacher, a pastor, or anyone else who is serious about studying God's Word. Order the Philippians volume or any of John's commentaries when you contact us today. The Philippians volume costs $19 and shipping is free. Same price for each of the 33 volumes in the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series and you get a discounted rate for ordering the complete set.

To place your order, call 855-GRACE or log on to gty.org. Another excellent resource for Bible students is the MacArthur Study Bible. It gives you 25,000 footnotes that explain the historical and cultural background for each text.

It takes you back into the Bible's original setting, making the meaning and its implications clear. The Study Bible comes in hardcover, leather, and premium goat skin, and you can choose from the New American Standard, New King James Version, English Standard Version, and the Legacy Standard Bible. Ordering the MacArthur Study Bible is easy. Just dial 800-55-GRACE or go to the website gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day and be back tomorrow as John continues helping you evaluate which path you're on, the one leading to eternal life in heaven or the road leading to destruction. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.