Philippians 3:18-19; Enemies of the Cross

PastorRodney’s Weblog

07/14 Philippians 3:18-19; Enemies of the Cross; Weeping over the Lost; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240714_philippians-3_18-19.mp3

Paul has invited us together to imitate him as he walks after the pattern of Jesus, and he invites us to fix our eyes on those among us who walk according to the pattern that he set for us. ‘Join together in becoming imitators of me, brothers, and fix your sights on those who walk just as you have a type in us.’ Paul calls us to incarnational ministry, setting an example for the believers. He calls us to keep our eyes on those who follow Paul’s pattern.

But this comes with a warning. It is no new warning; he has often warned them before. There are those, many, who walk contrary to the pattern we set for you.

In this passage, Paul warns of the danger of those who have a different god, a different worship, a different mindset, and will face a different end, and he gives us a glimpse into his own emotional response to these people. He describes them as the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Legalist or Libertine?

Who are these people? Are they the same people he began the chapter warning about, the dogs, the evildoers, the mutilators? As we saw, they were those who were pushing Torah law on Gentile believers, those who put their confidence in the flesh, in outward observance of the law as a means of attaining the righteousness that God requires. Paul makes it clear that ‘we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh’ (3:3). He makes it clear, that although as a Pharisee he had reason for confidence in the flesh, he counted all his gains as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.

Are these the same rule-keepers he warned of back at the beginning of this chapter? Or is this a different threat? He says of them ‘their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things’. The language sounds more like those who indulge in shameful, fleshly, earthly pursuits. It sounds more like a description of a law-breaker than a law-keeper. Has Paul shifted to warn of a different threat?

We tend to separate the legalist and the libertine into distinct and opposite categories, but biblically that is not the case. The two biblical categories are unbelievers and believers, those headed for destruction or salvation, those who are perishing and those who are being saved.

In the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15), there were two sons, one who indulged his flesh and wasted his father’s resources, and the other who sought to earn the father’s favor by keeping the rules scrupulously. This older brother looked down with contempt on his indulgent sibling, but he ends up remaining outside the feast after the wayward prodigal came to his senses and received the grace of his father.

Neither wanted relationship with the father. One spat in the father’s face and demanded his portion of the inheritance immediately so he could run off and spend it on his pleasures. His brother did everything he was supposed to do, but he reveals at the end that what he wanted was reward for good behavior so that he could indulge himself with his friends. So both ultimately were driven by the same desire to get something other than relationship with the father, although they went about obtaining their desire by very different means. The thing that set the prodigal apart was that he came to his senses, repented and returned to the father, and was welcomed with open arms, unlike his brother who at the end of the story refused to enter in.

Jesus blows the cover off the religious Pharisees in Matthew 23:

Matthew 23:25 ​“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 ​“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The religious elite are driven by the same greed and self-indulgence that the prodigal pursued. They are full of it! But they look good on the outside. They ‘outwardly appear righteous to others, but within are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’

So they have the same god and the same goal, but they add hypocrisy to their greed and self-indulgence.

Your God is What You Serve

He says ‘their god is their belly’. He warns us not to imitate them, because they have a different god. Paul warns in Romans 16:

Romans 16:17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites [ἀλλὰ τῇ ἑαυτῶν κοιλίᾳ], and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

The word ‘belly’ is translated ‘appetites’ in Romans 16. This has to do with to whom or to what we submit and render service. We either submit to and serve the Lord Christ, or we are ruled by our own appetites. Your god is what you serve. The religious people of Paul’s day would claim to worship the one true God, but their lives demonstrated different idols. They paid lip service to the God of the bible, but in their hearts they bowed to a different god. The supreme authority in their lives, the one to whom they gave their allegiance, to whom they gave of their time and resources was their own appetites.

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Shameful Worship

They serve a different god, and this resulted in a different worship. They glory in their shame. We are made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We were made as worshiping creatures; we will glory in something or someone. We are made to glory in God, to find our greatest delight in our Creator, but we so quickly settle for lesser things. Paul says in Romans 1:

Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

When our god is something other than the Lord Christ, worship becomes twisted in ways that are shameful. We celebrate shameful things, rather than the only one who is worthy of our worship.

Back in verse 3, Paul said:

Philippians 3:3 For we …worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—

Worship is exulting in, glorying in, putting our confidence in something. Our worship is to be rooted in and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are to glory in Christ Jesus alone. Any celebration of any other thing that is of the kind that is meant for God alone is shamefully misplaced.

Minds Set on Earthly Things

They have the wrong god, distorted worship, and this results in the wrong mindset. Paul has spent a substantial amount of time explaining and illustrating the kind of mindset we are to have. He urges us to have the same mind, to be of one mind (2:2-5). We are to have the mind of Christ, who did not seek his own advantage, but that of the other. He laid aside his rights and humbled himself. We are urged on to a mature mindset, to have our mindset shaped by God’s revelation (3:15)

When we allow our minds to be set on earthly things, we will undoubtedly drift to serve and worship a different god.

Enemies of the Cross

He calls them enemies of the cross. They are enemies of the cross in the gospel sense of the cross as the only means of righteousness for the sinner. Any who refuse to receive the righteousness that God gives as a gift, any who seek to establish their own righteousness that comes through law keeping have set themselves against the cross. The word of the cross, although it seems weak and foolish, is the power of God for salvation (1Cor.1:17-18). To be an enemy of the cross is to be an enemy of the gospel, because the gospel is the word of the cross. The one who puts confidence in the flesh is an enemy of the cross that puts the flesh to death.

But enemies of the cross are not only those who are opposed to the message of the gospel. We can be opposed to the gospel as the exclusive means of salvation, reconciliation, redemption. But we can be enemies of the cross in another way. We can be opposed to what the cross stands for. An enemy of the cross is opposed to allowing the cross shape their lives, their attitudes, their character. An enemy of the cross refuses to adopt the mind of Christ, who laid aside his rights and humbled himself to become obedient even to death, even death on a cross. Jesus said:

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 ​For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

The follower of Jesus follows Jesus. It is an enemy of the cross who seeks to preserve his own life, who seeks to gain earthly things, who is ashamed of Jesus rather than glorying in Christ Jesus and walking in the pattern he established for us.

Their End is Destruction

Paul makes this sobering statement about those many who have a different god, a different worship, a different gospel. He says their end is also different. Their (telos -noun); end, goal, purpose, conclusion, result, is destruction. This is sobering. This is heaven or hell. This is eternity. Isaiah says:

Isaiah 59:2 ​but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Separation. Eternal separation from the presence of a good God. Romans says:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. Paul speaks to the Thessalonian church about a time: Jesus will himself inflict vengeance on those who rejected him.

2 Thessalonians 1:7 …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Jesus warned:

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Paul said there are ‘many’. Many who walk as enemies of the cross. Many establish a different god, a different worship, a different pattern of living. Many will end in destruction.

The Emotional Impact of Eternal Destruction

But Paul doesn’t gloat. He weeps. This is the heart of God; Peter puts it this way:

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Jesus said:

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 ​Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 ​And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Heaven and hell hang in the balance. Have you run to Jesus? Are you hiding in his perfect righteousness, seeking above all the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord? Have you entrusted yourself to his perfect care? Whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned already. Do you care? Do you have the heart of God? Do you weep over the many who are perishing?

Romans 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org