Philippians 3:2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Ten times our Lord Jesus gave the warning to beware. Three of the warnings were to beware of false prophets (Matthew 7:15), of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matthew 16:6, 11), and of the scribes (Mark 12:38). Incredible! According to Jesus, one of the greatest obstacles to people coming unto Him for salvation would be religious frauds – people that Jesus said would look good on the outside, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. His forerunner John called them a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:4-7).
In Philippians 3:1-14 the apostle Paul sounds an alarm to the church at Philippi, and his warning is about the very same individuals that Jesus said to be wary of. It would serve us well to take heed to these most solemn admonitions, for the offspring of these religious frauds are alive and well today. Some of the most ferocious opponents of The Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace that bears His Name are religious, rituals- and sacrament-keeping individuals who believe that they are saved by their goodness, moralism, or observation of religious rituals. Paul would call these religious imposters and frauds angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Remember this, beloved, that salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ plus anything is NOT the saving grace of Scripture. While it is true that many of us were born into this world in a Catholic-, or Baptist-, or Methodist-adhering family, in reality we were all born into this world in Adam, apart from God and dead in trespasses and sins. We need a Savior. We need Someone Who will be able to bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God. And that Man is Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God, Who is The Way to God, The Truth of God, and The Life of God manifested for all to see.
Paul himself had sought to get right with God by living a rigid, religious, law-of-God-keeping life. When Jesus Christ apprehended him on the Damascus Road, Paul called his former religious “resume” animal refuse (Philippians 3:8). The Prophet Isaiah tells us that our righteousness (the very best we can do) is nothing but a filthy rag (Isaiah 64:6). To get right with God, we need to have the righteousness of God, and that righteousness comes only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You are either righteous or self-righteous this morning. The eternal destiny of one is heaven, the other is hell. Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Repent of your sin and receive the righteousness of God by placing your faith in Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. SELAH
