Passage: Philippians 3:2-9

The Big Idea

Knowing God personally is the highest priority in life. The real marks of people who know Him are worshiping by the Spirit, boasting in Christ Jesus, and putting no confidence in the flesh. Paul had every reason for self-confidence, yet he counted all of it as loss, even “dung,” compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ. The biggest thing that keeps us from knowing God is self-sufficiency. Knowing Him isn’t collecting information; it’s relationship, found “in Him,” living by a righteousness that comes from God through faith.

Do You Know Him?

Do you know a famous movie star? You may know about them, but do you know them?

Do you know God?

Not just know about Him.
Not just good guesses.
Not just what you’ve heard or seen in movies.
Do you know God personally?
If you met Him in a dark alley, would you recognize Him by His character and personality?

Many views of God picture Him as distant, beyond our ability to know in any personal, meaningful way. But the Bible presents a God who can be known, and who wants to be known.

Knowing God is the highest priority in life. It’s at the core of His Word. Two words: knowing God.

It’s our reason for living.
It’s the way we live.
It’s the only true measure of success.
It’s our source of help.
It’s our hope for the future.
It’s how we understand our trials.
It must be our priority.
When it’s the priority, everything else falls into place. When it isn’t, everything falls apart.

Marks of the Real Deal (3:2-3)

Paul warns against dogs, evil workers and the mutilation:

Dogs: legalistic troublemakers.
Evil workers: those who misunderstand the role of works in God’s kingdom, teaching that we can increase our righteousness by our own efforts.
The mutilation: an outward cutting, not the real thing on the inside.

But we are the real thing! We’re the true circumcision, made without hands, all sourced from God’s grace through His Holy Spirit.

Here are the marks of people who truly know the Lord:

We worship God in the Spirit

Is this what you think about?
You can’t build a system to worship God. It has to be by the Spirit.
The Spirit reveals God to us through the Word.
The Spirit guides us into fitting responses.
We don’t invent our own ways to respond, or treat worship as an occasional appointment.
The Spirit shows us through the Word how to respond rightly: singing, rejoicing, silence, dancing, weeping, meditating, speaking, serving.
It’s a relationship that’s real.

We rejoice in Christ Jesus

Literally, we boast in Jesus.
Who He is, is what we’re excited about!
When we get together, do we talk about how great Jesus is?
That’s a mark of someone who really knows the Lord. You can’t stop talking about Him.
The world may find it annoying. Some may even call you simplistic. But it’s a mark of someone who truly knows God.
The flesh loves to boast about self.

We have no confidence in the flesh

This runs against the way the world works. The world runs on confidence in the flesh.
People know what they have to work with, what they inherited from Adam.
But that’s not how God works or how His kingdom grows.
Self-confidence isn’t the goal or the solution.
You may accomplish impressive things.
But they don’t matter for eternity. Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Living by self-confidence is walking according to the flesh, living on the same resources as a fallen world.

“That’s What Weak People Say”

At this point some might think, “That’s what weak people say. Paul must have been a weakling. I can get things done on my own. I don’t need help!“

But Paul says that if anyone could have confidence in the flesh, he had more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless (Philippians 3:4-6).

Talk about someone who had it all together!
He says he had a better shot at doing it himself than any of us.
His upbringing was solid.
His focus was laser-like.
His obedience was impressive.
His passion was intense.
His abilities were remarkable.
His effort was unquestionable.
His knowledge of the rules was impeccable.
This is the man writing about having no confidence in the flesh.
Outwardly, he was blameless. Inwardly, he was guilty, until he met Jesus.
He knew what it was to live by self-sufficiency. It produced a form of right living, but it was leading to death.
He received life only through total dependence on Jesus.
Confidence in the flesh blocks spiritual growth.

So how do I get free from self-confidence?

Getting to Know Him (3:7-8)

Whatever was gain to me, I have counted as loss for Christ. More than that, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I’ve lost everything, and I count it all as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.

Gain: Paul was at the top among his people, the most prestigious, the ultimate religious man of his day.
He renounced the life he’d built.
He realized it was keeping him from the Lord.
He let go. He denied himself. He said no to the self-life.
He clung only to the cross.

Have you done that? Coming to the Lord means letting go of trusting yourself. It’s a heart transaction between you and God: “Lord, I’m a sinner. I’m guilty, and I turn away from trusting myself. I turn to You, and You alone.”

Then Paul shifts to present tense: “I count all things loss.”

Past tense describes how he began: justification.
Present tense describes how he continues: sanctification.
Renouncing the self-life is how we begin with the Lord, and it’s also how we grow with Him.
Getting to know the Lord centers on daily turning from self-sufficiency.
The surpassing value of knowing Jesus is the best thing there is, and our flesh only gets in the way.

Knowing is relationship

It’s a knowledge based on relationship.

I’m so glad getting to know my wife isn’t just collecting information!
There are intimate, real experiences that make our knowledge deep.
More information doesn’t equal marriage.

Jesus is infinite. There’s always more to learn. But no one wants to be known as a walking encyclopedia about God. Knowing Jesus Himself is the treasure.

Jesus said He no longer calls us servants, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. He calls us friends, because He has made known to us everything He heard from His Father (John 15:15).

The purpose of the information is the friendship. The relationship is the goal.
Jesus values you and wants to be your friend, as well as your Lord, Master, Savior, Healer and Leader.
All of it is relationship-focused knowing.

Anything that doesn’t serve this relationship is a waste. So many people live for other things: jobs, dreams, passions, skills. The only thing that ultimately matters is knowing Jesus.

This is what eternity is about. Jesus said eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3).

What will we be doing for all eternity? Getting to know God. Growing in relationship with Him.

Spurgeon said the most excellent study for expanding the soul is “the science of Christ, and him crucified.” In contemplating Christ, he wrote, “there is a balm for every wound.” Would you lose your sorrows? Then “plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated.”

Everything else is rubbish

Paul is in love with Christ. He knows the joy of this relationship.

Marriage pictures our relationship with Jesus.
When you meet that special someone, it’s a great gain.
So many love stories are about someone giving up everything to win the one they love.
Paul says knowing Jesus is a greater gain than anything else in the world.

In fact, Paul calls everything else rubbish: the Greek skubalon.

It means refuse, even dung, what gets flushed away.
Paul isn’t being crude for shock value. It’s a real word for something disgusting.
He wouldn’t use foul language. He told believers to avoid filthiness and coarse joking, and instead give thanks (Ephesians 5:4).
But his point stands: everything that distracts from a relationship with Jesus is refuse.
That’s offensive to anyone who cares about anything more than Jesus!
It’s like a toddler playing with a mess in the crib. “Come on! That stuff stinks!”

What in your life distracts you from Jesus? In context, it’s not enjoying life. It’s not even possessions. Ecclesiastes encourages us to enjoy the life God gives us.

So what’s the rubbish?

The biggest rubbish we get consumed with is self-sufficiency: self-sourced works.

And where does that kind of waste come from? You!

We have a daily reminder of how to think about our self-sourced righteousness! It needs to be rejected and flushed away. It keeps us from knowing God the way we should. We must renounce all dependence on the flesh.

Found in Him (3:9)

So how are we supposed to live?

In relationship with Jesus! Really knowing God. A relationship where He does everything, and we do one thing: trust Him, day after day after day.

Paul wants to be found in Him, not having his own righteousness from the law, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God by faith.

In Him is the place to be found!
There are only two places to be found: in Adam or in Christ.
In Adam: sin and condemnation, everything from self, held to the standard of the law and always falling short, separated from God by nature. We all start here.
In Christ: nothing from us! His righteousness given to us through faith. How perfect was Jesus? That’s what’s given to us!
Now we have a righteousness already given to us by faith, a righteousness to live on. Not a standard laid over us, but real goodness welling up inside us.
When we come to God, His righteousness is credited to us. We stand before Him righteous, in right standing, innocent of all sin.
As we grow in Christ, His righteousness is also worked out in us, day by day.
And it’s received the same way: the righteous shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

This gets to the heart of life. A life of faith is what matters. Your circumstances aren’t what life is about. Whenever and wherever you were born, life is about the same thing.

Faith rests on God’s Word and grace, on His Son.

Knowing God is the point of life. So get to know Him!

How?

Wait on the Lord. Wait in His Word. Spend time alone with Him, with your heart open to the Holy Spirit’s searching. Learn to engage with Him in humility and faith through prayer.

Andrew Murray described the blessedness of waiting on God: “I confess the impotence of all my thoughts and efforts, and set myself still to bow my heart before Him in holy silence, and to trust Him to renew and strengthen His own work in me.” He warned us to remember “the difference between knowing with the mind and believing with the heart,” since our clear thoughts, by themselves, are only images and shadows.

God promises: you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

Grace Takeaway

Paul had the most impressive religious résumé of his day, and he flushed it all for one thing: knowing Jesus. Your self-sufficiency is the biggest thing standing between you and a deeper relationship with God. Let it go. Be found in Him, clothed in a righteousness that comes from God by faith. Then wait on Him, open His Word, and get to know Him. He wants to be known, and He’ll be found by those who seek Him.

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How to Think About Knowing God, Part 1