2. The Cost of Knowing Jesus

Oct 10, 2026 • Rory Mosley

002 The Cost of Knowing Jesus

Philippians 3:1-9

October 10, 2026

Last night we introduced the weekend.

“That I may know Him”

That I may know Christ.

We talked about obtaining

1. An Academic Knowledge

2. An Intimate Knowledge

3. An Experiential Knowledge

4. And a Complete Knowledge

No matter where you are on the spectrum,

These are the 4 we pursue

And we pursue each of them to a greater degree.

We want to know Him in all these ways and we want to know Him more.

So THIS MORNING, let’s get into our text with a little more detail.

A LITTLE CONTEXT

The Philippians where a church in Macedonia.

· Today it is northeastern Greece.

· Paul went there on his 2nd missionary journey after he saw a vision from God.

· They were a poor people without much Jewish presence.

· He found some women by the river, preached to them, and the church began.

· Paul would be imprisoned there and the people themselves would be persecuted

Now Paul is gone, he is currently in prison in Rome,

And he is writing a letter from prison to these poor persecuted people

With one major theme in mind: REJOICE!

The entire letter is all about rejoicing in Christ.

Regardless of what you face in this life,

If you have Christ, you have reason to rejoice!

And since Paul is writing this letter from prison,

We know he’s not just blowing smoke.

Paul has found the true joy of knowing Christ.

· A joy deeper than circumstances.

· A joy greater than hardship.

· A joy that endures in every situation.

His point is that KNOWING CHRIST IS SO WORTH IT!

That is really the backdrop to the letter,

And it helps us understand the things he writes here.

The entire segment we are going to be studying this weekend

Can easily be broken into 3 segments.

1. THE WARNING

2. THE TESTIMONY

3. THE APPEAL

THIS MORNING we are going to look at the warning,

And part of the testimony.

Daniel will finish the testimony tonight and we’ll see the appeal tomorrow morning.

We’re just going to take a quick look this morning at the first 9 verses.

SO LET’S START WITH THE WARNING

It’s pretty clear to see there in the first 3 verses.

(1-3) “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. BEWARE of the dogs, BEWARE of the evil workers, BEWARE of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”

You see the word show up a few times don’t you?

“Beware”

He warns about “dogs”, “evil workers”

And those he calls “the false circumcision”.

All of those names are referring to the same group of people.

Specifically they are those who are outwardly religious,

But who do not have Christ.

They are “the false circumcision”.

· That is contrasted in verse 3 where Paul will say that “we are the true circumcision”

And you may wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD THAT MEANS?

If you know what circumcision is, that’s good.

If you don’t, you can ask your parents later.

In a very basic and general sense,

It was a procedure done to symbolize the removal of the flesh.

All throughout the bible we see that in God’s people there is a tension.

You have the flesh which is selfish and sinful.

You have the Spirit which is holy and righteous.

And the two war against each other.

Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

The call to God’s people is to kill the flesh and to obey the Spirit.

So God’s requirement to the Jewish people,

Beginning all the way back with Abraham,

Was that every male would be circumcised.

Symbolically removing the flesh.

Circumcision did not save them, but it was a sign of the covenant.

It was an outward symbol of what God wanted to do in their heart.

God wanted them to have a holy heart; a heart for righteousness.

They were to remove their fleshly desires from their heart.

They were to, in effect, circumcise their heart.

In many ways it was like our ordinance of baptism.

The water doesn’t save you, it is an outward symbol of an inward reality.

But here Paul points out that there are some who are

“the false circumcision”.

They are outwardly circumcised, but not inwardly circumcised.

They are religious, but their religion has not effected their heart.

And because their heart has NOT been affected, their work is actually evil.

· All of their religious deeds are not pleasing to God,

· They are only done from an evil heart meant to get glory for themselves.

SO PICTURE HERE

· A very religious person, who goes through all of the motions of religion,

· But they don’t really love God,

· The only reason they do what they do is to glorify themselves

We see them as PHARISEES in Jesus’ day.

Matthew 23:5-7 “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”

They were just outwardly religious people

Who performed for the praise and recognition of men.

And Paul says to “Beware” of men like that.

THEY ARE DANGEROUS.

BUT WHY?

What is so dangerous about a person who is outwardly religious, but who does not truly love God in their heart?

Their danger is revealed by Paul in verse 3

When he CONTRASTS them with true believers.

Look at how Paul describes true believers in verse 3

(3) “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”

You already see that where they are false, we are true.

· They are external only, we are internal

· We not only have outward circumcision, but our hearts have been circumcised.

Then Paul gives the two most important distinctions.

These two distinctions are

What separates the dangerous phonies from the genuine believer.

Paul says that genuine believers

“glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

YOU SEE THAT?

So on the flip side,

How would we then define those dangerous phonies?

· Obviously then they do not glory in Christ Jesus

· And they do put confidence in the flesh.

That is the real difference between the two.

1. One group trusts in their own goodness and doesn’t need Jesus.

2. The other group has no trust in their goodness and puts all their hope in Jesus.

Do you see the difference?

And Paul says that the one who puts confidence in their flesh

IS VERY DANGEROUS.

You must “Beware” of people who do that.

THIS WORLD IS FULL OF PEOPLE WHO WILL TELL YOU THAT

If you want to be pleasing to God or if you want to go to heaven

Then you accomplish that by working harder and doing good.

That is the basis of every other religion in the world.

And unfortunately, even inside Christianity, there are some denominations

That still want you to trust in your good works to get you to heaven.

They want you to do good and then trust that your good is enough.

And Paul says “BEWARE!” of people like that.

AND LET’S STOP HERE AND CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

Do you know why you should beware of anyone who tells you that your good works are what is required for salvation?

BECAUSE THAT IS A LIE.

Let me tell it to you as clearly and accurately as I know how.

Trusting in your good works for salvation

WILL ABSOLUTELY SEND YOU TO HELL.

Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Did you hear what I just said?

“by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight”

No one will ever be justified before God

Because they obeyed good enough.

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

TURN TO: ROMANS 3:10-18

· This is a conglomeration of Old Testament passages that Paul compiles in

order to show you God’s estimation of human goodness.

· You may think you are good.

· Here is what God says about human goodness.

Do you see that no one is good enough before God?

That is why salvation cannot be according to human goodness.

If it were, no one would ever be saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Salvation is “not as a result of works”.

· It can’t be.

· We aren’t good enough.

If you think yourself to be good enough,

It is only because you have not

Rightly read or applied God’s holy Law to your life.

Consider what Jesus preached during the Sermon on the Mount.

TURN TO: MATTHEW 5:21-22

Do you see that God is measuring you inwardly, not outwardly?

You think you’re good because you’ve never murdered anyone,

· But if you’ve ever gossiped or slandered then in God’s eyes you are a murderer.

TURN TO: MATTHEW 5:27-30

Same thing isn’t it?

MAN IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

· Man has sinned against God.

· Man has broken God’s Laws.

· And God is a righteous judge who will justly judge sinners.

I don’t care how good you are outwardly, God is not pleased.

TURN TO: LUKE 18:9-14

Did you see how useless that man’s outward religion was?

At the end of the day he was NOT JUSTIFIED.

AND I’M JUST TRYING TO MAKE THE SIMPLE POINT TO YOU.

You cannot live good enough to make God accept you into heaven.

The fact is you’ve already been too bad.

Do you see why people who tell you to trust in yourself are so dangerous?

Because they are lying to you and will cause you to go to hell.

You don’t need to forsake Christ and trust in yourself.

You need to forsake yourself and trust in Christ.

Because where you and I are not enough.

JESUS IS ENOUGH

We, through our works can never please God, but Jesus did please God.

Matthew 3:16-17 “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

But even beyond those verbal declarations,

The ultimate reason that we know that Jesus pleased God

Was because when Jesus was killed God raised Him from the dead.

Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

God will not accept your good works,

But God has already accepted the good works of Christ.

SO ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU

That you don’t need Christ, you just need to be a good person

Is lying to you in order to send you to hell.

The Bible says that you need Christ because you have already blown it.

NOW – PAUL LEARNED THAT

He was a man who once thought he could be good enough to please God.

· He used to be one of those “dogs”,

· One of those “evil workers”,

· One of those members of “the false circumcision”.

WE SEE HIS TESTIMONY

And look at what he says about himself.

(4-6) “although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”

PAUL SAYS if you want to talk about human goodness and human devotion to religion, NO ONE WAS BETTER THAN ME.

· No one had done more in their flesh than he had done.

· No one had tried harder.

· His resume was bigger than anyone else’s.

· He had done everything right in his life.

· He actually said that if you could take the Law of God in one hand and then look at my life you would say that I was “found blameless”.

And externally that may have been true,

But as we said a moment ago, GOD LOOKS AT THE HEART.

And Paul came to a place in life where he learned that.

We don’t have time to go work it all through, but if you want to study it more on your own just write down Romans 7 in your notes.

And see what happened when Paul ran across a command

That dealt not with the outside, but with the inside.

“Thou Shalt Not Covet”

When he ran into a command like that he found out that though he could manipulate the outside, he had no ability to change the inside.

He learned that he was not as good as he thought.

He learned that he needed help.

And that is when He cried out to Jesus.

Do you want to see the prayer he prayed?

Romans 7:24-25 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

So Paul used to be a man who trusted in his own good works but he became a man who saw how useless they were and cried out to Jesus.

NOW, AS WE SAID LAST NIGHT.

That intimate knowledge of Jesus is costly, and IT COST PAUL.

(7-9) “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”

You can see that it cost Paul can’t you?

He said in verse 8, “I have suffered the loss of all things”

WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY THAT?

We could talk about money or possessions and stuff like that,

But more than that he is talking about all his good works.

You can’t trust in Jesus and yourself.

You have to pick.

If Paul was going to obtain Jesus

He would be forced to let go of all the good he had done.

Now we have a word for that.

IT’S CALLED PRIDE

· It is pride that causes a man to want to hang on to all he has accomplished.

· It is pride that causes a man to want to trust in his good deeds.

And Paul had to let his pride go.

· Years and years of striving after the Law…

· Years and years of cultivating his reputation…

· Years and years of accomplishments…

· Years and years of awards…

He had to throw it all away as absolutely useless.

This is what Jesus meant when He said:

Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

“he must deny himself”

· Deny his goodness.

· Deny his works as having any value.

· Deny his accomplishments.

· Deny his reputation.

· Deny his efforts.

You must see what you’ve done as no benefit to your salvation.

Now this is why it is hard for a good man to enter the kingdom.

Adrian Rogers said, “The worst form of badness is human goodness.”

If Paul was going to know Jesus

Then he would have to let go of all his own goodness.

IT IS COSTLY TO SURRENDER ALL OF THAT.

And that is why some of you won’t press on to intimate knowledge.

You just stay with an academic knowledge of Jesus

because you are too proud to admit that your goodness is a sham.

But what do we see about Paul in the text?

Is he grieved?

Is he sad?

He said, (7) “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

· He said it is “loss”

Again in verse 8 “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”

He said again that I “count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ”

“rubbish” is the Greek word (SKOO-ba-lon)

It means “animal excrement” – “HORSE POOP”

So is Paul saying that his former life had no value?

No, not at all.

· He’s saying that it had no value to save him.

And that compared to Jesus it was about as valuable as horse poop.

It was like trying to pay God with horse poop to enter heaven

And so THIS MORNING I simply want to make THIS POINT to you.

KNOWING JESUS IS COSTLY, BUT IT IS SO WORTH IT!

Paul found something in Jesus that he could find nowhere else.

· In Jesus he found “righteousness…which is through faith in Jesus Christ”

He found his ability to please God and gain eternal life.

Jesus is the only place that is found.

You must seek Him no matter the cost.

Matthew 10:37-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

· Don’t let some phony tell you to “believe in yourself.”

· Don’t let some phony cause you to be confident in your own goodness.

Our confidence is only in Christ.

We glory only in Christ.

There is a hymn I love called “The Solid Rock”

· “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”

· “I DARE NOT TRUST THE SWEETEST FRAME”

· “But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

Find that moment when you were as good as you’ve ever been.

The hymn writer said, “I wouldn’t even trust in that. I trust only in Jesus!”

That’s what Paul said.

AND FRIEND, THAT IS WHAT YOU MUST DO.