Beware of Men of the Flesh

All right, so today we're into a new section of Philippians, and this is really a transitional section. And, you know, because Andrew did such a spectacular job reviewing Chapter 2 last week, there's no review this week. Okay? This isn't any need to go back over that again. So turn to your Bibles, Wendy, to Philippians 3, and we're going to read verses 1 through 6. And then next week we'll continue, I believe, 4 through 6. So verse 1.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of mutilation, for we are circumcision who worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Boy, I wish we all could relate to that. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I'm more so.

I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel to a trial of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, and concerning the righteousness which is in the law of Lambos." Incredible, the history that Paul breaks.

And again, we're not going to get into that history this week. But to some extent, I wish I were here next week teaching that, too. Anyway. So, okay, let's begin. And to Bob's benefit, I learned a lot from his comment a few weeks ago in the Tuesday study. We're going to look at all three verses together, and we're going to put them in context in terms of what we, in fact, are studying today. Okay, let's read this series of verses again. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious. And we're going to come back to defining these terms a little bit more.

But for you it's safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. All right, first verse, read it for the third time. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe. Question to the class. Why do you think Paul begins this chapter with, finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord?

Don't all answer at once, please. Wouldn't it be because of all the things he's already gone through? That's, you know, I mean, all of this information that he's passed on to us previously. Which. I mean, there weren't a lot of good things that he was talking about, too. Well, how do you interpret finally? How many times have you been to an event, they say finally, and then there's another finally, and then there's a third finally. This is not his last finally.

In Philippians 4.8, or 4.8, yes. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, you know that verse. Why am I quoting the whole verse?

This is a finally that's used And it's the second last finally, and it's a letter of these... Well, you can think about people when they... We speak often, Bob, but sometimes we'll say, and... We'll come to a conclusion of a section, then we're going to come to another conclusion later on. So it's kind of that idea. I think Roger's on the right track here. So let's see what Luis has to say. He says, the word finally is literally as for the rest. In every case, in the use of the Greek expression, has the idea of something left over.

Paul has been concerned so far in the letter with the internal dissensions, mild though they were, that endangered the well-being of the Philippian church. Now he turns his attention to a danger that would assail it from without, namely the Judaizers. So I think he's kind of concluding where they're at, and it's finally in relationship to the topic he's already covered, but now he's going to introduce a new topic. And so the final, finally in chapter 4, is truly a final message to the church at Philharmonic. But we just need to interpret this as he has gone back to the Greek and helped us understand this better. Any thoughts or comments about this interpretation?

So you're giving me a heads up that the dogs were the Judaizers because I'm a little afraid of what would come with beware of the dogs. Are you going to remain in the class this morning? Did she let you die? I don't want people to generalize dogs to your pets at home. By the way, I avoided that aspect of scripture because There are verses in the Bible that talk about dogs as being people's pets. Okay, we're not going to go there. These are a different kind of dog.

All right, let's continue then. All right. Macaulay has an additional thought, which I thought was really kind of enlightening, and although very brief, I'm kind of a reductionist, so something said in a sentence or two is really, I think, more confirmatory of what this whole represents.

He said that the exhortation to rejoice in the Lord is the attribute or an antidote. Sorry, I'm not sure I've done with my glasses or not. It's the antidote to legalism. So legalism rejoices in the accomplishments of man. The true joy flows from a focus on the Lord. Isn't that so true? And so legalism kind of puts us under a set of domain of operating to get God's pleasure. And so that is really an antidote to legalism. The rejoice in the Lord is an antidote to legalism.

So here, ultimately, this rejoicing of the Lord is to bring the glory to where it goes. And that's where our joy resides. And Kasim will add some additional information here. We have noticed the consistent emphasis on joy and rejoicing that has marked this letter so far.

And he cites a series of verses which we'll not look at. Joy is the prevailing mood of Philippians, but I don't think that it's the major theme. Although, you know, if people describe the epistle to the Church of Philippi, they would say it's a church filled with joy. But he's saying, yes, that's true, but He's disagreeing that that's the major theme.

Paul gave the importance of rejoicing special emphasis here. Regardless of circumstances, the Christian can and should always rejoice in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the basis of true joy and the sphere in which it thrives. Let me repeat this. Regardless of circumstances, the Christian can and should always rejoice in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the basis of true joy and the sphere in which it thrives. Your thoughts about Constable Stake? Don't we tend to rejoice when things work out? Thank the Lord for that.

I don't know if there's anything wrong with that, but we've got to remember that we're Christians. It's harder to rejoice in trials because our focus, to some extent, is taken off the Lord in a trial on ourselves. We should stay on the Lord, but he wants us to keep our focus on him, no choice on him. Well, I'll come back to this a little later with a one-liner, but where's our citizenship anyway? You know, remember, earth's our business address, heaven's our home. And that tends to help me a little bit trying to put in perspective all the things we've been through personally and as a country, and a godless country increasingly, and a world that increasingly doesn't matter the least.

All right, the rest of the verse. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you, it's safe. Okay, so for me to write is important to interpret in terms of the Greek grammar. This is a present active infinitive, which means keeping on writing. Paul's going to say more. So he's keeping on writing, ultimately, to the church to deliver additional messages.

Now, does Paul really mean tedious? What do you think? How would you define tedious? Other translations have a little bit differently. They have no trouble to me. I think that's the same word. Repetitive. OK. Exhausting. All right. And, you know, what I found was it may be a better translation. It's not grievous or, you know, a problem or irksome. This is something. It's not tedious. Any of these terms, I think, describes the same process that Paul is going through. Say, Bob? Yes, Bob.

I've heard over and over again in churches where the preacher is going to preach about something and someone will say, man, we have heard that a hundred times. Can't we go to something new? But I think it's important that when we're studying the Word of God, repetition is very important. And, of course, Paul says here to write the same things again, over and over again.

Give me a minute to, let me put out three points on repetition, all right? Point number one, repetition of God's Word is essential for being grounded in the faith. Point number two, repetition is God's word and God's word is essential for being grounded in the faith. And point number three, repetition of God's word is essential for being grounded in the faith. Read those three again, please. They seem kind of tedious. We're on tough ground here. Can I just do it one time?

Repetition of God's Word is essential for being grounded in the faith. Grounded, okay. Yes. And the only way we're going to lead We can't read God's word one time and then walk away and think we've got it. I mean, we've got to do it daily over and over and over again. And I think that's part of what Paul is bringing out when he says to write the same things again. Repetition. All right. And I agree with Bob.

And I also think that when we're exhorting one another, We do it, it's tedious sometimes, we do it over and over sometimes with the same thing. You know, I'm unified in Christ and all the wonderful things that we keep exhorting each other on and I think that's just really healthy and it never gets old. I guess the question is, can it get old? And if it's getting old, then is it spirit-led? I mean, so legalism too. How many biblical scholars don't seem to have it in terms of an ownership for their position at the right hand and the new nature they have in Christ Jesus.

I'm not being critical, I'm just making an observation. So intellectual, repetitive study of the Word, the Spirit could ultimately use that, I think, to bring somebody to a better and more in-depth understanding. But there's no question that the word is really the source of all truth. And by the way, the entire Bible. Let me pause here just a second. I think I was, as a college student, very skeptical of all this. I grew up in a mainline church and I was not personally saved.

There's no question about it. And ultimately, I thought that people would use a single verse of the Bible to make a point that there could be a lot of contradiction from one verse to the next, because you need to take the whole word and put it into perspective. both historically and spiritually. And I think it's all about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as a God.

I think that's what Paul is emphasizing here. Other thoughts? By the way, you know, one thing about Macaulay's teaching that I find particularly very, very important and sound, and Roger and maybe others would agree with this, He repeats important points a second time and very slowly. And so he's trying to cement points that he feels that are scripturally sound in the minds and hearts of the people that listen. So anyway, we'll leave it at that. Next.

And safe here is probably best interpret confirmatory. So let's look at the verse again. So the verse says. So I'm writing the same things to you. It's not tedious, but for you, it is safe or confirmatory. It's a better interpretation that I'm confirming what I've said before by repeating it. Yeah. Actually, New American Standard has a kind of like a safeguard for you. So it's a safeguard for me to repeat it. I mean, the more you know, to make sure you have it.

So whether it's safeguard, safe or confirmatory, I mean, it kind of relates to the same thing. I think the importance of what he's been writing and how they should interpret it. We need reminders. We need to be reminded. Exactly. Yes. Sometimes you can hear something a hundred times and you still don't get it. Well, that's true. So I guess I'm going to end with this first verse and say, why do you think that he needs to make this statement?

In a sense, we've discussed that in part. And Bob's comments on the repetitive nature of teaching truth and having a biblically sound doctrines. I think it goes back to one of the main themes of Philippians is chapter 1 verse 27. I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together. Okay. Important theme for all of us, right? Alright, let's go ahead to verse 2 then.

Beware, careless women's for you. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of humiliation. The first thing you notice here is beware of shoes three times. It must be important. In the Greek, this is present active imperative. That means you do it and keep doing it. I mean, it's a very simple thing.

We're to beware of all of these things that have been mentioned here in terms of the deviation from biblical truth and sound doctrine. All right, dogs. Here it's used as a metaphor for a man of impure mind and an impotent man. So we'll look at this in a little bit more detail scripturally.

Matthew 7, 6. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, implying the Gentiles. Nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under your feet, and then turn and tear you in pieces. Okay? Words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

Okay, 2 Peter 2.22, but it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. So this relates to the dog being used as a metaphor of a human that's impotent or has an impure mind.

And finally, Revelation 22.15, I found interesting. Outsider dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters And whosoever loves these and practices a lie. So ultimately, you know, even in Revelation, they're the terminus of the Book of Revelation.

Dogs are mentioned. And by the way, there are multiple other scriptures. And you can go back to the Old Testament to see even a greater reference to what dogs imply. So, as always, we want to look at what people so much smarter than their schooling have to say. The dogs here were the mangy, flea-bitten, vicious, starved scavengers of the Oriental streets.

That's pretty graphic. So these are not your pets, I hope. You're hopefully feeding them well, at least. All right. So evil workers. What does this imply? The term evil workers. It says, beware of them. They're a present active imperative. Evaluate these. Evaluate these human, these men with their human standards. So take into consideration what they represent. And ultimately, who are these evil workers? They're not only evil, but they're actively working at it.

So these are people that have a motive to their false doctrine and the way they would lead the body of Christ in the wrong direction. And so the Judaizers are a perfect example. And of course, in the book of Galatians, Paul spent a lot of time dealing with this group of individuals in the church. So those who write against the gospel of grace are Judaizers is the best description of these evil workers. And let's look at a couple of verses that may relate to that. 2 Corinthians 11, 13. for such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

So these may be people who are ultimately purposely and motively generating a truth that they believe is true. But we need to be aware of these individuals. Now I think in a place like Hollywood, this is probably not a reality. But as we walk the streets of the world, we can often be persuaded by people who in fact are viewing us in a different way. And I guess legalism would be one representation of this kind of mindset. So we have to be careful there.

Romans 16, 18. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. So back to the repetitive, important nature of being in the Word of God in terms of what truth really is. Thoughts about evil workers that fill the office.

So we're also talking about people in the church who outwardly seem like they're fine and they're teaching the word, but they have some little ideas that really destroy what we believe in. It's like if you have a glass of pure water, that's great to drink, but if you put 10% arsenic in it, it ruins the whole thing. So, you know, if you think about it, Bob, you're involved in this, but Roger said too that the Hebrew study on Tuesday and also the Acts study in our home, ultimately we're looking at people who represent the Judaizers. Could the Judaizers be saved individuals?

Yes. Yes, I think they are. Okay, good. This is not necessarily someone who's simply flawed in doctrine. These people, I think, often have motives that this they believe is so true. Do you think all of them are saved? Roger, you look like you're pondering this. I mean, I'm talking true. Our elves are here.

Okay. Well, look at all the churches around. I mean, you know, these monster churches that have thousands of people that go there. Well, you know, the flattering speech to see the hearts of the simple, right? I mean, that's, that's cool. You can see that. Right.

But is the motive to deceive or are they just mistaken in terms of their theology? I believe some Judaizers are basically self-righteous people who are not biblically saved. I don't think there's any doubt that we have two types of Judaizers. And Paul doesn't distinguish them here. He's just cautioning the church about avoiding people who represent this mindset.

Well, we do come across people, you know, in the church and outside the church that They say they're believers, but after you're with them a while, you begin to see their motives seem to be quite a bit different than just simply trying to understand God's word.

They're often some other agenda, like, oh, this is a wonderful building. I've had that happen, not this church. This is a wonderful building. OK. So what's it is a wonderful building. No, I just want to go to that personally. Clark just said, you know, what about the Catholic Church? That's the Catholic, like the Catholic Church.

Well, there are probably people saved in that body, but ultimately the security, they don't have the security, they don't have biblical doctrine that's really sound. Right. And so largely they're poorly taught. They're not taught, you know, correctly. And whether that's because of their own, you know, bent or because they never were exposed to it.

But think of the flesh. The flesh can be rewarded and feel good about doing good things, can't it? But that, according to what we read, is lukewarm and subtle, is it not? Well, I was thinking of the Catholic Church so much as tradition and ritual without reality.

And that's what they've grown up with. Or what they're told by the Pope and the priests and all that, as opposed to their own studies and their own learning. You know, I may be recalling this incorrectly, but when I was listening to J. Vernon McGee and teaching Micah, I believe, is what he was teaching. This is months ago now.

But he said ritual is fine if it's based on sound operant. But ritual in the absence of good scriptural foundation is simply ritual and religion. So, again, I'm not quite sure of the prophet. I think it was Micah that he was talking about. Now, what's the third thing to beware of?

Mutilations. All right. Can be translated as concision or circumcision. Let's look at this in more detail. Macaulay has something nice to say here. He said, when Paul uses the word circumcision in verse 2, he does not use the usual word peritone, which means to cut around and is used in verse 3. The word used in verse 2 is katatoma, meaning mutilation. When circumcision was trusted for salvation, it was viewed as nothing more than a useless mutilation. Heathen priests mutilated themselves believing the gods would be satisfied by such actions. Those in view of this verse taught salvation by religious right, if you will, ritual and are therefore false teachers.

Okay, so here in context we're relating to people who in fact relate to this Old Testament verse that they ignore, Leviticus 21.5, they shall not make by any bold place on their hands any bald place on their heads.

Again, my vision, let me see if that's better. No, it's not. Nor shall they shave the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh, implying related to circumcision. So even, you know, Moses in Leviticus has something to say about this as not being something that's acceptable. All right.

So this first reflects, I think, the atmosphere that prevailed in the Galatian church and where Paul goes on to state the following and perhaps a bit sarcastically. I mean, we don't think of Paul as someone who uses sarcasm very often, but he said, I wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. And in a sense, that word is the same as mutilation. So in a sense, if we look at the history of the term, Here, he's looking at the Judaizers in Galatians, which in fact was a major problem in the Galatian church. He said, he's using this, I think, very strongly. I was going to say pejoratively, but I think sarcastically is almost a better term to describe what Paul was saying to the church at Galatians. All right. All right, onward. Verse 3.

For we are the circumcision, peritome, again what Macaulay was referring to, worship God in the spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. How are you doing with that? So what is circumcision for the believer? So if we're circumcised, we can be physically circumcised for men, but ultimately, what is it for the believer?

Well, let's see if Paul says any more about that here. Colossians 2, 11-12. Let me see if this may help. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of sin of the flesh, and by the circumcision of Christ, And back to Romans, what he stated in Romans, buried with him at baptism in which you're also raised with him through faith and the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Identification is circumcision, made without hands. That's our circumcision. That's pretty profound if you think of the history for Israel in terms of the importance of circumcision in terms of the legal system they grew up in. But for us, you know, circumcision in the flesh has no bearing at all on our relationship to God. It's not outward, it's inward. What thing? It's not outward, it's inward. Absolutely, yeah.

All right, so the word rejoice in the Greek text has the idea of glorifying or exalting. It shows the high spiritual level of the Apostle's life. And here's where I promised you, where's our citizenship anyway? were buried with him unto death, and risen with him in newness of life." Buried with him in death and risen with newness of life.

Identification truth is a circumcision process that entirely is the work and power of the Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. To worship God the Spirit. You know, the Lord said a lot about this in John 4. I think, yeah, he said the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And Bob, back to your comment about the Philippians, one verse about sound in mind and sound in heart. That's what he's calling the church, too, in terms of their walking with the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right. Confidence in the flesh. How many ways And this confidence, which means, by the way, a purse persuaded trust in ourselves. Perfect tense. It means it's an ongoing activity. How many ways can this be manifested? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a subjective question that we have to answer individually. This is not multiple choice. So we know increasingly, almost infinitely, the flesh can be ultimately our confidence and voice. Welcome to life, right? Welcome to life in a new creature we are in Christ Jesus.

Also endless disappointment as well. Yeah, and by the way, Newell said in Romans 6, I think to be disappointed with yourself is to have trusted yourself. To be disappointed with yourself. How often are you disappointed with yourself? Even now, for us, in Holly Hills, with White Theology. How often are we disappointed with ourselves? Who do we trust?

Good point, Clark. Thank you. Constable, the New Testament writers use the term flesh, which in one literal and two metaphorical senses really refers to our bodies, our earthly bodies. But figuratively it refers to all that we were an atom before our salvation. Series of verses listed. Mostly in Romans 7. I'm so excited. And to our human nature.

Galatians 2.20, of course we all know quite well. Here Paul probably meant our human nature and what we can do without divine enablement naturally. So, anyway, that's kind of what we were just, I think, mentioning before. The flesh is incredibly powerful.

Darby goes on, and I really, you know, Darby, when you read Darby, there's a lot of information there, but to try to be a reductionist and try to condense what I think was important that I read. To the apostle who knew Christ in heaven, remember Paul spent a little time there. All this was but a bait to draw the Christian away from Christ and throw him back again into the ruin out of which Christ had drawn him. And this would be so much the worse because it would be to abandon a known and glorified Christ and to return to that which had been proved to be of no value for the flesh. The apostle therefore spares neither the doctrine nor those who taught it. So, a couple of verses to cement this point here.

Galatians 6.13, For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. That's the Judaizer, presumably.

And then 1 Corinthians 1.31, That is it written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

In a sense, that's kind of a an amen to what Paul is writing in this section of the Corinthians. And then, you know, what we're going to learn next week is all the credit Paul gives his own history, which we all, I think, sometimes do at times, which is meaningless other than it drew him to Christ. And on Tuesday, the people at our house will be looking at Paul and what changed on the road to Damascus. So that'll be exciting. So I'm going to leave you with this kind of kind of picture of 1 Corinthians 1 31. It's written that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. And there's no other glory that we should see. So that concludes today's lesson.

So any thoughts and comments are welcome for sure. I think it's interesting to notice that the word confidence is actually repeated three times here in the verse three and four. We haven't got verse 4 yet, but there's a confidence that we can have by trusting in God's Word. But the confidence that we're going to talk about next week is the confidence that Paul had in his own flesh, how he thought he was so great and ended up being You know, the interesting thing about that, and again, this will be next week's lesson, which I'll be not here for, but the interesting thing about that, don't you think that Paul's history had a lot to do with his view from above as a new believer buried with Christ and risen?

I mean, he's dismissing it as being worthless before God. But yet it's still something he looked back to enough that stated scripture to say that this was part of the learning curve. How worthless all that was. And the reason he thought it was so worthless, because of what he learned as far as being in Christ, the complete opposite of what he was. Other thoughts, comments about today's lesson? Okay, Bonnie's not here, but she will be glad we're done early.

Andrew, any thoughts? Timmy, Katie, anybody? I think that's how I'm going to do it. Say again, Andrew? Oh, no, that was good. I enjoyed that. All right. Go ahead. I'm sorry. He just was saying goodbye. All right. David, will you close us in prayer, please? Father, we thank you for the day and the message you've now brought to us.

We do not have confidence in ourselves, confidence in what you want to do in our lives. This whole issue of putting rubber on the road here and pushing the accelerator. The confidence in the flesh is something that we're so used to doing, is it not? But it's not kind of let go like God. God gives us a reason to believe by faith and ultimately using our brain to make good decisions too. We don't get merit for making intellectually good decisions, but when we have the right view that spirit-led is typically based, that's not confidence in the flesh, but the power of the new creations we are in Christ Jesus. This is not something I think we need to sit and analyze. We need to live a life that's spirit-led and driven by our new creation, by the tajib. Was that of the flesh or was that of the spirit?

That's paralyzing and also may psychotic to some extent. I mean, by the way, I always thought If, you know, one of us were in an emergency room and something had been done that we were guilty of before the law. But, you know, anyway, they said we would say, well, that was my old nature. Let me get the psychiatrist on the phone here. We got a patient in the emergency room who claims that this is old nature, not his new nature. Anyway, this is not something the world system understands at all. And I wouldn't contend that even most people in churches don't understand that as well.

Well, to a large degree, because they're not taught. They're not, you know, and you could, you know, where do you place the blame for that? You know, that's poor teaching. Actually, most of them don't realize they even have a fallen nature. They believe somehow they're, I was saved and I'm going to heaven and that's really wonderful. But the fact that they don't see that they have a fallen nature and they And they blame that somewhere else, the devil or bad habits or whatever. So that poor teaching on that is just crippling. Because if you see you have a fallen nature, then God gives you, shows you the remedy for that.

You know, in Galatians especially, you know, walk by the spirit. He has the remedy in his word, but if you don't see that you have this battle between the two natures, then you say, well, what value is, you know, you don't value his word. It's sad. Bob, you had a thought. You just mentioned a moment ago the phrase, let go and let God. You also mentioned that in one of our studies about a month ago.

And a lot of times we think, we're to just live by faith and walk by means of the spirit, which is how we should live. But We have to decide to do that. It's so easy to not do it. We're mandated to do it. And that's something we need to, we just can't let go and let God. No, that's absolutely true. We live by faith. And that faith is the Lord of God.

Back to Roger's point, I mean, we've closed in prayer a bit. My late father-in-law came to the Lord during dying from cancer. He was a Kierkegaardian man of faith, which is a leap of faith, which is not biblical. Sharon, my late wife and I, continue to be very concerned about his theological belief that when he was dying of cancer he came to the Lord. But he had something that I think is really worthwhile that I remember is that when you begin a conversation with now I'm going to say somebody in the world system. So is man basically good It's bad, basically bad. And most of the world will say basically good and Roger, with habits, maybe they fall short. And once you have that at the beginning of the conversation, there's no reason to talk much further. Right.

Now, he came to that from a political perspective more so than a spiritual, you know, say person near the end of his life. But in a sense, that kind of relates to what you were saying. But just bad habits. But I think, unfortunately, There are people within the body who in fact have that same kind of view. They don't see themselves as truly all. Right.

And that's a crippling view because if you don't see yourself, then you don't see, you know, for salvation, you don't see your need. And then in your Christian life, you don't see your need to continually, as Bob, continually be in the Word, continually set your mind on things above, then you don't see the need for that either. So it cripples you in your salvation and in your Christian walk.

But not having a correct view of What's going on here? Why do I, as Mike says, why do I, when the music starts, why do I start dancing? What's going on here? I'm humbled to be up here sharing these things because, you know, it's not that the teacher necessarily has this all together, right?

I mean, hey, we're all. I think they forget about a newborn baby. Right. Exactly. That's hard to accept. It is hard. It is. That little child. How could he be a sinner? Right. Well, sound theology. That's the first step. Right. All right. Let's close. Thanks, everybody, for being part of this.