It's such a blessing to come
to this time and This is what I need the Lord more than ever
but he's so gracious and faithful that I believe to make his word
clear in spite of me and Brother Fortner talked one time about
the gospel is the burden of the Lord When you can lay that burden
on down for a while, of course you pick it right back up. That's
good. But it does feel like that. You're
getting something that you've been wanting to say out, and it's a good feeling. For we are the circumcision. Circumcision of the heart remember
we'll talk a little bit about it today Lord willing which worship
God in the spirit We worship God in the spirit. There's no
worshiping God by nature And we worship God. We don't worship
an idol of our imagination. We worship the God of heaven
and earth Our God is in the heavens. He had done whatsoever. He had
pleased and you're only going to worship at the throne of the
Sovereign God and This morning let's pick up this thought and
rejoice in Christ Jesus The word rejoice here means and this is
a part of the definition. This is what it means. I'm not
sure why they didn't Translate it into the word glory because
that's what it's talking about we glory and Christ Jesus. It's exactly the same thing that
Paul said in Galatians 6 14 when he said, when he wrote, but God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. This is the same thought. We
would glory in Christ. And if you thought maybe that
Philippians 3 there when we say when he says we rejoice in Christ
Jesus maybe well that's you know we rejoice primarily in Christ
Jesus. We rejoice mostly in Christ Jesus.
No. Galatians 6 makes it clear what he's talking about. We rejoice
exclusively in Christ Jesus. God forbid that I should glory
Saved in Christ crucified People glory in so many things their
careers their success in notoriety Beauty Vanity pride wealth All
of the usual things but notice all of those things have to do
with you Myself Every bit of it my thing my wealth my accomplishments
My works. Believers are defined this way.
And it's radical, isn't it? It's radical. We rejoice in somebody
else. That's unbelievable. It's only
possible by a creative power of God for a human being to rejoice
in anybody but themselves. And we don't rejoice in imaginary
Jesuses that the scripture warns us about. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus, the Christ, the anointed of God, God sent, God anointed,
savior of his people, redeemer of his elect. We glory in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And let's not forget that something
had to be done for us Before this could be done by us, we
are the circumcision. What does that mean? Listen,
turn to Romans two with me if you would. Romans chapter two,
verse 28. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly. Anything that happens in the
flesh, even your birth, that you have no control over, any
fleshly thing, has nothing to do with defining what one of
God's chosen people is. None of it. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. birth, works, your, you know,
I became a Jew, you know, people say. Whatever that means, it
means nothing as far as God is concerned. It is not outward
in the flesh, verse 29, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly
where you can't do anything about it, where a leopard can't change
his spots, an Ethiopian can't change his skin. He's a Jew which
is one on the inside, and circumcision is that of the heart, nothing
to do with the flesh, in the spirit, and not in the letter. It's not, I agree with this,
I agree with this, I agree with this, I agree with this, I'm
a Jew. No! It's a spiritual thing, and the praise goes to God and
not man. You see that last phrase? That
tells us what all of that's saying before that. It tells us that
that circumcision of the heart is something that God does. He's
the one to be gloried in for that. He gets the praise for
heart circumcision and not men, because God alone can perform
that work on the heart. The cutting away of the flesh,
which is what Paul describes in the rest of chapter 3 here.
All of my religious heritage, all of my works, I don't want
anything to do with them. Cut that away and cast it off God alone can perform that work
on the heart then we worship God in the spirit Then we rejoice
in his son when he does something for us first And let's get something
else straight the truth Is that we rejoice in Christ alone? And
that's made me wonder now, and maybe you wonder, well don't
we rejoice in our family? Don't we rejoice in our friends?
If we're honest, don't we rejoice in some of the good things we
enjoy in this life? We do rejoice in those things,
don't we? But it's not the same for a believer. And let me try
to illustrate that. Of course we do. Let's just be
honest with ourselves. We rejoice. in what we enjoy
in this life and especially the relationships that the Lord has
blessed us with in this life. But consider this, when you delight
yourself in whatever it is, a child being born. Of course, we're
going to delight, we're going to rejoice together. Or just
even a job that you love, a new truck, if you rejoice in that. Think about this now, when we
were children, I still remember it vividly, We would open our Christmas presents
on Christmas morning, that's how we did it. Christmas Eve,
we would all get together, and on Christmas morning, we'd open
all of our gifts up. And boy, you'd open up a toy
that you'd been wanting, and your lives would light up. We'd
be thinking about how great it's
gonna be to play with that toy, and what we can do with that.
All we really want to do is open them all up and get to our room
so we can play or get outside so we can play with our toys.
But if we were taught right, we'll say thank you. Thank you,
mom. Thank you, dad. But we really
just wanted to get away with our toys and play with them,
right? But then we grow up. Then we grow up. And somebody gives us something
special. Somebody gives us something Maybe
they worked hard on it, whether they bought it or made it themselves.
They worked for the money to buy it. We do delight in the
gift, but we're not children anymore. We more so delight,
rightly so, in the person who gave the gift. We don't glory
in the gift anymore, do we? We just don't. We glory in the
fact that somebody loved us enough and they thought of us They thought
that'll make him happy. That's something he'll enjoy.
And they thought enough about us to spend the money that they
worked hard for just to see a smile on my face, or your face. That's
just the truth, isn't it? It's not so much, you know, thank
you, and then you run out. Not when we grow up. And that's what Paul is talking
about. In 1 Corinthians 13, when I became a man, I didn't think
like a child anymore. Now the greatest is love. Lasta. That's what it is to rejoice
in Christ Jesus and not the things that he gives nor even the people
that he puts in our lives. I love my family. I love my church
family. But I glory in Christ Jesus.
Isn't that right? That's just the truth. And we're
just talking about earthly things now. Y'all know I love my dog
Clark. And you know I've had a lot of
pets in my life. I've had a raccoon, a dove or
two, morning doves. I've had rabbits and, you know,
dogs and cats and ducks. One of my favorite pets was a
duck that we had when I was a kid. And most animals are just pets,
but not all of them. Some of them, sometimes they're
not just pets. And I think about that man Samuel's
story to David. He told David the story of the
man with the yew lamb that he fed from his table and held in
his bosom and counted as one of his own daughters. Clark to me everybody knows it,
but I don't glory in Clark But I thank God for for a precious
gift like that I sure do I thank God for him I often do But the
unspeakable gift from God you think about this now is only
begotten son Is a gift so precious that we will spend all of time
and eternity on I don't know how else to measure it, really,
because we're so limited in this flesh, aren't we? I could talk
about how deep my love for the Lord is, but that'd just be talk,
wouldn't it? Most of the time, we don't even
give Him a thought. This flesh is so pathetic and
horrible. But He's so precious that we're
gonna spend all of time Don't not every second Like we ought to But the rest
of our lives, we're not going to be able to not glory anymore
and all of eternity All of eternity throughout endless ages. We're
going to rejoice in Christ Jesus That's how precious a gift that
he is And this is how you know if you know him now. And like
I just said, our love is pitiful now. But John was pretty clear
about this. And this is how you know if you
love him. If you love him, if you believe
on him and love him, faith and love are the evidences that the
Lord has done something for us. Because we don't love him except
he first loved us. We just don't. We're not going to believe on
him until he gives us faith, gift of the spirit, the fruit
of the spirit, that grace of whom Christ is the author and
finisher of our faith. We're not going to believe on
him until he gives us that, until he says, like he did to Thomas,
be not faithless. He says, be not faithless, like
he said, let there be light. And there was light. And then
we believe on him. That's how you know you know
it. Because if you know him, you're going to glory in him.
You're going to glory in him now. It's not just going to be
all about this rat race. It's not. And it's the glory only in him. Not only in earthly things do
we glory in Him, but in all spiritual blessings that are ours. Where?
In Christ. In Christ Jesus. We rejoice in
Him for that. We don't brag on the flesh. We
don't promote the flesh because of it. We rejoice in glory in
the Savior. When the scripture says, God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross, It says that because
we're going to glory by nature in everything but the cross. Everything but. And when it's
talking about glorying in the cross, that's talking about eternal
salvation. That's talking about glorying
in the cross as opposed to self, my accomplishments, my spirituality
or whatever, my religion, my works. It's every spiritual blessing
that there is we glory in him that cross his cross With glory
in the cross only because that's the source of all blessing His
cross as we know from first John is the definition of love If
anybody ever asked you what love is maybe you remember this Not
this not both of these verses, but you can remember this part
of it first John 4 9 And this was manifested, the love of God
toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the
world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation,
the sin offering for our sins. Just remember that one part.
Here's love. Here's what it is. Not our love
for God or anybody else, but His love for me. His love for
me. He so loved me that He sent His
only begotten Son to shed His precious blood on Calvary. And remember that love is electing
love. Remember what God's love is.
It's not Him rooting for you. Religion has it like that, doesn't
it? He loves everybody and he's sure rooting for you, he sure
wants you. Here's what love, here's that
love that he's talking about there in 1 John 4, Romans 9,
11. For the children, Jacob and Esau,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. God's purpose of
electing grace, the reason there's a universe, the reason there's
a world, the reason he created a tadpole, and the reason he
created mankind, the reason he put a star in heaven, and the
reason he made the river flow through the land. The elect,
the purpose of God according to election must stand, not of
works. It's before they had done anything
good or evil, before they were even conceived Not of works,
but of him that calleth It was said unto her the elder shall
serve the younger And here's why? Here's what the purpose
of God according to election stands upon This is what election
is Jacob I've loved and Esau hated Election means choice Look
it up It means to choose. And that's what God just did
right there. He chose Jacob. The worst of the two. The most
wretched of the two. The sniveling cowardly one you
wouldn't have liked. He chose him. And not the other. He despised the other. And the glorious thing What we
glory in, I guess more than anything, is that God can love any sinner.
It's because of that cross. That's why we glory in the cross
alone. That's the only way God could love anyone of us. Because
of that precious blood. The first thing you'll learn
in most religion is that God loves everybody, and that's a
lie. If you're interested in the love of God, you'll find
it in Christ, in His Son, in the cross. of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we rejoice in Him
alone. We glory in His cross because love is defined by Christ
and His redemptive glory manifested on Calvary. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus because He first rejoiced in us. The Lord told Jeremiah, before
I formed you in the belly, I loved you. I loved you. Proverbs 11 20 they that are
of a forward heart or abomination to the Lord, but such as are
upright in their way or his delight You think he searched around
this world to find some upright people to learn No, no No those
who are in there his delight He teaches his gospel and changes
their hearts Telling me to the Fusions chapter 3 Fusions chapter
3 verse 14 For this cause this is the Apostle
Paul Speaking to the church in Ephesus
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory. See why we glory in Him alone?
Because He's the only one that can do any of that. He's the
one that dwells in our hearts so that the very fullness of
God fills us up. The love of Christ which passeth
knowledge we can't even comprehend. We're never going to love Him
like we should in this flesh. But bless God we can say with
Simon Peter, Lord you know all things and you know By your grace
I love you. Unto him be glory in the church.
You think there's going to be glory unto him from anywhere
else? You think about that now. God made a world. A vast world. Billions of people on this earth.
And where is God glorified this morning? How many people are
glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ this morning the true son of
God as he's revealed in this book? There's a few little lights
here and there aren't they just very few very few Knowing our limitations and knowing
how pitiful we are it makes me still Want to glorify him all
the more didn't he? And he's not glorified anywhere
else Let glory unto him in the church. Glory unto him where
he's known, where he's preached, where he's met with his people. Glory unto his holy name throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen. Amen. We can say amen to that because
We are filled with the fullness of God in Christ because we do,
by His grace, know something of His love, breadth and height
and width and depth of it. And we know that He's exceeding
abundantly able to, above all that we ask or think, to do unto us and to bless us. And this is who we are. In the church, let Christ be
praised. In the church, let's sing of
his beauty, of his precious blood, and his salvation. In the church, let us, for his
sake, put aside all the foolishness, all the fleshly pettiness that's
in us, that comes out all the time. In the church, let's never say
an idle word that's contrary to the glory of Christ or a discouragement to his sheep. In the church, let's tell the
truth about who he is. In the church, let's hear with
eager hearts the truth of his lordship and his mercy and his
success, redeeming success And in the
church doesn't mean while we're in this room or in that room May our speech be always seasoned
with grace Seasoned with salt that we may know how to answer
every minute You know, we're just gonna go around once Well,
we're gonna let everybody else's hatred for God's son shut us
up and I'm not, you know me, you know I'm not talking about
being obnoxious religious show-offs. I'm talking about being sincere.
I'm talking about giving him the glory. If it spites the devil
and everybody that is his puppet. God give us grace to know how
to answer every man. By our priorities. Think about our priorities, what's
important to us and what's really not. Can't hide that by our reactions
to that which dishonors our Lord. The Lord himself couldn't take
it could he? When they were changing money,
They were forcing people to do business with them. You know,
they didn't accept. You bring your sacrifice and they'd say,
oh, that's that's the Lord. The Lord can't take that. We've
got some here that you can buy. And the exchange of money, they
would extort people with that. The Lord planted a whip. And he drove them out of that
place. So your business is done. In the house of prayer, By our love for one another. You reckon he gets glory out
of that? He said you've done it to me. You've done it to me. By our preference for one another. And I thought about this. Glory in Christ is freedom. Do you want to live without a
care? Rejoice in Christ Jesus. The
more you rejoice in things and circumstances being the way you
want them to be, the more you're just going to be bowed up and
discouraged and beaten down. Rejoice in the Son of God. and
realize that He brings every storm and He calms every storm. He controls everything for our
good. Rejoice in that. You want to enjoy what you have
instead of always wanting more? Man, you know I'm preaching to
all of us, to me and you. Always being dissatisfied. You
want to just enjoy, just thank God. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. The psalmist said, Lord, give
me enough. Give me enough. Don't give me too much or I'll
forget you. And don't make me poor or I'll curse you. There's
somebody that the Lord taught something about himself. Right
there. I quoted that scripture one time
and somebody in the room said, I don't believe that. And I said,
well, I just quoted scripture. That wasn't my opinion. That's just who we are now. But
we are, by God's grace, able to rejoice in Him. Paul said,
I'm content. By the grace of God, I've learned
He's taught me to be content. And that's how that happened.
You want to be happy and not down all the time? Rejoice in
a person and not things and circumstances. The alternative, the one alternative
to rejoicing in Christ Jesus is to rejoice in the flesh. That's
why the next phrase is, have no confidence in the flesh. I give myself a vote of no confidence. And I looked to my Savior. By His grace, because He did
something in my heart. To glory in your own works rather
than Christ's finished work. Every problem that you have is
because of your sin. Not sin, your sin. And sins are put away by the
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. There goes all my problems. I'm
just too dumb to know it. I'm too dumb to know it. But when we can say that from
our hearts that Christ Jesus has put away my sin by the sacrifice
of himself, we will truly glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Glorian self is seeing the glory
of Christ is salvation His work his will his way God
forbid that we glory in anything or anybody else Amen, let's pray