I want to direct your attention
this morning back to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. The past few months I've been led
by the Spirit of God to select passages of scripture that describe
and teach us about the reality of salvation so that we can understand
what God's word teaches concerning what it is to be saved, how God
saves sinners, the issues of salvation, how does God bring
one to salvation. And this passage here in Philippians
chapter three is a very, very descriptive passage of that.
Especially in describing what a true Christian is, who are
the elect of God, the Bible speaks of God's elect. My goal in preaching
this way, number one is obviously to glorify God in the salvation
of his people and to point sinners to Christ. Joe read about John
the Baptist there. That was his main purpose on
earth in ministry, to point sinners to Christ, away from himself.
and to Christ for all of salvation. He mentioned there in that Matthew
chapter three, he said, who has warned you to flee from the wrath
to come, talking to the religious leaders of his day. How do you
flee from the wrath to come? I'll tell you exactly how you
flee to Christ. You run to Christ. That's how you flee from the
wrath to come. What does that mean? Well, you
have to run to Christ and flee to Christ as he is identified
and distinguished and described in the Bible, in the scriptures,
in the word of God. Who is Jesus Christ? What did
he do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? what's in the future and the
Bible teaches on Jesus Christ is God in human flesh that's
who he is he's the one mediator between God and man and he accomplished
the redemption of his people on Calvary that's what we read
there in Hebrews chapter 9 that Christ entered into the holy
place not an earthly tabernacle or temple but a heavenly the
very presence of God for us having obtained eternal redemption.
That means he paid the price. He put away sin. He established
righteousness for his people to enable God to be both a just
God and a savior. And so our entrance into glory,
our entrance into communion with God and salvation and into the
heavenlies is the one way, the one truth, the one life, John
14, 6. Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And that's why Paul wrote, we glory in Christ Jesus here in
Philippians chapter three and verse three. We have confidence
in him. We don't have confidence anywhere else when it comes to
salvation and when it comes to acceptance with God. It's his
blood alone, his righteousness alone. He is my salvation. And so I want to point sinners
to Christ, but also you who have fled to Christ for refuge, I
want you to grow. And I want myself to grow in
grace and in knowledge and in the comfort and in the peace
and the assurance that God has for His people in Christ through
His Word. That's why I preached a message
a few weeks back, Can We Have Assurance of Salvation? And the
Bible teaches that we can and we should, but that is in Christ
and Him alone. So this morning what I want to
do, last week I talked about true children of God. Who is
a true child of God? Well here's the description of
it in Philippians chapter 3. Look at verse 3 with me. And he says, verse 3, for we
are the circumcision. Now last week I showed you how
that's talking about spiritual circumcision, not physical. The physical circumcision, which
had to do here in this context with the self-righteous, legalistic,
works-oriented Jews who denied Christ and who sought righteousness
by their works, they're described up in verse 2. Beware of the
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. And
so Paul is writing here by inspiration of the Spirit. He says we're
the true circumcision. We are the spiritually circumcised. That's what the Bible calls the
circumcision made without hands. It's a work of the Spirit of
God. It's circumcision of the heart, the mind, the affections,
and the will made by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
And that's what we are, that's Jew and Gentile, that's true
Israel, that's spiritual Israel, that's the children of God, true
children of God. And he says, which worship God
in the spirit, or I believe it should be translated by the spirit,
but either way, he's talking about by the word of God that
leads a sinner to Christ. And he's also talking about we
worship him in heart. We don't worship him in outward
forms and ceremonies. It's not just an outward thing.
This is a heart matter. Salvation's a heart matter. But
he'd already stated that when he said we are the circumcision.
So it's by the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, that
sinners are born again by the Spirit and led to Christ. And
he says in verse 3, he says, and rejoice in Christ Jesus.
And remember that word rejoice is translated elsewhere as glory. We glory in Christ. It's not
the same word as rejoice in verse one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. We do rejoice in the Lord. We're
glad in the Lord. But rejoice in verse three means
to have confidence in the Lord. That's what he's talking about.
We boast in the Lord. That's another way of saying
it. Paul used it in Galatians 6.14 when he said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't have any confidence in anything but what Christ accomplished
on Calvary for my forgiveness, for my righteousness and justification,
for my acceptance before God. And that's what he's saying here.
If you've been born again by the Spirit of God, if the Word
of God has been implanted in your heart by the Spirit. If
you've been spiritually circumcised, here's the way to describe you. Now here is the essence of faith.
Incidentally, Ron, the title of this message is True Faith
and Repentance. He's probably been sitting down
there waiting on that. True Faith and Repentance. Well, here's
the essence of true faith. And that's what the first evidence
of the spiritual circumcision of the heart, the new birth by
the Word of God, by the Spirit of God through the Word of God,
is we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have confidence in Christ. That's what John the Baptist
was talking about in Matthew chapter 3. That's why Christ
was baptized himself. He was teaching a lesson to his
people, but he was identifying with his people and identifying
himself with his death, burial, and resurrection. That we are
united with him. And what do you, we don't, here's
the question we all need to ask ourselves now when we're talking
about am I a true child of God? Am I, have I truly been born,
am I one of God's elect? Did God choose me before the
foundation of the world as the scripture says? Was salvation
given me in Christ Jesus before the world began? Wasn't given
to everybody now. Now I wanna know, how about you? Well, where is your confidence? of salvation. Well, Paul says,
my confidence is in Christ Jesus. It's not in me, it's not in you,
it's not in my experiences. If you have to go back several
years and tell me about your dream in order to prove your
salvation, your confidence is in your dream. You say, well,
God gave that to me and I can't forget it. You better go back
to the Word. Because that's where the Spirit of God is not going
to lead you to your dream. He's going to lead you to Christ.
And that's the essence of true faith, right there. Well, he
says in verse 3, and have no confidence in the flesh. That's
the essence of true repentance. I don't have any confidence.
And the best way I can tell you to describe the flesh there.
Now, I know when you hear that word flesh, a lot of things come
to mind. You think of these physical bodies.
Many people, they talk about the sins of immorality. Let me
tell you something now. Believers are to repent of all
sin. What does repent mean? What does
faith mean? Faith has to do with knowledge,
heard by the power of the Spirit, understood by the power of the
Spirit, and received and believed by the power of the Spirit. That's
what faith has to do with. It's a knowledge that God teaches
all his children. They shall be all taught of God,
the scripture says, John chapter six. God's gonna teach us through
his spirit, by his word, and he uses weak vessels, earthen
vessels like us, like preachers, to deliver that word. But it's
the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. What
is repentance? Well, it's a change of mind. It's a change of heart. It's
a change of life. Repentance is turning away from
something. Faith is turning to someone.
That's what it is. And they both are necessary for
salvation. That's the first thing you see
here. Number one, both faith and repentance are necessary
for salvation. Now they're necessary not as
the cause of salvation. Faith and repentance is not the
cause of salvation. They're necessary not as the
ground of salvation. Faith and repentance are not
the ground of salvation. Christ and him crucified, that's
the ground, he's the ground of salvation. Faith and repentance
are necessary as the means which God uses by the power of his
spirit to bring us to Christ. To turn us away from self, from
sin, and to Christ. That's what he does. Christ told
his disciples in the Great Commission, Mark chapter 16 and verse 15,
he said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. What is the gospel? It's the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ. God saves sinners, not by their
works, but by the work of his Son. This is my beloved Son in
whom I'm well pleased. That's what he said in Matthew
3. The salvation of a sinner is not by that sinner establishing
or working out or attempting a righteousness of his own, but
through the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Romans 10 4.
And he says, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
Now he's not talking about water baptism being necessary for salvation
there. He's talking about water baptism,
the ordinance of baptism being the confession of believing,
the confession of faith. And he says, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. Faith is necessary. When Paul
and Silas, when they were in Philippi, and they were in jail,
and the Spirit of God, the angel of the Lord, came and broke them
out of jail miraculously, the Philippian jailer, you remember,
he knew what was going to happen to him because of the Roman law,
and he was going to kill himself. And Paul said, don't do yourself
any harm. And the Philippian jailer asked
him this question. In Acts chapter 16 and verse
30 he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul answered
him this way. He said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now Paul
didn't just say believe there. He said just believe. People
can believe anything and everything and a lot of things. People can
believe a lie. There are people who believe
that if they walk the eightfold path that Buddha prescribed,
that they'll be saved. That's a lie. There are people
who believe that if they get baptized, they'll be saved. That's a lie. There are people
who believe that if they do their best to seek and work their way
into God's favor, they'll be saved. That's a lie. So it's
not just believe. It's believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe that he is all my wisdom,
my righteousness, my holiness, my redemption. He's all my salvation. He paid the debt in full. The
price of my redemption. It says in Acts chapter, or in
Romans chapter 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. How do you believe unto righteousness?
You believe in Christ, who is our righteousness. You rest in
Him and His work alone. The Bible says without faith,
in Hebrews 11 verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please
the Lord. What is it to be with faith? It's to be looking to Christ
as the author and finisher of our faith. Christ began it, Christ
will complete it. And everything in between is
by His grace in Christ. We have confidence in Christ,
that's the essence of faith. And here's the essence of repentance,
look at Philippians 3.3, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Now, as I said, people have different ideas about the flesh, but let
me tell you what the flesh refers to here. And as I said last week,
I'll make it simple. Anything or anyone that a person
has confidence in, as forming any part of the ground or cause
of their salvation, or any part of it, other than Christ is the
flesh. Now here's the essence of repentance.
Now, like I said, both faith and repentance are necessary
for salvation. Scripture tells us that repent
ye and believe the gospel. Christ told his generation, as
he walked on the earth, he said, except you likewise repent, you'll
perish. Repent ye and believe. John the
Baptist over here in Matthew chapter three, he came saying,
repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom
of heaven there is the establishment of everything that God purposed
before the foundation of the world by the work of Christ.
And it's his kingdom. The scripture says that the Lord
in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9 is not slack concerning his promise,
that is his promise to glorify himself in the salvation of his
people, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward,
not willing that any, any of the usward, that's talking about
his people, should perish, but that all should come to what?
Repentance. The Bible says in Acts chapter
17 and verse 30 that God hath commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and appointed, and that he hath given assurance unto all men
that he hath raised him from the dead. Repentance, repent
ye therefore and be converted. So they're both necessary. Secondly,
both faith and repentance are gifts from God. Faith and repentance are not
natural to man. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, it says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Faith is receiving the things of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2.12 tells us that it's receiving the things that
God freely gives us. What is that? All of salvation
in Christ. God freely gives. It's not meritorious to us. It's
all in Christ. But the natural man, that's the
unbelieving person, that's man in his sin, without God, without
the Spirit, without having been born again, he will not receive
that. Scripture says in John chapter
1 and verse 11 that Christ came unto his own and his own received
him not. But to as many as received him,
to them gave he the power, the right to be called the sons of
God, which were born not of the will of the flesh, that is, not
of their free will. It wasn't their free will decision
that caused them to believe. You know this, here's the thing
about, you know, it says not of the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but were born of God. It's a product of the
new birth. That's what Philippians 3.3 teaches.
We are the circumcision. We've been born again by the
Spirit. You know, here's the thing about a person who thinks
that God saves them because they believe, that is, as if faith
were the cause or the ground of salvation, you know, that's
bragging. It'd be the same as a person
who's born healthy with eyesight bragging over somebody who was
born blind. You'd say, that's stupid, isn't
it? Because you had no power over that. God didn't come to
you before you were born and ask you, do you want to be born
with sight or do you want to be born blind? I'll leave it up
to you. No, that's not the way it happened. Not the way it happens
in the new birth either. Born of God. Christ said you
must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You
can't understand it, know it, and believe it. And you cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. They're gifts from God. They're
the product of what Christ accomplished on Calvary. He said, and I, if
I be lifted up, shall draw all unto me. The Bible says, for
by grace are you saved, through faith. That's not of yourself,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Christ said, no man can come
to me except it were given unto him of my faith. You can't come
to God unless God gives it to you. And yet, the Bible commands
men and women to believe. and commands us to seek faith
and repentance. Now how do you job that in your
mind? You can't. It's just the fact. That's what
the scripture says. But it says that he gives faith.
He gives repentance. They're the gift of God. The
product of what Christ accomplished. Both faith and repentance are
the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit in the new birth.
That's what he's saying here in Philippians 3. It's the circumcised
heart. It's the circumcision made without
hands. Both faith and repentance are
the evidences of the new birth, spiritual life, the new heart.
Ezekiel talked about God will give us a new heart. How do I
know I have a new heart? Because I believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I've repented of dead works. It's the new spirit. Where there's
spiritual life, there's faith and repentance. And listen to
me now. Faith and repentance are not
outward reformations of life and habit. You know, the Lord
spoke to the Pharisees about that issue. In Luke chapter 11
and verse 39, listen to this, the Lord said unto them, now
do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter,
but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. You
know, religion can clean up the outside. but only the Spirit
of God can cleanse the heart by faith and bring a sinner to
repentance. Both faith and repentance are
experienced, known, and proven by the light of Christ. Now I
want you to look at this passage. Look at Philippians 3. Paul says
in verse 3, for where the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit
or by the Spirit, We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have confidence
in Christ for all salvation. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. There's faith and repentance. Look at verse four. Now he says this, he says, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
or have confidence in the flesh, I am more. Now it sounds like
Paul's doing a little bit of bragging there. But let me tell
you the essence of what he's saying here. He's simply saying
this, and he's right. And remember now, Paul's writing
this not just from his own mind and his own opinions, he's writing
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's saying simply this, he's
looking at these Philippian believers, and he's saying this, and of
course looking at the whole world, actually. And he's saying this,
he said, if anybody could have made it to salvation, made it
to heaven, based on their works, I'm o'er. I could have done them
one better. And you know he's right. Before
he was saved, where was his confidence? Well, look at verse 5. He says,
I was circumcised the eighth day. That was the day according
to the law that the male children in the Jewish economy were to
be circumcised. That was the physical circumcision.
Paul had confidence in that at one time. Of the stock of Israel,
he was a physical descendant of Abraham. He had confidence
in that at one time. He thought that being a physical
descendant of Abraham and being circumcised meant that he was
a true spiritual child of God. He had confidence in those things.
of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, why is that a big deal? Well, that was an honored tribe.
When the kingdom of Israel split after Solomon, the two tribes
that ended up in the south worshiping in Jerusalem were Judah and Benjamin. Paul says, I was of the tribe
of Benjamin. He says, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. What I believe
he's talking about there is he said, I'm not, there's no mixed
blood here. I'm a full-blooded Hebrew. Full-blooded, pure blood, purebred. He had papers, I guess, I don't
know, but that's what he's saying. You see, the mixed bloods, that
was like the Samaritans. That's why they were so hated.
You know how we are by nature with that ethnicity and all that,
you know, skin color and all that and race and heritage. We're
so proud of that, you know. Paul said, well, that was my
confidence. as touching the law of Pharisee. Now we have a negative
connotation of the Pharisees, but you've got to understand
the people back then didn't. They looked at the Pharisees
like people today would look at these religious leaders today. They looked at the Pharisees
like people today look up to preachers. and people who teach
the Bible. They looked at a Pharisee to
the average person back then was somebody who really went
further than anybody else to please God and to worship God
and to serve God. These were fellows who were serious
about their religion. They weren't just, you know,
just a little bit there and a little bit here. They were sincere,
dedicated, moral. They knew the Bible, knew the
Old Testament. Paul says it's touching the law.
I went beyond the requirements of the law. That's what he's
saying when he says a Pharisee. He says in verse 6 concerning
zeal. You know what zeal is. Religious
zeal. It means you're on fire for the
Lord. He said I persecuted the church.
You say well that's not a good thing. Well back then in his
view it was because he looked at the church, the true church,
as being heresy. So Paul says, I wouldn't put
up with heresy. He's like that fella down in Florida, he'd burn
them books, you know. He had a zeal, you know. It was
stupid, but that's what he was gonna do. And you get publicity
that way, you know. That gets your name on the news,
which is the motive. I don't care what they say. Because
the Bible never says for us to do that. We preach the truth.
And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We preach the
gospel. If you wanna see, if you wanna
test the measurement of a crooked stick, just lay the straight
stick down beside it. That's all you have to do. You
don't have to go break up or attack the others. Just lay down
the truth. And so he said, he said concerning
zeal, persecuting zeal, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless. Paul's talking about his outward
character there. Nobody could accuse him. He appeared righteous unto men. Now those are the things he had
confidence in. But look at verse 7. Now here's where faith and
repentance come in. Listen to this. He says, But
what things were gained to me, those things he just listed,
that I thought were my salvation, that I thought pleased the Lord,
that I thought made up my righteousness before God, those I counted lost
for Christ. Do you hear that? You know what
he's expressing there? True faith and repentance. He
didn't just count them loss in a vacuum. He counted them loss
for Christ. What does he mean? Well, look
at verse 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I've suffered the loss of all things. What things? All
those things that he had confidence in before. And do count them
but dung. And that means exactly what you
think it means. That I may win Christ. It's all dung. In light of my
need of Christ. Look back over at Matthew chapter
three. Now you know John the Baptist said the same thing here
in a different way. He preached the baptism of repentance. And it says in verse 7, and he
talked about in verse 6, that many were baptized of him in
Jordan, confessing their sins. Do you know that's exactly what
Paul's doing here in Philippians chapter 3? He's confessing his
sins. The Bible says if we confess our sins, God is just and faithful
to forgive us our sins. How does He forgive us our sins
and be just and faithful in doing so? By the blood of Christ. He
says that. The blood of Jesus. And somebody
says, well, do I confess all my sins? Well, if you're looking
only to Christ and resting in Him and have confidence in Him
alone for all salvation, for all righteousness, for all eternal
life and glory, yes you are. If I'm confessing before God
that nothing I do or nothing done in me can save me or make
me righteous or justify me or give me life, that's a confession
of all my sins. Now as I said, believers are
to repent of all sin. Listen, we're to promote and
cultivate repentance of all sin, even sins of immorality. But
here's what I'm saying, and this is what the essence of true faith
and repentance is. Just because that drunk quits
drinking does not mean he's saved. Should he quit drinking? Yes.
Are you glad that he quit drinking? Yes. But that doesn't mean he's
saved. Just because that criminal Stops
committing the crimes doesn't mean he has faith and has come
to true repentance. Should he do all that? Yes. Are
you glad that he did? Yes. But that's not salvation. Moral reformation. Let me tell
you something. In this country today, we need
moral reformation. We do. But that's not salvation. Listen to this. Verse 7. It says,
but when he saw, when John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees,
remember Paul was a Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus was, and the Sadducees,
that was the liberal wing of religion back then, the Sadducees.
The Pharisees were the conservative wing, the Sadducees were the
liberal wing. And he says, when he saw them
come to his baptism, he said, an old generation of vipers.
Now you know what a viper is, that's a poisonous snake. That's
a good way to, What's the old fellow who wrote the book, How
to Win Friends and Influence People? I can't remember his
name. But anyway, that's not the first
chapter of that book right here. Old generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now remember,
how do you flee from the wrath to come? You flee to Christ.
He's our refuge. He's our hiding place. He's our
rock. And he says, verse 8, bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance. The fruits that are appropriate
to one who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and come to
repentance. And look at verse 9, now listen to this. He says,
and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
Remember what Paul said, when I was lost, before I was born
again, I had confidence in the fact that Abraham was my father.
I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. And John the Baptist says, don't
think to say you have Abraham for your father. Don't think
that. Don't have any confidence in
that. Your physical pedigree, your physical connection with
Abraham, I don't care if you're born American, born Baptist,
or whatever. If you have any confidence in
that whatsoever, the Baptist here says, don't think that.
He says, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham. You're being born physically
doesn't make you a child of God. It takes a great transformation
of spiritual transformation. And he says in verse 10, and
now also the ax is laid into the root of the trees. In other
words, your root, that which gives you assurance and a solid
foundation in your mind, which is your physical connection with
Abraham or your circumcision or your keeping law, there's
an ax being laid to that root. Therefore every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit, the fruit of faith and repentance, is hewn
down and cast into the fire. My friend, where is your confidence?
Look at Matthew chapter seven with me. I'll show you this. Verse 21. Here's a group of preachers standing
before God at judgment. And our Lord says in verse 21
of Matthew 7, he says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, what is it to
do the will of the Father which is in heaven? Well, hold on to
that thought. But look here. Verse 22, many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied or preached
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. We did it in your name. We gave
you the glory. We gave you the credit. Verse
23 says, then will I profess unto them I never knew you, depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. He called all that iniquity.
What is the problem here? You know, people have speculated
over this, but it's not difficult to see what the problem is. What's their problem? You know
what they're expressing when they say these things? We've
preached in your name, we've cast out devils, we've done many
wonderful works. They're expressing where their
confidence is. I heard a preacher say one time,
well, these fellas weren't sincere. How does he know that? That's
not what this book says. They're expressing where their
confidence is. I preached in His name. I've
cast out demons. I know it wasn't by my power,
we did it in His name. We invoked the name of Jesus.
We've done many wonderful works. Is that where your confidence
is? Because if it is, let me tell
you what that is. That's iniquity. God forbid that I should glory,
have confidence, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, only those who do the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Well, look at verse 24, right after this now. Listen
to what he says. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them. Now, he'd already taught them. He said, you've
got to have a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees or you cannot enter in the kingdom
of heaven. That's Matthew 5.20. And then he invokes the law to
show how high God's standard is to show us that the righteousness
we need is far above what we can attain by our works. And
he closes it out by saying, Be ye perfect therefore as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect. How am I a sinner? How can a sinner like me have
that kind of righteousness? Can I have it by the messages
that I preach? I'm preaching in the name of
the Lord today. For the past 30 years, I've been preaching
in the name of the Lord. Is that my righteousness before
God? No, sir. No, sir. I was telling Brother Joe, I
said, yeah, and both Joes, we were standing back here talking.
I said, you know, we have to fight this flesh all our lives.
And he was talking about how sometimes you'll pray and you'll
get diverted off of the prayer and all that. I said, well, sometimes
when I'm preaching, if I've got somebody that's opposing me,
all I have to do is look up and look at them, and boy, the thought
will shoot through my head and say, boy, I'd like to get out
here and just bust you in the head. And I just lost all my
holiness. And that's not good. Now let
me tell you something. I know we laugh at it, but that's awful.
That's an awful thing. And I know it's awful. I know
it's wrong. And I have to be brought to repentance. The best sermon I ever preached
is not my righteousness before God. And if I could ever, by
the power of God, cast out a demon, is that my righteousness? No,
no. And if I could do many wonderful
works, whatever those works are, do they altogether, do they make
up my righteousness before God, my holiness, my confidence? Well,
if I think they do, that's unbelief. That's denying the glory of God.
Look at it. He said, therefore, verse 24,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat upon that house. It fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock." What is that rock? That's Christ. He's my confidence. Not the sermons that I... I thank
God that he's enabled me to preach the gospel, to tell sinners about
Christ, to tell hungry sinners where they can find bread, thirsty
sinners where they can find water. The water of life. I thank God
for that. But none of that is my righteousness before God.
That's not my confidence of salvation. My confidence is looking to Him. Resting in Him. Look back over
at Philippians 3. Listen to what he says here.
He says, verse 8. Now listen. You know, and hear
me now very well here. When God saves a sinner, When
we're circumcised in heart, born again by the Spirit, you know
there is a great change. And a lot of people, they have
different ways of describing that change and a lot of them
are not biblical. You know, you take Saul of Tarsus
here, you know, he wasn't, you didn't find him in the bars and
in the brothels and in the drug dens. He was trying to establish
a righteousness of his own. And that's the essence of repentance.
Because I want to tell you something now. We all think that way by
nature. Whether we're involved in it
religiously or not, we still think that way by nature. And
so that's the essence of repentance. Now we're to repent of all sin.
Whatever problem of sin we have in our life, which is a problem
that we all have all the time. We need to be brought to godly
sorrow over sin. I'm gonna talk about that next
time, about how faith and repentance persevere and grow and obey and
all of this, you see. But you see, this essence of
repentance here is repentance from dead works and self-righteousness
and selfishness that keeps a sinner from looking to Christ alone
for all his salvation. Always salvation. So when God
saves the sinner, there's a great change. But it's a change that the natural
man doesn't recognize. The natural man can't see it. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. And here's that change. He says
in verse 8, Yea, doubtless I count all things but lost for the excellency
and the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. and for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things. You see, when I see my sins and
I see the glory of Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary,
I cannot have any confidence in anything but him. And do count
them but done, now listen to this, here's the essence of faith
and repentance, that I may win Christ. That word win there means
to gain Christ, to acquire him. What Paul's saying here is this
isn't a contest now that you're trying to win. He's simply saying
here, I must have Christ. That's what it is. That's faith. I can get a go of anything. If
God said, Bill, you're not gonna preach another sermon from now
on, that's okay. I must have Christ though. If I did cast out a demon and
God said, now Bill, that's the last demon you're ever going
to cast out. That's okay. I must have Christ. Oh, verse
nine, look at it. And be found in him. That's what,
that's faith and repent. I've got to be found in him.
Whether I've never preached another message, I still have to be found
in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, his faithfulness to do what God sent him to do. The
righteousness which is of God by faith. I receive him by faith. Christ is the righteousness of
God. Verse 10, that I may know him. May not know anything else,
rest, but I've got to know him. And the power of his resurrection,
That's his accomplished work on Calvary to put away my sins
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. How do you know? We're the circumcision. We worship
God in the spirit and we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. What means? I must have Christ. That's the
essence of it. And I can let go of anything
else. In fact, anything else that I have confidence in, you
know what I say now? It's dung. It's dung. It's loss. It means nothing,
nothing in light of Christ. I must have him. All right.