Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to go back to a scripture that I
preached on several times. I don't remember the last time
I preached it for our television program here, but it's Philippians
chapter three, Philippians chapter three. This is the apostle Paul's
epistle letter inspired by the Holy spirit. to the church at
Philippi. And of course, all of these churches
that Paul wrote to, and even those that Peter and James and
John, all of them wrote to, were always being attacked by false
preachers. and who claimed to believe in
Jesus, claimed to be Christian, but who would add, and claimed
to be saved by the grace of God, but they would add the works
of people, works of men, in order to really be saved or really
be righteous or to have assurance of salvation. And they confused
issues of faith and repentance, and that's the title of the message,
faith and repentance, A lot of people ask me about these issues
because most people have a wrong view of faith and repentance. For example, people are being
told wrongly that Christ's death on the cross was given for everybody
without exception, even those who perish, who die in condemnation
and perish in hell. And the difference, therefore,
is the believer, the one who believes. Faith makes the difference. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. The Bible teaches that when we fell in Adam, it's back
in Genesis chapter three, you know, Adam fell. Adam and Eve
both fell, but Adam was the representative of the human race. that when
Adam fell, we all fell into a state of sin, total depravity, and
spiritual death to the point that even though we're still
born with a conscience, but a defiled conscience, we're born with the
ability to think, we're born with the ability to choose, but
not to choose good in God's sight, that left to ourselves, we will
not believe, we will not come to Christ, we will not receive
Him. And that's what Christ, when
He was talking to Nicodemus, He said, you must be born again
or you can't see or enter the kingdom of heaven. You gotta
be born again. And the new birth is not something
that comes about as a result of our believing. Our believing
comes as a result of being born again by the Spirit. And so a
set of verses that I quote all the time on this program about
faith is that when it says, for by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And that's Ephesians two and
verses eight and nine. And what most people do when
they come at what they call the gospel, thinking that that christ
died for me but his death does me no good unless i do my part
add my faith to it when they come out like that they make
faith a work a condition for salvation but you see faith is
the gift of god and so is repentance now when it comes to faith faith
is not just believing Faith is a gift from God that connects
a sinner to Christ spiritually, experientially. But faith is based upon the truth,
not just what you think or what you hope. It's not wishful thinking. I've heard people say that faith
and assurance are two different things. Well, no, they're not.
If you have faith in Christ, you believe in him and you rest
your soul in him. And you rest your soul in him
and believe in him as he is identified and distinguished in the scripture. So faith cannot be separated
from the truth. People can, you can believe a
lie just as sincerely as you can believe the truth. So understand
that. So I'm gonna show you about faith
and repentance. Now, repentance too is the gift
of God. Another verse that I quote on this program so often is 1
Corinthians 2 14, the natural man, that's the unregenerate
man, not born again, unbeliever. That's how we're born into a
state of sin and death and depravity, blindness, with no desire for
the things of God, And it says, the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, they're
spiritually discerned. See, we have to be given the
gift of knowledge, the gift of understanding, the gift of faith. And repentance is just as well. Repentance always comes with
faith. And that's what this verse here
in Philippians 3 tells us. Now, repentance is not simply
feeling sorry for your sins. Now, should we feel sorry for
our sins? Yes, yes. And if we're believers, we feel
sorry, but feeling sorry for your sins is not repentance.
Repentance is a change of mind concerning who God is, who we
ourselves are, and concerning Christ and God's way of salvation. In other words, when God brings
us to faith in Christ and repentance, the Bible says, of dead works
and idolatry, we run to Christ as he is described and distinguished,
identified in this book here now, in his person and in his
finished work. as our surety, substitute, and
redeemer, and our keeper. So we run to Christ, but we turn
away from all other thoughts of salvation conditioned on ourselves. So when I was raised under a false gospel,
literally, I thought it was Christianity, but it wasn't. And when God opened
my eyes in the new birth to see the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ and His real grace based upon the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed. When he showed me that, I turned
away from all my wrong thoughts about how God saves sinners,
because I thought it was conditioned on me. I found out that it was
conditioned on Christ. So let's go to this chapter,
Philippians 3, and look at it. First of all, he exposes false
brethren. And look how he identifies them
in Philippians 3, in verse 1. He says, finally, my brethren
rejoice in the Lord. Now the word rejoice there means
to joy, to find our happiness in the Lord. And he says, to
write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. Now Paul had preached, he had
written these things before. You know, a lot of preachers
make the mistake by trying to find something new to bring to
the people. Well, there's nothing new under
the sun. And if I bring a new doctrine to you, it's a lie because
all the doctrine of God, of Christ has already been revealed. And
so I do, I preach the same thing. I come at it from different scriptures
and make applications of it, all of that. But he says, it's
not a burden for me to do that. And for you, it's safe. Now,
how, what do you mean safe? Well, preaching the true gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace, conditioned on Christ alone,
He who fulfilled those conditions by His obedience unto death,
as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer and preserver of
His people, to preach that, it establishes you more in the assurance
of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. It helps you to grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ.
And it inspires you to obedience. People who say that sovereign
grace gives you an excuse to sin, they don't know grace. What's
happened there is they're like the Pharisees. You've taken away
their hope. And therefore they say, well,
they don't have any hope. They don't have anything to urge
them on or to motivate them to do well, to please God, to obey. So he says, it's not burdensome
to me and it's safe for you. And then he changes his tone
a little bit. He says in verse two, beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now, who is the concision there?
Well, the word concision is very much related to what we think
of as mutilation. And what he's talking about is
this. He's talking about Jewish unbelievers, false preachers,
who claim to be Christian. But they would say, just like
Paul dealt with in the churches of Galatia, that yes, you're
saved by grace, but you have to be circumcised to be really
saved, to be really righteous before God, to earn your salvation
and your reward and be right with God. Circumcision, physical
circumcision. And Paul is using a play on words
here. He calls them dogs, that's curdogs. And he says, beware of evil,
they're evil workers. To say that is evil. My friend, do you realize that
anybody who preaches salvation at any stage, in any way, to
any degree, conditioned on sinners, or by the works of sinners, or
by the will of sinners, they're preaching something that is evil.
And it appears righteous, it appears good. Remember Christ
told the Pharisees, He says, you do indeed appear righteous
unto men, but inwardly you're full of dead men's bones. An
open grave. So it appears to be right, just
sounds right, but it only sounds right to those who are unregenerate.
And that's what Paul's saying. Beware of these evil workers,
beware of the concision. What he's saying is when those
Gentiles, Gentile males, who had claimed to be Christian,
when you give in to these evil workers and become circumcised,
all they're doing is mutilating you. Now, people can talk about
the physical benefits and health of circumcision for male children. That's another matter. But if
you do it for a religious reason, Remember what Paul said in Galatians
chapter five, he said, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing. In other words, if the reason
you're doing that is for religious reasons to be made right with
God, you're denying Christ. Paul said in Galatians 6 and
verse 14, he said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. For in Christ Jesus, circumcision nor uncircumcision
availeth anything but a new creation. That new creation is the born
again person. And that being born again is
called spiritual circumcision. Paul dealt with that in Romans
2, at the end of it, when he talked about that salvation is
a heart matter. And he said, he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly, and circumcision is not that which is in the flesh,
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart. Now, what is circumcision of
the heart? That's the new birth. in which sinners are brought
to Christ, having been shown their sinfulness and depravity,
and it's the cutting away of the flesh in the sense of repentance. In other words, I repent of ever
thinking that my salvation was conditioned on me or by my works
or by my will. I submit to Christ. So he says,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
And then he says something very significant here in verse three.
This is a full verse here. This is like an encapsulated
description or definition of a true believer. And here's what
he says. First, he says in verse three,
number one, for we are the circumcision. Now the Jews called themselves
the circumcision. But they were talking about physical
circumcision, which they had perverted to be salvation by
their works. But Paul says that we who believe,
Christians, born again people, redeemed by the blood of Christ,
justified before God by the blood of Christ, based on His righteousness
imputed. We are the true circumcision,
spiritual circumcision. What is he talking about? We've
been born again by the Spirit. Our hearts have been circumcised.
He's given us a new heart. It's what Jeremiah says and Ezekiel
said that. And he's brought a heart to come
to Christ and submit to him and to believe in him and to rest
in him as our only way of salvation and our only righteousness before
God. And he's caused us to look at
our works aimed at salvation in a different way. to call them
to repent of that, change our mind about that, our heart about
that. So that's spiritually the cutting
away of the filth of the flesh. So beware of those dogs who try
to bring you in to another state. We are the true circumcision.
Now, what's the evidence of being the true spiritual people of
God? He says, which worship God in
the spirit. Now, that word spirit there,
some people will argue, well, that should be capitalized, meaning
the Holy Spirit. And some say, no, it's talking
about our new spirits, which we gained in the new birth. And
I think that's probably what it's like. But we worship God
according to the Holy Spirit's leadership in the word of God.
And we worship God sincerely from the heart. Our worship is
a heart worship. It's not done with all of these
playful physical things. We don't need that outside. It
comes from the heart. And the heart is the mind, the
affections, and the will that is guided by the Holy Spirit
to believe and embrace and love the truth. Love the true gospel. When I hear a false gospel, it
makes me sick to my stomach, to be honest with you. But oh,
when I hear the true gospel, the true Christ, God manifest
in the flesh, that's who He is, the Word made flesh, dwelt among
us. That's what the scripture teaches,
God manifest in the flesh. And He's both God, very God of
very God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. And He is fully
man without sin. And He came to this earth to
unite with that sinless humanity created for Him in the womb of
the Virgin Mary. And He was born, He grew in stature
and wisdom and walked this earth as a perfect God-man. And then
He went to the cross. He obeyed unto death. Even the
death of the cross, Paul writes over in Philippians chapter two. Listen to what it says in Philippians
two. It says, verse five, this is
Philippians two. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. Now to be in the form of
God is a word construction. That means that he was and is
God, God the Son. second person of the Trinity,
and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He claimed,
you know, a lot of people say, well, if you read the four Gospels,
that Christ never claimed to be God. Yes, he did. He said,
I am. He said, before Abraham was, I am. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So he did claim to be God. But
he didn't think it was robbery, robbing God of his glory, to
claim to be equal with God. Now, if I claim to be God, or
you claim to be God, that'd be robbery. We'd be trying to rob
God of his glory. But Christ thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. And he's fully man. Perfect man
without sin. He had to be God and man because
God cannot die, but God, man, Christ, the man, Christ Jesus,
did die. For the sins of his sheep imputed
charge to him. He was made sin, the scripture
says. How was he made sin? He was made
to bear the sins of his people. He made guilty, made a curse,
not by being made a sinner or becoming a sinner or being contaminated
by our sin, but by legally and judicially, forensically, the
sins, the sin debt of God's people, God's elect was laid upon Christ. He was the surety of the covenant.
He took responsibility to pay the debt. of the sins of his
people. And that's why he had to unite
himself with humanity. He had to be God-man because
he bore our sins, the sins of the elect, the sins of his sheep. He said, the good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. And he bore them to Calvary's
tree and gave up himself and died. And so we worship God according
to that which the scripture tells us about His person and what
the scripture tells us about His finished work. And so look
back at Philippians 3 in verse 3. It says, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now the word rejoice there is
a little different from the word rejoice up in verse one. Up in
verse one, rejoice means to find our joy, our peace, our happiness,
joy and peace in believing, looking to Christ. But the word rejoice
in verse three means to glory, means to boast. It's the same
word that Paul used in Galatians 6.14 that I quoted earlier, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross. It's the same word
that he used in 1 Corinthians 1 when he said, let he who glorieth
glory in the Lord. In other words, what is our confidence
of salvation? What is our boast? I claim to
be a Christian, a sinner saved by grace. I claim that I'm going
to heaven. I'm going to be with Christ when
I die. and I'm going to spend it. On what ground do I make
that claim, that boast? Well, he says, if you're a true
believer, you've been circumcised in heart and ears, the spiritual
circumcision, you worship God in the spirit, and you glory
in Christ Jesus. You don't glory in your experiences. You don't glory in your confession. Now listen to me. Do we have
experiences? Yes. Do we confess our sins and
confess Christ? Yes. But we don't glory in those
things. You don't glory in your baptism. I've talked to a number of people
and they'll claim to be saved, claim to be Christian, and I'll
ask them, how do you know for sure that you are? And they'll
go back to some experience that they had when they were 12, 13,
14, or even an older teenager, when they were at a revival and
they walked an aisle and they got baptized. Well, my friend,
if that's your reason, your ground for claiming salvation and going
to heaven, you're glorying in that. Paul says we glory in Christ
Jesus, we boast in Him. I tell people all the time, when
I preach the gospel, I'm not bragging on me, I'm bragging
on Christ. I'm telling you about Him whom
to know is life eternal. Salvation is about, and faith
is about looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Now right there is faith. Faith is to glory, to boast,
to rest in, to find peace and happiness in Christ Jesus, the
glory of His person, who He is, and the power and success of
His finished work, what He accomplished when He obeyed unto death on
the cross. He accomplished the salvation
of His people. Salvation is conditioned on Christ
alone. And he fulfilled those conditions
for his people and secured their salvation. And so they spend
their lives looking unto Jesus, the author and the beginner of
their faith. I don't have, so many people
have faith in their faith. Well, I don't have faith in my
faith. I have faith in Christ. And that's the key. Faith's object
is the key. And then he concludes it, he
says in verse three, and have no confidence in the flesh. We don't glory in the flesh,
we don't have confidence in what we've done for God, but only
what he's done for us. Now that's repentance. So faith
in Christ, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, glory and boast, rest
in Him, and we repent of all dead works, everything before
understanding and coming under the truth of Christ, have no
confidence in the flesh. Now, let me tell you this, every
true believer is to strive to be an obedient servant of God,
to keep His commandments, to follow Him, to live a life of
godliness, honoring to God, every believer. But our confidence
is not in our doing so, or our ability to do so. Our confidence,
our boasting, our rejoicing is in Christ Jesus. And there's
a big difference there. For sinners to rejoice and have
confidence in what they do, or what they think they do is to
rest in something that is subpar as to the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. I have a righteousness. Paul's
going to talk about that and we'll pick up here next week
and that'll be part two. But Paul's going to talk about
that. He's going to give you some details about what this
thing of faith and repentance are in Philippians three, beginning
at verse four. But he says this, and this is
key. He says, I don't glory in myself. I don't brag about myself. I'm a sinner saved by grace,
and my best efforts to follow God will not save me or keep
me saved. It's only His grace in Christ,
His grace. that reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy
1 verse 12, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. And what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation. That's faith. And I reject everything
else. That's repentance. So understand
this, how it goes, for faith and repentance are the gifts
of God. I hope you'll join us next week for another message
from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.