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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. I've
been preaching in the last few sermons a series of messages
entitled, Every Believer's Desire. And I did parts one and part
two. Now this is part three. It's
from Philippians chapter three, where the Apostle Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to write to the church at Philippi concerning
the goals and the desires of every true believer, one who
has been saved by the grace of God, that's the way of salvation,
totally by free, sovereign grace, not a matter of what we earn
or what we deserve, it's not something we work to gain or
maintain, but it is something that God freely gives to His
people in Christ. And of course, the revelation
of God in Christ through the gospel message, as empowered
by the Holy Spirit, to bring sinners to faith in Christ and
repentance of dead works, that's the crux of the gospel. And Paul states it here in Philippians
chapter three and verse seven, which I've already dealt with,
but we're gonna continue on through this chapter, where he says in
Philippians three and verse seven, but what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. What he's saying there
is that, and that statement is a statement that reveals the
true gift of God having been given to Paul, as given to all
true believers, of repentance. And the Bible calls it, in a
couple of places, a repentance of dead works. And what is that? Well, that's a change of mind
concerning the value of things. Whereas before Paul was brought
to faith in Christ, he valued his works. His efforts, his religion,
his experiences, as far as he thought, gained him access to
God, blessings from God. But having seen the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, as revealed by the Holy Spirit,
and having been brought to a knowledge of himself as a sinner, And this
is one of the things that the Holy Spirit reveals to God's
people in the new birth under the preaching of the gospel.
That we are a sinful people and that by nature having fallen
in Adam into a state of sin and death and depravity and unbelief,
we have no desires for the things of God. the true things of God
that glorify God. Now, a man or a woman in a natural
state, unregenerate, not born again, unbelieving, They can
and do desire religious things. They can and do desire human
morality and the accolades that it brings, all of that. They
can desire salvation based on their works. And that's what
Paul was saying, those things that were gained to me. But when
the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, as Christ explained in John chapter 16 to his disciples,
He then desires something different, someone different. He stops desiring
salvation by his own works. And he begins to desire salvation
by the works, the merits, the obedience unto death of the glorious
person, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord our righteousness. And
that's what he's saying here. What things were gained to me,
in verse seven, Those I counted loss for Christ. I used to believe
that my works and my efforts, my experiences, my decisions,
that they gained me access to God, salvation, and all the blessings
and benefits of salvation. But now I see that they gained
nothing, that in essence they were evil, not because they were
immoral or insincere in the eyes of men, but because they did
not glorify God. You see, God is glorified in
the salvation of sinners by His grace, which reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So you take a person
who's doing their dead-level best to keep the law, to be saved,
it may look good in the eyes of men, as Christ told the Pharisees,
you do indeed appear righteous unto men. But it's an abomination
to God. Luke 16, I believe it's verse
15 says, that which is highly esteemed among men, it's an abomination
to God. So whereas before being born
again, before being brought to faith in Christ, Paul highly
esteemed his works, his efforts, his decisions. And he had a low
esteem of Christ. In fact, he thought back then
that Christ was an abomination. That's accursed. But now, having
been brought to faith in Christ, having been born again by the
Spirit, he now, those things he thought were, they're lost.
And he even goes further than that. Look at verse eight. He
says, 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, and do count them but dung. that I may
win or gain Christ. And that word dung is just exactly
what you think it is. That's how that change of mind
and heart that the Holy Spirit brings about through the preaching
of the gospel to a sinner, saved by grace. And now his desire,
listen to Paul's desire here, and be found in him. I want to
be found in Christ. That's my goal, that's my desire,
that's every true believer's desire. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. Now that phrase, the faith of Christ, could be translated
this way, the faithfulness of Christ. In other words, salvation
is not based on my faithfulness, to Him, but it's based on His
faithfulness to do the work that He was given to do by the Father
in the everlasting covenant of grace. And what was that work?
He was to take into union with Himself a perfect, sinless human
nature conceived in the womb of the Virgin and born on that
day. He was made of a woman, made
under the law, all the salvation. of the people whom God gave to
him, the elect, was conditioned upon him. So he was made under
the law and he had to redeem them by the price of his obedience
unto death. The blood of Christ is the redemption
price. See, we don't pay the price for
salvation. Christ paid it to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. In other words, realize that
God having adopted us before the foundation of the world,
and he brings us into a saving union with Christ to where we
are sons, children of God, servants of God, and so the faithfulness
of Christ. Now, that's not to say that believers,
sinners saved by grace, are not to strive to be faithful to him.
But our striving to be faithful to Him is not the ground or the
cause of our salvation, it's the fruit and the effect, the
product, the result of salvation. His faithfulness is the ground
and the cause. We're saved by the grace of God,
based on the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed to us. Imputed means to be accounted. charged with the merits of his
righteousness. And then he goes on in verse
nine, he said, the righteousness which is of God by faith, God-given
faith receives the righteousness of Christ as my only hope and
ground and desire of salvation. So that when I come to God to
worship, to pray, to serve, and certainly when I stand before
God at the judgment, My desire is to be found in Christ, not
having a righteousness which I work out, but one that He worked
out. You see, every true believer's
desire is aimed at perfection. And somebody says, well, we can't
be perfect. Well, that's why salvation is
not conditioned on us. It's not by works. How do we
find perfection? We find it in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. So in order to be saved, in order
to stand before God and be accepted, in order to enter heaven, the
new heavens and the new earth, and to dwell with Him forever,
I need a perfection. I need a perfect righteousness
that can only be found in the person and work of Christ. That's
why He is my all. That's why He is the Lord, my
righteousness. And so I know I'm a sinful person.
I know that if salvation were conditioned on me at any time,
at any stage, in any way, to any degree, I would fail. I fail
all the time. I am saved by grace. I have a
desire to be like Christ. I want to follow Him, but I also
have the flesh to deal with. Paul dealt with that in the book
of Galatians. I have a desire to do good. But
not just human morality and charity. I want that, but I want to do
good according to God's standard of goodness. And that, again,
is the perfection that can only be found in Christ. That's why
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord, Romans 5.21. So he says that I may know Him.
I want to know Christ. And I want him to know me. You
remember those false preachers in Matthew 7, verses 21 through
23, they came pleading there what they believed God had enabled
them to do. Haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we done many wonderful works? Haven't we cast out demons?
Only to hear him say, depart from me, you that work iniquity,
I never knew you. I don't want to stand before
God now or ever. and certainly not at judgment,
in my own works, in my own boastings. I want to stand there as a sinner
saved by grace, washed clean from all my sins in the blood
of Jesus Christ, and clothed, justified, clothed in the perfect
righteousness of Christ, imputed, charged, accounted to me. I don't
want to be found at the marriage feast, as in Matthew 22, that
guest, that person that came in and didn't have on the wedding
garment. Well, that wedding garment is
the imputed righteousness of Christ. So that I may know him,
this is verse 10 now, Philippians three, that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection. What is the power of His resurrection?
Well, it's the power of the finished work of Christ to put away all
the sins of all of His people that were imputed to Him, charged
to Him as He was made sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, and the power of
life from the dead because He established a perfect righteousness. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. The only reason that we have
to die physically is a consequence of sin. Romans 8 10 says the
body, physical body is dead because of sin. It's a consequence. But he says the spirit is life
because of righteousness. And so he says that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Now, you can look at that in
one of two ways, and both would be right. What is the fellowship
of his sufferings? And he says being made conformable
unto his death. Well, Christ is the representative
and the surety and the substitute of all his people, known as God's
elect, given to him before the foundation of the world, You
remember in John 6, 37, he said, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. And he went on to say, and this
is the will of the Father which has sent me that of all which
he hath given me, I should lose nothing but raise it up again
at the last day. And that's the power of His resurrection. The fellowship of His suffering
means this, that when Christ came to this world and kept the
law and suffered unto death, He did it for His sheep to secure
their salvation unto glory. So that, and then he was buried
and arose again the third day. And so we can honestly say if
we're brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works
by the spirit, that means that when he died, we died. Representatively now, when he
was buried, we were buried. And when he arose again, we arose
with him. And so, the Bible even says in
Ephesians 2 that we're seated together with him. He as our
representative, our surety, our substitute, and our redeemer.
And that's what we confess in the ordinance of water baptism. Going down into the water, when
Christ died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
And coming up out of the water, when he arose again, we arose
again. See, that's a public confession
of a spiritual reality that took place in Christ as the substitute,
as the surety, the substitute and the redeemer of his people. And the result of that is that
in the process of time, in God's appointed time, he will bring
each and every person for whom Christ died on that cross and
was buried in a rose again to a saving knowledge in the new
birth under the gospel by the power of the Spirit of saying
this, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. And that's the desire of every
true believer. He says conformable unto his
death, look at verse 11, Philippians 3, 11. If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, Now when he says
if by any means, he's not talking, there's only one way to come
to the resurrection of the dead in glory. Now we know that in
the end, all true believers will be resurrected and be caught
up to be glorified with Christ, will be given a new body. This
corruptible must put on incorruption and will dwell forever with Christ. But even those who died in unbelief,
to stand before God at the judgment and be condemned by their works.
They'll be judged by their works. See, believers, we won't be judged
by or based on our works, but our judgment is in Christ. Are
we in Christ? Are we washed in his blood and
clothed in his righteousness? And that's not to determine anything.
It's already been declared, or it's already been done, but it
will be declared before the whole universe. And so when we talk
about the resurrection of the dead for God's people, we're
talking about the passage into glory with Christ to live forever
in and by Him. But look at verse 12, in Philippians
chapter three and verse 12. Now, it's kind of like a shifting
of gears here, but it's not shifting from grace to works, as a lot
of people might think. The Bible never does that. We're
shifting gears, going in the same direction, all of salvation
by grace. But in verse 12, Paul speaks
of something else that is common to every believer, and expresses
every believer's desire spiritually. And so he says in verse 12, not
as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now Paul speaks of a future desire. that believers in this sense
have not already attained. Now in the Bible, when we talk
about salvation, we talk about things that have been finished,
perfected, completed, and attained because of our oneness, our unity
with Christ in all that He is as our representative, our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer. And that is all the ground of
salvation. And then as we're born again
by the Spirit under the preaching of the gospel, we're given life
from the dead, brought to faith in Christ, repentance of good
works, and we persevere in the faith by the goodness and the
grace and the power of God, He keeps us. But in this life, even
as sinners saved by the grace of God, washed clean from all
of our sins in the blood of Christ, clothed in His righteousness
imputed, perfect before God, righteous in Him, we still have
the presence, the influence, and even the corruption of remaining
sin. It's called the flesh. There's
a warfare within, and it's a struggle. And there is a desire in a believer,
put there by God the Holy Spirit, to be perfectly conformed to
Christ, not only legally, spiritually, but in our character and our
conduct. Paul spoke of this in Romans
chapter seven. He said, I want to do good, but
I can't attain the perfection of goodness that can only be
found in Christ. And I'm struggling. He concluded
that passage with, oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver
me from this body of death? Struggling against sin, fighting
the flesh, fighting my sins. Sometimes, and you know, when
we think about things like that, we can think about maybe victories
that we have or successes that we have and failures. We all have failures. But here's
the point, at our best, even as believers, sinners saved by
grace, to whom the Lord will not charge sin at any time, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, and to whom the
Lord charges the righteousness of Christ. Paul spoke of it in
Romans four and verse six. He talked about the blessedness
of the man, be the man or the woman, to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness. without works, and he was expounding
upon David's words in Psalm 32 when David said, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. So I'm a sinner
saved by grace. And I fail so many times in my
struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. But at
my best, I never can say that I've attained the perfection
that can only be found in Christ in my character and in my conduct. I always fall short. So that's
why I must be saved by grace, I must be kept by grace, and
I must be delivered unto glory by grace. It's all of grace.
Don't ever think it's not. Don't ever think that there's
a time that God's grace stops and it kicks into your efforts
and your doing and dying and all of that in order to attain
or maintain salvation. That's all of grace. So what
Paul was saying here is the resurrection of the dead. Now look at verse
11 again. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Now the resurrection of the dead
is when a believer is with Christ forever and ever. This body of
death, this corruptible has put on in corruption, but he says
I've not attained that yet. I desire to be there, that's
every believer's desire, And of course, that desire grows,
you know, when we're young and vibrant and healthy, you know,
we sort of act like we're gonna live forever, we know better.
But as we get older, or as we face illness, especially deadly
diseases, that desire grows, you know, wanna leave this body
and go to be with the Lord. We wanna be where there's no
sickness, no pain, no sorrow, no tears, and no death. And so Paul is saying here in
verse 12, I have not already attained or are already perfect. I'm perfect in Christ, I'm complete
in Him. Colossians 2.9 says that, for
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And verse
10, and you are complete in Him. We have a completeness already
in Christ, but not yet in ourselves. And so he says, I count not myself
to have attained perfection. But verse 12 says, but I follow
after. I'm striving, see, to be like
Christ. And if that I may, to apprehend
means to lay hold of. And what he's talking about,
I've laid hold of Christ by faith and I'm clinging to Him, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, but I want to lay
hold of Him in the perfection of my own character, my own conduct,
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Christ has laid
hold of me. That's the key. Salvation is
Christ laying hold of His people for whom He died. He lived, He
died, He was buried, He arose again. And He's apprehended them. He's taken them. They're His.
They will never be lost. He said, I'll never let you go.
He said that you can't pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Now, what they're saying, having been apprehended by Christ and
safe and secure in Him, now I want to lay hold of Him, not only
just by faith, but in everything I think, say, and do. And that's
every believer's desire. 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.