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 today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching a series of
messages that I began last week called Every Believer's Desire. Last week I did part one and
this is part two. I don't know how many parts are
going to be in this because I'm going to continue through the
book of Philippians chapter three. That's where I'm going to start
today. I'm going to start with verse three today. Philippians
chapter three. Every believer's desire. This
is part two. So if you haven't heard the part
one, go to our website or on Sermon Audio and find it and
listen to it, because it'll really help you. It's sort of laid the
foundation. But look at verse 3. I concluded
with this last week, but I want to start here, where Paul writes
in verse 3 of Philippians 3, every believer's desire. He says,
for we are the circumcision. And there I mentioned he's talking
about spiritual circumcision, not physical. Spiritual. and that spiritual circumcision
is the new birth. You must be born again because
by nature we fell in Adam into a state of sin and death and
depravity and that's how we are naturally born. A person is not
naturally born saved or a Christian in the sense of spiritual circumcision
or the new birth. You must be born again, else
you cannot see the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. And
that new birth, that spiritual circumcision, is circumcision
of the heart. And I directed you to Romans
2, 28 and 29 as an example of that, where Paul talked about
how spiritual circumcision is not of the flesh and of the law,
but of the heart. And that's where the Lord gives
God's people, His elect, a new heart. That's spoken of in the
Old Testament. A new heart, that's what we need.
A new mind, a new way of thinking, a new motivation, the mind, the
affections, new desires. Whereas before we may have been
religious and our desire to go to heaven, but we did not desire
it in a way that glorifies God and exalts Christ. For example,
a person who gets religion, joins a church, all the time thinking
that their salvation is conditioned on them in some way, at some
stage, to some degree, well, my friend, that's the natural
man. That doesn't glorify God. It doesn't exalt Christ. It doesn't
humble sinners. And so we must be circumcised
in the heart. And that indicates faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works. And we're gonna see an example
of that right now when we talk about a believer's desire. He
says, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. And I believe there's two applications
of that. We worship God as we are guided
by the Holy Spirit in the word of God. Our worship is in the
book. It's not what man thinks or concocts
And so, but we also worship God from that new heart. And that
new heart is in the truth of the gospel of God's grace written
on the heart. And he says, how do you know
you're worshiping God in the spirit? You rejoice in Christ
Jesus. That word rejoice there is a
word that means glory or boast or have confidence. It's a different
word than the word rejoice in verse one, when he says, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now it's every believer's desire
to rejoice in the Lord in the sense of being happy and content,
at peace with the Lord. Is Christ enough for me? Is he enough for you? You see,
that's the problem with people. People say, well, it's all in
Christ, but I've got to do something. I've got to add my part. No, sir, that means Christ isn't
enough for you. Oh, they'll say, well, we're
saved by grace, but you gotta be baptized, but you gotta live
a godly life in order to be saved. That's, my friend, that's not
rejoicing in Christ. Saying Christ is not enough.
And here was the issue of circumcision. The false religious Jews who
claimed to be Christian were trying to get these Gentile men
to be circumcised in order to be saved, in order to be made
righteous and right with God. And Paul said, all they're doing
is just preaching evil deeds, evil works. Beware of those dogs,
the evil works, the concision, just mutilating you. Rejoice
in Christ. And then he says in verse three,
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Don't put your confidence in
anything you do or anything you don't do. Put your confidence
in Christ. Paul spoke of that in Galatians
6, 14. God forbid that I should glory,
same word as rejoice here in verse three, that I should boast
or have confidence save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious person of Christ and the effectual, powerful,
complete work of Christ in his obedience unto death to save
me from my sins and to make me righteous in God's sight, to
justify me. Don't put your confidence in
your baptism. Let me put it to you this way.
When God brings a sinner from unbelief to faith in Christ,
that sinner is commanded by Christ to publicly confess that in believer's
baptism. And believer's baptism is being
immersed in the water. You go down into the water because
you're identifying publicly with Christ, died with him, buried
with him, and you come out of the water, you arose again with
Christ. Now that is a public confession
that a believer is to do in obedience to the commandment of Christ,
not in order to be saved, not in order to wash away my sins.
The waters of baptism does not wash away my sins. And the waters
of baptism are not the actual, what they say, the application
of the blood of Christ. That's already been applied by
God in our justification, if we're believers. So see, baptism
is not to be saved. Baptism is a confession that
we are already saved by the grace of God. And to desire it any
other way is an evil desire. So understand it. Don't put your
confidence in your profession, your confession, your baptism,
your works, or anything. Put your confidence in Christ.
And based upon that, obey the Lord. Worship the Lord. We are the circumcision, which
worship God in the spirit, and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's
faith in Christ. That's God-given faith, and understand
that now. Faith is the gift of God. It
doesn't come from us naturally. 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. That word boast there in Ephesians
2.9 is the same word rejoice here. Don't boast in the fact
that you believe. Boast in Christ in whom you believe. Does that make sense to you?
I hope it does. So we rejoice in Christ Jesus, that's faith
in Christ, and then he says, have no confidence in the flesh. What is that? That's repentance
of dead works. My salvation is totally conditioned
on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, not on
my works. And if I believe salvation is
conditioned on my works, that's having confidence in the flesh.
Anything the flesh can do. So he says, now Paul's gonna
describe it here now, and I want you to listen. And keep this
in mind according to what the theme of these messages, every
believer's desire. Do you desire to glory in yourself? Do you desire to boast in what
you've done? You know, you ask a lot of people
today, are you saved? And they'll answer, well, I made
a profession when I was 12 and I got baptized. Is that what
you glory in? Somebody asked me if I'm saved.
I say, well, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my only
salvation. I have no salvation, no righteousness,
but Him alone. That's the desire of every believer
to be found in Christ. And so we'll look at this. Now
look at verse four. Paul's describing faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. And he starts out by describing
what he has repented of. And this is the thing, Paul could
not have repented of these things except the Spirit of God give
him a new heart and a new desire. And he says in verse four, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh. Now Paul's saying
here, if anybody could have, he says in verse four, if any
other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the
flesh, I more. Now Paul, he's not bragging here
as some preachers say. But he's simply saying this,
if anybody could have been saved or made right with God by works
of the flesh, whatever it is, he said, I could have been. And
listen to what he says. He says, verse five, circumcised
the eighth day. Now he's speaking of his physical
circumcision there, which was to be performed on the infant
male Jews on the eighth day. And he said, I was circumcised
the eighth day. of the stock of Israel. They were the elect
of God under the old covenant, but not in a spiritual eternal
way, but only in a temporal ceremonial way. And that didn't last forever. And what that means is God chose
them to be his people under the old covenant, not for salvation,
but to bring Christ through according to the flesh. There was no salvation
in the terms of the Old Covenant Mosaic Law. That law was not
given for salvation. It was given to show them their
sin and the impossibility of salvation by their works. But
they perverted it and turned it in a false system of work
salvation, seeking righteousness by their works and not by faith
in Christ. So he says, of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin was a choice tribe, And Hebrew
of Hebrews, what Paul's saying there, there's no mixed breed
here, pure blood Hebrew, as touching the law of Pharisee. Now, what
does that mean? Well, a Pharisee back then were
those who were looked up to as going beyond and above the call
of duty. They were what some false believers
today might call super Christians. Or in the Catholic church, they
call them saints. They're made saints. Say, well,
every true believer is a saint. The word saint means set apart,
sanctified ones. And we're set apart. Believers
are set apart before the foundation of the world, the elect of God.
God chose a people to save and gave them to Christ, put all
the responsibility of their salvation upon Him. And they're sanctified
by Christ on the cross. For by one offering he hath forever
sanctified, he hath ever put away their sin. By one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, sanctified
by Christ, by his blood. Our sins were washed away, righteousness
was established. then we're sanctified by the
Spirit in the new birth when God brings us under the gospel
and gives us spiritual life, literally raises us from the
dead spiritually and gives us new life, a new heart, a new
mind, new affections, new desires. So he says I was a Pharisee and
he says in verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
What that means is Paul looked at the church at that time before
he was circumcised in the heart, regenerated, converted, born
again. He looked at the church as being blasphemous. He looked
at Jesus of Nazareth as being a false prophet. And so he persecuted the church.
Verse six, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
Paul was a moral man. who could not be accused outwardly
by men. Now he was a sinner, but he didn't
realize how much of a sinner he was. He talks about that in
the first part of Romans chapter seven, how he was deceived by
the law because of his own self-righteousness. But he was a moral, sincere,
dedicated religionist. But now listen to what happened.
He says in verse seven, listen to this very carefully. And this
is right in line with every believer's desire. But what things were
gained to me? Now these things that he'd mentioned
before he was saved, before he was born again. All of this,
physical circumcision, being an Israelite, the physical descendant
of Abraham, a Hebrew of Hebrews, the Pharisee persecuting the
church, his zeal, touching the righteous blameless. What things
were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. What happened, Paul? Everything
I used to put in the plus column, as proving me to be saved, to
be righteous, to be a child of God. I thought were gains for
me in God's side, in having a right relationship with God. Everything
that I thought was good and pure and righteous, now I put them
in the lost column. The lost column, they didn't
mean a thing. And why? He says, for Christ. Now, how'd that all happen? 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. The knowledge of Christ, the
knowledge of His person. You see, many times we exalt
men, we exalt ourselves, Do you know who He is or who that preacher
is? It's not about who I am. It's not about who you are. We're
sinners. It's about who Christ is. God manifests in the flesh. It's not about what we've done
for Him. It's what He has done for His people. Christ Jesus,
my Lord. who as my surety, what does that
mean? It means he had my sins charged
to his account. My substitute, what does that
mean? It means he came to earth and
took unto union with his deity, a perfect sinless human nature,
to take my place under the law of God and under the judgment
and wrath of God, to put away my sins by his obedience unto
death on the cross. and rose again the third day
as the Lord my righteousness. I have no righteousness but Him.
God has given me a new heart, a new mind, a new conscience,
a new desire and the Holy Spirit indwells me permanently now and
I can never be lost again because God won't let me go. But it's
all due to the fact that God has imputed, charged, accounted
the righteousness, the merits of Christ to my account. And so now I desire the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without works.
Romans four and verse six. That's what I desire. That's
the desire of every believer. So he said, For the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that's faith in Christ,
God-given faith, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. All those things I used to think
were gain, that were holy and right and good and righteous,
I do count them but dumb that I may win Christ, that I may
gain Christ. Christ is my gain. God's grace
in Christ, His righteousness is my gain. Not my works. I've
repented of those, that spiritual circumcision, the cutting away
of the filth of the flesh, those things that I thought were good
and holy and right and secured me a place in God's favor, I
count them now but dung, and that's a strong word, that's
exactly what it means. Dung, refuse to be cast out that
I may gain Christ. Now there's every true believer's
desire. And listen how Paul puts it in
verse nine. He says, and be found in him. I desire to be found
in Christ. When I go before God, in this
life, at judgment and in the next. When I go before God, my
desire is not to boast of my attainments, my works, my sincerity,
even the degree of my faith. Oh Lord, I never doubt you. Oh,
well, wait a minute. What's the truth about that situation? My desire in every way is to
be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, see, not having that, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. Now that word, the faith of Christ,
that means the faithfulness of Christ. Some people translate
that faith in Christ, but that's not the case. Listen to what
it says again. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now what he's saying here is
this. My desire is to be found in Christ. I want to be found
in him, not in myself, not in my own works, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law. but that which I have
through the faithfulness of Christ." See, Christ himself was and is
faithful, perfectly faithful. Now, I have faith in Christ.
But my faith is not yet perfect. It's still mixed sometimes with
doubts and fears. That's why I have to keep my
mind focused on Christ. That's my desire to look unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. And thank God it's
by His grace and power that I don't be cast away totally. But my
whole salvation is based upon Christ's faithfulness to do what
He agreed to do before the foundation of the world in the everlasting
covenant of grace. God chose a people and gave them
to Christ, put all the responsibility of their salvation on Christ,
and Christ willingly agreed to do what was necessary to secure
their salvation unto eternal life and glory. He agreed to
do that. You see, in order to be a successful,
proper savior of his people, there's three things required.
The person upon whom salvation is conditioned had to be appointed
by God, and the only one who's appointed to be the savior is
Christ, He said, I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There's one
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,
and that is Christ Jesus the Lord. So he alone was appointed. He spoke of that in the Old Testament. It's recorded in the book of
Hebrews. I come in the volume of the book it is written of
me. God the Father appointed his son to be the one and only
Savior. He didn't appoint the Pope. He
didn't appoint Muhammad. He didn't appoint Buddha. He
didn't appoint Confucius. He didn't appoint Joseph Smith.
He appointed Christ. And to seek salvation in and
by any other is death, eternal death, eternal condemnation. So he had to be appointed by
God, and it's our desire, it's every believer's desire to find
it in Christ. Secondly, he had to be able to
do what was required. And in order to do what was required,
God the Son, The second person of the Trinity, co-equal with
the Father and the Spirit and every attribute of deity, had
to take into union with himself a perfect, sinless humanity,
human body and soul, human nature, and be God-man, because he had
to obey the law. He was made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. He had
to die. God cannot die, but this person who is God did die, and
that's attributed to his sinless humanity. For the sins of his
people imputed to him. He was made sin. How? God's people had their sin debt
imputed, charged, accounted to Christ. That we might be made
the righteousness of God. Only God can create and give
life But this person who is man does create and gives life, but
that's to be attributed to his deity that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5 21. That's his
righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to his people. and
all to whom His righteousness has been imputed, they will be
born again." Just like Paul describes here, they will desire to believe
and rest and be found in Him, not having their own righteousness,
which is of the law, but only that which is through the faith
or faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness, the merits
of His obedience unto death is my surety, substitute and redeemer. which is of God by faith. We receive it in our hearts,
our knowledge, by God-given faith. And so he says this, look here,
here's every believer's desire. Verse 10 of Philippians 3, that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Well, what
is the power of his resurrection? It's his power of life over death. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. As
sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. In
Adam, all die. In Christ shall all be made alive.
Now, the all there is not every person without exception. It's
God's elect. for whom Christ became responsible,
for whom he lived and died, was buried and arose again, and whom
he sends his spirit to bring them under the gospel and give
them a new heart, a new desire. And this is their desire, that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his sufferings. What is the fellowship of his
sufferings? Well, you can look at it in several ways. that Christ
being my substitute, when he died, I died. When he was buried,
I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
And now having been brought to faith in him, I suffer the persecution
of the cross with him and being made conformable unto his death. That's every believer's desire. And that's a God-given desire.
It's not a natural desire. but it's only given in the new
birth as we're circumcised in heart and ears, given faith to
believe, and brought to repentance of dead works. Now we'll continue
this in the next message. I hope you'll join us then. 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
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at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07, contact us by
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today and may the Lord be with you.