Please turn back in your Bibles
this morning to that third Psalm. Psalm 3. David, like every child
of God, was constantly in need of being saved. Always in need
of one salvation or the other. and most especially in need of
being saved from his sins. And so he sums up what he has
been saying in that 8th verse by saying, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord, thy blessing, is upon thy people." What some
people don't seem to know, and it is because of their ignorance
of the Scriptures, is that the God of the Bible has a people. Thy people, He calls them here. They are His children. in the spiritual sense. They're His elect, His church. And in His own sovereign will
and grace, He purposed, He determined to bless them. And to bless them
especially with the blessing of salvation. That's what David
is talking about. Salvation belongs unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. It is salvation, as I said, in
every way, but it is especially salvation from our sins. As a matter of fact, This is
exactly what the angel tells to Joseph and then to Mary concerning
the child that was to be born. He said, "...she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins." Paul writes to the Thessalonians,
and he gives thanks to God because in love he had chosen them to
salvation. He had purpose to give this people
eternal life, and to bless them by His own language, to bless
them with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Paul writes
in praise to such a God as this, saying, Blessed be the God and
Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."
And Paul also, quoting this same psalmist, David, he says in Romans
4, blessed is that person to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Blessed is that person to whom
the Lord imputes righteousness without works. And so God chose
them in Christ, as Paul says, before the foundation of the
world. His choice assuring their salvation
and his choice assuring that they would not be able to mess
up that salvation. He chose them in Christ and entered
into that everlasting covenant that the Apostle talks about
wherein all of their salvation is promised and guaranteed upon
the performance of the covenant head. And so he chose them and
gave them to Christ, and their names, or this role, if you might
say it like that, is said to be already, even before the world
began, written in heaven. when our Lord received back those
disciples who were so happy because the spirits were subject to them. He says to them, notwithstanding
in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
And this is the case that we see all the way through the Scriptures
right down to the last book. When in Revelation it says, "...and
there shall in no wise enter into it," that is God's presence,
God's heaven, "...anything that defiles, Neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life." The inhabitants and citizens of that
heavenly place are said to have had their names written not by
them, but by God. in the Lamb's Book of Life. And he goes on there in Revelation
to show how that each and every one will be deceived by the great
deception, and all that dwell upon the earth will worship the
beast or the antichrist, whatever is used to express the deceiver. dwell upon the face of the earth,
and they'll worship Him, except those whose names were written
in the book of life, in the book of the life of the Lamb, slain
from the foundation of the world." And all through the Old Testament,
God gives us an earthly picture of this people. In other words,
He uses an earthly nation to illustrate this particular people
and picture them, and that nation is the nation of Israel. They are not the people of God
in this sense that I'm talking about this morning. But they
are the people of God as an earthly people that He uses to picture
and illustrate His special grace and mercy to the spiritual people. And these people He also calls
the Israel of God. And this Israel of God, the true
Israel of God, they every one shall be saved. And this is the
only way that some prophecies that we read about in the Old
Testament could ever be true, since most of national Israel
is and has been in unbelief. But in Isaiah 45, God says, but
Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded
world without end. That is the same language that
he gives concerning those in Christ, those who believe on
him. He says those who rest and trust
in that rock, they'll never be ashamed and they'll never be
disappointed. And Paul goes on and takes up
that very same thought in Romans chapter 11 when he says, "...and
so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, the Savior, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob." They are a particular people. They are a chosen people. They have their names written
indelibly in the Lamb's book of life. But that being true,
we cannot climb up to heaven and look in that book. We cannot have such a privilege
as to be able to go into the very holiest of God, into His
presence, and scour over that list of names to see if we can
find ours or anybody's name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But
there is a Book of Life. to these people while they're
here on this earth. There is a book and that book
is the Bible. One of the first things I believe
that God does when he begins to call his people out of darkness
into the light is to give them the highest regard of the Scriptures. He causes them to confide in
and trust only that which is written in the Word of God, to
seek life only through that which is spoken in the Word of God
above everything and everybody. And all of these people They
find it in this book. And though it does not name them
name by name, it names them by character. It gives their characteristics. And they are distinguished from
among fallen humanity by certain things that we find stated about
them in the Word of God. As a matter of fact, Paul, in
describing the Lord's people, in describing those that believe
on Christ truly, he says, but he is a Jew, an Israelite, who
is one inwardly, and circumcision that which characterized those
earthly Jews and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God." He is a Jew who is one inwardly. And that which characterized
them and distinguished them, that outward rite of circumcision,
this circumcision, he says, is of the heart. They are the circumcision
of heart people. And what are the characteristics
of these Israelites. What are the characteristics
of this people of the Lord that Israel represented and typified? What are the characteristics
of those who are of the true circumcision? Well, turn over
in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, where in Philippians,
that third chapter, the Apostle Paul writing and including his
own self. Here is a man who was a Jew outwardly
also. Here is a man who was of the
circumcision of the flesh. But writing to these at Philippi,
look at what he says writing to these believers in Christ. Writing to these that truly are
the Lord's people. Look at what he says in verse
3. For we are the circumcision. Now, he's writing to a people
that not only included, but most particularly had to do with being
Gentiles. And yet he says to these, mostly
Gentiles, and also including himself as a Jew naturally, he
says, for we are the circumcision. What does that mean? We are the
true Israel. We are the circumcised of heart,
which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh. In one verse, he gives
three things. that are not only stated concisely
here in this one verse, but they're also stated throughout the New
Testament as being those things that characterize the people
of God. The first thing he says is this,
That the true circumcision, this true Israel, the true people
of God, they worship God in spirit. They worship God in spirit. That is God's true people. They are known by their worship
which is not in form or fashion, but in spirit." It's a spiritual
worship. And it has nothing to do with
what people talk about in our day when they say, well, I'm
a spiritual person. That's in your own fallen mind. This worship is by the enablement
and aid of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit of God. And if
you remember, when the Lord Jesus came to this earth, and He was
found by the well with that woman at the well, who had a sense
of being a worshipper herself. And she even distinguished her
worship from the worship of those national Jews. But our Lord said
this, "...but the hour comes, and now is." And now is when
the true worshippers, that's what I want to be, a true worshipper. When the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him, God is spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." In other
words, these are characterized by continual spiritual worship
of God according to the truth. We can call it worship, we can
call it spiritual, we can call it anything we want to, we can
say it feels this way or the other, but the truth is we are
deceived, deceiving ourselves if it is not according to the
truth. You see, when you think about
what goes on in our day in the name of God and passes for worship,
most every bit of it, in almost every way, is devoid of the truth. A building that's called a house
of worship simply because religious activities go on there? I don't
think so. Because religious rituals or
ceremonies or relics are there. When God says, the heavens cannot
contain me. Build it as big as you want,
as fine as you want, decorate it as elaborately as you want. And the best man could do and
raise up would not in any way be anything that of itself God
would even take notice of. They speak about giving to God
something that He supposedly needs. Is that worship? It's all His and He doesn't need
anything. And what they do and say, coming
from the lips of fallen men and women, can that be worship? Can
all the candles, all the crosses, all the emotional music, all
the pageantry, all that men do, they say to give a spiritual
atmosphere, is that worship? Well, if it is, it's strange
that men have worshipped that which most people would say immediately
was satanic or devilish or heathen or whatever it is. They're using
the same things. No. We worship God spiritually. I remember a man, Trying to give
me a cross one time, a little metal cross. I think they do
this in the military, so give you a little military cross,
the chaplain will put in your pocket. So you can reach down
in your pocket and think about God. If it takes a metal piece
in your pocket to make you think about God, you're lost. They worship Him in spirit. That is, spiritually, by the
aid of the Holy Spirit, we in spirit, quickened by the Spirit
of God, we worship Him according as He reveals Himself to be and
for what He says He's done for us in the truth. No truth, no worship. In our day, they say, let's just
come together and we'll worship God. And let's leave all that
doctrine alone. Let's don't talk about doctrine
because doctrine is what divides us. Doctrine is what makes people
angry. Doctrine is what offends. But
the truth is, he says, we have to worship Him in spirit and
in truth. We don't worship Him. We don't
worship Christ except we know Him in the truth. Have you ever
seen Jesus? I know some people say that.
One man told me once, he said, I saw Jesus. He came to visit
me. I was out in a cabin in the woods
on a spiritual retreat. He came to the door. He had a
black hood on, a black robe on. I couldn't see His face. It was
black. I knew right then he hadn't seen Christ, because He's light. And everyone who ever got a glimpse
of His glory, They had to almost cover their eyes and faces to
keep from that brilliance. You see, God is Spirit, and He
can only be worshipped by the Holy Spirit in that way that
the Spirit of God reveals. And when you go back to the Old
Testament, in the life of this people, Israel, right there in
the center of their worshipping God, was a priest, an altar,
No sacrifice. God had to appoint and provide
the priest. God had to appoint the altar
and provide for it. God had to appoint and provide
the sacrifice. But there's no worship. And the
reason why that was at the center of all their worship is because
Christ and Him crucified, that's the center of all our worship,
and Christ said, I'll send the Comforter, I'll send the Holy
Spirit to you, and when He comes, He'll show you. He'll not thrill
you. He'll not give you a funny feeling. But He'll take the things of
mine. and show them to you." You see,
we've not worshipped in the Spirit of God unless we've been shown,
unless we've been looking at, unless we've been thinking about,
unless we've been taught about the things of Christ, the things,
as he says, pertaining to God. the things by which sinners like
we are can stand before God and have reason to worship God and
to thank God. And Adam and Abel, and Moses,
and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, they all worshiped God spiritually
by that way that God had ordained, that way which typified the true
Lamb of God, the one sacrifice for sins forever, that one whose
priesthood is enduring. And the only way we ever do that
is when the Spirit of God takes the Word of God. and reveals
it to us. That's what Christ says. That's
what the apostle wrote. I have not seen, neither has
it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has
for those who love him. He said, but God hath quickened
us." God has given us not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit of God, and He has shown us the things that are freely
given unto us of God. I could stand up here before
you this morning and every time we gather together and I could
tell you what you're to do and what you're not to do, I could
scold you and whip you and beat you and do all that kind of stuff. I could tell you, you know you
ought to do this and that and the other when the truth is you
already know what you ought to do. But he said, when the Spirit
of God comes to us in that revealing work, He takes the things of
Christ. The things that are freely given
unto us. And He shows them to us. And
my friend, that's when we worship. When you receive that which you
could not earn. When you're brought to a place
that you could not bring yourself. when you're brought to see the
living God in His glorious grace as He is in Christ Jesus. When
He brings us to this, reveals the truth in us, gives us an
understanding, John says, that's when we worship Him. We don't
just stand and sing music and clap our hands and do all these
things that excite the flesh. We don't have to look around
to see pictures of Jesus and all this religious relics and
statues and such. We worship the living God. You don't worship the living
God with dead things. He's worshipped in truth, not
according to my subjective reasoning or feeling, but through His Word. And He gives us faith and repentance,
that gift whereby we forsake every false god, every false
way. We worship Him. We worship the
living God. We rest in the blood and the
righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. And if there is not that
gospel preached, as Paul also says in Romans 1, that gospel
he says that he's not ashamed of, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed, if there is no preaching of that gospel,
there's no worship of God. No gimmicks. No draws. People say, well, you catch more
flies with honey than you will with vinegar. We're going to
have this program, we're going to have this activity, we're
going to have all these things to draw people in. No, Christ
is the draw. He says, if the Son of Man be
lifted up, that He would draw all to Him. Not every single
person, but all these people. We worship Him without gimmicks,
without all these things. We worship Him in the truth. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth. And then Paul says this also. Here is this other characteristic.
He said, we worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We rejoice in Him. There are a lot of things that
people seem to find some reason to rejoice in. They rejoice in
being a part of an organization. They rejoice in what in truth
must be called friendship because it's not fellowship. Gathering
together with people that you like, People that you are friends
with, that is nice, but that's not fellowship. Fellowship has
to do with gathering together around one fellow, and that's
the man Christ Jesus. They rejoice in Christ. These
people do. Oh, there are some people, they
rejoice in their church. And sadly to say, there are some
people who rejoice in such and such a preacher. But I'm telling
you this, myself included, if your rejoicing is in a preacher,
honey, you've got troubles. Because at some point, we'll
let you down. We'll let you down. These rejoice in Christ. That
is, they glory in Christ alone. That there is none other name
given under heaven whereby we must be saved but his name. There
is just one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And we have this spirit, this
attitude, like Paul says, he said, almost in a kind of horror
that rose in his souls, dare he do such a thing, he says,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is, His glorious
person as the eternal Son, His sinless perfection in human life,
in human flesh, His power and His wisdom. Him. And Him as He is distinguished
and glorified by His perfect work of redemption. Most all
true gospel preachers will have this said about them. at some
point or other, and most likely many times by some folks. All he does is preach Christ. And I'll be honest with you.
I'm like a person sitting down at that piano there, and I know
one note on that piano, middle C. And I'm going to hit that
middle C every time. That's all I know. And if you
do not love Christ, If you do not want to hear about Christ,
I'm not going to entertain you on your way to hell. I'm just
not going to do it. There's not anything worth talking
about, and certainly nothing worth preaching about, except
Christ and this glorious salvation that David was speaking about.
Christ as the Word, as the Way, as the Truth, as the Light, as
the Life. giving Him first place in all
things, and the honor and glory and exaltation of God's people,
of Jesus Christ, that brings them this unspeakable joy. We rejoice in Him as the Lord,
our righteousness. What's your hope of heaven? Christ. What's your righteousness? Christ.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus, that God in His grace has put us in
Christ. We rejoice not in what we're
to do, but in what He's already accomplished. And in glorying
in Him alone, we find ourselves rejoicing in Him as He is, as
the Savior of our soul, as our personal mediator. as our Savior
and as our God. We rejoice that God has made
all our salvation to be in Him and by Him, and that in Him God
can be just and yet justify us. In Christ God can justly, righteously
bless us and save us from our sin. That God has made him to
be to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That he is actually and really
all. We rejoice in Christ. Then he
gives this third thing. He says, "...and have no confidence
in the flesh." Now you notice he didn't say here that we don't
have much confidence in the flesh. And he didn't say we have no
confidence in the flesh, but he said, and we have no confidence
in the flesh. Because the flesh, that which
we are in ourselves, is absolutely nothing but that. Flesh. Flesh is flesh. It's like a rubber
crutch, if you ever lean on it. you'll surely fall. And flesh,
I'm afraid, is always looking for evidence in flesh that we're
saved. It's like you go and you drink
from a fountain and it's bitter water. A little while later,
you get thirsting for something, you go back to that same fountain
of bitter water and it's still bitter. Somebody says, well,
now the Bible says examine your cells. No, it doesn't. It says, examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. John said, if we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Does that mean that if I'm not
doing exactly perfectly all the time, that I have no basis for
having fellowship with Christ? If that's the basis of fellowship,
I never have any fellowship. What do you mean in the light?
In the light of the truth, in the light of the gospel, in the
light of this faith that God reveals in His Word. God not
only says there's no way to have fellowship with God in anything
other than that, but He says at the same time, in the light,
in the truth. You say, how can you do that?
It says, can two walk together except they be agreed? People
use that to show their reasons for division, but that's not
what he's talking about there. He's talking about us and God.
Can you and I walk with God? It says Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Well, how
can we be agreed? Well, God says that the only
way that He can save us is in Christ, and we agree with that. Both parties agree in Christ. But we have no confidence in
the flesh. no competence in fleshly, material,
natural things of this world, such as wealth, or honors, or
possession, or accomplishments, or strength, none of those things. Jeremiah says, "...Thus saith
the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory
in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For
in these things I delight, saith the Lord." They used to have
those little signs they put out. Welcome to the church where everybody
is somebody. Is that what you want to be?
Somebody? Better it said, welcome to the church where everybody
is nobody. And Jesus Christ is everything. Everything. They have no confidence
in the outward duties, or works, or ceremonies, or professions,
or associations, or decisions, or exercises of religion. Look
down at verse 4 of Philippians 3. Here is the man that God calls
to be all of these things. in order for him to be the pattern
whereby we see that all of these things are nothing. He said,
"...though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any
other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the
flesh, I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching
the law of Pharisee." concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But
what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ,
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may
win Christ, 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." You mean
to tell me, Paul, all your credentials, all your history of morality,
all your works, you mean you're counting them all as nothing?
What Paul is saying here is, I count them nothing but sin. That's what it is. We have no
confidence in the flesh. No confidence in any imagined
righteousness or good in ourselves. And here Paul is repenting of
his old religion, of his own righteousness, and of his own
trust in relationships. Well, Paul, you're a member of
the Pharisees. Sin. Well, you're a preacher. Sin. Well, you sat at the feet
of the greatest teacher of your day, Gamaliel. Sin. He said, I counted all as nothing
but done. No confidence in our own thoughts,
our own feelings, or in the lack of feelings. Just in what God
says. Came to my mind this morning
while I was looking again at my notes, something that old
Luther penned in an old hymn. He said, feelings come and feelings
go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God,
not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging
Word till soul and body sever. For though all things shall pass
away, His Word shall stand forever." We trust the living Word of God,
and we have no confidence in the flesh. And then, like Paul,
And like every other one of these people, we fail. We sometimes
fall. We know no perfection, no improvement
in the flesh. But trusting Christ, resting
in His promises, believing His Word by His grace, we press on. Now listen to Paul here, verse
10. He says, "...that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. 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."
He said, I've been apprehended by Christ so that I might lay
hold or apprehend something. He says, brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind. forgetting them as far as any
part of the ground of my salvation or my hope, forgetting those
things, and not only that, forgetting them which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
That's the prize of grace, which is total, perfect conformity
to Christ, which is the full receiving of every part and parcel
of the inheritance of grace, which is being present in God's
presence and doing what? Worshipping Him and rejoicing
in Christ forever. They don't do this once. When
the Lord saves them and reveals to them their salvation, this
becomes their life. Worshipping God in spirit, rejoicing
in Christ, and having no confidence in the flesh. I have to ask myself,
is this me? Is it you? I'll tell you something
that he says about this people in Psalm 110. This is the Father
speaking to His King. He says, thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. There are a lot of folks, and
I mean a lot of folks, some of whom pretend to believe the grace
of God, love Christ and all this, but this doesn't characterize
them. But His people, He makes them willing in the day of His
power. Look back in Psalm 3 again, at
that 8th verse. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. But look at that next phrase.
Thy blessing, God's blessing, is upon thy people, His people. God's blessing is upon His people."
Or, God blesses, in this sense, His people. I just want to be
found among them. Our Father, today we give You
thanks and praise that through the Lord Jesus Christ, a sinner
like myself might be found among Your people. You appointing him
to be numbered with the transgressors, that we might be numbered among
your people, and that as your people we receive the blessing. We pray that you cause this to
be a day of your power for us, that we might be willing, that
we might be worshipers, that we might rejoice in Christ Jesus,
that we might put off all competence, in our flesh. Help us, Father,
we pray. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen.