All right, if you will, let's
open our Bibles again to Philippians chapter 3. I've titled the message this
morning, Losing and Winning. Now, to the great happiness of
a few of us, college football season has started. And in a
football game, you wonder where I'm going with this. I'm going
somewhere. In a football game, it's easy to tell the difference
between the winners and losers, isn't it? All you got to do is
look at the scoreboard and see who's behind. The thing about
a football game or any game where they keep score is everybody
can't be happy. Somebody's got to win and somebody's
got to lose. You know, there's got to be both
the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, doesn't it?
And what I hope to show you from our text this morning is that
in Christ, there's no losing. There's no losing anything that's
of any value. Believing on Christ is a win-win
proposition. Spiritually speaking, now we're
gonna have to lose some things before we win some things, before
we gain some things. But those things that we lose,
they're worthless to start out with. You know, when you lose
something of a negative value, you gain whenever you lose them,
right? If you have negative three and
you lose that, you're back up to zero, at least you've gained,
right? Well, the word win that Paul uses here in our text means
to gain, or it means to have an advantage. The things that
the believer wins, we talk about winning, it's not things that
we win because we outscore our opponent or because we've done
so many good things that we win. Everything that the believer
gains is a gift of God's free grace in Christ. But before we
gain those things, we've got to lose some other things. Well
now, what is it we're going to have to lose? I mean, now count
the cost. What is it that you're going
to have to lose? We're going to have to lose anything that
we think we've done to make God happy with us. That's the cost. You're going to have to lose
that. We've got to lose any work of the flesh that we think makes
us righteous or more righteous than somebody else. We've got
to lose any work. We've got to lose taking any
credit for anything we've done that'll make God bless me more
than somebody else. We've got to lose everything
that this flesh trusts in. We've got to lose anything that
we trust in except Christ. We've got to lose everything
except Christ so that we're trusting Christ alone. We've got to lose
so there's nothing left to trust in but Christ. That's what we've
got to lose. See, I can't have Christ's righteousness
in my righteousness. I can't trust my works and trust
Christ at the same time. I can't trust the salvation that
I've earned, my salvation, and trust in God's grace too. I can't
hang on to my works and cling to Christ at the same time. It's
got to be one or the other. So I've got to lose some things
so that I gain Christ alone. Now that's a summary of what
Paul says in our text. And we'll look at this text and
see if it's true. A lot of times I come out of the study and Jane
says, what have you been working on today? And I'll tell her three
or four sentences. I say, now if I can turn that
into 35 minutes, that got me a message. So if I can turn what
I just told you into 35 minutes, we got us a message, don't we?
Well, here's the first thing we've got to lose. If we're going
to gain Christ, we've got to lose some things. Here's the
first thing we've got to lose. It's the wrong standard of righteousness. Verse four, Paul 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,
I more. Look at the end of verse six.
Paul says, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, I was blameless. Now here's what Paul's saying.
If you think that you have kept the law and you think, any man
thinks he has done something that he can trust in, he said,
I have more. Saul of Tarsus had more. He had more outward righteousness
than any of us have. And he was lost as a goose in
a snowstorm. So obviously if you have less
outward righteousness than Paul had, you're lost too. Paul, he
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was more Pharisaical than
all the other Pharisees. And he was still lost. So if
any of us are trusting in our works, we're lost too. Because we have less works than
Saul of Tarsus did. Our problem is that we want to
compare ourselves to each other, to other men. And the reason
that we like that is, is we typically can find somebody who we think
has more open sin than I do. And that's, I mean, I wouldn't
pick out Saul of Tarsus to compare myself to, you know, I'd pick
out the thief on the cross or somebody, wouldn't you? I'd pick
out Barabbas. That's what I want to compare myself to. We pick
out somebody that we think has more open sin than we do so we
can feel good about ourselves. Now, maybe that does make our
dead flesh feel better, but it doesn't make us righteous. We
need to remember this, if we want to compare ourselves to
each other, all that is is one maggot comparing himself to another
maggot. Compare yourself all you want, you're still a maggot,
and nothing more than that. If we would be righteous, we
have to be perfectly righteous. We can't be as outwardly righteous
as Saul of Tarsus. We can't be as outwardly righteous
as somebody else we might want to compare ourselves to. If we
would be righteous, we have to be as good as God. That's the
standard. The standard is perfection. Now
the thing about perfection is you either are or you're not.
You're either perfect or you're not. There's no in between. And
Paul is saying about Saul of Tarsus, that's touching the law
outwardly? He said, I'm blameless. Nobody
can say, Saul, you did that wrong. You sinned there. And he's not
exaggerating his outward morality. What he's saying is this. Outward
morality, his outward morality, Saul of Tarsus's outward morality
that nobody can find fault with, has got enough sin in it to damn
millions. That's what he's saying. Well,
if his outward obedience wouldn't save him, ours certainly won't
either, will it? So we've got to lose everything
that we think we can trust in, in the flesh, so we trust Christ
alone. And that's not going to happen
by comparing ourselves to each other. You know when I'll see
I'm a sinner? You know when I'll see what sin
really is? How vile and black in sin I am? How dead in sin I am? You know
when I'll see it? When I see Christ. Isn't that
what Job said? Oh, I've heard of you by the
hearing of the ears. but now mine eye seeth thee.
Now I see. Now I understand. Wherefore,
I abhor myself. If I ever see Christ lifted up,
I'll have no problem understanding I'm a sinner. And I don't need
to compare myself to anybody else. If I compare myself to
Christ, that's when I'll see how much I'll need him. And I'll
gladly give up trusting anything about my flesh so I can trust
Christ. But we've got to lose. bad standard
of righteousness comparing ourselves to each other, for we'll lay
hold on Christ and his righteousness. The second thing we've got to
lose is our law keeping. Verse five, Paul says, I circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel. Saul was raised in a
home where he was keeping the law even before he could consciously
do anything for himself. His parents took him, took that
Jewish baby boy to be circumcised on the eighth day. That's what
the law said. Eighth day, you're alive, you're
taken to be circumcised, fulfill the law. But now if the eighth
day fell on the Sabbath day, well, they didn't circumcise
him on the Sabbath day, they moved it to the ninth day. But
everybody knew, even though that still fulfilled the requirement
of the law, everybody knew the eighth day was the best. You're
better if you're circumcised the eighth day instead of the
ninth day. Everybody knew that. I had a friend, have a friend, he went
to a private school in England and he wasn't near, his family
wasn't near to well-to-do as the other boys in the school,
but they had a school uniform and the school didn't provide
it, you know, you just, you bought it yourself. He said everybody
had a blue sport coat. But everybody knew there's some
blue sport coats that are better than others. That's what this
8th and 9th day. Paul wasn't circumcised on the
9th day. He was circumcised the 8th day. I mean, this thing was
held to a T with this fella. And he says here, he said, well,
I'm getting ahead of myself. He was circumcised the 8th day.
The law was fulfilled. And what he's telling us here,
that didn't have anything to do with anything. Circumcision, all that was is
an outward sign in the flesh that a man was part of Israel. He was a part of the nation Israel.
He could go into the temple. He could take part in the public
worship. It was just an outward token
that he's a Jew. And Paul learned later on when
he saw Christ, circumcision is just a picture. There's no saving
effect in cutting off part of the flesh. It's just a picture
of the circumcision of the heart. It's a picture of the new birth.
Circumcising the flesh never made anybody part of the covenant
of God. The evidence that a person is part of the covenant of God
is God the Holy Spirit makes them to be born again. And that's
what the picture of circumcision is, the circumcision of the heart,
being the cutting away of the flesh, the deadness of the heart,
and God giving us a new heart. Now if you and I would be saved,
I'm telling you, we got to lose anything that we trust in, in
the flesh. And we've got to be given a new
heart, because God looks on the heart. You can clean up the flesh
all you want, and it's still dead flesh. It's dead, stinking,
rotten flesh, and God doesn't look on it anyway. God looks
on the heart. We can fool other people by fixing
up the outside. Can't fool God. God looks on
the heart. The only way we could ever be
saved is by God's grace and him giving us a new heart. It's not
our law keeping, it's God causing us to be born again. Now third thing we have to lose
is trusting in human bloodlines. In verse five, Paul says, I circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel. I was of the tribe of
Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews. Saul of Tarsus was a Jew through
and through. He was no half-breed. His mama
and daddy were both full-blooded Jews, full-blooded Hebrews of
the tribe of Benjamin. And he was too. He was a full
Jew through and through. And not just any Jew. Paul is
just pointing out all these things that the flesh likes to look
in. He said, I was the tribe of Benjamin. The beloved tribe. Man, you know, these other tribes,
you know. They cause Jacob so much trouble. He's the, you know,
descendant from, not Benjamin. Oh, Benjamin was the beloved
son. Remember Jacob said, now these are his sons. He tells
his 10 sons. I mean, I love these, they're
my sons, but you boys aren't taking Benjamin nowhere. You can go to Egypt if you want.
You're not taking Benjamin. I love Benjamin. I mean, he's
so dear to my heart. Saul says, that's my tribe. as my tribe. And he's telling
us here, I was still lost. I mean, he's still part of the
tribe of Benjamin, but he's still lost because human bloodlines
gave him no spiritual advantage. Here's why I point this out to
you and me. You know, we come here as families. I just love,
I'm so thankful. I watch people come in, their
families and families are sitting together. Come in as families.
Our parents are bringing their children and we've got grandmothers
sitting next to their grandson. I mean, it's families. I'm so
thankful. There's just nothing better for
a family than worshiping God together. I'm so thankful. But
here's why I say this now because this is how this applies to you
and me. You kids listen to me now. I know what I'm talking
about because I was your age sitting in the pew. I was your
age going to school and being out in the world but being taught
these things like you're being taught from the pulpit. The salvation
of our souls can't come from human bloodlines. The only thing
that comes from human bloodlines is sin. That's what we got from
our fathers, a nature of sin. is only found in the blood of
Christ. You can trace your lineage back
however far you want, you know, and find some good people, you
know. This is what we do, we trace our lineage and we see,
you know, somebody real good and then we see somebody bad,
we kind of hide them, you know, and just talk about, I'm really
this person. But salvation can't, I don't care who's in your family
tree. Salvation doesn't come that way. It only comes by the
blood of Christ. I love our children. I mean,
I love you so much. I'm so proud of you. I love to
see you on Sundays and Wednesdays. I love to hear about your accomplishments
at school and the things that you're doing. I mean, you really
impress me. You're just so impressive, and
I love you. But you're no better than anybody
you go to school to that's just with, that's a complete heathen.
goes to no religious affiliation whatsoever, or somebody that
you know is just in religion that's so wrong, you know how
wrong it is, you see it. Listen to me now. You're no better. You're no better. But I'll tell
you what you are. You're just as sinful, just as
lost by nature as they are, but I'll tell you what you are. You're
better off. You're being taught the scriptures.
Oh, what an advantage it is to be taught the scriptures. Young
Timothy, you imagine that boy, he was your age, growing up in
a home where his mother and his grandmother taught him the scriptures.
And he was like you. Sometimes he was kind of interested,
sometimes he wasn't. Sometimes he was thinking about
going out and playing baseball, just one of whatever games Jewish
boys played at that time, you know. But those scriptures, Paul
said, are able to make you wise unto salvation. One day, God
the Holy Spirit took that word and planted it in his heart and
gave him life to believe. That's why I pray for you. But
you need to remember this. Salvation is only in Christ.
It can't come from my mama and daddy being believers. It can't
come from my friends or my relatives being believers. Salvation is
only found in the blood of Christ. His blood washes away our sin. We need Christ. We need to gain
His blood, don't we? I already got my daddy's sinful
blood. What do I need now? I need Christ's blood. I need
His blood to put my sin away. All right, here's the fourth
thing. We've got to lose this now. We've got to lose trusting
in the zeal and sincerity of our religion. We ought to be
zealous. We ought to be sincere, but don't trust in it. Look at
verse six. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. I mean, nobody could have been
more sincere and more zealous than Saul of Tarsus, could they?
Nobody could have been. If somebody disagreed with Saul,
if they didn't keep that religion the way he said they ought to,
Paul didn't just try to teach them. He didn't just scold them. He didn't just talk bad about
it behind their back. Saul killed them. I mean, he
put them to death. That's where he was going when
the Lord revealed himself to Paul. He was on his way to throw
men, women, and children in jail, in the dungeons. You know, people
like that today, they'd kill you for disagreeing with them. Now, like I said, we ought to
be zealous and we ought to be sincere. We need to be sincere
about believing Christ. We're not playing games here.
I don't want to be a hypocrite to you about faith in Christ.
I want to say I believe him. I want to really believe him.
I want God to give me the heart to believe him. And we ought
to be zealous to serve Christ. We ought to be zealous to serve
one another. And you all are. I'm so thankful
that you are. I mean, really, you are. There was a pastor here visited
recently. He told me, I hope you appreciate that congregation.
I said, oh, I do. Thank God for them every day.
But don't trust in that. See what I'm saying? Don't trust
in Christ. Salvation is not found in our
sincerity. Salvation is found in sincerely believing Christ.
Look back at Psalm 69. Salvation is not found in our
zeal. I mean, you consider who our savior is, we ought to be
zealous in serving him and preaching him and seeking him and believing,
we ought to be zealous in that. But our zeal doesn't save anybody.
It's the zeal of Christ that saves his people. Look at verse
seven of Psalm 69. I told you we were going through
the Psalms. When you're reading the Psalms,
read them first as if Christ himself was saying them. That's
the first application. It's obvious here, this is Christ
speaking, verse seven. Because for thy sake I borne
reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I
become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's
children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the
reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Christ's zeal for his people,
that made him go to the cross. That made him bear their reproaches.
That made him bear their shame. It was his zeal to go to the
cross and suffer and die for his people. That's what caused
him to suffer. And that's our salvation. It's Christ's zeal
to save his people from their sin. The zeal and the sincerity
of Christ to do everything it took to save his people from
their sin. That's how we're saved. And we
got to give up trusting in our zeal and trust him, that one
who was so zealous to suffer everything it took to save his
people from their sin. Now, if we're going to be saved,
we got to lose all those things. But you know what? When you lose
trusting in those things of the flesh, you actually gain. Look at Paul says in verse seven,
you ain't 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 to count them
but dung, that I may win Christ. Paul says, after I met Christ,
I count all that religious works, all that religious activity,
all that religious heritage that I used to trust in, I used to
be so proud of it, now I count it but dung. Manure, that's what
he means, manure. I don't count those things as
advantages anymore. I count them as disadvantages. And since they're a disadvantage,
I gladly gave them up so I could have the advantage of having
Christ and Christ alone. I'm willing to give up anything
of this flesh that I could have Christ alone. Now, if you and
I would be saved, we're up to the same thing. We have to give
up everything that we used to trust in. And it ought to be
easy for us to give up trusting in our flesh, because the works
of our flesh are nothing but dumb. Now the gospel is good news in
every way that you can think of it being good news. This is
a pretty good trade, don't you reckon? Give up the dumb of who
and what I am and what I've done. Give up that manure that I could
have the perfection of Christ. That's a good trade. That's what
God gives his people. It's dung. The dung heap that they had in
Jewish cities, that was like the garbage dump, you know? I
don't know about you, but when I lose garbage, I actually gain,
haven't I? I'm better off without it. There's
no advantage in hanging on to garbage. You're better off when
you throw the garbage away. Our garbage pickup is on Thursday
mornings. And on Thursday mornings, I hear
those garbage trucks going up the street. And I'm so happy.
That garbage can be gone. That can's empty. I put some
more garbage in it. Janet loves to throw stuff away. Boy, that
can's empty. We're throwing more stuff away.
I'm glad that garbage is gone. After a week, it starts to stink,
starts to look bad, smell bad, you know? That's what Paul means
here. The word loss he uses means damage. He said, I'm better off without
all this damage. If I get rid of all this damage in me, I'm
better off. And I thought it was interesting. The writers,
when they talk about this dung that Paul writes about here,
they call it rubbish. And I know they're trying to
be polite. They're trying to be genteel.
They're trying not to be gross. But I think that's too polite. In my opinion, it's too polite.
Because calling this rubbish, it takes the edge off the gospel
by not painting the picture of who we are as ugly as it really
is. The word dung that Paul uses
here, this is the definition of it. It's the excrement of
animals and it's the dregs at the bottom of the dung heap. In case you don't know what the
dregs at the bottom of the dung heap are, let me tell you. They
throw their trash, their animal waste, their human waste, you
know, it piles up in this big pile. Well, you know, the weight
of this stuff starts pressing. The first stuff you threw away,
all this other stuff's pressing down on it, right? And it's just
naturally decaying and there's pressure on it. There gets to
be a little heat from the pressure on it and it starts to decay.
And of all the stuff on the dung heap, that, oh, that bottom layer. I mean, it looks bad. It just,
it smells so bad. It just, ugh. That's you and me. That's our
works before God. It's the bottom of the dung.
We're not talking freshman over here. This is the stuff that
drags at the bottom of the dung heap. It's disgusting. Are you going to take that stuff
to God? You wouldn't take that to each other. A lot of us love
dogs. When you're house training a
puppy, and that puppy makes a mess in the house, what do you do?
You tell it no, and you hurry and clean it up and throw it
away so it doesn't stink up your house, right? You don't save
that and put it up on the mantel like a trophy. You don't save
it and put it on the centerpiece of your table when you have friends
come over to eat and put that puppy mess there in the middle
of the table and make it the centerpiece of the table that
you're all eating around, you're fellowshipping around. You're
not going to put that there. You're not going to take that and put
it around your neck with a necklace, are you? Or make a little bracelet
out of it? You're not going to do that. You get rid of it as
fast as possible. That's how we should treat all
of our works of the flesh. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. I'm ashamed of myself. I want
to trust in those things, get rid of them as fast as possible. I don't want to decorate myself
with the dung of my works. I want to be found in Christ.
That's so shameful. I want to get rid of all those
things so I can trust Christ alone. All my religious works,
they're doing nothing but damage me. I want to get rid of that
damage, that I can have the life and the health and the perfection
of Christ. That's what I want. And when
we lose those things, everything that the flesh trusts in, now
we're going to gain some things. We're going to win some things.
The first thing we're going to gain is to be found in Christ. Verse nine, Paul says, I count
all these things but done that I may win Christ and be found
in him. Now, no believer is satisfied
with an outward show of religion. We're not just satisfied with
an outward show of morality. I hope we are moral outwardly,
but I can't just settle for that. I can't trust in that. Not after
I've seen Christ, I can't. No, after I've seen Christ, I
can't trust in things about, I trust him and him alone. And
the only way that a believer can be satisfied, be confident,
is to be found in Christ. When God comes looking for me,
tell you where I want him to find me. Only in Christ. So when he sees me, all he sees
is Christ. I don't want him to see me and
Christ. I just want him to see Christ.
Find me in Christ. Look on me in Christ. I want
to be saved from my sin by being in Christ. Like Noah was found
in the ark when the rain started falling. I want to be saved from
my sin I want to be saved from God's justice by being in Christ. Like the manslayer was found
by the avenger of blood in the city of refuge. That's where
I want to be. I don't want to be found outside.
Do you? I want to be found in Christ. I want to have life in
Christ the same way a baby in the womb gets life from its mother. That's I want to be joined to
Christ. So I have his life. I want to be found in Christ.
If I'm in Christ, I have union with Him. I want to be found
in Christ so that I did everything that He did as a man under the
law. When He obeyed the law, I did
too because I was in Him. I'm righteous because I obeyed
the law in Christ. I want to be found in Christ
so that when He died, I died in Him. If you've already died
for your sin, justice isn't looking for you anymore, is it? Justice
is satisfied. Well, if I died in Christ, God's
justice is not looking for me. Justice is already satisfied.
I want to be found in Christ. Salvation is not found in the
outward, in the flesh now. It's a vital union with Christ. It's so vital. This union with
Christ is so vital, you can't be saved without it. But if you
have it, if you have this union with Christ, you can never die.
It's like the vine and the branches, how the branches get their life
by being in the vine. How is it we have life spiritually
by being in Christ? That's where I want to be. If
I want to gain that, don't you be found in Christ. The second
thing we gain is Christ as our righteousness. Verse nine says,
be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness, which is of God, By faith. Now one thing
the scriptures make clear over and over and over and over again,
righteousness cannot come by our works of the law. It's by
the righteousness of Christ. It's by the faith of Christ to
obey the law for his people, make them righteous. And that's
received by faith in Christ, by believing he's all I need.
It can't come by our works of the law. Romans 3.20 says, by
the law, is the knowledge of sin. You can't earn a righteousness
by the law. If you try to keep the law, you
know all the law's doing? Showing you how you don't keep
it. Showing you how sinful you are. By the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. That's the sum
of the whole law. By the deeds of the law, nobody's
gonna be justified in God's sight. Galatians 3.20 says the same
thing. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it's evident. for the just shall live by faith. The just aren't lived by the
law, they live by faith, by faith in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
earned a righteousness for his people by his obedience to the
law. And Paul says in Ephesians 2 that salvation is by grace
through faith. Now salvation is as simple as
this. It's trusting that who Christ
is What He did, that's all it takes to save me. He's all I
need. Now I know you can't do that
unless God gives you the heart for it, but salvation is not
hard. It really is just trusting that
Christ is all I need to be saved. And faith in Christ is not a
lose-win proposition. I'm talking about here now we've
got to lose some things before we win some things. It's not
a lose-win proposition. I gotta lose one thing that's
got some value to it. So I gain something else that's
got more value to it, and I gotta debate this thing I'm losing,
it's got some value, do I really wanna give it up? That's not
what we're talking about here. Faith in Christ is a win-win
proposition, where you lose your filthy rags of righteousness.
Those filthy rags of righteousness that we try to produce by our
own works, They're filthy. They're defiled with sin. I mean, it's just, it's gross.
They don't cover us. They don't cover our nakedness.
They don't cover our shame. They just accentuate our shame.
Now you're going to gain when you lose that, aren't you? And
then you gain again when Christ gives you his righteousness,
when he is your righteousness. That's a win, isn't it? What
a gain to be given the very righteousness of God's son. Well, the third thing we gain
is eternal life. Verse 10 Paul says that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection. Now salvation is
knowing Christ, knowing him is whom to know is life eternal.
The savior said, John 17 verse three, this is life eternal,
that they might know the, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou has sent. Now, just like we looked at in
our lesson this morning with Judas, salvation is not knowing
about Christ. Salvation is not knowing that
Christ was born in the flesh roughly 2000 years ago. About
33 years later, he died on a cross. Those are just historical facts.
That's not knowing Christ. You know, many people, they know
things about Christ. They know many doctrinal truths
from the scripture. They know the doctrine of the
atonement. Somebody's got to die to pay
for sin. That's not salvation. Salvation
is knowing and loving Christ who is the atonement. Trusting
that he's my atonement. Many people know Christ way with
sinners on earth. Everybody wants to, wants to
be, you know, forgiving and gentle and kind like Christ was with
sinners on earth. Many know his way with sinners,
but that's not salvation. Be nice as you want, but that,
I mean, I hope you are, but that's not salvation. Salvation is knowing
Christ who is the way, who is the way of salvation, who is
the way of righteousness, who is the way of life. A saving
knowledge of Christ, is a loving union with Christ. Like a husband
knows his wife and that wife knows her husband. They're joined
together in union. And I tell you, if I know Christ,
this is a saving knowledge of Christ. If I know him, I know
I have peace and rest for my soul in trusting him. I know
it. If I know Christ, I have a saving
knowledge of him. This is what I know. I know he
didn't come to try to do anything. He didn't come to try to save
anybody. If I know him in a saving knowledge, this is what I know.
He came and he saved all of his people from all of their sin,
and I'm right happy about that. That's who I can trust to save
me. I have no doubt about it. There's no doubt that everybody
for whom Christ died is righteous and justified and will be glorified
with him. There's no doubt about it. Because
I know the one that died. He can't fail. If I have a saving
knowledge of Christ, I don't have any doubt about this. His
blood blotted out all the sin that the father laid on him.
I have no doubt his blood paid the entire sin debt. As enormous
as that debt was, all of the sin of all of that innumerable
number of God's elect, all of it was laid at one time on one
man, on Christ the Savior, and his blood put it away forever. I know that. because of whose
blood it is. It's the blood of the innocent
one. If I know Christ, if a saving knowledge of Christ, I hate my
sin. I hate it. I hate it. I hate
that I think the things that I think and do the things that
I do, want the things that I want to do. I hate it. But I don't
despair because I know who my mediator is. And he's pleading
his sacrifice for my sin. He's seated on the right hand
of the father with the evidence in his hands, in his feet, in
his side and in his head of how he was crucified. Those scars
are visible to the father and the father looks at those scars,
knows that they came from that sacrifice and he's well pleased. All is forgiven. If I know Christ,
I know this, the father's going to accept his mediation because
he accepts his sacrifice. And that takes all the pressure
off, doesn't it? I don't have to establish my
own righteousness. I don't have to make up for my sin. Just trust
Christ. Just trust he's enough. You see,
salvation is a person. It's a person. Salvation is knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ who is become my salvation. When the
children of Israel left Egypt in Exodus chapter 15, this was
the song, Moses' song of deliverance. He is become my salvation. It's not just I was delivered
from Egypt, that's not my salvation. He is become my salvation. Salvation
is knowing and loving a person. I've said this so many times,
I relate this to marriage. You can read a lot of books on
marriage. Husbands, you can read a lot of books on what you ought
to do as a husband. How to make your wife happy. You can have that head knowledge
up here. But I'm telling you, you don't need one of those books,
not one of them, if God will put this verse in your heart.
Love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it. If you love her, you don't need any more instruction than
that. To me, marriage is Janet. I don't need those books. And
I think I'm safe in saying this, that to her, marriage is me.
It's a person. It's not an institution. Salvation
is the exact same thing. It's a person. You don't have
to be... You just look to Him naturally
if you love Him. You want to give up the dung
of your works and trust Him naturally if you love Him. That's why Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. There's never been a greater
theologian ever lived than Paul, we reckon. And he didn't say,
I know what I believe. I know whom I have believed.
And that's eternal life. Oh, if I could gain Christ for
my soul, it's worth giving up anything, any credit to this
flesh to have the gain of being found in Christ. Oh, and having
him. That's my prayer for me and you.
All right, let's bow together. Father, how we thank you. for
our Lord Jesus Christ, how we thank you for a complete, full
righteousness and justification and salvation in him. We thank you for this message
of the gospel, the good news of who Christ is and what he
has accomplished for his people. And Father, I pray that you take
your word and that you would apply it to each heart here this
morning in mercy and grace, that you would take it and reveal
Christ to us, that we might trust him, believe him, be found in
him. You promised your word will accomplish
the purpose where until you send it, it cannot fail. Father, I pray you'd send it
forth in a purpose of mercy and grace. Enable us to see the glory
of Christ our Savior. Father, it's for his glory and
his sake we pray. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, turn to song number
236 and stand as we sing Amazing Grace.