Turn with me to the book of Philippians,
Philippians chapter 3. I'd like to just say before we begin, I pray this
morning that the Lord truly, number one, be honored in what
is said. But I want you to think about
this, too. I heard yesterday we were driving
back from Rocky Mountain heard on the radio
that Johnny Cash had died. I'll tell you the first thing
that went through my mind. Someone has left this world and
has met God. Today may be, I don't know. You don't either. Today may be
the last time I ever preach. May be. This may be the last
time you ever hear. I wonder if a man truly knew,
if a woman knew, this is it. This is going to be the last
time right here. How would you hear? If you knew what these days it's
going to be, lest the Lord is pleased to do otherwise, what
these days we're going to hear last time. I've known, I've gone back and
looked at messages that I preached and realized, looked back, and
someone had died. on the day that I preached the
last time. And I thought, well, I didn't
know it at the time. But that was the last message
that they ever heard. What would I say? How would I
think about it? I pray God be pleased to bless
this message. Bless it to the honor of the
Lord Jesus Christ. you that know him today, that
we hear him afresh, and you that know him not, that God might
be pleased to reveal himself. It be his pleasure to be pleased
to reveal himself. Paul says in Philippians 3, verse
1, finally, Rejoice in the Lord to write
the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. For
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh."
Paul seems to be bringing, at that point right there, he's
bringing something to a close. He wants to say something, wants
to say it again. We ought to give heed to these
words of the apostle written under the inspiration of the
Spirit of God. Finally, my brethren, these three
words, he's saying something right here that falls from the
mouth of this apostle. Finally, he says three things
I'd like to deal with this morning. Number one, rejoice in the Lord, though we recognize it not as
we should. Though we do recognize it, but,
oh, as we ought. First thing, he said, rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in Him. Secondly, he says this, ìBeware
of dogs, evil workers, and of the concision.î And then the
third thing he says, and Iíll deal with this lastly, he gives
the marks of a believer. What are the marks of a believer?
What are they? You know, Scripture clearly sets
forth this is what a believer is. This is how they are. This
is how they act. This is how they think. This
is how they talk. Believers. Nothing settles the
heart, that new heart, like the hearing of sound, true, stable,
grounded truth. This is it. Finally, my brethren,
Godly wisdom, tell me something that's edifying to me. Don't
tickle my ears, tickle my fancy. Don't try to impress me. I'm
not trying to impress you. By God's grace, just tell you
something that's so. Finally, my brethren, here's
some honorable conversation. Finally, it reminds me of when
my kids, growing up, I do this now, my kids, you know, they're
all grown, you know, they're all still my kids, you know.
Sometimes I treat them and they remind me, you know, like they're
six, you know. Now let me tell you all something
now. Let me remind you this. I want you to now remember, remember
what I said, you know. It's like, Dad, we got him. I remember, you know, oh, listen,
we do need to be reminded of this. Finally, my brethren, my
family, my brothers, my sisters, finally, my brethren, made so
by the grace of God. You know, believers here, we've
got something in common. By God's grace, He, Him, the Lord. My brethren, those of the same
love, God's love, same goal, same speech, same Father, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice. Be glad. Rejoice in heart. You know the amazing thing about
it is that I know, I'm convinced, that as those that sit and hear
the gospel. And the thing that they love
is that they've heard it before. And they hear it again, and it's
got the same sound to it. You know what will upset a believer?
It's when they hear something and it sounds just a little bit
off. It's just off. It's just not top dead center. It's not hitting on all eight
cylinders. It's just what they want to hear. You tell me about Him. Tell me
about His person, His work, His accomplishment. Tell me about
Him. Tell me what He has done in bringing
honor and glory to Himself, to the Father, what He's done for
His people. Tell me about Him. Solid, stable,
straight on. That's what I want. Finally,
my brother, rejoice in the Lord, not in yourself, not in your
accomplishments. Rejoice in the Lord, the believer
says. That's it. That's a good start. Don't get off of Him. Stay right
there. Go to the rest of this message. Don't ever get off of Him. Rejoice
in the Lord. Oh, we've got reason to rejoice
in the Lord. I'll tell you why. Let me read
this to you. It's found in Zephaniah 3, 17. Here's the reason we rejoice
in the Lord. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. You know, I wish I could enter
into the depth of what I just read. The Lord will rejoice over
thee. He will rejoice over thee. With
singing, I think to myself, oh, the depth of the statement of
the Scripture, of the passage, Almighty God will rejoice over
me. It reminds me, Lord willing,
I'd like to Consider, in the coming up future, the Song of
Solomon. But there's one passage, I've
brought this up before, that one passage of Scripture that
I think about these. It says, the Lord speaking of
His bride, He says, You've ravished me with one of Your eyes. I looked up that word ravished,
and it says, here's the Lord speaking of His bride, made so
by His righteousness, charged and imputed to her. And he says
this, he said, You stole my heart. You stole my heart. I'm heartless,
Ben. He said, I look at you and I
just, I'm heartless. You've ravished me. Oh, I think. He said that about me. He said
that about this. He said, The Lord, He rejoices
over you. Rejoice in the Lord. Oh, rejoice
in the greatness of who He is. Rejoice He is God, God Almighty. Our God reigns. Rejoice He ever
liveth to make intercession for His people. Rejoice we who are
found in Him. The Lord God Almighty, the Father,
is well pleased with him, being found in him, being found in
him, being found in him. The Lord rejoices over his people. Rejoice! The Word was made flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. Didn't leave it up to us. Didn't
bring the ball down to the one yard line. Said, now there it
is. I'll leave, I'll just move all the obstacles out of the
way. I won't even put the team on the other side. You just pick
up the ball and bring it in. No. I couldn't even do that. You know why? I'm dead. I'm dead. Put it on the one yard line.
I can't even pick up the ball. I don't even know the ball is
there. I can't see it. I'm blind. Death. Rejoice in the Lord. Consider the sufficiency of His
atonement. Put away our guilt. Took it. Charged to Him. Imputed. He took a sin, the guilt, that
which was due His own, His people, and made it His own. Satisfied justice. Satisfied it once for all. One time by one sacrifice. One sacrifice. Blood of bulls
and goats, hundreds of years, hundreds of years, could never
put away sin. And by one sacrifice, it's whose
blood was shed. Precious blood, indescribably
precious. The words of a man cannot describe
the preciousness, rejoicing the Lord, Rejoice in His providence. We were talking about this, Glenda
and I were talking about this last night, coming home, and
the providence of Almighty God worked all these things. Why
did these things happen? Why did this happen? Why did
this happen? Because He pleased Him. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. Well, I can't figure out why
that happened, so what? He's done as he will in the army
of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. I don't have any right to question
him, Carl. He's done right, does all things
well. Everything that has ever come
to pass, everything, all things work together for good to them
that love God. to them who are of the call,
according to his purpose. God does that which he does on
purpose. This is not left to ham-scam. Halfway, maybe, luck, sort of. Rejoice in the Lord. You got
up this morning with a mind. Think aloud you. Come sit here. Rejoice! Don't worry about what's going
to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow may not even get here.
We may not be through with this message. This may be over right
now, right now, right now. That may be it. Rejoice! God's people rejoice in Him. It's life. resurrection, ascension, every
living thing. Rejoice, you that believe. Rejoice that you heard the gospel.
There is a time in your life, I'll
bet you, you can remember, you that believe, there is a time
in your life when you remember, I had never heard it. One day,
when it pleased Him, When he pleased Him, he crossed my path
with a preacher, somebody just honest, said what God said about
God, set forth just plainly, just simply, set him forth. And the Spirit of God was pleased
to bless that first time he heard it. gave me a hearing ear." Rejoice! You that believe, you're blessed
people, rejoice that you heard that God set you free, free in
Christ. He is your hope, our hope of
glory, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Rejoice the Lord Jesus
Christ said that your name is written in heaven. those that rejoice in the Lord.
You know, Scripture says rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. What is that? What is that to
rejoice in the Lord? You know, I can't. I know. I've seen these programs. You
do, too. You know, someone might say,
you know, rejoice in the Lord. And somehow people get in their
mind that's something outward. Rejoice in the Lord. It's either
clap, you know, or as I've said before, rejoice in the Lord or
worship the Lord. Somehow you think if you close
your eyes and put your head back a little bit. That's the position,
I guess, you know, or raise your hands or something, you know.
Let me tell you something. Psalm 511 says, But let all those
that put their trust in Thee, rejoice. I've sat here for about 10, 15
minutes already. And outwardly, I'm looking at
people's faces. I see them, and basically, you
blink every once in a while, and I see you. I see those movements.
You know, your eyes move, your head moves just a little bit
every once in a while. But inside, in heart, That's
where a believer rejoices inside. They hear that. And the fire
of His grace, flamed by His grace, burns. You muse upon that. You think on that. You think
on Him. You think back. And the Spirit
of God just takes it, blesses that word. Rejoice in heart. God's people, they don't rejoice
in false religion and empty phrases Vain janglings. They rejoice
in their heart, in the Lord, in their mind. They think on
Him. They rejoice in Him. The Spirit
of God communes with them. They with Him. He teaches them.
He teaches them of Christ. Rejoice that He keeps them. He keeps them from themselves.
Aren't you glad that He kept you? He delivered you from yourself. Oh, wretched man, wretched man
that I am. Rejoice in the Lord, in the power
of sin, that if left unchecked, if it is left the way it is by
nature, God has one thing He can do. you workers of iniquity, I never,
I never, I never knew you, never rejoiced in you, never found
favor with you in my son, never. Paul says to write the same things
to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous,
but for you it's safe to write the same things. Paul said in
1 Corinthians 2, 2, I determined not to know anything. I had no
intention, what he said. Among you saved Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Jesus
Christ. And Him crucified, the propitiation. Determined, he said, I write
the same things to you. To me, he said, indeed, it's
not grievous, it's not tiresome. I'm not tired of saying this. Don't go grieving at all. I've said the same thing over
and over and over. It's not grievous for me. There's
safety for the sheep in hearing that gospel, hearing of Christ,
hearing of Him. It's safety for you. Oh, how forgetful we are. We
hear it, and we need to hear it. We need to hear it. These truths must be fixed afresh
in our memory. Oh, with more hearing comes more hearing. More hearing
keeps our thoughts on Him, guards our minds. The Spirit of God
is pleased to bless this. Paul says it is safe for you. It is not a grievous thing. It
is not an unpleasant thing. It is not unpleasant to me to
preach to you. It is necessary. The Spirit of God is pleased
to keep us from deception, to hear it afresh. You grow weary of hearing this.
Do you grow weary of hearing the message of Christ again and
again and again? No. It makes a man more cautious. It
is a confirmation. Beware of dogs, he said, evil workers of consensual. Beware
of these barkers of blasphemy. against God. Beware of dogs.
You know the thing that's always amazed me? I go over to someone's
house, and if I'm not familiar, say they got a dog, a big dog,
a big, big dog. And here he comes. They say,
he won't bite. I say, well, he may not bite
you. He don't know me. I'm just not very, I'm just,
I'm a watch. I'm going to keep my eye on them. It's right over
here. I'm going to be real careful. If I'm walking, you know, it
may just look like I need a stick, you know, to help me walk, but
I just in case. Beware of dogs. Those who impose,
that's what they are, spiritual dogs, impose works, ceremony,
methods, laws as being necessary. for salvation or the maintenance
of a righteous standing before God. Beware of dogs, those that
return their own vomit. They eat that which they have
regurgitated and love it, that which they have produced. Isaiah
56.10 says that dumb dogs can't bark, have nothing to say. useless,
no service, no warning of judgment. Beware of dogs. They snarl at
sound doctrine. They hear something's true, and
they say, that's not right. That's crazy. That's not fair. Beware. Bite those that preach
the truth with words of reproach and scandal. The man stands up
and faithfully sets forth the gospel of free grace in Christ. Give him a chance, he'll bite
him. Try to bring down his character. Talk about how, you know, it's
all some beaten path. But evil workers, beware. Evil workers. They do work. They're
evil workers. They work evil, misleading the
people. Workers of iniquity, that's what
the Lord said. Beware of them. They handle the
Word of God deceitfully, and they use it, threaten with it. Rest, they rest the W-R-E-S-T,
the Word of God. Try to make it say something,
to make it fit. their message of salvation by
works. Beware, Paul said, these dogs
and evil workers, those that are unfaithful to the true and
living God, by trying to establish and preach a message, telling
people that you establish your own righteousness by your own
will, by your own free will. That's what they say. You've
got the right to choose. God wants to do something. If
you let Him, if you'll just let Him, He's done all He can do.
Man, I hear that just great. They've got pretensions of teaching
good works to sheep. Scripture says they're wolves.
Sheep's clothing. Oh, but they mean so well, they
say. Look how kind they are. They
just have a little different approach, that's all. They're
wolves. They will eat you up. They devour widows' houses. They're wolves. running packs,
beware, beware, horses, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. I read something that Spurgeon
read one time, or wrote one time. He said, if you sit under a man,
first time you sit under a man, and that man is preaching of salvation
by your will, by your works, by your choice. First time you
heard him, shame on him. If you go back and sit there
again, shame on you. Shame on you. Oh, yeah, but see,
I grew up in that church. My mom and daddy went to that
church. That's brother so-and-so. I know he just, you know, but
now he, now wait a minute, now he's a good old fella. You know,
I know he don't preach exactly what you, and I know that he
believes in free will. I'm saying, you beware of him. He's lying. He's lying on God. And he's lying to you. Beware, beware, beware. Beware of dogs, evil workers,
evil workers. They lay burdens on men that
they don't keep and they can't keep. Nobody else can keep. Beware
of the concision. Men of the circumcision, they
call themselves. Circumcisers. Those who mutilate
the flesh for sanctifying purposes. Circumcision. They consider themselves
to be of the circumcision. Children. Paul says they're the
concision. They're mutilators. That's what
that word means. Mutilators. They attempt to make cuttings,
works among the church of God. They're mutilators. They mutilate.
They wear out. Works religion. That's what it
is. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. Then Paul says, we are the circumcision. He said, we worship God, and
here are the three signs of a believer. We worship God in the Spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
we have no confidence in We are the circumcision. Circumcision was a sign of God's covenant. Abraham says
this is a sign. Paul says we are the circumcision,
Jews inwardly, Jews of the heart. Circumcised in heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter of the law. whose praise is not
of men but of God." That physical circumcision was a sign. That
was a sign of God's covenant with His people. True circumcision
of the heart is what Paul is talking about. We are the circumcision. True circumcision is having the
heart. crypt laid open by the Spirit
of God, revealing Christ to be the sinner's hope. The circumcision of the flesh
was a painful mark. Circumcision of the heart, I'll
tell you this, is painful to the flesh. It's a permanent mark,
irresistible, irreversible. Romans 11 and 29 says, The calling
of God without repentance. We are the circumcision. To renounce
my own righteousness, to be totally insufficient to merit a right
and profitable standing before Almighty God, it is wrong. I can't. The circumcision. Who are they?
I tell you, they are made honest before Almighty God. They are
honest. to draw near to Him in heart,
and not merely in ceremony, in ritual, in empty form. It takes a new creature, a new
man, reborn, for a man to draw near to God in heart, because
without the rebirth, the new mind, the new heart, man has
nothing to draw near God with. No faith. No faith. All men have not faith. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. We are the circumcision. We rejoice in our completeness
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have no confidence whatsoever
in the flesh. How would you like to know right
now? Start right now. OK. The Lord brought you to this
point. Now, from now on, it's up to you. A believer says, shun that thought. Our salvation, our acceptance
before Almighty God is by grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. What are the marks of those that
truly are circumcised in heart? Paul says, here it is, number
one, in closing, we worship God in the Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking
to the woman at the well, He says the time comes and now is
for true worshipers to worship God in spirit and in truth. Now, I don't care. I don't care. Somebody says, You ought to care.
I don't care what a man says. He can have all of the hoopla
that he wants. all the signs and all the wonders
and things that are going on. Listen to what that man is saying. If that man is not setting forth
the gospel of Christ, free grace, sovereign, saving grace, sovereign
grace, salvation by grace. apart from any works on your
part to merit your standing before Almighty God. If that man is
not preaching sovereign saving, if he's not preaching Christ
and Him crucified, don't hear him. Don't you hear him? We worship God in spirit, worship
spiritually. opposite from external show,
as I said a while ago, heart worship. We worship in spirit
by the Spirit. Psalm 34, 18 says, The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saith it such as be
of a contrite, a crushed spirit by the Holy Ghost, guidance,
power, We worship God in spirit and
in truth, truthfully, according to truth, according to Scripture,
God's Word. That's the first thing. We worship
God in spirit. Secondly, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus or we glory in Him, make our boast in Him. Psalm 34, 2,
my soul. David said she'll make her boast
in the Lord. I take the grace of God to do
that. The humble, those made humble,
man by nature is proud, but those who have been brought down in
their own estimation of themselves, the humble, shall hear thereof
and be glad. God's people say it, and they
say, In Him, in Him I have life, in Him. in myself. I'm nobody. I must, that's what
John the Baptist said, I must, I must, I must decrease. Man by nature wants to be up
here. Check me out. This is what I've
got to say. A believer, that's what he says, I'm down. He must Boasting. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Boasting in Him ascribes all
to Him. Thirdly, we have no confidence
in the flesh. Now, you know someone, false religion, they'll say,
Oh, we worship God in spirit. Watch us. Watch us how spiritual
we are. That's what they'll say. Oh,
I agree with that. We worship God in the Spirit.
Look how spiritual we are. Oh, and then they'll say, Oh,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus. But you're going to find that
when the Scripture brings down marks of a belief or signs of
belief, read them all. Read all of them. Read all of
them. There's three of them here. Just
like last week, I was dealing with some things. I said, Most
of people will say on the first two, they say, Oh, that's us. That's us. Read everything. Don't leave
out anything. Search the Scriptures. Search
the Scriptures. When it comes down to this third
one right here, here again, this is where you're going to find
that most people will say, Now, wait a minute. I don't know. Paul says third one right here.
We have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence whatsoever,
no confidence in our carnal descent like the Pharisees did. Well,
we'd be Abraham's sons or Abraham's seed, Abraham's children. Like
old Saul of Tarsus, you know, he said, do you think you've
got something to glory Oh, sit down just a minute. Let me tell
you about myself. That's what he said. Born here,
this tribe, Pharisee, Hebrew of Hebrews. My mama was a Hebrew. My daddy was a Hebrew. Oh, I
was raised in church. I was in church every Sabbath
day. Touching the law, he said, now
listen to this, touching the law in his own estimation, blameless,
blameless. That rich young ruler comes to
the Lord Jesus Christ one day and he said, good master, why
do you call me good? None good but God. What must
I do to inherit eternal life? What sayeth the scriptures? The
Lord begins to tell him, oh, I've kept all of those from my
youth up. Paul says, all of those things
that I found all that confidence in. He said, you know what I consider
them now? Dung. Dung. He said, you want to talk
about those things? Let's talk about dung. He said,
that's filthy. Yeah. Yeah. No confidence in
the flesh. no confidence in my will, no
confidence in my ability to maintain myself. Paul says, where I began
this morning, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Him to
write the same things to you. To me is not grievous. Let me
remind you, as I hear it from myself, rejoice. Lord, thank you. Thank you. Lord, thank you for saving me.
Thank you for showing mercy to me. Lord, thank you for calling
me out of darkness. Thank you for bringing honor
to yourself, saving a sinner. Sinners. That's who he came to
save. Sinners. Paul said, whom I'm cheating. That's where you see yourself.
Needy. Tell you this, if you need Him
today, if you need Him, you do so. You need Him by God's grace. By God's grace. You didn't perceive
you need Him of yourself. Of yourself, you don't need anybody
but you. I can handle it. I can handle
this. We are what we are by the grace
of God.