Brethren, let's turn our Bibles
to Philippians chapter 3. Before we begin, I wanted to
tell you about something that I'm encouraged by. When I was
at home in Arkansas, I got a call from a brother that I had met
some time ago, years ago, in Danville, named Joseph. He's from the Philippines. There's a church there in the
southern region of the Philippines that the pastor, they've been
together for probably 10 years, and the pastor a few years ago
several years ago began to listen to Brother Don and Brother Henry.
Brother Joseph asked him to and would talk to him about God's
sovereign grace and the Lord gave him the heart to rejoice
in the message and so about a year ago they broke from the group of churches they were in
and so they're independent now and they were asking for some
help, some guidance, not financial help. They made that clear. They just wanted some help, just some guidance,
and particularly the pastor. So I sent them a video last night,
9.30 last night, 9 or 9.30, that was
their Sunday morning, so they were celebrating their one year
anniversary of being independent. And then they sent me some videos
and they had a dinner, a lunch after, just like we do, and had
a suckling pig that looked really good. And so I'm encouraged by that. I'm hoping, Lord willing, that
maybe I get to go over there and preach the gospel to them. Joseph is in the States right
now, and I'm supposed to preach at the end of September in Danville,
and so he's going to try his best to get there so we can see
each other in person and visit some more, but that was very
encouraging to me. Be in prayer for them and for
that, and we may try to set up something here at 9 or 9.30 on
a Saturday night, just so I can preach live for them. They asked if I could do that
maybe once a month, and I think it would be helpful for them.
So we may try to do something like that. All right, Philippians
chapter 3. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray, Lord, that you
would bless our hearts this morning. You're the only one that can
give us true worship, and we ask you, Lord, that you would,
that you'd speak effectually. We pray, Lord, you'd turn us
away from everything below. Make us see that you really are,
truly, right here in the midst of your people. and work in our
hearts, Lord. We ask it according to your promise,
according to your grace and mercy. In Christ's name, Amen. Philippians
3, and verse 1, Paul says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now there was many things they
could have been sorrowful about. There were some sorrowful things
happening at the time that Paul wrote this and said rejoice in
the Lord. They loved Paul. He was the first
one the Lord used to preach the gospel to them by which he saved
them. And Paul was in prison at this time. But listen to what
Paul wrote back there in Philippians 1 in verse 12. Paul wrote, But
I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which
happened unto me have fallen out unto the furtherance of the
gospel. And they always do. They always
do. so that my bonds in Christ are
manifest in all the palace. He got to preach the gospel in
Caesar's palace, and Christ saved some in that palace, and in all
other places. And many of the brethren in the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. So he says, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Paul told them about some preachers
who were preaching to add to his affliction. That would cause
sorrow. He said in Philippians 1.15,
he said, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and
some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention,
not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the
other of love, knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel.
What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. So he says, brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Epaphroditus was their pastor
that the Lord had provided for them. And he came to Paul where
he was in prison to give a gift that the church sent to Paul.
And when he was there, he got very sick and almost died. He heard that they knew he was
sick and almost died, and he was in heaviness because they
knew that. And Paul wrote in Philippians 2.27, he said, for
indeed he was sick nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him,
and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow
upon sorrow. I sent him, therefore, that more
carefully, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and
that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him, therefore, in the
Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, because for
the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his
life, to bring me the gift that you were unable to bring me."
And he said, so rejoice in the Lord. My brethren, rejoice in
the Lord. There's always things that could
cause us sorrow. That's just going to be the case
as long as we're in this body of dead. But knowing Christ is
in the midst of his people, and knowing it's God which worketh
in you both to will and do of his good pleasure, there's always
far more to rejoice in the Lord over than there is to be sorrowful
over. Look at Philippians 4.4. Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. And that word moderation doesn't
mean what we typically associate with it. It means let your patience
be known. Why? He said, because the Lord
is at hand. Be not, be careful for nothing. Don't be anxious. We're patient
in tribulation, anxious for nothing because we know the Lord's at
hand. But instead of being anxious and being cast here and there,
he says, but in everything, that means good, bad, joyful, sorrowful,
in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
thanking God for the good and the bad, for the joyful and the
sorrowful, because it's all for our good. He says, with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. That's that peace when you don't
know what God's working in providence, you can't understand that, but
there's a peace he gives you so that you don't have to understand
what he's doing in providence. You have a peace from God that
you know He's doing it and it'll be well. And so you rejoice in
the Lord. Now back in Philippians 3 and
verse 1, He said, To write the same things to you, to me indeed
it's not grievous, it's not tiresome, it never gets old, but for you
it's safe, it's needful. When you read Paul's epistles,
you find him writing the same gospel over and over and over. The more you study the scriptures,
the more you see Paul just had one message, and he repeats the
same things over and over and over in every letter to every
church. And it's not tiresome for his
people. for his preacher. It's safe for
his people. It's safe. Some of you might
think I've preached from this passage quite a few times. I
thought I had too. I've only preached from this
passage twice. I preached from it one time in
2010, and that was over in Pennsylvania. And I preached from it here once
in 2016. Now some other preachers have
preached from it, and I've referenced it a whole lot of time. I don't grow weary of preaching
the same message over and over from any passage of Scripture
because it's new, it's kept new by the Spirit of God and we need
to hear it. It's safe for us. One thing I've realized is you
preach a message and I've had brethren come up to me and say,
that's the first time I ever heard that. A certain point you
made or something you said, that's the first time I ever heard that.
And you repeat, you've said it over and over before. And that
lets you know it's safe to repeat the same things over and over.
Repetition is the key to the gospel. And I try to preach Christ
every message I preach. When I'm preparing to preach,
I have one message. Christ is salvation. And when
I'm preparing to preach, I think, what if there is some sinner
that shows up that only gets to hear the gospel one time?
or what if they listen to this somewhere down the road, it's
online and they hear it and they only listen to one message. Or
what if this is the last message a sinner ever gets to hear? I
want them to hear Christ is salvation. I want them to hear the gospel
in every message. And so I preach Christ in every
message. And those that are saved by Christ
never grow weary of hearing Christ preached. It never grows wearisome
to it. Not because of our flesh, but
because the Spirit of God keeps the gospel new in our heart.
That's why it doesn't get old. It's kept new by the Spirit of
God. Now, here's why it's safe for
us. It's to keep us from the greatest
sin and from the greatest danger we face, and that's will worship. He said there in verse 2, beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. This
is not three different enemies here. This is three descriptions
of one enemy, the same enemy. When you hear Paul call them
dogs and you call them evil workers, you might think these are immoral
sinners. But you'd be hard-pressed to
find outward sin in those he's speaking about, in these evil
workers. They appear holy and they appear
righteous outwardly. Their evil works are trusting
their morality. Their evil works are trusting
in their good deeds and teaching others there's more needed for
salvation than faith in Christ. That's the evil. That's the evil. He calls them dogs because they
turn from Christ like a dog turns again to his own vomit, scripture
said. He calls them the concision because
they cut the flesh. They believe sin is in things,
and they're always cutting things out, and they're cutting their
flesh, and they're encouraging others to cut things
out, and they'll cut cut others out if they don't measure up.
Christ said in that day of judgment, they'll argue that they should
be accepted because they did many wonderful works and cast
out devils. And the Lord Jesus said, he will
declare, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Without
simple faith in Christ and without trusting Christ alone for all
our salvation, all our holiness, all our righteousness, without
faith in Christ Jesus, Brethren, everything that we attempt to
add to Christ or anything that we take from Christ, whatever
it is we're doing, calling it righteousness, it does not equal
the righteousness of God. It does not equal the righteousness
God requires. That's iniquity. It's iniquity. It doesn't matter how good it
appears to men, it's iniquity. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. So beware of anybody that tries
to mix anything in addition or tell you anything is necessary
in addition to faith in Christ. Now in Philippians 3.3, Paul
gives a description of those Christ has sanctified and saved. And he says here, verse 3, this
is those Christ has sanctified, made truly holy and righteous,
And here's the description of all God's people right here.
We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We're
workers, call themselves the circumcision because something
they did, and you could put anything in the place of circumcision,
it's something they did. And so they don't worship God
in the spirit. Their worship is in outward things. They don't rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and they have confidence in their flesh. But the opposite
is true of God's people. We're the true circumcision,
who worship God in spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. We're the circumcision. We're
the circumcision. Circumcision typified the work
of the Holy Spirit that he does in the heart of his people. Let's
look over at Romans 2. This is the work that God does
in the heart of his people. That's why he gave outward circumcision. Abraham wasn't circumcised when
God worked this in his heart. God circumcised his heart. He
gave the outward sign as a token, a sign to remind Abraham of what
God had done for him in his heart. We don't have to have that now
because we have the Lord's table to remind us of his broken body
and shed blood. We have baptism which pictures
his death, burial, and resurrection. Those are the ordinances in the
church today. but we hear the gospel preach
declaring what he's done, and this is the work he works in
the heart. Romans 2, 28, he's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. The true Jew, the true Israel
of God, are God's elect, circumcised in heart from among natural Jew
and natural Gentile. but were made true Jews by this
work of God in the heart by the Spirit of God. And so these are
the three characteristics when God's worked that in our heart.
This will be the sheer result of Christ working this in the
heart. No doubt about it. This is the
result when Christ has circumcised the heart. First of all, we worship
God in the spirit. We worship God in the spirit.
True worship is in the new heart God's given. Bodily exercise
profits a little. You come to this place in your
body, you go through the form, outward form in the body, but
you can do all of that and never worship God. True worship is
of God in the heart and spirit. John 4.23, the Lord said, The
hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. True circumcision is not outward
in the flesh. And it's this inward work of
grace that he does whereby God gives us this new heart. Now
believers do good works. by the grace of God. But true
worship is in the spirit. It's not in our outward keeping
of the letter of the law, nor outward in our works. True worship
is in the heart. Romans 14, 17. The kingdom of
God is not meat and drink. It's not what you eat, drink,
don't eat, don't drink. It's not in ceremony. It's not
just the outward form. But here's what true worship
is. Righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. Righteousness in Christ, joy
in Christ, peace in Christ in the Holy Ghost because the Spirit
of God dwells in us and has made us to worship the Lord Jesus
alone. Now no man knows the motive of
the heart. That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
2. No man knows the motive of another
man's heart except a man telling. We don't know the spirit that's
in a man. We don't know the motive of the
heart. We can't judge a man's motive because only God knows
the heart. That's not our business to judge
another man's motive. That's God's work. One man could
fall outwardly, but in his heart, he truly worships God. He's a
true worshiper of God. Another may never fall, but his
heart is enmity against God, and he's doing everything he
does to try to make himself accepted of God. And you'd never know
that by the outward appearance. It's in the heart. It's in the
heart, and we don't know the hidden motive of the heart. When
Christ spoke of the Pharisees and the publican, the Pharisee
and the publican, you think about this. Both bodily went to the
house of God. Both bodily could be seen praying
to God. You could have seen both of these
men doing that. But what Christ was speaking
about, there was a little bit of difference in how they prayed
in their outward form. But what Christ is particularly
speaking about is what was going on in their heart. That Pharisee
was praying within himself, thanking God that he wasn't like other
people. He was looking down on others. And that Pharisee was. And the Pelican, being made to
know what a sinner he was, he was He was crying out to God,
needing mercy from the Lord Jesus to be his only righteousness.
So our praise in this thing of worshiping in the heart is not
of men, because men don't know. Men don't know. We're commended
of God. That's what Romans 2 means. Whose
praise is not of men, it's of God. God actually commends His
people who He's worked in because He's made us worship Him in spirit
and truth. You remember when the Lord Jesus
saw Nathanael and He said, this is an Israelite indeed in whom
is no guile. He had created a new heart in
Nathanael so that for the first time Nathanael confessed he was
a sinner. And he confessed that in truth,
that he was a sinner, that everything he ever did was sin, and everything
he did, his best deeds, was sin. And Christ was his only righteousness. And that's who God commendeth,
because God worked that. He said in 2 Corinthians 10,
17, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he
that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.
So that's the first thing. We worship our Lord in spirit,
in the heart. Now secondly, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We rejoice in Christ himself. The son of God came down and
took flesh. We rejoice that he came down
and made himself like unto his brethren. He came down himself
to be the head and substitute of his people. Our rejoicing
is that Christ is our wisdom. When you read of Christ and Him
walking through this earth, you see how He was so wise. He did
not let Himself become entangled by the Pharisees. He did not
let Himself be tempted by the devil. You see in Christ the
wisdom of how God could be just and how He could be the justifier
of His people. You seek Christ's wisdom to be
able to lead you and guide you in all things, and you rejoice
in Him that He has made wisdom to you. We rejoice in our Lord
Jesus Christ that He's our righteousness, and that's what faith believes.
Faith believes Christ is our only righteousness. God's given
you a heart to where you want to do that which is right in
the world. You want to be righteous in all
your dealings with men and all that you do. And God's people,
for the most part, are. But we can't look to that and
we can't trust that. God's made us to know Christ
is our only righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ alone is
our right. He justified us from all things
from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. That's what
Christ accomplished. He completely, thoroughly fulfilled
the law. He dotted every i and crossed
every t. And in him, his people did exactly
what he did. Then we went to that cross, and
in Christ we bore eternal justice. We bore the wrath of God. In
Christ we died, and our old man of sin was destroyed in Him.
Our sin nature is still with us, but by the Spirit of God,
by the preaching of the Word, Christ Jesus is able to do this
right here. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
10. I want you to see what He does
to His people. through this gospel, 2 Corinthians
10, and look at verse five. He cast down imaginations. You see that word imagination?
I believe it was Brother Tim James I heard say this. That
word imagination, you think about what your imagination is. It's
an image maker. That's what it is, it's an image
maker. And he casts down those imaginations. And it says, in
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. Now be sure to understand what
that means. This doesn't speak of our obedience. It speaks of us being brought
to submit to the obedience of Christ by whose obedience we're
made righteous. This is what he does through
faith. He brings you to believe on Christ and submit to him and
trust his obedience as having made you righteous. That's what
he's talking about. We rejoice in Christ that he's
our holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Christ formed in us is the holiness
of our new man. That's how we're made holy. He
perfected us forever by His one offering. We're sanctified through
the offering of Jesus Christ once for all time. And then Christ
entered in and made us holy in our heart by the Spirit of holiness. And it's His chastening hand,
His keeping us, partaking of His holiness. Look over at Hebrews
2. We're going to be here in our
second hour, but look at Hebrews 2 and look at verse 10. It became him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. He couldn't call you and me brethren
if he hadn't made us holy. And he's the one that made us
holy. And here's how he did it. He said, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children whom God hath given me. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes
to us and he preaches the word to us. And He shows us how He
trusted the Father, how He honored the Father, how He made us holy
by what He did, and how we were in Him, separated in Him by divine
election, separated in Him by His blood redemption, and now
separated in Him by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. And
he makes you see that you're one with Christ. He did the sanctifying,
and you're the one that's been sanctified, and you're one with
him. And he's not ashamed to call you brethren. That's only
by the holiness of our Lord Jesus. And when we and I turn back,
and we start looking to something we think we need to do to make
ourselves holy and righteous, that is sin, brethren. And the
only way you're going to be saved from that is Christ keeping you
partaking of His holiness by chastening you and turning you
back to Christ. We turn to sin and try to rebel
against Him, same thing, turns you back to Christ. But it's
Him that's keeping us partaking of His holiness. Let's go over
to Hebrews 10 and see that. Not Hebrews 10, Hebrews 12. Here
in Hebrews 12. He talks about God dealing with
you as sons when he chastens you, and he says, verse 10, our fathers for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our
profit, and here's the prophet, that we might be partakers of
his holiness. You see that? We don't have any.
in ourselves. We can't produce any in ourselves. He's made us partake of his holiness. Peter spoke of this when he said,
by the divine promises that he's given to us, he made us escape
the corruptions of the world through lust. He made us partaker
of the divine nature. He brought us into union and
communion with our Lord Jesus in whom we're holy, and He's
going to keep you looking to Him and trusting Him. Now, verse
11, when you chasten for the present, it's not joyful, it's
grievous, it's hard to bear, it's sorrowful, but just like
Paul started our text and said, Rejoice in the Lord, brethren.
And we have great reason to rejoice any time the Lord has worked
anything in our life to give us sorrow. And here's why. This
is what he's doing. He says, afterward it will yield
the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees, and make straight paths for your feet straight to Christ. That's where he began that chapter,
looking to the author and finish of our faith, lest any man fail
of the grace of God, lest a root of bitterness spring up and trouble
you and you be defiled. That's why he chastens his children,
is to turn us to Christ, to keep us running this race, looking
to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And so he says
to his child, when you've been chastened, rejoice that you've
been chastened. Rejoice. He won't let you be
condemned with this present evil world. He did it on purpose.
He did it to keep you partaking of Christ your holiness. So lift
up your hands, strengthen your feeble knees, and make straight
paths for your feet to Christ. And that word in the Old Testament
also means lift the hands up of your brethren. Help strengthen
their feeble knees. Help them get to Christ by speaking
this good word to them. Because that's what the Lord's
working through His chastening hands. So we rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We worship God in spirit. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus alone. His love knows no change. He's loved His own from the beginning
and loved us the same beginning to end. And He never wavers in
His love toward us. He never stops loving us. The
gift and calling of God are without repentance. He never takes back
His gifts from us. and He'll keep you trusting Him.
Lastly, we have no confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence
in the flesh. And this is how we don't have
confidence in our faith. When He made you to have a new
spirit, made you to rejoice in Christ, that's when you have
no confidence in the flesh anymore. True self-denial, true repentance
is right here. It's being turned from having
any confidence in anything about ourselves, about our own person,
or about our works, so that we trust Christ's person and Christ's
works. That's true self-denial. Listen
to what Paul says, verse 4. 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,
Hebrew of 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've suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dung that I might win Christ."
Somebody will say, oh, just look what he sacrificed. Paul said,
I hadn't lost a thing. He said, all that I was trusting
in that I lost is dung. He said, I didn't lose anything.
He was dumb. He never benefited me in the
beginning. I want to win Christ. I want to be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I might know Him and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being made
conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain to
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 I also am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things 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. And let us, therefore,
as many as be made perfect. You know what that means? As
many as be made perfect, as many as worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, that's
what he's talking about. As many as been made to do so,
let us be thus minded. And if you're in any way otherwise
minded, God shall reveal this to you. He didn't reveal it to
you in the first place. He will reveal this to you. Nevertheless,
where to we've already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
let us mind the same thing. Look at verse 20. For our conversation
is in heaven. Paul said in Colossians 3.1,
your life's in Christ at God's right hand. That's what he's
saying right here. Our citizenship's in heaven. From whence we also
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious
body according to the working whereby he's able even to do
all things to himself. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved, long for my joy and my crown. So stand fast in the
Lord, my dearly beloved. You get the message? He is saying
Christ is all. Listen to Colossians 2.8. Tell
me Paul didn't preach the same things over and over. Listen
to what he said in Colossians 2.8. Lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Be careful of that,
he said, because in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. All fullness and completion
means this, nothing has to be added. Nothing needs to be added. We have fullness of everything
God requires to receive us, brethren. everything. We are accepted in
the Beloved. That's the good news. That's
why we worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in our flesh. So, brethren, stand fast in the
Lord. Stand fast in the Lord. Look
to Christ. Set your affection on Him. Stand
fast in the Lord. And God will make his people
do that. He'll make his people do so. Let's go to him. Our great Father, our great God,
our everlasting last Adam, we thank you, Lord, that you've
accomplished this work, that you brought it to our heart,
made us new. Lord, keep us always rejoicing
in Christ. Don't let us put one ounce of
confidence in ourselves. We pray for our brethren that
are sick and troubled. And Lord, we pray that you would
work this in their heart. No matter what happens to these
bodies, they're going to die eventually. They're going back
to the dust. But Lord, we know this. You're
going to change the vile body in us. You're going to make it
perfect and complete, just like you have our new spirit. And
in that day, we'll be perfectly conformed to your image. Lord,
give us grace to stand in Christ. and give us grace to speak of
him and to encourage one another with this gospel. Lord, we have
great reason by your grace to rejoice in the Lord always. Thankful
that you're at hand. Help us always, Lord, to rejoice
in Christ. It's in his precious name we
ask it. Amen.