So Lord, may you graciously help
me. I turn your prayerful attention to a text you will find in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 9. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
9. This is the Apostle Paul's desire. Philippians 3 verse 9. And be
found in him, that is Christ, 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. Philippians 3 and verse 9. This morning we spoke of that
account where we had Simon the Pharisee and that woman who came
and anointed Jesus' feet. And we spoke of that need that
they both had of forgiveness, and they both needed mercy. And this evening, as the Lord
helps, I want to look at the Saul of Tarsus, who was a well-known
Pharisee. who obtained mercy. And if we
think in Saul of Tarsus was one who had
all the credentials you could have to be a bonafide Pharisee,
so that he could trust in that. That's what the Pharisees did,
they trusted in their own righteousness. And Paul had all those credentials
so he naturally could do that, Saul of Tarsus. And you see,
if you say something, well, if you've got all these credentials,
they're not worth much. If you've never possessed them,
it might be, you might say, well, you're just jealous because you've
never had them yourself. But Paul possessed them all and was
able to say that he knew them. He possessed them and they were
worthless. It's rather like Ecclesiastes
with Solomon. If you look in Ecclesiastes,
the refrain the whole time is vanity of vanities, all is vanity. He's saying the things of this
world are emptiness. Have you experienced them? Do
you actually know all the pleasures of this world? To be able to
say they're vanity. Well, Solomon, God gave him the
ability and the wisdom and the wealth to experience all, as
it were, the pleasures of this world. So he wasn't speaking
from a case of not knowing or jealous of other people that
had more than he had. He was the richest of all the
kings. He had everything he could want. And he was the one that
turned around and said, it's emptiness. It doesn't really
give satisfaction. And that's what the Ecclesiastes
is so full of. It's saying, it's emptiness,
emptiness. And it ends up with saying, the true fullness is
to know God. And if it's just under the sun
without relation to God, it's empty. It doesn't really satisfy. Well, in that way, as Solomon
was given that ability to search these things out in a natural
way, to the natural glories of this world, Saul of Tarsus was
given this opportunity, as it were, to go the full length of
what it was to have all the credentials so that he could be a self-righteous
Pharisee. And he was, for many years, a
self-righteous Pharisee. And he was against Christ. He hated Christ. Why did he hate
Christ? Because Christ was showing, the
preaching of Christ showed the need that the Pharisee's righteousness
was empty. It showed that it was not true
righteousness. And if you like, Paul thought,
well, we don't want this. It undermines our exhorted position
as these race of the Pharisees, as it were. And you see Paul
in this we have in this chapter that we read in Philippians,
he goes through the great things that he had, that he could glory
in. You see, he's talking to the
Philippians, and other people can say, well, we want to glory
in ourselves, in our own self-righteousness. And you see, this is not just
something that was true of the Pharisees 2,000 years ago and
doesn't affect us today. I mentioned in prayer, and I
think it's really important to recognize, there's something
of a Pharisee in all of us. There's something of thinking
that we're better than others. It's very deep-rooted. And it's
something that we've got to constantly fight against, as it were, lest
we be overcome with it. And Saul of Tarsus, you see,
he was self-righteous. And he says, for we are the circumcision
that worship, this is verse 3 of chapter 3, worship God in the
spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, though I might have also
confidence in the flesh. So he's saying basically I trusted
in my natural credentials before, before I came to know Christ,
I trusted in myself. And surely Think of your own
pathway. You children and young people,
is this you? Are you trusting in what you
are? And what you've not left yourself
to do as your friends at school have done or your colleagues
and other people you know have gone and drifted off into many
other things and you say, oh, well, we've not done that. Though
I might have also confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. So as it were, Paul had as good
as you could get, as Solomon had as good as you could get,
as far as knowing the riches and the glories of these things
here below. Circumcised the eighth day, the stock of Israel. He
was a true Israelite, not a proselyte. He hadn't come from the Gentiles. He was a true Born Israelite
of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews. I think
that means is both his mother and father were in there There
wasn't as it were into breeding from from other nations as touching
the law a Pharisee a very strict and and as we read that in the
when Paul was speaking to a gripper and defending himself he says
that and how that he was of the very strict of the Pharisees. In Acts 26
verse 5 he says, which if they would testify that after the
most strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And he knew
the benefits of that. He got a lot of esteem. People
looked up to him. People listened to him. He had
a good status. I think they were quite well
off, generally, the Pharisees. And they would be seen to be
very religious people and looked up to. In verse 6, he wasn't a lazy
Pharisee, if you like, concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
They saw that this idea of the Lord Jesus and that was undermining
their tradition. It was undermining their position. concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."
Now this is really important. That's the Ten Commandments and
all the other commandments that the Pharisees added to them.
In an outward sense, Saul of Tarsus could say that he had
kept them. Now clearly, what Paul says later
on in Romans, We know that the law is spiritual. Saul of Tarsus didn't realize
the spirituality of the law. Yes, he kept the outward commands
of the law. Thou shalt not commit adultery
and so forth. But Jesus expanded on them in the Sermon on the
Mount and said, it's not just the outward act. It's the thoughts. It's all the things that go behind
it. Just to say that you haven't killed somebody, that's not enough. It's to have, if you've hated
your brother without a cause, that's also a breaking of the
commandment. You see, the law is spiritual.
And Saul of Tarsus didn't realize that. He thought it was just
external. And if you can keep the external right. But you see,
the heart of it was our heart of knowing a relationship with
God. as touching the righteousness
which is in the law blameless." So there we are. We have, in
his opinion, we have a righteousness. We have a standing before God.
He could come to God and say, look, I've kept all these laws.
I'm somebody that needs commending. I come to God and I should be
commended to God and God should be very pleased with me. But
you see, When God opens his eyes and on
that Damascus road experience, God showed him that he was fighting
against God. He was an enemy of God. And he'd
gone the wrong way. And this is a very important
point to come to, that actually our righteousness is come short. And the Ten Commandments, you
see, Paul, and it's easy for us to think of this, the commandments
of God are some sort of ladder to climb to be approved of by
God and to get God's approval. But when Paul realized the spirituality
of the law, he realized that the law, it condemned, it condemned,
it condemned. Some years ago, I think it was,
I was speaking of the leper and the diagnosing of those that
had leprosy and the priest had to diagnose it. And if the person
had leprosy, they had to go around crying out, unclean, unclean. and stay outside the camp. And
that was the end of the law. That's what the law said. There
was a ceremony of cleansing, but that was when they were cleansed
to give the approval that it had really taken place. But it
didn't cleanse them. And therefore the law, according
to leprosy, if they obeyed it perfectly, they would always
cry unclean and they would always keep outside the camp. And that's
all the law can do. The law condemns sin. That's all it can do. And it's
a very important thing because it's saying what's right and
what's wrong. But the law can never bring us
to God. It can never make peace between
a sinner and a holy God. And you see, Saul of Tarsus didn't
realise that. He thought it commended him. And it gave him his righteousness,
the law. The law was important because
it gave him a righteousness, so he thought. But actually,
when God opens his eyes, it didn't give him a righteousness. It
gave him condemnation. Condemnation. Condemnation. Ah, now. Now Paul is looking
for a sacrifice. Now he's looking for one to stand
in his place because he's realized that he's undone. And that is
a vital thing to come to in the Christian experience, that we
are undone. That all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. It's really, really important
to realize that. The Lord needs to bring us there.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for
Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He's saying the knowledge
of Christ and one that kept the law and one that truly kept the
law in spirit, not just in outward performance, but in spirit. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Paul, you see, started to realise
that that's the righteousness, the only righteousness, the only
righteousness that would bring him in communion with God. what things were gained to me,
those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but lost for the excellency, the knowledge of my Lord, of
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things."
Paul was writing this from his prison cell in Rome, I understand. Paul had lost so much. He was
in prison because of his faith, but he doesn't, he doesn't renounce
what he's doing. He says, writing to Timothy,
he says, I'm ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I
have kept the faith, and now is laid before me a crown of
glory. Why? Because he was looking to
the righteousness of another. And this is the great central
theme of the Gospel. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ. And then we come
to our verse, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness. You see, this is the great point.
How can we be right with God? As a Pharisee, he was trusting
in himself. He had confidence in his own
righteousness, in his upbringing, in his circumcision, in his Jewish
background, the fact that he was from the tribe of Benjamin,
the fact that he'd kept the law outwardly. These were his credentials. These were the things that made
him, he thought, acceptable to God, but they didn't. He didn't
realize that the whole law is summed up in thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, and thy mind,
and thy neighbour as thyself. It was a spiritual thing, not
just outward commandments to keep. And be found in him not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. And this
is so important for all of us. All of us, as it were, would
love to attain our status, as it were, in heaven by our own
works, by our own achievements. It's natural to human beings. But Paul is saying, it's empty. I've had the best you can have
of it. and it will not satisfy, it will
not be acceptable to God. So we need to look for another
righteousness, sometimes referred to as an alien righteousness,
a righteousness that comes from outside of us. And it's the righteousness
that was wrought out by the Lord Jesus Christ, that robe of righteousness. And you see, Paul then became
one who embraced the Lord Jesus, who realised that this one who
came, suffered, bled and died at Calvary was his righteousness
and this is what he looked to. And you see he looked out of
himself then to the righteousness of another, and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law." Because
he realized that his own righteousness was not real righteousness. It
was not a right standing with God. The God's holy eyes, when
he looked at Saul's keeping of the law, it wasn't really perfect. It came short. Sin was mixed
with it all. And he says in, if you read in
Romans chapter 7, Paul spells it out, how that he realized
that he came short. In verse 7 of Romans 7, he says,
what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. The law has a good place. It
says what's right and what is wrong. And when there was leprosy
about and We've had that with the COVID and things like that.
There needs to be a separation between those that have it and
those that haven't, otherwise it spreads terribly. There needs
to be separation. That's what the law said, the
lepers need to be kept out. And there needs to be a separation
between those that are clean and those that are unclean. But separating the unclean and
leaving the lepers outside the camp never saved them, did it? It stopped the others getting
infected, but it didn't save those that were infected. And
that's why, you see, we need one who comes where the people
are and gives those people who have lost their standing with
God, and we all have because we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and gives them a righteousness Christ's
righteousness that they can be clothed with. See, there's a
two-way exchange with the things of God. The Lord Jesus takes
his people's sin. He hath made him, that's the
Lord Jesus, to be sin for us who knew no sin. So the holy,
harmless Son of God had put on him the sin of the entire church. That was put on Christ. And he
willingly took it. Here am I, send me. He willingly
took that sin. But in the 33 years or so that
he lived before that took place, before that time came when he
was ready to be offered, and the time came when he was ready
to suffer, bleed, and die, in those 33 years there was a righteousness
wrought out where Christ had kept the law perfectly. And he
then gives that to his people. And that's the righteousness
that Paul is speaking of and wanting. So as we look at that in the
verse, and be found in him, in Christ, not away from Christ,
in Christ, in the ark, in that place of safety, and be found
in him not having mine own righteousness. You see the Pharisee that we
looked at this morning, he looked down at others, you
see, because he thought he was better and he had more righteousness
than them. But it's a wonderful thing when
we come to realise that we have no righteousness of our own and
we need the righteousness of another. Where then is boasting
we read? It is excluded. It's excluded. There's no place for boasting
because it's God's righteousness and it's God's mercy that gives
us that righteousness. Otherwise we would never have
it. not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law." Working
out, obeying the law, trying to keep the law, we come short. And that's what the law, it says,
the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It's really
God has given us the law to show what holiness is. And he knows
that we're not going to keep it. He knows that we're unable
to keep it. But that's where he comes in
with those gospel words. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The law will never
give you rest. The law will do one thing, and
that is condemn, because that's all a law can do. In a sense,
it's a right use of the law, but it doesn't help us when we're
the wrong side of it. All it does is condemn. All it
says is to the lepers, keep out, keep out, unclean, unclean. And
that's where they stay the rest of their life until they die.
Unless there was a miracle performed and they were cleansed. which
of course the Lord Jesus did do that. He cleansed some of
the lepers and therefore they had to go to the priest or he
told them to go to the priest to demonstrate that they had
been cleansed. It was a miracle. It didn't normally happen. Normally
if you're a leper, you stayed a leper and you stayed outside
the camp for the rest of your life. The law, all it did was
separate. All it did was shut you out.
And that's all the law can do. But the gospel is that that satisfies
the law. Then we trust in one that has
kept the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is of God through faith. So we need that
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ to trust in him, to put our faith
in God. And this is the woman that we
spoke of, This morning Jesus ended by saying that about her
faith. You see we need faith to look
out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter
7 and verse 50 it says, And he said to the woman, Thy faith
hath saved thee. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
looking to his righteousness, realizing that he came short. That was what was so vital. He said to the woman, thy faith
hath saved thee. Go in peace. So we have here then, as we look
this morning of the Pharisee and how easily we can fall into
that way of thinking. And it doesn't mean it's right.
It's wrong way of thinking. But the Lord is able to save
Pharisees, able to save sinners that are on the streets, as it were, those
that are far off from God. The Lord is able to save. And
they're saved in that same way. Confessing that they cannot satisfy
the righteous requirements of God's law. They cannot satisfy
them. But that's what Jesus came to
do. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Like the
parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan came where that
poor half-dead man was. and poured in the oil and the
wine, set him on his own beast. And of course, the Lord Jesus
was called the Good Samaritan. He was called that one. Thou
art a Samaritan. They said it in ridicule against
him, but he was that one that came where the people are. And
even today you have that organization called the Samaritans. They go
and help people in need. And how this is what the Lord
Jesus did for his people. He helped them in their time
of need, in their time of trouble, in their time of distress. And
Saul tasks us this well-known Pharisee is explaining here to
us what he'd come through and how the Lord had broken into
his darkness, broken into his darkness. You see, we read in
one of the places in the Bible, For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face of
Jesus Christ. It's 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6,
I think it is. But the light shining out of
darkness, and that's what really happened to Saul of Tarsus on
that Damascus road. The light shined in, and the
light showed his own darkness. And as you know, he was blind
for several days after that time. In a sense, it made him... totally changed the whole way
he was thinking. He thought he did God's service.
He thought he was gaining salvation or gaining acceptance with God,
with despising the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. But God
showed him that no, he was actually fighting against God. It's interesting
how how he explains it here. In Acts 26 verse 15, it says,
he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. You might say, well, Saul of
Tarsus, Jesus had gone to glory. He wasn't persecuting Jesus.
He was persecuting his followers. Here you see Jesus associates
with his people. They're mine. The body, the head
is in heaven as it were, but the bodies behind them, they're
his. And so when Saul of Tarsus was
persecuting the brethren, the children of God, so they were
persecuting Christ. A connection you see between
the head and the body. And how he cares for his body. He cares for his people. I am
Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet,
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee
a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast
seen and those things in which I will appear unto thee." So
Paul was raised up as a well-known Pharisee. to be able to say that
all those righteousnesses, all those things, just in another
sense, as Solomon was raised up with all his glory to say
that this is not truly, true happiness cannot be found here.
Saul had all those religious credentials to make him, as it
were, the greatest in a religious sense. And he then said, no,
this does not give happiness. This is not true happiness. No, what we need is a righteousness
of another. And he then was able to show,
and was mightily used, of course, to so many people, to show the
beauty of the gospel and the need of the gospel. And of course,
as he writes to his own people, he's very, very concerned for
other, his fellow Jews, that they may come to a knowledge
of the truth. In Romans, as he writes, Romans
10 starts with this, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Paul had a real
concern for his people. He also was an apostle to the
Gentiles, but he also had a concern for his fellow Jews. He knew
how they thought. He knew how they trusted in their
own righteousness and he wanted to show them that this was nothing
to trust in. It would only leave them in rags
and ruins in the end. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, Saul of Tarsus did, but not according to knowledge. It's an ignorance as it were.
It says that in Romans 10 verse 3, for they being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. And this is really what Paul
is saying, that they don't understand the righteousness of God, they
don't understand the holiness of God, and they're going about
to establish their own righteousness, to build up their own credibility,
so people will think well of them, and so that God will be
pleased with them on their works. But you see, the woman that came
and anointed Jesus' feet, she wasn't concerned about her own
righteousness, she was thankful that the Lord had forgiven her.
The Lord had given her forgiveness. And that made love flow. She
loved the Saviour because of all that he had done for her. have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. They've despised the righteousness
of another. They've despised Christ's righteousness.
They don't want him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So Christ, as
we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope of gaining righteousness,
we turn aside, you see, from seeking righteousness from the
law. We turn aside from trusting in
our own righteousness for salvation. See, all the time we think that
our righteousness is quite reasonable and better than others and probably
quite acceptable to God. We keep going with that. We keep
trying to build up this own righteousness, but it's a wonderful mercy if
the Lord shows us that all these things will never get us to glory,
will never be truly righteous, never truly pleasing to God,
because we don't honor God in everything that we do. We come
short, and therefore we need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
They've not brought themselves, they've not come to see that
that's everything that they need. And so the Apostle Paul is saying
that. in this verse, and be found in
him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, not having mine own righteousness. I've turned my back on it. It's been costly. I spent my
life working out this righteousness and thinking that this was really
valuable. Now I've turned right round.
I've seen that all that self-righteousness is empty. It's glorying in self
rather than glorying in the one who deserves to be gloried in,
the one who truly kept the law, who truly brought us back to
God through the Red Sea of his own blood, and be found in him
not having mine own righteousness. How is it with you? Are you looking for the righteousness
of another? Do you realize that your righteousness
will never get you to glory? You need the righteousness of
another. You need the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord open your
eyes to see it. Paul describes it as being ignorant
of God's righteousness. May the Lord open blind eyes
and unstopped deaf ears to realize that there is a righteousness
in Christ, that he has wrought out that robe of righteousness
which is so suitable for the sinner, so suitable, and that
he is able to clothe us with that righteousness, to make us
accepted in the beloved, and to make us live to him, but that
which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. And Paul then goes on, that I
may know him. Paul desires to know more of
Christ. more of his holiness, more of
his love, this that I may know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable under his
death. This is Paul's desire, that he
wants to grow in grace, he wants to know more of Christ, he wants
to delight more in these things. He's renounced his own righteousness.
No confidence in the flesh. He had full confidence in the
flesh. He said it. He had more than anybody else,
he said. But he's had to turn aside from it. He had to declare
that it was, it didn't satisfy and it was not acceptable to
God. It came short. And therefore,
he then desires to live to the Lord. And that is, we need to
then live As that woman did, we spoke of this morning, as
she anointed Jesus' feet and showed her love, there was a
response, you see, of love to serve the Lord. Not to gain salvation,
but as a result of it. You see, we need to serve the
Lord out of what the Lord has done for us. We need to serve
him out of love. It's a kingdom of love. It's
not a kingdom of forced labour. It's a kingdom of all his people
are willing subjects. If they're real children of God,
they're willing. My people shall be willing. in the day of my power. And if
there's not a willingness in us, we need to question if we've
been rightly, as it were, have a right understanding, and that
we may be quickened again in the love of Christ to run in
the ways of his commandment. It is a delightful road. You
see, it's a response of love, what he has done for us. Perhaps
to illustrate this, some of you have heard this before, but I
have, Spoken of that account where there was this slave trade
going on and a slave market in the time of the gold rush and
there was They were having an auction And there was this English
man there that was traveling back and he was an honorable
man. But there were some other people
that were bidding for this slave girl, who was a very beautiful
slave girl. And these two auctioneers, or
the people, were bidding against one another. And they were laughing
to one another of all the immoral things that they would do with
this slave girl once she became theirs. And the Englishman thought,
well, this is totally wrong. And he said, I'll pay double
what these people are prepared to pay for this slave girl. Well,
he paid the money. And they said, well, nobody pays
that for a slave. But he said, I'm going to pay
it. So he bought the money. He paid the money. And he got
this girl to be his. He bought her. But his intention
was to buy her to set her free. She didn't understand it. So
she acted towards him as if He was only going to treat her unkindly
like her previous masters had. But anyway, he took her along
the road to the place where she could get all the documents sorted
out to set her free from her slavery. And when she started to realize
what was happening, she said, you mean to say, You've paid
double the money of a normal slave just to take me down the
road to liberate me from my slavery?" He said, yes. She said, well, I just want to
make one request of you. He said, what is it? She said,
I want to be your slave the rest of my life. You see, she wanted
to serve one that loved her. And in response to him, as it
were, setting her free from her slavery, she wanted to then serve
this new master, not in the old slavery sense, but out of love
to what he had done for her. And you see, that's really something
of what the lady this morning, who was anointing Jesus' feet,
she wanted to do everything she could out of love. to what he had done for her.
She realised that the debt that he had liberated from, she could
never have got that free herself. It was beyond what she could
ever pay. But he had freely done it and therefore As a hymn writer
said, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering
far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my life, my soul, my all. And if there's not that desire
to serve the Lord with freeness and fullness, then there's an
indication, as Jesus would say, that there's a lack of understanding
of the sin that has been forgiven. Well, may we be amongst those.
who do know the blessing of forgiveness of sins, trusting in the Lord's
righteousness and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness. That's what the Pharisees loved,
their own righteousness. And that's what we love by nature.
We want to be better than others. We want to pat ourselves on the
back for our holiness. But no, Paul couldn't do that. He had to be humble. Humble. A humble follower of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God. He had to humble himself. He
had to realize that he couldn't glory in himself now. He used
to. He could glory in all his credentials as a bona fides Pharisee. Now, he got something else to
glory in. And it's a wonderful thing if
we've got something better to glory in than our own sinful
selves. If all we've got to boast of
is our own selves, it's a sad, sad state, isn't it? Oh, that
we may be amongst those that boast of Him, that speak of Him. You see, we think of that text,
we preach not ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. And if a preacher, as it were,
if we're left to preach ourselves, it's empty. There's nothing to
glory in but when we preach Christ. Then you see there's something
worthy. There's something worthy in that
name. That's a name which is above every name and it's a name
which will be glorified forever and forever and forever. A song
that will not weary those sung continually. Worthy is the Lamb. That's a song that's going to
go on through all eternity. Worthy is the Lamb. Where then is boasting? Why do
we want our own righteousness? Why do we seek our own glory?
It's empty. Paul says, But what things were
gained to me by boasting of myself, those I counted loss for Christ,
yea, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and He had. 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, That which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that righteousness
that the Lord Jesus worked out.