Well, it's always a joy to be
here. When Scott contacted me, he looked
at a few things and to make sure we didn't have any other things
going on, and we didn't, so we're here. And I just always enjoy
it. It's home away from home in a
sense. So, glad to see you all remaining faithful. That's important. There may not be too many gathered,
but like old Donnie Bell said, if he's got one cow, he's still
got to feed it. So, if you've got a couple, you've got to feed
them. I apologize for bringing this up here, but I just got
this bulletin yesterday, down at my mom's, down at the lake,
and there's an article here by Spurgeon which I would like to
read. I think it's pretty pertinent. for us today. He says, nothing makes us so
glad as that Jesus Christ is a Savior. There's news in the
paper, says one. The news is often of small importance
to our hearts. I happened to hear, says Virgin,
that a poor servant girl had heard me preach the truth and
found Christ. And I must confess, I felt more
interest in that fact than all the rises and falls of Whigs
or Tories, which that would be their political system. And you
know, our political system is up for grabs. But he said he
found more interest in that fact that this servant girl had heard
the gospel and had been converted than in all the rise and fall
of Whigs or Tories. What does it matter who's in
Parliament so long as souls are saved? That is the main thing. If the kingdom of Christ grows,
all the other kingdoms are of small account. That is the one
kingdom for which we live and for which we would gladly die.
So, I just thought, he's not, Spurgeon, that's 1800s, 1850s
or whatever, and they had turmoil in Parliament, they had turmoil
going on too. But, that's okay. It's all according to his purpose.
Let's turn, if we would, to Philippians chapter 3 for our Bible lesson
or study today. Chapter 3. Now we've been going
through Philippians at our place over in Cape and Jackson for
a number of months now. And I would just highly challenge
or recommend reviewing the first two chapters. And don't just
read through them. Just go through them slowly and
just absorb, try to meditate what you can. And notice how
Paul's care for the Philippian church. But also notice how he
implores them to interact with one another. And not just this
church here in Nixa, but the church in Jackson. It's been
really good for us because it's really shown me some things personally. But Paul's care for the church
at Philippi is just amazing. The way he words things, his
depths of bowels of compassion for the brethren. The word one
mind and one accord pops up frequently. And if the Lord continues to
do a work here in this area, you're going to have to be and
you will be of one accord and one mind. Because as far as we
know, as far as I know, there's no other place where the Gospel
is being preached. And so this love and care one
for another and also for the gospel is of tremendous importance. Christ said, how are they going
to know who you are? They'll know you're my disciples
because you love one another. And I know we have differences
of opinions on politics and on finances and all these other
things. But when we come in and we gather in this place, whether
it's here or whether it's doesn't make a difference where the place
is, we gather here. That stuff gets set aside because you're
here for a greater good, and that is to hear the gospel and
to glorify Christ. So the unity of spirit is very
important. And Paul, he addresses this. But we're going to look at, get
into chapter 3, and we're just going to look at the first three
verses. He says, Finally, my brethren, he's writing to the
church, to the elect, Rejoice in the Lord to write the same
things To you, to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe to write the same things. And he's writing
about the gospel. He's writing about substitution.
To write the same things. He's not writing about in-time
things. He's not writing about superlapsarianism. If you want to look that up sometime,
figure out what that is. All these different things. He's
not talking about that stuff. He's talking about Christ in you,
the hope of glory. He's talking about talking about
grace in the heart. We have a good hope, says Paul,
through grace. That's what he's talking about.
So they're right. These same things to you, to me is not grievous,
but for you to say, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,
beware of concision. For we contrast, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ, Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh." Have no confidence in
the flesh. So, the first thing we look at
is the first one and the first thought. Brethren, be full. He says to be rejoiced. That
word literally could be cheer. Cheer. Or calming happiness. calming happiness. Paul uses
this word, or the root word, to rejoice, or to have joy, frequently
already in the first two chapters. He says, turn back with me to
chapter 1 and verse 18, he says, What then, notwithstanding every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and
I therein do rejoice, and will rejoice. So, what are we to rejoice
in? Paul rejoiced, and we should
rejoice as Paul rejoices when Christ is preached. Now, you've
had a number of preachers in. And to be honest with you, some
are more mature. Some are more elaborate. Some
are more detailed in their preaching. Some are more scholarly. And
some are more like me. You just kind of go. If Christ is preached, rejoice. Now, we all have our favorites
in the sense that we're human. That's part of the flesh. But
if Christ is preached, you've got to try to put aside this
frame and listen to what is being preached. Paul rejoiced when
Christ was preached. Verse 25. And having this confidence,
I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your
furtherance and joy of faith He was joyed. He rejoiced in
the fellowship He was hoping that the Lord would bring him
with to from prison. He's writing this in prison.
He's writing this in prison And he sends a papyrus This letter
to read to the church. So he's in jail. He's in bonds
and he's in stocks Is the best that we can tell through? Historical
accounts, he's in jail, he's in bonds, he's in stocks, but
he's writing this and he doesn't rejoice. Paul, you're in jail. And you've got your chain. He
rejoices in the gospel, the gospel is being preached, whether he's
preaching it or not, the gospel is being preached. God has people. He's going to save the people.
He rejoices in the fact that he may see them yet and fellowship. We ought to hold the fellowship
around Christ and His gospel very important. Thirdly, or nextly,
in chapter 2, verse 2. Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
one mind. There's a key that this theme
of one mind, one accord is in the first couple chapters frequently.
He rejoices in the fact that those who understand the gospel,
understand their sins, have been made aware of their insignificance
that we were talking about before service, that they all are like
mind. We don't come in with hidden
agendas. We don't come in and I want to do this and I want
to do that and we're going to make this work. We come in and
talk about transparency. That's the believer. He's transparent.
What you see is what you get. We're not trying to hide anything.
We're not trying to put a facade on. So we're rejoicing at the
fact that the gospel is being preached, whoever is preaching
it. We rejoice in the fact that we can fellowship together. And
thirdly, that we're of like mind, the church, the flock. And what
a privilege this is. What a privilege this is right
here, what we're doing this morning. Fellowshiping of one mind The same mind, same love, one
accord, one mind. Well, how can that be? Well,
there's only one Lord, one faith, one baptism. So if you believe
that, then you're one mind. That's what the work of the Holy
Spirit. He reveals the things of Christ. Not a Christ, the
Christ to us. And I know tapes are good, and
I know you stream. That's good. But it's like somebody
sent me an article last week, and you probably read it, and
if you get bulletins, But the analogy was this. This is this
was quoted, I think Henry made this comment back in the tape
days, the cassette tapes. Hearing the message is good,
but hearing it through tape is always good. But it's like talking
to you. It's like kissing your wife through
the phone. It's something that loses something in translation.
That's why. And, you know, you're to be commended
for having men to gather together and gathering together. and listening. But my prayer is that the Lord
would raise up, and I know that's your prayer, that He would bring
someone here to be the under-shepherd. That should be a desire. But
what a privilege to gather together one mind, one heart, one soul.
Verse 16, holding forth, He said, they held forth the Word of Life
that He may rejoice in the day of Christ and have not run in
vain, neither labored in vain. He rejoiced that the saints held
the Word of God in such high esteem. You show me a person
that does not highly esteem the Word, and I'll show you an unbeliever
or a religious person. When I was in high school, I
knew a family, and they had a family Bible. They just had one Bible, and
it was on the table. And it never got read. They didn't
highly esteem the word. That's the written word of God,
unerring, unerring word of God. So Paul rejoiced in the fact
that they held forth the word of life, held forth the word
of life. In verse 17, Yea, and if I be
offered, Paul says upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I
joy and rejoice with you all. He rejoiced in the fact that
he was counted worthy to suffer for the gospel. And there may
come a time in this country that that happens. But he rejoiced
in that. And in verse 28, he said, I sent
him, therefore, Epaphroditus more carefully, that when you
see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be less sorrowful.
So he rejoiced in the minister of the gospel. He talked about
he was going to send Timothy to him, and then he himself was
going to come, but then Epaphroditus. And so, We just rejoice that
the Lord has his ministers where he has them and that the gospel
is being proclaimed. And he also says that going back
to our text, finally, my brother rejoice in the Lord. There's
the key. This is our key, our one object of true happiness,
our one object of true joy. Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. We do have much. to be full of
cheer over, do we not? I mean, you know, my health in
the last, oh whatever, things affect you. My brother calls
it old goat disease. You know, it seems like it's
looking at me right in the face. And it's like, I wasn't worried
to look at you in the face for another couple of years. It happens.
We struggle. But I was reading something either
Phil Potter or Spurgeon said, it's beautiful, he goes, OK,
so let's say you got a good job, you got a good position, you
got titles, you got money, you got all these different things. Can that comfort a sorrowful
soul? Can these things comfort a sorrowful
soul? Can't do it. They can't do it. Can they encourage
you in the gospel? Can they encourage you in during
a stormy trial, a difficult season? How are you going to get through
that? Go to your money? It's all fleeting. Health? Fleeting. Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. That's where the believer finds
solace. The believer loves to snuggle
next to Christ. We do have much to be full of
cheer over. Not riches, fame, position, titles, or even health.
All these are fleeting. But we can also expand on this
text. Finally, my brother rejoiced
in the Lord. We can rejoice also in the fact of who he is, just
his name, Emmanuel. We can rejoice in the fact of
what he's done. Matthew 121, he came, his name
is Jesus. He's going to save his people
from the sins. He's going to, he shall, not maybe. We can rejoice
for whom he did it. Romans 9, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. He did it for a specific people.
We can rejoice in the fact that He's revealed to us this glorious
mystery. God incarnate in the flesh. God
became man and redeemed. We used to talk about the three
R's. Joel May, you may remember this. The three R's. Ruin by
the fall, redemption by blood, and regeneration by the Spirit.
Three R's. We rejoice in the fact that we
even understand that He who he is and what he's done, where
he's at. The second part of this verse, finally my brother rejoiced
to write the same things. To write the same things. And
I can't, I can't overemphasize this point. To write the same
things. Paul was a brilliant man, humanly
speaking. He was I studied under the feet
of Gamaliel and all these different things. But he said, those things
I count, I count them for loss. Because the world... You know,
when you go to... I've gone to some of these...
I've had to go to some of these speakers through work and different
things, where they have a keynote speaker or somebody, and they
always start the same way. They tell what their credentials
are. And you're like, wow! If I want to be... like him,
then that's what I want to be. Paul, he could have done that.
And when he felt constrained to do that because his ministry
was under attack, but he always kept saying, I speak like a fool.
I don't like doing this. Try the stock of Benjamin, the
eighth day, etc., etc. But he said, I count it lost.
So Paul says to write the same things. To strip it all away. and just have Christ in his gospel,
the gospel substitution. To write these same things, the
gospel of God's grace in the person and worth of Jesus Christ,
this truth, the substitutionary accomplishments of the Son, it's
styled in the scripture as the everlasting gospel. The everlasting
gospel, it endures. It is always relevant for us. to write the same things to you. It's relevant. I don't care if
it's 2017. They're trying to come up with
different interpretations of the Bible. There's like one that
just really makes me obnoxious. I think it's called the Good
News Bible. You know, they got, they got, it's not even, it's
not accurate. I believe that somebody had a
copy and I got to look at it. It's like, well, this is horrible.
omitting verses, stuff like that. This book is the only thing,
really, the only thing that is relevant in any age, in any time,
in any season. You're high one day, go read
David how he rejoiced. You're not so high the next day,
you're bummed out. Read of the struggles of the
saints. It's always relevant. And why did I say that? Because
I'm just going through Philippians, and the Lord reveals something
to me I've never seen before. How many times have I read over
this? It's relevant for each and every day. Every day. This is one way also that the
Holy Spirit teaches His dear children is by repetitive lessons
over and over again. Don't we sing that song, Tell
Me the Old Story? Why do you want to hear it? Why
do you want to hear it? It's what they call didactic.
I believe the word is, and it means methodical, edifying, and
instructive teaching. That's what Paul did. Didactic
teaching. It's a loop. It just keeps coming
back to Christ. Who is your strength? Who is
your hope? Who is your peace? You got troubles
at work? You'll find how Christ dealt
with that. You have trouble with your marriage? You'll find that
there. It's anything. Any situation. Any issue. You have, no matter how current
it is. Well, they didn't deal with this. They didn't deal with
modern... It's called communication. You don't think Paul, he got
slandered. There was nothing about social
media. He was getting slandered all the time because he preached
the gospel. I've been listening to these
tapes, not tapes, online. Hillsdale College. It's American
heritage series, how American was founded. And it's from a
conservative. That's actually the truth. They
keep going back to primary documents, not what these primary documents
say. They go back to the primary documents. It's free. I'd recommend
listen to it. But I'm on the Great Awakening
and the Enlightenment, George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin.
George Whitefield was used of God, was a gospel preacher, And
but I thought this country was founded on Christianity. OK,
hold on, hold that thought. How come when George Whitfield
went everywhere to all the colonies, there's the link. The colonies
were all separate. And he was the first one to go
on evangelist admission because he didn't care whether they served
the king or where they served their own interests. He was interested
in that. They know Christ. How come he was so hated? Because
he was preaching the gospel. And the Puritan, William Penn,
we don't like that. And it went on and on. But my
point is that to write the same things, to me, indeed is not
grievous, but for you it is safe. It's not grievous. That word
grievous means it's irksome, tedious, or tiresome. So to Paul,
it wasn't tiresome to just keep writing, keep coming, preaching.
See how their affairs went. And he said, for you, it is safe.
That is, it means that the expanded definition is it will not fail.
It will. It's certain. It's sure. Now,
this is both true for the speaker and the listener. For me to study
and prepare. The same message over and over
in a different text. Is safe for me and it's not grievous
for me. And woe me if it becomes that. For you, it's no difference.
We're going to go today, we're going to hear Christ rejoice
in the Lord, I say. So, it doesn't make any difference
if you're a speaker or if you're a listener. The key, I think,
is to remain faithful to that message, to coming and gathering
together. Well, how do you do that? Well,
I don't know. You just go back to chapter one in verse six,
being confident of this very thing that he which began a good
work in you will perform it under the day of Christ Jesus. So it's
not really up to you. But the believer has the desire
to do what Christ bids him. He desires to obey him because
he loves Christ. So remain faithful. It's Paul
says in another place, it's your reasonable service. It's just
to remain faithful, to keep coming, keep coming back and back. The
gospel teaching and instruction, the same thing. Paul knew that
it brought salvation. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
the word of God. He also knew that it was used
of God, the means of grace for growth and grace. And thirdly,
We're made more like Christ. Somebody said, Donny Bell of
Darwin, one of these guys said, it's like you watch somebody's
whittling, and he's got us a stick. And then you come back a week
later and it's got a little bit of... something's going on there. Kind of like what they're trying
to do with Crazy Horse, but that's going to be two or three hundred
years before they get that thing. It still looks the same. But when the guy gets done, You can
tell what he's working on. There's a guy at Tim James' church.
He was a professional sculptor. And Tim's got this canoe. It's
about this big. It's got like four or five Indians. It's got headdresses. And you
can see the veins on the headdress. He said it was worth several
thousand dollars. We are being made, and I know it doesn't look
like it a lot of times, but we are being made like Christ. And
He uses the same thing. Same thing. Nothing new. Nothing
new. Not this and something else.
The Word of God. The Word of God is beautiful. That's why it's safe. It's not
grievous. So then he goes and he describes,
he uses three terms to describe the same people. Beware of dogs,
evil workers and concision. Now, we know these folks. They
are false preachers, false teachers, people who rest the scriptures
to their own destruction. But he uses three different terms
to describe the same people, dogs, because after when you
listen to these people, they always return to their vomit.
They're always returned to them. to their own bodies, what Paul
says. They're evil workers. They don't have there's no there's
no offense to the message. They they want to tickle people's
ears. They want to tell them God loves
them. You know, this they all these things that you can't find
in the scriptures. They tickle people's ears. But thirdly, this
this word concision, I've looked this up the Greek. It literally
means to mutilate. And if you ever heard I'm as
serious as I can be. When you hear something that's
not true, don't sugarcoat it, it is a mutilation of the Word
of God. And it is fit to be tossed. They
mutilate the truth. Judaism, law, works. I don't care how close it is. It is a mutilation. of the truth. Now, on the contrast, only by
the grace of God who makes us to differ. We don't do anything.
We're not any more intelligent than other folks. But, it says,
for we are the circumcision. One which worship God in the
spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. We are the circumcision. As in,
Colossians chapter 2, turn there. As in Colossians chapter 2, verse
10 and 11. And you are complete in Him,
which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also you are
circumcised with circumcision made without hands, and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. Circumcision of the heart. I made a comment to our folks
Yeah, I'm not even going to go there. We'll just look at the
next one. When he's talking about circumcision
in the New Testament, he's talking about circumcision of the heart.
In the Old Testament, he talked about circumcision. There's the
foreskin. I'll be honest with you, I have
no idea how or why, and I've read a lot of Presbyterian writers,
how they can connect this to baptism, or what they call baptism. I wasn't going to say anything,
but I just throw that in. I cannot, for the life of me,
see it. So I apologize for getting a
little dig in there. For we are the circumcision. We are
the circumcision. We are the circumcision which
worship God. That word worship means to do
homage or reverence. I had a guy call me one time,
he says, oh, so you're a rev. He's a black guy. He says, oh,
so you're a rev. I said, what do you mean? He goes, oh, you're
a reverend. I said, no, don't call me that. I said, it's only
used one time in the whole Bible and it's referring to God, referring
to Christ. I said, I'm not. I said, I'm
no black. I'm Drew. They go, look, is this what He
called me that? I say, don't you do that. And if I see a priest,
I'm not going to call him Father. I'll call him Steve, Joe, or
whatever. If I even call him that. We worship
God in the Spirit and rejoice. There's that word again. Rejoice.
Rejoice. Now, this is a different word
than the one used in the first verse. It's to boast our glory. Okay? We reverence God in the
Spirit and boast. Glory. He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. This is so consistent. And be
honest with you, I think these consistencies in the scriptures,
like I was saying, that harmony, I think it proves the inspired
word of God. Man, we're not that smart. There's
no way you get so many, 66 writers, whatever, how many writers and
writing about the same thing in type and picture? There's
no way. And I know the old the old writers used to say that
that to them, that was surefire proof that this book was inspired
because man can't do it. He wouldn't do it. He tried to
get a little glory in here, but he's always Glory boasts in Christ,
in Christ. Not we don't have any confidence,
no confidence, that means no relying or I like this expanded
definition, not persuaded. We're not persuaded. If anything
in the flesh, you know, when you reason with somebody, try
to persuade them when you hear somebody, you talk to somebody
at work about the gospel or a friend or family member or neighbor.
And they start telling you, and you're sitting there going, I'm
not... I got no confidence. You're not
persuading me. You're not persuading me. What was it? Here I stand, I can do no other.
Was it Luther? Somebody said that. Here I stand, I can do
no other. Oh, Joshua? That's for me and my house? We're
going to serve the Lord. We're running a race. And we've
got to finish that race. And we've got plenty of stuff
interfering and trying tugging us here and tugging us there.
That's why I recommended going back and looking at the first
two chapters when you get time. It's so important to gather together
and do what you're doing, however you're going to do it. And just
wait on the Lord. Just keep petitioning Him. Ask Him. There's grace. Hear the same thing over and
over and over again. Because He's going to use it
to grow you. We don't put any confidence in the flesh as opposed
to the Spirit. We don't trust in our mind or
rely upon the sinful flesh. Ours or anyone else's. Now that's
preachers too. And grace preachers. We've got
flesh. We've got flesh. That's why, to be honest with
you, I enjoy coming over here I love you all, but I come over
here, I go. I can leave. I come here, I have
a responsibility. And that is to love you all,
and you're all more and more precious every time I come and
when I see you. I have a responsibility to remain
faithful, to preach the gospel. And if we want to talk afterwards,
if you've got something bothering you, that's fine. I can put no confidence in the
flesh. I can just tell you. I can go home. Now, if the person the Lord calls,
I like to say, they're all in. They're all in. Now, they're
not the elders that peep. We're not talking that. We're
that balance. When we first got out of our
mess, we went to a couple conferences. We were amazed. The people gathered
together and it was great. Donny Bell's conference. The
first ten years in a row. And then we would stay with a
couple. And we'd say, well, how so-and-so? They'd go, I don't
know. What? What do you mean you don't know?
Well, I heard they're doing pretty well. But they didn't know the
intricacies of their life. It's like, wow, that's a lot
different than what we had been... nonsense that we had. You're looking out the window
to see if the preacher or the elders out there are looking
at you. No, no. However, there's that balance
to where all I can say is Paul is willing to be spent and spend. And he says back in chapter 1,
I'm going to strike the twigs of two having desired the part
and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to
abide in the flesh is more needful for you. That right there. More needful for you. for the
group, whatever the group has to be passionate over there.
But man, to be with Christ, that's far better. But we don't put
any confidence, we don't rely, we're not persuaded in the flesh. And that's our own flesh or anyone
else's. I may have told you this, I don't
remember how many But confidence in flesh, it's not going to get
you anywhere. There's a story, I don't know who told it, an
old writer. And there was an artisan who made crosses, crucifixes
for the Catholic Church over in Rome. He was a number one
master, a master craftsman in wood. And he was on his deathbed. And a priest was there. looking up, and he was in bad
shape, and the priest said, Here, kiss this thing. And he didn't
understand the Gospel, but he had enough sense, so he goes,
Why do I want to kiss that? I made it. That's right. That's right. If
it's anything of our own hands, of our own doing, it's going
to look like us. That's why I told you that story
about Spurgeon. He's walking the streets of England
going to church, and he meets this drunk In addition, the drunk
says, Hey, I'm one of your converts. And he looked at him and said,
Yeah, you look like one. You're not one of the Lord. You know, because we've
got enough flesh. And Scott Richardson told me
this, I'll never forget. He says, Don't imitate me. He said, Don't imitate Henry
or anybody else. He says, Because what you'll
do is you'll imitate our weaknesses. And Paul says, In so much as
I follow Christ, follow me. And that's right. But it's so
hard to do. But anyway, we are truly weak.
Weak indeed. The main thing is when Christ
died, did he die for you? Did he die for you? That's the
personal question. And we rejoice in the Lord. So, if you keep having me come
over, I'm just going to keep saying the same thing in a different
text. But that's okay. Because it's
safe for me, safe for you. It's not irksome to me. And I
can tell it's not irksome to you.