If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, we'll
be looking at verses 9 through 12 this morning. Philippians chapter 3, verses
9 through 12, and the title of the message is, The Desire of
Faith. The Desire of Faith. What does faith desire? What does faith desire above
all things? I want us to see this morning
from this passage of Scripture. Let's read verse 9. And Paul
says, "...and to be found..." Let's go ahead and read verse
8. "...Yea, doubtless, I count all things for loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. For whom I suffer the
loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in Him, 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." I want us to see this morning
this matter of righteousness. I preached this morning already
on this matter of righteousness. But as I told you this morning,
I tell you again even now, the gospel cannot be preached without
understanding righteousness. You can't preach the gospel unless
you preach about righteousness. You can't have it. The gospel
is centered in this matter of righteousness. I want us to see,
first of all, how this righteousness of God that Paul talks about
here, how righteousness is made by faith. And how righteousness is given
by faith. Given by faith. And then we're
going to see what this faith that has righteousness, this
faith that has the righteousness of God, it desires something. Desires something. We're going
to see the desire of true faith. First of all, righteousness is
made by faith. That's what Paul says. He says,
not having mine own, what? Righteousness which is by the
law. But that righteousness which
is through the faith of Christ. Let us see first that righteousness
is made by faith, not our faith, but Christ's. Righteousness is
not made by our faith, but Christ's faith. Righteousness of God is not our
own righteousness, which is of the law, but through the faith
of Christ." Why was Paul so moved to abandon all of his earthly
righteousness? Now, if anybody in here could
even... None of us could compare the
Apostle Paul in physical righteousness. In the eyes of men, the Apostle
Paul was the most religious, the most zealous, and he says,
you couldn't look at me and blame me for anything. That's how righteous
I was in the eyes of men. God says, I exceeded in the Jews'
religion above all my peers. Nobody could compare to me. And
yet Paul says, I do count that but dung that I may win Christ. I count my righteousness as filthy
rags that I might have His righteousness, which is by His faith." Friends,
none of us by our striving could ever accomplish the righteousness
necessary to stand before God. You cannot. Go to Romans 3. Romans 3. If you ever are limited
on time, To preach the Gospel or witness the Gospel to anyone,
Romans 3 is the best place to go. It is the most concise picture
of the Gospel in all the Scriptures. Romans 3 and verse 20. It says,
therefore, because there is none righteous, no, not one, Paul
says, therefore, by the deeds of the law can no flesh be justified
in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is revealed, manifest, clear, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Here it is, even the righteousness
of God, how? Which is by the faithfulness,
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. Friends, God from eternity had
purpose to save you who believe. He determined on purpose to elect
a people for Himself. He in great love and compassion
would have a people come to Himself. But know this, God could not
have us if righteousness had not been given to us. In Hosea, God says to His people,
He says, I will betroth thee, I'll marry thee to Myself forever. How, God? How can you do that?
I will betroth thee in righteousness and judgment, and in lovingkindness
and mercy. You see, God cannot have lovingkindness
and mercy without justice and righteousness being satisfied.
Can't do it. Can't do it. Won't do it. He betrothed us from eternity
in righteousness. And so then, by His faithfulness,
by Jesus Christ, by Him coming to take upon Himself a man to
be in our nature, He came and humbled Himself to be a servant. Why? That He might provide a
righteousness. That He might make a righteousness. not only a righteousness, but
also that judgment and justice would be satisfied by His death. It's important for us to understand
this is the center of all salvation. Children, listen. If you have
not heard anything else, listen to this. Jesus Christ is all
your hope to stand before God. And you will. You'll stand before
God. Every one of us will. And if
you don't stand in righteousness, there's no hope for you. There's
no hope. He made a righteousness that
you can't make. You can't please God. You may
please your parents, you may please those around you, you
may act like you are good and everything, and everybody says,
oh, what a good person that is. God doesn't see it that way.
If you don't have perfect righteousness, you will not stand before God. Jesus Christ is the only one
who has satisfied God's justice and made a righteousness. If there's any righteousness
for the sons of men to find, it must be found only in Christ.
And God has spent over 5,000 years pointing men to His Son.
And even today, He is right now pointing you to Christ. I didn't
say believe some creed or doctrine. Don't give a cent to what I'm
saying. Believe Christ. See the person
of Christ. That's salvation. To know Him. To know Him. He is only righteousness. and
by His faith and obedience He made a righteousness." How then
is this righteousness obtained? Well, it's made by faith, His
faith in God, His faithfulness to God, but it's obtained by
our faith in Him. It's given only to those who
believe on Him. Paul says that this righteousness
of God is by faith. In other words, this righteousness
of God is manifest or given and revealed only to those who believe
on Him. I'll tell you this, you may know
every doctrine of Scripture. You may believe in election.
You can believe in election and go to hell. You can believe in
predestination and go to hell. You can believe even that faith
in Christ alone saves. You can believe that. But unless
you yourself have believed, there is no hope for you. It is a personal
thing. You must believe on Christ. It is the only way that the righteousness
of Christ is given. In other words, Paul says, I
count all this but loss, and he put all of his eggs in the
basket of Christ's righteousness. That's what it is. To put all
my soul, all of my eternal existence, all of my being in Christ by
faith. I rest on Him alone. Nothing else. And His righteousness is given
to me. I have the righteousness of Christ
in me. So that when I stand before God,
I'll stand before God righteous and be accepted. Friends, my faith did not add
one stitch to the robe of His righteousness. Not one. All faith
does is put on the robe of His righteousness. Faith is like
a starving man who takes a piece of bread and eats it. It's like
a thirsty man who takes water and drinks it. Do you think that
man would give any credit to his hand who received the bread? No. All his praise would be to
the man that gave it. Would you think the thirsty man
would give any attention to his hands that received the water
or his mouth that received the water? No. He would give thanks
for the water. And so I give thanks to God for
my salvation, although I must believe. I must believe. You must believe. There is no
other way. And when someone believes, It changed forever. When I believed, everything changed. My eyes began to see things they
have never seen before. My heart began to feel things
it never felt before. This world to me that I once
loved and admired became nothing but a heap of sin and shame. My religion counted nothing, and I counted it as nothing,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Do you believe
in Christ? Do you continually count this
world and its religion and your works and all your righteousness
as dung, that you may have His righteousness? I do. That's true faith, is to rest
in the person of Christ alone for all your standing before
God. And when this faith comes, This faith was made by Christ.
It was made by His righteousness, made by His blood. It was given
to us who believe on Him by faith. It is ours. He has given it to
us. And before the eyes of God, we
shall stand perfect. But this faith, when it comes,
it always has the desire. It has a desire. And friends,
you can confess to believe on Christ all you want to, but if
these things aren't in your heart, there's something wrong with
your faith. You know, anybody can say, I
believe, right? That's easy to say. But do you
really? I think maybe you should think
about that. It's your soul. I can't make
you believe or not. Wouldn't want to. Do you have
true faith? Well, let's see. What does Paul's
faith look like? What did Paul's faith desire?
It's the same thing my faith desires and the same thing your
faith should desire. First of all, he desired to be
found in Christ's righteousness until the end. He wasn't just
satisfied with one experience in life. He wasn't satisfied
with just one time turning to Christ. How many people come
to Christ and they make some profession of faith in Christ
at one time in their life and then run off, never to be seen
or heard from again? No. You see, my faith in Christ's
righteousness is not something that happened once. It happens
every day. It's happening now. It's happening now as I'm preaching
to you. I believe in Christ now. I trust Christ now. I long to
be found in His righteousness now, and I long to be found in
His righteousness when He comes again. That's what faith desires.
Faith desires nothing. of this flesh or this world.
It desires no glory for itself, only the glory that is in Christ. That's what true faith desires.
To be found daily, presently, and yes, eternally, dressed in
His righteousness alone. True faith in Christ is always
present faith. It's always faith now. It's always
faith now. And it desires only His righteousness. Number two, faith desires to
know Him and His resurrection. Look at our text. Look at our
text again. The Apostle Paul says this in
verse 10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. Let me ask you this. Do you not
think Paul knew Him? Did Paul know Jesus? The Scriptures
tell us that he revealed himself personally on the road to Damascus. The Scriptures tell us that he
spent three years in Arabia learning his gospel from Christ Himself
in person. Do you think he knew Him? Paul was ascended into the third
heaven where he heard things that are not lawful for him to
speak. Do you think he knew Him? Then why is it that Paul here
says, I desire to know Him? Because faith is never content
until we know Him as we are known. I am never content to know what
I know about Christ. I always desire to know Him more. more of His saving fullness to
see, more of His coming Prince of Peace. I desire to know His
person, His attributes, His character. I desire to know Him. How can
we know Him? Well, how did you know Him to begin with? You heard
the Gospel, didn't you? Wasn't it by the Gospel that
God ordained that salvation come? Wasn't it by the Gospel that
you heard of His person and began to know Him? Well, how are you
going to know Him? Only by the Gospel can we know
Him. This is the means that the Spirit
of God uses. The preaching of the Gospel. This world counts what we do.
Foolishness. They say, you do that, and that's
just foolish. You know, you're not going to
get anybody by preaching. You've got to do something to
entertain folks. I don't want to entertain you.
I'm not here to entertain you. I'm here to tell you what God
says. What God says matters and nothing else. And what God says,
He says about His Son. He says, this is My beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased. And that's what I do every Sunday,
every Wednesday. I've set Christ before you crucified every time
I preach. That's my desire, is that you
want to know Him. I have not yet fathomed the depths
of how He regenerated and resurrected my soul. I've not found the depths
of my depravity, and the depths of His grace I still can't fathom. But I long to, faith longs to,
it has a desire. to know Him. And friends, if
you don't have a desire to know Christ, you don't have a desire
for the preaching of the gospel, your faith is vain and empty.
It's empty. If you have no desire to know
Him, you have an empty faith. I want to know Him, and I want
to see Him. That's my goal in this life,
is so that I might know Him more. I love Him. I love Him. You know, if I told my wife I
love her, but I never wanted to spend any time with her, she'd
know right off the bat I didn't love her. I'll tell you this, you can say
you love Christ, but if you have no desire to spend time with
Him and His Word, what does that say about your faith? True faith Desires to know the
fellowship of His suffering. Look at that in verse 10 again.
To know Him and the power of His resurrection, to know the
fellowship of His sufferings. Friends, believers in Christ,
it is by faith we know His person and His sufferings were effectual
to us, don't we? By faith we see these things.
And it's by faith we see that His sufferings give us fellowship
with God. I have fellowship in His sufferings.
I have union with His sufferings. When He lived, I lived. When He died, I died. When He arose again, I arose
again in Him, and now He's seated on the throne, and guess where
I am? I'm seated on the throne with Him. I have fellowship in His suffering,
but you know, I don't know the fullness of that yet. I can't
really see that by faith as much as I want to. I want to know
that. I want to know how much I'm in
union with Christ. How much His righteousness is
mine. How much His death was my death. I want to know how
much His resurrection is my resurrection. I want to know the fellowship
of His sufferings and what interest I have in them. Don't you? I
do. Faith does. Oh man, there he
goes talking about the blood again. There's something wrong
with that. You don't want to hear about
that. There's something wrong with that kind of faith. If it doesn't desire to know
the fellowship of its sufferings, and how we're in union with Christ,
something's wrong with that kind of faith. 2 Corinthians 5.19, "...to wit,
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them." I want to know more about that, don't you? I want
to know more of how God was not willing to give my sins what
they deserved on me. I want to know why His grace
chose me over the multitudes of millions He passed by to get
me. Why? Oh, the grace of God to
reconcile me to Christ. I want to know about that. For
He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin." Friends,
I know that there are some very wonderful men that I love and
they seem to think they've got to the bottom of that, but I
just can't. I can't get my mind around that. That God would shut up my sins. It is son that I might live. I can't get over that. I can't
stop looking at it. I can't stop examining it. It's
all my passion. It's all my love. It's all my
desire. That's the desire of true faith,
is to know His sufferings. Number three, the true desire
of faith is to be conformed to His death. At the end of verse
10, Paul says, "...and be made conformable to His death." This
is speaking of a corporal sense. A corporal sense of death. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4,
verse 10, he says, "...always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus." In other words, Paul said, look,
I'm ready to die anytime He wants me to. That's what Paul said. True faith resigns its life and
death to the will of Christ. The Scripture says we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Oh, how that opposes the natural
flesh, doesn't it? To think more highly of ourselves
than just sheep counted for slaying. How highly the flesh thinks of
itself, and how arrogantly we think how much we're needed.
Oh, well, you know, if I died, what would my family do? Oh, what a great loss to this
world! Lord, if you were to take me
out, surely the whole world would stop turning if I was gone."
How highly and arrogantly we think of ourselves. Believer
in Christ, we by faith should resign our life and death to
the hands of Christ. Daily recognize that if God,
the Son who deserved all praise, all glory, if He suffered, should
not we be willing to suffer and die? Of course. Absolutely. True faith is ready to die. Are you ready to die? If you're not ready to die, you're
not living. If you're not ready to die, you're
not living. True faith desires to be found
in Christ. Jesus said, He that loveth his
life shall lose it. You want this life? Take it.
Go ahead. But you'll lose your soul. But we who would be found in
Christ, we say, Here, Lord. Here's my life. Take my life
and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee." That's what true faith
does. Number four, true faith is to
attain unto the final resurrection. Paul says in verse 11, he says,
"...if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead, not as though I already attained, either were already
perfect, but I follow after, that I may apprehend that which
I also am apprehended of Christ." Brethren, I count myself not
to have apprehended, but this one thing, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are
before. Friends, there is a coming resurrection. There is a coming resurrection. Paul said, I've not attained
to it. It hasn't come yet. Our resurrection has not come
yet. Our completion has not come yet. Has it? Paul said, I'm not
perfect. Let me ask you, believer, are
you perfect? Don't raise your hand. You're
not. I'll answer it for you. Because
I'm not, and we're not. We're not yet attained unto perfection,
have we? But we have been given an earnest,
a down payment, which is the Holy Spirit. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5,
5, he says, Now He that wrought in us the selfsame thing as God
has also given us the earnest of the Spirit. Friends, God wrought
salvation in our hearts and He has imputed and imparted His
righteousness to us. But because of the old nature,
we still have sin. So we've not yet attained to
the resurrection, which is perfection. We're not there yet. We have
perfection in our souls, but yet in this body it is not completely
perfect. And so we by faith, we by faith
long to be complete. We long for it. Paul says, I
want to apprehend. That word apprehend, I loved
that this week when I studied. It means to grab ahold of with
both hands and don't let go. It is tenaciously to grab on
to something and hang on as though your life depended on it. That's
what it means. Paul says, I want to apprehend. What Christ apprehended me for. To be complete. Why did Christ
save you? Why did Christ redeem you? So
that you could be perfect. So that you could be in His presence.
And Paul says, I want that. Do you want that? True faith
wants perfection. It wants and desires nothing
but righteousness. Do you have a struggle in your
heart with sin? One time I didn't. I didn't have
any struggle with sin at all. It was easy. Sin was wonderfully
easy. I loved it. It was all I longed
for. But when God saved me, There
began to be a war inside of my own heart, struggling against
each other, constantly battling, constantly opposing one another. Sin wanted it! My flesh wanted
sin! But my new spirit said, No! I want righteousness! And if
you don't have that, you don't have true faith. Your faith is
empty. If you can have a guiltless existence in
sin, you have no life in Christ. If a man live in adultery and
say, oh, I believe in grace, oh, I believe in grace. If a man can live in adultery
and say he believes in grace, I know this, he doesn't believe
in grace. That's easy. Easy to see. John said the righteous
will desire righteousness. The righteous will be righteous. Paul says, I know that I have
not attained perfection that God has promised at the resurrection,
but I follow after Christ that I may obtain it. He follows after
Christ how? By faith. By faith. Paul is saying that we who have
faith will continue by faith, following Christ in obedience
and mortifying the deeds of the body. and counting them constantly,
but dumb." Look back in your text. I want you to notice this
tense of the Apostle Paul. Look at this in verse 7. Paul says, "...but what things
were gained to me, those I..." What? "...counted." Now, I'm
not an English major, but that's past tense, isn't it? Something
that he did. He counted. He counted loss for
Christ. Yea, doubtless. Verse 8, I count. Now, is that not present tense?
Of course it is. He said, I counted my righteousness
lost. And guess what I'm doing today?
I'm counting it lost again today. Friends, if we do not mortify
the deeds of this body and the religion of this old man, he
will constantly raise his head demanding glory. It is a daily struggle that we
must mortify the deeds of this body that we might be found in
Christ. This is something that we do
not to make ourselves more holy before God. No, absolutely not. This is not something that we
do so that we may make God more pleased with us. This is something
we do out of obedience. Obedience. Didn't we see this
morning that that was reasonable? Is it not reasonable? I beseech
you therefore, brethren, because of the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto the Lord, which is your what? Reasonable service. Oh, friends, we continue to count
this old nature, this old body, this lust of the flesh, we continue
to cut it off daily because it's just reasonable for us to do
so. If any man will attain to the
physical resurrection, which is the completion of salvation,
if we truly believe, Friends, we'll cut off anything that would
hinder us from it. Go to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew
chapter 11. I struggled with this verse for
many years, but the Lord has since opened it to me and it's
been a wonderful blessing. Matthew chapter 11 and verse
12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force." In other words, the kingdom of
heaven comes by force. That's what it means. The kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence." In other words, the kingdom of
heaven comes by a violent force of the Holy Spirit coming in
and subduing the old man, casting out Satan from our hearts, dethroning
him, binding the strong man armed. That's what he does. He comes
in and violently... Jesus is not... Can I please
come in? Please? Please? No. No. He suffered violence. He comes
in and He knocks down the door of our hearts. And He takes that
old man and He binds him up and casts him out. That's what He
does to every believer in Christ. And what happens to one who is
subdued, one who is apprehended? That's what he says. Paul said,
Christ apprehended me. I was on the road to hell and
Christ apprehended me. He grabbed me. He forcefully
grabbed me and saved my life, saved my soul. And the violent take it by force. violently and tenaciously the
Lord Jesus Christ saved me, so too do those who believe in Christ
violently hang on to Him by faith. We tenaciously hang on to Him
by faith until the resurrection. No, it's not my faith that saves
me, that redeemed me. Christ did, but I hold on to
Him with all I have. Somebody described it like this. One of the preachers says, my
little granddaughter, when she was small, grabbed me by the
fingers and she would swing. And she would hold on as tightly
as she could, but I knew that it was my hands holding her that
kept her on there. But friends, she didn't let go.
And neither will true faith. True faith will never let go
of Christ. It will let go of everything
else. True faith will let go of everything
else that it may win Christ. Friends, I tell you to follow
Christ will cost you everything. Count the cost. What are you willing to hang
on to in this life that you will not come to Christ? Is it your children? You can't
hang on to them anyway. We have no control over their
life anyway. We do what we can. Only God takes care of that.
Your job? Will you not come because of
money? Because you need work? Who holds that? How do you think
you control that? Is it not utter madness to hang
on to these things? True faith. holds on to Christ
until I'm with Him, perfect in glory. And I'll let go of everything
else to have Him. Will you? True faith does. And it does so gladly. Gladly let go of this world and
this life. that I may have Him. Is that you? Is that your faith? I hope so. If not, I weep for
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.