Turn with me now to Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians 3, I want to read
the first 11 verses here. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware
of dogs, false preachers. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. 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. Circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew
of the Hebrews as touching the law, a 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 loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, 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 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, that
I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death. if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead." I feel very strongly about
this message. I don't feel confident in my
outline. I've been really praying about
it a lot. After much prayer, much calling on the Lord, much
seeking the Lord, I'm asking him to really make
this clear. But in spite of me not feeling
confident in myself, I feel very urgent about it. I feel very
weighty about this. I very much want to preach this
message to you. I want to preach this message
to our community by way of our broadcast. I want the whole world
to hear this by way of the internet. I have felt this compelled before. I have had moments where I have
felt this compelled before, but I've never felt more compelled
than this. Let me go ahead and just tell
you the whole point of the message. Okay. You, if you, you can, um,
I hope you don't zone out after this, but before anybody zones
out, get this, cause this is the punchline. Okay. This is
it right here. God's people, the ones who are going to be
saved. You got people who are going to be saved and people
who are not going to be saved. The ones who will enter heaven
and will live forever with Christ in glory. Those people are known
and evidenced by this fact, by this characteristic. They worship
God. They worship God. Not themselves. Not their church. Not their religion. Their doctrine. Their denomination. They worship
God. They worship God's Word. They
worship God's Word. God's people worship this Word. They bow down to this Word. God's people worship God's will
and God's way and God's election and God's foreknowledge and God's
providence and God's predestination and God's everything. God's people
worship God. And they rejoice in Christ Jesus. They don't rejoice in themselves. They don't rejoice in their church.
They don't rejoice in their religious, you know, what they think is
success in soul winning. They rejoice in Christ Jesus.
They rejoice in who he is. Not who I am or who anybody else
is. They rejoice in who He is. They
rejoice in what He has done. Not what I've done or what we've
done. They rejoice in what He has done. They rejoice in His success. How many people y'all baptized
last year? That's a common question. How
big is your church? That's probably my number one
question. Not what is your doctrine? How many people y'all got down
at your church? God's people worship in his success. God's people rejoice in His accomplishment. They rejoice in His righteousness,
His holiness, His purity, His obedience. God's people rejoice
in Christ's obedience. Those of you who are God's people
understand what I'm saying. We rejoice in Christ's obedience, His worthiness, His acceptance. And with their absolute worshiping
of God and rejoicing in Christ Jesus, they have no confidence
in their flesh. It is stripped away. It is stripped
away. They have no confidence in their
flesh. None. They don't trust in their
flesh at all. They don't look to, they don't
hope in, they don't find any assurance or comfort or peace
in the works or the deeds or the goodness of their flesh at
all. At all. That's the evidence of
a saved person. That's what a saved person looks
like. Now, this is the reason why I
want to tell you this so badly. I ran across a false preacher
on the internet who was giving a speech. It was not a message.
He was not of God. It was a false religious speech.
And this person was trying to tell the story of salvation. And this person was doing this
by giving an example of what salvation is and what it looks
like in the life of a person. This is how you can tell a saved
person. And this false preacher had a
big elaborate story about some other person who had spent an
entire life in sin. This was the point of the speech. Okay. It was all about some other
person who had spent an entire life in sin. Just a really bad
person. And then a moment of awakening
came, an awakening to that sin, and regret came, and sorrow over
that sin came, and a complete changing of ways came. Just a
complete resolve and turnaround to the point that this person
made the decision to no longer do any of those sinful things
anymore. And that person didn't. That person stopped doing that
and didn't commit those sins anymore. And because of that,
this false preacher said, because of that, we can know that person
was saved. That's how you can know when
a person is saved. As I listened to that, this thought
went through my mind. You could give that speech in
almost, almost, I say almost because you can't give that speech
to God's people. You can't give that speech where
the truth of God's word is declared. But you could give that speech
in almost every religious organization in this world and it would be
believed and accepted and rejoiced in as being true. The only problem is it's not
true. It's not true. Seeing a turning
away from committing certain sins. You will see that. You
will see people who were doing certain things, and their conscience
just kills them, and they say, I'm not doing that anymore, and
they don't do that anymore. Openly, physically. Mind and
heart, yeah, still going on. But seeing a turning away from
committing certain sins, has no bearing on whether a person
is saved or not. It has no bearing at all. Almost, almost the whole world
believes that that is the evidence of being saved. But it's not. It's not. Now let me prove that to you
before I go any further into this, okay? The whole, everybody's
goal is they don't want to be an openly known sinner. Everybody's
trying to make it so that they're not an openly known sinner. Everybody's
a sinner, but everybody's trying to make it so that nobody knows
it. That's not the evidence of being saved. Turn with me to
Matthew 21. Matthew 21 verse 23. And when he was come into the
temple, when our Lord was come into the temple, the chief priest
and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching
and said, by what authority Doest thou these things and who gave
thee this authority? Our Lord was talking to the chief
priest and the elders of the people. You think about that.
He was talking to priests. You see him walking around. You
know, black clothes, white collar. He was talking to priests. And
he was talking to elders. Everybody wants to be an elder
in the church. You got the elders, the board of elders. So he's
talking to priests and elders. And they were arguing with the
Lord. They didn't believe his word.
All right, verse 28. He said, what think ye? A certain
man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go
work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will
not. I will not obey you. I will not obey what you just
said to me. I have no interest in doing that. But afterwards
he repented and went. He changed his mind and he went.
And he came to the second and said, likewise, his other son,
go work in my field. He answered and said, I go, sir.
Oh, yes, I'll do it. I'll obey you. Whatever you say,
that's what I'm going to do. I go, sir. And went not. He didn't go. Whether of them
twain did the will of his father, they say unto him, the first,
the one who said, I don't have mind doing that. I don't have
any interest in that. No, that's what you said. No.
Jesus saith unto them, verily, truly, I say unto you that the
publicans and the harlots are going to go into the kingdom
of God before you do. The publicans were the mafia
members. He said, he said of a truth,
I'm telling you priests and elders of the church that mafia members
and harlots are going to go into the kingdom of God before you
do. How can that be? How can that
be? Didn't the priests and the elders
of the church, didn't they live a better, more cleaned up life
than the mafia members and the prostitutes? Yes, I'm sure they did. I'm sure
they did. Well, then why would the Lord
say that the, you know, by outward appearance, the sinless life
people are not going in and the sinful life people are going
in? Why would he say that? It's because
the Lord said in Luke 5, turn with me over to Luke chapter
5. Luke 5 verse 32. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Verse 27 says, after these things,
he went forth and saw a public, and he saw a mafia member named
Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him,
follow me. And he left all, rose up and followed him. And Levi
made him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great
company of mafia members and others that sat down with them.
But their scribes and Pharisees, the Bible writers and the elders
of the church, they murmured against his disciples saying,
why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. He told these chief priests and
these elders, I did not come to call what this
world sees as being righteous people. I came to call sinners. They said, why are you sitting
there eating and drinking with sinners? He said, that's who I came for.
You know, God flattened the city of Jericho. You know that story
in the Old Testament, they walked around Jericho and the walls
fell down and God just completely flattened and destroyed that
city of Jericho. But he saved one person. And
he saved every soul that was in that one person's house. Who
was it? Was it the pastor of the temple
in Jericho? No. Rahab the harlot. One person. Rahab the harlot. Look at Luke
7. Verse 31, the Lord said, where
unto then shall I liken the men of this generation and to what
are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the
marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, we have
piped unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned to
you, and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a devil. The
Son of Man is come eating and drinking, and you say, behold,
a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. That's what you call him, a friend
of publicans and sinners. Verse 36 right here, one of the
Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him and he went
into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold,
a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that
Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box
of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began
to wash his feet with tears, And did wipe them with the hairs
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment?
Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake
within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would
have known who in what manner of woman this is that toucheth
him. For she is a sinner." She is a sinner. And we know how all of this ended
for her. Verse 48 says, our Lord said
to her, your sins are forgiven. Even though there are many, they're
forgiven. Look at Luke 15. I love these verses right here.
I love the Lord. This makes me love the Lord.
Luke 15 verse 1, then drew near unto him all the publicans and
sinners for to hear him. The Pharisees and scribes murmured
saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. Practicing
sinners. Look at Luke 18. Verse 10, two men went up into
the temple to pray. One of them was a Pharisee, the
other one was a mafia member. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, I'm not as other men are. I'm not an extortioner, I'm not
unjust, I'm not an adulterer, or even as this publican, mafia
member. I fast twice in the week, I pay
money, I give tithes, he steals money, I give money of all that
I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. The one who knew he was a sinner
was justified. The one who thought he was righteous
was not justified. Luke 19 verse 5. When Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down for today I must abide at that house. And
he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when
they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be
a guest with a man that is a sinner. Where are you going with all
this, Gabe? Here's where I'm going with it. Appearing to others as not being
a sinner. is not the evidence of salvation.
That's where I'm going with it. Turning from sin, turning from
sin. Which no man or woman can do.
But putting on that show for people that is not the evidence,
that's not the cause of salvation, that's not the evidence of salvation.
Well, Gabe, are you saying it's OK to sin? No. God forbid. What I'm saying is there's not
a soul on earth who has a choice in the matter. Everybody's as
bad as the publican. Everybody is the publican. Everybody's
the sinner. But when we fool ourselves and
try to fool everybody else into thinking that we can overcome
that, what we are saying is, I don't need Jesus Christ. I
can do this myself. And we're robbing him of the
glory that is owed to him for what this man did for sinners. If any man say that he has no
sin, he's a liar, he's calling God a liar, he's deceiving himself. For some reason though, I really,
just blindness, deadness and blindness, but all of religion
thinks that's the evidence. All of false religion. Almost, nearly, almost the whole
world believes. I mean every denomination on
earth believes that, you know, man's decision and man's ability
to turn away from sin, that's the cause and the evidence of
salvation. That's what everybody believes.
If it's a charismatic doctrine, you know we have charismatic
doctrines. That's what they believe. They'll
attach a couple of other things to it, but that's what they believe.
If it's a conservative doctrine. That's what they believe. You
stop sending and you don't do that anymore. That's the evidence
of salvation. If it's a contemporary doctrine,
that's what they believe. You become a better person, you
become a better citizen, you become more law abiding. That's
your evidence of being saved. If it's an old time doctrine,
that's what they believe. If it's an Arminian doctrine,
that means saved by works, saved by your own works. That's what
they believe. If it's a Calvinistic doctrine, if all that the doctrine has
is Calvinism, That's what they believe. Some of you will understand what
I mean by that. Some of you will not, if you don't look into it. There's only one true religion.
His name is Jesus Christ. If it's not Christ, it's false
religion. If it's not Christ, it's something
else. And if it's something else, it's
going to come back around to the good deeds of man. And the
good deeds of man is not salvation. Jesus Christ is salvation. The
blood of Jesus Christ is salvation. If it's a religion from anywhere
else in this world, if it doesn't even have anything to do with
Christianity, Just a whole different God altogether. That's what they
believe. Better person, good upstanding
citizen, law abiding, saved. Sinner not saved. 99.9% of the whole world believes
if you become a better person, that's the cause and the evidence
of salvation. It is not so. It is not so. First Timothy 115,
I'm almost done, okay? I'm almost done. Just listen
to this, okay? I've taken too long. First Timothy 115 says, this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Paul didn't say I was, he said
I am. He said I am. Romans 7, I was
gonna read all of Romans 7 to you. I'm not gonna do that now,
but just listen to this. Paul said in Romans 7, I'll give
you this first verse here. Romans 7, he said, we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. He didn't say, I was carnal,
sold under sin. He said, I am carnal, sold under
sin. He said, everything that I do
is filled with sin. He said, I wish I could get rid
of it, but I am a sinner. There's a war inside of me. I
can't stop doing it. Here's what he came to. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Not was, I am. What is he saying there? Is he
excusing sin? God forbid. He's condemning his
own sin. He's condemning himself. He's
being honest about what he is and truthful about his sin. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned. He doesn't stand before God in
lies and say, no, I haven't done anything. What Paul is saying in Romans
7, that's what all of God's people say. He's saying, I have no confidence
in my flesh. That's what he's saying. I cannot
look to my flesh at all. There is no hope for me unless
Jesus Christ does something for me in spite of me. My only hope is that God the
Father sent Jesus Christ to deliver me from everything that I am.
Oh, wretched man that I am. Everything I've committed in
my sinful flesh. This is not about my decision
or my deeds. This is about the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's all. He said, who shall deliver me
from the body of this dead? I can't do it. I can't do it.
That publican in the temple cried, God be merciful to me. That's
the only hope I have. That is the only hope I have. Now let me close with this. I
prefer law abiding people. Let me close with this. Okay.
I do. I do, I prefer law abiding people
who try to do right. But when we tell people to put
their trust in their law abiding works, saying it's all good,
you're all good. You're saved, God loves you,
he has a wonderful plan for your life. It's okay, you've done
your best. All we're doing is we're telling
men and women to take their eyes off of Jesus Christ. If our eyes leave Jesus Christ
for any other hope, you've done good, you've done right, well
done. He loves you, he's proud of you.
If our eyes leave Christ for any other hope, it is a path
that only leads men and women to condemnation. Men and women
are running into condemnation. The things concerning Christ
are life and the things concerning man are death. Everything that
has to do with man is death. His righteousness is salvation. Man's self-righteousness is damnation. Looking to, hoping in, rejoicing
in Christ is heaven. If he is all, that's heaven.
Looking to, hoping in, rejoicing in us, adding us in any way,
shape or form is hell. Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto
us. We must worship God. We must
rejoice in Christ and we must have absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. That's the evidence of salvation.
That is the evidence. And I was going to read this. I made this bulletin at the very
first of the week. And then I prepared this message
in the middle of the week and I forgot about this bulletin.
And I was going to read this to you because this is what I'm
trying to say. There's an article by Brother
Henry Mahan in this bulletin. If you don't have one, get one
and read this article. Because this is what I'm trying
to say. I'm going to read it to you. I'm going to read it
to you, okay? We have an advocate. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The scripture
recognizes our frail, sinful human nature. A believer does
not love sin, does not excuse nor justify sin, but grieves
over sin and desires to be without sin. yet he owns and confesses
his sin. As Spurgeon once said, sin is
my name, sin is my nature, and to deny it is to deny the word,
deceive myself and call God a liar. My old nature is such that I
will sin until I die for sin ever, for sin even pollutes the
best that I do, This scripture encourages the believer to trust
and hope in the mercy of God at all times. It does not say
if any man is holy, prayerful, and always faithful, he has an
advocate. But it says if any man sin, he
has an advocate with the Father. It does not say if any man sins,
he forfeits his right to Christ advocacy. Grace that can be forfeited
because of human failure is not grace at all. Mercy that is conditional
upon merit of the creature is not mercy at all. If my title
to glory rests upon my works, either before or after conversion,
it is a total failure. This scripture declares that
at all times, under all conditions, Jesus Christ is our righteousness,
our sanctification, our advocate, and our redemption. So when I
sin, when I consider my past or present, and come creeping
to my closet with a guilty conscience and an aching heart, I can rejoice
in the mercy of my father for I have an advocate, Jesus Christ
the righteous. That is a saved person. That's
a saved person. May God teach us that and put
that heart in us. Amen.