Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I would like to bring a message
to you this morning from Philippians chapter 3 and the title of this
message is A Safe Message to Rejoice In. That's what I want
to bring this morning, A Safe Message to Rejoice In. This chapter, Philippians chapter
3, this one chapter contains just about everything a preacher
would ever need to declare from God's word in order to declare
the whole counsel of God, everything that God has called us to say
and declare, the warnings of God's word are in this chapter.
All of the warnings that we need to hear, we need to hear the
warnings that God has given us, the warnings of eternity. The
warnings of our own sin, the warnings of our own deeds, all
the warnings are in here. The truth of repentance is in
here, a changed mind about everything, the things of God, the things
of man, what salvation is, how God saves sinners, what truly
justifies a sinner. Repentance, a changed mind, it's
in here. The gospel is in here, the sweetness
of the good news, it's in here. That precious declaration of
good news, the exhortations of life, everything that our Lord
has exhorted us to as believers, as children of God, all of the
things he commands of us, they're in here. All of the counsel of
God is in this chapter. If we had one chapter in God's
word to hold on to, how blessed would we be to have Philippians
chapter three? It's a wonderful, wonderful chapter.
It begins in verse one by saying, finally, my brethren. I love that. Finally, my brethren,
how good. and how pleasant it is to have
brethren in Christ. Isn't that right? How good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Isn't
that what David wrote? Psalm 133. It's good and it's
pleasant. I'm so thankful and I know you
are too. We're so thankful that we don't
stand alone on these issues of the truth. A man named Martin
Luther, He thought he stood alone. Elijah thought he stood alone. Different men throughout the
ages have thought that they stood alone on these issues of God's
Word, the issues of the truth and how good and how pleasant
it is to have brethren, brothers and sisters that the Lord has
called into his family, into his knowledge of the gospel and
given a love of His truth to them. That's a wonderful thing. There's love amongst the brethren
and there's love from Christ to His people. There's love in
Paul's voice right here. Finally, my brethren. That's a loving thing to say.
Dear brethren. That's what he's saying. Those
of you that God has united with me. That's who he's talking to.
United in the blood of Christ. In order to be true brethren,
We must be united by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
must be covered in that blood. We're united in the Spirit of
Christ. True brethren are united by God's
Spirit, His blood, His Spirit. Paul is saying, those of you
that I'll be joined to for all eternity in the presence of God,
the sinless presence of God. He says, finally, my brethren,
Rejoice in the Lord. That's what he tells them. Rejoice
in the Lord. That is our great reminder for
happiness. Paul is reminding us where our
happiness truly lies. The only place that true happiness
can exist. He said rejoice in the Lord. Don't you love it when that reminder
comes? Where is my happiness? Where
is my rejoicing? Oh yeah, it's in the Lord. It's
in the Lord. If you look right here at Philippians
chapter 4 verse 4 says, Rejoice in the Lord always and again
I say, Rejoice. Rejoice always and again I say,
Rejoice. over in 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. He said in verse 16, Rejoice evermore from here on out. Just rejoice evermore. How do
you do that? How do you do that? Well, he
said in the next verse, Pray without ceasing. Call on God
without ceasing. Call unto the Lord without ceasing. He said in verse 18, 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 18, everything give thanks everything
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you whatever it is you're going through this is God's will concerning
you what does God have for me well what am I going through
this is the will of God concerning you and he said give thanks for
it Call on God in prayer, giving thanks for it, and rejoice forevermore. Just rejoice in it. Rejoice in
the Lord. Precious, precious. You might
say, I just can't rejoice. I cannot rejoice in the things
that are going on around me right now. I look around and I see
things and I'm so disheartened by it, I just can't rejoice in
it. Well, that's okay. We're not commanded to. We're
not commanded to rejoice in the things that are going on around
us right now. That's not God's command to us.
You might say, well, I just can't rejoice in the way that things
are at home. Can't rejoice in that. Well,
that's okay. We're not commanded to. David, King David, he said,
although my house be not so with God. It's just not so. You might say, well, I just can't
rejoice in myself. I look at myself and I just can't
rejoice. I can't rejoice in my walk before
God. I can't rejoice in anything I
am, inside or out. I cannot rejoice in what I see
in myself. Well, that's okay, we're not
commanded to. Our God commanded us in His Word to rejoice in
the Lord. rejoice in the Lord when there
is nothing left to rejoice in when there's nothing left in
this world to rejoice in we can rejoice in the Lord we truly
can we can always rejoice in our Lord we can rejoice in his
will we know his will is going to be done don't we This sinful
flesh tries to convince us that we have a will that is capable
of doing what it wants to do, but it doesn't. The only will
that's going to be done is God's will. And we can rejoice in His
good and perfect will. We can rejoice in His providence.
Everything that is happening is His will. And it's all on
purpose and it's all working together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
We can rejoice in the end result because of that. It might be
difficult, it might be painful, but for a believer the end result
is good. We can rejoice in all the good
that he's going to bring from whatever it is we're going through.
Everything that happens is for the furtherance of the gospel,
it's for the calling out of His sheep, it's for the salvation
of the soul. And we can rejoice in that. We
can rejoice in His mercy. Thank God for mercy. Mercy is
not getting what we deserve. We know what we deserve, don't
we? We know we're sinners against God and we know what we deserve.
But there's mercy in the blood of Christ and we can rejoice
in that. Not getting the punishment that we deserve because He took
it. We can rejoice in the blood that He shed paying that punishment.
We can rejoice in the kingdom that He has prepared for every
soul that God His Father gave to Him. This glorious kingdom. We can rejoice at the thought
of being physically with Him, if we belong to Him, if He died
for us, if He redeemed us, we can rejoice in the thought of
being sinless as we stand there with Him in His presence, totally
sinless. We can rejoice in the thought
of being conformed to His image, conformed into the perfect image
of the Lord who saved us. What a reason to rejoice, rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice. Back over in the text,
Philippians chapter 3, if you look with me there, verse 1 says,
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, To write the same
things to you, the same things. Paul said, To me indeed is not
grievous, but for you it is safe. It's safe. Has God convinced
us of a few things? Number one, has God convinced
us when it comes to this thing of religion, has God convinced
us that there are Thousands and thousands of different messages
out there. Thousands of different beliefs.
Thousands of different doctrines. Thousands of different stands
on the scripture. Has God convinced us of that?
I believe He has. There's thousands out there.
Has God convinced us though that there is only one message only
one message out of all those thousands, one belief, one doctrine,
one stand on the scripture that will save. Has God convinced
us of that? You know, people say, well, I'm
okay and you're okay and we have our doctrinal differences, but
we're all going to end up in the same place in the end. And
now, wait a minute. Has God convinced us that there's
only one message that saves? Only one message and that is
the one message that Christ declared in his word. Has God convinced
us of that? The one that gives Christ all
the glory. That's the only one that will
save. Has God convinced us? that He is true and every man
is a liar? And I mean every man. Let's point
at this man right here. God is true and every man is
a liar. If I do not declare what God
has written in His Word, I'm a liar. Don't listen to me. If I'm not declaring God's Word,
do not listen to me. Has God convinced us that He
alone is true? And aside from what he's written,
every man, his own way, his own thoughts, his own doctrine, it's
all lies aside from the truth. Has God convinced us that we
do not need an opinion on his word? We don't need an opinion
on his word. All we need is his word. That's
all we need. Verse 1 says, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you. To me,
indeed, is not grievous, but for you it's safe. It's so safe. Do we have some grasp on how
long eternity is? I'll go ahead and answer that
question for us. The answer is no. We don't have any grasp on
how long eternity is, but if the Lord will let us ponder it
for just a minute, you think about how short this life is
and how infinite eternity is, how long eternity is. What I'm
getting at is we cannot afford to be wrong. Souls are going
to spend eternity either in God's blessing or in God's damnation
and we cannot afford to be wrong. We cannot. Do we really want
our eternal souls hanging on a sinner's opinion of God's Word? Or do we want our eternal soul
hanging on the Word of Christ Himself? Which one is it? Which one is it? I have physically
heard men and women say, I've physically heard it with my own
ears. Heard men and women say that they're not interested in
the simple, plain message of Christ. And the reason is because
they're looking for something that will more so challenge their
mind. That's what they want. They want
their mind to be challenged. Well, that's fine. The only problem with it is it's
not safe. It's not safe, not at all. Our
Lord said it pleased His Father to hide these things from the
wise and prudent and reveal them to babes. That's what He said,
babes. Babes who are not able to feed
on anything more than the simple message of Christ. Our Lord also
said not many wise men after the flesh are called. God hath
chosen the foolish things what arrogant man considers to be
a foolish thing a simple thing way too simple. That's what God
has chosen to confound the wise those who spend all their time
trying to challenge the mind. God's apostle said for that reason
I've determined not to know anything among you. save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's safe. It's safe. Verse 1 says, 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. It's safe. And then he says in verse 2,
Beware of dogs. Beware of dogs for the sake of
being safe. Beware of dogs. Now, what does
he mean by that? Who are these dogs that he's
talking about? Well, he expounds on it by saying
in verse two, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about those who preach and believe. Those who truly
hold to the works of man. That's who he's talking about.
The works and the deeds of man in order to be saved. The will
of man in order to be saved. If you'll turn with me over to
Revelation 22, the last book in the Bible, the last chapter.
Revelation 22 verse 14 says, Blessed are they that do His
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city. They're going
to be allowed to enter in right into the gates, right into the
city, the kingdom of God. But verse 15 says, For without
are dogs. Without or dogs, dogs are not
going to be allowed in. Dogs. And then he goes on to
say sorcerers, those who use trickery to try to hypnotize
men and women to follow them. Dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers,
those who try to steal man's affection away from Christ. He said dogs and sorcerers and
whoremongers and murderers. Now the apostle Paul was a murderer. You know that he murdered men
and women for believing this truth. He's talking about the
spiritual murder. A man can commit murder and God
can have mercy on his soul. God can put away that sin in
the blood of his son. He's talking about murderers
those who hate the true and living God. Our Lord said if you hate
in the heart you've committed murder. Those who hate God being
God. God Almighty being God Almighty.
Hate His Word and murder men's souls in the process of hating
God and His Word. Hating those who love God. And
then he went on to say idolaters, those who worship another God.
And there's not another God. There's only one God. Beside
Him there is no God. And he goes on to say, Whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie. Those who stand up behind pulpits
and they love lies and they tell lies. They make lies. Our Lord
said they're not coming in. They're not coming in. They're
not my prophets and they're not coming in. And if you look with
me over at Isaiah chapter 56. In Isaiah 56, this is talking
about false prophets Verse 10 says, His watchmen are blind. Talking about false prophets.
He said they're blind. Blind to the truth. Blind to
the Word of God. They're blind. They are all ignorant. Ignorant to the truth. Ignorant
to the Word of God. They are all dumb dogs, He said. Dumb dogs. They cannot bark. Sleeping. lying down, loving
to slumber. That's what he said about false
prophets. They're dumb dogs and they sleep, they lie down, they
love to slumber and they can't bark. Just like if you had a
dog inside your home and that was your watchdog. You had that
dog there for safety and one day a thief broke in and started
stealing all of your stuff and that dog looked up from his sleep
and he saw that thief stealing all of your stuff and then he
just laid his head back down and went back down to sleep,
never barked, never gave a warning of danger. That's a false prophet. That's a false prophet. He said
in verse 10, they cannot bark. They cannot bark. In verse 11,
he said, yea, they are greedy dogs. which can never have enough,
and they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to
their own way. They all think they have their
own way. They have their own answer. They're not looking for
God's answer. Every one for his gain, in it
for his own gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch
wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink. And tomorrow
shall be as this day and much more abundant." We'll just keep
having a feast. They say everybody needs to smile,
it's all health, wealth and happiness and tomorrow is going to be the
same thing. They seem friendly. They do, they seem very friendly. They seem like man's best friend.
They seem harmless. But our Lord said in Matthew
7, concerning false prophets. He said, they come in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. Ravening wolves. So he said, beware of them. Beware
of them. And back in our text, back in
Philippians chapter 3, verse 1 says, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you To me,
indeed, is not grievous, but for you it's safe. Beware of
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, those
who preach and believe in the necessity of man's works. They try to destroy God's grace. That's the concision. Verse 3
says, For we are the circumcision. We are the true people of God.
God promised an inheritance, he promised that he would have
a people, his true people, he promised this inheritance to
a particular people, he promised it to a chosen nation, the Jews,
and he gave the Jews a token of his promise, he gave them
circumcision. And he said, the Jews are going
to be saved. This is my token and my promise to them. They're
going to receive this inheritance from me. But the good news, we're
not Jews, we're Gentiles. And the good news came to us
Gentiles when Christ came. And when He came, the good news
said, this gospel is going to all the world. My kindness and
my mercy and my grace is going to all the world. And the apostle
Paul said in Romans chapter two, he's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
That's not the evidence, but he's a Jew, which is one inwardly
and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in
the letter, not in the birth certificate. It's something God
does in the heart of his people. whose praise is not of men, but
of God. What does that mean? It means,
verse 3, we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. All the promises of God, all
of the eternal inheritance of God is to those who worship God
in the Spirit Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. How can a dead sinner truly worship
God? God has to quicken him by His
Spirit. God has to send His Spirit to
him and if God does send His Spirit to a sinner, that spirit
will worship God. If we do worship God, God made
us worship Him. We're His true people who have
been made to bow. We are His true people who love
to bow. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in the Lord and what
He's done for us in spite of us. And if God has made that
promise to us, if God has shown us His mercy, shown us His blood,
we rejoice in His will, we rejoice in His work, we rejoice in the
cross, and we say He's done all things well. We truly rejoice
in Him. And seeing Him and what He's
done, causes us to put absolutely no confidence in this flesh. None. None. God's people do not
enjoy what they see in themselves. They're not full of pride over
works. They're not full of pride over
self-righteousness. We rejoice in Christ alone and
we put absolutely no confidence in the flesh. Has God done that
for us? Are we His people? Can we say
the same thing with the Apostle Paul? If we can, we belong to
God Almighty. If we can, we can rejoice in
the Lord. If we can, it can be said of
us, we're brethren. Finally, dear brethren, united
in Christ, united in His blood. May God truly put that in our
hearts, may He truly cause us to say that we absolutely worship
God in the Spirit, we absolutely rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ
and everything He's done, and we put no confidence in the flesh. none whatsoever. May God truly
do a work in our hearts. May he cause us to see him and
rejoice in everything he's done. Till next week, may the Lord
bless his word to our hearts. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m., and 6 o'clock
p.m. Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.