You can turn back to the book
of Philippians from where Gabe read from. And while you're turning,
let me say again how thankful I am to be back and what a privilege
it is. It really is. I'm not just giving
an introduction. I'm telling you the truth. But
I told you how so very much brother Gabe has helped me over the years,
not only manual labor and all, but preaching. He was our right arm. His father
also has been a great help to Mindy and I, Mindy and me. First made Marvin and your mother's
acquaintance. Been 30 years ago or more. But
Marvin has come up to come where we live and helped us so many
times and preached for us as well. And I love him and thankful
for him too. I know he's thankful to you for all that you've done
for his son and his daughter-in-law, all the help you've given them
and working on their home and moving into their house. And
I thank you as well. As a father, that's very endearing
when somebody helps your children, right? Very endearing. And I
think about our Heavenly Father. He loves those that love his
son, doesn't he? We're going to look at three
marks of a true child of God. Three marks, three evidences
of a true believer here. And if you're a real seeker,
you want to know. You want to know, am I a child
of God? Am I really? Am I a true believer? Because
he gives us three things that tell who the true believers really
are. I know you're interested in that.
And that's found in chapter 3. But first go over to chapter
1 where it begins, verse 1, Paul and Timothy servants of Jesus
Christ, all the saints in Christ Jesus. That's what it means to
be a saint, sanctified one by God, put in Christ Jesus, who
are at Philippi and everywhere. This is written to all the saints,
all of God's people everywhere. With the bishops and deacons,
grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, he's writing to believers,
once again. This is a letter written to the church, just like
the ones in the Revelation, you know, the seven letters written
to the churches, weren't they? To believers. And so is this
one. And I venture to say that many of you, when you write people
a letter, you have written these verses down, haven't you? Or
this reference. Haven't you? The first four verses.
Verse three, I think of so many churches, so many people, Like
you, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in
every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy
or asking God for your benefit, for your fellowship. I'm thankful
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day. Paul said,
from the first day I met you until now. And I feel the same
way and others do too about you. So this is who he's writing to.
So go back to chapter 3. And he says many things in verses,
chapters 1 and 2, doesn't he? So he begins in chapter 3, finally,
he's closing this letter out. And he says, finally, brethren,
brethren, brethren, fellow believers in Christ, the family of God.
He says, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice that he is the Lord. He is the Lord and that you know
it. You know His Lord, meaning He is absolute sovereign. The Lord, not a figurehead, but
the absolute sovereign Lord in control of all things, reigning
and ruling. Rejoice, the Lord is King. You
sing that song here, don't you? The Lord is King, reigning and
ruling over all, doing as He will with whom He will. And whatever
it is, rejoice in that it is the Lord that's doing it. It
is the Lord. Paul wrote in Romans 8 verse
28. Most people can quote that. Not
everyone really believes it, do they? But we know, we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to his purpose. All things work
together for good because God is working them all together.
And everything, his purpose for his people, according to his
purpose is for their good. We might not know it at the time. We might not feel it at the time,
but it is because it is the Lord who loves his people, who is
too loving to do wrong. Who's too wise to, to air who's
too, too kind to be, be too merciful to do anything above we're able
to. So it is the Lord. Remember when
Eli, Samuel came and told Eli that the Lord said he was gonna
kill both of his sons. What did Eli say? It is the Lord. That was his comfort. That was
his comfort. Rejoice in the Lord. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 9 verse 10 says, those
that know his name will put their trust in him. He is the Lord.
He is Jesus. Why did they call his name Jesus?
Why did they say to call his name Jesus? Huh? Because it means
something. Every name God gave to whomever,
it meant something. Savior, he shall save his people,
not try, but he shall save his people from their sins. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, the covenant head, the substitute for his people. Rejoice in the Lord. Finally,
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord, that he
is the Lord, our righteousness. Work one out. Rejoice in Jehovah
Sidkenia. Rejoice in the Lord. Jehovah
Sidkenia, the Lord our shepherd. "'Lord, our shepherd, we shall
not want. "'If the Lord is your shepherd,
"'you shall not lack anything ever. "'Though you walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, "'you should fear, no, fear not,'
he said, "'for I am with thee. "'It is the Lord. "'Rejoice in the Lord.'" And
so he goes on to say, To write the same things to you, to me,
indeed, is not grievous. Paul says nine times in Philippians,
rejoice. Nine times. We must need to know
that, Muslim. We must need, well, like David
said, quiet to himself. Why art thou downcast within
me, O my soul? Huh? Rejoice. 9 times to write the same things
to you to me is indeed is not grieving. It just occurred to
me as I was sitting there looking this over that you preached from
this chapter the first time we came down here and I heard you
preach. You preached from it. But you preached from verse 10
that I may know him. I'm going to just dwell on these
first three verses. But it wouldn't matter what it's
the same thing. Paul wrote the same thing to
every church. Then it's the same gospel, uh,
same, same truth, same message. There's but one message. And,
uh, a true preacher of God doesn't get tired of telling it. And
the true people of God don't get tired of hearing it. To write
the same thing is not grievous, he said to me, and it's not grievous
for me to preach from there. I don't know how many times I've
preached from there, but it still gives me great joy. I've often
thought it would be good if two preachers stood up back to back
and took the same text, the exact same text, at the mouth of two
or three witnesses. Let's try that sometime. No,
I'll go first. But that would be a good one.
That happened to dad. Did I tell you that? It actually
happened to my dad one time. A fella got up before him. They
usually schedule my dad at a conference second because he was an experienced
man. When a man got up and preached
his text. And dad got up and thought, I'm
not going to change it now. And he preached from the same
thing. We can't exhaust one verse of
scripture, can we? We can't get everything. The
half has never been told. The half has never been told.
After I preach this, you're not going to hear the half of it.
One day we will, when Christ starts preaching, we'll hear
the whole truth as it should be preached. No man spake like
he did. But to write the same things, what things, preacher?
What things, Paul? Things of God, eternal things,
spiritual things. Things of God. Listen to this,
over in 1 Corinthians 2, he says a lot about the things of God.
He says, I has not seen, ear has not heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them
that love him. Paul went there and saw and heard
and experienced these things, didn't he? And he came back and
he said, I can't even tell you about it. I couldn't put it into
words. Things he heard. He says, but
God hath revealed them by measure by his Spirit. The deep things
of God. The deep things of God. The things
freely given to us of God. Spiritual things, he said. Over
and over again. In Philippians, in chapter 4,
he says, whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are true
and honest and just. Things of God. eternal thing. That's why we're here tonight. We're not here to talk about
fleshly things or earthly things. We're here to try to get away
from those things. We're here to have our affections
set on things above where Christ sits. So write the same things,
is not grievous, but say the same story, the same gospel to
all the churches, every message, it contains the same thing, who
God is, what man is, who Christ is, what salvation is. We need to hear those things
over and over again. And that's what Peter said. He said, I will
have you always in remembrance of these things. Remember the
same thing. It's not grievous to me, the
things of God, the things of salvation, things of redemption,
the things of Christ. He says it's safe. It's safe. It's saved you. These things,
Moses wrote to the people of God, he said, these are not vain
words, but these are your life. At least to hear these things.
And if God will apply them by His Spirit, it's safe, it's safety,
it's peace, it's a refuge. The gospel's a refuge to keep
us free from fear, to keep us free from guilt, free from worry.
When I talk about the Lord being Lord, You're getting ready to
go through surgery. You're going through trials.
You go through these things, and you're not going through
something that's, but it's common to all the saints. Peter wrote
that all the brethren, that the same things are accomplished
in your brethren throughout the world. They're going through
the same thing. God said, my grace is sufficient. Is it? We
hear that. Is it? You'll see. They all see. His grace is sufficient and it
keeps us free from fear to hear the blessed promises of God which
we put all our hope and trust and stay on His Word and His
promise. He said, I'll be with you. You
know where this letter was written from? You know where Paul was when
he wrote this? In a jail cell. He's riding to the church to
cheer them up. He's in jail. And it's not one
of these minimum security prisons, you know, with the, you know,
all the comforts of home. It's a cruel, cold, damp jail
cell. Do you think that he didn't wonder
why the Lord put him there? He and Silas, when they went
to Philippi, this church, Philippi is where he went and got thrown
in jail, remember? What did they do? What did they
do? Start bemoaning their situation.
Paul and Silas, what'd they do? Start praying and singing, didn't
they? Rejoice in the Lord. He did exactly
what he tells us to do. What happened? The Lord sent
an earthquake and the doors of the jail fell off and their chains
fell off. Huh? What a picture that is. Rejoicing in the Lord. My, my. Your burdens are lifted
and your bondage is released from bondage. And lo and behold,
a jailer came running in. The Lord saved that man because
he put Paul in prison. He saved that man because Paul
was in prison. If Paul hadn't been in prison,
we wouldn't have this letter. If Paul hadn't been in prison,
we wouldn't have Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, or Colossians. It
is the Lord. It is the Lord. It's good. It's
all good. Though we might not know it at
the time. So he says to write the same things for you as your
salvation. It's safe. It's safe. Read on. He says, it's not grievous
to me. It's safe. Beware of dogs. Beware
of evil workers. Beware of the concision. But
I just want you to turn to Isaiah 56 with me. Paul talks about
dogs. He's not talking about pit bulls
or rottweilers. He's talking about preachers.
Preachers who are predators, who prey on people. When our
Lord was hanging on the cross, and I think it's Psalm 18, it
says, Psalm 22, dogs compassed me. dogs. Paul's telling the people to
beware of these religious leaders who are like dogs. And look at
this Isaiah 56 verse 10 says, His watchmen are those men who
are supposed to be, are blind, they're ignorant, they are dumb
dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying
down, loving the slumber, greedy dog, can never have enough, shepherds
that cannot understand, a dog. Dumb dogs. One old writer, I
think it was William Huntington, said, if you ever see the DD
behind a fella's name, that's what that means. Dumb dog. I like that. Except for some,
there are some true preachers that ignorantly use that. But
beware of these evil workers. Our Lord called them workers
of iniquity, didn't He? Many say, we've done many wonderful
works in your name. Getting glory to themselves.
And our Lord calls them workers of iniquity because it was for
their glory. And they prey on people. They
devour widows' houses, our Lord said. Take money. I'll tell you
a true story. You remember that fellow Oral
Roberts? Well, he's dead now, thankfully. But anyway, a fella,
his mother used to be a supporter of Oral Roberts for years. She
was a poor widow. She'd send in a lot of her money,
most of her Social Security to Oral Roberts. One time, this
fella got a letter addressed to his mother, and he opened
it up, and like that false prophet used to always say, he said,
I'm going to my prayer tower today. And he said, something
good is going to happen to you. And that woman's son is the one
that opened the letter and read it because she had died two weeks
before that. And that imposter was keep sending
out his letters, praying on the widows, praying on the poor.
That's what our Lord said they do. He said, you beware of them,
beware of them. Dumb dogs, evil work, concision,
those fellows that supposed to be the true people of God, they're
not. And then he says in verse three,
now here it is. Three things, three things that describe the
true people of God. He says, we are the circumcision. We're the circumcision. You know,
the Israelites were God's people, or supposed to be, all right?
God's chosen people. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I. He changed Jacob's name to Israel,
a prince with God. The sons of Jacob. He said, I
am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consented. Israel. All right? The Lord gave
Abraham and his seed this sign in the flesh to distinguish them
as his people. Circumcision, okay? An outward
sign in the flesh. All right? But now look at Romans
2, real quickly, Romans 2. Romans 2, plainly said, are you
in Romans right now? So you're past this, you've already
dealt with it. So you know what this is saying. And it says here,
again, Romans 2, verse 28. Romans 2, 28. He is not a Jew
which is one outwardly. And over in chapter 9, he says,
they're not the, because they're the Israelites, doesn't mean
they're all Israel. The children of God, they're
not the children of the flesh, not the children of God. So he
says, he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is circumcision
outward in the flesh. He's a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision, the true mark of a child of God, is in the
heart. It's in the spirit, not in the letter. It's in the heart,
not the flesh. Not an outward sign. It's not
something you can wear, or a way you can look to distinguish you
as a child of God. It's not your dress. It's not
any outward mark. It's inward. He says, now we're
the circumcision of God. Now here are the three marks.
Are you one of the? Here it is. Back in the day,
Philippians 3. Number one, says we worship God
in His spirit. Number one. God's people worship
God. That's why they come. That's
why they come to the house of God, to worship God. I mean worship. The word worship
means to adore. The word worship means to give
all honor and glory to worship. There's a story over in Matthew
8 where the leper, the Lord came down from the mountain and said
many people followed him, but one man, a leper, came and worshiped
him. You know what the word there
translates? If you look it up, literally,
it says, like a dog licking his master's hands. I had an old
dog named Abner, and he worshipped me. He worshipped the ground
I walked. He loved me dearly, and he would
come up to my feet. He just wanted to be with me.
He'd just look up to me with adoration. The Canaanite woman,
do you remember? The Syrophoenician woman that
came to him and said, Lord, avenge me. And he said, it's not fit
to give the children's bread to dogs. The Lord called her
a dog. Do you remember what she said?
Truth, Lord, truth, but I'm your dog. And the Lord marveled at
her. Oh, my. Worship. Worship. We worship
God. Come here to worship God, to
thank God, to praise our God for who He is and what He's done. Well, praise the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefit, which number one
is, he forgiveth all thine iniquity. Loads you with benefit. Healeth
all your diseases. Does all these things. We come
here to worship God in the spirit. from the heart. Didn't our Lord
say, they that worship God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit, not with things. God's not worship
with men's hand. You see all this stuff going
on in religion, that's flesh. Somebody said, the less you have
on the inside, the more you have to have on the outside. The emptier
a drum, the louder noise it makes. Scripture says, God is in heavens
and we're on the earth. Let your words be few. God's
worship from the heart, the inner man. Now with all these trappings,
you don't see that here. You never will see that here.
You won't see a big choir. There's not room enough to have
one. You won't see all the stuff that religion has. God's people
don't need that. We worship in spirit from the
heart. We worship God. We come here to worship God.
And the way we worship is the exact same way that the Old Testament
saints worship God. and the New Testament saint.
We must worship God in the same way that all the saints in Scripture
worship God. You have to have three things
to worship. You have to have a high priest, you have to have
a tabernacle, and you have to have a sacrifice. That's the
way God... He said this is worship. A high
priest, a tabernacle, and a sacrifice. These three are one. Christ. Christ. We worship God in Christ,
through Christ, in the person of Christ. We worship. The New
Testament saints, we worship just like they did. We need to
order our services and we do. Your pastor is such wisdom and orders things according to scripture
because we worship exactly like the New Testament saints did.
What did they do? A Bible, a preacher, Prayer and
singing. That's it. That's it. Nothing else. People worshiping
God from the heart. And look at the next thing. So,
and this is the true people of God. They come to worship God,
to give thanks. Secondly, to rejoice. They rejoice
in Christ Jesus. They rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in who He is. Rejoice
in what He's done. Rejoice in His person. They love
Him. They love to hear about Him.
And you can't talk about Him enough. You can't drive away
His people. That drives them to Him. The
more you talk about Him, like moths are attracted to the light.
His people are attracted to the message of Christ. They rejoice
in Christ Jesus. You know who comes to hear Christ. Christians. Christians. They love Christ. They're the
followers, they're the disciples, they're the lovers, they're the
students of, they're the lambs, the sheep, the followers of Christ. If you have a birthday party,
let's say it's Brandon's birthday party, okay? All right, we have
a birthday party in his honor. It's all about Brandon, isn't
it? It's all about Brandon. That's his day. So who will come
to your birthday party? Your enemies won't come, will
they? It's those that love you. It's
those that love Brandon. Those that want to honor Brandon.
That's who's going to be there. They want to be there. And if
they love Him enough, they'll lavish Him with gifts and honor. Well, who comes to hear Christ?
Pretty simple, isn't it? They rejoice in Christ Jesus.
And the more you talk about Him, the better they like it. And
you can't talk about Him too much. Preacher can't preach Him
too much. If Christ is all, Brother Scott
used to say that, Christ is all to you if He's all you got. Christ
is all if He really is. If He's all your hope, all your
salvation, all your righteousness, all your peace, all your confidence,
all your trust, your foundation, your eternal life. If He is your
salvation, you want to hear a man get up every time and tell you
about Christ again, don't you? Tell me again now how Christ
died for sinners. Tell me that again. They rejoice in Christ Jesus.
It's not grievous. They love it. They love it. And
thirdly, look at the next thing, and I quit with it. The true people of God, they
worship God. They come to worship God, to
praise, honor, and thank Him, and do it in a manner befitting
our Lord in reverence and fear. And they do it in the spirit,
from the heart. They don't need all this stuff. And this is actually
the next point, and they rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
come to hear Him who loved them and washed them from their sins
in His own blood, and they have no confidence in the flesh. That's the three mark. So this
is the true people of God. They're not known by their dress.
They're not known because they have bumper stickers that say
they are a Christian, how much they love Jesus. In fact, that
pretty much tells you they don't. They're doing it for their honor
and glory. It always has a big I in front of it, doesn't it? I love it. That's the phylacteries. I know you've said that many
times. They do it to be seen of men. It's not how they dress. It's not how they blow a trumpet
before them. It's who they worship. It's who
they talk about, who they honor and pray. Rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. No. No confidence in their
own flesh. See, salvation is not in what
we do. Nothing. Not even our faith. Our faith doesn't save us. Faith
is the result of salvation. It's not the cause. You know
that? That's right. A woman, which
comes first, life or realization of it? Life. A baby in a mother's womb
is alive. And it's only a few months later,
after they're born, that they realize it. But they're alive. No confidence in our flesh. No
confidence in what we do, what we are. No confidence in things
of the flesh. No confidence in any man. Your
confidence is not in the preacher, but it's in the one he preaches,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. No confidence in the flesh. It was Martin Luther, I believe,
who wrote this. He said, don't trust feelings. Don't trust any
feelings. you know, religion, modern religion
wants to make people feel good and drum up some kind of feeling
of spiritual things, you know, that's why they have all this.
It's all about the flesh. They're trying to appeal to the
flesh. You can't trust that. A dream, a sign, a vision, don't
trust that. Might be bad pizza or something
you had the night before. Don't trust that. We trust the
living Lord. We trust his word. We trust who
Christ is, what he said, what he's done. Don't trust feeling.
And Martin Luther wrote this. He said, feelings come and feelings
go. Don't trust your evidences. Don't
trust your tears. Don't trust your feelings. Don't
trust anything but the bare word of God. But the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. There'll be days you feel like
you're a believer and days you feel like you're not. Days you
feel like you have some evidence of salvation and days you feel
like you don't. So what's your hope? It's in Christ. Dare not trust the sweetest friend.
He went on to say, feelings come and feelings go and feelings
are deceiving. He said, my hope is in the word
of God. a son of God. Nothing else is
worth believing in. Worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Is that
you? I hope so. Okay. May the Lord bless them.