We'll be in Philippians chapter
3, but I'd like to begin, if you would, with Matthew chapter
5. Before you turn to Philippians,
turn into Matthew chapter 5 for a moment. Those of you who were with us
on Friday night Bible study may remember I asked for prayers
on a message that I was going to bring this morning titled,
God Does Not Die. God does not lie and God does
not try. Well, the Lord gave me something
else. That happens occasionally. We
think we know what the Lord wants us to preach on and then as we
sit down and start putting things together, Pastor Gene has told
me and shared with me many a times where he had a message completely
typed out, all the notes that he wanted to put together, and
by the time he got from his office to the pulpit, it had changed. Thankfully, that has not happened
to me yet, but I'm sure the day will come when that very thing
may happen. So I appreciate your prayers,
though. Today, I wish to bring some encouragement Encouragement to you, my dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, as our brother Paul wished to
give these saints in Philippi, it is my desire this morning
to lay before you a banquet, a feast, one that will feed the sheep
of God, and if it be the Lord's will, possibly be used by the
Holy Spirit to call one of His elect unto life through the truth
of His Word. Paul was incarcerated for preaching
Christ and Him crucified. I've said this many times over
the last few weeks. We've been looking into several
books, several things were in the letters of Paul, and we need
to keep that in mind. Paul was being persecuted. Not persecuted for going out
and doing something wrong. Persecuted for preaching Christ
and Him crucified. That was Paul's message. He says,
I wish to know nothing of you save Christ and Him crucified. The whole counsel of God, from
the beginning of this book to the end, is exactly about that. It's about Christ and Him crucified
for His people. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ
saving those whom He has loved from before the foundation of
the world. And each and every one of you who have heard the
truth and had that truth applied to your hearts by the Holy Spirit
is one of the loved ones of God. Not for any reason that we have
done. Not for anything that we might do in our lives, because
we have no confidence in our flesh. Isn't that correct? But
because of what our Savior has done for us. That's grace. That's unmerited
favor. That's love for His people. Oh,
how I wish I could love my loved ones that I do love as good as
my Lord loves me. I love that woman sitting right
there. But my love for her is as a human. Someday, someday,
and the same thing goes for you, young lady. Someday, Leanne,
we will love our loved ones as perfect as our Lord loves us. Paul was incarcerated for preaching
Christ and him crucified, for preaching the gospel. Preaching
the gospel is always going to bring judgment and criticism
from the outside world. The fact that Jesus Christ preached
is a stumbling block to all of the world around us. Those who
don't want to hear about the truth of his sovereignty. Those
who don't want to believe that it is His will, not ours. Those
who don't want to believe that it is Christ that gives life
to hear His word. They draw us criticism. Those
who are on the outside of Christ, they hate Him. And so they will
hate you and I, too, as they hated Paul. But though we are
surrounded by false religious self-righteous legalists, That's a long list of things
against them, huh? Listen to this. Though we are
surrounded by those kinds of things, the religions of the
world, and I'm not talking about Muslims, not talking about Buddhists,
I'm talking about those who claim to be Christians but believe
in a different Jesus. Though we are surrounded all
around us by that, our strongest enemy, is ourself. It's our own pride within us. I believe that's the battle that
Paul was talking about when he said, the Lord hath given me
a thorn in my side to buffet me. Satan is allowed to rear
up his ugly head in our lives, just as he did in the life of
Job. Do you know that Satan, when he reared up his ugly head
against Job, it was only by the power of God allowing him to
do so? Go about doing what you want
to do, but you cannot take his life. He belongs to me. And there is one who died on
the cross to save his life, just as there is one on the cross
who died on the cross to save each and every one of our lives,
those who belong to Christ. Our pride and our self-worth
is our thorn in the side. Now there are many things we
can call a thorn, a besetting sin. But pride, I believe, is
the biggest one and the hardest thing to deal with in all of
us. Paul said, oh wretched man, that I am. Not that I was. All those things that Paul had
done, he knew that it was nothing but dung. All those things that
Paul had spent his whole life learning about, he knew it was
nothing but dung. Yet there in that day, he said,
O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body
of death? The very body that he had that
moment. Are you in Matthew chapter 5?
I want to look at some things here. In Matthew chapter 5, beginning
at verse 1, we read these words, And seeing the multitudes, He,
our Lord Jesus Christ, went up into the mountain, and when He
was set, His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth,
and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Now I want to stop there for
just a moment. We're going to look at some of these things. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. Blessed are the humble, is another
word to put that. Humble. Pride takes away all of our humble,
humbleness. Pride puffs us up, makes us feel
better about ourselves, doesn't it? Is that not the natural thing
for us to do? Look, you know, I'm going to
go down this week and I go down and I feed the poor. I go down
on Thanksgiving and stand in the soup line to feed the poor
folks that come in there. And thank God for people who
do that. But we're talking about the pride
that rears up its ugly head within each and every one of us. Coming
to this table, which we will do this afternoon, can feed our pride if we're not
careful with it. It can puff up the flesh. I take
communion twice a month with my church. I got baptized. You can put that right along
with, I worship on Saturday. You can put that right along
with, well, I got sprinkled when I was a kid. You can put that
right along with anything that you want to conjure up in your
own imagination. Our pride is our biggest and
most worst enemy within ourselves. Look at verse 4, blessed are
they that mourn. The people of God, you've heard
me say this several times in the past few months, that man
sitting over in the corner, the publican who was beating on his
chest, that's God's people every day. Lord, have mercy on me. Every
day I fight the sin that is in this flesh. Lord, have mercy
on me. I mourn. Do you mourn over your sin? for they shall be comforted."
Those who mourn for the sin that's in their flesh, they look to
Christ. We look to our Lord and Savior
as our only righteousness. How can I be comforted as I have
to walk through this valley of the shadow of death in this flesh?
I look to my Lord who is my righteousness. Verse 5, blessed are the meek.
Blessed are those who talk better of others. Those who think better of others. This country sure has us mixed
up with that, don't they? Oh, how easy it is for us in
today's world to point our fingers. Those people over there, look
what they did to this country. Look what these people are doing
to the country. That's not talking better. Folks, I would be right there
with them. And each and every one of us,
but for the grace of God, could be walking the very same steps
anyone else on this world is walking. The faster we realize
this and bring this to our heart, the more the blessing will be
for us as the meek. Blessed are they, verse 6, which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. How
do we hunger and thirst after righteousness? Not by seeing
any righteousness of our own. Once you start to see a righteousness
of your own, you start not to hunger so much, don't you? See,
I'm not such a bad person. Once you start to thirst after
a righteousness that you can perform yourself, you don't have
that yearning desire, that yearning. Thirst means that it's a desire,
it's something you have to have. When you get thirsty, you know,
you reach over here, you grab a glass of water and you drink. If you're not thirsty, you don't
drink. Oh, to be thirsty for the Lord
Jesus Christ and His gospel. Blessed are the pure in heart.
That's not me. Oh, wait a minute. The Spirit
of God dwelleth in me. My heart is pure, isn't it? I
know you can't see it looking at this body. But my Father,
which is in heaven, as Bill was mentioning earlier, my Father,
which is in heaven, look down, and what does He see? He sees
the blood of His Son. In my heart, He sees His Spirit
as pure as His Son. Each and every one of God's children
whom He died for on the cross is seen the same way. My purpose is to give you encouragement
that as you go through this world, this valley of the shadow of
death, it's nothing more than that. It's just a shadow. If
you be one of God's elect, one of His chosen, one of His loved
ones, He died on the cross for you. If you've never heard that
before, may He place it to your heart today. May you have the
heart to receive the truth that Christ has loved a people from
before the world was ever created. And because of that perfect love,
He came to this earth as a man and sacrificed His flesh for
you and I. That we would be with Him for
eternity. Verse 9, Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
the peacemakers. Not those who stand between two
people fighting and say, oh, wait a minute. Hold up, everybody. Let's think this out. No, we're
talking about the peacemakers of the heart. Folks, there's
only one place to find peace, and that's in our Savior, the
Lord Jesus. Verse 10, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Those who hate our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, hate you and I, as well as Him, because they
have hated Him first. Verse 11, Blessed are ye, when
men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Now, if you would,
turn over to Philippians chapter 3. Paul is being persecuted for
that very thing. Because Christ loved Paul, just
as He has loved every one of His children. Those who are blessed,
we have read about, are those who have had the truths of what
we are before a thrice holy God. Those who have had the very truths
revealed unto them. Meekness does not come natural
to mankind. Lowliness is not a natural thing. Did you know that a person who
seems, let's just use Mother Teresa, for example. I don't
mean to point her out as anything in particular, but is she not
portrayed in the world as a very meek and lowly woman? Did you know someone like that? I thought this would be easier
than it's going to be because I knew my mom was going to be
here today. I see my mom that way. Those who seem as meek as that
woman called Mother Teresa can be just as sinful as a brute
drunkard, or a whoremonger, or a murderer, fornicator, adulterer, or any unbeliever. If a person's heart, I don't care how meek they seem
to be, I don't care how wonderful a person they seem to be, don't
you ever talk bad about my mother to me. But this is the truth of God's
Word. If it's not for Christ, the true
and living God, the Christ of Scriptures, then all that person
may do, no matter how good it is, no matter how meek it may
seem to you, it is but sin. Now I know that that speaks out in a major
way about loved ones who have never come to the Lord. But that's God's Word. We are all sin, including that sweet little lady
we called Grandma. The natural man or woman will
take pleasure in their meekness. It is our very nature to be righteous,
at least in our own minds. Many put a great trust in what
they think is faith. They may say, my faith is this,
so I must be saved. They may say, I have repented.
so I must be saved." They might have said, I made
a decision to follow the Lord so I must be saved. Everything that we can conjure
up in this carnal mind of ours, everything that we can conjure
up in our own imagination as a way that seems right, to our
own mind will do nothing more than lead us to hell. We must
come to Christ according to Scriptures. In John 14, 6, we read these
words, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. This verse that I just read for
you is one of many that brings great joy to the hearts of God's
elect. You see, we know that we were
never looking for God. Once He has opened the truths
of His Word to our hearts and shined His light in our hearts,
we see that once we were in blindness, we're like the blind man who
can now see the blue skies. We're like somebody who's turned
the light on in the room where it was pitch black. You ever
do that before and put your hand up? Kathy and I, we've been in
a couple caves ourselves. Mom took us to a place called It's in Tennessee, Chattanooga,
Tennessee, those falls. We walk down into this cave. And the guy says, OK, hang on
to the guardrail. And you hang on to that guardrail.
And you get all the way down to the bottom. You can hear the
falls, but you can't see them. And then he turns the light on.
And they're right there in front of your face. I mean, you're like five
feet away from it. You're getting wet from it. It's
like that. That's the Lord revealing His
Son in the heart of one of His elect. The light comes on. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
rules over everything. We see that the sovereignty of
God in choosing us, not us choosing Him. And we say, thank You, Lord,
for Your grace. Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy
for coming into my heart and not leaving us to ourselves,
do we not? Do we not see the love of our
God and His mercy and grace to us? We rejoice. We rejoice over verses like that.
Or what about this one in John 15.6? Our Lord says, you have
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit. We rejoice in our Lord being
the author and the finisher of our faith. We rejoice in these
words. Salvation is of the Lord. How much do you think Jonah thought
about it as he came out of the belly of that fish? The day that
the Lord delivered him on dry ground. Remember, Jonah was on
a boat and they threw him off the boat. He said, like Christ,
he said, throw me overboard. I'll be the sacrifice for this
ship. And they threw him overboard
out in the sea. And here he is now on dry land.
What was his words? Salvation is of the Lord. I didn't have anything to do
with it. And I know it because I can see that. Isn't that the way it is for
each and every one of us? We see our salvation in Him and
in Him alone. Look here with me at verse 1
of this third chapter of Philippians. Finally my brethren, writes Paul,
rejoice in the Lord. That's what we do. We rejoice
in Him. There's nothing in John Reeves
to rejoice about. I have nothing in myself. I have nothing in myself but
The pain. The pain of sin. The pain of
unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. I'm the guy over in the corner
crying out, have mercy on me. But I rejoice in the fact that
He does have mercy. Oh, if it wasn't for His mercy,
then I wouldn't have no hope at all. Paul begins chapter 3 with the
theme and the watchword of every believer. Rejoice in the Lord. Or in other words, Christ Jesus
is our chief in joy. He is our joy in the greatness
of His person. The very fact that He is God
in the flesh. That means that everything He's
done is perfect. and has accomplished exactly
what it was supposed to do. My salvation is in Him and it's
accomplished. I don't have anything to worry
about. I'm happy and joyful for the fact that He's done it all
for me because I know I can't do it myself. Do you know how
many people are walking through the world today saying, I know
I can do it myself. I can do better. Thousands of
people join those self-help seminars every day. Those guys are making
billions of dollars off of people putting out their money. Talk
to me, tell me how good I can make myself by if I would just
change my mind and do this differently. God's people know that it has
to be of Him and Him alone. And because it is of Him, and
because of Him alone, because He is God of the very God, we
take great joy. Our joy is in the fitness of
His incarnation, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
as Henry Mahan wrote. It wasn't some spirit on high
who came down and said, okay, sin is no longer going to be
a tribute to you. No, it was one who became flesh so that
He could be made our sin. For us to be His righteousness,
He had to be our sin. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. We rejoice in the Lord in the sufficiency of His righteousness
and of His atonement. It's perfect because He was perfect. Salvation is of the Lord. We
rejoice in Him because of the comforts of His providence and
purpose. Our brother Don Jukic is going
through this right now. You know, I spoke with Don Friday
night. in the Bible study. And he was
so upbeat. Actually, no, I talked to him
on the phone. I'm sorry, it was on the phone on Friday before the Bible
study. He was so upbeat. Yeah, I know
this sore is, he's a diabetic. And as you might know, he's already
lost one leg. He was, John, whatever the Lord,
it's the same thing I heard from your husband. That brings joy to my heart.
I rejoice in the fact that God's people give God all the glory,
even in the times of trial. God's people take great joy in
His providence and His purpose, and we take joy in the glory
of His intercession and of His return. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful the Lord
sits on His throne right now saying, I've already paid for
that one. Put it aside. That one has already
been laid upon me. This one has already been laid
upon me. All of that person's sin has been laid on me, our
Lord says. There is now no condemnation. No judgment. How are you going
to charge us with something that's already been charged to our Savior
if He perfectly put it away? And He did. Oh, you know the devil's sitting
there trying to, don't you? Remember what John did? No, I
don't. Remember what this one did? No, I don't. This is what Paul is telling
the people of God in Philippi. The saints and the brothers and
sisters, those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, I know
you're walking through a world of sin in this flesh. I know
the sin is all around you. It's all within you. But we have
a hope. the hope of glory, our Savior. Quit looking to the flesh and
look to our Lord and Savior. Then Paul writes in the second
part of that first verse, he writes, to write the same things
to you is not tiresome. Why is it not tiresome? Because
it's food to the soul. It's grace and mercy to the one
who needs it. I need God's grace. I need His
mercy. Not just one time. Not just that
one day that I sat here in the pew and I heard a man speak about
the truth of Christ. I need His mercy every day. I
needed His mercy to get up and put a message together. How often
do you need His mercy? as it is for Paul, and in fact
as it is for all of God's chosen preachers, to repeat the gospel
of Christ over and over again is not tiresome. Because it's
necessary. It's what gets us through. It's what reminds us that this
flesh is to be put away. It keeps our thoughts and our
hearts on Christ, our foundation. It keeps us from errors of false
teachers. You know, I heard that guy over
there saying that if I would just go to the front of the church
and pray a prayer, I'll be saved. No, it won't. That's not God's
Word. That's not putting my trust in
God Almighty, in His Son, the Lord Jesus. That's putting my
trust in something I'm doing. That's me making a prayer. Folks, when truth is repeated,
the truths of God help guard us against self-righteousness
and other errors. Look at Philippians chapter 3
verse 2. Next Paul says, after giving
them reason to rejoice in the Lord, the very thing that Paul
preaches about, he gives us a warning, he says, beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision, These are false teachers who
mix works with grace. Those who say, God is gracious. It's by the grace of God that
you are saved. If you'll just come down to the front of the
aisle and pray a prayer and accept Him into your heart, you shall
be saved. They're mixing grace with works. works with grace
and you cannot do that. Those who are imposing the works
and the ceremonies of the law upon the Gentiles as being necessary
for salvation, Paul uses the same name on them which they
used to give to the Gentiles. They used to call the Gentiles
who had no idea of what the grace of God was towards His people,
they used to call them dogs. That's what he's writing about
here. He's calling the very ones who preach lies, dogs, Gentiles,
unworthy of God's love. He calls them evil workers because
they misled the people. They deceived them and perverted
the gospel of Christ. That man who stands there on
TV every Sunday morning and says, if you'll just send me more money,
you too can be saved, is deceitful to beyond all deceit. So beware of the circumcisors,
those who mutate the flesh for sanctifying purposes. Circumcision
served its day as a token of the covenant. And it may be recommended
today as a hygienic situation, but that's all it is. A picture. It's not even that anymore. Our
Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the things of the Old Testament,
including circumcision. It takes the Spirit of God to
come to a child who has a dark, stony heart, as you and I each
of us had at one time, and cut that stone away. That's what
the circumcision is all about. It's cutting away the stone.
The stone of flesh, the stone of the heart, and replacing it
with a new heart. God Almighty, the Spirit of God,
is the one who does that to the heart. Look at verse 3. For we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh. We who are the true circumcision,
those who have had the circumcision of the heart. They have the name,
those who don't have the name, the form, or the outward sign,
they call themselves Christians. We have in Christ and in the
new birth, it's fulfilled. It's the difference between having
the lamb of the Old Testament sacrificed and having Christ.
We don't need the lambs anymore. Jesus Christ is our lamb. We
don't need to be circumcised anymore, not other than maybe
for hygienic reasons. Because Jesus Christ is the one
who fulfilled that too. True circumcision is having the
heart pricked, laid upon by the Spirit. True circumcision is
the renouncing of our old righteousness. True circumcision is the heart,
not the flesh. It is to draw nigh to God with
the heart, not with the body. It is to rejoice in our completeness
in Christ, having no confidence in the carnal descent, tribe,
or family, or ceremonial law." Henry Mahan. Folks, our salvation
with God, our acceptance with God, are only in Christ. not anything connected with our
flesh. We worship God in the heart and
in the spirit, not in our outward rituals or ceremonies. We rejoice
in Christ in whom we are complete, as we read in Colossians 2, verses
9 through 10. For in him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and Paul writes this,
he says, and ye are complete in him. That means there's nothing left
to be done. God doesn't look down upon you
and I and say, oh yeah, OK, you've been sinning, and I don't see
you sinning anymore. But there's a little bit over there that
still needs to be polished up. No, He looks upon us as complete
in His Son, perfect. We have no confidence in our
flesh, our own fleshly works, nor do we have any confidence
in anyone else's. Verse 4, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, Paul writes, if any other man
thinketh that he might trust in the flesh, I more. Paul is
illustrating the point using himself. He says, if there is
any value in our family ties, if you put any value in ceremonies,
religious works, or performances, outward obedience to the law,
he says, I have more room to boast than any of those false
teachers. How did he know that? Because he was one at one time. Blind as a bat, as they say.
So blind that when the Lord came into him, you recall on the road
going after the church, he was blinded for three days. Verses 5 through 6. circumcised,
he goes on to say, the eighth day, talking about how he had
room to boast if it was things of works or things of this world.
He says, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching
the law of Pharisees. Listen to the list that Paul
gives here of, see, if these false teachers have something
to boast on, I have more. He's talking about his past,
verse 6, concerning zeal. He had a zeal, all right, but
for the wrong God. Persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness, which is under law, blameless. As far as his
mind was concerned, he was a pretty good guy. He had it all down.
I go to church on Sundays. See how good I am? Verse 7, but what things were
gained to me, he says, those I count lost for Christ. In other words, Paul at one time,
he felt that all these things he had listed off were necessary
for acceptance with God. He had felt that they were necessary
for righteousness and entitled him favor with God. See what
I do? When you think you do something
that entitles you to the favor of God, mercy and grace are no
longer grace. Grace means unmerited favor. When God revealed Christ to Paul,
he saw that all things to be that he had within himself were
worthless. Either Christ is our sanctification,
our sacrifice, our righteousness. Either he is the fulfillment
of all these. or he is nothing. And that's
exactly what Paul was saying. Colossians 311, we read this,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Sathanian, bond or free, but Christ is all in all. That's what God's people come
to the point of Christ is now our all in all. What is the fruit
that is produced in you and I? We look to our Savior. We no
longer look to this flesh, we look to our Savior, our Lord
for everything. He becomes our all in all. Look
at verse 8. And I'll make this quick, we're
only going to go down to verse 11 I think. Yay, doubtless, I
count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus. Paul has had the light of God
shine in his heart and that's the only light that's worth anything
anymore. All that other stuff that I used
to do means nothing. It means dumb. Now you all know
what that means. If there were children here this
morning, I would say, go ask your mom and dad after church. 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. Verse 9, And to be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law." Now, I
want to read that again. "...and be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through..." Listen to these words carefully. "...through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That's my title this morning,
the righteousness which is of God. Remember I started by saying
I have a message I hope will encourage you. Folks, we don't stand in the
righteousness of our flesh, we stand in the righteousness which
is of God. or we have no righteousness at
all. Paul goes on to say in verse
10, 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." Henry Meehan wrote this, he says, this is my determined
purpose, is what Paul is saying. This is my one desire, is what
he's saying to the saints at Philippi. my soul and my heart's
sincere hope, which is threefold, and I pray that it is your heart's
desire as well, and I pray the same for you. First, that we may win Christ and be
found in Him, not trusting or having any self-achieved righteousness
in works or in deeds. Possessing that genuine righteousness,
that true righteousness which is of God, which comes through
faith in Christ. Did you catch that at the end
of verse 9 there? The righteousness which is of
God by faith? It was accounted to Abraham as
righteous as what? His faith, his belief. God told me something and I believe
it. God is telling you and I something.
Do you believe it? What do we have to worry about?
If God before us, who or what could be against us? And I'm
speaking to me. I hope God is speaking to you,
but I'm speaking to me. Because there's enough stuff
that goes on in my life every day that worries me. Am I saved? How can a guy who's saved think
that thought? How can the anger come out of
a man who's saved that quickly? You know what I mean. Somebody
cuts you off on the freeway, As a professional truck driver
at one time, I got pretty angry about those kind of things. Don't
ask Kathy. Don't ask her to tell you a story
about that once. Just don't ask her that. Kathy, don't tell them. Listen to these words, Colossians
1, verses 21 and 22. and you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." That's God's Word
to us. We are holy. Unblameable. Unreprovable. No matter what
you see in that flesh and God help us to turn away from it.
God help us to fight those desires of the flesh. God help us to
turn these eyes away from what we see in ourselves and turn
to Him. And if He does, He looks upon
us as perfect as Himself. That's good news folks. That's
the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for His people. Now I want to close, if you would,
turn over to chapter 4 of this same book. Chapter 4 of Philippians, and
we'll just read the scripture and call it that. Look at verse
1. Paul goes on, after telling his
brothers and sisters in Christ this encouraging words, look
to the Lord Jesus, don't look to self. He says, therefore,
my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown,
so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Now, jump down
to verses 4-9. Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say, rejoice. Let our adoration be known unto
all men, the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request
be known unto God. And the peace of God, which patheth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus." Finally, brethren, Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are
good, report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things. Those things which have both
learned and received and heard and seen in me, do. And the God of peace shall be
with you. I have not stood before you this
morning with any encouragement to look to you. In fact, I've warned you. Don't look to you. Look to Christ. Stand fast in the righteousness
which is of God through faith in our Lord and Savior Christ
Jesus. Amen.