Our devotional, once again this
morning, is brought to you by Pastor Gene Harmon, pastor of
this church for 38 years, serving the rest of his life, him and
his wife's life, with their family back in Indiana, in Kentucky. He wrote an article from Hebrews
10-12 where we read the words, this man, He says, this man, in the above
verse of Holy Scripture, is Jesus Christ the Lord. Not only is
He the God-man, He is God's man, who was ordained before time
began to be our blessed Redeemer, our great High Priest, the surety
of His chosen people. When they went into the holiest
of holies, the high priests of old could not sit down. Why? Because their work was never
finished. And their sacrifices could never
take away sins. You can read that in Hebrews
10, 11. But this man, God's man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. A picture
of finished work. This man, by his one offering,
obtained eternal redemption for us, as we read in Hebrews 9-12.
This man, by his perfect obedience to the will of God the Father,
through the offering of himself, sanctified, set apart, made holy,
and perfected forever those he obtained eternal redemption for.
This man, the man Christ Jesus, is seated in heaven on His sovereign
throne of power, not only as our blessed surety, but also
as our sovereign God who rules and reigns over all creation. He is Lord of all. Amen. Bow with me, if you will, please. Our Sovereign God, Creator of all that is, perfect in every way, our Lord Jesus Christ. His name
shall be called Jesus for He shall save His people. Oh Lord, we thank You so much
for this revelation. Revelation to the blind, as we
heard Mike singing about. What grace, what mercy you have
for a people, rather than leaving us to ourselves, calling us out of that darkness
because you have loved us from before the world was. What amazing grace, indeed. Lord, be with us this morning. Give us eyes, ears, and a heart
to believe. We come to you, Father, seeking
mercy, knowing that we don't deserve
anything, Father, yet it pleases you to be merciful. be merciful to us this morning.
We ask this in the name of our Savior, Christ Jesus. Amen. Once again, we consider the words
of God's servant, the Apostle Paul, in his letter that he wrote
to the saints at Philippi. A letter of love, a letter of
gratitude, a letter of encouragement. Paul's words were meant to edify,
in other words, to build up. To encourage us, to keep us on
that path to God. Our path to the Lord and our
Savior. Oh, how we can wander off that
path at times, can't we? Paul meant his words were meant
to edify the church as a whole. These very words are for all
of God's church. Throughout all of time they are
words for you and I to read with encouragement. Just consider
that this is Paul actually speaking to you and I. This is God speaking
through Paul. The inspired Word of God. Yes,
men wrote the Word down on paper, but it was the Holy Spirit of
God that moved in men to write these words. They were written for the entire
Church of God throughout all of time. The whole Book of God
is a letter of love from God Himself to His saints, to His
chosen, His elect as He calls them in 1 Peter. A people, as I said in my prayer
a moment ago, that He has loved from before the very foundation
of the universe. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. That's what He says. Can you comprehend that? Can
our carnal minds understand the depth of what that means? I can
tell you this, it means this, that He became a man. That God
Almighty left His glory in heaven and was born of a virgin so that
one who is of the flesh could shed His blood for His people
and pay for their sins. That's a love that I never get
tired of talking about. That's a love for me. That's a love for every one of
God's children. everyone whose names were written in the Book
of Life before the world was ever made. He has loved us with an everlasting
love, a love that He set in His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, a
love that cannot be thwarted. It cannot be turned. Unlike you
and I, where we see love turned on and off in all the things
around us of this world, and don't tell me you don't, because
I know you do. I know what the flesh is. I know how easy it
is to turn love off to certain things. I used to love that. I don't love that anymore. Now
I love this over here. God's love never turns. Unlike
you and I, His love is perfect and complete. a love that brought
Him to become a man, a love that brought Him to sacrifice His
own life, that we who were dead in trespasses and sin might live
in His Son, the Lord Jesus. We left off last week at verse
16 of chapter 2 in Philippians, and from verses 17 through the
end of chapter 2, Paul speaks of two brothers in Christ. Timothy,
and forgive me for this, I do my best, Epaphroditus. That was probably just, I'm so
sorry. These two men whom Paul wishes
to send to Philippi. So read with me if you will verses
17 through 30. Yea, and if I offer upon the
sacrifice and the service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. For the same cause also do ye
joy and rejoice with me, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to
send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort
when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded
who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own,
not the things which are Jesus Christ, but ye know the proof
of him, that as a son with a father he hath served with me in the
gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently so soon as
I shall see how it will go with me." Remember, Paul was imprisoned. He was under house arrest for
preaching the gospel. But I trust in the Lord that
I, verse 24, that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I suppose
it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor
and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered
to my wants. For he longed after you all,
and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had
been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto
death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me
also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I send him therefore
the more carefully, that when ye see him again, you may rejoice,
and that I may be of less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the
Lord with all gladness and hold such a reputation, because for
the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his
life, to supply your lack of service towards me." Now there
was a lot there and I don't want to skip over scripture because
you never know when the Lord's going to open up something to
somebody. I'll tell you, there's often times where I may just
be reading something and I'm not really referring to it, and
I guarantee it, Bill's back there in the back, and he's like, oh,
you see that? You're writing down notes. Our
Lord speaks to each of us differently. And I don't want to skip over
anything our Lord is saying, because everything He says is
important. This brings me to chapter 3.
Read with me if you would, verses 1 and 2. Paul says, finally,
after all that he's put forth in his thankfulness and his admonition
and building up and encouragement, he says, finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. for you it is safe." And he goes
on, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of Now Paul begins this chapter
3 with the theme that every believer of God has in their own heart. Rejoice in the Lord. Why do we rejoice in the Lord?
Well, if you're a child of God, you have been brought to know
what you are before God. Oh, how it was for me at one
time to walk through the world thinking that I wasn't that bad
of a guy. I didn't hurt anybody. Well,
not badly. Well, not in actuality, maybe
in my mind. I say that for that reason, because
do we not all fit into that very same mold? You see, we come into this world
thinking a little something of ourselves, don't we? Look how
cute he is. He's such a cute little boy.
And that thought in that little boy's mind, and I can tell you
this because this was what was in this little boy's mind, is
how do I get to that cookie jar that I was told not to get into?
How do I get into this that I was told not to get into? We come into this world thinking
way more of ourselves than we are, and it has to be revealed
to a dark heart that the heart is dark. before the heart can
see the light. And because our Lord has not
left us in that darkness, we rejoice in our Lord and in Him
alone. Folks, Christ Jesus is our chief
joy. In the greatness of His person,
being the very God, a very God Himself in the flesh, I rejoice
that the Lord became flesh for my sake. I rejoice in the fitness of His
incarnation. He was bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. And I take great joy in the sufficiency
of His righteousness. He was perfect in every way,
God in the flesh. Why is that so important? Because
I need a perfect righteousness to be in the presence of God,
and there is no perfect righteousness in this flesh. It doesn't get
any better. We don't become more sanctified
as we go along. We don't become more holy. Christ
becomes more holy to us because we begin to see what we truly
are. We've come to realize because
of His revelation to us, because of the gift of faith, that there's
nothing in this flesh that we can count on. The moment we start thinking,
oh, see how much better than I was last week? We're falling.
We are stumbling our toe. We are being brought to a position
where we are going to fall flat on our face so that we turn from
what we see in this flesh. And that includes our feelings,
that includes our faith. You cannot be saved without faith,
but you must remember that it is not your faith that saves
you. It's His faithfulness. Great
is His faithfulness. that he didn't leave John to
what John deserves, or anybody else that he calls my children,
my people. I take great joy and comfort
in his providence and his purpose. Tell me if I'm wrong here, but
can we not say that about this virus going around? Can we not
say that about a time that's coming up just in a few days?
An anniversary of something terrible that happened in this very country
of ours when some crazy people flew planes into a building and
killed so many people in just an instant moment. Gone. Oh, and I could go on and on
and on with all those kinds of things, huh? Yet knowing this, that all things, as we know, Mike, Romans 8.28,
as we know, all things are for the good to them that love God,
to them who are called. I take a great joy in the glory
of His intercession for me, knowing that when I did sin and I thought,
the mind went through my mind as I'm driving down the freeway,
you cut me off for it. He's making intercession for
me right now. Or how about the innocent sin? Can it be described like
that? I don't think it can be described
like that, but I'm going to use that word because it's pointing towards
what people don't think is sin at times. What about my lack
of faith? What about my lack of thinking
my Lord is in control? What about the times in my life
when I think, I can cover this. I'm good. I can handle this.
What about those sins? Even in those sins my Lord makes
intercession for me. And that brings a great joy to
me. Paul then writes, he goes, to write the same things to you
is not tiresome. He rejoices to repeat the gospel. of Christ over and over, for
it is necessary, he says. Why do you think we come to this
table? It says it right on the front of the table. Remembrance. Why would God tell you and I,
do this in remembrance of me? Because he knows how forgetful
we are. It's not tiresome for me to stand
before people who come here every Sunday, or maybe haven't been
here in a while, or maybe the first time here. It's not cumbersome
for me to tell you about my Savior. Right, Mike? Isn't that what
we're doing? That's all we can do here. Can't make you believe But I can tell you about the
One who can make you believe, because He rules over everything,
including the will of men. It keeps our thoughts and our
hearts on Christ the foundation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. It keeps us from errors of false
teachers. Beware. It keeps us, when truth is repeated,
it guards us against self-righteousness and other errors. And folks,
that's our biggest sin. Self-righteousness. Thinking
more of us than what we are turning. Then in verse 2, the warning
is given once, I've already read that, sorry. How often, how often
we seek the blessings of joy. Knowing who the true and living
Christ is. Yet we ignore His warnings. Our Lord says in verse 2, beware. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. Turn to the book of Jude, if
you would, for just a moment. Mark your spot there in Philippians.
We'll come back to it. This epistle by Jude was written
as a general epistle, meaning that it was written to all throughout
time. Paul's addressing the saints
at Philippi. He addresses the Corinthians.
He addresses the Galatians. Jude is addressing all of God's
saints throughout all of time. It's what's called a general
epistle. And Jude is listed in Acts 1.13 as one of the apostles. He's listed under the name of
Judas, not the Judas of Iscariot. And the design of this epistle
is to exhort believers to continue in and contend for the faith. It's to describe false teachers,
to point out their principles, their practices, and their dreadful
end so that we, we might shun and avoid them. In verses 1 through
3 of Jude, it addresses once again a particular people, if
you would read with me. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
and the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God
the Father, and preserved in Christ, and called. Them who are sanctified, set
apart as it is saying, That word can be used two ways. It can
be made holy or separated. God's people are separated out
of the world. We have been put apart. Israel was separated from the
world. God didn't love the whole world,
folks. I don't care what people are saying from the pulpits today.
Our Lord says over and over and over in His Word, I loved a people. My chosen, and Israel is a picture
of that. They were set apart by God the
Father, they were preserved in Jesus Christ, and they were called
by the Holy Spirit. To you who are the children,
the redeemed, the righteous, the holy, listen up! It is needful
for you to hear these words. Beware! Matthew 13, verses 21-21,
our Lord Himself tells us this out of His own mouth. He says,
And then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, hear Christ, or,
Lo, there, believe not. For false Christ and false prophets
shall rise, and shall show signs, and wonders, and seduce, if it
possible, even the elect. Oh, what it is to be one of God's
elect and not to be fooled by the flesh anymore. To read His
Word and see it as true. Not just part of it. Not just
the part that I want to believe in, but all of it. Every bit
of it. We must beware of them and their
false preaching, but Christ is our securement against them.
He will never let us go. We are His, bought and paid for,
paid with the precious blood of the Almighty, yet He warns
us. He warns us and He says, beware. Why does God give us warnings
if we are kept in Him and by Him? The answer is very simple and
I'm going to read it for you because it's the sake of time. Our Lord was going through a
great tribulation in the garden at Gethsemane. He was about to be made sin.
The perfect man was about to have the sins of everyone of
his elect laid upon his body. The weight of those sins were
going to become so much that the flesh sweat great drops of
blood. He was with a couple of the disciples. He'd asked them to come along
with him. He'd gone off a few feet further than they were,
laid down, or kneeled down, and prayed for the Father to remove
this cup from him. And then he said, nevertheless,
thy will be done. And he said in verse 37, and
he cometh and findeth them, those men, sleeping. And he saith unto
Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Couldn't you just stay awake
for a little bit, Peter? That's what I would have been
saying, you know. Our Lord was saying it with love, because
listen to this. He says, watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation. What's the table for? To remember
our Lord and Savior and what He has done. He knows how forgetful
we are. Pray, lest ye enter into temptation. He says, the spirit truly is
ready, but the flesh is weak. And again, he went away, and
he prayed, and spake the same words, and when he returned,
he found them asleep again. For their eyes were heavy, neither
which they what to answer him. And he cometh to third time,
the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep now." Okay, you see
the compassion our Lord had? I'd be done. You can't even stay
awake for a moment to be with me? I've left friends better than
that for lesser reasons. But our Lord loves His people. Sleep on now, He says to Peter,
and take your rest. It is enough, the hour has come. The hour that our Lord and Savior
was to go to the cross has come. For you and I, He tells us to
take our rest. Folks, our flesh is weak and
the devil comes dressed in white remnant. He comes roaring like
a lion. He claims to be as the Most High. He wishes to sift you and I.
How does he come? Look with me, if you would, in
verses 4-10 of the book of Jude. For there are certain men crept
in unawares." Now read this careful. Read this careful. We're talking
about a God who rules everything. These men who came creep in unawares
were who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. ungodly
men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, that
means turning it into evil, turning grace into men's works, that's
lasciviousness. And denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels was kept not their
first estate, but left their own habitation he hath reserved
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great
day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth
are put forth as a picture for you and I, for an example, suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers
defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."
Mike and I were talking about this walking into the fellowship
hall this morning. The world has made truth a lie. The craziness that's going on
around us that makes no sense in the world around us is because
the world enjoys lies. And they've made lies truths.
You know, if you go about telling a lie enough times in a group
of people, after a while they'll all believe it. I tried that when I was in high
school once. It works. I didn't try it, but the teacher
tried it, trying to show us something. I was part of it. Verse 9, Yet
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute
beasts in those things they corrupt themselves. These are those who
turn the word of truth into lies. Those who take the works of Christ
and make it worthlessness, by adding something done by man
to the Lord's grace. We are saved by grace, not of
works, lest we should boast. Do not most who walk this earth
desire to do good things, even though those so-called good things,
those good works, are merely a boast of self-righteousness? Look what I did today. Our Lord
tells us, don't let the right hand know what the left hand
is doing. Why? It's because we'll start
bragging about what the right hand is doing. I've seen it. I've seen it in me. Folks, we may find it tough to
keep our eyes open at times. We may well be caught asleep
at times. Oh, how quickly do we turn from
the God we love, yet by His mercy, by His grace, He turns us back. He turns us through the chastening,
through the loving kindness of a father. He corrects us as a
loving father corrects his child, and then He warns us to keep
on the path. I think I've shared this with
you before, but my dad once told me, He lit a cigarette with a
cigarette lighter, and he put it right back in the pickup dashboard. He said, now John, Uncle, I don't
even remember what my uncle's name was anymore, we're going
to go in the barn for a minute. Do not touch that. Man, as soon
as that door closed to that barn, I could not wait to pull that
out and touch it. And I learned a lesson at that time. Listen to Dad. Our Lord is giving us a warning.
The body is weak. The flesh is weak. Chastening
can be painful. I don't want to go through that
kind of pain again. I'm going to, but I don't want to. Look
at verses 11 through 19. Speaking of these ones who turn
our Lord's Word, who turn the grace of God into works of men,
who deny Jesus Christ for who He is, God Almighty, the ruler
of everything. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way
of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward,
and perished in the gainsaying of Cor. These ones, these are
spots in your feasts of charity and love. When they feast with
you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without
water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without
fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of
the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom
is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Verse 14, And Enoch, also the
seventh of Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord
cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon
all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all
their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all
their heart speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak of great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage. But beloved, Paul's done, I mean,
Jude's done describing these ones, now he's talking to you
and I directly. But beloved, Remember ye the
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last
time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they
who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye,
beloved, building up yourselves on the most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. Keeping and looking for the mercy
of our Lord. Did you notice that it didn't
say looking for something you could do? Did you notice it didn't
say going out and doing loving things for the people around
us in the world? No, it said, keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. In 2 Corinthians 13, 5, we read
this. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. How do
I prove myself? The Bible study we heard this
morning pointed us directly to it. I can't convince you of anything.
But I can tell you what I believe, and I believe God. Not part of His Word. Not a little
bit of His Word. I believe all of it. I don't twist it. to make my
heart feel good. We all want to think that the
whole world is going to be saved, but it's not. The world is cursed,
and we were part of that curse, and our Lord took our curse on
Himself. Pray, He said, that ye fall not
into temptation. This is how we examine ourselves.
Is my faith in anything that I have done? Or is it in anything
that I do? Is it in anything? Anything? My mind? My thoughts? My feelings? My works? If you are trusting, In anything
of your flesh, mind, or body, you have a false hope. Our faith must be in the only
hope, in our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. It is in who He is, it is in
what He has done, and it is in what He is doing right now. Allow
me the honor, for those of you who weren't here during Bible
study, to read a poem. It's titled, Believing, written
by Mike Lovelace. God helped me to read this as
well as he did. Believing is my only proof of
what scriptures say, that Jesus Christ is very God and washed
my sins away. No worldly man would never comprehend
that as my proof, but instead would seek a logic that he would
seem to him as truth. That way that seems so right
to man demands a proof that he can justify within himself, but
only logically. He'll seek a scientific source,
for that seems right and true, but believing on the Lord by
faith, he'll never ever do. The natural man just hates the
fact that it takes God to do a work of grace within him before
he can see the truth. He wrongly thinks himself the
source of choosing to believe and sets upon a phantom quest
while very much deceived. Believing God is childlike faith
that rests on Christ alone. trusting as an earthly child
before the child has grown. It's foreign to the natural man,
having not been born again, dependent on the only way that seemeth
right to him. Believing God is more than just
a way that seemeth right, more than just a proving source that
fits a man's appetite. Believing God is faith in Christ.
The gift of God to see performed within the sinner, bringing him
reality. We are saved by grace through
faith. A gift that God gives people
who had no faith. Faith is not something you just
conjure up, it's a gift of God. Go back now to Philippians, and
we'll bring this to a quick close. Philippians chapter 3. And while
you're turning back there, allow me to read from the book of Revelations. Revelation chapter 7 verse 13,
we read this. You're turning to Philippians.
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these
which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night
in His temple. And He that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of water. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Folks, our only hope is that
our robes are washed in His blood. He is our all in all. Look at
verse 3 of chapter 3, verse Philippians. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
all in all, or He's not your Lord at all. God help me to turn
from my flesh, to turn anything that may be
confident in what I have in the flesh, and to turn away from
it and walk in His Spirit. Lord, circumcise my heart that
I might worship You in truth and in spirit. Rejoicing my Savior,
taking no confidence in my flesh. Amen? Stand with me.