see would become a man and walk on this creation that
he did, lowering himself to be a servant. All that power, everything that you and I could
ever even think of, if not more, and he lowered himself, he humbled
himself for our sakes. Having a little bit of umption
of what love is by, you know, the fact that we love our wives,
we love our husbands, we love our children, we love our family,
we have just a little teeny picture, we see through glass darkly,
of the magnificent, wonderful love that God has for his people. What can sever us? What can sever God's people if
He loves them? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'd like to speak to you this
morning on a subject. The title for my message is From
Religion to Rest. I'm talking about religion, its
activities, its endeavor, its wheels spinning, and its uncertainty. From all that stuff, all those
things that we see in religion around the world. Religion. or rest. If you're interested in this
subject, I'd like you to open your Bibles to Philippians chapter
3. This particular chapter of Philippians
is clear. It's a very clear message to
this generation that you and I live in right now. I'm going
to try to make three points if you're taking notes. We have
three different points and those points are this. Paul's exhortation,
Paul's experience, and Paul's expectation. First we have in
verses 1, 2, and 3. Let's read that if you would.
Chapter 3, verses 1, 2, and 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, To write the same things to you, to me indeed,
is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ, and we
have no confidence in the flesh. Let's actually go ahead and continue
through to verse 14 and then we'll come back to these three
verses. Circumcised the eighth day, no verse four, though I
might also have confidence in the flesh, Paul goes on to write,
if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust
in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the
Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count
all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ. and be found in him
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I
count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which were behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Three things we see there. First,
we have in verses 1, 2, and 3, Paul's exhortation or advice. Secondly, in verse 4 through
7, we read of Paul's experience. And then in verse 8 through 14,
we have Paul's expectation. Now here's my prayer. And I've already said it a couple
of times in the prayers that I was allowed and honored to
lead this morning. My prayer is this. I am asking
God this very thing. Lord, Spirit, Lord, Spirit of
God, I ask you this morning that if you will anoint this particular
message and make it a blessing to everyone who hears it. Religion
or rest. A poet put it this way. He says,
we have listened to the preacher and truth by him has been shown. But we need a greater teacher
from the everlasting throne. because application is the work
of God alone. As it says in scripture, we must
be taught of God. As we saw in our Bible study
with Peter, who was it that was teaching Peter and the apostles
of who God is? It was Jesus Christ himself,
God Almighty in the flesh. This message may reach your ears,
but it will never reach your heart unless God, His Spirit,
reveals it to you. Let's look at verses 1 and Philippians
3. In Paul's exhortation, in his
advice, he says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. This is the theme of every believer.
Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how often you hear from the
pulpit of God's preachers, put everything of your flesh aside,
don't look to yourself, give glory to the only one that glory
goes to, and that is to our Lord Jesus Christ. For all that He
gives us, all that we learn from Him, everything comes from God,
even the very air that we breathe. Rejoice in the Lord. He is my
joy. He is my song. He is my cause for rejoicing.
This rejoicing is not in myself, but it is in Him. I have no cause
to rejoice except within Christ. I rejoice in Him. He is my only
cause of rejoicing. He is my source of joy. He is
the foundation of joy. I said a minute ago, we have
a little inkling of what love is, because God has given us
this ability to love our neighbors, to love our family. Well, it's
the same thing for everything else. We understand a little
bit about joy. The more I see of my Lord and
Savior, the more I understand what joy is, and the joy is this. God Almighty, salvation is of
the Lord and of the Lord alone. The Lord is teaching me over
and over again every day to have joy in that very fact. To have
joy in my Creator and what He's done for me. I rejoice in His atonement. I
rejoice in His sin offering. I rejoice in His ascension. I
rejoice in His intercession. And I'm going to rejoice in His
return. And I will rejoice in His presence
forever. Paul said it this way, he says,
we can even rejoice in our afflictions. We can rejoice in our trials
knowing that they come from Him. We know that they are working
together for His glory and for our good. In fact, David said
it this way, rejoice in the Lord at all times. Let His praise
continually be in your mouth. So that this is the first exhortation
of the Word of Advice that Paul gives us to we, the believers. He says, rejoice in the Lord.
And you're not going to find much outside of Christ which
is to rejoice in. Tell me what you can rejoice
in in the news of the world around us. I remember conversations with
my dad about what was going on in his time, Calvin Samuel Ellis. I remember him telling me of
the things of the problems of the world at that time. And you
know something? They really weren't any different than they are today. We may see it more because of
all of the media and we're so quick to see it on our little
internets and stuff like that. But these things were going on
in the world all around us. What do you think Hitler was?
The Reformation. Catholics going out and killing
people in the name of God. Things haven't changed, folks.
We're not going through anything different than people haven't
been going through since the day that Adam sinned. Rejoice in the Lord always. Then
he says it this way in his exhortation, to write the same things to you.
To me is not grievous or tiresome, but for you it is profitable. They must have said about Paul
what they say about all of God's true preachers. And they also
say of me, and they say of Pastor Gene Harmon, and they say of
Don Fortner, and they say of Milton Howard, and Donnie Bell,
well, if you've heard This preacher, one time, you've heard him every
time, because he preaches about the same thing every time. I
heard an excellent message. I was stumbling through the radio
and I caught Don Fortner on YouTube. Yeah, on YouTube. I saw a picture
of him and it said live. I had to stop and watch that.
It was great. It was fantastic. I was on my
break at work, and all of a sudden I'm watching Don Fortner preach,
and you know what? He preached the same message
he preaches every time he's been to this church on a Tuesday night. Exact same message. It wasn't
any different. Sounded just like the same message.
It was from a different part of scripture. But it sounded
just like the same message that he's preached every time he's
ever been here. I can't wait for Pastor Gene Harmon to get
here. so that I can hear him preach the same message that
he's preached from this pulpit for the 20 years that I've been
sitting here. I can't wait for Lance Heller
to get here. He's in the States. They arrived,
I think, a week or so ago down in Texas. They're with their
youngest while she graduates from college. And they'll be
up here in about 17 days or so. They'll be up here May 17th in
Marysville, Friday night, Saturday. And I'm not sure what the exact
schedule is, but I think it's three different messages. He preaches the same message.
That's what they say about sovereign grace preachers. That's what
they say about God's preachers. Why do they preach the same message
over and over again? They can't preach something new. To write the same things to you,
Paul says, to me is not grievous or tiresome. I'm never going
to tire, folks. As long as God gives me the inspiration,
I will teach and preach the exact same things that I'm teaching
right now, that I teach last week, I will teach next week.
Christ Jesus and Him crucified. This is what Paul is saying,
that he preached the same things, and to write the same thing,
and to declare the same gospel is not tiresome. I will not only
rejoice in the person and the work of Christ, I will rejoice
in the gospel over and over and over again. It never gets tiresome. I remember a lady who once came
here for about a year. And she said, finally, I just,
I need something more. This is not enough. And one of
the brethren said to her, Christ? Christ, your Savior, is not enough? I don't know where she's at today,
but the last time I saw her, she wasn't under the gospel anymore. She wasn't under the gospel of
the true preaching of Christ. It was all about what things
could be done. Let's help the poor. Let's do
this. Let's do that. The preaching of the gospel never,
ever gets tiresome. He said, not only is it not tiresome
for me, but it is profitable for you. And the reason because
hearing the gospel over and over again will keep your mind on
Christ. Oh, how quickly we can walk out of those doors and walk
into the world and forget all about our Lord and Savior. Hearing
the Gospel over and over again will keep us from self-righteousness. When we hear about the depravity
of our flesh, we'll forget about those wonderful things that we
think we can do. Hitting the golf ball straight
down the fairway, see there? I can do it. Hearing the Gospel over and over
again keeps us from the errors of the Spirit. How can you hear
of His love and not have love? How can you hear of the God Almighty
humbling Himself and becoming a servant to you and not be loving to those around
you? How can you hear of His mercy
and not show any mercy to others? How can you continually continue
in His grace and not be gracious to others? How can you hear over
and over again how He was rich, but for your sake He became poor? How can you hear that and not
be generous? Do you see what I'm trying to
say, folks? To hear the Gospel of who Christ
is. is what guides us, it's what guides me. It reminds me that
I am in the flesh and weak, but it reminds me of who I'm
to look to for my strength. It reminds me not to have confidence
in that flesh, but to have confidence in the one who saved me. Hearing the Gospel over and over
again will keep us from the false doctrine. We won't be susceptible
to every wind of doctrine that may pass us by, one that passes
over our head or comes near us. So Paul says, Rejoice in the
Lord, to preach and to write and declare the same Gospel to
you, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, over and over again. I will never
get tired of it, and it is profitable for all of you who hear. And
then he says, Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware
of the concision. What's he talking about? I got
a dog next door. If you're afraid of her, I got
to tell you, she's got no teeth. My daughter has a pit bull. Very
intimidating. Until she jumps in the lap and
licks your face to death. And then it's like, oh, she's
just a little puppy. Beware of dogs. What is Paul talking about
here? He's talking about false preachers.
He calls them dogs and that's what Isaiah calls them, dumb
dogs. They are greedy dogs and they
care only for themselves. He calls them evil workers of
iniquity. That is what Christ called him
at the judgment in Matthew 7. They said, we have preached in
your name. We did many wonderful works. We cast out devils. And
what did our Lord say? He said, depart from me, ye workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. That's the
dogs Paul is warning us about. I guarantee you, go tune into the
TV. There's a guy that, I don't know
how he does it. Even when I didn't know the Lord,
it was just the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. But now that
I know the truth about our God, I can only chalk it up to that
he's another one of those people who have been given the strong
delusion of a false thing. And he's greedy as all get out,
because that's all he does is he asks for your money every
time you turn around. Beware of dogs. Beware of these
evil workers. Beware of the concision, the
circumcisors, the false preachers who glory in the flesh. And they
glory in the numbers of the people that show up in their church.
They glory in the outward show. Look at what we have, this glass
cathedral. Look at what we have, this wonderful
place that just burnt down the other day. I saw something where they were
asking, what in the world were they doing? Why didn't they just
go to another place? They all had to gather there
on Sunday morning, even though they were outside? Somebody burned
down our beautiful cathedral. Beware of dogs. They glory in
these things. They glory in vastness, greatness,
how many there are, and they glory in how much, how big, and
how long they are. He said, Paul said, rejoice in
the Lord. Beware of these fellows. Don't
be taken in by them. He also says that we are the
true circumcision. We are the true Israel. We are
the true sons of God. He gives us in verse 3 three
marks of those who are true preachers, who are true Israel, and who
are the true sons of God. He says, here are three marks
of those people who belong to God, and who glory in God, and
who are the servants of Christ. First of all, they worship God
in spirit. They worship God in their heart, not in form. We're talking about the form
of like people walking up and down the aisle with swinging
their incense burners. Or come down to the front and
kneel at the prayer stool. Or stand up in the restaurant
and pray, thankfulness for the food that's before you. Paul's talking about in the heart. What do you worship in your heart? Who do you look to in your heart? Those who are the men of God,
the women of God, they worship not in tradition, not in ceremony. not in candle burning, not in
fleshly displays. This is not how they worship
God. They don't have it to all stand at the same time and sit
at the same time or hold up your hands at the same time or say
the same things. It is not in eating at the same
time or forming a processional. They worship God in heart, wherever
they are and whosoever they are. Our Lord says, pray without ceasing. You know what that means? It
doesn't mean you walk around with your hands like this all day long
like some of the religious folk do. There's a man that has attended
this church for a long time. And he might even be sitting
here today, but I say it that way so you don't know which one
I'm talking about. But he talks to God all the time. I've heard him on the roof of
a building when he thought nobody was around speaking out, thank
you Lord that I didn't smash my finger. That's a child of
God. One who talks to the Lord all
the time to his heart. Thank you Lord for the food I'm
about to eat. Even though I'm the only one
in the room, I don't need to say that out loud. We speak to our God because we
have union as one with Him. He's more than just somebody
who's sitting on a throne up there doing something. No, He's
in my heart. He's part of me. He's part of
you. We worship God in the Spirit.
God is the Spirit. And He says, they that worship
God, worship Him in Spirit. It is not in the form or tradition
of fleshly displays or these sorts of things. This is not
worshipping God. Worshipping God is when my heart
adorns God. When my heart praises God. When
my heart bows to God. When my heart understands that
I am unworthy in the presence of my Creator. just as Peter
understood that he was unworthy to be in the presence of his
Creator at that beach, along that sea. Secondly, not only do they worship
God in spirit, they rejoice in Jesus Christ. And in Christ alone,
He is their wisdom, He is their sanctification, He is their righteousness,
and He is our redemption. We rejoice in Christ We look
to Christ and we rest in Christ. We trust in Christ and our faith
is in Christ. Thirdly, we have no confidence
in the flesh. None at all. What flesh are we
talking about? Here when it says we have no
confidence in the flesh, we are not saying that we don't have
confidence in any man living. I do. People told me yesterday,
we'll be there. Don't you worry about it. We'll
be there. We're going to give you a hand. We accomplished a lot yesterday. Walls were torn out. The truck
is full of stuff to go to the dump. Brand new windows put in. The bedroom is painted. If you
know of anybody who lays carpets, I'm willing to pay. Need a carpet
layer. I trusted that these men who
said they would be here yesterday were going to be there, and they
were there. So it can't be talking about
that, huh? We do trust some people in the flesh. I trust my wife.
Been married to her for 43 years. We've been through a lot together. I pray she trusts me. You tell me you're going to do
something, I put my trust in that. So it can't be talking
about that, can it? Nope, he's talking about putting
our confidence concerning our relationship with God. As far
as the forgiveness of our sins and as far as our acceptance
with God, put no spiritual confidence in the flesh. Don't put confidence in your
works of righteousness. Oh, but John, look at all the
good stuff I've been doing for people. I mean, I went out and
I fed the poor last week. Don't put any confidence in that
stuff. Go and feed the poor, please do. They need it. They're
hungry. But don't look to that as the
means of your salvation. Don't look to that as signs of
your salvation. Do it, but do it for the glory
of Christ, who is merciful to you, so you therefore are merciful
to others. Don't put confidence in your
works or your righteousness. Don't put any confidence in your
religious feelings. You ever seen the groups, they
call them charismatic people? You ever watch one of those services
go on? I had to sit in a pew one time
with a friend of mine. I've told you about that one.
That's the one where all they talked about was raising money
for an ambulance. That was one of those charismatic
places. And people would be doing this, and this guy was jumping
back and forth across on the stage there. Some guy come up
alongside and scared me, actually. I was like, man, what in the
world is going on with this guy? He come up, and he was down on the ground
crawling. And they were doing all these things. And I asked
my buddy, I said, what's going on here? He says, they're filled
with spirit. It's a spirit of feeling, a feeling
of spiritualness. Confidence in your feelings can
lead you to big mistakes. Don't be confident in your feelings,
or your religious emotions, or even worse, your religious professions. Don't put any confidence in your
morality, especially your morality of the flesh, for this flesh
is not moral. It's not moral at all. and this
flesh is not spiritual. This flesh that we have on us
is carnal and it is fleshly. Could my tears forever flow?
Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could never atone.
God must save and God alone. So when Paul says that this is
the mark of a true believer, that he will worship God in the
Spirit, he will not worship Him in tradition, form, ceremony,
or outward show. He won't call Him Lord God with
just his lips. His heart loves God. He rejoices
only in Christ and he has no confidence in the flesh, no confidence
in experiences, no confidence in his duties, his works, his
doings, or his feelings to appease to appease the Holy God or anyone
else's doings. Do you see what I'm saying about
that? Do you understand what I'm talking
about as far as confidence? Well, this is a great exhortation
that Paul has been giving us. Rejoice in the Lord. Keep to
the Gospel. Don't put any confidence in the
flesh as far as God is concerned. The Scripture says, in the flesh
no man can please God. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Christ told the people this, He says, The flesh profiteth
nothing, for all flesh is grass. Isaiah exhorted the preacher
saying this, Comfort my people and cry out. And the servant
said, What shall I cry? And he said, Somebody cry. And he said, What shall I cry?
What do they need to hear? There are two things. All flesh
is grass and behold, Your God, Jesus Christ. What do you think? Is that a good exhortation
to hear from Paul? One who persecuted the church.
One who was blinded when he saw the love of God for him. Blinded
to all those things that he once did. And turned away from those
things. All flesh is grass and behold
your God. Now look at verse 4. Let's look
at Paul's experience, shall we? I'm going to go a little long
here, folks. I apologize. There is no power
in the flesh. We can't have any confidence
or peace before God in our religious works, our deeds, or our duties.
But yet we can certainly have some confidence in men. Men and women. Many people are
true to their word and they will die trying to be true to their
word. They will die trying to fulfill
their promises and you can believe them. It could be an awful situation
if you couldn't believe anybody, couldn't it? Do you have confidence? Oh, you know what? I got a little
backwards there. Do you have any confidence in your flesh?
Paul said, if you do, then I have more. He said, if you have confidence
in your flesh, I have more. And then he went on to prove
that by declaring who he was, what he did. He said, I was born
of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
I was a Pharisee, and I was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was taught
at the school of Gamaliel. He says, I'm zealous for the
law and for truths of the Old Testament. I was blameless before
the law. And I was most respected more
than any of around me. I was religious more than any
around me. I was a teacher to my whole nation. So there you
have it. But look at the next verse, verse
7. But all of these things that were so important, all these
things that were gained to me, Paul says, I thought were good. I thought were good and I thought
were very, that were gained to me. All of this. flesh and all of these duties,
all of this self-righteousness, I found to be utterly, utterly
worthless. Lost in the light of God's holiness
and God's justice. I found these professions, these
experiences, these gifts, these doings of righteousness, and
I found them rather than helping me, they were a stumbling block.
Because he could see his own righteousness, he never saw the
righteousness of Christ. He was blind. They were keeping Him from God's
mercy. They were keeping Him from God's
Messiah who stood right in front of Him. No, that was the other
one, sorry. And they were keeping Him away from Jesus Christ and
the true righteousness of God. So He heaped all of those things
together Those things that were big. Those things that were great
and powerful in his life before. Important aspects of his whole
life. As they are in every area of
religion. And he heaped them all together
and he said, I count them lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ my Lord. I'll tell you this, there are
people who come to see And there are those who come to understand
through the preaching of the Word. Those who come to see usually
walk away. Those who come and understand
through the preaching, God has given the gift of a new heart. By the power of the Spirit, they
quit playing the games of religion. They quit going through the motions
and they quit looking back to the old experiences. They quit trying to find peace
in their works and their self-righteousness. People who come to see through
the Word of God, the awesome, infinite holiness of God and
the righteousness of God. People who come to see through
the preaching of His Word, they see the awful, utter ruin of
humanity and their spiritual deadness. They come to see the
inability of the flesh, even in its best state. trying to
please a holy God. People come to see the glorious
gift of God's grace, the unspeakable gift of God's love. They come
to see Christ Jesus in this person, in his works, in his obedience,
in death, in his suffering and sacrifice. They come to see in
his mandatory and mediatory intercession. And all who see turn their backs
on their own traditions and their old experiences. just as Paul
turned his back on all of his religious beliefs, and they turn
their backs on the old religion and on their old works and they
count all those things but loss, that they may win Christ and
be found in Him. Our repentance not only includes
repentance for sin, but it includes a repentance of dead works. and
a repentance of our righteous rags. We turn loose all of our
idols and return to Christ. That is what Paul says and that
is what his experience was. He is saying we are the true
Israel who worship God in spirit and in heart, who rejoice only
in Christ, who have no confidence in anything that is anything
identified or related to the flesh where God is concerned.
We have no confidence. Do you have confidence in the
flesh? Are you going to try to go back and prove that you were
saved by something that happened 30 years ago? Are you relying
on a feeling or an experience or a profession? Or are you going
back to an experience down in the woods, behind the barn, under
the shed, or at the front of the church, or at the mourner's
bench? Or are you going to try to bring
that before the Almighty? Are you trying to say that you
lived right? Are you going to bring those things, those fleshly
rotten rags before God as your covering? He said you can put
all of yours together and I will top everything that you can have.
Paul said I was this, that and the other. I was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews and a Pharisee of the law. I was before the law,
blameless. And those things that are gained,
that I held to, that I looked to, that I rested in, that I
built upon, I count them lost that I may win Christ. Think
about that. You might say, but preacher,
I've given my life to religion. Paul was 40 years old. He had
given his life to religion. He had not only given his life,
but he had given his soul. Imagine, imagine what Paul, have
you ever looked back at your sins? Ones that you wished you'd
forgotten? Ones that maybe you committed
a long time ago? How often do you think Paul had to look back? and see those that he had killed
or had a part in. I've never taken a man's life,
and I pray to the Lord I'll never have to. But I have things, just as all
do, that I would like to look back and forget about. He killed for what he believed. That's how religious he was. He took the lives. He had blood dripping from his
hands because of what he believed. All right. Now we know what Paul's
experience was and we'll bring this to a close in a moment.
Let's take a look at his expectation. He said, yea, without doubt,
I count all these things but loss. He was talking about his
family. Paul was very religious, was
in a religious family. Back in those days, whatever
religion you were a part of, you were a part of that, your
whole family was a part of that. If you left your religion, you
were excommunicated from your family. Today, in some places
in the Catholicism world, it's still that way. If you marry
outside the church, you're gone. You can't come back. He was talking about his family,
his friends, his future, his works, his deeds, his efforts. He was also talking about his
traditions. The things that he had learned in his heritage.
And he's even talking about his profession, his experiences,
and his morality. My friends, if you want me to
make it stronger, he said it this way. He says, I'm not only
counting these things but lost, but I'm counting them but dung. Not just was it a loss, but it
was dung, garbage, rubbish, that I may win Christ and be found
in Him. All those things that Paul thought he was doing right, It was dumb. It meant nothing. In fact, it was an impede to
him. We're talking about religion or rest. Do you want religion? Go to another church. Go find
it somewhere else. If you want rest, we talk about
that here. This is where people come to
put all that religious stuff out of their lives and never
deal with it again, but lean on the Lord Jesus Christ and
rest on Him alone. And by doing that, you hear the
Word of God, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. You want good works? Go somewhere
else. We're a small church. We don't
have a lot of funds. What do we do have? We're putting
back into the property. I don't take a salary. Why? I'm glad it's that way. I'd be tempted to start, you
know, let's start a little food stand out here for the homeless
in the area. I'm glad we're a small church. Can you imagine, at one time,
Paul thought he was finding favor with God. But who he was, by
who he was, and what he was doing? Oh, when God reveals His holiness,
Paul said, I died. When Paul saw his own sin, the sin of his religion, And
where he lived, he saw the worthlessness of all his deeds in all those
years. He saw Christ as his perfect
righteousness. He saw Christ as his Redeemer.
He saw Christ and he was satisfied. And he saw Christ as the fulfillment
of God's requirements. Paul says, I renounce everything
that I've ever done, ever said, never given, or ever claimed
to be, and I renounce it. I count it as done. He lost ceremonial
bondage and he gained Christ's freedom. He put religion away
and he rested in the Lord. Let me give you one last thing. Here's Paul's expectation in
these verses. Paul declares that he has three
goals. Remember now, this man was wrapped
in religion. He was wrapped in false rags
of religious tradition. This man gave his very life to
that religion, that morality, that law, the do's and the don'ts,
the misery of that religion and its tradition, and God broke
the shackles. And God set him free in Christ. God brought him
to the Redeemer. He made him a new creature in
Christ, just as he has made each and every one of us. Taking us
out of that darkness that we once walked in and putting us
in the light of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, now Paul loved God from
the heart. He served God, not for reward
and not out of fear, for he loved the Lord. He loved the Lord because
the Lord first loved him. When he was awakened to the holiness
of God, he saw Christ as his righteousness, and he said, I've
got three goals. First of all, that I may win
Christ and be found in Him, not having an unrighteousness of
my own, which is of the law, for the law does nothing but
expose my corruption and my confusion, and yours too, if we get a good
look at it. So I want to win Christ, and
I want to be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but of the righteousness which is in Christ
Jesus my Lord. Because of His obedience. Because
of His faithfulness. Secondly, that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrected life. We might say, well didn't
Paul know Christ? Oh yeah. So what he's saying here, he's
saying that he wants to know Him better. You get the idea of that? More
about Jesus would I know. Christ laid down Himself for
our sins and He died for them. He came out of the tomb in the
power of God and the glorified body. Paul says, I want to know
something about the power of that resurrected life. I want
to know something about the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to
be counted worthy to suffer for His sake. I want to bear my body
the marks and the scars of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want
to sit on the sideline and watch others engage in this battle
of truth, in this battle for His glory. I want to be right
there in the middle of it. I want to know the fellowship
of His saints. I want to walk with Him like Enoch of old did. This is my goal, to win Christ
and to be found in Him. Do you have a friend that you
know, that you've known for two or three years or five months
or so? Well, when you've known him for five years, will you
not know him better? Will you not walk closer with
him? Of course you will. That's how a real friendship
works. Well, that's the way Paul is talking about Christ. I want
to walk close to him. I want to be there on Sunday
to hear about my Savior. And his third goal is this, that
I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead. He said, I haven't
already attained it. He says, I am still in the flesh. I am not perfect. His goal is
that I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. You
know these people who claim to be without sin and claim to be
perfect? Nothing makes me more madder than a holier than now. See what I've done? See how I
act? That's the way the world looks
at Christians today because of all the false doctrine that's
being teached out there. See the good man that I am? I've
never told you that I'm a good man, and I'll tell you right
now, I am not. I'm a sinful man like anybody
else is. You may not like all the things
that I do now, That's okay. My Savior is my Savior. He's
the one who's taking care of John Reeves and who he is. I'm not perfect. Never going
to be. Until I stand with my Lord in
His presence. had this flesh removed. He says,
I haven't laid hold, apprehended, laid a hold upon that which I
apprehended of Christ. Nevertheless, he said, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press forward to the mark and
the prize of the high calling of Christ my Lord. What is our
high calling? Our high calling is to be with
our Lord and Savior forever. What we deal with right now is
only for a moment in time. These are my goals. Did you notice
that Paul didn't mention anything about a crown or a reward? He said, I want to win Christ,
know Christ, and rise from the dead and be in His glory. What
are your goals? What are your goals this morning?
You want to be religious? Is that your goal? You want to be
a better person? We all want to be better people.
You know what I'm talking about there? Where do you want to be
in grace? Do you want to rest in Christ? Stand with me if you would please.