I really don't remember. Who
can remember this year if that's for sure or not? I know every man that gets up
here to preach says that it's a privilege to do so. You know
why they say that? Because it is a privilege to
do so. The Apostle Paul said that we've been allowed of God. We've been entrusted with the
Gospel. And any man that God has called,
John, you know this, don't take it lightly. No, you can't take
it lightly. So it is a privilege to be here. And I don't have to tell you
how much I love your pastor. He's been a dear, dear friend
to me. In many ways, he's been a pastor to me. I appreciate
him so much, him and Mindy. Teresa and I just love them. Good morning now. Turn with me
this evening to Philippians chapter 3 if you would and just hold
your place there for a moment. Let me tell you while you're
turning that I was doing some reading here a little while ago
and ran across some very interesting yet staggering statistics concerning
this world's religion. Did you know that in today's
religious world in the polling of adults in America, statistics
show that 65% of the population in the United States claims to
be Christians. 65%. Even harder to believe is
that this percentage was 75% five years ago, 78% eight years
ago, and 85% in 1990, 20 years ago. people professing to believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, you and I know that
those figures are way off. If there was an accurate way,
I suppose, to calculate the correct figures and percentages of true
believers, those who actually believe and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ for all their salvation, that figure would be much, much,
much lower than that. I would say probably less than
1%, maybe even a half a percent. Why, in the county, Hopkins County,
where Teresa and I live in Kentucky, there are 18,000 people. And I got out the phone book
or the directory recently, and there is over 150 self-professed churches in our
little area, 18,000 people. Every single one of them claimed
to know and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say this
with great sadness, actually. I know of no other church in
our community, I bet you can say the same and you can too,
John, of no other church in our community that preaches Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. If you declare such a thing to
be so, as far as disagreeing with these statistics, you'll
probably hear something like this. So y'all think that you're
the only ones that know God. Have you ever heard that? Y'all
think you're the only ones that know God. Recently I overheard
someone telling one of their friends that the Spirit of God
had moved in a mighty way in their Sunday worship service. So much so that the pastor never
got around to preaching. That's not worship. That's not
worship. God is worshipped in the preaching
of the Gospel. God is glorified in the preaching
of Christ. God is worshipped in the salvation
of sinners. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save those that believe. Salvation is how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And modern
day religion is not telling sinners how that Christ died. They're
just not. It seems that no one is preaching
Christ and Him crucified. Men today are telling their hearers
all that they're doing for God. We're doing this for God. We're
doing that for God. But nobody's telling sinners
what God has done for them. Those who worship God and His
Christ according to the glorious truth found in the Scriptures
is a very low percentage. I don't know why that surprises
anyone. The scriptures bear witness to
that very fact. Why only eight people out of
the whole world's population that lived in Noah's day got
into the ark and were spared from the flood of God's wrath.
Eight! That's far lower than 65%. Only two, two men over the age
of 20, just two out of the two million or more that exited us
out of Egypt with Moses entered into the promised land. Two.
That's a much lower percentage than one of us. And that gives us some clarity
and some credibility to what the scriptures talk about many
and few. Many and few. Narrow is the way
that leadeth unto life. It's a narrow way indeed. And
few there be that find it. Just few. There's no wonder why
our Lord said, strive to enter in at the straight gate. For
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be
able. So for a few minutes tonight,
I want us to consider what it is to be a true believer, what
it is to be a Christian. That word, it's a shame, but
really that word Christian, religion has almost made it a dirty word.
Everybody claims to be a Christian. But there are true Christians,
those who love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul tells
us very plainly here in our text who a true follower and a true
disciple of the Lord Jesus is and what proof that they are
so. Now I have three qualifying characteristics Paul and I were
talking about this afternoon. He preached from this text I
think last year. when I was here. And he may have mentioned this
afternoon, don't you love the passages of Scripture that just
outline a message for you? And that's kind of what we have
here. There's three qualifying characteristics, three certain
marks of a man or woman who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here in Philippians chapter 3, notice in verse 1 that Paul,
writing here to the church of Philippi, warns the believers
there of false teachers. They've been around ever since
our Lord was on earth, before them, but they've been around
in abundance ever since the Lord Jesus died, was buried, and rose
again and ascended. He begins this way, verse 1,
finally my brethren, and this I might add includes you sisters
too. He says, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
in who? Rejoice in the Lord. He's the
one we rejoice in. That's a key statement in the
matter of salvation. Jesus Christ is the chief joy
to every true child of God. Well, He's our message. He's
our message. The true child of God rejoices
in the greatness of Christ's person. Why? Jesus Christ is very God of very
God. The true Christian rejoices in
the fact that God became a man. Jesus Christ is bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. And a true believer loves that.
Oh, I love to think about that. He became what I was apart from
sin in order to redeem me and give me His perfect righteousness.
Have you ever heard any better news than that? The true believer
rejoices in the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness that is
imputed to them. He gave me His perfect righteousness.
He took my sin. He was made to be sin for me
that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And I wear that
righteousness as my only hope before God Almighty. The believing
child of God rejoices in the comfort of Christ's providence
and in God's sovereign purpose in working all things together
for His people's good. Aren't you glad that God's on
the throne and He's working all things for your good? Shout of
God. My, that is such a comfort to
the believer. The elect of God rejoice beyond
measure in Christ's substitution and His sacrifice and His intercession
for them as their one mediator, their great high priest and their
surety before God. Now that word rejoice there in
verse 1 actually means, and I loved this when I looked it up, it
means to be calmly happy. Calmly happy. The child of God
is calmly happy in the Lord Jesus Christ. One who looks within
for comfort, one who looks within for assurance and happiness,
never find it. Never find it. But a true believer
who looks alone to Christ to accomplish the perfect perfection,
the perfection that God requires, sees that in Christ they have
it and they're calmly happy. Believers are calmly happy knowing
that their God and Savior does all things well. Mike, he does
all things well. And He does all things for our
good and we can rest happily and calmly in who Christ is.
We can calmly rest and be happy in Him as our Savior and our
substitute. We can calmly rest and be happily,
calmly happy, finding great peace and joy in having His perfect
righteousness as our own. We can calmly rest and find great
happiness in the fact, as I said, he's working all things. And
that's all things, not just some things, but all things. for our
good is His people who are being called according to His purpose.
Now Paul goes on to say here in verse 1 that to write the
same things to you, speaking of the gospel of redemption,
speaking of the gospel of God's grace, the gospel of Christ's
substitution, Paul says, to me indeed is not grievous, but for
you it's sane. Paul is saying that he rejoices
to write these things and to preach them again and again and
again. You know, I know sometimes, I
know you men that preach know this, we prepare a message, we
write some things down, we pray that we don't need our notes,
but we write things down and we think to ourselves, I said
this Wednesday night. I said it last Sunday. I said,
surely, they're going to get tired of hearing it. No, no,
no. Not a believer's not. Isn't that
right, Rowland? Not at all. God's servants preach. That's what preachers are. They're
servants. They rejoice to repeat the Gospel
of Christ over and over again because it's safe. You know that
word there means necessary. It's necessary for us to preach.
It's needful for us to preach. It keeps our thoughts and our
hearts on Christ, our sure foundation. It keeps us from the error of
false teachers and their false doctrines. There's nothing that
exposes error more than the truth of the Gospel. The true believer
won't hear a false Gospel. I don't want to hear anybody
lying on my Savior. I just, I don't have time for
it anymore. When the church is repeated again
and again and guards the believer against their own self-righteousness,
against their own self-worth, it reminds us of our inability
and our unwillingness to bow to Christ in all things. Men by nature cannot come. They don't have the ability to
come to Christ that they might be saved. The Lord Jesus said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. We're not
willing to come. Now that's just how bad a shape
we're in by nature. And unless God does something
for us, it'll never change. Oh, it's not grievous. It's not
grievous for your pastor to tell you the same things over and
over. It's necessary. It's necessary. It's safe for
those who love Christ. That word also means to guard
against, to provide security. The gospel is our security. It
guards us against falling into damnable heresies. We have a
man in our church who's a contractor and builds a lot of houses in
a neighboring community. And it turns out that a real
estate agent in that community is my first cousin. And they
got to talking one time, and he mentioned my name. And she said, well, that's my
cousin. And she calls me David Lee. I'm David Lee to all my
kinfolk. And she said, well, what did
David Lee preach this past Sunday? He said the same thing, the same
message he preaches every week. She goes, really, the same message? See, she didn't understand. We
preach Christ and Him crucified. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He's done for who He is and what He's done for. And it's
safe. Our gospel is necessary. When
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, that great city of learning and
philosophy and man's so-called wisdom, you know what he said?
He said, I'm determined to know nothing among you, save or except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The gospel's about who Christ
is. The gospel's about what Christ did. And I never, ever grow tired
of this blessed truth. God died. Did you hear what I
said? God died to put away my sin. That never gets old. I will hear
it over and over and over again. The Apostle Paul always spoke
very frankly. He always spoke with great boldness. Paul didn't pull any punches,
as they say. He didn't try to please men. He said, if I please
men, I'm not the servant of God. Look at verse 2 and you'll see
what I mean. He said, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,
beware of the concision. And when Paul declares for us
here to beware of dogs, of whom is he speaking? who are hucksters and merchandisers
of men's souls. False teachers, false preachers.
Paul's talking about those who profited through religion. He
says, beware of dogs. He calls them what they are.
Beware of dogs, those wolves who are in sheep's clothing.
He tells them to be aware of evil workers, of those who work
iniquity. In Matthew chapter 7, our Lord
talked about those who would say in that day of judgment,
Lord, Lord, we've preached in your name. We've cast out devils.
We've done many wonderful works. And it'll be then that our Lord
and Savior will say, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. To
God, these are works of iniquity. And the Lord Jesus said, I never
knew you. Any work that we do that causes
us to glory and what we do is a work of iniquity. Paul calls
them dogs. Isaiah said the same thing about
the preachers in his day. In Isaiah 56, Isaiah said, yea,
they are greedy dogs which can never have enough. And they are
shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way,
every one for his gain from his poor. And these false and greedy
teachers, they never have enough. Never enough. You've seen them
on television, and so have I. They always want even more. They're
never satisfied, never fulfilled. They look to their own way, not
God's way. Jesus Christ is God's way. Christ
is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man, no woman cometh
to the Father but by Him. These greedy dogs are out for
their own gain, looking out for their own positions. These greedy
dogs, which never have enough, they're making converts and they're
making cross-alikes to religion, but not to God. They're concerned
for their own success. They're promoting their own programs.
But to the servant of God, the child of God, it's not tarsal.
It's not grievous. to preach the same things over
and over again. What think ye of Christ? Isn't
that the question of all questions? Who's on the Lord's side? Now here in Philippians 3, verse
3, we find, as I said, three characteristics of the true believer. Three marks of the regenerated
and saved soul. Verse 3, look at it with me.
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the foot. True circumcision, as you know,
is an inward work of grace in the heart. It's not an outward
work of righteousness that we do. Don't you wish that your
family and friends that are steeped in religion knew that? It's not
an outward work that men do. True circumcision is having the
heart pierced. Having it pricked by the Spirit
of God. You know what I'm talking about,
Kelly. True circumcision is a renouncing of our own righteousness. We
have none. True circumcision is of the heart,
not of the flesh. It's to draw nigh to God with
the heart, not with the body. So we see here from verse 3 that
the first characteristic, the first mark of being a true child
of God is to worship God in the Spirit. Worshiping God in the Spirit
is worshiping God with a spirit of holy reverence and fear. The person that I heard talking
about, oh, we had such a worship service that we never got around
to preaching. No. No, that's not worship. Paul said in Acts chapter 17,
God then made the world and all things therein, seeing that He
is the Lord of heaven and earth. He dwelleth not in temples made
with human hands, neither is He worshipped with men's hands,
as though He needed anything. We, men today, preach God as
being disabled. God doesn't need anything from
us. A man that claims that God has no hands, but our hands don't
know God. God said, if I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell you, for the world is mine and all its fullness. God's not disabled. God doesn't
need anything from us. Why do men think such things?
Because they haven't been taught the truth. They don't know who God is. And
this is the first mark of true Israel. We worship God in spirit
and in truth. We don't need to wear a robe
to worship God. We don't need a building with
stained glass windows to worship God. Do you know what we need
to worship God? We need a broken heart. And only
God can give it to us. Only God can break the heart.
Only God can show us our need of Him. We need a broken heart.
That's what we need. Romans 2 verse 28, For He is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But He is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. Worship is not an outward form. It's not an outward ceremony.
True worship comes from the heart. And it's from a broken heart. Has the Lord broken your heart?
If He has, thank Him for it. Thank Him for it. Worship comes
from a heart of faith. A heart that knows the living
God. God told that Samaritan woman
at the well, He said, you know not what you worship. You said
you go through the motions, you go through the ceremonies, you
worship according to your traditions, but you know not nor who you
worship. And that's why there's churches
on every corner and every town and every state, and they know
not who they worship. Christ said you're worshiping
in ignorance. And people say, oh, you can't say that. You'll
offend people. The Lord Jesus said, you know
not what you worship. You're worshiping in ignorance.
And there are many today who know not who they worship. Know not what nor who. Young
Samuel, I think about that story. Samuel heard from God and he
thought it was Eli, the old prophet that called him. So he goes to
Eli and he said, here I am Lord, or here I am Eli. And Eli said,
I didn't call you. Go back to sleep. And the Lord
called Samuel yet again. And again Samuel went to Eli
and he said, here I am. Here I am Eli. And Eli said,
I didn't call you. Go back and lie down. And then
the Lord called Samuel the third time. And he arose and he went
to Eli. And he said, here I am. And Eli
perceived then that it was the Lord that called Samuel. And he told Samuel, he said,
go back and lie down. And if the Lord calls you again,
listen to what He has to say. And the Lord came and spoke to
Samuel. And Samuel did what Eli said.
And later, Eli asked Samuel, he said, what did the Lord say
to you? And Samuel said, God said that your sons have violated
his word. And he's going to kill them. And because you didn't discipline
your sons, because you didn't deal with them yourself, God's
going to deal with them. Do you remember what old Eli
said? He said, it's the Lord. Let him do what seems good. What
Eli was saying was, God will do what He'll do, and I'll bow
to Him. Friends, that's what it is to
worship. That's what it is to worship.
I think about old Job. He lost everything he had, including
all ten of his children. I have five children. I have
four grandchildren. The thought of losing one of
them would be more than My heart could take, but can you imagine
losing every child you have? Ten in one swift blow. Job was
rich, but now he's poor. He had a big family, but now
his children are all gone. He was a famous man in the land,
but now he's despised. He was once honored, but now
he's laughed at and ridiculed. He was a healthy man, but now
he's stricken with boils from the top of his head to the sole
of his feet. Did Job say, poor, poor, pitiful
me? I say that often. Not audibly,
but I say it. Poor, poor, pitiful. Is that
what Job said? No. No, he said, the Lord gave
and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Mike, that's what it is to worship. Lord, teach me to worship. Teach
me to bow to your providence and your will in all things.
That's a work of grace. That's a work of grace in the
heart. That's a God-given spirit of worship. That's a contrite
spirit and a broken heart. That's true worship in spirit
and in truth. Paul said that's the true circumcision. Secondly, according to verse
3, the true mark of the people of God are those who rejoice
in Christ Jesus. I'm rejoicing tonight in my Lord
and Savior. Aren't you? The Greek word rejoice in verse
3 is different from the word rejoice used in verse 1. The
word rejoice here means to boast or to glory in someone or something. The true believer is one who
glories in Christ and in Him alone. The true Christian is
one that boasts not in themselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul said in Galatians 6 verse 14, But God forbid that I should
glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to glory in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I'll tell you this, it's
not to wear a cross around your neck or to hang one on your wall. It's to boast in glory in all
that Christ endured hanging on that cross in you, the chosen
sinner's place. On the cross, Christ fulfilled
the holy law of God. He kept all of God's law perfectly. The Lord Jesus satisfied God's
holy justice and He justified those that God gave Him. We glory
and rejoice in that work done by our Savior. We rejoice that
He has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Everything that we need and everything
that God requires, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us that. Now, I don't know about you,
but that makes me smile. That makes me happy. Calmly happy. And then thirdly, in verse 3,
we see that the mark of the true child of God is to have no confidence
in the flesh. Do you have any confidence in
your flesh or not? Oh, get rid of it. Get rid of
it, friends. We are to have no confidence.
None. Not a bit. Now the word flesh, as you know
in the Scriptures, can mean several things, at least three things
that I can think of. The word flesh can mean physical
and material luxuries. It can mean the things of the
world. Not just wealth, but honor and strength and fame and power
and privilege and all the things that the world boasts of and
offers and gives. But the Lord says, let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom. And neither let the mighty man
glory in his might. And let not the rich man glory
in his riches. But let him that glory in this. You remember what it is? That
he understands and knoweth me that I am the Lord. Now that's
what we glory in. Oh, when I think about the Lord
Jesus revealing to me and showing me who He is and what He's done,
I can think of nothing more to glory in than Him. Brothers and
sisters, I don't glory in what I do, I glory in who I know. By the divine revelation of God's
grace, I understand. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to me. That's what the Lord told Peter. Who do men say that
I am? Some say you're John the Baptist,
some Elijah, one of the great prophets. But who do you say
that I am? Can I ask you that question tonight?
Who do you say that He is? Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus said, Peter,
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. Who revealed it
to him? His Father in heaven. Oh, if
you see these things tonight, thank God. Thank God. Praise Him. Worship Him. He didn't
have to reveal them to you. All we deserve is hell and condemnation. The fact that God would be merciful
and reveal Himself to us. Oh my! Lord, help us to be thankful. Help us to be thankful. The word flesh in the Bible can
also refer to the outward duties of religion. There's a lot of
folks that are working their way to heaven. They're trying
to. But it'll be to no avail. We can't put any confidence in
the works and the duties of religion. I knew a man that lived well
into his 90s, and I tease you not, every time you saw him,
he said, Did I tell you that I have never missed my men's
Sunday school class in 48 years? Every time I saw him, it was
the same thing. To the point where you try to
avoid him. He gloried in what he had accomplished. He gloried
in what he had done. Not what Christ had accomplished
for him. Look at verse 4. Paul said, if
any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in
the flesh, he said, I am over. He said, I am a Pharisee. I was
zealous in the Jews' religion. Touching the law, I was blameless.
Well, that's a claim to make there. Touching
the law, I was blameless without thought. But those things that
I thought were gain, just thought they were gain. I found to be
but dung." Everybody here knows what that is. Manure. That's
manure. He said, that I may what? Win
Christ. That I may win Christ. Verse
9, that I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that perfect righteousness which is
through the 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 suffering being made conformable unto His
death. Let me ask you sincerely, dear
friends, do you see what really matters? It's to know Christ. It's to know who He is. It's
to know what He did. He died for our sin, but He didn't
stay dead. He fulfilled the law of God.
He satisfied the justice of God. He worked out a perfect righteousness
for His people. And death in the grave couldn't
hold Him. He rose again, proving that God
was satisfied with His payment of sin's wages. God will by no
means clear the guilty. The soul that sins, it shall
die. But the law and its justice has no demands on those for whom
Christ died. None. You can't punish my Lord and
punish me too. And the reason is that we have
no sin. Oh, I wish I could get a hold
of that. It's so difficult, isn't it? Because we live with ourselves,
we know what we are. But in Christ, I have no sin.
It's been put away. Forever gone. And that's why
we have no confidence in the flesh, all our confidence is
in the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. Isaiah saw this. He saw the
Lord high and lifted up. What did Isaiah say when he did?
He said, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
live in the midst of people with unclean lips. Everybody around
me is in the same boat. Job saw this. He said, I've heard
of Thee, O God, by the hearing of the ear. But now my eyes see
of Thee. And I hate myself. I abhor myself. Paul saw this. When he saw the
Lord, he said, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. He saw himself as the less than
the least, he said. As the chief of sin. Oh, don't
put any confidence in the flesh. None. None. Don't do it. In the
flesh, no man can please God. So what are the three marks of
a sinner who knows God? First, he or she is one who worships
God in the Spirit. Oh, I pray to God to enable us
to do that this weekend, don't you? Lord, enable us to worship
You in spirit and in truth. Secondly, he or she is one who
rejoices, boasts, and glories in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have nothing else worth talking about. Christ and Him crucified. That's it. Nothing for us to glory in but
Christ. The true believer says with the
psalmist, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name,
give glory for thy mercy, for thy truth's sake. And then the
third mark of one who knows God and loves the gospel is one who
puts no confidence in their flesh. We put it all in Him. God enabled
me to put all my trust in Him. So the question, of all questions
I've already asked you, I'm going to ask you again. I don't assume
that everyone here tonight knows the Lord Jesus. I don't just
assume that everyone here is trusting in Him and Him alone.
So my question to you again is this, what think ye of the Lord
Jesus? Do you see who's Son He is? Do
you see what He's done for sinners? Whose side are you on? Are you
on the Lord's side? Well, this is my prayer for each
of you and for myself. I tell you, I think very often
about preaching and myself being cast away. I sure don't want
that. So Lord, show me. Continue to teach me and show
me my need May God be pleased to make it
so for Christ. Thank you.