It's a delight and a privilege
to be with you this morning and to see all your faces. It's just a joy to be here with
you this morning. And I was talking to Paul the
other day on the phone, and he said, never mind the mule will
overload the wagon," or something like that. He said, I'm going to ask you
to bring the Sunday school class. And I thought, well, that's great.
I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad to speak to you this morning. But I also thought, that's fair.
When he comes down, I have him preach no less than ten times.
So it's not a vacation when he comes down. He's preaching. But
we enjoy being here this morning and just are thankful to be here. Now, this morning for the Sunday
school class, I would like to ask you to open your Bibles with
me to Philippians chapter 3. And your pastor asked me to go
verse by verse, and that's what I do. primarily, verse by verse. I'm going to ask the question,
Who are the people of God? Who are the people of God? The Apostle Paul says there in
verse 1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Brethren. The people of the Lord, God's
people, are brethren. We have one father, we're born
of one spirit, born of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, brought
into the family of God. Finally, my brethren, what a
wonderful, what a wonderful privilege to be in God's family. Brethren,
we have no one's greater than the other. The Apostle Paul dealt
with in chapter 2 of this book, talked about being of a lowly
mind, humble. Let this mind also be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus. And now he says in chapter 3,
rejoice in the Lord. God's people always have a reason
to rejoice in the Lord. God's people are a people that
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who God's people are.
They rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to save
the remarks on rejoicing because he deals with this in the next
verse. But he says, Rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous. How could it be? How could it
be? It is my life. How could it be grievous? You
know, I'm going to jump ahead right now, but, you know, you
never get tired of talking about those you love. You never get
tired of talking about those you love. We were just with,
last night, we were talking about our children, and I'm just thrilled
to hear you know, what the Lord is doing there in Kingsport,
and Pastor Gabe and Hannah and the girls, Sophie and Isabel,
and we just rejoiced. And I don't get tired of hearing
them. And Paul doesn't get tired of
me talking about them. And that is the same way with
our Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ
is glorying in the Lord Jesus Christ, is glorying in His person
and in His work. And like I said, we will talk
about that a little more in the next verse. But it says, it's
not grievous to me and indeed for you, but for you it is safe
to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ over and over and
over and over. It is our food. Now, faith comes
by hearing, but faith is Affirmed. Faith is confirmed. We're rooted
and build it up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith grows by hearing. Comfort. Comfort in the gospel. Comfort in the security. We're
so weak. And we always need to hear of
who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he did for us and the
security we have in him. It's not grievous. Now, it's
safe for God's people. because there are workers, he
calls evil workers, dogs, the apostle Paul calls them, our
Lord called them wolves in sheep's clothing, that come, always,
always come after the gospel is preached. All men are lost
and they have their own ideas about who God is and how men
may approach God. But when the gospel comes into
a place, Satan comes in with terror. Satan comes in with error. And the Lord said, beware of
wolves in sheep's clothing. They come in to scatter the flock. Beware of the dogs, the Apostle
Paul calls them. He doesn't mince words, does
he? He doesn't mince words. He calls them what they are,
dogs. Beware of the dogs. Beware of
the evil workers. Everything they do, they are
preachers of righteousness. Not the only righteousness that
exists, they are preachers of self-righteousness. And the Lord
said, not everyone that comes to me and says, Lord, Lord, we're
entering into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the
will of my Father. Many shall come unto me in that
day and say, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons? Have we not prophesied? And the
Lord said, Depart from ye, ye workers of iniquity." All that
they do, they do in religion apart from faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. If a man does not believe God,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything a man does is sin.
Evil workers. Beware of these evil workers. It's safe for a believer to hear
the gospel. The apostle Paul says, it's like
when you build a building. When you build a building, you
want to make something sure, something to stand. You put a
nail in that board and that board is, you think, that's secure.
But if you want that to be more secure, you put another nail
on top of that or one behind it. You fill that up with nails.
You think, OK, now that's secure. Well, we keep hearing the same
gospel and we're grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, to
me, it is not grievous. The apostle, here's the here's
the issue, the issue that the apostle Paul was dealing with
and the issue that we're dealing with now, especially with With
believers who come and hear the gospel, there's a lot of religion
out in the world. People who come with Bibles and
they begin to subvert, begin to trouble God's people. And they show them, and the Old
Testament says, you need to keep the Sabbath. You need to be circumcised. This was the thing the Apostle
Paul talked about in the Galatians. And he called it another gospel.
He said, I tell you, I testify this to you in chapter 5, that
if you be circumcised, Christ profits you nothing. And it's
not a light matter. It's not a light matter. Salvation
is all of grace by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
or all of works. But there's no mix in grace and
works. And he says, for we are the people
of God. Circumcision. He's talking about
the circumcision in the Old Testament was the sign of the covenant. And he's saying here, we are
the people of God. We are the true circumcision. Which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That
verse naturally divides up in three divisions. The first one is, we worship
God in the Spirit. If a man is going to worship
God, he's going to worship Him in the new nature. In the new
nature. You know, the Lord was talking
to that Samaritan woman, and the Samaritan woman told the
Lord, she said, Our parents say that here in the mountain is
where we need to worship, and you Jews say that there in Jerusalem
is the place that you need to worship. And the Lord said, Believe
me, woman, the hour is coming and now is when neither in this
place nor in Jerusalem are you to worship. But the true worshipers
worship God in spirit And in truth, that is not in form, not
in ceremony, not in a duty, not in a ritual, but from the heart. And that is something that a
man cannot do of his own. A man cannot worship God apart
from God creating a new man and that person. In John chapter 3, the Lord said
to Nicodemus, Nicodemus was a man who was a very religious man,
a taught man, and he would have thought he was worshiping God. But the Jews, they had forms
and rituals and ceremonies. But they did not know the Lord
Jesus Christ. The only way to know God is to
know the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to know God. And
this man Nicodemus came to the Lord and said, verse 1, there
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God. For no man can do the miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God." Unless a man be born again,
born from God, born of the Spirit, true worship is worship from
the heart. Worship from the heart, and it's
not talking about that old heart of man. That old heart of man
is corrupt, is evil, desperately wicked. Who could know it? And
when the scriptures speak of the heart, it's talking about
the being of the man. It's talking
about the intellect, it's talking about the affections, and it's
talking about the volition. No man can serve God, no man
can believe God, can worship God, except he has a renewed
mind and a renewed will and a renewed affection. And that's what God
gives in regeneration. We are the people of God, the
people who have been born of God. The people who have been
given a new heart. I'll take away that stony heart,
the Lord said, and I'll give you a heart of flesh and I'll
put a new spirit in you and I'll put my spirit in you. It is that
new spirit. It's that new man that has communion
with the living God. With the living God. First of
all, then, in this text, the people of God are those that
worship God in spirit. Apostle Paul went to Athens,
and he saw that they were a very religious people. It was very
evident, because in every corner there was a statue, an idol. And they were so superstitious,
except they forget one. They said, this one is to the
unknown God. They said, this one is to the
unknown God. And Apostle Paul said, this is the God I'm preaching
to you. The one that you say you don't know. And here's the
thing about him, he's not worshiped with man's hands. He doesn't
need anything that we could produce or do. Everything that God requires,
God has given in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to worship
him is just to love him, adore him, and rejoice in who he is
with an intellect, with a new mind. The Son of God is coming
and has given us understanding that we may know the true God,
and we are in the true God. And Jesus Christ, I'm not quoting
it right, but you know what I'm talking about. Well, no, you
don't. So let's go. I know you do. But I know you
do. But I want to read it. 1 John
chapter 5 and verse 19. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true." That's the understanding of the renewed
mind. God gives us understanding to know who God is. Jesus Christ,
the Son, the eternal Son, the only begotten Son of God. given us understanding that we
know him that is true and we are in him that is true. He's
given us understanding of that too. That we are in him that
is true. Even in the Son Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. We have understanding. We have understanding. We have
an affection. God has shed abroad his love
in our heart, it says in Romans chapter 5. No man loves God by
nature. By nature, man's imaginations,
man hates God. By nature, man hates the God,
the true and living God. Man, if he could, would tear
down the Lord Jesus Christ from the throne. But when God sheds
abroad his love in our heart, he puts the love of the truth
in our heart, that we may believe and love him. I love the Lord. I wouldn't change a thing about
it. Love to hear of him. Don't change a thing. And also
the will, the volition. When the Lord gives a man a new
heart, gives him understanding, he also produces in him to will
and to do of his good pleasure. A man that believes God comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ. No one ever believed God who
has not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are the circumcision
that worship God in the Spirit. If a person is born of God and
worships God in the Spirit, these next two statements he makes
here could be viewed in a positive and a negative. We rejoice in
Christ Jesus. I see their faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And have no confidence in the
flesh. I see their repentance of dead works. And this is the
characteristic where God creates new life in a man. He gives faith
that the fruit or the evidence of that new life is faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance towards God. And that is continually,
continually. And it says here, we rejoice
in Christ Jesus, rejoice in his person. Now here, I'm going to
stay a little while and I don't have very much to say. Rejoice in his person. We rejoice
that he is the true and living God. We know no other God. He is the revelation of the invisible
God. When we get to glory, when the
Lord brings us home to glory, we expect to see the Lord Jesus
Christ and none other. God is invisible. God is spirit.
But God, the Son manifesting the flesh, is the revelation
of the invisible God. We rejoice in his deity. He is God. We rejoice in his
humanity. We rejoice that he was made bone
of our bone and flesh. How good it is that God was identified
with man. He did not take on the nature
of angels. But he took on the nature of
man. He took on the nature of man.
He's a real man. He had to be a real man. He had
to be a real man. He had to be made of a woman,
made under the law, and he became subject, obedient to that law.
We rejoice in his obedience to that law. If we know God, we
know that He is holy. He is righteous, just. And no
one can be in his presence without being made the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God. And that man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he came into the world to do the Father's will, to redeem
a people, to save a people from their sins. His people, those
that God the Father gave him before the foundation of the
world. And as a man, he obeyed God. We rejoice in his obedience. We rejoice. It's a perfect obedience. It's a perfect obedience. We
rejoice in his sacrifice. We rejoice in the sacrifice he
made. We know that our sins, we have
been shown who we are by nature, by choice, and by practice, and
we know That our sins have separated us from God. But we know also
that the Lord Jesus Christ, that man, he died the just for the
unjust. He was made sin for us. We rejoice
in that sacrifice and the sufficiency of that sacrifice. He said it
is finished. It's finished. And God is satisfied. God raised Him from the dead
on the third day and set Him on high. We rejoice in His exaltation. How good it is to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is sitting on the throne right now. Right
now. And so that all things, all things,
He said, all authority, all power is given unto me in heaven and
earth. All things are working together for good. to those that
love the Lord, to those that are called according to His purpose.
We rejoice in His exaltation. We have no confidence in the
flesh. That is the opposite side of
that coin, if you will. If a person believes God, he's
repented. If a person believes God, he's
repented. I don't have a coin, but I could illustrate it with
this piece of paper. If you have a piece of paper,
then you naturally have two sides. And the one side is faith and
the other is repentance. And you cannot have faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ without having repentance of dead works. And confidence in the flesh is
something that is evil. It's awful. It's awful. But we
have no confidence in the flesh. The self-righteous We have to
battle with that all the time. We have to battle with that all
the time. But a believer constantly disavows any works that he does. And I want us to... This repentance
is continual. I have no confidence in what
I can do. I have no confidence in what I've done. I have no
confidence in what I'm doing. And I have no confidence in what
I will do. My only confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
him alone. Now, the Apostle Paul illustrates
this. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was very zealous
of the commandments. And he said this, and let's read.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. So if you want to compare yourself
with any man, compare yourself with Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul
was way above his peers. Way above his peers. But here's
the grace of God. Apostle Paul says, I have no
confidence. Before he had a lot of confidence,
but now he has no confidence. circumcised on the eighth day
of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousnesses which is
of the law, blameless." Now, that's saying something. The
Apostle Paul said, no one could point the finger to me and say,
Paul, you're wrong on this point. Think of that. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ." If a person is going
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going to forsake everything. Everything that he is, thinks
he could do or whatever. I count it for loss. Yea, doubtless,
I count all things but loss 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 done, that I might win Christ."
Apostle Paul is saying, I not only count what I did in my days
of Pharisee as loss, I count right now what I do. I don't
trust in the fact that I'm an apostle. You don't trust in the
fact that you don't have faith in your faith. I mean, no one
can please God apart from believing God. But you don't have faith
in your faith. Your faith didn't die for you.
The Lord Jesus Christ, He's the one. He's the Savior. He says,
I count all things but done that I may win Christ and be found
in Him. This is the desire of God's people. Be found in Him. Be found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. This is rejoicing in Christ Jesus
and having no confidence in the flesh. I don't want to be found
in my own righteousness. Does a person want to be found
before God, standing before God in that day, based on your best
prayer? Oh, no. Oh, no. The Lord said
this, except your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees,
you'll in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Your best prayer,
your best message, Cody, do you want to be found before God in
your best message? Oh, no. Oh, no. I want to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is salvation. The only salvation
for those that lived in the day of Noah was those that were in
the ark. Those that were in the ark. Those
that are in Christ Jesus. That's the difference. Being
in Him. I want to be found in Him. Notice,
it says, not my own righteousness, that
which is the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Now, we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. No one is saved apart from believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is saved apart from believing. This is why we preach that a
man must believe whom he is going to call on. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call
on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
him that they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now, a man is going to call on
the name of the Lord if the man is going to believe God. No one is saved apart from believing.
But our faith, like I said earlier, our faith is not the cause of
our salvation. The cause of our salvation is
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in Galatians chapter 2. Knowing that a man, verse 16,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, knowing
that he's not justified by the works of the law, the works of
the law, any man that comes before the law was given to shut every
man's mouth. But by the faith of Jesus Christ,
that what we're talking about, what it's talking about here
is the Lord Jesus Christ as a man believed God. What an amazing,
amazing thing. He never did anything to alleviate
one trouble he had. He trusted God. You know, when
he was hungry, when the multitudes were hungry, he fed the multitudes. When the children of Israel were
thirsty, he told Moses, Hit that rock, water came out. But when
the Lord Jesus Christ was thirsty, He did not perform a miracle.
He trusted God. He trusted God. He trusted God
with perfect faith. Even though God slayed Him. God the Father slayed His Son. When the justice of God fell
on Him, He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He
trusted God. He believed God. As a man, that's
the faith that saves us. The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, like I said, no one is saved apart from believing in Him.
It says here in Galatians 2.16, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ. That's your faith. And that's
not of yourself, the Apostle Paul said. That's not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. But God grants faith. He doesn't believe on your behalf.
You believe. You trust. You cast your soul
on Him. You rely on Him. Sink or swim. Sink or swim. You come to Him. I trust the
Lord Jesus Christ. I have no other hope. We have believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, that we may be, notice it says,
justified by the faith of Christ. We believe in Christ to be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Going back to our text, the apostle Paul said, I want
to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith, that I may know him. Those who are the people of God,
they know him. They were born of God, but they
have a desire to know him more. Know him more. The Apostle Paul
said, I want to know Him. I want to know Him. There is
one day we are going to know Him like He knew us. It says
in 1 Corinthians 3, we are going to know Him like He knew us. What a day. We are going to be
able to love Him like He loved us. What a wonderful day. I want to know Him. I want to
know the power of His resurrection. I want to know the fellowship
of His sufferings being made conformable to His death. These
are the people of God. These are the people of God.
Who are they? They worship God in spirit from
the heart. They rejoice in Christ Jesus. They glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they have no confidence in
their own flesh or any other man's flesh. May the Lord bless
this Word.