Thank you, Sherry. Now we all
take these people for granted that play the instruments and
lead singing and teach classes and so forth. I do, until I have
to do it. And then I appreciate them more.
I appreciate Sherry and Jeanette and Hannah who play the piano. of the game of John who lead
to sin. Let them know that. And these teachers, thank you.
Alright, go back to Philippians 3. Philippians 3. Read verse 1 again
with me. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous. But to you, it is safe. I look
for a message from the Lord, not a sermon, mind you. I've
done that. I've preached a bunch of sermons. I've come up here many times
and the thought went through my head, I just want to get this
over with. But sometimes I feel greatly
burdened and led and hope and pray the Lord will give me a
message from God's Word. A message from God can only come
from God's Word. And it's got to bless my heart
first. It's got to bless my heart. And
I know that whatever blesses me will bless you. And I know
what the message is. I know what I'm supposed to preach.
I know that. Spurgeon once told his young
preachers in that school he had, he said, if you don't know what
to preach, get out of the ministry. Our Lord said, go into all the
world and do what? Preach the gospel. Paul said
that, I'm determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. He said, though I preach the
gospel, I have nothing to glory in, but necessities laid upon
me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. I know what the message is. Sometimes,
though, we struggle where to preach from. That's what we do.
We search the Scriptures and read. and wants something to
bless us. And you know, I'm always aware
that in any congregation of any size at all, that there are old
and new believers. There are regular attenders and
visitors. And I can't help but think about
both. I've told you before that too
many times I've been told that someone's invited someone to
come. And they're hopeful, and I am
too. And I'm human. I can't help but think about
that person. Maybe you've never heard the
gospel before. So I prepare a message, and inevitably, invariably, they
don't show up. And what that tells me is it
needs to be the same message regardless who's there all the
time. And I know from experience, I
listen to preaching. I listen to preaching by various
ones that we know and love, mostly him. I listen to it and it helps
me so much and I can't tell you how many messages. I listened
to one yesterday, the day before, and I thought, I'm going to preach
that word for word. I'm not going to change a word.
And I might do that. But I listened to preaching,
and you know what really blesses me? What I find myself, like sitting
in my car or my garage, amening out loud, is the same old message
that I've heard for years. The same old truth. The plainer the better. Plainer
the better. Is it that way with you? Okay. Okay, then. That's what we're
going to look at. Finally. He says, finally, brethren. Finally. You know, if this is
my last message, and it might be. We can't boast ourselves
of tomorrow, can we? It might be my last that I preach. There's going to be a time and
it might be the last one you hear. That makes this serious. You have probably heard the last
message that he's going to preach from a pulpit back in March. He's not going to preach in a
pulpit anymore. Not this one or not any other. I know if you go looking for
that message, we'll find it for you, but listen to this one,
okay? Listen to this one. Finally,
in finality, Paul was in prison. Paul was about to die. And he
leaves them with this. He says, finally, my brethren. And the word brethren, the term
brethren is a blessed term, you know, brethren. I don't throw
that term around. I don't call everybody my brethren.
Everybody that claims to be a believer. I don't throw that around. But it is a blessed term. And
I love being able to call somebody brother. I love being able to
call someone sister. Someone who exhibits these three
things we're going to see here. I see and recognize that. I love
being able to call somebody, especially somebody I didn't
know was my brother or sister. Blessed term, it belongs to the
family of God, sons of God, brethren, beloved brethren, he said. And
I want to call people brethren, sisters. I want to see people
come and listen and believe and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ,
confess Christ in that pool, or whatever pool, and unite with
us and let me call them brethren. That's a precious thing. It says, Finally, brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Peter said,
when he wrote, he said, Whom having not seen ye love, in whom
though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. These three things here, these
three things we're going to look at, tell us who the true people
of God are. And one of them is rejoicing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with rejoicing the
Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice that He is Lord. Not
a figurehead. No, He is Lord, reigning and
ruling, sovereign. We sang that psalm. He sits at the right hand of
the majesty on high, reigning and ruling, controlling all things. He doesn't do what men let Him.
That's no God. That's a God who cannot say.
That's one who's not Lord. Lord means absolute ruler, sovereign,
controller of all things, right? Rejoice in the Lord. The world
seems to be chaotic then. The world seems to be under the
rule and dominion of evil, and it seems like it has the upper
hand. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The
world and they that dwell therein. He still owns this world. He
still controls it. Nothing is, Brother Barnard used
to say, writhes or wriggles, but what the Lord God controls
and purposes. from a speck of dust in the sunlight
and where it lands, and why? To a soul going out into eternity. He's Lord. Rejoice. Always. That will give you peace, give
you comfort. Rejoice in the Lord, the Lord our righteousness, the
Lord our shepherd, the Lord who provided, the Lord. Rejoice.
in the Lord. He says to write the same things
to you, to me, and indeed is not grievous for you. It's the
same thing. Same old, same old. Same old,
same old. Yeah, right. That's what you
want to hear. It's safe. And if a man gets
up and says, I have a new vision, a new revelation, walk out. Get
up right now and walk out. Because the people, the false
prophets and the people of this world, like the, who was it,
the Athenians, who wanted nothing more than to tell and hear of
some new thing, some new fad. Look, oh, we have it here. No,
we have it there. When our Lord said in Jeremiah,
search, stand, and seek, and search for the old paths, wherein
is the good way, and you'll find rest for your soul. Old path,
good way, what's the way? It never has been the one way.
From all eternity, Christ, you'll find rest. Same old, same old. You better believe. You better
hope that you hear it. He goes on to say in verse 2,
Beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Yeah, I want you to turn to Isaiah
56. This is a verse that He is surely alluding to. God calls these false preachers
dogs. In Isaiah 56, He says they are evil workers.
The Lord said, Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision.
Dogs. In Isaiah 56, verse 10, the Lord
is talking about these false prophets who come in God's name,
supposed to be. He is watchman, but they're not.
They're blind, verse 10. They're blind, they're ignorant,
they are dumb dogs. Cannot bark, wouldn't dare bark
and fend anybody. Sleeping, lying down, greedy
dog, can never get enough. That's who he's talking about.
Dumb dogs. As somebody once said, especially
beware of the ones wearing collars. We were in a restaurant last
night, and one of these fellas I just caught her around backwards.
Beware of them. Beware of them. Dogs. Our Lord, and as I said, they're
evil workers. Go back to the text. Our Lord
in Matthew 7, remember? He said, many will say unto me
on that day. Lord, Lord, we've preached in your name. We've
prophesied in your name. We've done many wonderful works
in Jesus' name. Many. When the Lord says many,
that's many. He said many false prophets have
gone out, didn't he? John said, you've heard that
antichrist shall come? He said even now there are many.
Anybody that's not completely preaching Christ and Christ only
and pointing people to Christ is antichrist. Right? You're either for him or you're
anti against him. You're pointing to Him, giving
Him all the glory, pointing men to Him, saying He's all and all
in salvation. Oh, you're anti. You're taken
away from Him. That's right. But our Lord said
they're workers of iniquity, didn't He? He said, in that last
day, and Brother Donnie Bell said, it's probably going to
be, profession-wise, probably going to be more preachers in
hell than any other profession. Everybody and his brother and
his mother is a preacher. Anyway, our Lord said, bind them hand
and foot and cast them out, you workers of iniquity. But they
did this in His name. It seemed like it. They said
it. But they were getting glory themselves.
He says, beware of them. Beware of dogs. Verse 2 says,
beware of the concision. The concision He's talking about
are the Jews Circumcision, concision. Back to Moses, God gave one mark
in the flesh to distinguish God's people from Gentiles. What was it? Circumcision. Right? It's a mark in the flesh, but
it's still hidden. It's still hidden. Right? Well, but the Jews were so proud
of their outward show of religion. From the way they dressed, and
they brought their phylacteries. You know what that was? They
wore scripture verses. The more they remembered, the
more they memorized, the bigger were their phylacteries. Look
at me. Or today it would be, the more
they have on their bumper of their car. That's right. Beware of them. Are they giving glory to God
or themself? Are they wanting you to know
how religious they are? Phylactery. Prayers. Our Lord
said, everything they do, they do to be seen of men. Love to
be seen praying. Our Lord said, don't do that,
didn't He? He said, be careful that you do not your own to be
seen of men. Don't do that. Pray in secret.
Who do you want to see you praying? God. Oh, here's a check. Here's a
check. Our church has given a thousand
dollars to the United Way. It's in the newspaper. That's
their reward. Isn't it? And the true church
has given money, oh my, anonymously. without fanfare, without blowing
a trumpet. Why? To God. It's given to God. God, who seeth and secretly rewardeth
over them. That's it. Beware. Beware of
them. They do this to impress people. And they do. They impress
the simple. Religious people impress the
ignorant and the simple. The show, Paul called it, of
will-worship. Religious buildings and crowds
and smooth, eloquent talkers, zeal, enthusiasm, beware of it
all. Beware of it. Beware of it. Here's what marks,
here's the evidence, three things of God's true people. Verse three,
he says, we, and I can say we, and you say
it Stan, brother Stan? Confidently? We better be able
to. We. We are the circumcision. That is the true people of God.
Those upon whom God has put this mark, these marks, or this mark,
that distinguish them from other people. Now, do you remember
in Romans 2 where he said circumcision was? Real circumcision? What
it means to be a Jew and God's people? It's not outward, made
with hand, but it's inward. It's of the heart. It's a spiritual
mark. People can't necessarily see
it. They didn't see the Son of God in the Son of God. He didn't
wear anything to distinguish Him from the common man, did
He? He didn't wear phylacteries and so forth. No, they couldn't
distinguish Him from the common man. What did distinguish Him?
The God He worshipped. The truth He proclaimed, didn't
He? And what He renounced. The true
circumcision, he said, these are the marks, verse 1, we worship
God in the Spirit. We're the true circumcision,
which worship God in the Spirit. Worship, what does that mean?
Worship means pay homage, means bow to Him, give honor and glory. We worship God. God's people,
when they come together in a place, is not to see or be seen, but
it's to worship. To worship God. Go with me to Revelation 3. I
just saw this the other day for the first time. I read it, but
just saw it. Revelation 11. Go over there
with me. Many say, Lord, Lord, with their
lips, but far from believing that He is. far from worshiping
Him in spirit and truth. But all of God's people, true
people, bow to and believe and love and rejoice in the Lord
our God. They worship God. They get together
to worship God, to give Him honor and glory. Not Father, not Mother,
not ourselves. Not unto us. Not unto us, but
unto Him be the glory. And it will come out, it will
show in the songs they sing, the way they conduct themselves,
who they preach. They worship God. They worship
God. They give Him homage. They bow
to His rights. Not our will, but His will. They bow to His will, His glory,
His pleasure. They meet every time to worship.
And all through the revelation it tells us of those who are
in glory and what they're doing. And it says of the elders, verse
17, they say, in verse 17, "'We give thee thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, which art and which wast and art to come, because
thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned.'" We're
so thankful. We meet together to worship.
And thank Him that He's God, and beside Him there's none else.
So thankful that our God is God. Not a bystander in the affairs
of men. Aren't you glad that everything's
in His hand? Aren't you thankful that God
has ordered all things for all eternity and its share? Aren't
you glad? Aren't you thankful that God
reigns? And we come to worship Him as
such, but look at the next line, verse 18, and the nations were
angry. We're glad. What makes God's
people exceedingly glad makes the world exceedingly mad, doesn't
it? And all we're trying to do, all
God's people are trying to do is glorify God. Give Him the
due, right? Give Him the glory that's His.
Just return unto Him what we owe Him, don't we? Unto Him be
honor and glory and power and riches and strength and everything. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. We give God all the glory for all things. No flesh should
glory this great. God's people don't. They worship
God. Who is God? For all things come
from God. Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from above. We're thankful, aren't we? We
worship God. That which makes God's people
exceedingly glad, the world gets mad at it. Why? They don't know
God. They don't know God. They want some glory for themselves.
They have the vain thought, this vain glory that they have done
something themselves. That they have accomplished something
themselves. And who maketh us to differ?
Why does anybody worship God in spirit? Why does anybody worship
God? Because God reveals Himself to
them. Because God makes Himself known to them. Because God makes
them, causes them to worship Him. In spirit, that means in
heart. In heart, with the heart man
believeth, and with the heart man worshipeth, out of the heart
of the issues of life. Look at the next thing. We worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Many rejoice, most rejoice in
their church, in their organization, in their activities, in their
work, in their programs, in their choir. You want to know what
God's people rejoice in? Christ Jesus. They can't get
enough of hearing about Christ Jesus. That's how you know Him. That's what they're doing in
heaven, and that's what they're doing here. unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood." Unto Him. Thou art worthy, O
Lord. Thou art worthy, O Lord Jesus
Christ. You want to know what other people
rejoiced in? Ask them. They go somewhere on a Sunday,
ask them what it was all about, and you'll hear things like this.
Oh, you should have heard the choir. Oh, you should have seen the
play. My little Jimmy was in it, and he played one of the
wise men. Oh, you should have. You ask
God's people, and they'll say, oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a
Lord. Oh, what great salvation. Oh,
what wonderful redemption. Oh, what a Lord do we have. Oh,
what an unworthy creature I am, and what a worthy Lord He is. That's how you know Him. By rejoicing
Christ. Jesus. Not just Jesus. Did you read with me on down
through here? Every time he mentions Jesus, he calls Him Christ Jesus,
doesn't he? Christ Jesus. Everybody loves Jesus, don't
they? Ask them. Who wouldn't admit
that? Everybody loves a baby named Jesus. Everybody loves
Mary's son, they think. Everybody loves a miracle worker,
but now the Lord Jesus? They crucified the Lord, they
thought. No, you're just a man, and you
make yourself God. They had it all wrong, didn't
they? He's God, and He made Himself a man. They had it all backwards,
didn't they? They didn't know Him. Why? He
didn't reveal Himself to them. He said, you believe not because
you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. And you know what they call me?
Lord. Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. The
Lord Jesus asked his disciples one time. He said, whom do men
say that I am? And they said, well, everybody's
talking about you. You're popular. And some say you're John, risen
from the dead. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're one of the prophets
like Moses or Samuel. They say you're a great man.
Now, if you said that about me, it might be a compliment. But
it's not to the Lord. Not at all. Not at all. But then he turned to his disciples
and he said, now whom do you say that I am? What do you call
me? Who do you say that I am? And
Simon Peter spoke up for all the apostles and for us, for
the circumcision. He said, thou art the Christ. He didn't say, you're Jesus. Christ, the Lord. Christ, our
prophet, priest, and king. Christ, the mediator, the covenant
head. Christ, that's what Christ means. The anointed one. The only one. Heard these fellas all say, I've
got an anointed ministry. Mark him off right there. Mark
him off. The Holy Spirit came down and said, this is the anointed
one. My son. Call Him the Anointed
One. Don't call yourself that or any
other person. Don't do that. Moses and Elijah
were there, remember? And even Peter and the boys were
taken up with Moses and Elijah. And our Lord spoke from heaven
and said, This is My beloved Son. Hear Him. He's the One. You worship Him.
Don't worship men. He's the Anointed One. upon whom
you see the Spirit descend and remain there without measure. He's the Christ, the Son of God,
the only one, the only mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus, the only one whom God will deal with man through,
the one prophet, priest, and king, the Holy One of Israel,
the express image of God, God manifest in the flesh, the only
substance The only Redeemer, the only Deliverer, the only
Way, Truth and Life. Christ Jesus. Rejoice. I may have sounded mad
then, I'm just being emphatic. We rejoice, don't we? Aren't
you glad you don't have to look here and there? Look! Sitting
at the right hand of God is the Christ of God. We don't need
a prophet anymore. We don't need a priest anymore.
We've got a king reigning and ruling. Thank God. King of kings. Christ is all. That's why I said Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ because
Christ is all. All our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. And those who are sent by Christ,
by God, by His preached Christ, that's how you know. And those
who hear Christ's voice insist and love and never tire of hearing
Christ. You know, that's how you know
the gospel is gospel to you, if it stays gospel. Gospel means good news. That's
the old, old story. You sang it a while ago. You
told me to tell you the old, old story. Again? Yes, again, because I forget
so soon. This is how you know that the
gospel is gospel to you if it always is gospel to you. If after
all these years, Brother Henry, 30 or 40 years, however long
you've been, I can preach the same thing? Christ crucified? God reigning and ruling? Keep
calling you a worm. And exalt Christ. And there you
sit smiling. It must be gospel to you. It
must still be good news. Thank God. Thank God for that. Some people tire of it. That
means it never was good news to them. Oh, a sinner. If you be a sinner, this gospel,
this gospel is for sinners. The Holy Spirit who convinces
of sin, righteousness and judgment. He continues to do that. It's
not a one-time thing. It's not years ago I found out
I was a sinner and then I rose above it. No! We're a sinner
until the day we die. So what do sinners need to hear? Forgiveness of sin. Redemption
through the blood. Let me hear that story. Christ
Jesus makes you whole. Let me hear that story. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ came
into the world to save sinners, even the chief. You mean after
all these years, and I feel worse than I was in the beginning,
He still let me come to Him? He still will forgive me? That's
right. Oh, that's good. That's how you love it. They
rejoice in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. They
never lose that first love. The love for the truth, the love
for the gospel. And the last thing he says is they have no
confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Anything
to do with the flesh. Did not our Lord say that which
is flesh is flesh? It will never be anything but
flesh. By the deeds of the flesh, no
one will be justified. Flesh is flesh. Flesh, you know,
is what you see and feel. Things you feel. I like what
Martin Luther wrote this. Feelings come. Was it Luther? Feelings come and feelings go.
He said feelings are deceiving. Feelings are deceiving. One day
you feel good and the next day you don't. One day you feel like
you're a believer and the next day you don't. One day you feel
good and you don't want to feel that way. The next day you feel
rotten. Feel. Oh, I felt so good. That gave
me a good feeling. Don't trust feelings. Feelings
come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. Luther
said, my hope is in the Word of God. Nothing else is worth
believing. We sing that song, my hope is built, all my hope
of salvation, my hope of heaven, my hope of eternal glory is built
on nothing less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. I dare
not, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, feeling, You better hope the days that
you can't find any evidences that you're a child of God, you
better hope that it's still true, Christ came to save sinners.
And it is. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly, my whole heart, mind, soul, life, lean, on the
Lord Jesus Christ's name. On Christ's solid rock I stand. And buddy, when you come to your
deathbed, it will be a peace. You look anywhere else, and you'll
worry. You look within to try in this
flesh. What did Paul say? There's never
been a man any better than Paul. He said, in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me?" Oh, I thank God, he said, through Christ
Jesus, my Lord. There is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ. Thank God, Christ. And he's the
one that wrote that, this faithful sinner. He said, I'm the chief
of sinners, and this is good news to me. No confidence in the flesh. Any
outward props of religion? Flesh. Religious buildings, religious
relics, pictures, statues, holy land. There ain't no such thing
as holy land. That dirt over there in Israel is the same as
this dirt. It's just dirt. No such thing as holy water.
That water they call holy over there in the Vatican, they've
got to have a tap somewhere. It's contaminated with E. Coli.
It'll kill you more than physically. It'll kill those who trust in
it spiritually. Well, it already did. But flesh,
large cathedrals and pomp and show and robes and candles and
all that, people, how holy? How holy? No, how idolatrous.
Idolatrous. Flesh is any person. Don't trust. Don't put your salvation in any
person. I was talking about and thanking
the Lord for this preacher right here, but he didn't save me.
No, no. Oh, no. An instrument of means
that God used to send the gospel of Christ to save me. I thank
God for that. But Paul one time said, Paul
didn't die for you. Christ did. Oh no, don't worship
men. Flesh, any person, not a priest,
not a prophet, not a preacher, not an evangelist, not any man
of the flesh, be it Paul, Peter, Luther, Calvin, whoever. I love
those men. John Knox and all of them. I
love those men. I esteem them highly. But don't
worship them. And the gospel didn't begin with
Calvin. It's God's gospel. It's God's gospel. Christ. Who are the people of
God? Who are the true people of God?
Well, you can't necessarily see the signs on the outside. Hidden
marks. This circumcision of the heart. But it will spill out. Out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. What will it
speak? What will the people of God speak?
To Him be the glory. Ask them of their salvation to
Him. Ask them about their building. Well, it's just something to
keep the rain off our heads. Ask them about baptism. It's
just water. It can't put away one's sin. Ask them about salvation. They'll
say, Christ is all. Christ is all. That's how you
know. That's how you know. All right.
Let's cheer. If you'll come, saying a closing.