You can't get a better hymn than
that to prepare your heart to worship. If the Lord enabled
you to sing that from the heart, that's invoking the triune God
to help us to worship. I hope those words entered into
your heart. not just came from your mouth
come thou almighty king help us thy name to praise come thou
incarnate word gird on your mighty sword our prayer attend come
give and thy people bless and give thy word success oh spirit
of holiness on us descend man or woman sing that from the heart
God will speak to you. All right, Philippians chapter
3, Philippians 3, he says in verse 1, "'Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you,
to me, Indeed is not greedy, but for you it is safe." I hesitated to preach from this. I really did. I hesitated when
I read this passage, just started reading it, and thought, I think I'll preach
from that. But then I hesitate, because
I've preached from this probably more than any other passage.
I don't know if you know that or not, but after reading it
again, I am convinced that this is the message. This is it. Besides, as the Apostle said
here in verse one, I say from my heart, to write or to preach
the same things to me is not grievous. It's not grievous at all, it's
glorious. When I was reading this and studying it, it was
glorious to me, and I hope it is glorious in your hearing. The same thing. Besides, he said it's safe for
you. It's safe. I tell you when you ought to
say danger. I tell you when your antenna,
your warning signs ought to come up is when, if I got up and said,
I've got a new message for you this morning. I got something
new. The Lord revealed something to
me last night, and I want to tell you, that's when your warning,
warning signs ought to go up from you. But I stand up and
say, I'm just going to preach the same things that you've been
hearing all along. I'm not tired of studying it
and declaring it, and neither is a true believer tired of hearing
it. Verse 1, he says, Finally, my brethren. Or the word finally
here is a word of finality. Paul's writing a letter here
to the brethren. It's written to believers. Finally,
my brethren. And this word finally is a word
of finality as if he's trying to get their attention. He said,
now listen, if you didn't hear anything up until now, he said,
hear this, finally. Well, it's all said and done
now. He says, no, finally, listen. And I like that old saying by
a preacher years ago who said, I preach as one who may never
preach again. I thought about that before bringing
this message. I haven't preached as one that
may never preach again, as a dying man to dying men. All right,
what's my last message going to be? What am I going to preach? You know, I prepared this message
thinking it entered my mind that we would have a visitor, a certain
woman and her husband, and they're not here. It's always the case,
every time, when you think about someone and they enter your mind,
and you think about some things they need, without fail, they
don't show up. So this must be for somebody
else, and I don't know who it is, and I'm glad. I'm glad. And no flesh in glory. But he said, that I preach as
one that may never preach again. And I thought about this message
for someone who'd never heard me preach before, never heard
the gospel before. I thought, now this would be
a good message for someone here who'd never heard the truth before. And it'd be a good one for somebody
here who's heard it a thousand times. Finally. That's what Paul said. Finally. Finally, rejoice in the Lord. Paul says this over and over
again. Go through the book of Philippians
and see how many times he says rejoice. He says it in the book
of Philippians more than any other. Over in chapter 4, he
says, Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. And believers, He says, finally
my brethren rejoice in the Lord. They're the only ones who do
and who can. But, and that's why we're here
this morning. We're not here because it's Christmas
morning. Of course, it's Sunday morning for that matter. But
we're here to rejoice in the Lord. We're here to worship our
God. Far be it from us to come drawn near with our lips and
our hearts are far from Him. But with the heart, believers
come, they say, I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to
the house of the Lord. To rejoice in the Lord. To rejoice in Him. What does it mean to rejoice
in the Lord? With Him. Rejoice in the Lord. What's that mean? Rejoice in
the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Now, many
people say, Lord, Lord. They never know Him. They don't
believe He's Lord. He'll say things like, you make
Jesus Lord. That's not Lord. That's not the
Lord God. The Scripture says all the way
through the book of Isaiah, He said, I'm the Lord. There is
none else. He said, now you're my people
that you might know and understand that I am He. Beside me there's
no God. I live, I reign, I rule. I control,
I purpose, I've spoken, it'll come to pass. I've purposed all
things concerning you. All things are working together
according to my immutable, unchangeable purpose for you. A covenant ordered
in all things, and sure, a covenant made with my Son, made with my
Holy Spirit concerning you, and it will not fail concerning you. I'm the Lord. The Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not walk. Rejoice in
the Lord. Lord is my God, my King, my Provider. He's the Lord. He's Jehovah-Jireh,
the Lord that provides all things. I rejoice in the Lord who provided
for me that righteousness. Jehovah-Sidkenu, He's the Lord,
my righteousness. Oh, Jehovah-Shalom, He's the
Lord, my peace. He made peace by the blood. I
rejoice in the peace that Christ, that the angels came and said, To whom? Christ said there's
going to be wars and rumors of war. Was the angel lying? No! To those that rejoice in the
Lord, Jehovah Shalom, and the Lord our peace. In Christ who
made peace by the blood of his cross, they rejoice in him. In
him. Rejoice in the Lord. We could
go on. If I didn't get past this, these
four words, Rejoice in the Lord. Who is the Lord that I should
rejoice in Him? He's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who He is. He's God in human flesh. He's
the Lord. He reigns and rules. Now, He's
the Savior. He came to save His people from
their sins, and He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied.
And now He's seated, expecting His enemies to be made His footstool
and all His children to come unto Him. He's the Christ. He's my representative. He's
my mediator. He's my substitute. He's my intercessor. He's my
high priest. He's my lamb. He's the mercy. He's the Lord, Jesus Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. That's what
we're going to be doing, finally, when it's all said and done.
That's what we're going to be doing in glory. We're going to
be doing one thing throughout eternity, rejoicing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, singing the same song. How many times have we
sung that song? Huh? Come Thou Almighty King. We're going to be singing the
same song in glory. We're going to sing one zillion
verses of the same song. Worthy is the Lamb unto Him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and redeemed
us. Him, we're going to be seeing
Him. Finally, brother, rejoice in
the Lord. Now, he says to write the same
things to you. To me, it's not grievous. It's
not grievous. It's safe. For you, it's safe. It's not grievous. And as I said,
as we looked at in the morning Bible study, we need to examine
ourselves in light of how we come and continually hear the
gospel. If the gospel ever gets old hat
to us, if the same things ever cease to be glorious to us, if
grace, sovereign grace and sovereign mercy ever ceases to be anything
less than amazing to us, then we need to grieve over ourselves. It's not the message. The message
hasn't lost its power. Grace hasn't lost its amazingness. We've lost our first love. Is that right? Paul says to write the same thing. He's not grievous. If I tore
into Romans 10 right now, it wouldn't bother me a bit. We
just looked at it. We don't know anything. We preach
in parts, Stan. I know in part. We haven't dipped
This book is like an ocean in fullness. We haven't—that's ankle
deep! We haven't begun to enter into
the righteousness which Christ worked out on the part of his
people. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are,
my glorious dress. They write the same things to
me. To you, for me, is not grievous.
It's safe. Safe. I'm telling you, this is
safe. I'm on safe ground right now. I can leave this pulpit
this morning and feel safe. I've told them. Somebody comes
in, hears this message for the first time ever, I can say with
Ezekiel, or Paul, I'm not shunned to declare the whole Council.
I've kept back nothing profitable. Like Ezekiel, I've warned them.
I've comforted him. I'm going to comfort you. All
right? Verse 2, look at it. Now, he
says this, Beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Turn back to
Isaiah 56 with me. Isaiah chapter 56. Isaiah 56. The apostle gives first a word
of warning here, and he says, Beware of dogs. Peter says that
in his Epistle, especially 2 Peter, he says, beware, beloved, beware,
finally, beloved, beware. Paul says here, beware of dogs. He said, beware of evil workers
in the concision. Dogs, what dogs he's talking
about? He talked about Doberman Pinschers
or Rottweilers or great names. You know who he's talking about,
don't you? Most of you know. He's talking about preachers. That's who he's talking about.
Speaking of preachers, false ones, that is. Dogs. Look at
it here. Isaiah 56, look at verse 10. Isaiah 56, his watchmen are blind,
or that is, those fellows who call themselves watchmen or who
look the part. who are supposed to be watchmen,
he said, they're blind. They can't see. Over in, I think
it's Isaiah 29, he says, the book is delivered unto him that's
learned. He's got a degree. We'll see
here, they've got a D.D. And they deliver the book, particularly
the Old Testament. That's what he's talking about.
And they say, read it to us. He said, I can't. I don't understand
it. They don't see Christ in the Old Testament. All they see
is Jewish history. They're unlearned. They're ignorant
and blind. But he says in Isaiah 29, he
said, I've made the people to have seen out of obscurity. I've
given blind people eyes to see the light and the glory of the
gospel of Christ, the knowledge of the glory of Christ in the
Old Testament. He's opened our understanding.
Hadn't he, John? There's a smiling face of a man who's walked on
the road to Emmaus and had the Lord Christ come to him personally
and break the bread and open unto him the Word, by the way.
And he said, And my heart's burned as I've seen Mephibosheth, as
I've seen Rahab discarded. And on and on it goes. The Son
of David, the Ark of the Covenant, Noah's Ark. not just Jewish history. I've seen his story in all that. I see out of obscurity. They're blind. Verse 10, he says
they're ignorant. Verse 10, look at it. They're
all dumb dogs. That's what one old preacher,
Puritan, said that, by the way. He said that's where they get
the degree of D.D. That's where they got it, Isaiah 56, 10. Dumb
dogs. Say you ought not to poke fun
of them. No, ought to poke fun of them. Don't accept, scripture says,
don't accept flattering titles, nor degrees, or don't even, don't
let any man call you father. Don't be called rabbi. Dumb dogs. Dumb dogs. Barnard said most D.D.' 's need
to have a fiddle in front of them. Fiddle D.D. Dumb dogs. Paul said it. You
think the Apostle would have taken the title? Reverend, Most
Holy, Right, Reverend, Father, Doctor, Paul, M. Div. John, what about John? John the
Baptist. What's this? John, who are you?
Not important. Not important who I am. Beholden
Lamb. What's your name? Where'd you
come from? That's not... I'm just a boy. Just a boy. Dumb dog, sleeping. Paul said
beware of them. Go back to the text. Beware of
them. Look at it. He said beware of evil workers. Go back to Philippians 3 with
me, OK? I'm not... I'm not... saying something that
God's Word doesn't say. This is what he says, that dumb
dogs are sleeping. He says they're greedy and never
get enough. Barking. They say they cannot
bark. Fearful dogs don't bark. He says evil workers. Look at
it, evil workers. Our Lord said this about many
preachers. Listen to me. Matthew 7, our
Lord said, Matthew, yeah, 7. He said, many will say unto me
in that day, many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy? That's the word, preach. Did
we not preach in thy name? Did we not cast out devils? Did
we not do many wonderful works? And he said, depart from me. I never knew ye that work. What? Workers of iniquity. Evil worker. Preaching? Wonderful work? Casting out devils? Is evil work? It is if God's not getting all
the glory in it. It sure is. If that man's getting
any glory at all, if his name, if he comes in his own name,
it's positively evil. If men go away remembering him
more than they remember the message, it's positively evil. Show of
the flesh, glory in the flesh is positively evil. He said,
Beware of it. Verse 2, he said, Beware of the
concision. You notice that's a different
word than circumcision, don't you? Huh? Concision. I looked it up. The
word means mutilate. Circumcision means cutting of
the flesh. Concession means mutilating the
flesh. And that's exactly what most
preachers do. They're butchers of souls. They butcher the Word
of God. Peter said, They that are unlearned
and unstable, do rest the Scriptures. Twist it. Make it say what it's
not saying. Don't say what it is saying. Add to it. Take away
from it. Rest. They that are unlearned,
they mutilate it and they're butchered. Our Lord called them
merchandisers of souls. They make merchandise of you.
You're a name and you're a number. and a notch on the belt, beware
of them." He said, Beware of them. Now listen, verse 3, he
says, We are the circumcision. We are the circumcision. And back in Galatians 1, Paul
says now, We preach the gospel. And if anybody preach any other
gospel than that which you've heard us preach, he said, let
him go to hell. That's what he said. And he said,
we are the circumcision. It's awfully bold, isn't it,
Paul? It's awfully dogmatic, isn't it, Paul? Aren't we awfully
bigoted and biased, Paul? Can you say that, Paul? Most
definitely. Most definitely. We are the circumcision.
All right, what's that mean? What's circumcision? What is
circumcision? Well, circumcision was a—well,
turn over with me to Romans 2, Romans chapter 2. Circumcision
was given by God Almighty to his chosen people. as a mark of the flesh, a mark
in the flesh, that they were the chosen people. Right? You
with me? Is anybody with me? Somebody? Right. OK. Is this making a noise? OK. Circumcision was given by
God as an outward mark that the Jews were a Jew. All right? OK. Is that the circumcision
that he's talking about, Paul's talking about, with the circumcision?
Many men in here have been circumcised. Is that what he's talking about?
No. No. Look at Romans 2. Romans
2, verse 28. He says, He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh. You mean it's not an outward
mark? You mean the sign of being one of God's people is not outward?
No, it's not. Verse 29, He is a Jew which is
one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart. It's the spirit, not the letter,
whose praise is not of men. Or that is, men look at you and
say, you must be a good Christian. No. It's when God looks at you
and says, there's a believer. There's one of mine. Circumcision. He says, we're
the circumcision. What's that? It's not an outward
mark. It's not an outward mark. We're
the circumcision. You see, anybody can fake outward
signs of religion. Can't we? You go in the average
place this morning, and people claim to be Christian, and most
every one of them look like us. Conservative, singing the same
hymns and all that. Is that what God's looking at? Well, there's so-and-so in church.
God doesn't see us man-seer. Man looks on the outward countenance. God looketh on the heart. He said, this people continually
kept saying, this people draw near to me with their lips when
their heart spark from. With the heart man believe, not
the head, with the heart man believe is on the right. A lot
of people saying a lot of things with the mouth, heart. Better
to have heart without words than words without heart. Well, he said, look at this,
Paul says, these are the marks of the circumcision, three times. Easy to remember, Philippians
3, three marks of a true believer. See if you've got these marks,
all right? Am I a believer? Am I a Christian?
Am I a disciple of Christ? Am I a believer? Well, yeah,
look at you, the way you dress. Wait a minute, that's not what
he's talking about. Three things, all right? Philippians
3, 3. He said, here's the first one. We are the circumcision
which worship God in spirit. Worship God in spirit. Now, usually at this time of
year, I get like old Ebenezer when it comes to all this. I said, buy humbug and all that
Christmas stuff. Men, everybody gets real good
and religious about this time of year, Easter and other times,
don't they? And there's a great show of religion
going on today. Oh my, there's people coming
and making a big show. There's people that don't come,
you know, 364 days, but they come today. pay their will. Forgive me, I'll get on that.
But I'm telling you, there's a great outward show of religion
going on. Men and women who are particularly
religious at this time of year, but a bunch of silly, sentimental
claptrap. All a bunch of silly sentimentality
over a baby in the manger. But true worshipers are worshiping
the one who's seated on a throne. He's not little Jesus anymore. There's nothing in the Scriptures
that tells us to celebrate his birth, but there's everything
in the Word of God that says, bow the knee to the Lord of glory,
seated on the throne right now. And this is indicative of modern
theology, and if they've got Jesus in their hands, this is
the one we worship, this baby we can control. But true worshipers
worship a Lord of glory seated on a throne. He's not a man anymore. He's a King of kings and Lord
of lords. Bless God he was incarnate, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Bless God the woman's
seed did come, but he couldn't serve or flee unless he hung
on that cross. There's the gospel, unless he
shed his blood, unless he rose from the grave and is now seated
and ever lives to make intercession for us. I'm not diminishing from that
glorious thing that happened 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. Oh my, glorious. We could preach
on it. We could rejoice in it. But I'm
just saying that's as far as most people get. It's right here. Ain't he cute? Sweet Jesus. True worshipers say, ain't he
glorious? The sovereign God. From the heart. From the heart. From the heart. From the heart.
A true child of God worships God. Isn't that what he said?
Worships God. From the heart. Worships God. Those that are really saved.
This is life eternal, our Lord said in John 17.3, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. God who is God. He said, come to make a people
know that I'm God. I get excited when I get on that
subject. I can worship. I never get tired
of a man standing up to declare, My God! Saying to the people,
By God, Rainer! I say, Hallelujah! God! They worship God from the
heart. It makes my heart jump a little
bit when I hear that, when I read that. God! I can't say it. I can't preach it any other way
than that. God. I love him as God. You can't
preach him high enough. You can't preach him. You can't declare him enough.
You can't make God sovereign enough for me. They worship God. I'm not here to worship Mary
or anybody else. Look at the next thing you can
you say from the heart you come here because. God this is my
God and I've come to worship him to come call on the name
of my God to worship God to thank God. And I'm bound to give thanks
unto God for you, brethren, beloved Lord, because he, God, hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit. He set you apart from lips of a saint people and put
his worship in your heart. Sanctified you through belief
of the truth. and worship God. We're the circumcision. I know there are more, but no
one is except those who worship God from the Spirit. A God who's
not God is not God. That's profound, isn't it? A
God who's not God is not God. And those who don't worship Him
as such aren't God's people, aren't the circumcision. And
it says, number two, they rejoice in Christ Jesus. They rejoice
in Christ Jesus. You've got to turn to this, all
right? Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. You've
got to turn to that. Isaiah 61. Paul said, Rejoice
in the Lord. Again, I say, Rejoice in the
Lord, the Lord our God. We worship and rejoice in Him,
all that He is and all that He does. Well, what has He done
for His people? The Lord Jesus Christ. This is
God we've waited on Him, Isaiah 25 says. He'll save us. Well, look at how He does the
saving. Isaiah 61, verse 10. He says, I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ. God manifests in the flesh. What's
He done? He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He's worked out a robe. He's
with His own hands. Blemish and He's covered me in
it. Look at it. He covered me with that robe
of righteousness. He got me covered. And that robe
of mine, I've got that wedding garment I need. Yes, as a bride
groom, decketh himself with ornament as a bride, adorneth herself
with her jewel." Oh, my! He's clothed me, he's robed me
with his righteousness. He imputed that righteousness
to me. Go and learn what that is. True circumcision, rejoicing
in the Lord thy righteousness. I say it again. I'm saying the
same things again. The same old, same old, line
upon line upon line upon line upon line. He's the Lord, our
righteousness. When we go there, this is more
than a doctor. When we stand there, when we get to heaven,
we stand there. He says, what box you got to come in? He goes,
oh, you got a robe on. Come on in then. And many people
will say, we, we, we, we, we, we. He says, get out of my presence. You don't have that wedding garment
on. What's the wedding garment? We're ignorant, we're ignorant.
I'm not ignorant. He robed me in His righteous
things. I'll make mention like David
of old in Psalm 71 of boy righteousness and night only. Isaiah 64, look
over there. Is this a good message for someone
to hear the first time? Or what? Is this a good message
for somebody to hear the last time? John, you're getting ready
to go to glory, maybe. Who knows? John's usually. How
are you going to get there? Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are, my glory is dressed." I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. Feelings, faith, anything I am
or do but one thing, I'll trust Him, Christ my righteousness. Look at Isaiah 64, 6. Everybody
doesn't know what they're wearing. Isaiah 64, 6, what we have sown
by our fig leaves, I worked on this earth, verse 6, he said,
we're all as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. Filthy rags. And these dumb dogs today are
telling people, you know, that they look good to God, and bragging
on there what they do. This is one fellow that won't. All our righteousness is a filthy
rag. This sermon has enough self in
it to damn me. Is that right? In my flesh, Paul
said and Romans said, dwelleth some good things, no good thing. No good thing. Filthy rags with
the true circumcision. True believers, true believers
rejoice in not their own works not themselves, they rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, a lot of people like to brag
on themselves. They're very much proud of their
own selves and what they've done, what they are, what they've done
for Jesus. God's people, they're absolutely ashamed of themselves. Ashamed of themselves in every
way, shape, form, and fashion They dare not boast. There's
no room for boasting in God's people. You ask them to boast
of something, they'll boast in Him and Him only. They rejoice
in Him. They don't rejoice in their denomination.
They don't rejoice in their faith even. My faith! What a pitiful
thing my faith is. I like that Martin Luther's old
hymn. It says, Feeling. That woman
told my wife, She says, my religion makes me feel good. True religion is not designed
to make you feel good about yourself. It's designed to make you feel
good about the Lord Jesus Christ. True religion is desire—true
religion, when God speaks, it breaks your heart. It shows you
your poverty of spirit. It shows you your nothingness
before God. It shows you nothing but a worm, a worm. But then it lifts you. See, those
who are abased, he's able to exalt. They either exalt themselves
he's going to abase, but those he abases by the word and breaks
their heart, he shows them there's no place to look but up. The religion of God is designed
to make us look bad to ourselves, and God makes Christ look that
more than beautiful. When we see we're nothing at
all, only then will Christ become all and in all. They rejoice
in Christ Jesus, not by works of righteousness, which I have
done, but according to his mercy. Not my faith, not my feelings.
Martin Luther said, feelings come, feelings go. One day I
feel pretty good about myself. That's when I need to get on
my knees fast and say, God forgive me. Feelings come and feelings go.
Feelings are deceiving. My hope is in the Son of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Faith. One day I feel strong in the
faith. Next day, I wonder if I have any at all. What's my
hope, Ron? The day when I'm not feeling
like I have any faith at all. The day I'm feeling pretty sinful.
When David, far be it from us to fall terribly in sin like
he did, but when David sinned, what was his hope? That he had
abided faithful? No! When Nathan came to David,
he said, You've sinned against the Lord. David repented, but
he said, The Lord put away your sin, David. They rejoiced in the Lord Jesus.
And I'm like Peter, I deny him daily. And if you're honest with
yourself, you say the same thing. We deny him daily, but he says
he comes with a word of rejoicing, Go tell the disciples. And Peter. Oh, there's a word of rejoicing
in just, and Peter. And Peter. and Peter. Rejoice. It's through circumcision. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, buddy, an old sinner. I talk about getting tired of
the gospel. I tell you when you get tired of it, when you ain't
got no more sins to be remitted by the blood. That's when, when
we get pretty high and start thinking pretty highly of ourselves,
that's when the gospel will lose its glory. But I tell you, there's
a worm in the dust There's a woman right now seated at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ, her name Mary Magdalene. She never
forgot the pit on which she was sitting. And that's every time
you'd find her, you'd see her at his feet. And I have no confidence, here's
the third thing, I have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in
the flesh, none. I don't rely on the flesh in
any way. The works of the flesh. No confidence. Don't put any
confidence in my ability to keep God's law. Oh, the law of God
is good. It's glorious. It's holy. It's just. It's right. It's true.
I want to keep it, but that's not my confidence that I've kept
it. That's not my confidence. My confidence, I rejoice in Christ
Jesus. He kept it for me. That doesn't
mean that I'm free to break it. No, God forbid such a thing.
But my confidence is not in my ability to keep it, though I
endeavor to. My confidence is in that Christ
kept it for me. I put no confidence in the flesh.
See, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and I feel
a war going on. I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of the spirit, that I cannot do the
things that I would. The things that I would do, I
don't do. The things that I don't do, that's
what I would do. Who shall deliver me? I rejoice
in Christ Jesus, my Deliverer, my Lawkeeper. Don't you? Same old, same old. No confidence in the flesh. None.
None. Oh, my. They rejoin, they worship
God, rejoice in Christ Jesus. They have no confidence in the
flesh. And then Paul went on to talk about himself. He said,
if anybody wants to have a little confidence, he said, I've got
more. Anybody wants to brag on the
flesh, Paul said, let me do some bragging. You think you come
from a fine stock, you said. You think you've been a good
this and that and the other. I'm the best there's ever been. Isn't
that what he said, Stan? Well, he said, I'm a Hebrew of
Hebrews. Let's say you trace your lineage
back, all the way back to Jacob or Abraham. Go back a little
further. He said, I'm a, it's touching the law. I was a Pharisee. I studied it. I know the law
backwards and forwards. He said, but I was ignorant of
it. He said, because when it came, I died. He said, touching the righteousness
was a law. He said, I was blameless. He said, I thought I had it all
covered, and then I found out that the law was spiritual. And
I died. It slew me. My joy and rejoicing is in the
Lord Jesus Christ, only, only, in everything. He is made unto
us wisdom of righteousness, sanctification, redemption. We rejoice in Christ
in justification and sanctification. He is our rejoicing in all things. As I said to you earlier, an
old sinner An old sinner, buddy, never gets tired of hearing these
things. You know what I mean? Let me
ask you something. An old fellow seated at King
David's table, seated there with everybody else, seated right
beside him, named Mephibosheth. Some of you
have heard of him. He's seated there at David's
table. Do you reckon he ever got complacent or presumptuous about
being seated at that table? Do you reckon he ever at times
said, I'm tired of sitting here. He may have, but he quickly chided
himself. All he had to do was look down
at those feet of lame legs and look around him, that king of
kings sitting beside him, and look at that table and take a
big bite. Oh, and he'd say, I'm so glad
to be here. Oh, God forbid. that I should get tired of glory.
You see, while you're here in my pimp's chair, while you're
sitting at that table, he fancied me. Who did he? David. That's why I'm here. All my joy and rejoicing, all
that I have is because that one, that king brought me here. And
I'm still nothing. Look at that, look. But look,
I'm so glad to be here. And we're the true circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, the
King at the right hand of God, but no confidence in the flesh.
None. Don't see any trappings of religion
in this place. Why? God does not worship that
way. True worshipers worship from
the heart, and they worship in spirit and in truth. Who is the
truth? Christ is the truth. All right,
Joe, what's that? What's that him? Two hundred
seventy.