All right, I want you to turn
in your Bibles tonight to the book of Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3. Now as you know, normally on
our evening services, Wednesday evening and Sunday evening, we
take up a book in the Old Testament and study it verse by verse.
We just finished the book of Job. and we're going to continue
that but i'm going to start next wednesday january second we're
going to study the book of jeremiah and i look forward to that and
maybe you'll get some time to pray about that and read the
book of jeremiah it's a very interesting prophecy but i've
been thinking about uh... uh... these last services of
this year two thousand twelve tonight and then our services
Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night. And anytime you come to
the close of another year and start to begin the new year,
I always take some time to think about things and things that
have happened and to thank God and bless his holy name for all
the mercies that he's shown us, all the blessings he has given
us, and even the trials of i think i hope that going through the
book of joba i'm not going to be i'm not gonna stand before
you impiously say that i can i can endure trials perfectly
because i can't but i hope that i've learned a little bit more
how to deal with trials and and uh... these infirmities of the
flesh uh... through studying the book of
joe i hope that the lord is taught taught us something But in thinking
about this, I decided that what I wanted to do tonight, and I'm
gonna do this Sunday morning and Sunday night, when we close
out this year and begin the new year, I'm gonna preach through
this chapter, Philippians chapter three, three messages. It's one
of my favorite chapters, but the reason I chose it to close
out our year with in these last three services is this chapter
It spans the entire life of a believer from the new birth on, even under
glory. And so it's a chapter that tells
us about the past and the present and the future. One section,
the first section I'm going to deal with tonight, the first
three verses, I've entitled the believers present experience. the believers present experience
and it starts off with one of what i think is one of the best
definitions of a christian that you'll find in all of god's work
and there's some great passages of scripture we could turn to
if we wanted to define what a Christian is, obviously. This is not the
only one. But I think this is one of the
best ones that's kind of capsulized into one verse. And so the first
section that I want to deal with tonight is the believer's present
experience. And then the next section I'll
deal with Sunday morning, that's the believer's past and present. And then Sunday night I want
to deal with the believer's present and future. And that's how this
passage is kind of divided up. And I'll tell you why it's like
that. You know, it's kind of like, you all know something
about the tense of verbs. We talk about past tense, present
tense, future tense. There's a tense in the Greek
language that has no equivalent in the English language. It's
called the aorist tense. And really it's kind of hard
to explain. Some people kind of explain it this way, that
it has a It's a tense of a verb that describes a past action
that has continual repercussions. And that might be a good way
to do it. But one old writer described it this way. He called
it the eternal now. In other words, it's not really
dealing with points in time, but all time. I don't know if
that's going to work it or not. But this chapter is kind of like
that. This is a believer's past, present, and future. in that
sense so let's let's begin looking at it and look at verse one it
says in verse one finally my brethren now now Paul's really
not ending the letter here he's kind of drawing a conclusion
for a point that he's making because later on over in chapter
four he talks about finally also but he's drawing a conclusion
here to a point that he's been making concerning a believer's
life, a life in Christ, concerning our protection and preservation
and perseverance against false prophets. And listen to what
he says, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now that
word rejoice there means obviously to be glad, the gladness, serve
the Lord with gladness, the psalmist wrote. It means to rejoice exceedingly. It also means to be well. In
other words, it means to see your well-being in the Lord.
My well-being, my eternal well-being is in the Lord. It's not in this
life. It's not in myself. It's not
in you. It's in Christ. The word Lord there is Jehovah,
God our salvation, the God of all grace, the covenant of God.
It also means to thrive. thrive in Christ. Eternally and
spiritually, we who know the Lord thrive in Him. And without
Him, we don't thrive. Without Him, we lose. Without
Him, we're barren. We don't flourish. In Him, we're
like that tree by the water that flourishes, whose leaf does not
fade. Nothing but good things eternally
even even the evil things that happen to us and we go through
the scripture says It's all controlled and worked out by God because
he says that that all things work together for good To them
that love the Lord who love God and who are the called according
to his purpose? This word rejoice is sometimes translated. Hail
H a il and That's what they used in greeting I think I mentioned
this last Sunday morning that Mary when the angel came to her
to reveal to her the things about the birth of the Christ child
in Luke 1 28 it says the angel came in unto her and said hail
thou art highly favored the Lord is with thee blessed art thou
among women the angel said hail and remember I mentioned to you
that's not a term of worship it's a term of rejoicing and
that's the same word that he uses here rejoice in the Lord.
Hail! So when they say hail Mary, meaning
to worship her, that's idolatry. You don't worship Mary. We worship
the Lord. We worship Christ. Listen, we're never instructed
or commanded to worship anything, anyone less than God in the scripture. And to do so is idolatry. So
what that angel was saying is rejoice, Mary, you're highly
favored. Blessed are you among women.
Rejoice. This epistle of the Philippians
is sometimes characterized by scholars as the epistle of joy. And I know you didn't know I
was going to preach on this tonight when you picked that hymn. Joy,
joy, joy. Rejoice. And that's what this
is about. It's about rejoicing in the Lord.
Paul writes in Philippians 4 and verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. We
don't rejoice in this world. We don't even rejoice in ourselves,
but we rejoice in the Lord. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians
5, 16, Rejoice evermore. And we could show so many passages. We could spend all night here
looking at passages of Scripture on this subject of joy. Even
just the Psalms. You know, just going through
the Psalms and Psalms of joy and praise. It's all in the Lord. And he says, rejoice in the Lord.
He doesn't say rejoice in self, does he? What is it when we look
to ourselves? Paul said it in Romans 7, O wretched
man that I am. There is no rejoicing in the
wretched man. But he says, who shall deliver
us from this body of death? Now here's rejoicing, I thank
my God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is therefore now
no condemnation in him. That's rejoicing in the Lord.
He doesn't say rejoice in the world. The world has no joy for
us. Oh, there might be moments of
temporary happiness in this world, but they don't last. And then,
I want you to notice this. He doesn't say rejoice in others.
Now there is a sense in which we rejoice in the salvation of
others. You know in the parable of the
lost sheep and the lost coin. It says there, when the shepherd
found his sheep and brought him home, and when the woman found
the lost coin, two times it says there, rejoice with me, I found
my sheep that was lost. Rejoice, I found that which was
lost. And there is more joy in heaven
over one sinner that repents, over ninety and nine that needeth
no repentance. So in that sense we rejoice with
others, but we don't rejoice in others. Paul wrote in Romans
12 and verse 15, he said, Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and
weep with them that weep. And how often do we find in this
life we have to rejoice in spite of others? In spite of them. Let me read you this. This is
Luke chapter 6 and verse 22. And the Lord is speaking here. He says, Blessed are you when
men shall hate you, And when they shall separate you from
their company, they'll alienate you, they'll ostracize you, and
shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil. He says,
for the son of man's sake. And then the next verse, in verse
23, he says, Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy. Now you
think about that. He's talking about men persecuting
you, hating you, separating from you, reproaching you, casting
your name out as evil in the name of the Son of God. He says,
Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy. How are you going to
do that? Well, He explains it. For behold,
your reward is great in heaven. Now that is the reward of grace,
not the reward of my works. That is the reward that Christ
has earned for me. For in like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets. So rejoice. And then turn over
to Philippians chapter 1. I find that this is a cause for
rejoicing here, and it's rejoicing in spite of others. Look at Philippians
1, look at verse 12. He says, But I would you should
understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have
fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Now what things
is he talking about? Well, Paul's writing this epistle from prison.
There's a certain segment of epistles that God the Holy Spirit
inspired Paul to write called the prison epistles because he
was in jail when he wrote them. And this is one of them. So the
epistle of joy, if that's what this is, and it certainly is
that, was written from a man who was in jail because he preached
the gospel. Because he lifted up Christ and
would not exalt men. That's right. So he says, but
what's happened to me has fallen out rather into the furtherance
of the gospel. Look at verse 13. So that my
bonds, my chains in Christ are manifest in all the palace and
in all other places. That's Caesar's palace that he's
talking about. And then he says, and many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident, growing confident
by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Many of the brethren who had heard of Paul being put in prison,
it made them bolder. in their testimony of Christ
in the gospel. But then look at verse 15. He
says, Some indeed preach Christ even of envying strife, and some
also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention,
not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the
other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Now think about that. He says,
what then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. I'm going to rejoice because
Christ is preached. Even those who try to do me harm.
That's hard to do, folks. It takes the grace of God, doesn't
it? That's hard to do. But that's rejoicing in the Lord.
That's what Paul's talking about here. Now look back at Philippians
3. He says in verse 1, he says,
to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous
or burdensome, but for you it is safe. To repeat these things,
to preach the same gospel, the same Christ. I remember Brother
Mahan saying a lot of times how people would say, well, you just
preach the same thing over and over again. And there's a sense
in which we do, and there's a sense in which we don't. We have one
message basically. And that is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified and risen again. We preach it from Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all go right on. All the way
over to Revelation. We approach it from different
points of view, from different circumstances. We deal with various
scriptures, but it's one message. But Paul says to preach the same
thing to you, it's not a burden to me, it's my joy. It's my peace. And for you, it's a safeguard.
It's a safeguard to protect the people of God from being deceived
and drawn away by false teachers, and that's what he's talking
about here. God will preserve his people, but he uses means
to do so, and the main means is worshiping the Lord under
the preaching of the gospel of God's grace in Christ. That's
how he preserves us. And so what context is he talking
about? Look at verse 2. He says, beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now, who are these
dogs? Well, you know, back then in that culture, and it's about
the same today, dogs just ran free, ran wild, and they were
just old cur dogs, eating out of garbage cans and all that.
And this term, dog, was a common term used by self-righteous Jews
to criticize and disparage Gentiles. And it was really a way of referring
to one who was ungodly, one who was an idolater, one who was
a sinner in their eyes. And that's the way they said
it. But he says here, beware of dogs. Now, who's he talking
about? Well, look at it. He says, beware of evil workers. Well, he's talking about these
self-righteous Jews who prided themselves on being workers of
righteousness. They judged themselves to be
righteous and despised others, Luke 18 tells us. Paul calls
them evil. Why? Because any attempts to
be saved, any attempts to please God by our own efforts and gain
glory for ourselves, and draw attention away from the glory
of Christ and His accomplished redemption, that's the worst
kind of evil there is in the sight of Almighty God. God cannot and will not share
His glory. For a sinner to come to God seeking
anything good by way of salvation or blessedness based on his works
dishonors God. Listen, we don't understand the
magnitude of that. It dishonors every attribute
of God's character. Because every, listen, every
attribute of God's character is honored and magnified in Christ. And for a sinner to come to God
seeking salvation by his own efforts, his own deeds, his own
works, is a denial of Christ. It's a denial of the glory of
His person. Why did He have to become God
and become man? He is God in human flesh. Why
was the Word made flesh and dwelling to establish the only righteousness
whereby God could be just and justifier? And for a sinner to
come to God in any other way but through Christ, pleading
His blood and righteousness, is a denial of everything that
Christ did in his obedience unto death. It's pride. Look here in verse 2. He says,
beware of the concision. That word concision is mutilation. That's what it is. Mutilation. And it's a play in the original
language. It's a play on the word circumcision. Now circumcision, as you know,
was a physical symbol of spiritual life. That's what it was. But what these unbelieving self-righteous
Jews who rejected Christ and His righteousness were doing
when they practiced it was nothing more than physical mutilation. Here's what it is. There were
a group of Jews who claimed to be Christian but who also added
circumcision and the keeping of the law to their scheme of
salvation in order for a person to be saved. They'd say, well,
Gentiles could be saved, but they had to become a Jew first.
They had to be circumcised. And Paul said, he called that
in Galatians, another gospel. That's legalism. That's idolatry. And Paul is using that word to
say really what they're doing when they circumcise these Gentile
men is just mutilating them. They're not doing anything that
pleases God. They're not doing anything that
makes that person clean in the sight of God. They're not doing
anything that will recommend a sinner. All they're doing is
just mutilating human beings and nothing more. So beware of
the concision. And then in verse 3, he gives
us the present experience of every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And listen to what he says. He
starts off in verse 3, he says, For we are the circumcision. Now I want you to understand,
in Philippi, where this church is located, there were both believing
Jews and believing Gentiles. And you know, a lot of times
in the New Testament, a word that's used to describe all the
Jews was the circumcision. And a word that was used to describe
all Gentiles was the uncircumcised or uncircumcision. In this church,
this local body of believers, and God had used the apostle
Paul to start this church. You remember how it started?
You can read about it in the book of Acts. You know about the Philippian
jailer and all that? Paul was used of God to preach
the gospel here and God had raised up a local body of believers,
a local church body here, and in that church there were both
believing Jews and believing Gentiles. So there were some
of the men who were circumcised Jews and some who were uncircumcised
Gentiles, but Paul says to all here, we are the circumcision. We're the circumcision. Now what's
he talking about? Well, I want you to turn back
to the book of Romans, chapter 2. And this is so important to understand
this because this term, circumcised and uncircumcised, comes up quite
a bit in the New Testament. And most people just assume,
well, those who are circumcised, those are the national Jews.
And those who are uncircumcised, those are the national Gentiles.
But listen to what Paul says here. Now, he's talking about
how the law of God brings in every person without exception
born of Adam under the guilt and defilement and spiritual
depravity of sin. We're all sinners. Remember,
he starts out there in Romans 1 talking about how the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first, to the Greek also, the Gentile also. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. And that phrase, the righteousness
of God, is one of the most important in the whole Bible. What's he
talking about there? He's talking about what Christ
did in his obedience unto death to save his people from our sins. That's the righteousness of God.
It's the merit of His obedience unto death. Now, here's the question.
Why do we need that? Well, he starts off. For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all sin and unrighteousness
of all men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. We're all
sinners. And then in chapter 2, he says that includes the
Jew. Even the physical descendants of Abraham, they too are sinners
who are in need of a righteousness they cannot produce. They're
in need of a savior. Their deeds will not save them.
Their physical connection with Abraham will not save them. Their
efforts to keep the law of Moses will not save them. And their
circumcision will not save them. Look at verse 23. He says in
Romans 2.23, he says, Thou that makest thy boast of the law,
they say, we keep the law. They didn't, but they said they
did. Through breaking the law dishonest thou God? Yes. Verse 24, for the name of God
is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written.
You see, when they took that old covenant and turned it into
a legalistic system of work salvation and tried to bring the Gentiles
into that, What were they doing? They were blaspheming the name
of God, evil workers. But look at verse 25. He says,
for circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law. Now that's
the same thing James said. If you break one law, you've
broken them all. If you keep one, you've kept them all in
that sense. That is, as far as righteousness
before God. So he says, listen, if you're
circumcised, you're okay if you keep the law. What's the problem
then? We'll all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in His sight. We're law breakers. He says,
but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made
uncircumcision. In other words, if you're a breaker
of the law, you're no better off than the unsaved Gentile.
That's what he's saying there. You think you're better off because
you're circumcised. Well, if you keep the law, that's
fine. If you have a righteousness that
answers the demands of the law by your works, then that's okay.
But if you're a breaker of the law, if you fall short of the
glory of God, then you're no better off than the uncircumcision,
that you're so proud of your circumcision. Doesn't mean a
thing. Look at verse 26. He says, He says, therefore, if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? Remember, here's a Gentile. He's
not circumcised according to the law of Moses, but he keeps
the law. Well, he's better off than the
Jew who's circumcised, who doesn't keep the law. You see, the issue
here is the law. That's what God's Word says.
the righteousness of the law. How is God going to judge every
person? Acts 17 31. He hath appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. It's
not, it's not are you circumcised or uncircumcised, are you Jew
or Gentile? It's how do you stand with Christ? That's the issue. And if you
don't stand in him, Then that's evil. That's an evil worker. But look at verse 27. And shall
not uncircumcision, which is by nature, that's the way you're
born. You're not born circumcised, you're born uncircumcised. By
nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the letter
and circumcision does transgress the law. So if that Gentile who's
born that way, if he keeps the law, he'll be your judge who
break the law. Well, look at verses 28 and 29.
Now, here's the key. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. What's Paul saying here? I'm
not talking to you about physical circumcision. Verse 29. He is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. That's the inner man. That's
the mind, the affections, the will. In the spirit and not in
the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. What's he
talking about when he says over here in Philippians 3, we are
the circumcision? He's talking about spiritual
circumcision. He's talking about circumcision
of the heart, not physical. Back in the Old Testament, you
know, that physical rite of circumcision was done to show the need of
something greater that man could not accomplish, heart circumcision. What is heart circumcision? It's
the new birth. Nicodemus, Christ stood and talked
to a circumcised Jew named Nicodemus and he says, Nicodemus, you must
be born again or you can't see or enter the kingdom of heaven.
Your heart needs to be circumcised. That's what he said. Over in
Acts chapter 7, let me just read you this. This is Stephen preached
a gospel message in Jerusalem, the city of peace. And after
he finished, he looked at them and he says, this is Acts 7,
51. Listen to this. He says, you stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears. Now who's he talking to here?
A bunch of circumcised Jews. But uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did,
so do you. And been born again by the Spirit.
You see this, when Paul says we are the circumcision, he's
saying we're the regenerate. We who have been ruined by the
fall. You know, we hear about the three R's of salvation. Ruined
by the fall. That's the reason we need salvation. Redeemed by the blood that's
the ground of salvation. That's what Christ accomplished
on the cross When he was made sin Christ who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He did it for
us Our substitute he was made a curse for us Redeemed by the
blood and all who are redeemed by the blood are what? regenerated
by the Spirit given spiritual life This circumcision of the
heart is the same thing that Ezekiel prophesied of in Ezekiel
36 and 37 when God said, I'll give them a new heart. That's
a circumcised heart. Cutting away the filth of the
flesh. What is that? That's repentance of dead works.
I repent of ever thanking. that I could work my way into
God's favor. I repent of ever thinking that
anything but Christ and Him crucified and risen, His blood, His righteousness
imputed could recommend me unto God and save me and preserve
me and bring me to glory. That's heart circumcision. I
rest in Christ and Him alone. That's what it's all about. Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, he said, for as much as you are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. That's regeneration. Now go back
to Philippians 3. How can we know we've been circumcised
in heart? Well, he gives you three things
here. And this is it. What is a Christian? Well, he's
one who's been circumcised in heart and ears. He's been given
a new heart. He's been given eyes to see things
he didn't see before. We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. He's been given spiritual ears.
He hears things he didn't hear before. Things that are pleasing
to him that weren't pleasing before. I know for a fact that
that's true because God's Word says it. And I know also because
I experienced it. I can remember sitting and hearing
the gospel and hating every word of it. I can remember that. Just like Paul the Apostle, Saul
of Tarsus, on his way to Damascus, to snuff out any notion of Jesus
of Nazareth being the Messiah and those who follow him, and
the Lord stopped him on that road and changed him. What happened? He was circumcised
in Hardenia. born again by the spirit born
from above born by the word so this is this is what a christian
is he's one who've been circumcised in heart well how do you know
that you've been circumcised in how you know you're the circumcision
number one he says which worship god in the spirit worship god
now when he talks about worshiping god he's not just talking about
going to church now we're to assemble together like we're
doing tonight like we'll do on Sunday with the people of God
and publicly this is you know this is part of our public confession
of Christ before men to meet together this is this is a lot
of things you see this is we publicly confess Christ first
in believers baptism and then we unite with his people in the
local assembly that's why he says forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is that's the
first step to apostasy so we're publicly confessing our unity
with Christ and his people and our love for Christ and his people
right here right now And so, we're to assemble ourselves in
worship together. But this worshiping God in the
Spirit means respecting, believing, trusting, and serving God, not
for what we can get from Him, but for what He has freely already
given us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ told the woman
at the well over in John chapter 4, remember He told her, He says,
You don't know what you worship. You worship ignorantly. In verse
23, he said, The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Not under the preaching
of a lie now. He says, For the Fathers seek
of such to worship Him. God is spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now this worshipping God in spirit
I believe involves two things. Number one, worshipping God as
he reveals himself in his word. There are a lot of people who
meet together and they give their opinions. They give their ideas. They'll have dialogue preaching.
Have you ever heard of that? going back and forth. What do
you think? What I think? That's not worshiping God in
spirit and in truth. We worship God in spirit and
in truth when we preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ through
his word. Stick to his word. Men today
use methods that are aimed not at worshiping God in spirit and
in truth, but to draw the world into the church. And they do
a pretty good job of it, don't they? They're entertaining. Telling jokes, providing programs,
activities, they'll keep you busy, but it won't be worshiping
God in spirit and truth. You don't worship God where Christ
is not preached and exalted. This is life eternal that they
may know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. No man knoweth the Son. except
those to whom the Father reveals Him. And no man knows the Father
save the Son. You must know Christ. You must
preach Christ. His Word, who He is, what He
did, why He did it, where He is now. The truth about God and
everything that He says in His Word, whether you can wrap your
mind around it or not. If He says, I'm sovereign, then
we worship a sovereign God. And to worship anyone less is
idolatry. If he says you're responsible,
then we worship a God to whom we're held accountable, and anything
less or more is idolatry. We worship the God who reveals
himself in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God who justifies
the ungodly. based on the blood and righteousness
of Christ. So it's worshiping God as He
reveals Himself. Not as we think Him to be, imagine
Him to be, or want Him to be. As He is in His Word. Secondly,
to worship God in spirit and in truth means to worship God
from our hearts. Not just ceremony. Not just going
to church, not just filling up space in a pew, not just thinking,
well, I've got to be there or somebody's going to say something.
No, sir. Worshipping God because He draws
our hearts out to Him. Not worshipping Him in all these
icons and things that people use as aids for worship. No,
we worship God in spirit, from our spirit, you see. That's the issue here. Somebody
says, well that's not enough. Well, maybe you're not the circumcision
then. Maybe you don't have that new
heart. You see what I'm saying? That's enough for God's people. But with the heart man believeth
under righteousness. How do you do that? How do you
believe under righteousness? I'll tell you exactly how. You
lay hold of Christ. You plead Him and His merits
alone. That's the first thing. Here's
the second thing. Listen, here's the foundation of it all. Philippians
3, 3. Number two, rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now, back up in
verse one, he said rejoice in the Lord. Remember what that
meant. That means to be glad, exceedingly
glad, to thrive and all that. But now the word rejoice here
is a different word in the original. This word rejoice here means
to boast. That's right. It means to have
confidence in. It's the same word that Paul
wrote over in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Listen to this.
He says, Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice. Same word
as in verse 3 here. Rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. This word rejoice in verse 3
is the same word he uses here in 1 Corinthians. Of all the marks that I've got
in my Bible, I didn't mark that one. And the problem is, is I've
got a new Bible. And the pages will stick together.
And so I'll put these little markers in here so I can get
them in until I get this thing worn a little bit, you know.
But here I've got it. Alright. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. He's talking about God's method
and means of preaching the gospel to save his people. And he says
the reason in verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 1, the reason why God does it
the way he does it is that no flesh should glory in his presence. That word glory is the same word
rejoice in verse 3 of Philippians chapter 3. Glory. No flesh should glory in his
presence. He says, But of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, same word, let him glory, same word, in
the Lord. Now Philippians 3 and verse 3,
what's he talking about? He's talking about boasting in
Jesus Christ. That's our boast. Our boast is
not ourselves. It's not what we've accomplished
or what we do or want to do or try to do. Our boast is in Christ
Jesus, the Lord, and what he's accomplished. We brag on Christ. One old preacher said that's
what preaching the gospel is, just bragging on Christ. Our
confidence is in Christ. Our confidence is salvation,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Our confidence
of justification, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our confidence of forgiveness,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Our confidence
of life, through His death, I live. Christ Jesus lives in me by His
Spirit and His Word. Our confidence of preservation,
He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against
that day. He's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
the Father by Him. Our confidence of glory. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God, my God,
through Jesus Christ, my Lord. My confidence at judgment. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ. We boast in Christ. And then look back here. Here's
the third thing. We are the circumcision. Worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice
in Christ Jesus. And thirdly, have no confidence
in the flesh. Have no boast in the flesh. Have
no assurance in the flesh. You know that word confidence,
this word rejoice, they are all related. Over in Ephesians 2
and 8 he said, For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Same word. Flesh here, what does
it refer to? It refers to man's efforts to
save himself. That is what it refers to. He
is not talking about your hands and your feet. In fact, one place
in Romans 12, Paul writes, present your bodies as living sacrifices,
pleasing unto God through Christ. The flesh here refers to man's
efforts, and we'll see that more in the next message when we talk
about the believer's past and present. Verse 4, he says, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh. What's he talking
about? Well, I was circumcised the eighth day. I was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, all of that. And what Paul is saying here
is that if you have been circumcised in heart and ears, if you are
one of the circumcision, the spiritual circumcision, a spiritual
Jew, a spiritual Israelite, you have no confidence in the flesh,
in your works, in your heritage, in your pedigree, in your circumcision,
in anything but Christ and Him alone. Our confidence is in Christ. The unbelieving Jews, they place
their confidence in their physical connection with Abraham. John
the Baptist said, don't think to say that, God will lay the
axe to that root. They boasted in their obedience
to the law of Moses. Christ said to them, he said,
Moses will judge you. He said, Moses wrote of me. And
you claim that your obedience to the law is your savior. By
deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. Let's conclude by
reading Galatians chapter 6. Here's another one of those passages
that is one of the the best definitions of a Christian. Now remember what Paul said. What he's talking about, that's
the present experience of every believing sinner. We've been
regenerated by the Spirit. We worship God in the Spirit.
We rejoice, have confidence, boast in Christ, and have no
confidence in the flesh. That's the present experience
of every... That's not what you're trying to attain to. That's what
God brings you to. when you're circumcised in heart
and ears. And you'll learn more things about it. And you'll grow
in grace and knowledge, but that's how you start. That's your present
experience of every believer, every sinner that God saved by
His grace. But look here in Galatians chapter
6, look at verse 13. Here Paul's talking about these
same Judaizers who are trying to get Christians to be circumcised
in order to be recommended to God. And he says in verse 13,
for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law.
They're sinners. Circumcision won't help them.
But desire to have you circumcised that they may glory. That's the
same word there. Glory in the flesh or glory in
Christ. He says glory. They want a glory
in your flesh. They don't want a glory in Christ
and Him crucified. His blood and right. They want
a glory in your flesh. But look at verse 14. But God
forbid that I should glory now that's the same word rejoice
in Philippians 3 3 we rejoice in Christ Jesus same word glory
just translated different God forbid that I should glory save
or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in the person
and finished redemptive work of Christ, in the blood of Christ,
in the righteousness of Christ, the merits of Christ, the grace
of God in Christ. How many ways can you say it?
It's the same thing, isn't it? You say it different, but it
all means the same thing right there. We boast in Christ. God forbid that I should boast,
have confidence in anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And He says, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. The world, because I glory in
nothing but Christ and Him crucified, the world, who glories in the
flesh, looks upon me as cursed. But I look upon the world as
cursed. Verse 15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, that's physical circumcision, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creation. We are the circumcision. Spiritual,
the circumcision of the heart. That's the work of God you see,
not the work of man. That's the new creation. And
as many as walk according to this rule. Now what rule? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. Now what rule do you walk by?
What rule do I walk by? This is the present experience
of every believer. As many as walk by this rule,
peace be on them. Now Jeremiah, we're going to
be studying the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks a lot about false
prophets and one of their main messages is this, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. But I'll tell you something.
One who walks by this rule, who truly walks by this rule, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross, we can say peace
be on them. They're at peace with God. You
know why? Because they have the peace of the cross. Christ, the
prince of peace, has made peace between God and his people. And
then in mercy, we can say God's been merciful to them. Compassion
we can say the love of God is upon them not on all without
exception but upon them And listen this and upon the Israel of God
now, what's the Israel of God? For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly But he is a Jew which is one inwardly That's
the Israel of God. That's spiritual Israel there.
That's every sinner. I who's been circumcised in heart
and ears. That's every sinner who's been
brought to faith in Christ, to glory in Christ, and to have
no confidence in the flesh. That's the present experience
of every believer.