Good evening, let's all stand
together, we'll sing hymn number 257. 257. It's so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His word Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know the saint, the Lord Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, full for praise to trust Him more. Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust His cleansing blood. Just in simple faith to plunge
me deep, the healing, cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him o'er. It's too sweet to trust in Jesus
Just from sin and self to seize Just from Jesus simply taken
Life and rest and joy and peace Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for praise to trust Him more I'm so glad I learned to trust
Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend. And I know that Thou
art with me, Will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how
I trust Him. How I've proved Him o'er and
o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust Him more. Be seated. Sing hymn number 125. ? I hear the Savior say ? Thy strength
indeed is small ? Child of weakness watch and pray ? Find in me thine
all in all ? Jesus paid it all, all to Him alone Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it by the stone. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
in Thine alone, Can change the left or spot, Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. ? For nothing good have I ? Whereby
thy praise to claim ? I will wash my garments white ? In the
blood of Calvary's Lamb ? Jesus paid it all ? All to him I owe washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
standed incomplete, Jesus died my soul to save. Thy lips shall
still repeat, Jesus, baby, Good evening, can we turn to
Ruth chapter 4? Ruth chapter 4, this is where
Boaz redeems Ruth. Then went Boaz up to the gate
and sat him down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom
Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, ho, such a one, turn
aside, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down.
And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit you
down here. And they sat down. And he said
unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is, come again out of the country
of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's. And I thought, excuse me, and
I thought to advertise thee, saying, buy it, therefore, before
the inhabitants and before the elders of my people. If thou
wilt redeem it, redeem it. But if thou wilt not redeem it,
then tell me that I may know. For there is none to redeem it
besides thee, and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem
it. Then said Boaz, what day thou
buy'st the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also
of Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the
name of the dead upon his inheritance. And the kinsman said, I cannot
redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Redeem thou my right to thyself,
for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the manner in former
time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing For to
confirm all things, a man plucked off his shoe and gave it unto
his neighbor. And this was a testimony in Israel.
Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee. So he
drew off his shoe, and Boaz said unto the elders and unto all
the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all
that was a limilex, and all that was chilons, and Mahlon's of
the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the
name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be
not cut off from among his brethren and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day. And
all the people that were in the gate and the elders said, we
are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that
is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which too
did build the house of Israel. And do thou worthily in Ephrathah,
and be famous in Bethlehem. And let thy house be like the
house of Phares, whom Tamar bear unto Judah, of the seed of which
the Lord shall give thee, this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth,
and she was his wife. And when he went in to her, the
Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women
said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee
this day without a kinsman. That is, his name may be famous
in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer
of thy life and a nourisher of thine old age. For thy daughter-in-law,
which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath
borne him. And Naomi took the child and
laid it in her bosom and became nurse unto it. And the women
her neighbors gave it a name, saying, there is a son born to
Naomi. And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse,
the father of David. Now these are the generations
of Phares. Phares beget Hezron, and Hezron beget Ram, and Ram
beget Amenadab, and Amenadab beget Nashon, and Nashon beget
Salmon, and Salmon beget Boaz, and Boaz beget Obed, and Obed
beget Jesse, and Jesse beget David. Almighty God, we come to you
again in prayer, Lord, and we thank you. We thank you so much
for this place that you've given us to come and to worship you
and to hear the truth, Lord, your word. Lord, we thank you
for your blessed son, and we thank you for the men that stand
and proclaim him, Lord. We ask that you'd be pitiful
to our families that don't know you, Lord. Don't care anything
of you, Lord. We ask that you'd be Be kind
to the people of this congregation, Lord, the ones that show us what
it's like to submit to your will, Lord, whenever things are not
all well with us. Lord, we thank you. We thank
you for your blessed son. And we ask all these things in
his name. Amen. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way. I was wretched and foul as could
be. But my Savior in love Gave me
peace from above When He reached down His hand for me When my
Savior reached down for me way down for me. I was lost and alone without
God or His Son when He reached I was near to despair when he
came to me there. And he showed me that I could
be free. Then he lifted my feet, gave
me gladness complete. When He reached down His hand for me When my Savior reached
down for me He was lost and undone without
God for his son when he reached down his hand for God. How my heart doth rejoice when
I hear his sweet voice. In the tempest to him I then
flee. There to lean on His arms Safe,
secure, from all harm Since He reached down His hand for me When my Savior reached down
for me when he reached way down for
me. I was lost and undone without
God or son when he reached down his hand for me. There to lean on his arms, safe,
secure from all harm, since he reached down his hand for me. I sure am thankful for Houston
that he takes care of so many things around here. And when
I'm gone, he conducts a service and does so well. He just does
so well. And, oh, that's one of our favorite
tunes. He reached down. He had to reach
way, way, way, way, way down. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
3. Philippians chapter 3. I'm going to read down to verse
8. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is
not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcise the eighth day of
the talk of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me,
those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done that I may win Christ. I want to get my subject this
evening out of verse 3. I want to deal with verse 3.
I want to talk about the true Church, the true believer, who
is a true Jew, who is a true Jew. And you know Paul, he's
talking here about the true preachers of God. He said, We are the circumcision,
we are. He said, I am, you are, you Philippians
are, believers are. You're the circumcision, you're
the true Jew, you've been circumcised in the heart, you've been made
clean, not by circumcision of the flesh and the law, but by
the Spirit of God, you've been made clean. Now is this, he talks
about the true children of God and the true worshipers of God.
Is this just idle talk? You know, all religions and all
religionists claim to be true preachers and claim to be the
true Church, claim to be the true worshippers of God. So why
should we believe what the Apostle says here? Well, the first reason
we are to believe it is because the scripture says that He is
writing under the divine inspiration of God Almighty. All scriptures
given by God, by inspiration of God, breathed of God, And
I tell you he's preaching and teaching by God's inspiration,
God's speaking through this man, God USED this man. And I tell
you he's right under the inspiration of God Almighty. And the second
thing is he was a chosen vessel of God to carry the gospel to
the Gentiles. And when the Jews would hear
about Him preaching to Gentiles, they hated Him and despised Him
for that. They just could not bear it that
the Jews were not the privileged people that God opened the door
to the Gentiles in which the Old Testament said He would do
that. And He knew, this Apostle knew something about false religion.
He knew something about false religion. He was bound in it
for years. He said here you know, verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting
the Church, a Pharisee, he said a Pharisee, touching the righteous
with the law, a Pharisee, Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee. And let
me tell you that when He said the righteousness of the law
is blameless, you know what that means? He s telling you that
the righteousness of the law don t amount to anything. When
you look at the righteousness of the law, these men THOUGHT,
the Pharisees thought THEY were blameless and accused Christ.
Everybody who wants to be saved by LEGALISM and FUNDAMENTALISM
and SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, they all believe that they re better
than everybody else. And that s why Paul said, You
know, when you looked at the law, I was blameless! My conscience
never bothered me! It never bothered me! I was a separatist! I was a legalist! And oh, but boy, but I tell you
what, God apprehended him on the Damascus Road And I tell
you, blinded him for three days, and when he come to himself,
the first thing he did, he took the Old Testament and proved
that Jesus was the Christ. And oh my, God brought him to
saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything that he
believed in up to this time, he said, listen, everything I
attained, everything I made myself to look good in, and my flesh,
I could really have gloried in it one day. I could have gloried
in it. But he said, I count, do you
know what I do? I count every bit of that loss. Loss. Not only do I count it lost,
but I count it done. And now the only thing I want
in my life is to know Christ, to be found in Christ, and to
have the righteousness of Christ. That's what he says. But in this
chapter, he tells us about his religion before conversion. My
he's circumcised eighth-day tribe of Benjamin. Oh my here's a descendant
of Abraham He was a religious leader. He is zealous in his
religion zealous in his traditions zealous in his ceremonies Delus
in his traditions and ceremonies. He was a separated moralist a
And he persecuted those who disagreed with him and didn't respect him
and didn't respect what he believed. But God saved him, God saved
him. So he knew something about false
religion and he knew something about true religion. He said,
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. And all I tell
you what, I want to show you about true religion, true religion. Let s start up here in verse
1. Look what he says here. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. What is
he saying? Give God all the glory. God gets
all the glory. Rejoice in the Lord. Give God
all the glory for everything that s said and Rejoice in God
the Father for His eternal election, for His eternal mercies, for
His eternal covenant of grace, for the eternal election that
God gave and brought to us, and then rejoice in the Son! Rejoice
in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ! As we sung, Jesus paid
it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. And oh, bless God, rejoicing
the Lord, because he washed us in his blood, paid for us, redeemed
us, and we became his child. and rejoice in the Holy Spirit
of God, because He's the one who came and revealed Christ
to us, made us to see Christ, made us to know Christ, made
us to rejoice in Christ, and we wouldn't have known it if
the Holy Spirit hadn't come and taught us. And that's why the
apostle says this, by the grace of God, by the grace of God,
I am what I am, and all the labor that I had, it was because of
the grace of God. He said, all my spiritual blessings,
they all of them come through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's
like David, he said, oh, oh, rejoice in the Lord, oh my soul,
and all that was in me, oh, rejoice in the Lord. And I'll tell you
what, and then he goes on to say this, he told us to rejoice
in the Lord. And I'll tell you, we got lots
to rejoice in, lots to rejoice in. And he said, to write the
same thing to you, a deed is not grievous. He said, I'm not
tired of writing to you the same thing to you. I preach the same
thing week after week after week, I just use a different place,
but I say the same thing over and over. You know, I really
do, and every preacher preaches the Gospels that way. He said,
I'm not tired of writing the same things to you, saying the
same things to you, and here's why he said it, because for you
it's safe. You're safe. You're safe. And so, you know, and he said,
I'm not tired of dealing with the same thing over and over
and over. Because for you, it's safe for you. It'll strengthen
your faith. And everybody's faith would like,
everybody would like to have stronger faith. And he said,
it's safe for you because I'll comfort you. You'll be comforted
in your tribulation. And it's safe for you to keep
you from error. Oh my, there's lots of air out
there. And I'll tell you what, I read
something the other day that a church is in really, really
bad condition when they let anything creep in to compete with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul said, oh,
I'm gonna keep you from air, it's safe for you. And look what
he said here. Safe for you, it's not grievous
to me, it's not troublesome to me, it's not a burden to me.
And he said, you need to be kept safe from dogs. dogs. You know what a dog does? Barks,
bites. And he told the Galatians, he
said, You know, if you bite and devour one another, you'll consume
one another. And I tell you, old dogs, old
sorry dogs. You know, these men are like
dogs. They want to scare you. You know,
you go by a big old dog, you know, and he comes and charges
you a big old pit bull. You'll back up and go like that.
And I tell you what, they'll scare you to death. And that's
what he said. You know, those old dogs are going to bark at
you. They're going to scare you. They're going to try to bite
at you. And then he says, Of the concision. Now what I take
that to mean is people like the circumcision, they're so concise,
so concise, they're so concise in their believer that if you
don't agree with them in every jot, in every tittle, then they'll
break fellowship with you. And that's what he's saying.
Don't pay no attention to them fellows, they're so concise.
And so that's what he's talking, he warns them to beware of false
preachers. He warns them who glory in their
flesh. You know, false preachers, one
thing you can tell it, they always glory in the flesh. They always
bragging to what they're doing and what they've done, yours
and theirs. And I tell you, they glory in
appearance in ceremonies of religion. Let me show you that over here
in Galatians chapter six. Let me show you that in Galatians
chapter six, how these people that glory in the flesh. Oh my,
the fellow wants to glory in appearance. Oh, he wants to glory
in what he's accomplished, want to glory in how many souls he's
win, glory in how big a congregation he's got. And oh, look what he
said here in verse 12, Galatians chapter six. He says, as many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. Oh, they wanna
make a fair show. Boy, I tell you what, I want
y'all to understand what I've accomplished in my ministry.
That's what they're saying, ain't they, Bruce? And it goes on to
say here, they constrain you to be circumcised. Oh, you got
to be circumcised. You can't be saved without being
circumcised. You need to go back under the
law. You got to have some rules. And oh, listen, and the only
reason they do this, they don't want to suffer persecution for
the cross of Christ. You know, if you believe in legalism,
and you believe in keeping the law, and you have a right to
have the law, you'll not suffer persecution. If you're a free
willer, you won't suffer persecution. But boy, you preach the Christ,
and Christ, and no law, and Christ, and Christ alone, grace, and
grace alone. So after a while, people say,
that fella's lost his mind. And oh, listen, for what he goes
on to say, for they themselves, who are circumcised, keep the
law. but they desire you to be circumcised,
that they may say, boy, I won that one to the Lord. I brought
that into my point of view. I brought that into the church.
I tell you what, I talked him into it. I brought him in. Oh
my, but God forbid, listen to this, that we should glory, that
we should glory, save only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. where I died to the world and
the world died to me. For in Christ Jesus, circumcision
don't mount to nothing, uncircumcision don't mount to nothing but a
new creation. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace and mercy on them, mercy upon the Israel
of God. And what Israel of God's he talking
about? Same one Paul's talking about here in Philippians. And
oh my, he comes down here now to verse three. And he says,
we are the circumcision. He said, we're the true ministers
of God. We're the true children of God.
We're the true church of Jesus Christ. We have the true circumcision. We're the true Jew. And he gives
us three marks, three marks here in verse three of the true church,
a true Jew, a true preacher. First of all, we worship God
in the spirit. Huh? We rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And thirdly, we have no confidence
in the flesh. Look what he said, the first
one, we worship God. We are the circumcision, the
true, true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit. You
know, we're in here tonight to worship. We've come to worship.
We come this morning to worship. And God every once in a while
lets us enter into worship. But I tell you what, you know
what real worship is? Now you keep Philippians, look
over in John chapter four. Look over in John chapter four.
Our Lord tells us exactly what worship is over here. We worship
God in the spirit. You know, in the spirit of, in
the Holy Spirit of God and in our spirit, in our spirit. But oh, look, you know, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He's talking to this woman at the well. And you
all know what happened here. And the woman said unto her,
in verse 19, the woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. Now look what she says about
worship. She said, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. She
said, wherever my daddy worshiped, that s where I want to worship.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. She was
trusting there in her heritage. My daddy has all of our fathers
and forefathers worshiped. This is tradition. This is where
Abraham offered up Isaac on this mountain. And I tell you what,
she was holding on to her heritage, her customs, and her customs. And she went back in verse 12.
Look what she said here. Are thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself and
his cattle? She thought that this coming to Jacob's well gave
her some special treatment, special things. And oh my, our father,
he had Jacob's well, and our fathers. And then he says this,
he said, and you say, we say this mountain and you say, we
say and you say, what does God say? That's what we're interested
in. And she said, you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought
to worship. Two different places. One's on a mountain, one's in
Jerusalem. Oh my, did you say Jerusalem? That's the place where
all the ceremonies and the feast and the holy days took place.
But look what our master said. She said to him, she said to
her, you worship, you don't have a clue what you worship. You
don't even know what you worship. You don t know who your God is,
you don t know who your idols are, you don t know who you worship,
what you worship. For we, the Jews, know who we
worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But our Lord, listen
to this, the hour comes, now is, right now, that the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." And I tell you,
that's where worship's at. We worship God in the spirit
and in truth. You can't have one without the
other. If you've got the truth, you'll have the spirit, and you
can't have the truth without the spirit. And I tell you, God
seeketh such to worship Him. What does that mean? Is He looking
out? Well, I'll try to get that fellow to worship me this way
and that way and that way. No, no. He seeks people. He seeks
them out. And you know what He does? He
brings them to true worship. They understand that this flesh,
that worship, is worship in God Himself. And we worship with
the Spirit, with the heart. Huh? And all my true worshipers,
they praise the Lord. True worship of faith is a hard
work. It's a hard work. God told Samuel,
said, God looks on the heart, looks on the heart. And people
associate worship with special days. Oh, special days. I never will forget one time,
I was with a preacher, and we had been up in Michigan preaching
together, and we was on our way home, and he was talking about
next week, it was going to be Holy Week. And I said, Holy Week? What's Holy Week? And that's
Easter. You know, they do all kinds of
rigamaroles for five or six, seven days. I said, I laughed. I said, I laughed. Holy days,
Holy Week. What s a holy week? What s a
holy place? What s a holy land? Oh, they
associate worship with special days, putting on robes, burning
candles, oh, coming in burning candles to save souls, put up
crosses, put up pictures, paint murals, put on lapel pins, give
testimonies, talking about holy places, holy land. Oh, there's
no such thing. God said the heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool. Where is the place you're gonna
build me that I can dwell in? And I tell you, Paul told him,
he says, listen, God don't dwell in temples made by hands. He's not worshiped with things
made by hands. It's he, he that gives us all
things. And oh, he said, oh my, God is
not impressed. or cares about our shows of religion. He does not do it. You know,
be still and know that I'm God. The writer in Ecclesiastes, the
wise man said this, when I enter into the house of God, be not
rash with your mouth and be not hasty with your feet because
God is in heaven and you're on the earth. And oh, God, true
worship, true worship is from the heart, from the spirit. And I tell you something, true
worshipers, they worship God privately. We don't wait till
we come to a public place like this to worship God. I've worshiped
God and everyone in this building today knows Christ. You worship
God privately and some of your most blessed worship that you
ever have is when you and God are together or you and your
wife are together and you worship God privately and that's all
real worship. And then we get, we've got out
here tonight, and we are publicly joined with the children of God
to worship God publicly, publicly. And oh my, and we come with thanksgiving,
thanksgiving, and we worship God publicly, and we do it with
other believers, and we do it in simplicity. I love the simplicity
of our worship, I do. And whether it's public or private
worship, it's of the heart, it's of the heart. And if there can
be called parts of worship, I think it would be called this. We sang
hymns. We sang hymns and make melody
in our hearts unto the Lord. And secondly, somebody will read
the Word of God. The Word of God ought to be read
in every service. If it ain't but one verse, the
Word of God ought to be read. And then we have prayer. We approach
God. We come to call on God. We come
to come in God's presence. And then somebody gets up and
preaches the Word. Keep the flesh out of it? No,
you can't. Just in simplicity. That's wonderful,
ain't it? The simplicity in which we worship.
It's wonderful. And the first mark of the true
church of God, the true preacher of God, the true children of
God, the true Jew, they worship God in the Spirit. And then look
what the next thing is. And they rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ Who else we gonna rejoice in?
You know, when we rejoice in Christ Jesus, we're in tune with
heaven itself. I said it this morning, God spoke
from heaven, a voice out of that cloud. They heard a voice and
the voice was God. He said, this is my beloved son,
hear him. And oh my, we're in tune with
heaven itself. The Father, the Father loves
the Son. And oh my, we're in the Holy
Spirit. He said He would take the things
of Christ and show them unto us. He said He'll take the things
of mine and show them unto you. And I'll tell you what, that's
what He does. He takes the things of Christ, the Holy Spirit does,
and shows them unto us. And I'll tell you, and then the
angels. Which of the angels did He say?
When only begotten Son of God was begotten of Son of God, He
said, let all the angels worship Him. Let every angel that's ever
been made worship Him when He brought the only begotten into
the world. And oh, we're in tune with the redeemed in heaven.
Oh, they sing that new song under the Lamb that was slain. And
they say, oh, unto Him that loved us, oh, redeemed us out of every
kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue. and we're in tune with the prophets.
To him, all the prophets give witness. And I tell you, beloved,
the true believer does not rejoice in anything other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. We do not do it, no. You know
why we rejoice in him? He is our all and in all. He's all in the scriptures. He's
all in our faith. He's all in our hearts. He's
all in our worship. He's all in our message. Christ
is our all in all. And we are complete in Him who's
the head of principalities and power. And I know this. He doesn't just give us a righteousness,
He is our righteousness. I've got no other righteousness
than Him. And I tell you, He is our righteousness. And Paul
said, when Christ, who is our life, who our life, shall appear. He's our righteousness and He's
our life. Oh my, those who rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ have, oh, have such a wonderful cause to rejoice
in Him. We rejoice in the fact that He
is God in the flesh. We rejoice in His deity. He said,
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Father, Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him. Oh my, we rejoice in His incarnation. He was God and He came into this
world. But oh, we rejoice in His incarnation,
the Word. was made flesh, and we beheld
His glory as the only begotten of the Father. Oh my, and I'll
tell you, this is what I really, really rejoice in, His obedience,
you know. By His obedience, many are made
righteous. By Adam's sin, many are made
sinners, but by the obedience of Christ, many are made righteous.
And I tell you, His obedience is my obedience. When He obeyed
God, I obeyed God. When He had obedience to God,
I was obedient to God. And oh, I rejoice in His obedience. And I tell you what, we rejoice
in His death. Oh. I can't say enough about
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, His blessed death, glorious
death, precious death, death that actually accomplished something,
that really saves people, that actually puts sin away once and
for all. A death that satisfied God. A death that glorified God in
everything. A death that came along. And
that death, when it was for us, it actually brought salvation.
And I'll tell you, death come out of it, a great accomplishment.
And I'll tell you, beloved, and I'll tell you the greatest, and
I've said it countless times, but the most blessed thing about
the death of Christ for me was his satisfaction to God. God
saw the travail of his soul, said, I'm satisfied. I wounded
him. I poured his soul out unto death.
I made his soul. I bruised him. I killed him. And when I saw
him on that cross, when I saw him suffering, when I saw him
in agony, And when He RAISED from the dead, He said, I m satisfied
with Him. And I tell you, that s the most
glorious part of the gospel, that God is satisfied and He
looks no place else for any satisfaction from anybody. Oh, listen, we
can go home tonight and go to our beds and lay down if we don
t wake up in the morning. God will not require nothing
from you that He ain t already provided. Ain t that right? That does something for me nothing
else in this world does. Oh, that does something for me
that nothing does. Oh, that glorious gospel, that
glorious gospel of substitution, satisfaction. And oh my, we rejoice
in our Lord's resurrection. You know why we rejoice in it?
If He is raised, we're going to be raised with Him. He said, when He resurrected,
He said, He's gonna come back again and change us in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, we're gonna be changed, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Oh my, His resurrection, oh,
He rose from the dead. And I'll tell you what, and then
what about rejoicing in His intercession? Oh, how many times, how many
times have we went to say, Lord, Lord, please hear me. You read
it tonight. Lord, hear my cry. Hear my cry. Lord, hear my cry. Oh, we rejoice
in his intercession. He takes up our case. He takes
up our cause. When we ain't got nothing, when
we get so low that we can't even think of anything to say, he
takes up them groanings that you can't utter. He takes them
up. And I'll tell you what, he's
talking about a bunch of people gonna rejoice when he comes back
again. He said, it does not yet appear what he shall be, but
we do know that when he shall appear, we shall see him as he
is. And guess what? Gonna be just like him. That's something to rejoice in,
ain't it? We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
worship God in the spirit. Oh my, we worship Him alone and
believe in Him and Him alone. We want nothing, no one but Christ
our Lord. And look what the next thing
He says then. And we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence
in the flesh. Oh my. No confidence in fleshly
rites or rituals or ceremonies. No confidence in keeping the
law. NO CONFIDENCE IN CIRCUMCISION,
FASTING, MORTIFYING THIS BODY, KEEPING US SABBATH DAYS AND HOLY
DAYS. YOU KNOW, THIS IS ONE OF THE
MOST RIDICULOUS THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN. I GUESS EVERYBODY
THAT'S IN THE MEDIA AND EVERY POLITICIAN IS A CATHOLIC. IT'S
A RELIGION OF CONVENIENCE. AND WHEN THIS EASTER COMES AROUND,
EVERY ONE OF THEM WILL HAVE THIS ASH a cross of ash on their,
to have ash on their forehead. I don't have a clue what that's
supposed to mean. It looks like it's got towards
their head. But I mean, they put ash on there and think that
impresses God. They think that, God looks on
them and say, oh, listen, they've got, you know when the old timers
said, they get down in the sackcloth and ashes, that's them putting
ashes on them. They don't know what sackcloth
and ashes mean. They don't know what it is to
be like Job and throw down on the dunghill and sit there and
say, oh God, I've got nothing but you. And oh, that's what
the confidence, no confidence in the flesh. I'll tell you,
no holy days. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
everything. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. WE HAVE NO CONFIDENCE
IN THE EFFORTS OF THE FLESH. OH, NO! WE DON'T HAVE NO CONFIDENCE
IN THE FLESH TO KEEP CERTAIN RULES. IF THERE'S A RULE, I'D
BREAK IT. YOU GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO,
AND I'LL BREAK IT. I WON'T KEEP IT. AND OH, MY! WE'RE NOT GOING TO KEEP RULES
AND REGULATIONS. OH, NO, NO, NO! I tell you, not
I. It's like that rich young ruler.
He come to the Lord Jesus Christ running and kneeling, and he
asked him, said, good master, what good thing must I do to
have eternal life? And our Lord said, well, you
know the commandments. You know the commandment. And
the first thing he said, I've kept all these from my youth
up. And that might've been Paul who said that. That might've
been him. I've kept all these from my youth
up. All of them from my youth up.
But oh my. Job said this. God putteth no
trust in his saints, and the heavens are not even clean in
his sight. Man in his best estate is altogether vanity. All of our righteousness are
as a filthy rag. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We're like Paul, oh, wretched man that I am. We have no confidence
in popes, bishops, write reverends, fathers, priests, monks, preachers,
or any other mortal man, and they ll say, Saint so-and-so.
Oh, I have no confidence in anybody. Oh, my. Leaders come and leaders
go, and people that glory in their flesh, they come and they
go, but Christ abides forever. Christ abides forever and he
abides in his people. And we have no confidence in
our flesh. I have none whatsoever in my
flesh. Oh my, how could you have confidence
in something that's so weak and frail? God himself said in one
place, said put no confidence in princes. Don't put no confidence
in princes. and the powerful people, why?
Because he dies and his breath goes from him and his thoughts
perish with him. Steve said the other day, we
was talking about getting old and he says, boy, truly we know
that life now is just a vapor. How did we get this old so quick?
How did we get this far along so quick? And if I didn't have no confidence
when I was 30, I ain't got no confidence when I was 60, and
I ain't got no confidence when I'm 70, and if I live to be 80,
I ain't gonna have no confidence in the flesh then. Oh, my. Oh, Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet I'm
not the one that's living. It's Christ living in me, and
I love this. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. That's my only
hope. And I tell you, Paul said, Oh,
wretched man that I am, who's going to save me from this body
of death? And I read one time and I'll
be done. I read one time when he saved me from this body of
death. It's like, it's like having a dead body strapped to your
back. And when a dead body, after a while, it starts corrupting,
it starts stinking. And that's what Paul's talking
about. This old man, this old flesh, this old nature of mine,
is like a dead man that I have to carry around with me. And
it stinks so bad, it's so corrupt, it's so rotten, and I hope nobody
smells it like I do, and nobody has the same burden of it that
I do. And that's what he meant. Oh,
wretched man that I am, who's gonna save me? Save me from this
body of death. He said, But thank God there
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Oh my, this is the true church, this is the true believer that
worship, rejoice in Christ, and don't have any confidence in
the flesh. I think everybody in this place
agree with that. Everybody in the place agree with that. I'm
so thankful for the gospel, ain't you? Oh, my. Our Father, oh, our blessed,
blessed Savior, thank you for your wonderful mercy and grace
given us in Christ before the world began. Thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ who loved us Come, gave Himself for us. Oh, Lord, it sets now at God's
right hand, the majesty on high. And oh, Lord, takes up our case,
takes up our cause. When we don't even know what
to say, Lord, He interprets our groans, things that can't be
uttered. When all we can say is, oh, mercy,
mercy, mercy, God be merciful. You take and put something behind
it that's powerful, Lord. We thank you for that. Thank
you for the saints that come out this evening. God bless them.
Lord, meet their needs. Thank you for Bruce and his wife
and for Glenn coming to fellowship with us, worship with us. I thank
you for them, his ministry, his faithfulness in Christ and the
gospel. And I thank you for these dear saints of God and all their
faithfulness and their love for Christ and love for the gospel. Blessed be His holy name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich and free. I'll see you Wednesday,
God willing. It's so beautiful.