And I'm going to deal with these
first three verses, if God will help me. Philippians 3. I'm going to talk about the true
church and the true believer. People who are true Jews. True
Jews. You believe you're a true Jew? I am. I'm going to prove it to
you. Proved to you by the Bible. Look
what the Apostle said. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. The right to say thanks to you
and me 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, now this is my subject, we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Now the Philippians were Gentiles,
people like us, and he said we are the circumcision. We are
the circumcision. And what the apostle is saying
is we're the true preachers of God, the true children of God,
the true worshippers of God. Now you keep this and look in
Romans with me, chapter 2 and verse 28. Hold on to Philippians
now. Let me show you something over
here. Is Paul just using idle talk? Is that just idle talk that we
are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh? But look what he
said in verse 28. And he's writing to the Romans,
they're a bunch of Gentiles too, people like us. For he is not
a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Listen to this now, but he is
a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, not in the letter, not in the law. Because if it
was in the letter, it would be men would praise themselves and
praise men who talked them into it. But this praise is of God. God done this. He circumcised
our heart. Gave us new hearts. Took out
the stony heart. So back over here in Philippians
3. When the apostle says here that we're the true worshippers
of God. The true children of God. Is
this idle talk? All religions, and all religionists
claim to be true preachers. They claim to be the true church,
the true worshippers of God. So why should we believe the
Apostle Paul here, who wrote this? Well, first, as he wrote
under divine inspiration, he wrote, blessed of God, he was
inspired to write this. All scripture, all scripture,
All scriptures from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, 21. All scriptures
given by inspiration of God. It's proverbs for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness.
Another reason why we believe him is because he is a chosen
vessel of God. God chose him to carry the gospel
to the Gentiles. Not the Jews, but to the Gentiles. And Gentiles was anybody who
wasn't a Jew. And that's why I said we're the
true Jews now. And he knew something about false
religion. You see, he was in double darkness.
And this is the thing. Men that they're born in darkness
when they're born of Adam. When they come into this world,
they're born in darkness. They'll live in darkness. And
then if they make a false profession, then they're in double darkness.
They're in the darkness of Adam, naturally. And then they're in
the darkness of religion. That's why the Lord said, if
the light in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? And
it's an awful thing. Paul knew what it was to be a
lost religionist. He knew what it was to be a lost
without God, without hope. Look what he said down here in
verse talking about trusting in the flesh. Trusting in his
old fallen nature. He said, I circumcised the eighth
day. All Jews were circumcised on
the eighth day. Our Lord Jesus Christ was. of
the stock of Israel. That's because he was in the
covenant of Abraham. And then I was of the tribe of
Benjamin, the smallest tribe. God said that's the tribe of
his right hand. A Hebrew of Hebrews. I was no
half-breed. I was a solid-blood Jew. I could trace my genealogy all
the way back to Benjamin. The baby Jacob. As touching the law, I
was a Pharisee. And we know how the Pharisees
felt about our Lord Jesus Christ. They hated Him. They despised
Him. They lied on Him. They sought
ways to kill Him. And Paul was just in the bunch
just like everybody else was. He is a Pharisee. Concerning
zeal. Oh, I had the greatest zeal.
You're talking about zeal. You think you ever know what
zeal is? I was persecuting the church. I held many men and women
and children to jail, he said. Touching the righteousness within
the law, oh boy, when I looked at the law, I said, I was blameless.
I was like that rich young ruler. You know, I've kept all these
from my youth up. What lack I yet? Well, Paul said,
this is what I lacked. He said, but what things were
gained to me? Being a Hebrew, being circumcised,
being of the tribe of Benjamin, being a Pharisee, having the
righteousness of the law, all those things that made me appear
to be somebody, they're nothing. I count them lost. They're lost
is to me for Christ. I put it all behind me. And I
tell you what, beloved, He knows what it was to be a lost religionist. Some knew something about it
before He was apprehended by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought
to save in faith. And in this chapter, He tells
us about His religion before He was converted. And that's
what I just read to you. He was strong. Look over here
in Galatians chapter 1. Go to your left until you get
to Galatians chapter 1. Look what He said about Himself
over here. God saved him. God saved him. He didn't accept Jesus. God didn't
ask him to let him into his heart. He didn't knock on his heart's
door. He didn't say, please, would you accept me? No, no,
that's not the way it was. Look what he said here in verse
13. Excuse me, verse 13. If you have
heard of my conversation, that conversation means manner of
life, in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure,
you couldn't measure how I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. And I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals,
more exceeding zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But now listen to this, but when
it pleased God. But when it pleased God to separate
me from my mother's womb and call me by His grace. And God saved him. Now he knew
something about false religion and true religion. And look what
he says here. Let's start in verse 1 and go
down through this in Philippians. Finally my brethren he says rejoice
in the Lord Rejoice in the Lord. And what he's saying is give
God the glory for everything. You can't rejoice in anything
we've done, but we can rejoice in the Lord. It can be dark,
but we can rejoice in the Lord. We can be in trials, but we can
rejoice in the Lord. And what he's saying, give God
all the glory for everything that's done. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Him. Rejoice in the
Father. God the Father. For His electing
love. for His eternal grace, for His
eternal love. Rejoice in the Father, because
He chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Rejoice in the blessed Son of God. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who came and gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all
our iniquities, called us unto Himself, gave to us in the covenant
of redemption and he came down here and shed his blood poured
out his blood to offer himself a sacrifice to God to pay our
sin debt that we couldn't pay we could not pay for what we
couldn't pay for not one sin we've ever committed we couldn't
suffer enough for one sin we ever did And people seem to think
that God, when you don't live as good as you ought to live,
that what He'll do is He'll purge you from your sins before you
die. No, no, no, no, no. He by Himself purged our sins
and sat down on the right hand of God. He can't purge you from
your sins. You'll suffer because of Adam's
sin. You'll suffer because of your
flesh. But you'll never suffer Because Christ died for you for
your sin. I'll tell you that and I'll tell
you said and rejoice in the Holy Spirit Because He's the one who
came and revealed, made Christ known to us, revealed Him to
us, made us aware of Him, conscious of Him, brought the light and
turned it on in our heart and soul. And that's why the Apostle
said, by the grace of God, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. Huh? And I tell you, blessed
be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
You know what the first blessing he talks about? According as
he has chosen us. That's the first blessing. Election.
Election. That's the first blessing. Election. Second one, that you should be
holy. Third one, without blame. Fourth one, accept it in the
beloved. Fifth one is to praise in the
glory of his grace. Oh, bless his name. And he said
back here, it says, to write the same things to you is not
grievous to me. I'm not tired of writing the
same things to you over and over and over, saying the same things
to you. Why? Because it's safe for you. It's
good for you. It keeps you in safety. Well,
what's it safe for you? Well, it strengthens your faith
to write the same things. Scott Richardson used to say
the secret to teaching, and people learn anything, repetition, repetition,
repetition. Huh? Ain't that right? And do
you want me to say something different? No. It's safe because it will
strengthen your faith. It's what comforts you in your
troubles, in your tribulations, in your trials. And He's safe
for you because He'll keep you from error. It'll keep you from
going after things that you'll not go after. And then look what
He said, it'll keep you safe from dogs. Beware of dogs. That's what he called these fellows
that were preachers. That's what he called these people
that brought works. That's what I call these people
who trust in the flesh. Dogs! Beware of dogs! Somebody told me the other day,
said that they can't even go out and walk because dogs come
out after them all the time. Beware of dogs! You pull up in
somebody's yard, beware of the dog! That's what Paul says, you
beware of these dogs! They bite. They want to devour. They want to hurt you. They want
to nip at your heels. I've had dogs come out on me
before, and you know what I always do with them? I run right back
at them. I go, ah! And they run right back in their
yard. Me and Todd come up on a couple of what they call them
pit bulls. In Cherokee one time, we was
out running, a couple of pit bulls come out and start talking.
I said, what are we going to do? And I said, ahhhhhh! That's
what you do. That's why it's safe. That's
what we're talking about, safe. Yeah, go back after them dogs.
Don't let them dogs come after you. That's why it's safe for
you. And then he says, and evil workers. Evil workers. My that's so many
evil workers in this world, and then he says beware of the concision
And he warns us to beware of false preachers Who glory in
the flesh they glory in your flesh and in their flesh? And
I show you what I'm talking about when I say that that's why look
over here in Galatians you keep flippance now look back over
in Galatians chapter 6 and You know, they glory in their flesh.
These false preachers want to glory in the flesh. And they make dumb statements,
stupid statements, showing what evil workers they say. Some of
the evil things and how they bark and all the evil things
they put out. A man put out on his bulletin
board, God loves you whether you like it or not. That's a
dog barking. That's a dog barking, a sorry
dog. An evil dog. Mangy dog. Then on the other side of it,
even mosquitoes know the power. There's power in the blood of
Jesus. Evil. Error. Dog. Sorry dog. Evil dog. You shall not talk about people.
That's what Paul's calling them. Didn't he? Look what he said
here in Galatians chapter 6, verse 12. This is what we are
talking about. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh to let them know how good they are and what
they're accomplishing. They constrain you to be circumcised. Come on over here and you join
our church and it'll make you clean. It'll straighten out your
life. It'll make you holy. And the only reason they do that
is they don't want to suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. They don't want to suffer persecution
to say that there's only one way in this world that God will
ever accept you. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Huh? And this is what he says, for
neither they themselves who are circumcised, law keepers, keep
the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory
in your flesh. I won that fellow to Jesus. Do
you know that? I got that. I made a Calvinist
out of that fellow. I changed that man's mind and
I tell you, I didn't think I'd ever get it changed, but I changed
it. They say, oh boy, look what I've
done for Jesus. But oh, listen to what Paul says,
God forbid that I should glory save except only in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because there's three people
crucified. Christ is crucified. The world is crucified under
me. It's dead under me. And I'm dead under the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. But here's what avails. A new
creature. A new creature. That's what he's
talking about here. So we go back over here in Philippians.
And Paul said it's safe for you. I want to see the same thing
over and over. Then he goes here in verse 3,
he says, We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
He's saying, what he's saying is, we're the true ministers
of God, we're the true children of God, we're the true church
of Jesus Christ, we're the true circumcision, we're the true
church. And he gave us three marks, three marks of the true
believer. First in, we worship God in the
Spirit. Secondly, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Thirdly, we have no confidence
in the flesh. Alright, look here. We worship
God in the spirit. You know, this flesh is such
a hindrance to us when we come to worship God. It's in our hearts
to come here and give our full attention and our hearts and
our ears to hear the gospel. But I tell you, we worship God
in the Spirit. Look in John chapter 4 with me.
Let's go over here and look at this together. John chapter 4. Talking about worship. Talking
about worship. John chapter 4. You know the
story about the woman at the well. When our Lord Jesus Christ
went over there and was talking to her. And He saved her by His
blessed grace. But He went to this woman at
the well. And look what she said. Our Lord Jesus is talking to
her. And she said here in verse 20, John 4, 20. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain. Our fathers, there's a mountain
there. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. But you say,
you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship. So there's two places here, she said, talking about
worship. And that's what most folks think worship is. It's
just going to a certain place. If I can get to that place, I
can worship. But look what she said now. Our Lord said to her,
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh. When you shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship
you don't know what. You don't know what you're worshiping.
When you go up on that mountain, you just go up there because
it's the place they told you to go. We know what we worship
for salvation of the Jew. Now watch it now. But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. Now what does that mean, seeketh
such? Does that mean he's out here looking for folks who's
getting their heart right, getting their spirit right? No, no. It
says just like he came to seek and save that which is lost,
the Father seeks people. And then he gives them the spirit
and he gives them the truth and they worship him. He seeks people
that will worship him. And he makes them come to know
what it is to worship him. God is spirit. And they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And so I tell you what, she talked
about, oh listen, we got this mountain to worship in. She is
trusting in her heritage, our father said. This is where they
worshiped. They trusted in their traditions,
in their customs. He said, now listen, our father,
are you greater than our father Jacob? No, listen. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ told her in plain, plain things. There's no place for
ceremonies, fleshly and holy days. Our Lord said the fathers
seek as such. You see, true worship comes from
here. True worship comes from here.
True worship does. Faith is a thing of the heart. To call on God is something of
the heart. And I tell you what, That's why
Lord Jesus, you know, when they went to know David, he said,
God looks on the heart. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Not
a man on this earth impresses God. One man ever impressed him. That was his blessed son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And people associate worship
with special days. Easter, Christmas, Come to watch somebody get baptized. Come to watch somebody do something,
get involved in something. Putting on robes. Oh boy, watch
that boy, our preacher wears robes. He sure seems holy. Oh, let's go burn some candles.
Let's put some crosses on our cars. Put some crosses on our
walls. I know a girl, she was scared of a dragon, what do they
call those? Vampires. She got her cross and hung over
her bed that glowed in the dark. Somebody told them that's all you need. And
then they say, well, if you use garlic, that'll work too. That's
how ignorant people are. And you got to have pictures.
If you ain't got pictures of Jesus, you ain't got nothing.
Oh, you got to have a picture of him with a light coming down
on him. You got to have a picture of him bowed down in the garden.
And you got to have a picture of him with a lamb. And then
you got to have a picture of him with a great old big heart. Let's get us some lapel pins. Let's call him a Christian. Let's all get up and give testimonies.
They talk about going to holy places, like this pulpit here
is a holy place. It's no more holier than out
there in the foyer. They talk about going to the
holy land. What's a holy land? I'll tell you what's going to
be a holy land one of these days, when God makes a new heaven and
a new earth, we're in dwellers righteousness. Then every foot
of it's going to be holy then, because there ain't going to
be no sin there. Huh? God said, Heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool. Where's the house you're going
to build me? Paul said, Whom you ignorantly
worship, God don't need anything. He's not worshipped with the
hands of men and with silver and gold. See, He, He gives to
all life. Why are you going to give God
for life? He gives to all breath. He has to give to us. God's not impressed or cares
about our shows of religion. Be still and know that I am God. And when you enter into His presence,
don't be rash with your mouth. Walk softly when you come into
His presence. See true worship is from the
heart. It's of the Spirit of God. True
worship. So let me tell you something
about true worshipers. They worship God privately. They don't wait
until they get in a service like this to worship God. They worship
privately in their homes. Wherever they may be, they may
walk around in the yard talking to God, worshipping God, calling
on God. A woman can have her mind on
Christ while she is worshipping Him. And then they give thanksgiving
and they worship Him privately. in prayer and thanksgiving and
then they come in worshiping publicly with other believers
and they do it in such simplicity a such simplicity and whether
it's public or it's private worship is of the heart and if we could
say there's parts of worship let me tell you what they would
be saying some hymns scriptural hymns God-honored hymns reading
the Word of God, prayer, and then preaching. That don't give no opportunity
for the flesh to get involved, does it? So the first mark of
the true church is they worship God in the Spirit. Look at the
second mark over here in Philippians 3. I love this one, we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Do you know what that means? We're in tune with heaven. You
know we say we're all on the same page. We're on the same
page, if I can say it in our vernacular, we're on the same
page as God is. You know what God says about
His Son? This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. What
do we say? This is our beloved Savior. This is our beloved Redeemer.
This is our beloved sacrifice. Oh, bless His holy name. Oh my. The Father, we believe like the
Father says. He's our beloved. I am my beloved
and He is mine. And then we rejoice in the Holy
Spirit. You know why? Because He says
He shall take the things of mine and show them unto you. Huh? How are we going to know anything
about Christ if the Holy Spirit don't take and show us something?
And He shall take the things of mine and show them unto you.
Now I tell you what, you can tell what a preacher is preaching
whether the Holy Spirit is taking the things of Christ and showing
them unto you. And I tell you, we are in tune
with the angels. To which of the angels did He
say, said in my right hand, but they
all worship Him. Huh? The redeemed in heaven. They sang a new song. Thou art
worthy to take the book and open it for thou was slain and hast
redeemed us under God by thy blood. That's what they sang
about in heaven. and we're in tune with the prophets
to Him to Him all the prophets give witness I tell you beloved we rejoice
in Christ Jesus cause that's what the Bible teaches us and
I tell you the Holy Spirit taught us that and I tell you the true
believer does not rejoice in anything other than the Lord
Jesus Christ You going to rejoice in your
prayer life? You going to rejoice in your
giving? Are you going to rejoice in your
devotion? Are you going to rejoice in all your Bible reading? Nah. Not under any circumstances.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Do you know why? Because we know
that he is all Christ is all and in all you know Look turn
to your right Colossians chapter 2 that ran over one Couple pages
over to your right keep Philippians down there because we're gonna
go right back They know that he is all They know that he is
all look what it says here in verse 9 of Colossians chapter
2 in verse 9 For in him, in him, you notice
what it says in him? All the time you're talking about
him. Dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Whatever
God was and God is, he dwelt in the body of Christ, all that
God is. And look what he says. And you are complete in him. That word complete means perfect. You are complete in him, which
is the head of all principalities and powers. You can't get more,
you know, if you're complete, you can't have nothing else.
And that's why He said God made Him unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. You see, He doesn't just give
us a righteousness, He is our righteousness. He is our righteousness. And those who rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they have reason to rejoice in Him. Oh,
what a glorious reason to rejoice in Christ. He is God. Manifest in the flesh. He was
more than a man. He was God. He was God before
He came here. Then when He came here, He became
a man. Once He became a man, He was always God. But once He
became a man, He'll always be a man. But He's a sinless man. Perfect man. Holy man. And oh my. Rejoice in His God
here. He said, Our Lord said this,
thou hast given him power, who did? God did, over all flesh
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. And I tell you, we rejoice in
his obedience. You know, if a person is going
to be saved by their obedience, it has to be perfect. You have
to obey perfectly. It must be perfect to be accepted. And our Lord Jesus Christ, through
one man's obedience, made many righteous. His obedience. And then we rejoice in his death.
Rejoice in his death and his satisfaction. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He died, He actually accomplished something by that
death. He didn't just open a door to make salvation possible. He
didn't just open a door, in a way, to give men a chance. and to make salvation possible.
No, no, in His death, in His death, the scripture says He
was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, chastisement
of our peace was laid upon Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And He made His soul
an offering for sin. Now, I tell you, whoever he made
his soul an offering for sin, whoever's iniquities he bore,
whoever he is wounded for, whoever's sin he bore, I tell you this
right now, he put them all away. And I know this, that if he died
for you, you will one day believe on him. Now, ain't that right? No ifs,
ands, or buts about it. That's why we're not on a fool's
errand here. Like Brother Henry said, we're
on the trail of God's sheep. And maybe there's some sheep
in here this morning who'll hear. Who'll hear. We rejoice in His
resurrection. Oh my. You know our resurrection
depends on His resurrection. If he was raised again and sits
at the right hand of God, that means that we shall be raised
again. We're already seated with him
in heavenly places and it talks about our glorification in the
past tense. So it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time. And
all we rejoice in the fact that He prays for us and intercedes
for us. And we can come boldly to the
throne of grace to obtain mercy and find help in the time of
need. And I'll tell you something,
I'm really rejoicing in it. And I'm looking so forward to
it. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us. that we should be called the sons of God. And when we
see Him, we'll see Him as He is, and we shall be made just
like Him. He's coming. He's coming. So true worshipers, they rejoice
in Christ, in Christ alone. And then let me give you this
one. This is the hardest one right here. This is the hardest
one for folks to have to deal with. Worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice
in Christ Jesus. And here's the hardest one. Have
no confidence in the flesh. It's hard to give up that flesh.
It's hard to give up the accomplishments. It's hard to give up our religion.
It's hard to give up our professions. But I tell you what, God's people
have no confidence in this old flesh, our fallen nature. We
have no confidence in it. What is our flesh? Let me ask
you a question. What is our flesh? What is our
fallen nature? What has this body ever contributed
to our salvation? What ceremony have we ever done
that's contributed to our salvation? What ritual have we ever been
involved in that attributed to our salvation? We have no confidence
in the flesh and no ceremonies, keeping of the law, circumcision,
fasting, mortifying the body, holy days. Ash Wednesday. You ever see these
folks running around with ashes on their head? I wonder where
they get their ashes at. I guess they go to a store and
buy them. I know they ain't going to build
no fire and wait until the ashes get down there to stick their
finger in it and put it up there. I guess they go to a store and
buy that stuff. They buy holy water. Not the
world's holy water. Is it any different than this
water? If I received by heaven, this
is holy water, I'm going to take the top off of it and drink it,
just to aggravate them. It would aggravate them, wouldn't
it? Oh, this is holy oil, let's just take the top out, just dump
it out. Oh my. I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
has fulfilled every law, every ceremony, every ritual, every
sacrifice. He fulfilled them all. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Not to him that does, but him
that believes. And I believe, I believe, oh
well I believe. And we have no confidence in
the efforts of the flesh for us to keep certain rules or certain
regulations. You know, it's a sad, sad thing. Preachers lay down rules and
lay down regulations. I know what I'm talking about
because I did it years ago. I preached against women wearing
pants, wearing big earrings, Priest against men having long
hair, women having short hair. Listen, God have mercy on me
that I ever did that. It never helped anybody in any
way. It just made Pharisees out of all of us. That's all it did,
wasn't it? It just made Pharisees out of
us. Oh my. Look over here in Colossians. You know, everything that you
can touch, you know, any ceremony that you have, anything that
you can touch, anything that you can taste, is going to perish
with the using. That's what you've got to understand.
Now, wouldn't it be something if I got up here and I said,
now these are the rules of this church. You've got to do this. You've got to do this other thing. I know preachers that they can't
even buy them. I know church members that, I've
talked to church members, they couldn't even buy a dog until
they went and talked to the preacher. Yeah. Couldn't even buy a dog. Preacher, I won't buy this certain,
certain dog. Said, well, if you got the money for it, you won't
take any money from the church, will you? That's the first thing
they want to know. You ain't going to spend money on a dog
and let the church go on it. But look what it said here in
verse 20 Colossians 2 20 Now listen, I love this wherefore
if you be dead with Christ and we're dead with Christ we died
with him When he died, we died. When he was buried, we was buried.
When he rose, we rose with him. From the rudiments or elements
that's in this world. Things that are in this world.
And then why as though living in the world are you subject
to different ordinances? People telling you, now don't
touch this, don't taste that, and don't handle that. Don't smoke, don't chew, and
don't run with those who do. Oh, don't touch that! That's unclean! Don't you dare
taste that! Oh, Adam, that will ruin you. And don't you handle that thing
over there. That's so sinful. Now what he said, if you can
touch it, taste it, or handle it. Watch what he said in the
next verse. Which all are to perish with the using. If you
can touch it, you can taste it, you can have it. It's going to
go. It's going to perish. And that's
just the doctrines of men. So we don't have any confession.
You know, and God said this back over here in our text. I've got
to hurry. I'll finish up here. Job said it like this, he putteth
no trust in his saints nor in the angels, much less man who
drinks iniquity like water. Man at his best estate is altogether
vanity. All of our righteousnesses, all
of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we have no confidence
in bopes, popes, bishops, right reverends, A woman called the
other day, left a message on the phone. Told me her name. Said, I want to tell you about
my husband and our ministry. Said, he's a mission in the church
of God. We're songwriters. And we're looking forward for
you calling us and letting us tell you about our ministry. We have no confidence in popes,
in bishops, right reverends, fathers, priests, monks, preachers,
or any man, or so-and-so who happens to think he's something.
Leaders come and leaders go. The Apostle Paul said here in
Philippians 4, the time of my departure is at hand. Time for me to leave here. I've
kept the faith. I finished my course. And henceforth, ready to go. Leaders come and
leaders go. But Christ always abides. Things
change. But Jesus Christ is the same
today, yesterday, and forever. And that's why we have no confidence
in our flesh. Oh my, Paul said, I know that
in me, in my flesh, there's no good thing. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. No, Christ loved me and gave
himself for me. And the life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith. of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. So this is the true church. We
worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and absolutely
have no confidence in the flesh. You reckon you're a believer? You reckon you're a believer? Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for the day. Thank you for
your gospel. Thank you for your blessed truth.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit. And God bless this word. Bless
it to the heart. May it be seed sown in good soil. May it be seed sown in a heart
that will bring forth fruit. to your glory, to your glory,
your honor. God bless these ladies as they
gather this afternoon for this shower. And Lord forgive us,
O God of everything that's unlike you. Help us to love you, to
love one another, and most of all, Keep us believing and cleaving
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Let me find this. 52, 52, 52, 52. The same majestic sweetness.
52. Majestic sweetness sets enthroned
Upon the Saviour's brow His redded face his glory's crowned His
life with grace o'erflown His race with grace o'erflown compare among the saints of men. There is He that holdeth them
who feel the heavenly train, who feel the heavenly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress, For me, he bore the shameful
cross, and carried all my grief, and carried on. To Him I owe my life and breath
And all the joys I have He makes me triumph over death And saves
me from the grave And saves me from the grave