and gospel holiness. There's
the difference. I want to talk about what it
is to have a legal holiness and the holiness that the gospel
produces. And it says here in chapter 3, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things 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 and 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 the whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law, a 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 lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless.
And I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ,
and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith, of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings
be made conformable unto His death. If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended But one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus." Now, right in these verses I read to you
tonight, we see what it is to be holy before God that the gospel
produces, that the new birth gives us. And we also see a legal
holiness. And what I mean by legal wholeness
is this, that a person seeks to be accepted of God by something
that they do, by some means. And we've all been there. I can
very well identify with legal wholeness. And legal wholeness
means that you're doing something, always doing something to satisfy
God, always doing something to please God. Always doing something
to merit a blessing from God. Always doing something to get
God to do something for you. And when you do that, you never
have any peace, you never have any joy. And what it amounts
to is that you make sin to be subjective. And whenever you
make sins to be something you do, instead of something they
are, you're a legal whore, you're a legalist. You see, that's what
people want to do. They say, if I quit this sin,
then I'll get a blessing. God will bless me. If I quit
this other sin, then God will bless me. If I take up this good
habit over here, then God will bless me. That's legal holiness.
And all of us has been there at one time or another. Get rid
of televisions and not listen to the radio, not listen to rock
and roll and just, you know, just Just give up everything,
you know. And as far as you know, you give
up everything for Jesus. But you still didn't have any
peace. Still didn't have any joy. Still didn't have any rest. Because it's a false holiness.
And holiness is something that God does for us. And now listen,
I'm going to tell you something before I get into this message.
Holiness is a state of being. You cannot be... God is righteous. Is that not right? Can He be
more righteous in one time than He is in another? God is holy. Can He be more holy at one time
than He is at another? And so if we're in Christ, and
God makes us holy, and declares us to be holy, and declares us
to be righteous, and then gives us a righteous nature, then can
we be more holy at one time than we can be at another? Can we
be more complete and stand more righteous before God by one time
than we do another? Will anything we do make us more
righteous? Will anything we do make us more
holy? Will anything we don't do, will it make us less righteous?
Will anything we don't do make us less holy? You see, we're brought back to
this business where salvation's going to be of God or it's going
to be of us. It can't be of both. And it certainly
can't be a mixture. All right. Let's look at it. Now, I'll tell you this. And
I know what it is to lose spiritual joy. I know, and you know, and
this slips up on us occasionally, this legalism. You know, and
I catch myself sometimes being so legal, I say, and I tell some
of the preacher brethren, you know, they'll ask me a question
about something or another, and I say, well, that's the legalism
coming out in me. I can't help it. That's the way
I, you know, I feel, this legalism comes out in you. When somebody
asks you to make a judgment sometimes, it'll come out on you. But what
is legal holiness? What is it? And Paul condemns
it here. And there's four things he says
about it here. First of all, you see it there
in verse 3. It's just an outward shell. It's just an outward shell
of devotion to God. For it says, we are the circumcision.
We are the circumcision. And that's what it is. This legal
holiness is just an outward shell of devotion to God. It's just
everything about a legalist's confidence is in his flesh, like
the Pharisees were. You know, the Pharisee says,
we're of Abraham's seed. We've never been in bondage to
anybody. So their confidence was in the flesh. That's why
Paul meant that I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I've got some confidence,
and that's what the Jews did, that's what a legalist does.
He has some confidence in what he does, some confidence in his
flesh. And he can do as that Pharisee
did, says, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that publican
over there. And he loves to stand in the
street corner making long prayers. He loves the concept that he
is dressed a certain way that somebody else is not dressed.
That he does, doesn't do something that somebody else does. And
so, you see, they have this circumcision, this outward cleanness, this
outward competence in their fashion. Let me show you something over
here in Matthew 9. Here's a perfect illustration of it. Matthew 9. You know, they taught for doctrine
the commandments of men. That's what they taught. They
didn't teach the Word of God. They taught for doctrine the
commandments of men. And there's a fellow here in
town. Now, he advertised on the radio and said, boy, we old-fashioned,
we believe in preaching against sin. We don't use nothing but
a King James version of the Bible. What he's saying was, if we're
a bunch of legals, you come over here and we'll take a stand against
everything that's... We'll tell you how to get out
of the world. We'll tell you how to start living right. We'll
tell you how to start dressing right. We'll tell you how to
thank. We'll tell you what sin is, and if you'll listen to what
we say, you stop it, and God will bless you, and bless you
greatly. And that's what these Pharisees,
that's what a legalist does. He looks at what he's doing and
has confidence in what he's doing. Here in Matthew, what did I say? Chapter 9? No, John 9. I'm sorry. John 9. I'll get you
in the right book. John 9. This is where the man
that was born blind. You remember the man that was
born blind? And this man began to talk about
Christ, and how glorious Christ was, and what Christ had done
for him. And they began to say, in verse
31, they said, the Pharisee says this, Now we know that God heareth
not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, that's the man that God heareth. You see how legal
that statement is? A man to heareth his voice, and
doth his will. And you know, God won't hear
a man, you know. Him, if you do something good for God, God
will listen to you. And since the world began, it
was not heard that any man opened his eyes to one that was born
blind. And if this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
Now watch what the Pharisees said to him. They answered and
said unto him, You was altogether born in sins? And you're going
to teach us? And they cast him out. Oh, I remember what that was
like. You know, you ain't going to
teach me anything. You got that cigarette in your
face, you ain't going to tell me nothing. You going over at that ballgame,
whooping and hollering, making all that noise and call yourself
a Christian, you ain't going to teach me nothing. Y'all ever been there? That's
what legal, that's legal holiness right there. And that's why Paul's
confidence was once in the flesh. And I'll tell you what, a legalist
is an enemy of the joy of the gospel. He don't want no joy. He don't have any. He don't want
nobody else to have any. There are always, in Rebekah
2, it says here in Philippians 2, beware of dogs. Beware of
evil workers. Beware of the concision. They're
like dogs. They're always barking. always
after somebody, always at your heels, always trying to steal
your joy. There were fellows that say,
you know, touch not, taste not, help not. If it's any good, if
you enjoy it, you know, we even say this when we, we'll get some
great dessert, some delicious dessert, and we'll love that
thing, and we'll say, that's so good, it has to be sinful. If we enjoy it, it has to be
sinful. And that's what they say, don't
you touch it, don't you taste it, don't you handle it, because
it'll be sinful. And they don't want you to have
joy. You'll start having a lot of fun, start having a little
joy, and here comes them dogs barking at you. That's why Paul
says, you that start in the Spirit, Begun by the Spirit of God, begun
by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost come and done something for you,
and after you've begun the Spirit, are you going to go back to your
flesh and be made perfect by what you do? Oh my! And I tell you, and this is the
thing about it, and this is always spotted, even in yourself is
spotted. We make things to be sin. Things to be sin. I heard a creature say one time,
You know, 1 John 3, it says, you know, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. He says, I can take
that things of the world and I can make anything to be sin.
I can make it whatever I want it to be. But they make saints things to
be sin, instead of an attitude, instead of a principle, instead
of a nature within. It's seeing something to be done,
but the hand is still the heart. And that's why, beloved, you
know, they go on and on about this kind of stuff. And I know,
I know that, I tell you, you know where I have more problem
than any place else in me? I have more problem with my mind
and which direction it goes and the things it goes through. It's
incredible. Absolutely incredible. And I
find my thoughts to be so sinful. I don't have to go anywhere.
I don't have to do it sitting right here getting ready to preach,
and you would not believe what goes through my mind. And then
I have to get up here with that wretched nature of mine, and
then you have to sit down with your wretched nature and listen
to what I've got to say. And it's going through your mind. And wouldn't it be wonderful
if we had a list of sins? It'd be wonderful if we put a
list of sins up here on the church, on either side of it, where everybody
could see. Now, if you go here, if you go
there, if you wear this, if you smell this way, if you do this
thing and that thing, and if you dress here and you run with
that person, if you do this thing and that thing and don't give
this much and don't do that much, if you miss this much church,
and if you don't do that, the next thing you know, everybody
knows exactly what our sin is. And they'll say, oh man, I got
it made. It'd be easy if you had a list.
And you just go down your list and check it off. That's what
a legalist wants to do. But oh my, when you look at that. And you look at that thing and
say, boy, I've done that. And I've done this other thing. But then one time you miss and
the next thing you know, everybody in church, if you fell on one
of them, everybody in the church is going to be like a bunch of
chickens on the other. You're going to jump on and say, oh,
you've done this, you've done that. So it makes everybody Pharisee
down on the one who misses. And that's what I'm talking about. They're like dogs. They won't
let you have any joy. Let me tell you something else
about these legalists. They're blind to the law. Look
down there in verse 6, Philippians 3. He said, Touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. Philippians 3, 6, touching the
righteousness which is in the law, blameless. A legalist is
blind to the law. Do you reckon Paul... Now, he's
talking about what he once was. A legalist is blind to the law.
Paul was a Pharisee of the worst kind, blameless in the law. Can
anybody be blameless in the law? Huh? But in his own concept,
that's that. I've had several preachers tell
me that that rich young ruler was probably the Apostle Paul.
They gave me a lot of evidence about it. They said, first of
all, he was rich. And he was a young ruler. He
was a Pharisee. And Paul said he was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, touching the straightest sect of the law, a Pharisee.
And he was at one time a wealthy man. He trained at the feet and
learned at the feet of Gamaliel, the best leader, the best teacher
in that day, in that age, at that particular time. And he
came to the Lord and the Lord said, he said, Master, what good
thing? What good work? What do I need
to do to inherit eternal life? That's the first thing he said.
What do I need to do? And the Lord Jesus says, sell
everything that you got. Just sell it all. Give it to the poor and follow
Me. I got ahead of myself. First
thing the Lord Jesus says to him, keep the law. Honor your father and your mother.
He said, oh, all these I've kept from my youth. I've kept the
law. I've got no problem with it. And the Lord said, well,
I think we'll see if you've kept the law. He says, love God. If you love God, You wouldn't
let nothing come between you and God. You wouldn't have no
idols, would you? And if you loved your neighbors as yourself,
you wouldn't have no problem giving to me anything you got.
He said, go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.
And he went away sorrowful. Went away sorrowful. But he said,
I have kept all these for my youth. So when he looked at the
law, he saw himself blameless. Saw himself blameless. And oh,
beloved, after his conversion, he found the law was spiritual.
He says, I'm carnal. So to understand the law is spiritual.
Here, this law is spiritual. It's not having to do with my
wealth. It's not having to do with what I accomplished. It's
not having to do with how much I didn't sin and how much I didn't
sin. It's not having anything to do with whether I'm keeping
the Ten Commandments. It's a spiritual law. It looks
in my heart. It goes into the clavies of my
soul. It looks into my mind. It goes into my motives. It goes
into my desires. And it finds me crooked as a
dog's hind leg. It's like a plumb line. It won't
make a wall straight. What it does shows you how crooked
it is, and that's why the law is spiritual. It's God's plumb
line, and it shows us how plumb off we all are. It's straight.
And oh, that's what Paul was. He sold under sin. Look what
over here in John chapter 7 with me, just a minute. And I've had a lot of folks talk
to me about this law business. And I remember years ago, when
I first began to learn the gospel, that's one of the first things
I wanted to know, what's a believer's relation to the law. I'll tell
you what the Scripture says a believer's relation to it is, dead in deed
unto sin. Dead to the law. Dead to it. Just like a man,
if they catch him murdering, they give him the ultimate punishment,
which is death. The law is fulfilled in Him.
Justice is satisfied. If by some miracle He is raised
again from the dead, they could never kill Him again. He's dead
to that law. And that's what happens to us
in Christ. We're crucified with Christ. And when Christ was crucified,
He was crucified to the penalty of the law. And the justice was
satisfied. And He was raised from the dead.
And in Him, we're raised with Him. And when He died to the
law, we did too. John chapter 7, verse 45. Talking about the law, legalists
are blind to the law. For some reason, there's people
who think the law is a believer's rule of life. Well, look what he says here
in verse 45, John 7, 45. John 7, 45. Then came the officers
to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto him, Why have
you not brought him? Because it sends some people
to lay hands on him. Take the Lord Jesus. The officers
answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them
the Pharisees, Are you also deceived? Has this man deceived you? Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him? Watch it now. But this people
who know not the law are cursed. Boy, these folks, they don't
know the law. If they knew the law, they'd be just like us.
And they'd hate this man. They'd despise this man. They'd
despise the freedom that he gives. They would despise the liberty
that he gives. They'd despise the fact that he came to fulfill
the law. I won't know how to live now
if I just look to Christ alone. And all beloved, listen. That's
what they do. They're blind to the law and
legalists. I know this much. The gospel threatens them. The
gospel threatens them because it destroys their peace. It destroys
their confidence back over here in Philippians 3. They feel threatened
by the gospel and those who love it. Oh, I tell you, how can you get
your folks to live right if you don't teach them the law? How
do you keep them from sinning? That's the dumbest question anybody
could possibly ask. How do you keep from sinning? How do you keep them folks living? What do you do with them when
they commit adultery? That's what they say. If you
ain't got a standard to go by, if you ain't got a law, my soul
If God judged us every time we committed murder, if God judged
us every time we had our dog trip, if God judged us every
time we fell to India, if God judged us every time we hit somebody
in our mind, if God judged us for every evil, wicked thing
that went through our mind, every one of us would be in hell right
now if the law was our rule of law. Ain't that right? But oh, that's why the gospel
threatens the legalists. You know, look what it says down
here in verse Six, concerning zeal. Persecuting the church, touching
the righteous in the laws, blameless. See, it threatens their carnal
security. Whenever you start preaching
the gospel and just Christ and Christ alone, it threatens their
security. Their security is in what they
do, their confidence in their faith. Their confidence is in
what they're doing and they're not doing. And that's why the
Pharisees, they said, if any of the rulers believed on it,
ain't nobody, anybody believes on Him. Oh my, that's what they
cannot use. He'll set you free. That's what
our Lord says, know ye the truth and the truth will set you free,
and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And you know what
the first thing they said was? We're not in bondage. Why not? Why ain't we in bondage? First
of all, we're Abraham's Secondly, we know the law and we keep the
law. Thirdly, we know Moses. And as for you, we don't know
where you're from. And they would rather trust Moses than trust
Christ. They'd rather claim kinship to
Moses than trust kinship to Christ. And that threatens their carnal
security. Threatens their carnal security. Alright, now let's
talk about gospel holiness. This holiness that the gospel
gives us. And I tell you, sanctification and justification, they go hand
in hand. You can't have one without the
other. You can't do it. Now, what's sanctification? It
means to be set apart, called a saint, to be holy, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I can give you so many scriptures
about it. But we're sanctified by the Spirit
of God. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus.
And be ye holy as I am holy, saith the Lord God. Now, that
doesn't mean that we're going to do something in order to make
ourselves holy. It means, beloved, that what
God demands, He provides. He says, you be holy as I am.
Well, then He gives us a holiness. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Now, let me show
you four things here about gospel holiness. And what it does, beloved,
wherever that God puts His holiness in a man's heart, and that's
where it's at. It's in a man's heart. I mean,
when God regenerates a man, saves a man, He puts something in a
man, He puts something in a man's heart, something in a man's soul
that makes him hunger and thirst after God, after Christ, after
righteousness, after the Scriptures, after fellowship, after union,
after communion, after everything that God is and makes him hungry.
And he'll be like David. He will not be satisfied until
he awakes in that light. He just won't be. First of all, wherever God puts
His true holiness, it makes them honest before God. It makes them
honest before God. I think that's what it does. That's what He does. Because
see, they understand that the righteousness they had before
they come to Christ was just a lie. It was a refuge of lies.
Huh? That's what He says here in verse
4. He said, It's just a refuge of
lies that I lived in, though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If any man thinks that he has
the world, he might trust in the flesh. I could trust more.
If you're going to look to the flesh and trust in the flesh,
let's tell you what kind of, what I would have had confidence
in. Circumcised the eighth day in the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law, a Pharisee, to certain zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteous, when the law blameless. But now here's where he becomes
honest. But what things were gained to me, I counted but lost,
I counted but done." Huh? He said, and all this ducking
folks thought was something, said it was just a refuge of
lies. I was hiding in that. This was a place that I hid before
God. This was a place that I hid and
kept myself hid before. It was a refuge of lies. It was
deception. It was deceit. Everything about
it was wrong. And he says, you know what I
do? Everybody says, boy, that fellow there, if anybody wanted
to have him, it's going to be Paul. It's going to be that Saul
of Tarsus. I've never seen anybody more
dedicated, more committed. And he says, you know, I've never
been at that loss, and I never gained a thing by it. Never gained
a thing. Never gained a thing by it. In
fact, all of those things take from Christ. All of those things
detract from Christ. All of those things take away
the glory of Christ. All of those things take away
the power of Christ. All of those things take away
the righteousness of Christ. All of those things take away
the blood of Christ and His power. And oh, beloved, and I tell you,
when we stand in light of the Gospel, we have to come honest
before God. We come as we are, before Him
as He is. And that's why Paul said, here
I am, I was all these things, but it didn't amount to absolutely
nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was preaching
down there in the prison the other day, and I've done this
before, and I asked those fellas, and there
were some guys there that I mean they trusted in their words.
I don't know how in the world, you know, how can you be a legalist
in prison? But you can. I was sitting there
talking to a fellow, and he was telling me how they had to discipline
people in the church. Oh yeah, they'd get up and pray
about, you know, how we got to do this, that, and the other.
And I could pick up on that. I picked up on it pretty quick
because, you know, I was preaching on Christ. Some of these fellows
were getting kind of tight, you know. And I said, how much is
that worth right there, I asked those fellows. I said, nothing, nothing, just
zeros. I said, now, what's that, is
that worth anything? He said, no, no, that's just a bunch of
zeros. I said, now what's it worth?
That's a million. I said, nothing but a bunch of
zeros until you put Christ, to Christ in the equation. And that's
what Paul said. Oh, I said, I just had a bunch
of zeros with my whole life, until I knew Christ. And that's
it, ain't it? That's what he said. Everything that was given to
me made a zero for Christ. And everything that's zero for
me gives Him all the glory. I'm nothing without Him. That's
what He said. Everything that was gained to me, detracted from
Christ. And I don't want to detract anything
from Him. Huh? If we're going to come honest,
that's the first thing that you know if God put wholeness in
your heart. If He put that principle, that life in your heart, the
first thing you say, Oh God, Oh God, I'm so ashamed of my
thoughts, my pride. I just miss my legalism. Oh,
forgive me. Oh, God, how could I ever trust
it? How could I ever believe that? How could I ever? Oh, God,
how could I have been so deceived? And I'll tell you another thing
that we know when you've got holiness in your heart, is when
you want the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus more
than you want anything else. Just like he prayed, O Lord,
make us grow, but especially make us grow in the knowledge
of Christ our Lord. Ain't that what he says? Verse
8, here in Philippians 3, Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. Oh, if I just have the knowledge
of Christ, everything else ain't worth having. Oh, nothing's worth
anything compared to the knowledge of Christ. It's an excellent
knowledge. It's the glorious knowledge,
the best knowledge, the wisdom of God. That's what it is. It's
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that's hidden in Him. And oh,
the ecstasy of the knowledge of Christ my Lord. And I suffer
loss for all things and count them but done that I may win
Christ and have this knowledge of Him. When he was stripped
of his self, stripped of his own glory, then he saw the ecstasy
of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Oh, what's my righteousness
but a filthy rag? But look at His. What's all the
knowledge that I've attained compared to the knowledge of
Christ? What's all the wisdom that I've gained in this world
compared to the wisdom of God that's in Christ? Oh, to be clothed
in the beauty and see the beauty. It's like... Darryl read it back in the study,
about John chapter 10. And there, beloved, the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And they said, some of
them said, he has a devil. And oh, that's what they thought
about Christ, he has a devil. They didn't see no beauty about
Him, but now, beloved, we see such beauty about Him. Oh, to
be clothed with Him, to know Him, to learn Him, to hear Him,
to see Him in the Word of God. Oh, to have the knowledge of
Christ! You remember when you didn't
have it? Do you remember when you didn't know Him? Do you remember
when you just said, He's just Jesus? But now you know Him as
Christ, the Lord of Glory, as the Redeemer, as your Savior,
as the One who gave Him all in all to save you from your self-righteous,
self-glory, self-confident, self-reliant self. To know Him. We want to take His yoke upon
Him. On ourselves and learn of His power, learn of His grace,
learn of His love, learn of His ability, of His faithfulness,
His forgiveness. Oh my! That's why you know when
God put that wholeness in your heart. You've been sanctified.
First of all, you're honest before God. That's nothing. That's absolutely
nothing. The things that you once gloried
in now that you're ashamed of. And all to know Christ. That's the
most excellent night we want to have. Another way you know
that you've got to put this wholeness in your heart, you want to know
Christ and the resurrection power. And you do know it experienced
in your heart. Ain't that what it said here in verse 10? In fact, where that holiness
is, where God put that principle, if you've experienced the resurrection
in your hearts, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. Oh my, to know the power of His
resurrection? How in the world are you going
to? That's exactly how this life is given in us. That's how this
holiness is given to us. And His life is our life, from
start to finish. Paul said it this way, back over
here in Galatians 2.20, and we quote it all the time, but look
at it with me. Galatians 2.20. You know, that's why our Lord
Jesus says, because I live, I live, you shall live also. It's Christ in you that's the
hope of glory. And what Christ is that's in
you? Not the one that's in the grave. Not the one that's on
the cross. It's the one that sits in glory.
Look what Paul said here in Galatians 2.20. This is what he's talking
about. I want to know, I've experienced the power of His resurrection.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I know Him in the power of His
resurrection. Yet not I. I've been watching
now. Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in this flesh, in this body, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." That's what
he says. You know, whenever you have this
Christ in you, this glorious holiness that God put in you,
it's experiencing the resurrection of power of Christ in your very
life. We've been raised fiercely to sit in heavenly places. And
oh, you remember the joy when Christ quickened you and raised
you from the dead and took away that scales from your eyes and
the darkness from your mind and the deadness from your heart?
Let me show you something else in Ephesians chapter 1 real quick. Let's look in Ephesians chapter
1. I'm talking about this resurrection
time. We raised up to sit together with Him, spiritually with Him,
in heavenly places. But Paul's praying here for these
Ephesians, and he says in verse 18, he prays, "...at the eyes
of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints." Now watch this, "...and what
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe
according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at
his own right hand into heavenly places." Now, what he's telling
us is, I'm praying that you'll know what's the exceeding greatness
of God's power towards you who believe by the same power that
He raised Christ from the dead, that's the same power that He
quickened you with. The same power that brought Christ
out of the grave is the same power that God brought you out
of the death of your sins. That's what He said. I want you
to know the exceeding greatness of His power. And where that
holiness is, is the power of His resurrection experienced
in our very hearts. And back over here in Philippians
again. And you know, to be a partaker
of His resurrection, you also have to be a partaker of His
death. That's why Paul said, I'm crucified with Him, yet I
live. And I tell you one thing we seek to do in this life is
where this wholeness is. We seek to press higher. We seek
to press on. Ain't that what he says down
here in verse 14? I'm pressing. I'm pressing toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Oh, I've got to have Him. This
is it. I've experienced Him in my heart.
I've experienced Him in my life. He's raised me from the dead.
He's made me, raised me up, set me in heavenly places. It's Christ
in me. That's the hope of glory. I have
found knowing Him in the resurrection power, and now I'm pressing towards
that part. Christ's going to be my reward.
And let me give you one other thing here, and I'll be done. As we know, how can we know that
we have this wholeness in our heart? That God made us this
wholeness that the gospel produces, sanctification of the gospel,
when God regenerates us. We have fellowship in this suffering,
and God's making us conformable unto His death. Back up there
in verse 10 again. Paul says that I may know Him
in the power of His resurrection, and I want to know Him in the
fellowship of His sufferings, and be made conformable unto
His death. You know, what does that mean
for us who have this life of Christ in us? It means this,
that whatever Christ suffered in this world, we fellowship
with those sufferings. Christ was rejected, we're rejected.
Christ despised, we're despised. Christ stood for the truth. He
was rejected. They mocked Him, made fun of
Him. And when we stand with Christ, we suffer with Him the same way
He did. When people find out where we stand with the gospel,
we're ridiculed. And people say, I don't believe
anybody could believe that. How could anybody? Just believe
in election. How can anybody believe in pre-death?
How can anybody believe that God chose a particular? How can
anybody believe in that? How can anybody believe that
Christ did it all and you don't have no part in it? How can anybody
not believe in free will? If we suffer with Him, we'll
reign with Him. Huh? And all beloved, and then
being made conformable to His death. What was our Lord's will
in this world. When He came into the Garden
of Gethsemane, He says, Not my will, but thine be done. Oh my, Christ died to everything
but the will of God. And like I wrote in that article
this morning, would you rather have your will or His will? One thing we always pray, Lord,
do not leave me to myself. Do not leave me to my will. And
whatever it takes to keep me cleaving, to keep me believing,
to keep me trusting, to keep me looking, to keep me coming,
you do whatever is necessary. Don't let my flesh, don't let
my will, don't let my nature, don't let my desires, don't let
nothing about me Keep me from you, in fellowship with you."
Huh? That's what he's talking about,
suffering with Him, being conformed to Him. And then he comes down
here, you know, in verse 11 and 12, and he says this. Complete
devotion, complete commitment to Christ, to God, that's his
desire. And he says, if by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of death. What he means by this
is, this is where I will attain my perfection. When I finally attain unto the
resurrection, when I go to the grave, that's when my perfection,
because that's what he goes on to say. Not as though I'd already
attained, either already perfect. I'm not. But I tell you one thing
I'm doing, I'm running after it. I'm not as committed to Christ
as I want to be. I don't know as much about Christ
as I want to. I'm not as holy in my own mind as I'd love to
be. All of us who love more love
to be more committed, more dedicated, more committed. But I follow
after, if that I may apprehend, or if I could just grasp, for
which also I'm apprehended of Christ. And Paul is saying, I've
not arrived yet, I'm not perfect. If I could just understand why
Christ saved me, and I do know this, He saved me for His glory,
to His glory and for His glory. So will I live for His glory
and stand for His glory and honor Him in this world? And I know
one thing, we can say many, many things in this world and get
super, super religious without ever hearing the gospel, and
trusting Christ, and having Christ in us without religion. I mean,
we can become super, Paul was super religious until God put
him down on the Damascus road. And yet he turned around and
told them Pharisees, he said, how you gonna escape the damnation
of hell, you generation of serpents and flockers? They saw how to
live right, they saw how to pray, they saw how to tithe, They saw
how to attend services. They saw how to read the Bible.
They believed in election. They saw lots and lots of things.
But they did not see the beauty and glory of God in Jesus Christ. And that's what we want more
than anything in this world, to see more and more of Christ.
And you know, this shows us that we're true believers whenever
this is our heart's desire. Because our faith works by love.
Does anybody make you do what you do? Are you here because
somebody made you come? Are you here because you're afraid
that God would punish you if you didn't come? Are you here because you think
that God would do something against you if you didn't show up? No. Faith works by love. And faith in Christ alone, that's
the simplicity in which we find assurance. What is a believer? Is he someone who knows the right
doctrine? The devils do that. Is a believer one who blows to
the right church? Judas did that. In fact, he took
care of the money. Is a true believer one whose
heart is covetous instead of toward Christ? Judas followed
Christ, but he had a covetous heart. In simple, childlike faith,
We trust Christ, want to know Christ, want to win Christ, want
to be found in Christ, and want to apprehend why Christ apprehended
us. And let me tell you this, it's
not when, it's not how, or what circumstances when we come to
know Him. But do we know Him, and do we
thirst for Him now? Do you want Him now? Do you want
Him now? When you get up tomorrow, will
you want Him? When you come roll around next Sunday, will you
want Him? Next Saturday, will you want Him? That I may know Him, that I may
win Him. That's holiness in a man's heart.
That's holiness in a man's heart. That heart that beats for Christ. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
God in heaven, how blessed is Your name, how blessed is Your
power, how blessed is Your grace, how blessed is Your mercy, how
blessed is the righteousness You give us in Christ, how blessed
is this salvation of Christ in us, this blessed hope of glory,
all to have Christ in His power, and experience it in our hearts
in this resurrection, this life that he gave us, this life that
he keeps living in us, this life that Christ is in us. God, thank
you for it. Thank you for this hunger and
thirst after Christ, after righteousness. Oh Lord, we know it's not natural.
We know it's not something the flesh can stir up. We know that
this flesh will try to find some confidence in itself. Confidence
in its prayers, in its abilities, in its commitment, in its dedication. But oh God, we have none in this
flesh at all. Our confidence is entirely in
you, in what you did, who you are, in your sustaining power,
in your love, in your mercy, in your grace. And God, we bless
you for this salvation you give us. God, bless it to the hearts.
God, bless it to the minds. And, O Lord Jesus, ascend the
throne of our hearts every day, every day. And, O God, make us
glad, glad and rejoice when you ascend the throne of our hearts.
And we say, not our will, but Thine be done. In Christ's holy
name we pray. Amen. Amen. tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-