What is it that brings joy to
our lives? What is it that takes the darkest
place of our soul and brings light to it? In what do we find
our greatest happiness? Is it a person? Is it an opportunity? Is it a possession? Is it some
place in life? Is it a position of authority?
Is it precious stones or treasures? What gives us joy? What gives
you joy? Sometimes we need to contemplate
that which is our responsibility, as we also contemplate that which
is our individual responsibilities. What is it that causes us to
be consumed? What occupies our minds, our
hearts, our time? As I look and as I heard the
Word of the Lord in Hebrews 12 just a moment ago, we see the
patriarchs of faith. Men and women who had no power,
who had no glory, who had no authority, but became nothing
for the priceless gain of knowing Christ their Lord. And they did
not even know what Christ was to look like. They just looked
into the face of God and saw the beauty of that which God
had promised because of the authority and the glory of God Himself,
that that which God would offer them that they could not see
nor imagine what it would be like. They gave everything they
were for that which they had no idea. They gave everything
they had for that which they had never heard described. They
were just told that God would give them the greatest of joys,
of treasures, of inheritance, of life. And they believed Him.
Now what you'll find in Scripture when you think of the narrative,
and maybe we should consider our own lives today. If my life
were penned into the pages of Scripture, what would it say?
If you were an article of Example in the Word of God. If you were
someone who was listed in a list, what list would it be that would
bear our name? Would it be a list of the faithful
nothings? Or would it be the list of the
self-righteous somethings? Would it be the list that we
see throughout Scripture of these people whom God used in great
ways despite their sin, despite their inability, despite their
weakness, despite their brokenness, despite their imprisonment? Or
would we be on the other list? You see, there are only two mentions
of two types of people in the Scripture. Those who by faith
were used mightily of God, and it cost them everything. And
those that sought to keep their lives for themselves. and they
lost everything. Those who are the examples of
faith and those who are the examples of foolishness. There is nowhere
in Scripture that we see anyone who had created an incredible
type of shoe, a new type of writing, a book, spectacles, computers,
whatever it might be. For even those things, though
they may push us along in our journey of faith, they are not
ultimate in the end. And if we are doing anything,
no matter how small or great, that is not for the glory of
the name of God, it is an absolute piece of garbage. All of our
studies, all of our time, all of our money, all of our children,
all of our family, everything that we do, if it is not for
the sake of the glory of God, it is a piece of trash. It is
garbage. It is rubbish. What gives us
joy? What consumes us? What brings
us satisfaction? What ultimately do we live for? Why do we breathe? Why do we
get up in the morning? Well, you hear the word purpose
being breathed for years now. We have to have a purposeful
life. We have to have a purpose-driven life. We need a life that is
focused on that which we want to accomplish. Everywhere we
look, we see this ideal. We hear people who are making
millions of dollars a year talking about these things, some of which
would call themselves ministers of the gospel, who all they do
is purvey a godless, Christless, success-focused self-righteousness
that is nothing but a ticket into destruction. What is it? that gives us our purpose. The
question would then be, why are we here today? Why are we here
in this life, this moment, this season? What are we to do? And what is it that we love?
When I think of purpose, sometimes it's embedded in that which is
precious to us. We are here for this. And some
people, though sacrificial, they give their lives for a good cause.
Maybe humanitarian aid. Maybe benevolence. Maybe philanthropy. But then when you look at the
core of why they do these things, it is not for the sake of the
glory of the name of God. It is not for the sake that people
would look and see, look at the power of Jesus, look at the gospel
of Christ. It is so that they in their own
hearts might fill the void of worthlessness. That they would
leave a legacy that will never be compared in the pages of Scripture.
Not that it's bad to feed the hungry, it is an opportunity
for us as God's people to care for those who are starving. But
the only place we see in the entire New Testament where people
were fed is an opportunity for Jesus to show them that living
for bread is a wasted life. And He refused to feed them a
second time. And they went hungry that day.
Because He gave them opportunity to see the true bread of life
that came down from heaven to give salvation. And as long as
they were satisfied in their flesh, they could not listen,
they could not see and believe in Jesus. Do you know if you
or I are satisfied in our flesh, if we're satisfied in our cozy
lives, if we're satisfied in our purpose, we cannot see the
gospel. And if we cannot see the gospel,
we do not belong to God. And Jesus does not know us as
His own. The Gospel, when it comes effectually
and gives faith, true faith from the Holy Spirit, it does something
in the heart of man that rips out the world's loves and puts
in an absolute, spontaneous, supernatural affection that is
at war every heartbeat of every day as long as breath is in our
lungs against the things that the flesh desires. Against that
which we stand with our shoulders back and our hands on our hips
and say, look at me. We hate those things. Because
Christ is infinitely more precious. Many people would argue, this
is radical Christianity. This is normal salvation. This is that which God has done.
God is in the business of transforming hearts in a miraculous and glorious
way. Not some pacifist, mansy-pansy,
wimpy, just worthless people. God doesn't create a worthless,
pansy bunch of people who don't love Him. He creates people who
are absolutely sold out for His name. Why? Because He is their
greatest possession. And they are His. There's a huge
difference. In my own life, I ask myself,
what do I really own every day? Because ultimately when I think
that I own something, it really owns me. And in the end of this
world, what would make us worthy of being listed in the pages
of God's Word is that we are owned by Him. Only those who are radically
transformed by the gospel are in the Lamb's Book of Life. Jesus
says that broad is the path, broad is the way. Broad is the
journey. Broad. And many will go that
way. That leads to death. Let me tell
you that majority of that journey for many people on that broad
way is spiritual and Christ-centered. We think that it's about wicked
sin and evil doings and all sorts of things that we would look
at and go, oh, not me. But let me tell you the most
evil thing that this world has ever seen. Is when we look at
a watch and we think it more infinitely beautiful than Christ.
Or we go to the mall and we say, I'm going to have a great day.
Because I'm going to get something new. And you bring it home and
it's old. Because it's decaying. Broad is the path of Christianity.
that leads to death, many will find it. Narrow is the gate that
leads to righteousness and few will find it. In John 10, Jesus
says, He is that gate. And that only those who come
through Him, through His death, through His resurrection, will
find true life. Hebrews chapter 10, I've been
in a lot this week. And I'll tell you that, The foundational
example of true salvation is an affection for Christ, evidenced
by an affection for Christ's people. And it baffles my mind
at the majority of Christians who profess to be in the light
of the gospel, empowered by the Spirit of God, who care not about
the brethren. Who are so intrinsically wired
that every thought is captive to how it affects them. Friends, this was not the teaching
of Paul. It was not the teaching of that which we see in the acts
of the apostles. It is not the teaching that we
see even in the Old Testament like we just saw in Hebrews 11.
It is not the teaching of God. God does not create a people
like that. God has never saved a man or a woman or a child whose
heart wasn't transformed. It does not happen. It does not
take place where you have to learn to grow to love Jesus. You love Him. You love Him immediately. And your zeal and your passion
in your life is immeasurable when compared to the passion
and the zeal and the life that this world offers. Faith in Jesus
Christ is always, in every way, even from the beginning of days
with Adam and Eve, a gift from God. Faith in Jesus is believing
that it's not a point in history, but a present reality that has
eternity at its tail, and it's always there. Belief, though
it wanes, though it flows, though it ebbs, though it changes, though
there's doubt, though there's things that come up in the way,
we never stop believing fully by clinging to the Word of Life,
by holding fast to our confession of hope, by embracing the reality
that Christ alone is our only hope and that we war against
the treasures of the flesh and want to put Christ at the center
of those things so that they could go away. Faith is always
a gift from God, and it is always evidenced by a zeal for obedience,
a zeal for righteousness, a passion for glory, a love for the saints,
a love for Christ. Unbelief, on the other hand,
is the natural state of man. Selfishness is the natural state
of man. The American dream is the natural state of man. Hear
that, church. Satan created the opportunity
of the American dream. He is the God of this nation.
He has been from the day the first musket was fired. Though
God's people are among it, it is not a nation of God. It's
never been a nation under God. Find it. It's nowhere to be found. Not one of our founding fathers
ever professed Christ as king. But man as king. America as king. For there is no king in England
that would tell them what to do. But by God's providence,
He created a place where we would have the freedom to worship as
we please. And do you know, just as the
history of Israel, what God has proven in His sovereign grace?
Is that even when given the freedom to worship Him with the fullest
of liberties, with the fullest of heart and the fullest affection,
we will not. We will not even preach the gospel
to our neighbor. We will not even pray for our
own enemies in the quietness of our closets. America is damned. Just as every
nation is. Because there is only one nation.
And it is the church of Jesus Christ. It is Israel. God's people whom He has purchased
from every nation, tongue, and tribe. Friends, If we are to live for Christ, we are burdened when we act as
unbelievers. When we are filled with the gospel,
when we are empowered by the Lord, when we are saved, we are
burdened when we live as unbelievers. What does that look like? When
our affections toy with us, when the world looks pretty appetizing,
we say, oh, I just want to do this. Have you ever even bargained
with God? Oh God, if I can have this and
accomplish this and get this income, then I can serve you.
God will never let you serve Him. You cannot serve God in
money and you cannot serve God through money. A nest egg, what
is that? A pile of dung, according to
Paul last week. Retirement? Garbage! Are we to
be foolish and just not? No, do what you can, but hold
loosely to those things which are not yours. Which have no
bearing on your eternal soul. For we live in this life for
the sake of the glory of God. And the only way that works is
that we invest in the gospel. And we invest in the people of
God. With our time, with our treasures, with our talents.
With our tongues, whatever tea you can think of. We give our
lives for the sake of others. And when we don't live that way,
it is a burden for us. We are broken. We are carried
away by grief and conviction. And we come bold before the throne
of grace and say, Oh Lord, Father, there is no way that in my flesh
I can warrant and employ righteousness and living with zeal and passion.
Return to me the joy of my salvation, that David would cry in the 51st
Psalm. He did not enjoy his adulterous,
murderous rant with Bathsheba and Uriah and the deceit of covering
his own tracks to make his name look good before the nation.
He did not love one minute of it. And he knew that the only
joy that could ever flood his soul was the righteousness that
comes from God as he prayed for God to clean him and to give
him joy again. To live by faith is the fullest
of joys because it produces glory for the name of Christ who does
the work of righteousness in it. Paul said in Philippians
1, for I know that he who began a work, I am sure of this, that
he who began the good work in you will be faithful to carry
it to completion and to the day of Christ. So when we as the
church live in the flesh for just one second, we are defaming
the name of the Son of God who gave us righteousness. And that's
where Paul is about to go, and we'll go next week. But before
we go there, I want us to really plant deep in our hearts the
reality of what the life of the normal Christian should look
like, and it looks like Paul. The circumstances are different.
The suffering is going to be different. But the expression
and the life and the living and the faith is exactly the same.
The application is the same. Paul had much more to lose than
we do, and yet we're still called to lose it all. It's sort of like a call out
to us. What is it that John closes his first epistle? What does
he say? Beloved, keep yourself from idols. It's like I got one
more shot. I got to say one more thing.
Just keep yourself from idols. What do they look like? I tell
you, they're everywhere. How dare I use this quote, but
John Calvin is quoted saying that the heart of man is a perpetual
factory of idols. And a lot of them look like Christianity. A lot of them look like, ooh,
the ESV. Not just ESV, the goatskin ESV. I love this little Bible. I can't
read it anymore. The more I love it, the worse my eyes get. You know what I mean. And that's
a silly little example, but it's true to the heart of the matter.
When we look at our lives, when we see the idols that are continually
there, when we dream big dreams about the future of our existence,
we are losing sight of Christ. Even when it's our ministry.
Many a man have come and been where I was early in the days
of my call, and said, well, I think God's calling me to do X, Y,
Z, and I need to stay focused. And when I can get here, then
I'll obey God. If you're not obeying God now,
He's never called you ever. Did you hear that? God does not call you to do something
later. He commands you to do it now. And if you've got to
get things in order to obey God, Jesus says, let the dead bury
the dead. Go on back, dead man. You are dead if you do not follow
me now. You are dead if you don't obey me now. One of the worst
things that I ever read in my life, in the entirety, that wasn't
in Scripture, was an article by A.W. Pink. And he closed out
this 30 page article that I was reading, sitting at my desk in
California, with these exact words. If there is any hesitation,
if there is any delay in your obedience, you are on your way
to hell. And I threw it right in the trash can. That's a bunch
of garbage. A few days later I dug it out,
because he's right. We need to have that much gravity
in our hearts when it comes to obedience, because it's not our
flesh that obeys, it's the Lord that produces the faith of obedience. So to say I cannot obey God is
to say God cannot bring that type of fruit in my life. To
say that I just don't have that kind of zeal is true, but the
Spirit of God within you creates that kind of zeal. Do you see
the problem? So as we see Paul, as we see in chapter 3, look
at verse 8. This is a review, but I want
to land a plane firm before we move into the next thought for
next week. He says, indeed I count everything
as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord. For His sake I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that
I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness
of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through
faith in Jesus Christ. So see, the righteousness that
we have is not in our obedience, but it is in Jesus Christ who
produces our obedience. Is it perfection? No. But it
is obedience. And here's the problem that I
see in our lives. Here's the problem that I see in the Church
of the United States of America and other places where it's become
popular to be a Christian, socially acceptable to be in the church.
But I'll promise you it's not acceptable to be a Christ follower.
What I see is that We have this working and this
doing and this going and it looks Christian, but yet it's not necessarily
obedience. Yes, it's obedience in some planes,
but it's not obedience against our natural self. It's not obedience
to the cost of our flesh, of our desires. Let me give you
an example. Many people flock to the congregational aspect
of church. They volunteer, they engage,
they do ministry, but they don't do it so that they may suffer
for the sake of giving to others. They do it because it is convenient
for them. It is something that they get
self-glory It is something that they feel good about themselves
doing, and every bit of it is an absolute waste of time. If
we are to give and serve the body of Christ, that's how we
serve the Lord. And I'm not saying this example
that I'm about to use is not supposed to mean that everyone
who does this is this way, but it's definitely a place that
I have seen it. For example, the soloist. You
know what a soloist is? I've sang so many solos in church
before. We used to do a solo every Sunday. We'd have some
this and that. I mean, you know, we had to have
an order of worship so people would know when they could go
to the bathroom, take a break, intermission, come back. And
there was always somebody singing a song, usually right before
or around the offitory. It was a subliminal message. You know, they're singing and
you're like, wow, that's so beautiful. And then the people are pickpocketing
you. I don't know how it worked. But either way, you know, that
sort of seemed to be where, or right before the sermon or whatever.
But this person and these people, not always, but I have met a
few in my day who they lived for their song. They lived and
they were fantastic. One of them now that comes to
mind actually has their own recording contract. One particular group even has
their own CD that just, well, not their own, but their own
record label. Many CDs. And they're known for that. Nothing
wrong with singing, nothing wrong with worshiping God, nothing
wrong with the Gettys. But think about it for a minute.
Imagine that particular person that they go to church so that
they can be heard singing. Because in the depths of their
soul they're not singing to God, but rather they're singing for
themselves about God. Now it's not the general idea,
but it's just an example. See how easily that could become
an idol. How do we test that as an idol?
I'm not going to allow you to sing for six months. You know
what happened to that person? They got angry and left the church.
You're not going to tell me I can't serve God. You're right. He did. Or like a soloist on an instrument
one time. And I asked them to play from
the baptistry. I want to hear what you have
to play. I don't want to watch you. Because at the end of the service
it was all about that person and their skills on the instrument.
No weeping, no tears, but we can't wait for the closing hymn
because we're going to get to see Rob jamming. And there'll be
like 60 people lined up to talk to him about his guitar. I said,
brother, for the sake of the saints, would you play next week
in the baptistry behind the wall? We're going to turn you up. He
said, I'm just not going to play. I'm done. You sure are. You know, what's up with that? And where do we fit in? How many
times has that happened in our own lives? Well, I like to clean
the church, man, I'll tell you what. You think I'm joking? I've
had janitors who were more self-righteous than divas. You see this church? I've expected
to look this way when y'all get done. Don't use the toilet. Hold it. Go home. I mean, everything
can become an idol. And here's the reality of the
righteousness of Christ in us. We give it all up, which starts
with our own pride and our own honor for the sake of others. It ought to be an honor to clean
up people's mess. It ought to be an honor to stand in the back
room and sing a song for the sake of the glory of God. It
ought to be an honor to take a break from worship. It ought
to be an honor to be humiliated for Christ. Isn't that what Hebrews
12 just talked about? They didn't count this life as
anything, but they found favor and joy in being humiliated,
being whipped, being sawed into. How glorious is that? I guess
you could become a YouTube sensation, but you wouldn't be around to
reap the benefits. Spurgeon says that true faith
purifies the soul. The faith which is worked out
in us by the Holy Spirit is the greatest sin killer under heaven.
God produces faith in us. And it is a faith that produces
righteousness. Verse 9 of chapter 3 again. Found
him not having a righteousness of all that comes from the law,
but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness
from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him. We went
through these last week. We're going to revisit them today.
that by that I know the power of His resurrection, that I may
share in His sufferings, that I may become therefore like Him
in His death, and that by any means possible I may attain the
resurrection from the dead. So let's think about that. I
count these things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Jesus Christ my Lord. So let's look at it for a second.
There's a phrase there, because of the what? worth of knowing
Jesus. Look at it. Because of the surpassing
worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. So there's the cause. How do I know it's the cause?
It says because. Because means that's the cause of it. What's
that causing? The knowing Jesus Christ as Lord,
that means Master, Savior, King, Ruler, Authority, Mover, Shaker,
Compeller, Author, Dare I say dictator is not, but you see
what I mean. Someone who is controlling you. Because I know Jesus Christ
as the king of my life, I count everything as loss. You see that? So, because of
the worth of knowing Jesus, I count everything as loss. What is Paul
saying? This will be a review for you.
Paul is saying, I give up with joy the joy of all other things. Paul gave up the joy of his own
ministry, of his own life, of his own... See, Paul had... I
mean, we're going to forget, because that was in chapter 1.
See, we forget. Paul... was primarily called
by God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And when you're
in a prison cell fighting for your physical life, it's difficult
to obey the call of God. But yet that is exactly how God
wanted Him to be the preacher of the Gentiles at this season,
that He would do it through the work of the prison. That He would
do it through the writing of the letters. That that which
he wrote had much longer a shelf life than that which he said.
Because we're still looking at it. There's no MP3 of Paul. And
I'll be straight with you. Those digital things are not
going to last. They're not going to last. They're not. But the Word of God as it's written
always lasts. The Lord has always and will
always preserve the ministry of Paul in prison because it
is life to the lost and it is grace and hope to the church.
And so here we've got Paul who gave his life up, which was his
joy, his freedom to preach, which was a joy, not an idol. He gave
it up for the priceless, for the value of knowing Christ as
Lord. He gave it up. He gave everything
that he was. We saw all of his Judaistic accomplishments,
all of his righteousness, all of his spiritual things, which
counted for nothing. They were a wasted life from
the beginning. He gave it all up. It cost Paul his very freedom. It cost Paul his friends. It
cost Paul everything to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Friends,
it will cost you everything. It will cost you, in this community,
it will cost you your very livelihood. To preach the gospel of Jesus. You think I'm kidding. Just go
do it. I dare you to go to work and
obey the Holy Spirit of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus
to every person that He prompts you to. You will be fired before
the sun goes down. You stand out on the street corner,
you will be arrested within two hours. Unless you just leave
when they come by. It will cost you everything.
Pastors in the churches down here, if they put a halt to the
idols of the programs that are going on amongst these fellowships,
they don't even preach the scriptures. If they got up in the pulpit
and preached this, it would be the last sermon they ever preached,
which was the one that I entitled the last sermon I ever preached
at one of the largest churches in this community. Thanksgiving weekend. It will cost you your livelihood.
And you know what? No matter how much you love Christ,
if you're not willing to give it up, you're not in Him. Because you love
a Christ that's not of God. You love a Christ that's not
in the Scripture. You cannot play the fence with Jesus. It
is impossible. The Scripture says that you give
up all with joy, the joy that you have in other things. People
that you know, you want to see where your friends are? Begin
to call them. the way the scripture asks you
to call them. You ever sat on your knees and
wept in front of someone and pleaded for them to believe in
the gospel and they were a pastor of a church? I have. And they laughed at me. And they went on a campaign to
smear everything that we stood for. You want to ask someone when
they complain? Have you ever considered the cross of Christ?
Let me tell you about complaints. When I complain in my home, it
is like a virus. It spreads. And then I start
to see it in others, and then I complain about their complaining.
And then it just becomes this big cesspool of cancer. And I'm like, what's happened
here? And the devil, it's like he's doing a break dance on our
heads. He's just throwing a party. They're
having a fun time, the enemies of the cross. Look at Tippins. That guy, that's crazy. It's
just nuts. I mean, what if there were a
YouTube in the realm of spirituality and all the demons are just laughing
at us? Look at these Christians. Look at them, just stupid. They
say they believe in Jesus. And that's funny, but it's true.
If we are truly in Christ, we with joy throw away everything
else we have joy in. I give all things up for the
purpose of gaining Christ, Paul says, in order to gain Christ
Jesus, because He is my joy. He is my purpose. Jesus should
be our treasure. Jesus should be our glory. Jesus
should be our all. Now what does it mean? What is
Paul trying to show us? How does it apply to our lives?
And I showed you this last week that I would not sit here and
give you a list of things that should happen in your life. But
let me help you think through this for a moment. If you would
say that because of the worth of knowing Jesus, I give up with
joy that which gives me joy, and I give up all things in order
to gain Jesus. Could you say this? I give up
all things in order to obtain everything. Can you see that? I give up everything
in order to obtain everything. Why? Because that which everything
was is nothing. That which everything truly is,
is everything. Am I lost yet? So that everything
the world has, everything that we are, everything that we strive
for, we throw away so that we would gain Jesus Christ who is
everything. And you may be sitting here today
and say, Jesus isn't my everything. My only hope for you is to repent
of that and to believe the gospel. To believe that Jesus is the
only everything. That He is the only way, the
only truth, the only life, the only hope, the only treasure.
He is the Kingdom of Heaven. He is your ministry. He is your
Lord. He is your husband. There is nothing else that we
can have except for Christ. We either have Christ alone or
we have everything else. We can't have it all. Jesus was
even tempted by the enemy in the same way. You see all of
this? Look at the world. I will give
it all to you if you just bow down before me. The irony of that is that though
the enemy of God had been given dominion to roam the earth, he
did not possess it. I obtain everything of true value
because of the worth of knowing Jesus. I obtain everything which
is inclusive of Christ, who is the glory of God face to face.
We get the glory of God face to face. Do you know what gold
is worth to God? Nothing. He created it by the
word of His power. Do you know what power and prosperity
is to God? Prestige and position? Nothing. He's not a shower of favoritism. He is not someone who respects
persons based on their accomplishments. I heard something Saturday. Someone
looked over at our table and Jesse and I were sitting there
and my Bible was out and someone said, I'm so proud of y'all. And I fought everything within
me to rebuke that lady. I didn't feel really pressed
in my spirit to do it, but my flesh wanted to rebuke her. That
was awful. I'm so proud of y'all. And I
said, of what? Trusting in the sufficiency of
the Word of God? Something like that. Yeah, it's
just good to see young people. I'm proud of y'all. Y'all keep
it up. I'm like, what are we keeping up? Why don't we say
I'm proud of you for becoming a Christian? Because you didn't
do it. Why are we attaboys and pat people on the back when they
serve the Lord? We don't get praise for doing
what we were created to do. God does. Well, you're just stepping
into something else now, pastor. You're going in places you're
not supposed to go. Well, let me just take you where Jesus
went then. In the parable that Jesus says in the Gospels, He
talks this way. He says, there was a servant
and he plowed the field as he was hired and owned to do. And
when he got through harrowing and plowing the field as he was
owned and operated, he was told to do and commanded to do, does
the master of the slave tell him to come in and sit at the
table and say, you've worked hard today, just sit here and
recline your feet? No. These are the words of Jesus.
The master said, slave, where's my supper? We don't get praise for what
we're supposed to do. We don't get praise when we love
our neighbor. We don't get praise even unbelievers
and they do good things and they expect praise for it. We don't
get praise as Christians for doing that which God created
to do because it is not our work. It is not our righteousness.
It is not our good deeds. It is the good deeds that God
planted in His supremacy. in our lives before the world
began, that we would walk in them, that we would be giving
praise to His glorious grace forever and ever and ever. This
is the reality of the Gospel of Jesus. This is what it means
to have true faith. And if it is not true in you,
You, my dear friend, need to repent of your sin, of your self-righteousness,
of your holiness, and everything that you have in the fiber of
your soul, and everything of your flesh, and trust in the
sufficiency of Jesus, lest you pass from this life today and
stand in eternal damnation forever against the holiness and the
justice of God. This is not a game. This is not
something to be taken lightly. And you and your friends and
your neighbors and the world at large live our lives as though
there is tomorrow and we've got decades to fade and surf as just
going down the lazy Susan River. We don't have that kind of time.
And even if we do, how dare we dishonor the name of God by just
being complacent for 30 years. It is the work of God. who produces
the obedience of faith. And to say that we are not going
to do it is a direct rebellion against the Lord. And friends,
that starts with reading and studying your Bible. I just don't
have it in me because you're not putting it in there. You
want your hair to be green? You got to dye it. You can stand
there all day. You can rub leaves on it. You
can stand in the sun and say, green, green, green, green, green.
You can do whatever you want to do. But until you put the
chemicals in your hair to turn it that color you want, it's
not going to produce anything but the way God made it. If you want to live like Christ,
you've got to put the gospel of Jesus in you. You've got to
have the power of God's grace. And there is nowhere in history,
nowhere ever, that God has ever worked outside the power of His
word in producing righteousness in the people of His purchase. If you aren't in the scripture,
you are failing in your faith. And you know what? You can't
even pray. You can't pray to God. Every prayer you lift to
God when you live in disobedience is worthless. You hear that? God isn't, listen
to me, He sure is not. God has changed our heart. The character of our nature is
not our holiness, it's the holiness of God. The contentment of our
person, of our mind, is not our doing. It is the satisfaction
of God with Himself. And we see it, and we feel it,
and we live it, and we're satisfied in Him. We receive Christ, which
is everything. It's the glory of God face to
face. We cling to the faith that God gives us. We hold fast without
wavering to our confession of hope in Jesus Christ, who is
faithful, because God has changed our hearts. We no longer love
the world. But we love Christ. God has changed our hope. We
hope that Christ has begun the good work and He will complete
it. God has changed our minds, our heads. We have the mind of
Christ. And what is the first evidence
of having the mind of Christ? Unity in the church. Living out
as a people of God. Not running around just doing
spiritual stuff and, oh, I'm just going to attend here and
I'm going to attend. I'm not talking about you who are looking
and discerning the will of God as to what fellowship. But friends,
you cannot be without a people and say you're obedient to Christ.
How are you going to bear the burden of a stranger? Oh, I saw
a couple of people today. God, I'm praying for them. That
black car, whoever owned that, I'm praying for them. Is that
how we pray? I mean, it's not wrong, but maybe if you have
a need. To who are you accountable? To
who are you encouraging every day by stirring them up to do
good deeds? by stirring them up to the love
of Christ. That's a command of God, foundationally. In so much
as that, in Hebrews 10, those who are not assembling together
are disciplined out of the church because they have spurned the
Son of God and they're no longer, listen, no longer remains a sacrifice
for their sin. So the only thing they have to
look forward to is judgment. But in Romans 8, 1, Paul says,
therefore now there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because
those who are in Christ Jesus are connected to the body of
Christ. And I don't know if you've ever
been out of church for a season, looking, wondering, maybe depression,
maybe illness, maybe out of your own doing. Friends, it messes
with us. It bothers us. It presses us.
Even we who are faithful who will know, I'm going to get in
the Word, I'm going to stay in the Word. It's still. It's like priming a pump
and never opening the valve. There's nowhere to serve. There's
nowhere to give. There's no people to pray for.
There's nothing. God has changed all that. Look back for a minute in your
own minds. Look back to the first part of this letter. The primary
purpose of Paul's life was to give honor to Christ in living.
How did he do that? He says, it is my desire to go
and be with Christ, for that is far better, to live as Christ,
but to die as gain. But for what? He said, but it
will be alright with me if I stick around. No, he says, for your
sake. That which I desire more than staying is going to be with
Christ. He closes that out there. He
may attain the resurrection of the dead. He wants to be with
Christ face to face. But for your sake my joy is fullest
when I stay for the sake of your spiritual growth. Friends, every
one of us in this room ought to have that heart. That is the
first thing. Here's the bread, Jesus Christ.
And the mayonnaise on the bread or whatever it is you eat is
that. Nothing else. So no matter what
else you stack on that, if that's not there, all that's worthless.
How much preaching you do, how much mission stuff you do, how
much study you do, all that stuff is worthless if there is not
a people to whom you are applied and living your life out as a
local church. You don't have a spiritual family
and everything you do is just blown away. There's nobody for
it to stick for. You don't serve Jesus by doing...
Jesus doesn't, listen, Jesus doesn't need our ministry. He can use a bird. There's going
to be a day when the rocks will cry out the gospel. Now does
he do that? No. But in that extreme exaggeration,
we see the necessity that we as the church ought to be living
for the sake of each other. Paul, as we look back, his goal
and his mission was to equip the church for their joy, for
their good, for the glory of God, that he may be proud as
he looks in the day of Christ, that Christ is glorified for
His infinite power in producing a people who have maintained
themselves as the church, who have persevered. They look back. Paul says we
ought to hold together with one mind. So we live in Christ because
we've been born in Christ. So we look back at that in Paul's
ministry. We also need to look around in our own lives. We need
to look around and we need to see that God has changed our
everything. God, through the gospel, through
Jesus Christ has changed. Is that true for you? Has God
changed everything in you? Has the gospel of Jesus empowered
you in ways you cannot imagine? Or are you like a firecracker? Or the seed that's fallen on
the rocky soil? Where's the birds come and snatch it away? Friends,
there's only one of those soils that are true believers. And
that is the good soil, which was good before the seed hit
it. Because God made it good, and
then He planted His Word in it. We need to look around. We need
to remember that our lives are not our own, but they belong
to Christ. We've been bought with a price. Christ has purchased
us, and He has given His life for the church. So then, as His
body, we give our lives for each other. We give up everything
for the benefit of the glory of Christ. We suffer together
as we follow Christ. We suffer and we give and others
suffer and they give. And we just work together in
suffering. Because you know what ministry
really is? Ministry throughout the entire New Testament is when
we give of ourselves in any way for the joy of another. And it
takes away from us. There's no such thing as convenient
ministry. That's not ministry. That's just, that's worldliness. It's never convenient to have
people come and live in your house because they're going through
problems. It's never convenient to be up all night praying. It's
never convenient to go out and labor for the gospel. It's never
convenient. It's never going to be convenient. Why? Because
it's never going to be in season. Paul tells Timothy, in season
and out of season. I've been looking for that in season time
my entire life. I've never found it. And I have
places that seem in season, but they're not. I haven't seen a
season in my lifetime where the gospel was received holistically
in a culture. Friends, we're at war. You think things are bad, where
there's shootings and killings and bombings and missiles. That
ain't nothing. That's nothing. 9-11 nothing Compared to the
war that's going on right now in your heart That's real warfare
Our flesh is working and fighting and contemplating against the
Spirit of God within us and As we live our lives the enemy of
God goes out and he blinds the eyes of unbelievers He picks
the gospel that we share and he takes it straight out of their
hearts. How does he do that? Because God lets him do it and God purposes
that in His own sovereignty, in His own wisdom, and we don't
understand why, but we know that only when God opens those hearts
will they hear. Can you hear? Finally, I think it should look
this way. If we look up, if we look to Christ, if we look to
the heavens, if we look to the things that are eternal, not
the things that are temporal, our minds will be set on that
which we should be obsessed with, who is Jesus Christ. If you think
about it, we are not to be overwhelmed and obsessed with the world.
We are to be overwhelmed and obsessed with Christ. Isn't that
really the ultimate thing that Paul is teaching? Are you obsessed
with Jesus? Are you overwhelmed with the
beauty of Christ? The prayer that Brother Jesse
prayed this morning. As we look into the face of the
beauty of God and we cannot stop staring because there is nothing
more infinitely beautiful. Is that our obsession? Is that
your obsession? Friends, this is the work of
God. We don't look and obsess with each other. We're not to
be obsessed with our careers. We're not to be obsessed with
our stuff and our possessions, with our kids, our bank accounts,
our freedom, our politics, our country, our morality. We're not to be obsessed with
our friends, or our status, or our future. We're to be obsessed
with Jesus Christ to such a degree that everything else is just
boring. Is the world boring to you? Please
don't hate me for what I'm about to say, because it doesn't necessarily
apply to you. As all of us in this room have
things that we really enjoy in the sense of entertainment. Sports,
music, whatever. Are we obsessed with it? Do we
find more joy in our athletic entertainment, or our movies,
or our books, or our children than we do in Christ? We will give time to what we
truly love, and it will be absolutely clear. We will give our heart
to that which is truly most glorious to us and it will be revealed.
I made the comment this morning on social media. I said, don't
feed your family for a week. It will reveal the trueness of
your heart. Starve your family from the Word of God. It will
reveal the trueness of your soul. How wicked is a father or mother
who don't feed their children. How much more wicked is it that
a father and mother don't model and live the gospel and the hunger
for Christ? And not just fathers to children
and mothers to children, but peers to peers, servants to masters. We need to look up at Christ
and see that this Christ is infinitely glorious and beautiful and worthy
and that there should be nothing, anything that puts its shadow
in between us and Jesus needs to be destroyed. And for some
people, they just give it all away. You hear about these cults,
and people sell everything and then they kill themselves together.
These people are obsessed with lies. It's no different than
the lie of materialism. It's no different than the cults
of sacrificing children on an altar and burning them. We see it in antiquity, and even
today there are people who say those things still exist. But
there's no difference in doing that than to sacrifice our children
on the altar of Americanism, or nationalism, or materialism,
or education. It's an idol. All of this stuff will be taken
away when we're fully in love with Christ. And we are joyful
because of it. We are glad that God takes it
away. And as God begins to take it away and we start to see what
it really is, we just start pushing that stuff out. I discovered
some boxes a couple of weeks ago of when we moved here four
years ago. Still taped up. I'm like, I've
probably been looking for that stuff. Didn't know what was in
it. It was labeled too in sort of
a little neat code. so that I would know what was
in there. I couldn't even remember what the code was. Because then another box that
I found was the key to the code. So I found all these... Oh, yeah,
look at that. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Look
at that. I found boxes of when Robin and I first got married.
You know, and all the stuff that our parents make us take came
together and we boxed it up and put it back in their storage
house. And we found, oh, this is great. And we're going through
and we got all the stuff we want to save and we look at it and
we go, What am I going to do with this trash? Sentimentalism can kill us. It's
a little small picture of what our idolatry looks like. I mean,
newspapers from 1961. Oh, look at little John. He black-headed
then. Now he's an old man. They stole
it away. It's all garbage. Or when your
house floods and you're trying to save everything, and after
about three days of mitigating all that, and you're like, nah,
just push it all outside, throw it in the trash. That's what
happens. When we are in love with Christ,
when we truly are His, He starts to help us to see things for
what they truly are. It's like a kid who would pick up a piece
of candy off a bathroom floor and eat it. You know, Abigail? She saw a lollipop sitting on
the bottom of a toilet. Candy! She'd go crazy for candy.
She'd probably crawl down in the floor to get it. Me? Nah. I'd probably set her on
fire to cleanse her from that feeling. Because we know better. That's not candy, babe. That's
not going to give you joy. That's nasty. And that's the
way I look at the world. It's just dead meat rotting away.
Friends, I'm going to promise you, when we come to this reality,
God changes us and transforms us. We have to fight our flesh. It is not going to stop. If it
stopped, we wouldn't even have to preach. We'd just get around
and say, everybody just share how the Lord's working today. We wouldn't
have to be exhorted. We'd just be in a constant state
of worship, floating around. I mean, you know, it would be an incredibly
weird society. But we're all going to fight.
The flesh is not going to stop. The idols are not going to stop
being churned out. We have to recognize them and put them together
and say, oh, that's not going to give me joy. Does it mean
we can't do things? No. But friends, at the end of
the day, when we've watched 12 hours of television at the end
of the week, and we've read the Bible for 45 seconds, something's
wrong. And we ask ourselves, why do
I feel so empty? Why do I feel such lack of joy? Why do I feel so disconnected
from the faith? Where's that zeal I had five
years ago? You know, the greatest time most
people have zeal is when they're students. High school or college. And they get their homework done
and all they've got is free time and they get engaged in some Bible study,
they get engaged in some prayer groups, they get engaged in some
missions projects, and all they're just on fire for Jesus, everything's
great, gospel, gospel, gospel. And you go home and you tell
daddy in your senior year, I'm going to quit college and go to Africa.
And they're like, no you're not. You're going to finish college
and you're going to get a job. Why does that zeal come? Why
does that passion come? Because there's time involved
with Jesus. There's time involved in His
Word. There's time involved with the people of God. Friends, that's
not something that's supposed to happen as an experience on
a weekend. That should be happening in our hearts every moment of
every day. And so much more when the weight
of the world crashes down and feels like there's nothing else
to do, we ought to be able to stand up and let Christ push
that stuff off. It's not going anywhere. Sometimes
it doesn't even get better, it gets worse. but our joy is full
and complete in Christ. Our zeal and our passion, our
hearts are gaining Christ, not gaining trash. We are pushing
into the gospel. And friends, we cannot have both. We need to look out for ourselves,
for our hearts, for the hearts of others. We need to watch out
for the wolves, as Paul says. Watch out for the evildoers.
Watch out for the evildoers in our own little hearts. Watch
out. And we need to look out for the
world, not just to keep it from encroaching on our lives, but
to look out at the world with eyes of burden that we may proclaim
as we live and proclaim an explicit gospel that can save the vilest
of sinners. We need to be on the lookout,
be concerned with the glory of God who works in us mightily. Let's close in this. If we're
looking to know Christ as Paul says, we're looking to know Him. That means we know Christ. This is a review from last week.
We know Him. And He knows us. We are involved
with Him. We're intimate with Him. That
is through the Word of God and through the people of faith.
Hear me, church. It's not one or the other. It's
not even both and. It is. We are engaged as God's
body, important to the needs of each other, so that we live
as a people for God's own glory. Nowhere in history, nowhere in
history, back to where we started, do we see these incredible individuals
who just, on their own accord and in their own power, just
did great things for the Lord. You just don't see it. It's never
been done and it never will be done. These icons that we call
the faith, that are continually being praised, if you look at
what they believe, they don't believe the gospel. And they've not done
what they've done for the glory of the gospel. They've done what
they've done and they're reaping the benefits of their own fame.
And I don't have to name them, just turn on some of the television
shows and look. Turn on some of the books that
are number one at Barnes & Noble and just see their faces. See
what they write, see what they say, see what they teach and
see how they live. How are we to know Christ? We
should want to know Christ in His power as He was raised from
the dead. is alive. Christ has defeated
death. We, as Paul says, I want to know
Christ and the power of His resurrection. We should want to know the power
of His resurrection. It's inclusive of our obedience. It's inclusive of our zeal. It's
inclusive of our passion. How do you think Lazarus was
toward Christ? You ever think about that? John chapter 11. How do you think
Lazarus... Let me tell you about Lazarus.
I bet the man died preaching. I'm just guessing. If I were
to be raised to life in the physical flesh, it would be an incredible
testimony, wouldn't it? But has God not done greater
work in us by bringing our hearts to life and promised us that
same resurrection? But the seriousness of it is
that Lazarus died again, but he will be raised to life. As
you and I will be raised to life who are in Christ, we want to
know the power of His resurrection, not just for the future, but
for today. I want you to understand that
the power of God is active in your life today. You can overcome
complacency because Christ has overcome it. You see that? Paul says, I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of His
resurrection. I want to know Him in the suffering. I want
to know Him in His suffering. This is where Paul really works
when he starts to talk about giving up everything that I suffered
for the sake of Christ. Knowing Christ and His suffering,
partnering in His suffering, is just that. Is that it costs
us greatly to serve Him and to live for Him. It costs us everything
to be a follower of Christ. It costs us everything when we're
born again. And so in that, it costs Christ
everything to redeem a people. Did it not? Was Christ looked
upon as this great king? This great leader? This great
servant? This great God? Was Christ looked upon in favor?
Was Christ looked upon in such a way that the world was so sad?
No, the world hated Him. There was a small group of people
there at the cross, weeping for the Savior. Only one disciple,
John. The rest of them were running
for their lives. He was maligned, mistreated.
He was judged unworthily. He was hated and despised. He
was brutally murdered as a common criminal. You want
to be known like that? You will if you follow Christ. And in our culture you will be
known as a heretic, a liar, a cult follower, a weirdo, a goober,
whatever. You'll be hated and despised.
Your own families will despise you. Your own siblings will run
you off. Those people that you served
with in ministry will no longer want to be your friends. You
will suffer with Christ. There's no way around it. And
if you're not, if your zeal's not there, if your passion's
not there, friends, listen to my voice. I don't want to get
excited about this because I want you to hear it clearly. You need
to pray that God would give you an understanding of where you
are in Him. Don't play games with your salvation
experience and sear your conscience to the point where you think
you're fine. Cry out for mercy to a holy God and ask Him to
return to you the joy of your salvation, and do that which
you did in the beginning, knowing what effectually caused you to
be born of God to begin with, which is the words of Christ,
and eat the bread of life more than the bread of this world,
and run the race to the cost of your own head, and you will
be found. You'll be found suffering in
Christ. Paul then says, knowing Christ
and partnering in His death. This is a disgrace and a hatred.
A giving up of a life for the sake of a life. And friends,
the church is no different. Each of us are supposed to give
up our lives for the sake of another. Parents, we understand
that. But even then, our flesh really
starts to grate. But we do it anyway. We need
to be able to give up our lives for the sake of others without
that grate. without that cringe, without
that complaint, without that grumbling, and without that questioning,
so that we might walk as lights amidst a dark and crooked and
twisted generation. Ultimately, Paul finally says
that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from
the dead. You know what he's saying? I want to see Christ. I want to see Christ in my life
as I live. I want to see Christ honored
in my death if I die. I want to see Christ honored
in the work that I do, whether it be missions or evangelism
or pastoring or whatever it might be. I want to see Christ honored
in my work in my law firm or in my business or in my store
or wherever it might be that I work. Wherever it might be
that I live, we now should want to see Christ honored. Because
we desire to see Christ face to face. I want to see Him. I want to see Him. And I want
to attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul is not saying,
as you'll see next week, that he has gained that for himself.
But he is showing that his heart is to see the risen Lord. Friends, if we want to be intimate
with Jesus, We've got to give it up. We've got to be willing
to lay our lives down. And I think the biggest disease
in our culture is that we can turn off our faith. We can turn
off our worship. We can come to Sunday services
and we can do church things, but we can leave and not think
another word about it. I made the comment yesterday
to someone, what if I didn't show up for church today? What if I just wanted to go fishing? What would you think? I'll let you mull that one over. How can it be? You ever stayed
up all night? Because you were afraid to oversleep?
Because you had somewhere you wanted to be the next morning
so bad you just did not want to miss the bus? You don't want to miss
the road trip. You did it, didn't you? You swallowed
all sorts of stuff because you really wanted to go. You took
your no-dose. You did your multivitamins. You did whatever you could do.
You went to Starbucks and you bought stock. Got a barista in
the back seat and they're just passing it up. But you did not
miss that trip. I'm going to say this and then
I'm going to quit. Our zeal for worshiping God together as the
body of Christ ought to be exponentially greater than that. It's the mayonnaise on the bread,
baby. Let's pray. Father, as we lift our voices
to You, Lord, I pray that we would lift our hearts and our
minds and that we would come to know You more intimately this
moment through Your Word. And Lord, we labor in prayer
for our brothers and sisters who are ill and who have to work
and who are traveling. But Lord, we pray You be with
them and we thank You, Lord, when they return soon. But Lord,
there are some amongst Your body, even amongst this body, who are
just in the habit of not assembling together. Father, would You bring
them to conviction? Some people need to change their
jobs. Some people need to change their purpose. Father, as we say these things
in prayer, we know that You alone are going to change. Lord, it
is drastic. It is drastic when we see people
fade from the faith. Father, please bring them back.
Not just to attend our service, but Father, bring them back to
the zeal and the passion of their first love. Father, keep us in check. Keep
the idols always in the right place. Always in the corner. Father, always in the pile of
garbage. And help us to not put more in the kiln, Lord, convict
us and at the same time help us rejoice as we stand before
you righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ. Not guilty
and condemned, but worthy and free. And Father, we thank you
for giving us such grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's sing together.