Now turn with me to Philippians
chapter 3. I began this message last week,
and on true faith and repentance, this is part 2, that I want to
finish this section of Philippians 3 that continues on to verse
11. And last week I really stayed
with the first three verses, and especially verse 3, because
it sets the tone for what's to come. where the Apostle Paul
wrote, for we are the circumcision, meaning circumcision of the heart,
the new birth, being born again. You know Christ said we must
be born again or we cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven.
How do we know we've been born again? He says we worship God
in the spirit, meaning we worship God as we are guided by the spirit
of God in the word of God. Worship is not emotionalism. Worship can sometimes be emotional,
but it's not emotionalism. It's not gauged by things like
that, but by the truth. We worship God from the heart,
the new heart, the heart that God has given us in the new birth,
and we do it in the truth. God desires those to worship
him, worship him in spirit and in truth. If the truth is not
preached, There's no worship. There's no presence of the spirit.
He's the spirit of truth. And then we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. That word rejoice means we glory
in Christ Jesus. We have confidence in Christ.
We boast in Christ. That's not a bad word when it
comes to bragging about him. It's a bad word when it comes
to bragging about ourselves. But if we're the circumcision,
if we've been born again by the Spirit and worship God in the
Spirit, that means we boast in Christ. Glory in Christ. That's both the glory of His
person and the glory and power of His finished work for the
salvation of His people. And so we do that, and that's
faith. That's true faith. True faith
glories in Christ. True faith is not just believing
or believing something. It's believing in the proper
object upon the foundation of the Word. And the only proper
object is Christ in the glory of His person and the power of
His finished work. That's what Randy read in that
Romans 10 passage. The Jews, they sought righteousness
by works of the law. They didn't make it, and neither
would you. Neither would I. Nobody, no sinner's
going to attain righteousness by works of the law. Because
we're sinners, we always fall short. Now that doesn't mean
we're not religious. He said they have a zeal of God,
as you read. They're religious. People want
to live forever. They want to talk about heaven.
They don't want to go to hell. They want to live forever. They
have a zeal for that. But how is that attained? Well,
he said they have a zeal of God, but they're lacking knowledge.
They don't know God. They don't know the true and
living God. And that's proven because they're going about to
establish their own righteousness. See, if you're going about to
trying to make yourself acceptable with God based upon your works
in salvation, You don't know God. Now that shocks some people. Because the God of the Bible
requires perfection. And I know people say, well,
that's not fair. Yes, it is fair. It's just. Because God is a just
God. But that perfection can only
be found in the personal work of Christ. That's why Paul says
that I want to know Christ. He says there that they're ignorant
of God's righteousness, going about to establish a righteousness
of their own. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe. That's faith. Faith
with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. What does
that mean? That means he looks to Christ and rests in Christ
for righteousness. That's what faith does, God-given
faith. And then he says in verse three, they have no confidence
in the flesh. Now that's repentance. But now,
if you don't understand what Paul means by flesh there, you're
not gonna understand repentance. Now repentance in the Bible is
not some kind of an outward change. Repentance is a change of heart.
It's a change of mind concerning that which honors God and that
which dishonors God. So listen to what Paul says.
Now he says here, he says in verse four, he says, though I
might also have confidence in the flesh. He says, if any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Now basically what Paul's saying
there is this. If any individual on the face of God's green earth
could have attained righteousness by works of the flesh, I can
exceed them. You say, well that's a big boast,
Paul. Well, I want you to understand something about what Paul's writing
there. He's writing this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit put these words in Paul's mind to write down. So Paul's
not just bragging here. He's not just waxing eloquent,
as they say. He's telling the truth. I believe
there's no man on earth who could have attained righteousness by
their works except Paul, if it were possible, but it's not.
And here's what he says. Now here's the works of the flesh
that he speaks of. Look at it. Verse five, circumcised
the eighth day. You know why the male children
under the Abrahamic covenant were circumcised on the eighth
day? Because God commanded it. Paul said, what happened to me
was what God commanded. Now God never commanded that
for salvation. But that's the way they took
it. That's the way they perverted it. See, that's what man does
today. It's what people do today. Just
like believing. Believing is not our salvation. Christ is our salvation. We believe
in him. That's not just splitting hairs.
That's not just being a nitpicker. A lot of people believe things
that are false. So believing has to be, number one, based
upon the word of God, and has to have a proper object, which
is Christ Jesus, crucified, risen from the dead. The righteousness
of God, as Romans 1 says. He says, of the stock of Israel.
He's an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham. You remember the
Pharisees, they used to boast when they wanted to prove their
right relationship with God, they say, where Abraham see?
John the Baptist said, well, that's no big deal. He said,
if all God wanted was just to populate heaven, he'd turn these
stones into children. Doesn't matter if you're a physical
child of Abraham. Are you a spiritual child of
Abraham? Now, what is that? That's a believer. That's a sinner
saved by grace, just like Abraham. Of the tribe of Benjamin, that
was an honored tribe in the Jewish mind. Remember, that was the
tribe that went with Judah in the southern kingdom. A Hebrew
of Hebrews, a full-blooded Hebrew, no mixed blood here. As touching
the law of Pharisee, that means one who went above and beyond
the call of duty. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Now, keep in mind what Paul's
saying there. When he thought of the church,
that is, Christ and his followers, Paul, before he was converted,
he thought that was heresy, and so he went after it. He thought
he was doing right. And then he says, as touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. That is,
men and women could not accuse him. They couldn't say, well
Paul you're not doing enough, or Paul you've done this or done
that. No. Now these were all things that
Paul thought at one time contributed to his salvation, to his right
relationship with God, as to making him righteous in God's
sight. But what happened? God, by sovereign
grace, brought Paul to faith in Christ and repentance of these
things, calling them dead works and dumb. Now look at it at verse
seven. Here's the light of the glory
of God in Christ. He says in verse seven, but what
things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Wow. Do you understand the import
of that statement? Somebody said, I think most scholars
agree, that Paul on the Damascus Road was about 40 years old,
somewhere around there. So he'd spent 40 years of his
life working hard to please God. Working hard, diligently, sincerely. Paul was a serious religionist. He wasn't just a Sunday-only
guy. But he was serious about this. He spent 40 years of his
life as taught by his mother and his father and his grandmother
and his grandfather and his mentors all that time. I've heard people
say, well, you're telling me that my grandmother taught me
wrong. Well, Paul's grandma taught him wrong. He had a grandma,
don't you think? This has nothing to do with that,
see? What is the truth? Paul spent 40 years of his life
as taught by all of those people who guided him, thinking that
if he did these things, if he did right, God would accept that
and bless him and save him and reward him. But something happened. Something miraculous. Something
that is beyond The ability of the natural man. Isn't that right? Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. And Paul, when this happened
to him, he wasn't seeking the Lord. He wasn't on his way to
a prayer meeting. He was on his way to arrest Christians
and take them to jail and try them and kill them. And God sovereignly
stopped him. Remember what I read last week,
Paul said, I'm a pattern. This is the way God does us all
in different contexts, but same thing. And his mind and heart changed. Luke 16, 15 says this. That which men highly esteem
is an abomination to God. What do men and women highly
esteem? Religion. Human morality, all of that.
These things that Paul listed, he highly esteemed them. But
they were an abomination to God. Now why? Because they dishonored
God. They didn't glorify God. The
only way we're gonna glorify God is to look to Christ. Rest
in him. So here Paul is saying that which
he used to highly esteem, God by his power through the preaching
of the gospel brought Paul to faith in Christ and to see these
things as an abomination. That which I put in the profit
column before, now I put in the loss column. And that which I
put in the loss column, I now put in the profit column. That's
faith and repentance. It's not just stopping this pattern
of behavior and starting this, as men say. It's not just reformation
and all of that. Now that, you know, when God
brings a person to be a true believer, all that might be included,
but my friend, here is the essence of true faith and repentance
right here. What is the ground of your salvation? How do you
know, what gives you confidence that when you stand before a
holy God that you'll hear him say, accepted, come in? And if
it's anything, I mean anything other than the glory of Christ
and His righteousness imputed, it's an abomination to God. Think
about it. Think about those in Matthew
7 who stood before Christ and said, haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name? Understand they said in your
name. And he said, depart from me you
that work iniquity. I never knew you. And I've heard
preachers galore. They'll say, well, those guys
weren't sincere. Well, the Bible doesn't say that.
And first of all, how do you know they weren't sincere? And
thirdly, how much sincerity is enough? Do you have enough sincerity? Do you meet that standard? And
what is the standard? You don't know. It's a sliding
standard. That's what man does. He measures
righteousness and salvation on a sliding scale. But God doesn't. Brother Randy read it. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. God
has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he has raised him from the dead. And so that's what he's saying
here. And Paul says, look here in Philippians 3, look at verse
8. He says, yea, doubtless I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. And remember what Randy read
in Romans 10 there, he said they have a zeal of God but not according
to knowledge. This is the knowledge they were
missing. the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord. This is the light of truth, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel wherein the
righteousness of God is revealed as the only hope and foundation
for the salvation of sinners. And when God brought him to a
knowledge of Christ in the glory of his person and the power of
his finished work, That's when Paul was brought to repentance. He was brought to faith in Christ
and repentance. That's when he said everything
else is loss now. I see that what I used to highly
esteem, see what I used to value, work hard to do, it's all loss. It doesn't contribute anything.
It means nothing, less than nothing. Look at it. He says, for whom
I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but
dumb. That's pretty hard language.
that I may win Christ, that I may gain Christ. The light of Christ that shows
us who He is. God manifest in the flesh. That's who He is. What he's done,
saved his people from their sins. He said it in John 6, 37. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him
that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose
nothing but raise it up again at the last day. Why he did it, why did he do
all that? For the glory of God. And where is he now? He died,
he was buried, he arose again, he's now seated at the right
hand of the Father. Why? Because he finished the
work. He completed it. He fulfilled it. He made an end
of sin. Sin cannot be charged to God's
people. Because it was charged to Christ.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. The ones for whom Christ died
cannot be condemned. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yea rather has risen again, seated at the right hand
of the Father to make intercession for us. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ who walk not according
to the flesh but after the Spirit. What is it to walk after the
Spirit? Right here. We're the circumcision. We worship
God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ and have
no confidence in the flesh. That's how we walk. He said that I may win Christ. Verse 9, he says, and be found
in him. I want to gain Christ. I want
to know Christ. That's my goal in life. I want to know more
of the Savior. And be found in him. Now, what
does it mean to be found in him? Well, he says in verse 9, he
says, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. That's our
works. I don't want to stand before
God presenting to Him my works. I want to stand before God in
Christ. I want to be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. Some translations say
faith in Christ. I believe it's wrong. I've done
the grammar on this. I've studied it. That's the faithfulness
of Christ. The ground of salvation is Christ's
faithfulness to do what the Father sent him to do. And he did it
perfectly. He completed it. He fulfilled
it. He said it at his baptism. Suffer
it to be so for us to fulfill all righteousness. In his life
and death, he fulfilled all righteousness for his people. And that's what
God has imputed, charged, accounted to his people for their salvation.
And that's the power from which we have spiritual life from the
dead. Even faith and repentance. And another reason I believe
that is this. He says, that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God, by faith. That's our faith
in him by God-given faith. If the first one wasn't his faithfulness,
then he'd just simply be repeating himself here. Our faith is in Him and His faithfulness
to do what He came to do. And I want to be found in Him.
What does that mean? Turn to Romans chapter 6 with
me. It means He's my representative. I have a representative in heaven.
He's God the Son incarnate. The one who came to this earth.
and kept the law perfectly, went to the cross and satisfied completely
the justice of God in my stead. So he's my surety. He stood in
my place, having my sins charged to his account. That's what the
scripture says. And He substituted Himself in
my place under the judgment of God. The wrath of God that I
deserve and that I've earned fell on Him. That's what it is
to be in Him. Look at Romans 6. He says in
verse 3, Now that's not talking about water baptism. It's not
talking about the confession of baptism. That word baptize means to be
immersed. It means to be placed into. As
so many of us as were immersed or placed into Christ were baptized
into His death. That means this. We were placed
into Christ before the foundation of the world. Read Ephesians
chapter 1. Chosen in Christ. Read 2nd Timothy
chapter 1. Salvation given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Chosen of God. And Christ made
our surety, and when He came into this world, He came as our
substitute to do for us what we could not do for ourselves,
and that's what He means baptized into His death. When He died,
He died for His sheep. That's being in Christ. He died
for me. He died for you, if, not conditionally,
But evidentially, you believe in his name. Evidentially. And he says in verse four of
Romans six, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into
death. That's what we confess in believer's
baptism, that when he died, we died. When he was buried, we
were buried. And then he goes on in verse four, that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
when he arose, we arose. That's what it is to be in Christ,
my representative, my surety, my substitute, my redeemer. Even so, we also should walk
in newness of life. We walk in the life and the light
of the gospel, of the glory of God, following Christ. While
we rest in him, verse five, for if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. You know what that verse says?
If he died for you, you'll be raised with him. There'll be none in hell for
whom Christ died, folks. He says in verse six, knowing
this, that our old man, that is our old connection with Adam,
in sin and death and depravity, is crucified with him. He died
for my sins. That the body of sin, that is
everything that sin is and everything that sin brings, might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that is dead, dead to sin, is free, justified
from sin, forgiven of sin. That's what justified means,
forgiven of all my sins by the blood of Christ, declared righteous
before God in Christ, my representative, my surety, my substitute, my
redeemer, my mediator, my intercessor. And Paul writes it here, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law. Paul wrote
in Galatians 2.21, if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead
in vain. that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. Look at verse 10 here. And when
verse nine, the righteousness which is of God by faith, we
receive it by God-given faith. We believe unto righteousness. And then look at verse 10. He
says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
You know what the power of his resurrection is? Righteousness
that he accomplished. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. Romans 521, that is, sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And the fellowship
of his sufferings. What is the fellowship of his
sufferings? Well, we suffer with him, but we suffered with him
on the cross representatively. as our substitute, but we suffer
with him in this life as we take sides with Christ in the truth
against the world. That brings forth suffering.
Being made conformable unto his death. He said we're killed all
the day long in Romans 8. Slaughtered all the day long
because this world counts us as being cursed, but we count
the world as being cursed. And so he concludes this portion
with this, if by any means, what does that mean? If there's any
way possible, he says, if by any means I might attain into
the resurrection of the dead. He's talking about eternal life
here based upon the faithfulness of Christ to do what he came
to do for his people. So if by any means, if any way
possible, well, what does the Bible tell us? What does God's
word tell us? There's only one way possible. And that's the
way of God's grace. It's not the way of man's works
or not the way of man's will. It's not by man meeting certain
conditions. It's the way of God's grace.
It's the way of the cross. It's the way of righteousness.
And then when he says, if by any means, he's saying there's
nothing more important than this way. This way glorifies God,
not man. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. This way exalts Christ, not man. We glory in Christ. This way
brings sinners to salvation. No other way. Christ said, I'm
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And this way edifies brethren. This way builds us
up, brings us together, keeps us together in the faith of God
and the love of Christ. This is the way. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15
and verse 20, listen to this. He says, but now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.
You know what, in agriculture back then, the firstfruits was
representative of the whole crop. And if the firstfruits were good,
the whole crop was coming in good, nothing lost. Well, Christ
is the firstfruits of his people. And it says in verse 21 of 1
Corinthians 15, for since by man came death, that's Adam,
by man, the God-man, came also the resurrection of the dead,
for as in Adam all die. All who live their lives in unbelief
and die in unbelief, that's Adam, they all die under the wrath
of God. But even so in Christ shall all
be made alive. Well that's not talking about
all without exception. That's talking about all whom
Christ stood for as representative, surety, substitute, redeemer,
intercessor. That's his people who shall come
to him and he gives them life. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts. Well, let's sing as our closing
hymn, hymn number 212, Nothing But The Blood. 212, let's stand and sing this
hymn.