that song, that hymn that we
just sang, There is a Fountain. It was sung at Brother Winston's
funeral Friday. And I told the people there,
I said, that's Brother Winston's spiritual autobiography. But
it's also ours if we know the Lord. And I was thinking of him
all through that as we were singing that. We sure do miss him. And I was thinking the other
night, I said, you know, we can take no credit for our salvation. It's totally of God's grace.
But I thank God that he kept me faithful to preach the gospel
to one of his sheep who has gone on to meet him. Because that
right there, this is what it's all about. As we go through our
lives, we suffer, we have times of joy, and we thank God for
those. But there's a lot of suffering. It's bringing us to that point
of death where we stand before God. And how can I stand before
God and be accepted, be blessed, and not condemned? Well, the
Apostle Paul, as you know, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
he had a lot to say about that, didn't he, in his epistles. And
here in Philippians chapter 3 is one of the most, I would say,
succinct and descriptive passages that tell us what true faith
and true repentance are all about. And I'm going to divide this
message into two parts. So this will be part one on true
faith and repentance. And we're going to look at Philippians
three. But let me, I want to read a passage of scripture from
first Timothy one to start off with verse 12. First Timothy
one, this is the apostle Paul writing to Timothy. And he says
in verse 12, he says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath
enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry, who was before, now pay attention to these words,
who was before a blasphemer. Blasphemy is dishonoring God. And he said a persecutor. And
of course, Paul said he persecuted the church, injurious. out to
hurt. He says, but I obtained mercy. And he said, because I did it
ignorantly and unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding
abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This
is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Literally what that means, we
were talking about the other day, it means I'm first in line
when it comes to sin. How be it for this cause I obtained
mercy. I didn't earn it, didn't deserve
it, but I obtained it. Sovereign mercy. That in me first
Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. Oh, how longsuffering
our Savior is to us. How little longsuffering we are
to each other. but he's long suffering. For
a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Now, a couple things I want you
to notice as we bring this over to Philippians chapter three.
First of all, Paul told us himself, he was a blasphemer. He was a
persecutor. He was injurious. Well, what
in the world was Paul doing? What kind of person was he? When
you read those words, a blasphemer, you might think of somebody who
cusses all the time. Or somebody who's just immoral
in the eyes of men. A persecutor, somebody who wants
to fight all the time. Negative, injurious. What was
Paul doing all that time? Well, look over at Philippians
3. In verse four, here's what he
was doing. He says, though I might also, this is verse four. Though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I was circumcised the eighth day. of the stock of Israel,
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law
of Pharisee." That's a man who's trying by his morality and sincerity
work his way into God's favor. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Paul was a religious zealot. He was a man who was trying to
do his best to keep the law. And yet he calls himself a blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious person. Now that puts a lot of things
in perspective. You see, this thing of sin is
much more than what man by nature knows. concerning morality and
immorality. Now morality is something that
we should strive for. But if we think that our morality,
our works, our religious efforts to keep the law, to do right,
save us, then that's blasphemy. Did you know that? You know why?
Because it dishonors God. God is honored in the salvation
of sinners by His grace based upon, not our works, but the
works of Jesus Christ. That's how God is honored. And
any other way dishonors Him, it's blasphemy. Even the best
of people trying to work their way into God's favor, trying
to establish a righteousness by their efforts, My friend,
thinking that God would receive that and bless them for it, that's
idolatry. And for that reason, when I look
at this passage of scripture here, I see one of the most descriptive,
definitive passages that tell us what true faith and repentance
are. Faith and repentance are gifts
from God. They are blessings of God's grace,
that we do not have by nature. It doesn't come natural to us.
The gift of faith, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
not the result of man's decision. You accept Jesus as your personal
savior, that kind of thing. No. The Bible says, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast." And you know what Paul was doing when God turned him
around from all of his blasphemous ways? He was on the road to Damascus
to arrest Christians, try and put them in jail and kill them.
He wasn't on his way to a prayer meeting. He wasn't seeking the
Lord. But God stopped him. Put him
in the dust. and sent him to a man named Ananias
who preached the gospel to him. And God gave him the gift of
faith and brought him to repentance. Well, listen to these words here.
The first thing that comes to mind in verse one is rejoicing
in the Lord. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Now that word rejoice there simply
has to do with finding ultimate spiritual happiness. It's not
the happiness that comes from the world, which is temporary. It's not the happiness of just
being in the flesh or fulfilling the lust of the flesh, which
is temporary. And no matter how long it lasts
on this earth, it's still temporary. This is that rejoicing that comes
from a sinner being brought by God to rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ for all salvation. In Romans chapter 14 and verse
17, I'll just read these to you. Paul wrote, for the kingdom of
God is not meat and drink. Now we're gonna sit down and
have a good meal back here and we'll be happy in that. I hope
we will. and we'll be filled, but we'll
get hungry again. So the kingdom of God is not
just him. And what he means by that is
this, you know, people today, they talk about if they have
it good, if they've got a big bank account, or if they get
a good job, or they make a good grade, they say, boy, I'm blessed
of the Lord. Well, maybe you are, maybe you're
not. You say, because even unbelievers can enter into that stuff. But
this one, the kingdom of God, that's salvation, that's eternity,
eternal life, is not meat and drink. It's not in what we call
the good things of this life, but it's in righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And what is he telling us there?
It's in looking to Christ, resting in Christ, believing in Christ.
And then Paul wrote in the next chapter of the book of Romans,
Romans 15, 13, he said, now the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing. Believing what? Believing his
gospel, believing his grace, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, always leads sinners
to find peace and hope and righteousness in Christ, the glory of his person,
the power of his finished work, not a burden of the flesh that
doesn't last. And then he says in verse one,
finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it's
safe. I've been accused of preaching
the same thing all the time, but I don't mind that. I preach the same gospel every
time. I preach the word. I go through the scriptures verse
by verse. Sometimes people might say, well, you need to spend
more time here and not there and all that. I don't know. I
know how I preach. I know how the Lord leads me.
I'm not gonna, in my determination, I'm not gonna let you leave the
door without me preaching the gospel to you. And that's not
a burden to me. It's what sinners need to hear.
It's what God's people want to hear. It's what you need for
salvation. It's safe for you. Don't assume
that you know the truth. Challenge yourself. You young
people, in the Bibles that we gave, I hope and pray that the
Lord will give you a heart for his word. I wanna know what God's
word says, not necessarily what men say. And if a man says something
that sounds right to me, I wanna check it out with the word of
God. But Paul said, it's no burden to me, but it's safe for you. And then in verse two, he says,
beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware
of the concision, or as Mark read it, the mutilation. Who
in the world is he talking about here? You know what he's talking
about? They were called Judaizers. And
they were Jewish men and women who claimed to be converted to
Christianity, but they wanted to hold on to their Judaism as
being part of salvation. part of their righteousness before
God. So here's what they would say, something like this on this
line. They'd say, yes, we're saved by grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ, but you men, you have to be circumcised in order
to be really saved, really holy, really righteous. You have to
keep the law of Moses. You got to keep the Ten Commandments
to be really saved, really righteous. You see what they're saying?
They're trying to add works. Ceremonies. It's like one denomination
that claims to be Christian today. They say, we're saved by grace,
but you have to be baptized in the waters of baptism in order
to be washed clean from your sins. That's a lie. You see, salvation by grace is
not Christ plus anything. It's all Christ. His blood. His righteousness alone. And
what we are as sinners saved by grace, that's the fruit and
the result, the product of what Christ has accomplished in His
obedience unto death. And these Judaizers, they would,
he said dogs, it was common among the Jewish self-righteous unbelievers,
they would call all Gentiles dogs. And they weren't talking
about a dog with papers, they were talking about a cur dog. One that you wanted to kick aside.
And Paul says, well, they're the dogs. Not talking about the
bulldogs now. But they're the cur dogs. They're
the dogs you don't want. He says, beware of evil workers.
It's evil to preach salvation conditioned on sinners. It's
evil to preach salvation by the works and the wills of men. And
then the concision, that's a play on words from the word circumcision. These Judaizers who are trying
to get these Gentile men circumcised, all they're doing is just mutilating
you, is what he's saying. And then Paul gets to the point
here, look at verse 3. He says, for we are the circumcision. See, it was common that the Jews
were called as a people, the circumcision. Gentiles called
the uncircumcision. Well, Paul says, for we are the
circumcision. What in the world is he talking
about? Look at Romans chapter 2 with me. He's not talking about physical
circumcision there or circumcision of the flesh. He's talking about
spiritual circumcision. Look at Romans 2 and verse 28. Now this is what, I gave our
young people there a book that I wrote called Rightly Dividing
the Word. And what I wanted them to know,
what you know, there are rules of interpreting scripture. It's
not just reading it and getting what you can out of it. There
are rules. And one of the rules is context,
whereby we see that the scripture is its own interpreter. So when
Paul says, we are the circumcision, what's he talking about? He's
preaching in Philippi, or he sent this letter to Philippi,
which is in Macedonia, and it had Gentile believers and Jewish
believers. So what do you mean, Paul? I'm
a Gentile believer. What do you mean, we are the
circumcision? Well, here's what he means. Look at Romans 2.28.
For he is not a Jew, now the word Jew is a derivative of Judah,
which means those who praise the Lord. He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh. But he is a Jew, a spiritual
Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. Circumcision of the heart, the
mind, the affections, the will. In the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men but of God. He's talking about a
spiritual circumcision, and what is that? It's the new birth.
God, by the spirit, under the preaching of the gospel, giving
a spiritually dead sinner life, bringing that sinner to faith
in Christ, and cutting away the filth of the flesh which is repentance
of dead works." That's what it is. You've been born again. We're the true spiritual Israel,
Paul's saying. True spiritual Jews. We are the
ones who really praise the Lord. Because that's what the name
Judah means. Those who are natural Jews who do not believe in Christ
and who do not preach the gospel of salvation by God's grace,
they don't praise the Lord. They're blasphemers like I was,
Paul said. They're evil workers. They're
dogs. They're the concision. But we've
been born again by the Spirit. And my friend, that's the work
of God. It's not the work of man. The new birth is not the
result of you making a right decision. If you make the right
decision, that's the result of the new birth. I'll read that
to you in John chapter 1. This is a verse of scripture
that we need to understand. It's talking about Christ in
verse 11 of John 1. It says, He came unto His own,
and His own received Him not. Some people say it's His own
nation, and that's right. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power, or the right, to become, or to be called,
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which
were born, not of blood, in other words, it wasn't physical birth
that brought you to faith in Christ, nor the will of the flesh,
that's the works of the flesh, it wasn't the works of the flesh,
nor the will of man. It wasn't your decision. that
brought you to faith in Christ, but you were born of God. It's
God's work. Now, how do I know if I've been
born again? Well, look back at Philippians
3 and verse 3. There's several things that he
says there. We are the circumcision. We've been born again. We've
been given a new heart, a new mind, a new will, new life. by the Spirit. Christ said you
must be born again or you cannot see or hear the kingdom of God,
cannot enter it. Well, here's number one, which
worship God in the Spirit. Now, anytime in the New Testament
you see the word Spirit, there's always a minor controversy over
whether or not the Spirit should be capitalized, meaning the Holy
Spirit, or if it should be a small letter, meaning our spirits within
ourselves, the new spirit, which comes by the new birth, here
it could mean both. Because if we're born again,
we worship God, we praise God, we serve God as the Holy Spirit
leads us in the Word, the Word of God. Not as men teach us,
Not as men surmise. You go into most worship services
today and look at them, what they're doing. Are they inspired
by the Spirit? Mostly no, because they're not
going by the Word of God. We sing hymns together, we praise
God, we pray together, and we preach the Word. That's what
a worship service is. Well, that's too boring for most
people today. You've got to have a band, you've
got to be dancing and jumping pews and all that stuff. You've
got to feel good. That's not a worship service.
People talking in tongues, as they say. You can't even understand
what they're saying. That's not biblical. The Holy
Spirit leads us to the Word of God where Christ is preached
and exalted. That's what we do. But now if
it's to be a small letter like it is in the King James Version,
we worship God from the heart. That's what that means. We don't
worship Him in ceremonies. We don't worship Him in icons,
statues. We don't worship Him in ceremonies
that make you feel good or anything like that. We worship Him in
spirit from the heart. And in truth. Where there's no
truth, There's no worship. Mark it down. It's recorded in John chapter
four in verse 23 where the Lord said, the hour cometh and now
is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. How do
we worship God? According to the truth. Whatever
God says in His Word, that's what we believe. That's how we
worship Him. Somebody says, well, I don't
like this passage that preaches that God is sovereign, that He
chooses whom He will. Well, my friend, that's the God
of the Bible, isn't it? That's the God of this book.
And He put these words there for us to understand and to know
and to believe. But look back at verse three.
We worship God, here's the next thing, in the Spirit, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. If we worship God in the Spirit,
we're gonna rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now the word rejoice here
in verse three is not the same Greek word as in verse one. In verse one, the word rejoice
there means to be happy. It means to be pleased in Christ. But the word in verse three,
rejoice, means to boast. It means to be confident. It's
the same word that Paul used in 1 Corinthians 1. If you wanna
look at it, I'm gonna read it to you, but 1 Corinthians, this
rejoicing in Christ means boasting in Christ. bragging in Christ,
having confidence in Christ. And in 1 Corinthians 1, listen
to verse 29. Now Paul was talking about how
God has arranged salvation to where he gets all the glory and
sinners get none. And that's the way it should
be. He won't share his glory. And he arranged it so, 1 Corinthians
1, 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. but of Him,
of God. Are you in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom?" Whatever wisdom that we have
concerning salvation and a right relationship with God, we don't
have any reason to brag, folks, because it's all in Christ. Christ
is our wisdom. He's the very wisdom of God.
Think about how God can be just and justify. Christ has made
unto us righteousness. The righteousness that we have
as believers, wherein we stand before God, is not our own or
of our making. It's not within us. It's in Christ. It's His righteousness imputed
to us, charged to us. As our sins were imputed to Him,
charged to Him, and He died for those sins, His righteousness
is imputed to us. Blessed is the man under whom
righteousness is imputed without works. He is my righteousness. And then he says he's made unto
us sanctification. Our separation, our holiness
is all in Christ. If I'm separate from the mass
of the religious world, it's nothing for me to brag about,
it's all him. And then redemption. My redemption
on the cross by his blood, my preservation and my redemption
of the new body in the future. It's all of him. And he says
that as according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now that word glory there is
the same word as the word rejoice in verse three of our text. One
more verse, Galatians 6.14 that I read in the opening. Now remember
what he said, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice is the
same Greek word that Paul uses here in verse 14 of Galatians
6. But God forbid that I should
glory, that I should boast, that I should have confidence, save,
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation. And as many as walk according
to this rule, what rule? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. Peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God. Now that's faith. That's true
faith right there. Rejoicing in Christ Jesus, the
glory of His person, the power of His finished work. We'll look
back at our text, verse three. And have no confidence in the
flesh. That's repentance. True repentance
means we don't boast in the flesh like we used to. All those things
that Paul listed here, circumcised the eighth day, the stock of
Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, touching the law.
That's the flesh. And he used to brag about that.
He used to boast in that. He used to think that recommended
him to God. But I don't boast in it any longer.
In fact, he said later on, he said, I count it all but loss.
I count it but dung that I may win Christ. That's repentance.
What a change of mind. That which He highly esteemed
is now an abomination before God. Christ said that in Luke
16, 15 when He was talking to those who justified themselves
before men based upon their works and their efforts. He said to
them, but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. How did Paul
come to that point? Well, look down at verse 7. I'm
going to pick up in these verses next week, but just read these.
Now listen to this. He said, but what things were
gained to me, those things that gained me a right relationship
with God, that I thought gained me blessings from God. that I
thought made me righteous before God. Those things that I thought
were gain, those I counted loss for Christ. What do you mean,
Paul? Verse eight. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things and do count them but done that I may win Christ. Where did that show forth? He
said, I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Paul was
brought to see by the Spirit of God that all of his righteousness
was as filthy rags. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Well, what is it we come short
of? We come short of the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. And out of Christ comes that
life-giving Spirit who brings us to faith in Him and true repentance,
that total change of mind and heart. that causes us to glory
in Christ and not in the flesh. And it's our prayer for those
who hear these messages that the Lord bring them to that point. All right.