Now this is the second message
that I'm bringing on the issue of repentance, godly repentance. If you didn't hear the one last
week, you won't be lost in understanding. Anytime I do a series like that,
I do make each message stand on its own so that if you didn't
hear last week's, I urge you to get a copy of that last week's
message concerning the issues of repentance. And the text that
I began with there is in 2 Peter 3 9. That's a verse of scripture that
a lot of people take out of its context and try to make it say
something that it really doesn't say. That's the one where the
Apostle Peter wrote, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness. God's not slow to fulfill his
promise as men would see it, you know, And what Peter's talking
about is the second coming of Christ to gather his people unto
himself and to judge the world in righteousness. So God is not
slack in that promise. He's not hindered. He is not
in any way waiting for man to do something. That's sort of
the way people interpret that second Peter three passage. And
they say, but God, Peter wrote, but God is long suffering. to
usward. God has a time and a place that
he is appointed and he's long-suffering and it says, not willing that
any should perish. Now that's not talking about
everybody without exception. We looked at some of the context,
that's talking about God's elect. Usward. Literally, it's not willing
that any of us should perish. God's long-suffering toward us.
And the us there is the beloved of the Lord. God's chosen people,
justified in Christ, redeemed by His blood, and called out
by His Spirit. And so, here's the point. God is not willing that any of
us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. And that's the capstone of it. One preacher said that repentance
is the capstone of conversion and I agree with that. In other
words, he's going to bring his chosen people to repent and he's
going to bring all of his elect to repent. Christ said this in
John 12, 32, talking about his death, he said, if I be lifted
up from the earth will draw all unto me. All of whom? All whom
he redeemed. And that's the same ones that
Peter is speaking of here in the us. And all preaching, whenever
we stand to preach the gospel, our aim is that God would use
that message, that message of the gospel, that message of truth,
to bring his people to faith in Christ and what the Bible
calls repentance of dead works. The apostle Paul said that, and
it's concerning God's chosen people. How do we know who God's
chosen people are? He brings them to repentance.
That's how we know. And that's the other way we know.
And Paul said that to Timothy. Over in 2 Timothy 2, listen to
this. I'll just read it to you, verse eight. Paul said, remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel. wherein, and for this reason,
I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, that is, being
arrested and chained, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore,
Paul said, I endure all things. Why am I going through all this,
this negativity, this being derided and criticized, even beaten and
tortured and arrested? Why am I doing all that? Why
am I continue out here preaching the gospel? He says, therefore
I endure all things for the elect's sake, he said, that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory. I'm doing it because God has
a people. You know what Paul was actually saying there, he
said, if God didn't have a chosen people, it'd be useless for me
to be out here preaching and suffering. Because if God hadn't
chosen the people, none of us would choose him. There'd be
no salvation. So that's what it's aimed at.
Now, last week, I dealt with the issues of repentance and
the need for repentance. Repentance is a God-given change
of mind concerning salvation and how God saves sinners, how
things are made right between me and God. That's what repentance
is. You know, people talk about repentance. Well, you gotta feel
sorry for your sins and turn from your sins. Well, yes. And
we ought to be sorrier for our sins than we are. Sorrow over
sin. I'm gonna talk about that in
another message. But that in and of itself is not repentance.
Even unbelievers can be made sorry for their sins. They can. Not in a godly way now. And then
somebody says, well, we need to reform our lives. If you're
a drunk, you need to stop drinking. And that's true. And sometimes
it takes the power of God to do that, sometimes it's just
the power of conscience and the pressures of society. Did you
know that? Do you believe that? I know it's
true. There have been atheists that are reformed alcoholics
and reformed drug addicts, but sometimes it does take the power
of God and that may accompany repentance, but that in and of
itself is not repentance. Godly repentance is that change
of mind. That God-given change of mind.
A change of mind that you won't come to on your own. You won't
change your mind unless God changes your mind. That's what the Bible
teaches. But it's that God-given change
of mind, and again, of course, it's a heart thing. The heart
is the mind, the affections, the will. And brings us to a
conviction by the Holy Spirit a conviction in the new birth,
a conviction from which we cannot turn. Once God has brought us
to repentance, we cannot turn back. And it's turning to Christ and
denying ourselves. Now that's not Lent. Doesn't
mean you stop eating chocolate for a week. That's not repentance,
that's religion. That's religion that makes man
feel good about himself. But it's like this, the Lord
said in Luke 9, 23, if any man will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. And when he says
deny himself, he's not talking about deny yourself some of these
things that you enjoy doing. He's talking about denying yourself. How do you do that? What does
that mean? Well, the main issue, I brought this out last week,
the main issue of God-given repentance, again, is the matter of how God
saves sinners and how sinners are made right with God. And
that brings us to the issue of righteousness. I always quote
Acts 17, 30 and 31, where God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent. Now why and what? What is that
about? Acts 17, 31, because God has
appointed today in the which he will judge the world in righteousness,
there it is, by that man whom he hath ordained, in that he
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him
from the dead. Now there's the issue of repentance.
When I stand before God, what right Do I have to expect God
to look at me and say, well done, thou good and faithful servant?
What right do I have to enter in to God's glory? To be in eternal
bliss? What is my right? What is my
title to do that? There were a group of men one
time who stood before the Lord and said, well, here's my right
and title. Haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name now? We weren't trying to do it for
our glory, we did it in your name. And he said, depart from
me ye that work iniquity. In other words, does preaching
in his name and casting out demons and doing many wonderful works,
is that my righteousness before God? Because if it is, What am
I gonna hear him say? Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. What does that mean, iniquity?
It means it falls short. It means it doesn't balance,
it's inequitable. It doesn't balance out. It's
not good enough. Can you say that? I'm preaching
this morning. I'm preaching the truth. But
I'm gonna tell you something, my preaching is not good enough
to make me righteous before God. There's only one thing that can
do that, the blood of Jesus Christ. on that cross, you understand
what I'm saying? That's the issue. And that's why the first thing
I need to be concerned with in this matter, think about it,
you know, we're talking about God's elect coming to repentance.
Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1.10, wherefore the rather brethren
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Now how am
I gonna do that? How am I going to be sure from
God's word that I'm one of those elect? Well, the first thing,
and how am I going to examine myself to see whether I'm in
the faith? You know what, most people think
about that. They say, well, you look within yourself to see if
you qualify or that you're good. No, am I in the faith? What is the faith? Well, it's
the gospel. wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. So the first thing I need to
be concerned with in self-examination is God-given faith and repentance,
because repentance is the capstone of conversion. All whom God brings
to faith in Christ and repentance, God will preserve unto the end,
and they will, by God's grace, persevere unto the end. We've
got to examine ourselves by the light of God's word, and not
by our own self, made standard. Am I truly, think about it, am
I truly believing in and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and
his righteousness alone for my whole salvation? That's the faith.
Here's the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace conditioned
on Christ who is God manifest in the flesh, who by himself
is my surety, my substitute, my redeemer, He's fulfilled all
the conditions required by God to purge me from my sins. And
how did he do it? By his death on the cross, his
blood. That's what his blood means.
And thereby work out a perfect righteousness, the righteousness
of God, the righteousness which God has imputed, charged, accounted
to me, by which God justifies me and from which he gives me
spiritual life. Power of spiritual life is the
power of God unto eternal life for all whom Christ lived and
died and arose again the third day. What's his resurrection
all about? It's not just about life from
the dead. Think about the miracle of life
from the dead. You know really in God's mind,
that's not a miracle at all. He created something out of nothing. God created this world. He spoke,
let there be light and there was light. You know what the
real miracle of the resurrection is? Sin has been put away and
righteousness has been established, the sure and certain security
of everyone for whom Christ died. They're gonna live again and
they'll live forever. That's what the resurrection is all
about. That's what his death, burial and resurrection is all
about. And that's the substance of faith. So in self-examination,
I wanna know, is this the Christ in whom I truly believe? Do I
really believe in him? Is he truly my savior, my redeemer,
my keeper? Is he truly my righteousness
before God? Is he really all my hope and
all my assurance of salvation and final glory? Is this really
the faith that I'm in, invested by the power of God? How do we
know? Well, here's the subject. Look at Philippians 3. How then
does God bring his people to repentance? And here's the answer. And I'm gonna give you three
points here to consider out of Philippians 3. Here's the answer.
God brings his elect to repentance through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how he does it. Now let's
look at this, number one, a summary of conversion. Have you been
converted? You know why the Lord told his
disciples the Pharisees wouldn't believe the gospel? They didn't
want to be converted. That's what he said in Matthew
chapter 13, read it. They don't want to be converted.
They understood this. If I believe what the Lord is
saying, what Jesus of Nazareth, as they would say, if I believe
what Jesus of Nazareth is saying, then I've got to turn away from
everything that I thought was good and holy and righteous. Everything I've done all my life.
Did you realize that? That's what conversion is. Well,
here's a summary of it. Look at verse three. Paul writes,
for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's a summary
of conversion right there. What does he mean we are the
circumcision? Well, first of all, understand that the Apostle
Paul is speaking to Jews and Gentiles here. And he's talking
to people who profess to believe the true gospel, not a false
gospel. And he says we're the circumcision. Many of these Gentile
men had never been circumcised, but he says we're the circumcision,
what does he mean? Turn to Romans 2. Romans 2 and look at verse 28. Physical circumcision was a physical
sign given to Abraham for his physical descendants. The males
in that family who represented the whole family, represented
the women and the children, They were to be circumcised physically.
But that physical circumcision had no weight concerning eternal
spiritual salvation. And Paul writes here in Romans
2 and verse 28, listen to this, for he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." What's
Paul talking about? He's talking about spiritual
circumcision. Well, what is spiritual circumcision? It's the new birth.
It's when God gives a sinner a new heart. Back over here in
Philippians 3, the first two verses tells you something about
it. Listen to it. He says, this is Philippians
3, verse 1. 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. In other
words, to preach the same gospel, to tell you the same things,
he said, it's not burdensome for me to do that. It's not something
that weighs on me. It's a joy to do it. I preach
the gospel every time I stand behind this pulpit. It's a joy
to me. I believe it is to you, too. And he said, it's good,
it's safe for you. That's what you need to hear.
Somebody said, well, why don't you get on to what I'm supposed
to do? Well, I'll tell you what you're supposed to do, what I'm
supposed to do, but not without the gospel. Preaching obedience
without preaching the gospel is like trying to drive a car
with no gasoline. Did you know that? It's trying
to start a fire with no spark. It's the gospel that puts it
all in perspective. And it's safe. And he says in
verse two, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision. You know what he's talking about there? He's talking
about unbelieving Jews who entered into the church and tried to
get the Gentiles to be circumcised in order to be righteous in God's
sight. He calls them the concision, not the circumcision. The concision
means the mutilators. All they're doing is mutilating
you. And he says in verse three, we are the circumcision. We're
the regenerate, we've been born again, we've been converted.
How do you know, Paul? Well, look at the second line,
verse three. We worship God in the spirit. Now, you know, one
of the kind of debates over translation is whether the word spirit should
be capitalized or in smaller letters. And if I were to make
a decision on that today, I would tell you this word needs to be
capitalized. But we can see it both ways. We worship God in
the Spirit. You know what that means? We
worship God as the Spirit leads us to worship God. In other words,
we don't worship God as we think He is. We don't worship God based
upon popular opinion of who He is. We worship God as He really
is, who He really is, in every attribute of His glorious nature. He's a sovereign God. He's a
just God. He's a all-powerful God, all-knowing
God. He's a merciful God. He's a loving
God. That's what he's talking about.
We worship God, not just, you know, we don't get around and
say, now, brother so-and-so, what's your opinion of this?
We don't care what your opinion is. And I hope you don't care
what my opinion, if thus saith the Lord, whatever God says about
Himself here, that's the way we worship Him. And that's how
the Spirit directs it. If the Bible says here that God
chose a people from before the foundation of the world, that's
what I'm gonna tell you. There may be some here that don't
like that. You may not like it. Well, that's, I'm sorry. That's
what the book says. That's how the Spirit leads.
He's a just God and a Savior. Yes, he's a loving God, but not
without his justice satisfied. Yes, he's a merciful God, but
not without his law being honored. That's why we need Christ. But
now, if you keep the small s, we could say this, we worship
God from the heart, in spirit. We worship him in spirit and
in truth. And so that is true, whether
you capitalize it or not. In other words, this is not just
outward show. It's not just physical, ceremonial,
temporal things. It's not just going through the
motion. We worship God in spirit. And then here's the next line.
How do you know that? We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now
that word rejoice, there's an interesting word. It's not the
same word that he used up in verse one. He said rejoice in
the Lord. That means to joy in the Lord. The word rejoice here in verse
three is the word boast. It means to have confidence.
It's the same word that Paul used when he wrote Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. And what is he saying here? We
don't have anything to brag about except Christ. Today we're gonna
have a bragging session. We're gonna brag on Christ. Who
he is, it's not about who I am. It's not about who you are. You
know, somebody prominent comes in and says, oh, look who's here.
Big deal. Some old bum comes in and says,
man, who's he? That's us. We don't glory in that or that.
We glory in Christ, who he is and what he has accomplished.
I'm gonna tell you what he did. What he accomplished in his death
is my surety, my substitute, my redeemer. Oh, bring that one
up, let him have the chief seat, but keep that one in the back.
Maybe put a fan on him. No, we're not here, you know,
they'll have these testimony meetings and people get up and
they'll, oh, they say, I thank God for this. And I had an old
preacher who called them bragamones. No, we're here to brag on Christ.
We rejoice, my confidence of my salvation is in Christ. What he did, where he is, why
he did it, he's coming again, all of that, it's his righteousness,
it's his blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. I've got this fellow who emails
me, he's from India, and he'll always tell me how long and how
much he has fasted And I wrote him back one time, and I told
him, I said, well, you've already blown it by telling me. Because
you remember when Christ talked about fasting? He said, don't
tell anybody. Don't even look like you're fasting.
Don't go around like you're messed up and all of this. Don't do
that. Don't let anybody know. It's
between you and God. So that's what happens. We've got to tell somebody how
much we're doing, what we're doing, how much we've cried.
No, let's brag on Christ. We rejoice in him. And then he
says, and what that is rejoicing, that's faith is what that is,
faith in Christ. And then he says, have no confidence
in the flesh. Now that's repentance. The confidence
I used to have in the flesh, I don't have that anymore. I
have no confidence. My confidence is in Christ. And
so now he brings us to the second point, the reality of confidence
in the flesh. Here, look at what Paul says
here. He really, he deals with the Jewish boast. What is the
Jewish boast? Well, the unbelieving Jews boasted
in three things that gave them confidence that they were the
children of God and in right with God. They boasted of their
physical connection to Abraham, they boasted of their circumcision,
and they boasted of keeping the law. And all three of them are
right here, look at it. Paul says, I don't have any confidence
in the flesh, but, verse four, though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If anybody could have it, if
any other man thinketh that he hath whereof where he might trust
in the flesh, I more. He said, if anybody could have
confidence in the flesh, I could. He said, verse five, circumcise
the eighth day. Of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, He says, touching the
law of Pharisee, went above and beyond the call of duty. Concerning
zeal, persecuting the church. In other words, he persecuted
what he thought was heresy. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. Now everything that Paul mentions
here, it has nothing to do with drunkenness, has nothing to do
with taking drugs, all of that. It's all religion, efforts, works. What man by nature holds in high
esteem, Man, if he's not saved, who can be? That's what the disciples
said to the Lord when he talked about the rich young man. Good
night. He's such a nice guy. Well, that's the reality of confidence
in the flesh. What do people boast in today?
Think about it. Well, I made a profession when
I was 12. I got baptized. I haven't missed this, I got
a Sunday school pin. Wear it on my lapel. What gives you confidence that
you're right with God? That your sins are forgiven?
That when you stand before God at that judgment, he'll say,
well done thou good and faithful servant. What gives you confidence
of that? That's what Paul's talking, that's where the stuff of repentance
comes in. You know, in most what they call
evangelical meetings, they'll usually have a person who comes
up who was a drug addict and he'll talk about how God got
him off of drugs or he was an alcoholic and everybody's impressed. And listen, now let me tell you,
I'm all for drunks getting off of the alcohol and drug addicts
getting off the drugs. I'm not putting that down, but
here's what I'm saying. If that's what gives you confidence
that you're right with God, you haven't been brought to repentance. Luke 16, 15, that which is highly
esteemed among men is what? An abomination before God. And
this is what Paul's saying, though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. I highly esteem these things, but look at the
third point. Here's the light that brings
us to repentance. Look at verse seven, but what
things were gained to me? All those things he listed of
the flesh, Those I counted what? Loss. Why, Paul? What changed your
mind so much that you used to highly esteem these things, circumcised
the eighth day, keeping the law? What changed your mind? You thought
they were gain, you thought they were good, you thought they were
holy, but now you say they're loss. Two words, for Christ, Look at verse eight. Yea, doubtless,
I count all things but loss. Now here's faith. For excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's what faith is,
it's knowledge. Knowing something that you can't
deny. You must believe it because God has convinced you it is true.
And that truth is Christ. Who he is and what he did and
what he accomplished. You see, that's the light that
exposes our darkness. John 3, 19. This is what men
by nature hate, men and women naturally hate. The light has
come into the world, but men loved darkness and hated the
light because their deeds were evil. All those things that Paul
listed here, they were evil. Why? Because they denied the
glory of God in Christ. It took, what does it take to
put away my sins? Not being circumcised the eighth
day, not trying to be a better person, not getting off of alcohol.
What does it take to put away my, it takes the blood of the
God-man. And does the blood of the God-man
really put away my sins? Oh no, it takes him plus what
I do or what, no, or my decision. No, his blood, for by one offering,
he, the God-man, Christ, God manifest in the flesh. For by
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
That's it. What does it take to make me
righteous before God? What does it take to make me
righteous before God? Well, it took the crucifixion
of Christ and Him alone to bring about righteousness for me. There's no other righteousness
but Christ. God's gonna judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. He's the one
God has ordained, appointed. And he's given assurance unto
all men. What that means is this. God has told you in his word
that this is the issue. And if you think it's any other
issue, you're wrong. He's given assurance unto all
men that Christ, he was risen from the dead. Do you really
believe in the resurrected Christ? If you do, then you'll believe
that righteousness is the only issue of repentance and faith. All of this, it takes Christ,
his obedience unto death. And he says, yea, doubtless,
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 dung. That's strong language,
folks. It means exactly what you think.
I know a lot of preachers, they'll say rubbish. No, it's not rubbish,
it's done. That's what he's saying. It means
exactly what you think it means. And he says, for what reason?
That I may gain or win Christ. It's all about Christ. That's
what he's saying. This is the light that leads
us to Christ. to see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. This is what brings us to say,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. What Christ
accomplished on Calvary to put away my sins, to make me righteous
before God, by whom the world is crucified unto me and unto
the world. And in Christ Jesus, he said in Galatians 6.15, circumcision,
a veil of nothing, whether you're physically circumcised or not,
it means nothing. I used to be one of Paul's boast,
but a new creation. This is the light that brings
us to repentance. This is how God brings sinners
to repentance. And then listen to this verse
nine. He says, I want to be found in
Christ. Somebody told me one time and
said, when I get to heaven, I want God to know that I tried real
hard. Well, let me tell you something. You should try real hard to follow
God. And he already knows. But when I get to the judgment,
I want to be found in him, in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law. But that which is through and
that's the faithfulness of Christ. You see, salvation is conditioned
on his faithfulness. Well, what do you mean his faith?
His faithfulness to do what the Father sent him to do. And he
said it in John 17, he said, I finished the work. I've done
the work which they gave me to do. He said on the cross, John
19, it's finished. He was faithful in all that he
was given to do. it's the righteousness which
is of God by faith. It's the righteousness which
we receive by God-given faith. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection. What is the power of His resurrection?
He put away sin which brings death. He brought forth righteousness
which brings life. The fellowship of His sufferings
I'm one with him in the eyes of God's law and justice. When
he died, I died. When he arose again, I arose
again. That's what you're gonna confess in baptism this morning,
Brother Dave. You're one with Christ. You won't
tell the world. Being made conformable in his
death, if by any means I might attain the resurrection of the
dead. That's how God brings a sinner to repentance. Brings him to
Christ to see the glory of his person, the power of his finished
work that puts all of our confidence in the flesh to be nothing. It's loss. It's even dumb. Repent
of it. Repent of it. And next week I'm
going to talk about repentance and righteous judgment because
that's what changes. You know, before Paul was converted,
brought to repentance, he judged his fleshly works to be good,
but his standard of judgment changed. Now they're but dumb
that I may win Christ and be found in him. All right.