Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. Now, today's message is the 12th
message in a series of messages that we intend to accompany a
new book that we're offering, Reign of Grace Ministries, offering
this new book free of charge. And the book is entitled, What
is a Christian? A Biblical Study of the One True
Faith. And the book is intended to be
a help for you in studying the scriptures and going through
the Bible, understanding how the Bible defines what a true
Christian is and what a true Christian is not. And it's to
be a process of self-examination. In each program, I think I've
quoted this verse out of 2 Corinthians 13, 5, which says, examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith, whether you be in the Christian
faith. The faith there is a noun. In other words, it's not saying
examine yourselves to see how much faith you have or what degree
of faith you have. It's are you in the faith? Do
you believe the truth that Christianity reveals to God's people? Are
you a true Christian? Put your claim to the test. Challenge
your faith. and see if your claim is valid
based upon what the Bible says, not what your opinion is or your
experience or your feeling or what others say, but what the
Bible says. And that's the key. Now in this
particular message, I'm dealing with a passage of scripture in
the book of Philippians chapter three, verse three. And this
is a section in the book, a chapter in the book, that speaks about
how true Christians described in one verse. True Christians described or
defined in one verse. And as I've said all through,
true Christians, what a Christian is and what a Christian is not,
is explained and revealed all through the scriptures, from
Genesis to Revelation. There's not just one, and that's
why I wrote the book, because I wanted to show various passages
of Scripture that define true Christianity. They may use different
words, but it all means the same thing. A true Christian is a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, a follower of Christ, a disciple
of Christ. A true Christian is a sinner
saved by grace. All of these things, that's all
in the book and in this series of messages. Now the book certainly
goes into more detail and more depth. And there are many more
scriptures written out. I don't have time to do that
in each of these programs. But the catalyst for writing
this book came from a series of messages that I preach from
this one verse, Philippians 3 and verse 3. And let's read it. It says, for we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. That's a concise, full description
of a Christian. Four phrases there. I've dealt
with the first three. Today I'm gonna deal with the
last one, have no confidence in the flesh. But the first one
says we are the circumcision. A true Christian is the circumcision. Now, I explained that in a message
three messages ago concerning what is the true circumcision.
That's talking about those who have been born again by the Holy
Spirit and have been brought by God to faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, to know Him, whom to know is life eternal, to believe
in Him, rest in Him, and have no confidence in the flesh, which
is repentance. I'm going to talk about that
today. The circumcision are the true elect of God. God's elect,
chosen before the foundation of the world, given to Jesus
Christ. And even though who fell in Adam
into sin and death and born dead in trespasses and sin, they've
been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. They're
the redeemed of the Lord. So you see, that doesn't refer
to all without exception. That refers to God's people whom
He chose and gave to Christ. And they've been redeemed by
the blood. They stand justified before God based on His righteousness
alone, freely imputed to them, charged, accounted to them. And
they receive it in time when they're circumcised in the heart.
This is spiritual circumcision. Circumcised in the heart. The
circumcision of the heart. That's the new birth. And they're
brought to faith in Christ. They worship God in the spirit.
That has to do with the revelation of the knowledge of God. in His
holiness, His justice, His righteousness, as well as His mercy and grace
and love, that brings a sinner to see that he has no hope of
salvation in himself, he has nothing to recommend himself
unto God, even his best is not good enough to save him or to
keep him saved, he is totally, totally, totally dependent upon
the power of God, the grace of God, and the will of God. to
bringing to salvation, and He knows that His only hope is by
the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, in Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent." Last week I dealt with the third phrase,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That has to do with a true Christian
who boasts or glories or has confidence of salvation and everything,
every blessing of salvation only in Jesus Christ, crucified, buried
and raised from the dead. Who is Jesus Christ? My salvation. I have confidence of my salvation,
number one, because of who Jesus Christ is. He's God in human
flesh. And therefore, I have every confidence
that He's able, as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1.12, He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. What
have I committed unto Him? My whole salvation. I have confidence
of my salvation in who Christ is and what Christ accomplished
on the cross as my surety and my substitute. That's why I stand
before God with Christ's righteousness, the very righteousness of God,
imputed, charged, accounted to me. The righteousness of God
is the merit, the value, the power, the quality of what Christ
did on the cross to save me, to keep me, to bless me by way
of righteousness. and I stand before God in Him,
and not in my works or my efforts, not in my experiences, not in
my opinions. I stand before God in Christ.
So rejoicing Christ, to have confidence in Christ, that's
faith in Christ. Well, what comes along when a
sinner is born again by the Spirit, circumcised in heart, and he
comes to know God and worship Him, reverence Him, respect Him,
and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, what else comes along
with that? He has no confidence in the flesh. He has no confidence
in the flesh. And what does that describe?
Well, as the phrase rejoice in Christ Jesus describes God-given
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the phrase and have no confidence
in the flesh describes God-given repentance. You see faith and
repentance and salvation come together as evidences of the
new birth. How do I know that I'm one of
God's elect? How can I say with confidence
that I am? How do I know that I am one for
whom Christ died on the cross, redeemed by the blood? How can
I have such confidence of that? How can I know that I've been
regenerated? by the Holy Spirit, that I've
been born again by the Spirit. Well, the first evidences of
that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of dead
works and idolatry. Now, both are the gifts of God
through Christ. They're not the product of my
decision or my free will, they're the product of God's will. They're
the product of what God has done and does. Now we can say without
debate that the Bible teaches that faith is the foundation
grace. That is the foundation that God
lays, God the Holy Spirit lays in the heart of a sinner, in
the new heart. The book of Hebrews chapter 11. And verse five speaks
of Enoch. He says, by faith, Enoch was
translated that he should not see death and was not found because
God had translated him for before his translation, removal out
of this world, he had the testimony that he pleased God. Enoch pleased
God. But verse six says, without faith,
it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him." What that means is, if you have faith, you believe
God is as He says He is, not what you think Him to be. But
as God reveals Himself in His Word, that faith is based upon
the knowledge revealed by the Holy Spirit to the heart, the
mind, the affections, and the will. And He's a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him. Yes, God rewards those who seek
Him, but it's not a reward that they earn. It's not a mercenary's
seek. They seek Him. And how do you
seek Him? By grace through Christ as a sinner who has nothing to
earn, who has nothing by which to earn any of God's blessings
or favors. Now faith and repentance come
together. Faith is the foundation grace.
Faith is turning to Christ. Repentance is turning away from
self and from sin and from any confidence in anything else.
Faith is always accompanied by repentance. Those who claim to
be Christians, who claim to have faith, but who want to hold on
to their sinfulness and their religion and their false gospels
and their false experiences have not truly believed the gospel.
They're not truly Christian because faith is always accompanied by
repentance. Now the word repentance literally
means a change of mind in the New Testament. But it's not just
a mental thing, it involves the mental process, the intellect,
not saying that a person has to be a mental giant or a genius
to repent, but God changes the minds of his people, and it's
a change of mind that affects their whole being. Over the Old
Testament, repentance meant a change of direction. You're going one
way, the way that seems right unto men, the way of death, the
way of work salvation, the way of self-righteousness, or even
the way of total immorality and total disregard to God's will
and God's law, and you're turned about 180 degrees. You go the opposite direction.
Both faith and repentance are evidences and expressions of
the new heart. But let me show you on down in
Philippians 3. Where Paul, now he said in Philippians
3.3, he says, for we are the circumcision, that's the circumcised
heart, that's born again by the Spirit, which worship God in
the Spirit as the Holy Spirit guides us, motivates us, energizes
us through the knowledge of God. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
If you truly know God, you're not gonna rejoice in anything
else or anyone else, but Christ Jesus, who he is and what he
accomplished on Calvary by way of righteousness. If you have
confidence anywhere else, you don't know God. You're not a
Christian. And that's key. So we rejoice,
boast, have confidence in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. And then in verse four of Philippians
3, listen to what Paul says. He says, 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 more. Now, Paul
is going to talk about where his confidence was before he
was born again by the Spirit, before he came to know God through
Jesus Christ. And here's what he says. Now,
here's what he calls the flesh. A lot of times when people read
that word flesh in the Bible, they think of sexual immorality
or just plain immorality. And sometimes the word flesh
does mean those things. But oftentimes the word flesh
means something else. For example, the word flesh can
just simply refer to the physical body. Not sinful body, but the
physical body. The Bible says in Romans chapter
1 that Jesus Christ Himself was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. Christ had a human body. He had physical things that he
had to deal with as he walked this earth as God in human flesh,
but he was never a sinner. He was never contaminated by
sin. He felt some of the effects of
the infirmities or weaknesses of the flesh. He got tired. He
got hungry. All of those things. He wept.
He sorrowed. But all of his infirmities of
the flesh were sinless. Hebrews chapter 4 teaches us
that. The whole Bible teaches us that. In the book of 2 Corinthians
521, when it says Christ was made sin, that does not, as some
say today, that He was made a sinner, or that He was made sinful, or
that He was infused with sin, or contaminated with sin, or
even the corruption of sin. It means that He was accounted
with the debt of the sins of His people. God charged Him with
the debt of the sins of His elect. And he was made a curse. He became
guilty not by becoming a sinner or being infused with sin or
being contaminated with sin, but he became guilty based on
sin imputed, charged, accounted to him. And as a result of that,
he suffered, he bled, he died. He was buried, he arose again.
And out of that came his righteousness, which is imputed, charged, accounted,
reckoned to his people. that we might become the righteousness
of God. In Philippians chapter three
and verse four, when Paul says he trusted in the flesh, he tells
us exactly what he's talking about. Look at Philippians three
and verse five. He says, circumcised the eighth
day. There's the circumcision of the
flesh. He says of the stock of Israel. That had to do with his
physical heritage and pedigree. Of the tribe of Benjamin, same
thing, an honored tribe. A Hebrew of Hebrews. That means
he was a full-blooded Hebrew. He wasn't a mixed breed. So that's
one thing of the flesh. And he had confidence of that.
You know, the Jews would say, we're Abraham's seed. Christ
told him in John 8, he said, I know you're Abraham's seed
according to the flesh, but you don't follow Abraham spiritually.
He says, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Now that means one
who was serious about religion, sincere. He went above and beyond
the call of duty. In Philippians 3, 6, he says
concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Now, how would that
be something he'd have confidence in? Well, the church means Christianity
there. When Paul was lost in his Pharisaism,
in his Judaism, he looked at Christians and Christianity as
being blasphemy against God. And so he, under the law, had
every right to persecute them, put them in jail, even put them
to death. And what he's saying is, back before he was saved,
he had confidence in his zeal, in his religion, what he thought
was right. He says, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. That means his outward character
and conduct. Paul appeared righteous unto
men. But look what happened. Now all of those, he has no,
he used to have confidence in all of those things. He, Paul,
Saul of Tarsus, believed that those things recommended him
unto God. Saul of Tarsus believed those
things made up his right standing and his righteousness before
God. But then something happened.
On the Damascus Road, God met him face to face. The Lord Jesus
Christ appeared to the Apostle Paul And I want you to notice
something on the Damascus road. You can read about this in Acts
chapter nine. Saul of Tarsus was not on his
way to a prayer meeting. Saul of Tarsus was not seeking
the Lord. He was seeking out Christians
to persecute them. And Jesus Christ appeared to
him on the Damascus road and brought him down into the dust.
That's God's providential dealings with one of his elect people.
And some say, well, Paul didn't hear the gospel. Well, yes, he
did. That's why he hated Christians so much. Paul heard the apostles
in Jerusalem preach it. He heard Stephen preach it. The
Bible says there that he held the coats of those who stoned
Stephen because he was in agreement with them. Oh, he heard the gospel. But when he first heard it in
the natural mind, in his spiritual deadness, just like all of God's
people, he hated it. He didn't believe it. He scorned
it. But when Christ met him on the
road to Damascus and revealed himself to him, then he brought
him into Ananias and Ananias talked to him. Here's what happened. He describes it this way in Philippians
3 in verse 8. Now listen, this is the testimony
of a Christian. This is a testimony of one who's
been circumcised in the heart, born again. This is a testimony
of one who worships God in the Spirit and by the Spirit. This
is a testimony of one who rejoices in Christ Jesus and who has now
no confidence in the flesh. Look at Philippians 3.8, yay.
Doubtless, or verse seven, rather. But what things were gained to
me, all those things of the flesh, my works, my experience, that
were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Christ is everything
to me, he says. His blood is everything to me.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. His righteousness
is everything. It's all my salvation. And all
those other things, that's rejoicing in Christ. And all those other
things, I count lost. That's no confidence in the flesh.
Verse 8, yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. You see, there's that
knowledge. We worship God in the Spirit.
for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung, that I may win Christ. Now you know what dung is, don't
you? A lot of commentators or translators tried to soften that
word, but it means exactly what it says. In other words, what
Paul is saying there is that everything that I used to brag
about, Everything that I used to think made me righteous and
acceptable and right with God. Everything in my sincerity and
my dedication that I thought made up part of my righteousness
and recommended me to God, I now see it as dumb. When I look at
it in the light of Christ, in His glory of His person, Salvation
is not because of who I am or who you are, it's because of
who He is. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? And when I look
at my works and my efforts, no matter how sincere or how real
they were, I've had people say, well, I know that was of God
because it's real. My friend, eternal damnation
is real, but I don't want to experience it. Just because you
experience something in what you think is a vision or a dream
or a feeling, Don't have confidence in that. Count it done that you
may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. You see, the reality of the revelation of sin by which
God the Holy Spirit brings men to repentance is this, the best
efforts of the best of men that have ever lived on earth or ever
will live on earth with the best intentions in their most sincere
and honest endeavors are still sinful in the sight of God when
aimed at the ground of salvation. And why is that so? Let me give
you these reasons. Number one, because such efforts
deny the glory of God in salvation. This glory is found only in the
merits, the goodness, the quality, the value of Jesus Christ crucified,
buried, and raised from the dead, and His work of redemption to
make reconciliation for the sins of His people. Secondly, because
such efforts deny the preeminence of Jesus Christ and the necessity
of His great work of redemption to establish righteousness for
His people. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter
two and verse 21, he says, I do not frustrate or make void the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. If I could be saved or made righteous
or washed clean from my sins by my efforts or by my decision,
Christ did not have to come and die under the death of the cross,
but he did have to. because there's no way a sinner
can be saved in any other way but by grace. The third reason
these things are iniquity or sin is because such efforts are
the product of unbelief, which is an insult to God. We read
it before in Hebrews 11, 6, but without faith it's impossible
to please God. Do you know that to disbelieve
God is to insult Him? It's to cast shame upon Him and
reproach upon Him? God says, this is my beloved
Son, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye Him. If you refuse Christ, if you
refuse to believe in Christ, which you will do, and I will
do, except God intervenes, It's an insult to God. And everything
that we do, even the best of what we do, is the product of
unbelief. And the fourth reason is because
such efforts give men room to boast in their own works, in
their own decisions, in their own wills. Salvation is not of
works, lest any man should boast. Paul wrote in Romans 9.15, So
then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is not by the wills
of men, it's by the will of God. Salvation is not by the works
of men, it's by the work of God. It's mercy in Christ. And here's
where we begin to understand the real essence of repentance
for a true Christian. Consider again what Paul described
in Philippians 3, verse 7. He said, what things were gained
to me? Those I counted loss for Christ.
Verse 8, 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 dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law. That which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Christ is our righteousness.
We receive Him by faith. Verse 10, that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable unto His death. When He died, I died.
When He was buried, I was buried. When He arose again, I arose
again. And if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. That's what it means to
have faith in Christ and no confidence in the flesh. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.