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 11th
message in a series of messages that are intended to accompany
a new book that we here at Reign of Grace Media Ministries are
offering to you free of charge. The title of the book and the
title of this series of messages that we will make available on
DVD and CD is What is a Christian? And it's entitled, What is a
Christian? A Biblical Study of the One True Faith. And through
these messages and through the book, and the book goes into
much more detail, depth, many more scriptures than what the
recorded messages do. So I encourage you to get the
book. As I said, we offer it free of charge. And these studies,
this book is intended to help you in a process of self-examination
where the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 where the Apostle
Paul writing to the Corinthian church, he says, examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves, except
you be reprobates, disqualified. In other words, it is impended
upon those who claim to be Christians to test their claim, examine
their claim by the Bible, by what the Bible says. And the
book and these messages are intended to guide you through that process
of self-examination, to put your claim of salvation, your claim
of being a Christian to the test of scripture and see if it holds
up. I do the same thing. And we live
in a day where there's so much deception, so much diversity
in religion, and there's so much false Christianity, to be honest
with you, that we need to just simply not take for granted that
we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or that we're Christian,
or that we're going even to a Christian church, even though it comes
under the name of Christianity. So examine yourselves. Now, one
of the... passages of scripture that I've
been dealing with here in this book, and this is one of the
chapters of the book that is divided into different parts,
is Philippians, the book of Philippians, chapter three and verse three,
and this falls under the heading of the fact that true Christians
are described in this one verse, true Christians described in
one verse. Now, there are many verses of
the Bible, passages of scripture that describe and define true
Christians. But there are some that have
just stood out to me that just really concisely and fully encompass
what the Bible says a true Christian is and a true Christian is not.
And in fact, the whole idea of this book and this series of
studies came from my preaching at our church here on this passage,
Philippians three and verse three. And it reads, for we are the
circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So we have four
phrases there in one verse that describe the reality of what
it is to be a true Christian. Now, today we're going to deal
with the phrase rejoice in Christ Jesus. A true Christian is a
sinner saved by grace who rejoices in Christ Jesus. Now, I've already
dealt with the first phrase, for we are the circumcision,
and showed how that refers to a person who is born again by
the Holy Spirit. You must be born again by the
Holy Spirit. That's in light of the fact that
we, by nature, we and Adam were ruined by the fall. We fell into
sin and death when Adam sinned, and as a result, we're born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. And in order for any of us To
see and believe the gospel of God's grace in Christ, we must
be born again. We must be given new hearts.
We must be given spiritual life. We must be regenerated. Having been ruined by the fall
and redeemed by the blood of Christ, speaking of God's elect
now, we must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And that circumcision
there that Paul's speaking of is circumcision of the heart,
which is another emblem or symbol or metaphorical way of speaking
of the new birth, the cutting away the filth of the flesh.
And then I dealt with which worship God in the spirit. That has to
do with the revealed knowledge of God as he reveals himself
in Christ that brings a sinner both to see himself as a sinful
person, depraved, with nothing to recommend myself unto God,
in light of God's holiness, God's justice, and God's righteousness,
God is a holy God, and that I can only be saved, blessed, and accepted
with God through the merits, the obedience, the death, the
goodness, of His appointed substitute in surety, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His death, His burial, and His resurrection. My redemption,
my salvation, is all based upon the righteousness of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are the circumcision.
That's another way of saying we are the born again. It's a
way of saying we are the elect of God. which worship God in
the Spirit as the Holy Spirit guides us through the preached
word and the revealed word and from our new heart. He said,
I'll give you a new heart. And that's a new mind, new affections,
new will, new spirit. And then he says, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now that's the one we're gonna
deal with today. A true Christian is a sinner saved by grace who
rejoices in Christ Jesus. Now this word rejoice is an interesting
word as it is translated in many versions but in the King James
Version which many or most people have. Rejoice in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 3 means this, it means to glory or you could
even say it means to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back up
in verse 1 of Philippians 3. He says, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. The word rejoice there is a different
word. Different Greek word. That word
rejoice in verse 1 means to be happy. To be glad. And certainly
true Christians are glad and happy in Christ. Now that doesn't
mean they're happy all the time and they enjoy life all the time. They go through trials and troubles
and tribulations. Christ told his disciples, in
the world you'll have trouble. But here's what makes us glad
and happy if we're true Christians. He said, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. So rejoice in Philippians 3,
one means to be happy, to be glad. But in verse three, rejoice
in Christ, it doesn't mean that, it means to glory. That word is translated glory.
In fact, it means to have confidence in someone or something. Consider
the many examples where this word is the same Greek word but
translated in different ways. For example, over in the book
of Romans chapter 2 and verse 17, here the apostle Paul is
talking about the ungodly boast of the unbelieving Jews. And
he says in Romans 2.17, he says, Behold, thou art called a Jew
and restest in the law. In other words, you see your
salvation by your works of the law and you make us thy boast
of God. You brag, you boast, you glory
in God because of your works. Now that's unbelief. But that
word boast there is the same word as rejoice in Philippians
3.3. In the book of Romans, chapter
five and verse one. The apostle writes, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two says, by whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now there's that same
word, rejoice, that's in Philippians 3.3. We boast in hope of the
glory of God. In other words, my boast is not
in myself. My certainty, certain assurance
of salvation is not in myself, it's in the glory of God. And
where do you find the glory of God? Well, the Bible talks about
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God's glory
is His majesty, His greatness. It's everything that He is, working
consistently together in the salvation of His people through
Jesus Christ. And then Romans 5 and verse 3
says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing
that tribulation worketh patience. The word glory there is the same
word rejoice in Philippians 3.3. And how do we glory or boast
in tribulations? Not just simply because we're
going through some trouble, We can't glory in that, but we glory
in the fact that that tribulation, that trouble, we who are Christians
now, who believe in Christ, who rest in Him for all salvation,
we boast in the fact that these tribulations will not separate
us from Christ, will not diminish our salvation. We stand washed
in His blood and clothed in His righteousness and that can never
change no matter what we're going through. In Romans 5.11, he says,
and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, or reconciliation,
what the word should be. But joy there is the same word,
rejoice, we find in Philippians 3.3, we rejoice in Christ. Another
example of that, this is special, he says, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
1.29, And what he's talking about is how salvation has absolutely
nothing to do or based on the sinner's qualifications or works. It is totally of God's free,
sovereign grace, His mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. And he says, God has set it up
this way, and God saves people whom by nature men don't think
deserve it, and they don't. None of us do. But he does it
this way, 1 Corinthians 1, 29, that no flesh should glory or
boast in his presence. Glory, same word as in Philippians
3, 3. Then down in verse 31 of 1 Corinthians
1, that according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory
in the Lord. Another example is 1 Corinthians
3 verse 21. Therefore let no man glory in
men, for all things are yours. You know what he's talking about
there? He's talking about people dividing over preachers. Giving too much admiration and
too much glory to men. We're not to glory in men, we're
to glory in Christ. In Galatians 6.14, now this is
one that I want you to think about. In Galatians 6.14, Paul
writes this. He says, but God forbid that
I should glory. Now that's the same word rejoice
in Philippians 3.3. He said we rejoice in Christ.
Well he says here, God forbid that I should glory, save or
accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world." In other words, I
have no boast or confidence of salvation except in one thing,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's His blood alone that washes
away my sins. Nothing else does it. If I think
my tears of repentance washes away my sins, then I'm not boasting
only in Christ. If I think my water baptism washes
away my sins, then I'm glorying in that, not in Christ. If I
think my works have anything to do with it, if I think my
decision had anything to do with it. You see, I don't. I'm a Christian. God forbid that
I should glory except in the cross. The cross work, the redemptive
work, the merits, the goodness, the quality, the power of what
Christ accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection on my
behalf as my surety and substitute, to wash away my sins, that means
to pay the debt to God's justice for all my sins, and to bring
forth righteousness which is charged to me and in whom I stand,
accepted in the beloved. That's what it means. Now, another
example is probably a little more familiar to you as far as
the scriptures go, and it's Ephesians 2 and verse 8, where the apostle
writes, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, even faith, you can't, listen, if you believe
the gospel, if you believe in Christ, you can't brag on that
and boast of that as if you did it of your own free will, as
they say today. Left to yourself, you would never
believe the gospel. It's a gift of God, and that
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, verse nine, not of works,
lest any man should boast. That word boast there is the
same word as rejoice in Philippians three and verse three. So all
true Christians, glory, boast, rejoice, enjoy with confidence,
in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished in his obedience
unto death to bring forth righteousness. Don't glory or boast or rejoice
or joy in yourself or in your works or even your decision,
your will. Our confidence of being justified
before God, that means being not guilty. That means being
cleansed of all my sin, being forgiven. of being in a position
where God will not and cannot charge me with sin, even though
I am a sinner. That's not fiction now. That's
not God doing something and just trying to act it out or something,
but justify it. Righteous before God. My confidence
of being righteousness before God is in Christ and based upon
His righteousness imputed alone, and I have no other boast, no
other rejoicing. In the book of Romans chapter
eight and verse 28, the Apostle Paul wrote by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit. He said, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Now, no man,
none of us by nature love God. You say, well, I've always loved
the Lord. No, you haven't. And if you did love a Lord, it
was a God of your imagination, a God who was likened to yourself.
When the true and living God reveals himself to a sinner,
that sinner finds out that, no, there's no love of God for me.
You see, the love of God in Romans chapter five, is shed abroad
in the hearts of God's people by the Holy Spirit as He drives
them to Christ. And the Bible says, herein is
love. This is 1 John 4, 10. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who
brings satisfaction to God's justice, the propitiation for
our sin. So back to Romans 8, 28. We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called. Remember, I talked about that
in another message where we talk about the new birth. The called
of God are those who are called by the invincible calling of
the Holy Spirit according to his purpose, and his purpose
is his glory in Christ. So in verse 29 of Romans 8, he
says, for whom he did foreknow, literally for ordained, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And he says in
verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called,
and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified,
them he also glorified. See, this is all the work of
God. And so he says in verse 31, what shall we say then to
these things? Well, he says, if God be for
us, who can be against us? In verse 32, he says, he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely, unconditionally give us all things? The all things that a true Christian
has in Christ is all freely given. It's not conditioned on the sinner.
It's not earned by the sinner. So who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea rather,
Christ risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now, one of the things when
you talk about rejoicing in Christ Jesus, boasting in Christ, glorying
in Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary, you need to consider
again what exactly it means to be justified before God. For example, back in the Old
Testament, when David of old, King David, who wrote a lot of
the Psalms by inspiration of the Spirit, over in Psalm 32,
verses one and two, this is exactly what he had in mind. See, David
wrote, he said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. David was expressing back in
Psalm 32 the confidence, the rejoicing, the joy, and even
the boast that he had before God in the Lord Jesus Christ
not because of David's goodness or David's power or David's will. David was a sinner. On his deathbed
he admitted that. He said, although my house be
not so with God, God has made with me a covenant ordered in
all things ensure. And he said, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Talking about salvation by God's
grace through the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But David
wrote that in Psalm 32 and that's what he had in mind. Now, how
can I know David's mind in this matter? Well, here's how. God the Holy Spirit tells us
what David had in mind when he wrote that in Psalm 32. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God doesn't charge
him with sin. How can I know what was in David's
mind? Well, God, the Holy Spirit tells us by the Apostle Paul
over here in the book of Romans chapter four and verse six. And here's what he says. He said,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. When did David
say that? If you go back to Psalm 32, you
won't see the term righteousness, but what God the Holy Spirit
is teaching us, as this is exactly what David had in mind. When
David wrote that, he was saying, blessed is the man unto whom
God imputes righteousness without works. Verse seven of Romans
four, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. And that covered there doesn't
mean just covered over and hidden from view. It's a reference to
the covering of the ark, the lid, the mercy seat over the
ark. Blood, covered with the blood of Christ, paid for, done
away with. Verse eight, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So a true Christian is one
who is righteous before God. He's not righteous by any merit. or goodness of his own works,
but by the merit and goodness of the work of Jesus Christ,
imputed, charged, accounted to him. Second Corinthians 521,
for he, that is God the Father, hath made him, that is Jesus
Christ, God the Son incarnate, to be sin for us, that is his
chosen people, his sheep, those for whom he died, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made or become the righteousness
of God in him. So a true Christian is a sinner
who cannot be condemned. He cannot be charged with sin
because there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. A true Christian is one who has confidence and
security of mind and heart and spirit because he stands before
God in Jesus Christ as his advocate, his mediator, his intercessor. John wrote, My little children,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. Fight sin,
seek obedience. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Who is it? Jesus Christ the righteous. Christ the righteous is my advocate.
And I don't stand before God in my own righteousness, because
my righteousness is in Christ. And He's the propitiation for
our sin, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Now the whole world there is
not, that's 1 John 2, 1 and 2. The whole world there is not
every individual in the whole world, but God's elect all over
the world, Jew and Gentile. You see, a genuine Christian,
therefore, is one who, by the regenerating power of the Holy
Spirit, knows to some degree the exceeding sinfulness of his
own sin. He knows that if God were to
judge him based on his best efforts to obey the law, he would be
condemned to eternal death. David wrote in Psalm 130 in verse
three, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? Paul wrote in Romans 3.10, as
it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They're together become
unprofitable. There's none that do with good,
no, not one. He goes on to say in verse 13,
their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, they've used
deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips and whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. That's talking about the blood of sacrifice. Destruction
and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they've
not known. The way of peace is Christ. And there's no fear of
God before their eyes. There's no reverence or respect
for this God who justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness
of Christ. And so he says in Romans 3, 19,
now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. And therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." My friend,
the Bible teaches us that the fulfillment of the law that brings
righteousness to a sinner is by Jesus Christ alone. For Christ
is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believe it. And so we say, we
who are true Christians, we say with Paul, we rejoice in Christ. We glory in Christ. We boast
in Christ. We have no plea before God, but
Christ. And our boldness, our liberty,
our confidence, to enter into the very holy presence of God
is not by our works or our efforts, it's by Jesus Christ crucified,
buried, and risen, His righteousness alone, His blood alone, His merits
alone, and there is no other boast or glory. 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 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.