Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Philippians, or continue our study in this wonderful
book. It's been a great joy going through
this book. I've learned so much, and I know we all have, as we've
talked about the different things that we've learned, and we're
in the section now where Paul's talking about what people often
ask about is practical Christian living. And the one thing that
you guys have noticed from myself and from other grace preachers
is that we preach practical Christian living centered around Christ,
not centered around us, but centered around Christ and Christ alone,
because that's truly what it's all about. It's all about our
great King. It's all about our God. It's
all about our Savior. We all struggle as we go through
this world. Today's message is called followers
of Christ. Followers of Christ. Now we are
to be followers of Christ. We are to mark certain people
though who we see and and look at and marvel at the grace that
they have and think, you know, well, I would like to be like
that too, but only in how they are worshiping Christ, because
we're all a bunch of sinners, right? And the one thing we are
not to do is we are not to preach or worship. We are not to look to certain
preachers. And I'll tell you that with me.
You guys know Jim and I had a talk. I ain't looking for no following.
I'm not looking, I'm just looking to preach Christ. Hey Jim, we're
brothers in Christ. We're saved by the same blood.
Don't vault me up. Don't vault me up. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. And I've seen where there can
be followings and where there can be people following preachers.
And then a preacher leaves and half the people leave. That's
not right. It's not the man, it's the message.
Right? That's the key. When I go, when
the Lord takes me home, here bring another preacher in who
will preach the same gospel. Right? It's the message. I love you guys more than I can
ever tell you. Right? I really do. You're my
family. But I'm just a man. Just like you're just a man,
right, Brother Brian? We're just sinners saved by grace. I like
what Bruce Crabtree said, we're fellows in the ship. We're rowing. We're all a bunch of fellows
in the ship. And Christ is the captain, isn't he? He's the captain. We don't even need to row. He's
going to get us there. My, but in the context of the
old Roman ships where they used to have people rowing to get
to places. We're heading to glory land,
beloved. So let's read verses 13 to 19 of Philippians chapter
3. Turn if you would to Philippians
chapter 3. We'll continue our study. As I said, we're nearing
the end of this chapter, actually, and then we have one more chapter
left and then we'll go to the book of Ephesians. But look at this. Verses 13 to
19. Brethren, I count Not myself do I have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before." So
I love this. Paul's saying, he's saying, I'm
not going to let my past hinder me. We all have a past, don't
we? I have a checkered past. You
have a checkered past. Right? There's things we've done
that we're ashamed of, but we are not to let those hinder us.
Are they under the blood, Brother Charlie? Amen. They're under
the blood. Right? We're to press on. Because
the hindrance here is like a Greek running a race. And when you
run a race, you have as little on as you can possibly. You have
your shorts on, your shirt on. Back then, they probably didn't
even wear shirts. I don't know. But it's like Dave used to tell
us. Remember Big Dave? And he used
to tell us, don't throw a bag of rocks on me when I'm running.
That's what our past can be like rocks. They can drag us back. So Paul's saying, he's not saying
forget the mercies that God has had upon you. He's not saying
that. He's saying forget those sins that would hinder you from
running the race. Let them go. The past is the past. Beloved,
our sins, I don't care how horrid they are. I look in several portions
of scriptures that's describing sinners and I go, I can see myself
there 10 times. out of ten things they mention. Forgetting those things that
are in the past. We're saved. We're redeemed. We're washed
in the precious blood of Christ. Let's press forward. Again, and
who are we pressing forward to? Christ. We're keeping our eyes
on Christ, the prize. He's our reward. I don't need
any reward if I have Christ. He's the greatest reward one
can have. Oh my. And he says, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Again, that's just looking to Christ. He's the end and the
finisher of our faith. He's the author and he's the
finisher of our faith, beloved. Let us therefore as many as be
perfect. Now again, remember we looked at that, that's maturity
in the Greek, be thus minded. And if anything ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless,
where unto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together
of me, and mark them which walk so as you have for an example. For many walk, of whom I told
you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies
of the cross of Christ. whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. Now, that's what the Lord saved
us from, isn't it? Isn't that amazing? Oh, God's so good. Now, Epaphroditus had told Paul
of those in the church who were teaching sinless perfection.
Look at verse 15. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded, And if anything, ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." So there's people
in the church, they're teaching sinless perfection. And Paul says, enough of that.
We will not be perfect until we get home to glory. Because
we are simply sinners saved by grace. And we're maturing in
Christ, aren't we? We're maturing in Christ. We're
growing in Christ. And when Paul says, let us therefore
as many as be perfect, in the Greek that's mature, maturity. Be mature, be thus minded. And if anything's otherwise,
God shall reveal even this unto you. So last week we went through
most of verse 15, but we left the latter part where it says,
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." So
Epaphroditus had bought up the fact that some were teaching
sinless perfection. And Paul says, we're still maturing. And let us never, as we looked
at last week, let us never think that we've arrived. I am still
learning so much. So much. I feel like a kid eating
pablum, man. It's just wonderful. I was doing
a study with Brother Norm Wells and Marcus and Billy and Jake,
and the theologian guy that we're reading from, he said this comment
in this paragraph, one little paragraph, right? And Norm said,
man, that guy said more in one paragraph than I said in 40 years
of preaching. Well, it takes humility to say
that, doesn't it? And we were all in awe at what the guy had
said. He was talking about God being sovereign and who he was,
and we were all just in awe. But when he made that comment,
I thought, that's it there. We always should have a teachable
spirit. And Paul's saying, even when we're mature, right, we're
still open to learning. We've never arrived, beloved.
We've never arrived. And we see at the latter part
of verse 15 that Paul turns those over to God who believe in sinless
perfection. He's saying, he's not saying
they're lost. He's saying, I'm praying God
will reveal to you that there's no such thing as sinless perfection.
I'm going to give you over to God and pray. Now, God will teach
his people that, right? But those who aren't his people,
he'll just leave them in it if it's his choice. Oh my. We can get wrapped up
in terrible error as believers, but God will not allow us to
stay in it. He will deliver us from it. Isn't
that wonderful? He will teach us the truth. He
will teach us his gospel. He will teach us that justification
is by faith alone through Christ alone and not of anything we
do. It's wonderful. He will teach
us the wonderful truths of the gospel. And so he's saying, he's
praying that God will reveal the truth about the matter to
them if they're willing to be taught and if they're God's elect.
Look at that latter part. And if anything you'd be otherwise
minded, being if you're thinking you're a sinless, God shall reveal
even this unto you. Isn't that wonderful? He just
turns them over to God. We see our brothers and sisters
in error, don't tear them down. Tell them the truth, but don't
tear them down. Give them over to God. Give them over to God. My, oh,
my. See the word otherwise in verse
15? It speaks of diversity in a bad
sense. otherwise minded, thinking, the
thinking of some of the Philippian saints who thought that they
were, they had reached a place where they were beyond spiritual
development. It's in a negative version. They
think otherwise. They're not thinking as believers.
They're thinking otherwise. They're thinking, I've arrived.
They're thinking, I'm sinless. And what does Paul do? He just
gives them over to the Lord. That's a good lesson for us,
isn't it? That's a really good lesson for us as believers. Because
Chris, as you were saying, we can't convince them. And think
of where we came out of. Think of what we came out of.
Think of where we were. That's why I go talk to those
fellows I tell you about over at McDonald's. I look at them
and I see myself before the Lord saved me. I was right there kicking
and screaming against the truth and saying I was a believer. Well, God taught me, didn't he?
Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen, sister.
I'm like that. Amen. Praise the Lord. He's so
good. Oh, listen to this. this translation
by Wiest, he's a Greek scholar, and listen to how he puts verse
15 from the Greek. As many, therefore, as are spiritually
mature, so that perfect is mature in the Greek, let us be of this
mind. And if, as is the case in anything,
you are differently minded, and that is an evil sense, this also
will God reveal to you. God teaches his sheep. And so I love how Paul's not
saying, well, you're you're wrote off. You're not believers. He's
not doing that. He's giving them over to the
Lord and saying, if you're thinking wrong, I'm praying God's going
to straighten that out. And he will if they're believers. I
know. Have you experienced that? I've
experienced that, right? We who came out of religion experienced
that, didn't we? Even if we even if we were in
the right church, we experienced that, didn't we? Because we didn't know Christ
until he revealed himself to us. He straightened us out. Oh my, isn't God so good? So Paul's authority in the Philippian
believers to be like-minded as he was, which remember earlier
in the chapter, to count those things that were once gained
to him as loss. They didn't matter. To reckon all things but loss,
all those religious works, it's lost. They're nothing. They're
nothing. And our righteousness, thinking
we were righteous before God by things we did, that's nothing.
Cast it all aside. And what do we desire? Paul's
setting forth Christ to say, desire Christ more, desire him. Think of this, beloved. If we're
going to be passionate about anything, we should be passionate about
Christ. I can get excited about a lot of things. But man, you start talking to
me about Christ, I'm going to get really excited. Right? He's our life. And this is all
Paul's doing. He's saying, set people like
this as an example. Set folks, you know, I have certain
folks I look to and I see, and I see their walk, and I know
they're sinners just like me, but I'm like, oh Lord, this is
magnificent. This is wonderful what you've done. And I don't
tell them that, but I see it. And it's wonderful. I have certain
preachers I know. DJ Ward, my gosh. That guy is
so excited about Christ. So, so thrilled about Christ. I think that's how we preachers
should be, really. He saved our souls. Right? You see a man like that, just,
man, Lord, just give me a little portion of that. Just a little
portion of that. Oh, it's wonderful. But never
forget where we came from, eh? And Paul desired to be found
in Christ, not in his own righteousness, but having Christ's righteousness,
and he had that as a believer. So he's pointing the saints to
that, isn't he, earlier up in the chapter. He had a desire to know more
about Christ. And this is where he's saying,
follow me, when he says, follow me as I follow Christ, I understand what he's saying.
He's not saying follow me because I want to follow him. He's not
saying that. He's saying just look to Christ
like I'm looking to Christ. Just trust Christ like I'm trusting
Christ. Just count your righteousness
of your own as lost like I count my loss, but I have Christ. That's what he's saying. He's
not saying, well, be another Paul. Because Donny Bell told
me one time, he says, you cannot be Donny Bell. You have to be
Wayne Boyd. Right? We preachers can't mimic
each other. And number one, number two, we
don't want to. My personality is totally different than other
preachers' personality, right? But God uses both of us to preach
the gospel. Right? And I hope that both preachers
will say, don't follow me. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
and him alone. Because Paul's just saying, he's
just saying, look to Christ like I'm looking to Christ. That's
all he's saying. He doesn't want little Pauls running around. He doesn't want that. My oh my. He wants his fellow believers
to know more about Christ, to know more about his person, to
know more about his work, to know more about his resurrection,
to know more about his perfection, and to deny perfection in ourselves. If we can reach a so-called state
of spiritual perfection, why did Christ come? He came because we're a bunch
of dead dog sinners who need to be saved. My oh my. So I love this, because
I have a past, and I love this. Paul's saying, just let it go.
Just let it go. Move forward. Don't let it hinder
you. Even what's happened in your
Christian life, don't let it hinder you. What happened when
we were religious, don't let it hinder you. Don't let it hold
you back. Keep pressing towards Christ.
Keep looking towards Christ. People will remind us of our
past. I am looking to Christ. You keep
quiet about that. It's under the blood of Christ.
I'm going to keep looking forward. My family and friends, when I
go to Canada, they're like, oh, it's Wayne. No, I'm Wayne on
the outside, but I'm a new man now. And they remember all the
things I did and all the things I said and all that, and they
bring it up, and I'm like, it's all under the blood. It's all under the blood. I had a young man come up to
me one time after the split that was here before I first got here.
And this young man come up to me, and I respected him for doing
this. He said, I'm so sorry. I spoke
against you, and I realized I was wrong. And I looked
at him, and I said, it's all under the blood, brother. He gave me a big old hug. It's
under the blood. If it's under the blood, if it's under the blood of Christ,
then why are we worrying about it? But see, that was hindering
him. Shouldn't. But he came to me,
talked to me, and you could see the relief on his face. Praise
be to God. It's all under the blood, right?
Keep short accounts, beloved. I got to keep reminding myself
that, do you? All the time, eh? Yeah? I have to remind myself
that all the time. So, they're to desire these things
of Christ, His righteousness, look to Christ, see His substitutionary
work, perfect work, to save us from our sins, and then we're
to deny all perfection. That we cannot be perfect. The only one who's perfect is
Christ. People who claim sinless perfection, they're looking to themselves. They're not looking to Christ.
We actually acknowledge our imperfection as believers. Do you ever think
of that? Don't we, Brother Brian? We acknowledge we don't have
the ability to save ourselves. We acknowledge we're just dead
dog sinners who need to be saved. And we're to forget those things
in the past. Let the past be the past. Don't
let it hinder us in this race of the Christian life, as Brother
Travis said. The Christian life is a race of a Christian life.
Look into Christ. Is it hard for us to look to
Christ in all circumstances? Let's be honest. Yeah, it sure
is, isn't it? Oh, it sure is. Let us just look
to Christ. Let us press towards the mark
of the high calling of Christ, the prize of eternal glory. Then
he brings forth that if anyone be otherwise minded, such as
seeking justification by works of the law, or partly by Christ
and partly by the law, or to imagine and expect perfection
in this life, he's saying it's absolute error. It's error. Do you know what it really is?
It's an affront to God. It's an affront to the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. Because it's saying, basically
it's saying Christ's work was not enough. That's really what
it's saying. When man thinks that they can
work their way to heaven, and I said this in my past. I used
to think my good could outweigh my bad. What I was saying was
an affront to God. And then I got into religion,
and I thought, oh, it's all about what I do. And if I don't do
that, God will be mad at me. Oh, my gosh. Who is it about it still? See? Praise God. As you said, He saved
us. And now it's all about Him. And
we acknowledge our sinfulness, we acknowledge and we rejoice
that Christ saved us with his precious blood because we could
never save ourselves. It's impossible. Absolutely impossible. So he's bringing forth to imagine
and expect perfection in this life is an error. It's an affront
to the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And for those who are true believers,
Paul prays that God would reveal this error to them. That he would
take them out of it. That he would take them out of
it. And that it would be manifest
to them sooner rather than later. That they would wholly cast themselves
upon Christ and Him alone. And marvel, beloved God, is that
as we mature in the faith, we do not see ourselves as becoming
less sinful, do we? You ever notice that? That as
we mature in the faith, we don't see ourselves getting better,
do we? We see our sin more. More than we've ever seen it
before. I was laying in bed last night,
couldn't sleep, I was laying in bed last night, and the verse
came to me, if the Lord shall mark iniquity, who shall stand? I thought, no one, Lord. No one,
none of us. If he marked iniquity, none of
us would stand. And I just praise him that our
sins are washed clean in the blood, because he doesn't mark
the iniquity of his people, it's already bought and paid for.
That's wonderful, isn't it? But that brings it home to all
of us, doesn't it? What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. His blood is so precious that
it's washed away anything that was against us, and the Lord
will not mark our iniquity, because it's gone. What a Savior! What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. See, that's why Paul's saying,
forget the past. The Lord's not going to mark
that, even if we remember it. And if we do remember something
from our past, confess it and move on. I've had many times
lately in the last year, the Lord's been bringing remembrance
to things that I never even thought of for years. And I just say,
Lord, forgive me for that. I know it's under the blood,
but forgive me. I confess it before Him. I'm not gonna let
it hinder me, because it's gone. It's gone. It's natural for us
to feel guilty over our sin, right? But remember, Christ even
paid for the guilt of our sin. Didn't he? He paid for it all,
right? All of it. We don't just go out
and do whatever we want, because we know it's wrong. And we feel
it deeply. And God chastens his children,
doesn't he, when we go off into sin. We've all felt that. We
may be attending church and be thinking, everybody's saying,
oh yeah, look, they're outstanding. And we've wandered off in our
heart. But God always brings us back,
doesn't he? You hear a message about Christ and his redeeming
blood and you're like, oh Lord, you're wonderful. You'll never
leave me nor forsake me. Oh, what a great God. Oh my. So marvel, beloved, as we mature
in the faith again, we don't see ourselves as becoming less
sinful, but we see more of the sinfulness of sin. We have it
revealed to us more. We see ourselves more and more
as desperate sinners in need of Christ. And this causes us
to rejoice, beloved. Because number one, we're growing
in Christ. We see things in a way we've
never seen them before. And why would us seeing ourselves
as more sinful make us rejoice? Well, because we look at our
wonderful, merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved
us from all our sins. And we say, Lord, the only reason
I'm forgiven is because of you. The only reason that my sins
are washed away is because of you. The only reason, Lord, that
the Father doesn't mark my iniquity is because of you, Lord Jesus,
and your precious blood. And so we're followers of Christ,
aren't we? We're followers of Christ. As much as you guys love Scott,
He's still a sinful man, but what an example to follow, too,
though. A godly man, right? A man who faithfully preached
the gospel, took good care of his family, too. All those things,
but all by the grace and mercy of God, right? All because of
God working in him. Now, he's still a sinner. I heard
some stories about him make me laugh. Some of the things he'd
say. I'm like, he got away with that? Scott was a character,
man. Right? But he's a saved man preaching
Christ. And I look at him and think,
oh, if I just have a little bit of what he had. My, oh my. My. So, as we see ourselves more
sinful, it causes us to rejoice in the fact that we look to Christ
more now. You ever think of that? We look to Christ more now. As
we see our sinfulness, we look to Christ even more. And that
causes us to rejoice. Not about our sin, but about
our Savior. And it's wonderful. He saved
us, didn't he, Brother Brian? He saved us with the shedding
of his precious blood, washed all our sins away. My, oh my. That's wonderful. And this causes
us to rejoice. Now, let's read verse 16. Nevertheless,
whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
let us mind the same thing. See the word translated attained? In the Greek word that is translated
from attained in verse 12, it means to take or to appropriate.
Now, this Greek word for attained, see, this is where the English
language This is why I like looking into the Greek a little bit more,
because there's so many different things with the Greek language.
In verse 12, it means to take or to appropriate. In this word,
in verse 16, attained, it means to arrive at, to reach. To reach. It speaks of progress along a
road to a certain point. With this, Paul's thinking of
the Philippians' progress along the path of a Christian's life. We're making progress. But you
know who's keeping us going? It's Christ. Religion teaches it's about you.
The Scriptures teach it's about Christ. We're kept by the power
of God, Peter writes. What's that mean? That means
that we're kept by the power of God. That means we're not kept by
our own doings. Now, do we do our actions? Of course we do.
Of course. We're physical beings. We do
actions. But he keeps us from falling
into the ditch. We've been taken from the broadway.
Remember the broadway leads to destruction? And we've been put
on the narrow path, beloved. Who keeps us on that path? Christ
does. Because we're sheep. You know
what we do? Oh, this is a beautiful path. Oh, there's some nice grass
over here. Oh, let me go try this out. That's how we are,
right? It's true. But he keeps us on that path,
doesn't he? Isn't that wonderful? So this is what this is speaking
of. His idea is, so far as we have come, and the word walk
means to proceed in a row, like in a row, we're all in a row.
It means to direct one's life to live. So again, it's practical
Christian living, but it's all Christ-centered. Follow me as I follow Christ.
Look to me, or follow me as I'm looking to Christ, you look to
Christ. As I've counted all righteousness of my own as nothing, you count
all your righteousness as own as nothing. As I count I'm gonna
forget the past, you forget the past too, beloved, because it's
all under the blood. And Satan will use things to
hinder us from our past, you know that. Not necessarily Satan, but just
spiritual forces or whatever, will use things. And our heart
even is desperately wicked, isn't it? And deceitful. I think a
lot of times, things that people attain to Satan is our own flesh.
I'm my own worst enemy, are you? Yeah? Oh my. I think Spurgeon used to say
that all the time, and I really like that, because it's true.
It's so true. Weiss' translation of this here
verse is, only one thing so far as we have come, let us keep
our lives in the same path. So again, it's talking about
being on the narrow way, looking to Christ. Who's called the way? Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the narrow way. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. He's eternal life. And salvation from sins is only
found in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way.
Nevertheless, whatever degree of knowledge of Christ and the
truth and the gospel and the light we've received, let us
walk therein. As we mature in the faith, as
we grow in the faith, we're gonna learn to trust him more. Our
first reaction won't be pulling our hair out. It may be pulling
a little hair out, but it won't be like it was before when we
were freaking out. See, as we grow in grace, we
learn more and more to trust him, right? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Here
I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come. Only by Christ
alone. So my spiritual growth may be
slow, it may be even discouraging to me sometimes. And I may feel
that I'm standing still. You ever felt like that? I felt
like that. Like I'm standing still, but let us rejoice that
God has revealed Christ to us and in us, and we know whom we
have believed. And let us hope fast until he
reveals more of himself to us. Even when we feel like we're
in those situations, he's going to reveal more to us about himself. Let's read verse 17. Brethren,
be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as
ye have us for an example. See the word followers together
of me? Vincent brings forth that this could be rendered, be together
jointly imitators of me. Paul says, follow me as I follow
Christ. And Paul would not have any man
follow him. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians. I know I'm running a little late
here. 1 Corinthians. Paul would not have anyone follow
him as a head of a party, or a sect, or being a leader of
the whole group. He did not want... In fact, he
condemned other people for that. He condemned other preachers.
Now, here we're going to see in 1 Corinthians 1, a warning
against preacher worship. And the reason this is in here,
because this happens. Unfortunately, this happens.
Look at this. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 to
17. They were comparing one preacher
to another, and I'll tell you as a preacher, you never want
that. You never want someone to compare you to another preacher.
Do not, oh my, Lord, keep us from that spirit. Please, Lord,
please, look at this. Verse 10, now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus, that you speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment, so that's unity. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. There's, there's, oh man,
there's, things are getting strained. Now I say this, that every one
of you saith, I am Paul, and I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Cephas,
and I'm of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,
lest any should say that I have baptized in mine own name. And
I baptized also the house of Stephanas. Besides, I know not
whether I baptized any other. For Christ, look at this, now
here it is, here it is, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but what?
To preach the gospel. That's the key right there. Not
with wisdom of words, oh, not with these fancy words, no, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Oh, Lord,
please let us not be guilty of this. Oh, keep our eyes upon
the Lord Jesus Christ and not upon a man, right? I love you
guys, like I said, and I know you love me, but let's keep our
eyes together on Christ. And let's not compare one preacher
to another. That's not right. That's not right. Not right at
all. Let us love our preachers. Let
us pray for our preachers. Let us thank God for our preachers,
because we're all servants of the Most High God. That's what
we are. And Paul wanted the Philippians
to have the same goal as he had, to win Christ and be found in
him, to look to Christ as all he needs. Right? Amen and amen. Brother Brian,
can you close us in prayer?