All right, Philippians chapter
three this morning, if you will. I'm gonna be reading verses one down
through verses 14 this morning. I'm gonna mainly be dwelling
on verses nine, 10, 11, 12, maybe get into 13 a little bit, Many
wanting to dwell right there within that 10th verse and surrounding. Philippians chapter three, it's
about how to work prayer. Gracious God and father, we thank
you this morning for the mercy and the grace, the love and salvation
that we have through the son of Jesus Christ. We thank you
father that we have the opportunity to come and to gather together
for fellowship, for worship. We pray father that the spirit
will be here with us to guide us in this worship, to lift our
hearts, not only in praise and singing, but may lift our hearts
in the preaching of God's word. Father, we need your help this
morning to pray, to praise you, to preach, to fellowship, Lord,
we need all those things to be aided by the Holy Ghost. And
so we ask this morning that you might help us. Father, we just
pray this morning that your word might be attended by our hearts
and our minds as the Spirit gives understanding. We pray, Father,
that it might be encouraging to your people here. This morning,
we pray that it might be convicting in our hearts where there might
be sin, Lord. We pray that it might be helpful
and instructive as it gives us knowledge of the Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, and of ourselves and who we are in him. Father,
we just pray that you just might remove the calluses of our heart
that often build up in our flesh as we are in this world and the
things that we do and the things that we are in the flesh, Lord,
and how often they war against the things of the Spirit and
what we desire to be in our mind. And Father, as we come to worship,
often our worship might be slightly veiled because of our guilt or
maybe our remorse over sin that we've had throughout the week
of maybe neglect of the word of God or things like that. Lord,
we come and we're embarrassed and we're feeling that we're
not worthy to even pray to you, but you have given us boldness
to come before the throne of grace and ask for these things.
And so we come, Lord, knowing that we are never worthy to come
before your throne, but it is because of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we have entrance into the throne room of God to make these
supplications known to you, Lord, asking that in your providence,
in your perfect divine will, that you would meet with us today
and that you would speak with us today, that you would use
me as a voice piece to preach the word of God, Lord, that you
would hide me behind the cross of Jesus Christ, that these people
here would see and hear and know the things of Christ, and that
it might be sweet to them, that they might find it rejoicing,
that it might find edifying, Lord. We pray for those that
might be here that are unconverted. We ask, Lord, that you just might
draw them by your spirit, give them ears to hear, Lord, that
the word of God might be understood and that they might be believed
upon and that they might come to you confessing their sin,
repenting of their false righteousness and their false works, their
dead works, and that they might, Father, follow you in obedience
and be baptized and that they might become members of the local
church, Lord, and become servants in the spread and the ministry
of the gospel of Jesus Christ here through this church and
the ministry to one another by the gifts that your spirit gives
us. Lord, may you be with us today. We pray for those of our
membership that are not here this morning. We ask, Lord, that
you would keep them safe wherever they are. We ask, Lord, that
you just might be with them and minister to them. Lord, we pray
for those watching through Facebook and those who are listening through
sermon audio, Lord, we ask that you just might minister to them
as well. For those who do not have a local
church, Lord, we pray that you would lead them to a local church
where they might be able to be a part in a ministry through
that local church, that they might be in obedience to you
in gathering for worship. Lord, that you might make that for them, a way for them to be
able to do that. Father, we just thank you again
for Christ. We thank you for salvation. We thank you for the
gift of life, life eternal. We thank you, Father, for this
word that you've given us, the Bible, that we had to open up
and to learn of you and to learn of our salvation, and especially
to learn of the one who secured our salvation, the man, Jesus
Christ. And so we ask Lord now that you
would just bless this time together for Christ's name that we pray,
amen. Philippians chapter three, starting
in verse one, Paul here by the Holy Spirit is writing to the
church in Philippi and he writes then, And he says, finally, my
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed is not grievous, but for you, it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. Now, what's Paul talking about
here? Course, we've had two chapters that preceded this. But what
is Paul talking about here? He's telling them, I'm writing
to you again. So obviously, Paul has written
to the Philippian church before. He has spoken of these things
to them before. that they need to be careful.
The reason that he says that he doesn't mind continuing to
write these things. You remember a few weeks ago,
we were hearing Paul and one of his favorite phrases is to
bring you into remembrance, to remind you, to keep you in remembrance
of. The reason that we continue to
preach these things, the reason we preach the gospel, the reason
we preach the admonitions of the Lord, the reason that we
preach you these things over and over and over and over again
is because that in the flesh we don't understand. But in the
spirit, we hear these things and it reminds us, it keeps us
in remembrance, it keeps it before us so that we might look to Christ. It reminds us that there is evil
in this world, that there is those who are false preachers,
false teachers, those who are false churches that are out there
that are preaching a false Christ. And that through that, it can
be enticing, it can be alluring to the flesh. But yet Paul is
saying, Stay fixed and stay sure upon God's word and upon what
has been told to you through the preaching of the apostles,
through the preaching of the people of God, the word of God
that has been given to you. Remain in that. Keep looking
at that and be reminded of the things that was told to you and
the things that could happen. Be reminded of these things. And so he says, it isn't a grievous
thing. Don't think that me having to
remind you of these things, that I'm getting tired of this. I
don't get tired of this. That's the same way with preachers.
You know, sometimes you get up here and I'll be honest, as a
preacher, you're wondering, you know, what am I gonna preach
today? Man, I've preached on that a hundred times. I've preached
on that a thousand times. I've preached on this, I've preached
on that. Listen, we just get up here and preach. We're never
gonna exhaust the depths of God's word. And we surely haven't heard
it enough. If we truly love God's word,
if we truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, we love to hear about
that. And so we can do that. And so to the people of God,
it doesn't become grievous to hear it. It doesn't become grievous
to continue to say it over and over and talk about it over and
over. Man, I've met many professing Christians in my life that whenever
you begin to visit with them, maybe have a fellowship, you
know, hey, let's have everybody over to the house or something
like that. Man, we can go on and on about
football. We can go on and on about fishing
or hunting or camping or, you know, music or whatever and everything. But whenever you begin to start
talking about doctrine and whenever you begin to start talking about
the Bible, When you start talking about Christ and the gospel,
then all of a sudden, some people, they just like, you know, they
get a little antsy and it's like, you know, well, all right, well,
I got to check, get out of here. Well, it's about time, you know,
and you know, they try to change the subject back to fishing and
hunting. You can always tell the people that truly love Christ
because that's what they want to talk about. That's the thing
that they're interested in. That's the thing that they want
to hear and they want to be a part of talking about and sharing
those things. And so Paul here is saying, listen,
it is not grievous for me, but for you, it is safe. It's safe
for me to continue to do this. Why? Because I'm always putting
you in remembrance. I'm always warning you about these things.
And as a preacher of Christ, we should be doing that with
our congregations. We should be preaching to them and reminding
them not only of the gospel and the good things that we find
in God's word, but we also ought to be reminding them of the things
that are dangerous that God's word talks about. And so here
he's telling them to be careful. Beware of dogs. Now, what does
he mean? Is he talking about canines,
four-legged creatures, man's best friend? Is that what he's
talking about? No, if you remember, The dogs
were the Gentiles, but yet he's writing to Gentiles, right? He's
talking about the Gentiles. The Jews called the Gentiles
dogs, but also the dogs are also referred to as those who are
the religious people. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. Now,
whenever he says beware of the concision, what's he talking
about? He's talking about those religious Jews. Those religious
Jews who have not believed upon Christ. He's saying beware of
those. And listen, even today, brethren,
you find if you watch on the news, if you watch on TV, And
in our government, I think everybody's all about backing Israel, let's
back national Israel. Why? Because they're God's people.
Listen, the nation that is in existence today as Israel is
not God's people. God has abandoned those people
as a nation, okay? That whenever Christ came and
died, that the people of God is a spiritual people. It is
not a fleshly people. Paul even writes in Romans that
it's not those who are the people in the flesh, but it is the people
who are in the spirit or the people of faith that are the
children of Abraham. It's not those who are the children
of the flesh, but the children of the promise, the children
of faith, the children of the spirit. Those who are born from
above, those are the spiritual Israel. Those are the ones who
are Jews indeed, okay? And spirit, those are the ones,
not outwardly, but those who are inwardly Jews, okay? Inwardly Israel. That's who he's
talking about. Those who are on the outside,
those who are the concision, he says, beware of the concision.
And I think that we need to be careful of that even today. There's
so many people that wanna intertwine and call what we believe and
what we are as Christians, a Christian Judeo country. a Christian Judeo
belief. We are not a Christian Judeo
anything. Okay, there is one gospel, there
is one Bible, there is one God and one Christ, and the concision
or the Jews, they don't believe in this. They don't believe this
Bible. They don't believe in Christ
as the only son of God, their Messiah. They reject him as that. And so for us to say we need
to embrace them and love them as brothers because they are
the elect of God in the flesh, that's not true. Now, I'm not
gonna get off on a whole bunch of other stuff pertaining to
the fact that they the nationality and the bloodlines and all that
kind of stuff and all that mixture of stuff and what they are today.
And listen, brethren, even the practice of the Jews, the religious
practice of the Jews, is not according to what God gave Moses
either. So what they're practicing now is not, even what the Orthodox
Jews are doing, is not what God gave Moses. And so, Paul here, even closely to the
time where he himself was part of this, what he's calling the
concision, and he's about to rectify that, but he's saying
beware of the concision. Beware out there of the heathens,
the evil workers, beware of the dogs, but also beware of the
religious leaders. Beware of the religious people
who have a religious thing going, but not a true, Salvation. They preach religion. They preach
a following of traditions of men. They preach a works-based
gospel. They preach a works-based salvation. Beware of them. They believe
that they have a righteousness of their own, whether that righteousness
is the ability to believe apart from the new birth already, See,
that's what I used to preach. I used to preach that someone
could repent and believe, and then because of that, God would
cause them to be born again, and that he would accept them
and make them his child at that point, and then justify them
because of them believing. Listen, brethren, the reason
that we repent and believe the gospel is because we've already
been born again. God has already done that. And
so to preach repentance and faith as the instrument in which God
looks for to bring justification or to bring salvation then that
right there is a works-based gospel. We are saved by the finished
work of Christ alone. The imputation of righteousness
to the child of grace is on the merit of Christ and his word
and never upon anything that is conditioned upon man. And
so whenever Paul is writing of these things, and he's talking
about religious leaders, he's not saying don't pay attention
to the Lord's churches and the pastors and the elders within
those churches and things like that. He's not saying that. He's
saying, beware of those who want to take you back to Moses, to
take you back to a self-righteousness works program. Beware of these
people. and don't listen to them. And
listen, that's what the modern church today is all about. Half of them are flying the flag
of Israel. Listen, Jesus himself said that
those people are children of the devil. He said that their
house would be left desolate to them. It is not gonna be ongoing. that they had abandoned God,
they had rejected Christ, and so God has turned away from them
as a nation and now has enjoined or has brought in and grafted
in Gentiles into that spiritual family, where once the spiritual
family was primarily made up of people within, within, because
not all that are Israel are of Israel, Romans says, that within
that national Israel, there were true people of God. And then
there were those who weren't, as we see in Jesus' time. There
was the religious leaders who wasn't, there were those whom
Jesus called as his followers, who was. And so Paul is saying,
listen, you need to be aware of even those who are religious
people. They may seem right, they may seem. Be careful of
these. And so he goes on, he says, They
say they're the concision. And what are we talking about
when we say concision? We're talking about circumcision.
That was the cutting away of the flesh of the male child,
right? Whenever someone has said, we
all know what circumcision is, there's no need to kind of go
into detail about that, but that was something that God had given
Abraham, and that was a sign of the covenant. And so they
were to be circumcised, the cutting away of the flesh. Well, now
in the New Testament, there are some that want to say that that
sign has now transferred over and is baptism. That's false. Baptism is not the sign, or excuse
me, baptism is not the carryover of the cutting away of flesh
or what circumcision typified in the Old Testament. The new
birth is what is the fulfillment of that typification in the Old
Testament. The circumcision in the Old Testament
was typifying that God would take away the flesh or would
circumcise the flesh of the heart. OK, and that would be a new birth,
that we'd be a new creation. And that is what is typified
in the Old Testament, not baptism. And there's a whole section in
religious denomination of people that believe that it is a transition
into baptism, that circumcision. But that's not what that is talking
about. But Paul says here, we are the circumcision. We who
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. He says, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit. See, these other people are worshiping
God by their actions, by their duties, by their law keeping,
by their rules and their regulations and by their traditions. That's how they are worshiping
God, their liturgy. That's a big word for kids. I
don't know if you know what liturgy means, but that just means the
formal act of outward worship. I don't know if you guys have
seen that. You've seen me before just out
of curiosity of how to research to see how things work. Occasionally
I've had it on the Catholic channel and where they show the mass
and the priest and all their big fancy guards and their staffs
and their swinging, smoking candle things and all that kind of junk
and their little head pieces. And they get up and they have
all these altars and these statues and all this kind of stuff. And
then they go through a formality where they read a certain thing
and some may do where they go back and forth and someone will
read something, the other person will echo it, they'll read something,
someone will echo it back and forth, and then they will kneel
down and pray and stand back up, all this kind of stuff. Well,
that's liturgy. That's liturgy. The ones who are of the circumcision,
they worship God in the spirit. See, whenever we worship God,
it is coming from the inside out, not the outside in. And
you look at most modern churches today, What do we have? We have
a worship leader. We have a worship team. And what
does that worship leader and worship team, what do they say
their job is to do? Is to get everybody ready for
worship. That worship team is to get everybody
ready for worship and to bring them in. to worship. I've even
said that back whenever I used to travel and sing, I used to
say, you know, that, that, you know, we're going to lead you
to the throne room of God so that we can worship. Listen,
brethren, if your heart has not been brought to worship because
of the gospel, because of the new birth, then Any outward man
is not gonna be able to bring you to worship. All he's gonna
be able to do is bring you into a false worship, an emotional
experience. He's gonna stir the emotions
because of something outwardly. And that's why we have these
songs that we sing, you know, seven lines, 11 times, you know. We have the music that gets us
all pumped up. We have the lyrics that just
is heartwarming and emotionally stirring, but it's not got much
doctrinal depth. It's a superficial thing to appeal
to the religious flesh. My grandpa used to say that the
flesh will do anything to get its way, even if it means being
religious. And listen, the flesh, that which
despises God, that which hates God, that which cannot please
God, that part of us that comes from Adam, listen, it will act
fleshly. Why? Because it thinks that it
has a self-righteousness, and that through that, you will look
good, it will feed your pride, people will think you're a good,
upstanding person, They'll think that you're really spiritual
because of all the things that you do. You closed your eyes,
you raised your hands, you swayed back and forth. You may have
even led a lot lighter and waved it back and forth at the worship
team as they sung their pretty songs. You may have sung to the
top of your voice. But listen, brethren, you cannot
bring somebody into worship. The only people who can truly
worship God are those who have been circumcised of heart. Those
who truly know God Those who know what has been done for them. Those who know the depths of
sin and depravity that they have been brought from and that God
has given them salvation that they did not deserve. God has
forgiven them of sins that they have mounted up against Christ. That is the people who know and
who worship God. Why? Because they worship Him
for who He is, not because it makes them feel good. And so
many people today, they come to worship God because it makes
them feel good. I just can't go to that church
because the music there doesn't make me feel worshipful. The
music there just doesn't bring me into worship. Well, if you
can only worship God because of external things, then that's
not worship. We do not worship God because
of external things. Icons, crosses, pictures of Jesus,
all the stuff that people use. People walking around with cross
necklaces and everything like that. Why? Because it somehow
stirs their religious emotions. Or maybe they use that to show
to everybody out there, hey, I'm a Christian, you know. You can't tell because of the
way I talk. You can't tell by the way that I act, my decisions
that I make, the things that I do, the things that I'm interested
in. That doesn't tell you I'm a Christian. I have to have a
shirt or a sign or a necklace or a ball cap. And I'm not putting
down all those things. And I'm not saying, now I am
against cross and idolatry of pictures of Jesus and things
like that, steeples and crosses and all that kind of stuff. But
you know, if you wanna wear a shirt that talks about Jesus and stuff
like that, I mean, that's between you and the Lord. But you know,
so many people think that that's what it's all about. Paul here
is telling us, the circumcision, those who have been circumcised
of heart, the true Israel, the true Jew, are the ones who worship
God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. They don't rejoice
in other things. They don't rejoice in their programs. They don't rejoice in their missions.
They don't rejoice in their bank accounts or their numbers that
they have in membership and attendance there. They don't rejoice in
how awesome their worship team is. They don't rejoice in how
famous their preacher might be. No, what do they do? They rejoice
in Christ. When we come to worship God, we come to rejoice in Christ. We come to be lifted up because
of Christ and who He is. But so often our worship is not
like that, right? We come here all sad faced, we
come all here, all gloom and doom. We come here out of rote,
out of habit, out of force, out of duty. We come in here, we
punch in like we go to work. We punch in, do our time, punch
out. We're already thinking about,
hey, what's going on out there? But the people of God, this is
the time that they're waiting all week to be a part of. This
is the thing that they're waiting on. They're looking forward to.
We are pilgrims in this world, and this is one place that is
a haven, that is a refuge, that is a safe place where the Christian
can come with those of like faith and like order, and they can
worship God freely in their spirit and talk about Him and not feel
like they're going to be rejected, not feel like they're going to
be put down or looked down upon, that no one's going to care about
them, no one's going to love them, that they can openly talk
about the things of God to ask questions about God. This is
the place that we can come, but yet there are those institutions
that are out there that look like churches, but that are not
churches. And whenever you go into them,
you find that they're full of the dogs, the evil workers, the
concision, who are worshiping a false Christ, a false gospel,
and a false church. And Paul says, beware. Verse
four says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh,
if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in
the flesh, I am war. So here he says, we don't have
any confidence in the flesh. We come and rejoice in Christ
and what he has done, what he has done alone. And we don't
have any confidence in our flesh. See, that's just the opposite
of the concision. The religious people have confidence
in their flesh. They have confidence that before
they're born again, that they can repent. They have confidence
that before they're born again, they have faith. They have confidence
that in the flesh that they're not as bad as everybody says
they are, that they just need to be woken up. They need to
be woken up a little bit or that God comes in and reworks what's
already inside and just brings it up again. Listen, we never
had it from the very beginning. We never had the life of Christ,
that spiritual life, and that goes all the way back to Adam.
He never had it. The reason that we know that
is because if he had it, we wouldn't have seen what we saw. The reason that he sinned was
because his nature was of the earth earthy. The reason that
he fell was because God designed him for that because of the purpose
of God in Christ. And we, do we think that we anymore
are better than our father, Adam? No. So we don't have confidence in
our flesh, why? Because by the deeds of the flesh shall no man
be justified, that's what the Bible says. Nothing that you
do, no matter how good it is, is ever gonna make you good enough
before God. So Paul says we don't have any
confidence in the flesh. So when we come to worship, we're
not worshiping what we do. So our church services should
not be filled with the accolades of everybody and what everybody
has done. But yet for years in the Southern Baptist, what did
we do? We had our little books and we
checked off who all was there and how many was in attendance.
We put it up on a board. Well, how many people did you
have here? Well, how many was here last week? How many was
here the week before? Then we show how much money that
we give. And we put it on there for everybody
to see what a wonderful, healthy church this is. Man, their bank
account's big, their membership role is big. Well, wait a minute,
their attendance, their membership is 1,000, but their attendance
is only 200. Well, where'd the other 800 go? It's because churches are filled
with lost people. And then out of those 200 that
come, probably half or more than half of those are just religious
people who are coming out of duty. But we pride ourselves
in what all we've done. How many of you have brought
your Bible? How many has done this? Anybody have any word of
what's been going, you know, and we want to stand up and talk
about all those things. Now, the ones who are the circumcision,
they don't have any confidence in the flesh because they know
that the flesh only produces the flesh and the flesh cannot
please God. So we don't worship in the flesh,
we worship Christ in the spirit according to the dictates of
God's word. Verse four, he says, though I
might have confidence in the flesh, that's fleshly speaking. If we're gonna speak about confidence
in the flesh, I, more than anybody, can have confidence in the flesh.
Now he's telling us, don't have confidence in the flesh. He's
not contradicting himself here, he's saying, Don't have confidence. We don't have confidence in the
flesh, those who are of concision, circumcision. But if it did come
down to confidence in the flesh, if there was anybody who could
have confidence in the flesh, it's me. And here's going to
tell you why. Circumcised the eighth day, just according to
God's word in the Old Testament. According to the law, they were
to be circumcised the eighth day. He was of the stock of Israel. He was God's chosen people. Of
the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching
the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, listen, I was
so full of zeal that I was out persecuting the church that was
rising up against this institution. of the law. See, he thought he
was so religious, he thought he was serving God by going out
and actually persecuting the ones who actually were the people
of God, who were the church of God. See, it happens today. Churches
like ours that are preaching the true gospel, that are following
God's word in the way that church operates, how the word of God
is to be spread, how baptism and the Lord's Supper
is to be done. Whenever we harbor on those things,
the churches out there that are of the religious orders, they
look down on us and think we're crazy. Look at that church over
there. They only got about eight people,
10 people gathered together over there. They're of no significance.
Obviously, God's not doing nothing with them. Otherwise, they'd
have a lot more people there. That's not true. That's not true. concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blame us.
So according to Paul himself, he was saying, listen, according
to the law and how the law was, he said, listen, I did everything
the law told me to do, I followed it. Now he knew that in and of
himself, he couldn't keep those things, but he thought he did,
and he was following every law he could. He says, yea, doubtless,
and I count all things, excuse me, I missed verse seven, but
what things were gained to me, All those things, those religious
things that I thought was important, that I thought was necessary,
that I thought was good, that I thought was productive, that
I thought was part of worship and service to God. He said,
but what things were gained to me at that time when I was blinded
of the gospel, blinded of Christ, blinded of myself, those things
that I thought were gained to me, those I counted for loss. for Christ. They were gained to me in the
flesh, but they were at loss to Christ. The message of the
gospel of Christ wasn't coming out of what I was doing. The
work of the gospel was not what I was doing. It was not of Christ. It was of the flesh. And he says,
listen, I counted all loss for Christ. He said, I am gladly
giving it all up, walking away from it all, turning my back
on those very things and not having any confidence in the
works of the flesh. Those were all works of the flesh.
And listen, we think that that's good, right? I mean, he was everything
according to the law. But yet he says, I count it all
as dumb. I count it all as lost. for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but
done that I may win Christ. Listen, brethren, for those of
us who have come and been brought, have been born from above and
then been brought to believe the gospel. Listen, we may have
had to turn from a lot of things. I had to turn for many years
of preaching and teaching a false gospel. I had to leave and turn
away from a church that I attended that I love the people dearly
that are in there, family and friends that I grew up with,
who I love dearly. But I had to turn from that.
A singing ministry that I was a part of, I had to turn from
that. There are many things that I
had to turn from that I had to give up and I'm not the only
one. There are people all over this
world, God's people face these things that whenever they come
to believe the gospel and they see the church, the way the church
should be run and be governed under the headship of Christ
alone and following those to a T, I say to a T, following
those to the best that they can by God's grace, then they're
gonna be persecuted. They're gonna lose, they're gonna
have to turn from things, give up some things that at one time
was dear to them. But he said, listen, it's worth
it. To win Christ is to, listen, for me to go from the highest
stature, and just think about Paul. He went from the highest
stature, the Pharisees of Pharisees, the one who sat at the feet of
Gamaliel, and he learned from the one who they thought was,
listen, this high priest teacher, I mean, this teacher is the man
to listen to. That would be like the people
today saying, Adrian Rogers, or Billy Graham, or C.H. Spurgeon,
or John Gill, or whoever your favorite person was. Man, can
you imagine being able to just sit and listen to John Gill teach
week after week? People today, oh, could you imagine
being in John MacArthur's church week after week? Listen, there's
a lot of error in a lot of that. And a lot of those guys are preaching
false gospels, by the way, including John McCormick. But Paul says, listen, to win
Christ, it's worth counting them all as dumb. He said, verse nine,
and be found in him See, I'm ready to turn away from
all these things. I've given up all these things. And I see
that everything that we try to do in the flesh counts for nothing. And so my desire is not to be
in the high ranks of level, which Paul was. But if you look now
at this time when Paul is writing and whenever he's writing, listen,
he's been put in prison. He's been beat. He's been shipwrecked. He's been cast out of town. He's
been stoned. They tried to throw him off a
cliff one time. They was wanting to kill him.
So he went from being up here, the precious child of Jerusalem,
to one of the most hated and wanted men in all of Christianity. And he says, listen, I don't
care about that height that I reached. I want to win Christ. And I want
to be found in him. not having my own righteousness.
And here's where it gets down to the crux of things. The two
things that we're talking about. We're talking about self-righteousness.
We're talking about Christ righteousness. He says, I know that in myself
dwells no good thing, Romans 7. Nothing of the flesh that I have
can do any good because everything of the flesh is not pleasing
to God. If it's not of faith, it's sin. And the only thing that can come
that is pleasing to God comes by faith, and faith comes outside
of me. I don't have faith. God has to
give it to me. And then whenever he gives me
that faith, he regulates the measure of that faith. So I am
dependent, fully dependent, and looking to Christ alone as my
salvation, whether that salvation is the eternal legal aspect where
Christ has substituted and has stood in my place as the atonement
for my sin before God and satisfied His justice. or whether it's
practically, experientially, where Christ, by His Spirit,
comes, gives me new life, gives me understanding, brings me to
repent of my dead works, of false religion, of trusting in my own
righteousness, my own things to get me saved, and looking
to Christ alone, where the Spirit comes and it daily gives me encouragement
and edification as I study God's Word, as the Spirit comes, and
it keeps me from sinning. Or in the times when God doesn't
restrain, He allows me to sin, and then in that sin, I learn
from that, and God chastens me, and then He draws me to Himself
and causes me to look to Him again. Listen, all these things
are about Christ, and it's about His righteousness, not mine.
And so Paul says, and be found in Him. This is what I desire,
is to be found in Him. I don't wanna be found in myself
and the self-made man that I might make myself in this world. I
wanna be found in Him, not even having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. And you know why Paul said that?
Two reasons. Number one, he had been given
an understanding of God's word and he found out that God's word
specifically said that the law could never save anybody. The
law could never make anyone righteous, yay. The law never was intended
to make anyone righteous. So anybody who thinks that we
need to keep the law to be righteous, they're completely misunderstanding
the whole purpose of the law and why it was given. The law
never was intended to make you righteous. You're never gonna
be able to keep it because it never was intended to be the
source of righteousness. It was always meant to be the
source of sin. The law came in that the sin,
the offense might abound. The law came in as a schoolmaster
to show you, shed light on the fact that no matter how hard
you try, no matter how well-intended you might be, you can never keep
the standard of God because you are a creature of flesh. And so that law, the good part
of the law, is that it beats you down and shows you that you
can't do it, and it tells you that there's one who did it for
you, who kept the full law on your behalf. And so to be found
in him, not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, we look
to Christ, which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. See, we desire, as the people
of God, whenever we're given repentance, we repent of those
dead works of looking to ourself and what we can do through the
law, but we look to what Christ has done by faith. It was the
faith of Christ that justified us. It was the faith of Christ
that brought in our righteousness. It was Christ's faith, and be
found in Him not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is through
faith, the faith of Christ. It's not your faith. See, again,
we've mentioned this before. Justification by faith isn't
justification by you exercising the faith that Christ gave you.
Justification by faith is justification by the faith or faithfulness
of Christ Jesus. It was Him coming and doing all
that the Father had given Him to do. It's Him coming and doing
all the promise that He made in the covenant of grace to redeem
the people of God. Everything that He stood as a
lamb slain whenever He went before God in the throne of heaven with
His blood and said, I will stand for them, I will go on their
behalf. God said, that's good enough. And so now it was His duty to
come. The only condition that is ever a part of salvation is
the condition of Christ's faithfulness to do what he promised he would
do. Because all of God's justice
was based on that. All of God and his holiness and
righteousness and justice and the very salvation that he had
purposed for those people that he had given to Christ before
the foundation of the world and declared upon them. Now listen,
God would be made a double liar in this fact. If Christ did not
bring every person for whom he died, God would be a double liar.
Number one, God deemed them justified because of the righteousness
of Christ and as stood, had an everlasting love for them based
upon that righteousness of Christ imputed to them. And so if Christ
didn't come and bring that people back, then Christ has failed. but also God in declaring them
just and righteous also failed because he didn't see and understand
and know. But God says he knows all things,
the end from the beginning. Why? Because he decreed them. And Paul says, this is what I
want to know. I don't want to know what I can
do. Whenever I come to church and I want to hear and worship
Christ, I don't want to hear about what I need to do. And
so many churches are filled with preachers that are out there
telling people what you've got to do to be right with God, what
you've got to do to get saved, what you've got to do to stay
right with God. Don't tell me that. Don't tell
me the righteousness that I need to find by the law. Tell me what
Christ has done for me. I want to know that I'm found in Him. Not because
of my own righteousness, because my own righteousness will always
fail. I want to know the righteousness
that comes through the faith of Christ, which is of God. Now look at verse 10, the title
of my message here, that I may know him and the power of his
resurrection. That I may know him. When I come
to worship, I come to worship him because I know him and I
want to know him more. that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death. Now, did Paul know Christ in
a physical way? Well, absolutely he did. Remember
Damascus? Damascus was a pretty eye-opening,
or in Paul's case, an eye-shutting experience. Remember, Paul saw
Christ, he came down, There was a bright light and Paul could
see Christ there. Christ talked to Paul. It blinded
him. He's blinded for several days
until he went and was healed. Paul had seen Christ. You remember
when Paul went into Arabia and for three and a half years was
there being taught by Christ, all the things that he knew,
he knew Christ. So what does he mean here? That
I might know him. Well, that he might become, that
he might know him more. He wants to know him more. And
we know that, if you would turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter
13, because Paul knew something about himself. Much to the surprise of a lot
of modern theologians, and especially some of these New Age Calvinists
that are out there, these perfect knowledge people, Paul knew something
about himself. Look with me if you would. Down in verse nine, he says, for we
know in part and we prophesy in part. See, Paul knew that he didn't
know everything. We only know in part. Now, Paul knew a lot
of stuff, don't you think? Paul had been taught by Jesus
just like the other apostles had for three and a half years.
I also think that's pretty strange, kind of a neat thing, a little
tidbit, a little nugget in scripture, that Jesus was with the disciples
and the apostles for three and a half years, right? His earthly
ministry, whenever he came and came in and walked and John said,
you know, behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the
world, was baptized and he began his earthly ministry there. He
began that public ministry, I should say. His earthly ministry had
been going on even since in the Old Testament. The public ministry
of his messiahship, his Christhood, came in there publicly. And for three and a half years,
he taught those people. And then Paul, whenever he called
Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles, he didn't leave Paul
as a back-burner apostle. Paul wasn't a second-rate apostle. Whenever Paul said that he was
a man abnormally born, he wasn't talking about physically. Some
people say that he had an eye problem or a hunchback or something
like this. He wasn't talking about that.
He said that he came at a different point. He wasn't brought forth
as an apostle at the same time as the other apostles was. He
was brought forth at a later time for a different purpose. The original apostles, the 12,
was called to be apostles to the Jews, to Israel. The Bible
says that the gospel would go to the Jew first and then to
the Gentile. that it was gonna start in Jerusalem,
then in Judea, then into Samaria, then into the other parts of
the world. Well, the apostles had to come first. That was to
go to the Jews first. And then the Gentiles after that. So Paul was abnormally born,
meaning that he was brought forth as an apostle out of due season,
out of the time that the other apostles came, because his purpose
was to go to the Gentiles. But God didn't give him a chintzy
seminar. He gave him the full thing, just
like the other apostles, three and a half years. I thought that
was kind of amazing, but anyway. But Paul writes here, he says,
for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Listen, every preacher
of God that is out there that has truly been called of God,
we only know in part. No matter how much knowledge
you get, No matter how many hours you spend in God's Word. Listen,
I know some preacher friends of mine that can pretty much
quote the Bible from Genesis to Revelations without ever cracking
it open. And yet they still are saying,
I'm learning of God. There's so much that I've yet
to learn. And they truly do. They learn and they grow in their
understanding. and the grace and knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're not afraid or proud
to say that, hey, there's a lot of stuff that I don't know. And
to walk away and say, I don't know what that means, but I can
tell you what I think that it means, but I don't know. They're
willing to listen, to understand. Why? Because we know that we
only know in part. And we prophesy in part. When
we preach, we only preach in part. Why? Because we don't know
the whole story. We don't know the fullness yet.
We only know in part, so we can only preach in part. We can only
preach what we know. And what we know, we preach. Like Brother Royce would say,
you can maybe tell me what I don't know, but don't try to tell me
what I already know. God has shown it to me and taught
it to me, and I know that, then I know that. But don't tell me
what I know. He says, but when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. A lot of people think that that's
talking about whenever the Bible was finished, and I do not believe
that that's what that is talking about. I believe that it's talking
about one of two things here. He either is talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ, which I'm compelled to believe, whenever
he comes, then knowledge will be perfect and prophesying will
be perfect. Everything else will have already
ceased or will cease. But he says here that when the
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away with. When I was a child, I speak as
a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when
I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as also I am known. And so Paul
here had an understanding. So whenever he says that I may
know him is not to say that I can attain to already know him. What he's saying here, he's admitting
humbly before everybody that my purpose in worship here, my
purpose as the concision is that I might know him. The reason
we come in worship is that we might know him more. The reason
we study his words so that we might know him more. The reason
we listen to preaching so we might know him more. And so what
we're doing is we're acknowledging the fact that we don't know everything. He says that I might know him.
Now surely, he truly means to know him in a spiritual way,
to know him as Lord, to know him as his king, to have a hope
given to him that he is his redeemer. But Paul, having been born from
above, had been given that hope because we know everyone born
from above is given that hope. So he's talking about something
more than that. He's talking about that I might know more of this
man. who did this for me, to know more of his righteousness,
to know more of how he gave me that righteousness, to know more
of how my righteousness is of no effect, that I might know
him when he says, and the power of his
resurrection. What does that mean? What does
that mean to us? That we might know him and the
power of his resurrection. Well, surely it's to know about
the power of God and being able to raise Christ from the dead.
But. I think it goes beyond that.
It's to know him and the power of God to resurrect us. See, we look to Christ and our
union with him in the fact that as Christ was raised from the
dead, We also shall be raised from the dead because we're in
Christ. Christ was the first fruits. And so he was raised first with
that glorious body. We still in this body of flesh,
but yet have that glorious treasure in us of the life from above. We have that in this earthen
vessel. But one of these days we too
will die and we will be raised and we will have that spiritual
glorious body like Christ. And so Paul says, I wanna not
only know more about him, but I also wanna know the power of
his resurrection, the power to not only save me from sin, to
impute righteousness to me and my account, even though I am
unrighteous, but I wanna also know that whenever I die, I will
be raised with him. I wanna know those things. And how does he know that? Why
does he know that his union with Christ is gonna guarantee this? Well, because Paul also knew,
if you would, back in Romans chapter four, Romans chapter
four and verse 25, Romans 4, verse 25, Paul wrote
this. Actually, let's go back in verse
21. It says, I'm being fully persuaded
that when he had promised, he was able to perform, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. See, Paul knew that because of
Christ being raised from the dead, we were justified. Now, again, let me remind you
what justification is. Justification, the little simple
child teaching on this, is justified, never sinned. God looks upon
me, justified, never ever sinned, okay? But justification encapsulates
satisfaction as well. God has justified, we are justified
before God, meaning that all the sin that we've ever committed
in our lifetime, God has forgiven and it doesn't even lay to our
account for him to even go back and look and say, well, you did
do that, but we kind of overlooking it now because of Jesus. No,
it ain't even there. It's been removed. It's been
blotted out. Okay. Beside Michael Smith's
name, you know, 7,700 trillion zillion kajillion sins in his
lifetime. No, it doesn't show anything
there. It shows just a blank slate. And that justification
came because Christ substituted for me. The Bible says that he
took upon our sins, that he took upon him the iniquity of us all,
the people of God. He took upon him the iniquity
of us all. And by his servant, righteous
servant, he will justify the many. Because he took the sin
upon him, we are not accounted for that sin anymore. Because
Christ, sorry, I'm about to sneeze, and if it won't come forth, then
it won't go back. It's stubborn. See, in justification, Christ
has taken our sin and paid for it in full. And because all that
the justice of God demanded, and Christ did, he lived perfectly
the law of God for us. And because He lived that, He
was a perfect sacrifice for us. And because He was a perfect
sacrifice for us, then God atoned. Our sins were atoned for. That
means that they were covered, they were blotted out, that God
removed them, forgave them, does not hold them to our account.
We are now justified of all sin that we ever have done, will
do. And because of that, then we
do not have to answer to God's condemnation. We do not have
to answer to God's wrath that we are no longer under the law's
condemnation of death. We have life. And so the fact
that Christ was raised from the dead, his raising from the dead
was the justification to us so that we might know, that everyone
might know that what he did on behalf of those people was accepted
of God. That atonement was an accepted
atonement of God. Listen, if somebody brought in
a sacrifice to God that wasn't an acceptable sacrifice, he rejected
that sacrifice and it didn't count against him. You remember
whenever Cain and Abel came? before the Lord and they made
their sacrifices and Abel brought a spotless lamb before him and
one of his sheep and brought it forth and provided that to
God. And then what did Cain do? He brought some of the vegetables
or fruit or whatever from the toil of the ground that he had
done and brought that before God. And God didn't receive that
sacrifice. God didn't receive that offering.
If a priest would come in with a land that wasn't spotless and
perfect, then that was rejected. And everything that that person
was coming to have atoned for, there was no atonement for them.
So if Christ coming was not perfect, there could be no atonement.
God would reject everything that Christ did and everybody who
had sinned still had their sin to their account. When Christ was
raised from the dead, it was the sign, signature, the affidavit,
however you want to put it, the proof that God, everything that
God, there was nothing left. God didn't require anything else.
And that because Christ himself was perfect. See, Christ didn't
have no sin. So in and of himself, he did
not have to die and stay dead and suffer eternal punishment. because he himself was a spotless,
perfect, impeccable Christ. But whenever he had received
all of the wrath of God on behalf of the sins of all of his elect,
then God said, now that that's all paid in full, then I'll raise
you to life. And so, Paul wanted to know the
power of his resurrection because it spoke of his justification.
It spoke of the fact that if I am in union with Christ, not
only am I going to be raised at the end with that spiritual
glorious body, but now as I live in this wretched man who in my
flesh, I served the law of sin, but in my mind, I served the
law of Christ, that that struggle is going on. I know that there
is therefore now no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus.
But also in the power of the resurrection, he can also be
alluding to the fact that we are being born from above, a
new birth. We see Peter writes about that.
Look in 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse 3. 1 Peter chapter 1. It says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant
mercy, have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. The fact that Jesus fulfilled
everything that God demanded in his justice on behalf of his
people, the effect of that was resurrection at the end. The
effect of that was justification now in this lifetime and in that
to come. And it was also securing the
spirit to be able to come and to put that vessel or that treasure
into that earthen vessel, that new creature, that new creation,
that life that is from above. And so we have Christ in us by
the Spirit, and that comes because or is shown by the power of the
resurrection, the power of the resurrection. Now, quickly, let's go through
the rest of this here. I know I've taken a lot of time
actually leading up to what I was really wanting to say, but he
goes on to say that, I may know him in the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable under
his death. What Paul is saying here is, listen, not only do
I want to know him in a personal way, know more about him and
what he has done, to know the benefits that I get from the
power of his resurrection and the life that I can have because
of everything that was secured in his work of atonement, but
also that I may fellowship, be worthy to be counted, to suffer
for Christ. If you look, all the apostles
had that same attitude. They felt it worthy to be considered
a suffering person for the cause of Christ. They rejoiced. Remember the apostles who were
persecuted and they were called out by the religious leaders
and in prison and even beat. They went away rejoicing that
they had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.
But Christians today, they want to run and hide every time someone
starts talking about God or Jesus, they want to run and hide. Well,
oh, I don't want them to know that I believe and I'm a believer.
or maybe some old friends or something like that. They're
like Peter around the fire with the little girl who came and
said, weren't you one of the guys that hung around with him?
And he said, I don't know what you're talking about. No, Paul said, listen, I want
to know him so much that I am willing to suffer on his behalf
and be made conformable unto his death. Verse 11, if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now
this isn't an iffy statement, even though it starts with if. If by any means I might attain. This isn't something that he's
throwing doubt at, okay? At least that's not how I understand
it. Because Paul surely, wasn't doubtful, this would be in contradiction
to when Paul said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. So the Paul that said that, is
he going to come back and say, well, I hope if by any means
that I might attain... No, there is no doubt here. There
isn't a insecurity of the believer here. There is a full security
of the believer here. He says that I want to know Him
and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering
being made conformable unto death, if by any means. What he means
there, he said, that no matter what, in any way, if it means
good days with no one bothering me and persecuting me, being
able to preach the gospel, good. Or if it means being in prison,
locked up in shackles, alone in a dank prison. If that's what it means, then
okay, for me to know the resurrection of the dead, for me to get to
that place and know that, to be a part of the sufferings of
Christ, to be a part of this whole group of people who Christ
has secured this resurrection at the end. He said, if by any
means, whatever it takes, Whatever the Lord designs for me, he says,
I've become content to be that in no matter what state I'm in,
whether I'm rich, whether I'm poor, whether I'm healthy, whether
I'm sick, whether I'm healthy, or excuse me, whether I'm safe,
or whether I'm in danger, whether I'm free, or whether I'm locked
up, whatever the case might be. He says, if by any means, I am willing
to do, go, be whatever God wants that I might attain unto the
resurrection. Now, he's not saying that if
I do this, then I'll get to attain it. He's just confirming that
if this is the path that God leads me through, if this is
the struggles, if this is the turmoil, if this is the life
that God has dictated for me, in conforming me to Christ, conforming
me to His image, and bringing me to the resurrection of the
dead, then I wanna know it all. Bring it to me, give it to me,
that I might know Christ in all of it, that I might know Christ
in my down times, that I might know Christ in my up times, that
I might know Christ in my persecution, that I might know Christ in my
good fair weather days. that I might know Christ when
friends and relatives disown me, that I might not know Christ
whenever I have lots of friends, that I might know Christ when
I'm alone and don't have anybody. Paul says, listen, if by any
means, and then he says in verse 12, not as though I had attained,
I already attained, either were already there. He said, I know
I'm not there. I haven't reached that point. I haven't obtained
it yet. I've not been made perfect. I've
not become to the mature man yet. Why? Because I still know in part.
I still prophesy in part. I still look in the glass darkly.
One of these days I will be made perfect. And then I will know
as I am known. But he says, but I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus. He says, but I continue after,
I press forward. Paul says right here, look down
here, verse 14. I press toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's not pressing for the mark
of being the best corporate man. He's not pressing for the mark
of being the best x-ray service technician. He's not pressing
for the mark of being the most popular man in town, the mayor,
the president, the governor. a movie star, a rock star. He's
not pressing towards the mark of anything else except for pressing
toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God. His
main ambition and goal and work in this life, even though it's
surrounded with all the things of the world, even though it's
surrounded with all the obligations that we have in this life as
father, as husband, as pastors, as workers and employees and
employers and citizens within a community. Although we have
obligations in all those things, he says, listen, the main object
is to press for the mark of the prize, the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. He said, forgetting those things
which are behind, reaching forth into those things which are before. So he says, let us therefore,
as many as be perfect, be thus minded, mature. There's many
of us who are mature in our thinking. And if anything ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even unto you. So he's saying here,
for those who have learned, but even if you haven't learned these
things, may God reveal even this unto you. For those of us who
have learned this lifestyle, that have learned this thing,
that it's not about what we do, but what Christ has done, and
fixating ourselves upon Christ, and fixating ourselves upon the
service and the ministry of Christ, and sharing that gospel of Christ,
and not what we do, of Christ, he says, listen, for those of
us who have been brought to maturity in understanding these things,
even if you haven't, May God reveal these even unto you. Nevertheless,
whereunto 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 ye have seen or as ye have
us for an example. For many walk of whom I have
told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the
enemies of the cross of Christ. Listen, brethren, if they are
not walking according to this manner of looking away from self-righteousness
and looking to Christ alone, if they are still looking for
their own righteousness, which is of the law, whether that be
actual commandments that they're keeping or whether it is for
repentance or whether it is for faith or for church attendance
or tithing or whatever it is, If they are walking according
to that and the Bible says they are enemies of the cross, no
matter how religious they are. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly and whose glory is not in Christ alone. But is in their shame. Their
glory is in the very thing that should be their shame, and that
is their self righteousness. To be self-righteousness is the
most shameful thing a person could be because in and of that,
you think that you have worth and ability before God to do
that which is acceptable to Him. And so we should be ashamed to
think that Christ is not enough. For our conversation is in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned likened
to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself." All right, brethren,
is there anybody that has any questions or comments? Or is there anybody that has
anything of correction or rebuke? It is a glorious gospel. And
this gospel is not just a Sunday affair. It's a whole life affair. Yeah, we have a lot of things
in our life that we are to be attentive of. I have to have
a job. The Bible tells me that if I
don't provide for my family, that I'm worse than an infidel.
So I have a responsibility to work. And I try to instill that
into my family. My boys teach them to work. So
that whenever they have a family, they'll be able to provide for
their family. I have a wife, I'm to be responsible
and to be a husband to my wife, a father to my children. I have
a job, I'm supposed to be a good employee to my employer. These
things are important, but they are not more important than pressing
towards the prize of the high calling. It is not more important
than looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith. thanking on him, worshiping him. What we do here today should
be the highlight of everybody's week if you're a child of grace.
What we do here is a time where we come together. Now, that doesn't
mean that we can't worship in our hearts to the Lord at home
when we're studying or wherever we're at. There's a lot of times
I'm driving down the road by myself at work and listening
to a sermon on the to my ear pods and everything,
earbuds, or I'm listening to some music or something like
that, or even just thinking about some verse of scripture and everything,
and I might rejoice in that. But brethren, when we come here
together as the church, this is a time that the Lord has promised
His presence among us. It should be a highlight. Anyway,
all right. bow and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for this day and we thank you once again
for the time that we've had together. Bless the fellowship together
today, Lord. Bless the food that we're about
to eat to the nourishment of our bodies. Be with us as we
leave this place and keep us in safety this week until we
gather again by your grace. And Father, help us, Lord, for
the things that we've heard today that we might like Paul press
towards that prize, that high calling, which is in Christ Jesus,
Lord. We just look towards that. We
thank you for Christ who has secured our salvation and him
alone and that we are thankful and grateful how comforting it
is to know that this salvation is by free grace alone and not
by our abilities. Thank you again and it's in Christ's
name that we pray.