Well, come back with me to Philippians
chapter 3 this week. Last week we looked at verse
3 about the marks of the true people of God. conversion uh... is a word that is used these
days quite a lot but nearly always compared with in my youth the
word conversion is used about dwellings you will see television
programs talking about taking an old wrecked barn and converting
it into a lovely habitable dwelling that's the way the word is used
today but when i was a lot younger conversion was widely used to
mean conversion from the things of this world, from unbelief
of God, into those being a person who believes and trusts in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Converted to Christ. It signified,
and it still does, it's a total change of outlook. It's a change
of thinking. It's a change of ambition. You
know, the thing that drives you, the thing that promotes you to
get out of bed in the morning and do things, your aspirations,
what you aim for, where you want to go. It sets you on a different
course is conversion. When we're talking about conversion
to Christ, to the knowledge of Christ, conversion to God and
his truth. It's used regarding people changed
from being happy citizens or contented citizens of the kingdom
of this world, the kingdom of Satan, to those whose hopes and
whose aspirations and whose home and citizenship is in the kingdom
of heaven. A conversion from being with
the majority that are going down the broad way, as Jesus said,
to destruction, conversion from that to being numbered amongst
the little flock, which is on the narrow way to the celestial
city. Two examples stand out. There are many examples, of course,
but two stand out in scripture particularly. There's one of
the malefactors on the cross next to Jesus. When he died,
he was in the midst of two malefactors, two criminals who were judged
under Roman law to be guilty and worthy of death and were
dying the cruel death of crucifixion, one either side of him. And initially
they both, railed against Jesus, saying, if you are who you say
you are, then save us from this situation. But one of them was
dramatically converted to Christ. In his dying moments, the penitent
thief, there on that cross, one fully deserving his situation,
his fate, God shined his light into that man's heart, and he
said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He
told the other thief, do you not fear God, seeing that we
are here truly condemned? But this man, he's done nothing
amiss. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And
Jesus said to him, truly, verily, I say to you, this day you shall
be with me in paradise. What? Somebody as wicked and
criminal and sinful as that going to heaven. Why? Because in that
very moment, in that hour, the Lord Jesus Christ next to him
was dying to pay the price of divine justice for that man's
sins and the multitude for whom Christ died. And then the other
one that stands out is Saul of Tarsus, the writer of this epistle
to the Philippians, later known as Paul. Paul the Apostle, but
Saul of Tarsus was a strict Pharisee. The two of them were of opposite
ends of humanity. One was a wicked criminal, a
low base man, you wouldn't trust him, he was a thief, he was a
robber, he was a murderer, he was with a gang of criminals,
and he was justly, according to Roman justice, he was dying
there for his crimes. But at the other end of the spectrum
of humanity was this upright Pharisee. This very, very respectable
Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, trained in the ways of the Pharisees,
a strict Jew, and here he was. This man, he too, later was converted
to Christ. Both were suddenly aspiring to
paradise, to the paradise of God. If you look at verse 11
of chapter three, if by any means, says Paul, I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. That's talking about attaining
to heaven at the end of life, attain to the resurrection of
the dead. The body dies, but the spirit rises and is with
Christ in heaven. Heaven is the goal, the celestial
city, that city which has foundations, as it says in Hebrews 11. We
look for Abraham, the patriarchs, those who had faith, the faith
of God, they look for that city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. As it says at the end of Hebrews,
chapter 13 and verse 14, here, in this world, in this life,
we have no continuing city. And yet people live their lives
as if there's no other continuing city than this world in which
we live. No, here we have no continuing
city. And the more you look at how
evil this world is becoming, how Hopeless is it to have hope
in this world, to hope that this world will be put right by political
means, by lobbying, by protesting, by all of these things. No, no,
the truth of scripture, the truth of God is that here we have no
continuing city, but we seek one to come. What's the one city
that we seek to come? It's that new Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven as a bride, prepared for her husband. That
glorious heaven of God, the kingdom of God. If you want a rational
argument for the truth of Christianity, and be in no doubt, a rational
argument will never persuade you to believe the truth, because
that's only the Spirit of God that can do that. Only the Spirit
of God can make you alive to the truth of God. But a very
powerful rational argument is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus
to what he became, Paul the Apostle. That makes a powerful case. That
is a conversion that was divinely ordered in a sudden 180 degree
turn, never to be undone. The thief on the cross was there,
an evil malefactor, cursing Christ one minute and the next minute
God shined his light into his heart and he was saying, Lord,
have mercy upon me, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
He was converted, 180 degree turnaround. There, in that moment,
he had no opportunity ever to do any good works for the cause
of Christ. He never ever could do any progressive
sanctification to make himself any more fit for heaven. No,
it was all of grace. It was all of God. It was all
entirely of the purposes of God. And in a similar way, here was
Saul of Tarsus on his journey to Damascus with authority from
the high priest and the rulers in Jerusalem to go and to round
up any that they found on the way or in Damascus who showed
allegiance to the cause of Christ, to the Christian gospel, to the
band of followers of Christ that was growing. It needed to be
stamped out as far as Saul of Tarsus was concerned. It was
a diabolical, in his opinion, a diabolical, a devilish distortion
of the Jewish religion, and it needed to be stamped out. But
unlike the thief who had no thoughts of heaven beforehand, Paul's
objective remained the same, because you see, when he was
a Pharisee, doing all the things that he did, it was still his
desire to attain unto the resurrection of the dead. He was still intending,
that's why he did it, that's why he was a Pharisee, that's
why he was so fervent about his religion. Unlike the thief, the
malefactor, who had no such thoughts, Saul of Tarsus certainly aspired
to heaven. But here's the question. What
is the currency that would secure his end objective? In the case
of Paul, the currency that would secure the objective was drastically
changed. I've entitled this message, you
might find it an odd title, The Currency of Heavenly Attainment. Currency is what gets you the
power to obtain things, to buy things. Well, what is the currency
of attaining heaven? This is it. I want to attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. I want to attain to get
to heaven. But what qualifies you for admittance
to that glorious place? The world has all sorts of strange
totally unscriptural ideas, that the gates of heaven are guarded
by the Apostle Peter, and you arrive there and Peter has to
decide whether you can get in based on how good you've been
in this life. Let me tell you, if there was
ever any doubt, that is myth and fable and fantasy. It's just
the thoughts of fallen human nature. It's got nothing to do
with that. What qualifies for admittance? to heaven, to the kingdom of
God, to the new Jerusalem, to that city, to that bliss of eternity,
answer is clear in scripture. Only, only, only the holiness
of God. That's the only thing that qualifies.
Are you as holy as God is? Because if you're not, listen
to what the scripture says. Hebrews 12 verse 14, follow after,
pursue, Try to get, do everything you can to get holiness, because
if you haven't got it, you shall not see the Lord. No man shall
see the Lord without it. So the question is, how to get
the holiness that God requires, and how to be rid of that which
bars entrance, because not only do you need to be holy, You need
to carry in none of the baggage, because God will not let you
in. Revelation 21 and verse 27 says concerning His heaven, They
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie. Do you know
what that comes down to? Sin. Sin. Disbelief of God, which
is at the root of all sin, the words of sin, the actions, the
deeds, the thoughts of sin, all of it. You say, well I'm not
defiling, I'm not an abomination, I'm generally speaking, I'm talking
about absolute moral perfection, as measured by the law of God
is what is required. And if you don't measure up,
Not only will you not be let in because you haven't got the
holiness of God, you will not be let in because you are tainted
and stained and carry a burden of sin. What Saul, now Paul,
what he used to value to buy his objective of getting to heaven,
now he saw only as a hindrance. Everything that as a Pharisee
he valued, he now saw, as the one writing this letter to the
Philippians, he saw it only as a hindrance. Not as a help, not
even as zero, but as a hindrance. He spoke in verse two, warning
them to beware of false religion. He says, beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision. This is the religion
that he was in. This is the religion of the Pharisees,
the concision. They were the ones, the Jews,
the Pharisees, they thought they were the true circumcision of
God. They were the true descendants of Abraham. They were the true
people of God who had the right and the qualifications for eternal
glory. And Paul was one of them. Paul
was a leader amongst them. He was one of the most ardent
amongst them. They called themselves the circumcision,
but here in this letter, Paul calls them the concision. The
flesh mutilators. The flesh mutilators. Those who
use the flesh to try and win favour with God. He says, no,
they're not the true people of God. He goes on in verse 3, we
are the true people of God, the circumcision, which worship God
in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. You see, the Pharisees, those
that Paul now calls the concision, who thought of themselves as
the true circumcision, They both aspired to reach heaven, but
only one of them in the right way. Only one in the right way. Not all people are the same.
Those who are the true people of God who will attain to heaven,
and the rest. It's only the true people of
God who will attain to heaven. The rest will not. Those who
think they're in the right way, the concision, they will not
attain to heaven. The Pharisees, that were now
the enemies of Paul the Apostle, and he had been one of them,
they aspired to get to heaven. And the true people of God aspire
to get there. They both aspire to the same thing, but only one
of them will get there, and that's the one that come in the right
way. We saw those marks last week
of the true. I just read them just then. We
worship God in the Spirit. The true people of God worship
God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We
have no confidence in the flesh. All our confidence is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. No fleshly confidence. What do
you mean, Paul? What do you mean? Let's look
at the confidence that Paul had in the past. Let's look at the
confidence that he had. Thinking of the other example
of conversion, the malefactor on the cross, who was saved moments
before he died, that thief on the cross had no heritage to
boast in at all. He couldn't say, ah, look what
a good person I was, I was headed for heaven. No, not one bit.
When he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom,
and Jesus said, this day you shall be with me in paradise,
there was nothing in the past life of this malefactor that
would in any way recommend him to God. But Saul, Saul of Tarsus,
Paul says, as I was, I thought I had loads to recommend me to
God. He had more heritage than almost all others. He had a real
pedigree. Look, he says there in verse
4, No confidence in the flesh? Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If you're measuring one another
by fleshly qualification, I might have confidence in it. If any
other man thinks that he has whereof something, he might trust
in the flesh to get him into heaven. Well, I've got more than
that, says the Apostle Paul. Look at him. Look at what he
was. He was a real Jew. Look at verse 5. circumcised
the eighth day. There was, in the Mosaic law,
you know, the rules about the circumcision of the Jewish males,
was to be a certain window, a certain number of days, and the first
of those was the eighth day, and that was reckoned to be the
most valid, the one with the greatest kudos to it. Ah, says
Paul, I was a Jew, I wasn't just circumcised as an afterthought,
I was an eighth-day circumcised Jew. And I was of the stock of
Israel. I was really of the stock of
Israel. mother and father, born and bred
Jews. Not only that, you know, Israel
had apostatized greatly. The ten tribes of the north had
separated. You know, the kingdom really,
in its glory, the kingdom of David, about a thousand years
before Christ, that lasted 40 years. And then Solomon after
him, another 40 years or so. And then his son, Rehoboam, the
kingdom split up. The ten tribes of the north went
their own way under Jeroboam, and tried to set up their own
version of worship in the north. And they apostatized against
the true worship of God down in the
south, in Jerusalem. And Paul says, I was of the tribe
of Benjamin. They were the ones who stayed
with the tribe of Judah down in the south. He wasn't amongst
the apostatizing tribes that intermingled with the Assyrians
and lost their heritage in that way. No, he was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews. Wow, he had a pedigree. He had exactly the right credentials. As touching the law, a Pharisee. He was a member of the most holy
sect of the Jews. the most deserving of heaven.
The old writers used to say, if ever only two men would go
to heaven, one would be a Pharisee and the other would be a scribe.
There was Paul with such credentials to get him into heaven that he
might attain to the resurrection of the dead. He said, this is
what I used to think of concerning zeal. Look, he was zealous. He
didn't just believe a certain way, he acted upon what he believed. He was zealous. And what did
his zeal work out in? Persecuting the church. Persecuting
the sect as he regarded them, following this man, Jesus of
Nazareth, who needed to be, his followers needed to be stamped
out. He says, touching the righteousness which is in the law, that is,
the legal external observance of the law, you know, don't commit
adultery, well I've never committed adultery, so that's it, I've
kept it, don't steal, well I've never stolen. You know, Paul
said, I thought I'd kept all of the law perfectly, and as
far as other men, my peers amongst the Pharisees, They looked at
me and none of them could find any fault with me. And so he
says blameless. Of course, he doesn't mean blameless
before the justice and righteousness of God. He means blameless. in
the way that his fellow Pharisees measured blamelessness of the
righteousness which is in the law, the external keeping of
it. All of that is what he could have boasted in, and said, if
anything's going to get me to heaven, it is that. That is what
is going to get me to heaven. But look at verse 7. He says,
but what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. Those things that he thought
were so much on his side of the balance, tipping the scales in
his favour towards heaven, he counted them as loss. Look what
he says, he's before King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26, and he's
giving his testimony there in Acts chapter 26, where have I
got it? And verse 6, he's before King
Agrippa and he says, Now I stand and am judged for the hope of
the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise
our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope
to come. Heaven. the people of God in
heaven. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa,
I am accused of the Jews? Why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the dead? I verily
thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to
the name of Jesus of Nazareth. which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I
shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests.
And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them,
and I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them
to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted
them, even unto strange foreign cities, even into distant lands. He was zealous, he worked out
his zeal for that which he put so much value on, to try to crush
this sect of the Church of Jesus Christ. He was motivated by the
heavenly objective to which he aspired, the resurrection from
the dead. As were so many. You remember
the account of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. What
might I do to inherit eternal life? And I won't go into the
details of that dialogue, but you know, there was a lot of
concern. What must I do? Am I doing the right thing to
inherit eternal life? Oh, it's far less so. In the
UK today, I think so much different to the United States. So many
people have a thought of heaven and eternity over there, but
here, no. It's a rare thing to find anybody
with any interest whatsoever in the eternity of God, in the
truth of God, in the scriptures of God. Few think beyond death,
but some do. There's a little article in the
bulletin I've put in this week by Arthur Pink, and it says this,
why is it that there is such indifference to the things of
eternity? And he quotes Romans 3 verse
18, because there is no fear of God before their eyes. They
observe their religion carefully. They believe it buys favor with
God. these religious folk. They keep
a record that they will play before the judgment seat of Christ.
We have the account, as Jesus said, Matthew 7, 22 and 23, he
says, many will say to me in that day of judgment, Lord, haven't
we done this good thing in your name? Haven't we preached? Haven't
we done all these works of kindness and goodness? thinking that that
is earning them the right to attain to the resurrection of
the dead. And Jesus said, I will say unto them who are trusting
in what they've done, depart from me. You who work iniquity,
I never knew you. You know, even in this country,
even the non-religious rely on being no worse than others when
it comes to death and what is beyond death. We need to examine
ourselves seriously. Do I put any trust in what I
am or what I do to buy favour with God? Paul did. He counted
it all as gain. Verse 7, what things were gain
to me? He counted it all as gain. As
Saul of Tarsus, that was what he counted as the currency that
would buy him access to heaven. As a Pharisee, that was all on
the credit side of his heavenly balance sheet. I'm doing so well. What must I do to inherit eternal
life as the rich young ruler? Well look, says Paul, I've got
all of this. I'm going to parade this before
God. He cannot not let me into heaven.
But you know when he met Christ, when he met Christ, He was arrested
on the road to Damascus, going with evil intentions. He was
brought low. He was overwhelmed with the person
of God in Jesus Christ. Let's look briefly at the account
of his conversion in Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9, the first
nine verses. This is it. Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, went to the high priest and desired of him letters to
Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, of the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christian church,
the infant church, whether they were men or women, he might bring
them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Not the
thundering voice of the Lord God, but Jesus. I am Jesus, who
is the Lord God, who appears in such a bright light that it
blinded Saul and struck him to the ground and shocked and horrified
everybody with him. I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. You're trying so hard to destroy
me, but you can't. And he trembling and astonished,
This is the man who, seconds earlier, was determined to go,
and to bind, and to imprison, and to have put to death any
he found who were who were showing allegiance to this Jesus of Nazareth,
whom he thought had been killed and put out of the way, and now
he's met him, the Lord of glory, and he says, Lord. He calls him
Lord. He was going to persecute him.
Jesus says, you're persecuting me. He says, Lord, what will
you have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what you must
do. And they went, and they were shocked. And what does it say
in verse 9? He was three days without sight,
and neither did eat nor drink. It was such a shocking experience
to him. Three days without food or drink,
and without sight. And in the process, he was brought
to renounce everything that he had valued. All of his pharisaical
credentials, all of the things that he put such value on, circumcised
of the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the law of Pharisee, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. But all of those things, they
were all gained to him in his previous reckoning. He now counts
loss. He counted loss for Christ. He's
brought to see those things, not as helps, but as hindrances
on the road to heaven. Not of little credit, but absolute
debit. They were the very opposite.
He saw the road he was on was down to hell and not up to heaven. And comparing himself with the
thief, He was actually further away from God with all of his
pharisaical self-righteousness than the thief was. The things,
the qualities, the reputation that he'd put so much trust in
to get him to heaven were not just of no value, but were actually
a dead weight dragging him down to hell. He saw something far
more excellent. In verse 8, Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss. All things in this life, everything
he had valued, loss, compared with what? In exchange for what?
For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things in this life, and
do count them not as things that I lament losing, but they're
dung, they're rubbish, I don't want it on me. that I may win
Christ. This is it. Something far more
excellent. The excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. We read it in John 17 verses
2 and 3. You have given him, the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this
is life eternal, that they might know thee. the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. That is the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
3, we read this about the Lord Jesus Christ. This man whom he
was persecuting, In whom? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Hid, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That's
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. That's
it. That which he had despised as
a self-righteous Pharisee was now the most excellent, valuable
thing in life. And so it is. The knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the most excellent, valuable thing
in life. Things he had highly prized of,
he mustn't just let them down, he must be rid of them, so as
to win Christ, as he puts it here. That I might win Christ. at the end of verse 8, that I
may win Christ. What is it to win Christ? What is it to win
Christ? To win Christ is to have Him
show us His heavenly glory in our souls, in the inner man. To sense the power of his redeeming
blood cleansing me from my sin, so that I have none of that which
defileth to take into heaven, to cleanse me from sin, to make
me in him the righteousness of God, that I have the holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord, to feel his love in
my heart, to feel and know the thoughts, as he says in Jeremiah
29, the thoughts that I think of you, thoughts of good to give
you an expected end, What riches! What life! This is life eternal,
to know Jesus Christ, to know God and Jesus Christ whom He
has sent, in contrast to the increasing evil of this kingdom
of Satan in which we live. Trying to win Christ, because
it sounds good, doesn't it, to have access to heaven, and yet
retain a hold on what we used to value, they're mutually exclusive. You cannot possess both. Any
attempt to hold both as so many professing Christians do. Oh
yes, we'll have all the goodness that the grace of Christ purchases
for us, but we'll hang on to some of those things about what
we need to do with our flesh as well to earn us favour with
God. You know, so many professing
Christians think like that. Well I'm telling you, it will
make the one essential thing, the one needful thing, worthless
to you. Galatians 5 verse 2 says this,
if you If you who are circumcised, he says, you who try to do this
thing that will earn you favour in your flesh by the things that
you do, he said, Christ will profit you nothing. And the currency
that you need to attain to heaven The only one that will attain
heaven is Christ himself, and the righteousness and forgiveness
of sins that's in him. And yet, if you add these other
things, it will profit you nothing. Jesus said this in Matthew 16,
25 and 26, for whosoever will save his life, struggle to earn
his own righteousness, will lose it. And whosoever will lose his
life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited? What
is a man advantaged if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? We need the righteousness of
God. I've already said Hebrews 12,
14, holiness, follow after it, pursue it, without which no man
shall see the Lord. Where do we get it from? I'll
be quick with this. Romans chapter 1 and verse 17.
Romans 1 verse 17, talking about the gospel. For therein, in the
gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just, those who are justified,
shall live by faith, not by the works that they do. They shall
live by faith. Look at chapter 3 of Romans.
Chapter 3 of Romans and verses 21 and 22. But now, Where are we going to get this
righteousness of God that we must have? because without it
we won't see him. Now the righteousness of God
without the law, without legal obedience is manifested, is made
plain, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. In other
words, it was always there in the scriptures, if only you would
look for it. Which righteousness are we talking about? The righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's the faithful
work of Jesus Christ. establishing righteousness under
the law of God, and dying in the place of his people as the
substitute for his people. That's how the righteousness
of God is established, is obtained, it's by the faithful work of
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, it's those
that believe for whom this righteousness is applied. There is no difference,
doesn't matter what your credentials, your pedigree is, for all, all
the people of God, all the people chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
but all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption,
the payment made that is in Christ Jesus. Chapter 9 of Romans. Chapter 9 and verse 30. What
shall we say then? That the Gentiles, not the people
of God, which followed not after righteousness, didn't seem to
seek it, but they have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith. Attaining to the righteousness
which is of faith. And then chapter 10. For they,
that is the Jews, as Saul of Tarsus was, they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise and so he goes on Paul wants
to win Christ to possess him in his life to enjoy the excellency
of knowing him of walking with him you know as Enoch walked
with God he wants to arrive at judgment day look at verse 9
he wants to arrive at judgment day and be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. He wants to arrive at judgment
day, not with the filthy rags of his own righteousness, his
own righteousnesses, as Isaiah 64, 6 calls them. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags compared to the justice and holiness of God.
He doesn't want to arrive there with those righteousnesses earned
by law works because they won't get him into heaven. They're
not the currency that will attain heaven, that will attain to the
resurrection of the dead. He wants that currency which
God accepts, that which Christ faithfully established, that
which is of the law, not that which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the work of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith. As Galatians 2.16 says,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, But
by the faith of, there it is again, it's what Christ did that
justifies his people. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law,
no flesh shall be justified. If you arrive in eternity clothed
with that imputed righteousness of God, He will accept you. He can't refuse you entry to
heaven. This is the currency of heavenly attainment. The same
power that raised Jesus from the dead, look in verse 10, that
I might attain, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable to His
death. The same power that raised Jesus
from the dead will guarantee your access into heaven. He who
was delivered for our offences was raised again for our justification. The resurrection shows that the
justice of God was vindicated when Christ died for his people.
That's how it is that his people are justified. People who are
sinners by nature are justified by what he did and the resurrection
is the guarantee of it. So, just briefly, how is it all
accomplished? It's accomplished by eternal
union with Christ. To win Christ is to become aware,
more than that, to become assured in the full assurance of faith.
It's to become assured of eternal union with Him. I know that I'm
united with Christ. that the sovereign gracious act
of God, to unite a multitude of sinners with himself in Christ,
and by that union, by Christ doing all, to satisfy divine
justice for sin, and make them all, as 2 Corinthians 5.21 says,
the righteousness of God in him that he requires, That's what
it is. That's how his people are made
right with him. How do I know it? The whole Bible.
The whole Bible teaches it. But for brevity, just very, very
quickly, for brevity, how do we know this? Who is it that
is made a recipient of this blessing. You know these scriptures well,
but read them again. Ephesians 1 verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of whose
will? Mine? Doesn't say that, does it? The
good pleasure of his will, of God's will. It's an act of grace.
One Thessalonians, Chapter 1 verse 4, knowing brethren beloved,
your election of God. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, this is
the eternal union with Christ that guarantees all those things
for his people. You know, we're bound to give
thanks to God for you always. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning Chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Look, you couldn't get it more
clear, could you? afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God, verse 9, who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, or our
choice, or our belief, or any other thing, not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So that
when it comes to the judgment day, When it comes, as Philippians
1 verse 6, that we looked at right at the start of this study,
when it comes to that day, the day of Jesus Christ, when it
comes to that day, Paul and all others in Christ, having won
Christ by faith, apprehending and grasping Him, will be found
in union with Him, with their names written in the Lamb's Book
of Life, judged in Him, What John says, 1 John 4, 17, that
we may have boldness. How do you feel about the day
of judgment? Have you got boldness in the day of judgment? Because
listen, as he is, as the Lord Jesus Christ is, So are we in
this world. As he is judged by God, so we
will be judged by God if we're in him. This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. No wonder, Paul says, that true
believers rejoice in Christ Jesus and in him alone. Amen.