Well, turn with me in your Bibles
to the epistle to the Philippians and chapter three, which we read
earlier. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we
were looking at Psalm 16, which was holding out to believers,
to the people of God, the prospect of peace forevermore. That's
the last phrase of Psalm 16. Peace forevermore is the blessing
which God promises to his people. And how do we know, how can we
have assurance that peace for evermore belongs to us and will
be our experience? It is by the sovereign decree
of God. As Paul tells the Corinthians
in chapter 1 and verse 30 of 1 Corinthians, of him, of God,
by God's grace, by God's sovereign decree, are you in Christ Jesus. If you've been united with Christ,
if you've been placed in union with Christ, everything that
the justice and the character of God requires of you, that
he might bestow upon you peace for evermore in his eternal kingdom,
it is all in Christ. It is all accomplished in Christ.
The honouring of his law and justice and righteousness is
in Christ. the redemption from the curse
of the law because of sin, is in Christ and Christ alone. It's
all in Him, of Him, i.e. in Christ Jesus. It's all apprehended,
sensed, we experience it by the gift which God gives to His people,
the gift of faith, that sense, that spiritual sense, that sight
of the soul, to see the truth of God. And that Faith teaches
believers poverty of spirit, as we saw last week in Zephaniah. Poverty of spirit. A poor people. Poor in spirit. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. They shall see God. They shall
inherit the earth. It weans his people, his elect
people, his People bought by the blood of the Lamb, slain
from the foundation of the world, it wins them from the love of
the world, and teaches them to trust in Christ. that we might
trust in the name of the Lord. But we need to see more of what
distinguishes that which is a nominal profession, because there's so
much nominal profession of Christianity all around us. There always has
been. There is so much that is mere Christianity religion, in
name only. We need to distinguish it from
that which is true. This is not splitting hairs,
it's so important. We saw last week pictures, like
in Revelation 11, of measuring the temple. The inner temple
is the only bit that is the true people of God. The rest that
thinks it is, the rest that looks like superficially the people
of God, the outer court of the temple, the Jerusalem, I'm talking
in Old Testament terms now, the wider Israel, of the day, he
says, don't measure that. It's left to be trampled underfoot
by the unbelieving world. Measure only the inner temple.
They are the true people of God. Don't count in the wider Jerusalem
and Israel, which is this world which thinks it knows God and
has the way to God. Now, why does this matter? Why
is this so important? Think about this. Think about
this. Pay attention. Why does this matter? The answer is this. It's about eternal life. Eternal
life. It's the difference between having,
possessing eternal life. He that believes in me has eternal
life, says the Lord Jesus Christ. He that not just acknowledges
that I existed, but he that believes in me, he that trusts in the
name of the Lord, as we saw last week. And if you're outside of
Christ, then the scripture has only one way of describing you,
and that is eternally lost. eternally lost, eternally under
the wrath of God, that can never be satisfied. All of Paul's confidence
when he was Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee, had lain in his orthodox
religion. But now as he tells us in the
chapter we read, chapter 3 of Philippians, he counts it as
dung. He counts it as that which has
no value at all. It has no worth at all when it
comes to gaining him favour in the kingdom of God. He says it's
loss. He said, it's not something that
you put on the positive side of the balance sheet as an asset
which is worth having. He says, all of which I used
to count of such value, my strict obedience in the laws of the
Pharisees and the religion of the Pharisees. He said, I count
it as loss. I've put it on the negative side
of the balance sheet compared to the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ. That's what he says in verse
8. Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's the pinnacle.
the excellency, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. All things else are dung and
loss. And the key is in verse 9, being
found in Him, being found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
that which is by what Jesus Christ successfully accomplished when
he came. The key to this is being found
in him. When it comes to that day of
judgment, when all things will be rolled up, when this creation
will be rolled up as a scroll, is rolled up, and new heavens
and a new earth come, on that day of judgment, when the sheep
will be divided from the goats, when the judgment will take place,
oh, says Paul, There's only one place, there's only one thing
will matter, and that is being found in Christ. You see, there
is such a danger of being deceived. There is such a danger of thinking
that we're in the right place and we'll be found not to be
in the right place. Jesus said of those that think
they're right in religion, he said, many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all sorts of things in
your name? and he will say to them, depart from me, I never
knew you. Can you imagine the chill of
those words from people who thought, based on what they have done
in religion, that they're all right, and they'll hear, depart
from me, I never knew you. There's a danger of being deceived.
We're told constantly throughout the scriptures to check, to examine
whether you be in the faith, whether you believe in the right
thing. In verse 2, Paul says, beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. Let's look at his warning and
the marks of God's true people. Let's try and get it right. Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. There's
a warning to beware. Dogs that he's talking about
here are not the cuddly cute little pooch that you might be
sitting with at the moment. No, these are symbolical of the
unbelieving world. If you want to imagine what Paul
has in mind, think of a very poor area of the Middle East,
let's say, where packs of dangerous dogs roam. This is what he's
talking about. Dogs in Scripture used like this
are symbolical of the unbelieving world which is opposed to the
truth, and dangerously opposed to the truth. In Psalm 22, which
is the psalm that David wrote, but it's so messianic of the
Messiah of Christ, speaking the words that he spoke on the cross
of Calvary. It opens with those very words
that he spoke on the cross of Calvary. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why had God forsaken him? Because
he was made the sin of his people, that he might redeem his people
from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them. For cursed is everyone that hangs
on the cursed tree, on the cross. He says there, hanging on that
cross, dogs have compassed me, have surrounded me. The assembly
of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. See, speaking of crucifixion,
is it not so clear? The dogs are symbolical of the
unbelieving world. In Deuteronomy 23 and verse 18,
and in these They call it woke, don't they?
In the days in which we live, when everything that is right
and just in the justice of God has been turned by our wicked
society upon its head, they must be absolutely furious at this,
because Deuteronomy 23 and verse 18 is very, very clear in what
it thinks of sodomy, and what it thinks of perversion, these
sexual perversions. And it uses the term dogs for
male prostitutes. And it symbolizes, this is the
point, get to what it really symbolizes. In scriptural, spiritual
terms, it symbolizes false preachers. It symbolizes unfaithfulness,
infidelity, unfaithfulness to the truth of God and to the God
of grace. religious fornicators, if I can
use that phrase, who deceive people regarding God's truth. Look at them, we won't look at
Deuteronomy, but look at Isaiah chapter 56 and verses 10 and
11. In Isaiah 56, he's talking to
false preachers. And in verse 10 he says, his
watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb
dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they
are shepherds that cannot understand. You see, the people of God, the
sheep of God, need a true shepherd to lead them and guide them.
And Christ is the good shepherd who leads his sheep. They hear
his voice and they follow him and they follow the under-shepherds
that he appoints and he raises up. But these are shepherds that
cannot understand. They all look, what are they
after? Their own benefit, their own way. Every one for his gain
from his quarter. They say, come and I will fetch
wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink and tomorrow
shall be as this day and much more abundant. The Word of God
is clear, isn't it? This is talking about those that
are false teachers, false preachers, those that deceive concerning
the truth of God. So-called Christian religion
abounds with these dogs all around. They're deceivers concerning
God's Word. They're evil workers, he says,
evil workers. who teach and preach and promote
a way to heaven that denies absolute sovereignty of God. That's what
they teach. I was listening again, as I often
do, to the religious program on the radio just after 8 o'clock
this morning, and there was lots of moral encouragement in the
days in which we live, and they're trying to sing nicely and do
all of those things. But do you know throughout the
whole thing there is not one solitary mention of the justice
of God being established and being paid for and being... the sin being dealt with properly,
the sin being dealt with. There was nothing about the blood
of Christ that takes away the sins of His people. There was
nothing about it. You see, they rob God of His
glory. salvation is of the Lord. There
is salvation. That program, their idea of heaven,
even, on that program, was making this world a better place, and
establishing what they think is justice, and getting rid of
any hints of racial abuse that there's been in the past. And
that was their whole thing. To them, that was heaven. That's
extreme. The ones that are really a lot
more subtle are the ones that are much harder to discern, but
they're still as damaging, they're still as false. No, they rob
God of his glory, they treat the blood of Christ with contempt,
because they see no need for it. They just see absolutely... Why did he have to... I just
don't know, they don't know, they don't care, they want nothing
to do with it. They deny the spirit of grace.
is what it says about them. They deny the Spirit of grace.
They deny the Holy Spirit's work. They maintain that salvation
is, to whatever degree, to some degree or other, dependent on
flesh, dependent on what we do. And so he calls them the concision. Beware of the concision. If you
look that up in your dictionary, you'll find it's something to
do with being concise. But in this context, He's using
the word concision to mean self-mutilators. Those that do things to their
flesh, they harm or deprive their flesh for what they consider
to be spiritual benefit and God's favor. And so they insist in
some quarters, certainly in these days they did, on circumcision.
Or on, much more likely in our day, doing penance. Doing penance,
oh, it's absolutely rife. Observing Lent, you know that
period up to Easter. I remember talking to somebody
who claimed to be a Christian and she knew I was and I preached
and I remember she asked me, what are you doing for Lent?
What am I doing for Lent? Absolutely nothing different
to what I do all of the time. I'm not doing anything for Lent
because I don't want to give my flesh any confidence that
it's doing anything to benefit itself regarding its relationship
with God. No, nothing. Monastical bodily
deprivation. You know, going into monasteries
and nunneries is an extreme example of it, but it's depriving the
body for the sake of spiritual benefit. All sorts of hardships
and religious taboos. Look at a couple of pages over
in your Bibles at Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter
2 and verse 20. He says to the Colossians about
this sort of thing, wherefore if you be dead with Christ, if
you're united with Christ and when he died you died, and you're
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living
in the world are you subject to ordinances? Do this, do that,
don't do. Look what he says in verse 21,
touch not, taste not, handle not. They're all things which
are going to perish with the using after the commandments
and doctrines of men. You see, why do they do them?
Look in verse 23. They have indeed a show of wisdom
in will-worship. Oh, they look so spiritual, don't
they? And humility and neglecting of
the body. Yeah? Concision. Harming the
body for the sake of spiritual benefit. but it's not in any
honour to the satisfying of the flesh. Basically, he's saying,
it's of absolutely no benefit, spiritually, in doing all of
those things. No. Because why? Because the
kingdom of God, Romans 14, verses 17 and 18, says this about this
sort of thing. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink and things physical, I could add. It's not about those
things, it's not about external trappings of what you think you're
doing religiously. No, what is it about? He tells
us. It's about righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Do you see that?
It's spiritual, isn't it? It's spiritual. The tendency
of all flesh, all flesh, without exception, even the flesh of
those who are true believers, the tendency of flesh is to be
drawn into laying significance on things that are physical.
What do I mean? The place that you worship, the
dress that you wear when you worship, the credentials of the
person that preaches. I remember once a dear old lady,
when we had started up as a church, and she said she couldn't join
us because we didn't have a proper minister. What's a proper minister?
It's one that's been to one of the recognised Bible schools
and had a group of men who've said, this is a proper minister. But that's not what God's Word
says. No, no. the numbers of people. It's only
worth going to a place where you get vast numbers of people.
Really? Is that right? Fear not, little flock, is what
the Lord Jesus Christ said. All of these things detract from
what Paul calls in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3, the simplicity that
is in Christ. Simplicity, the singleness It's
single is the gospel, it's a single truth that is in Christ. In effect
what he's saying here is beware, warn, he warns them, beware of
dogs. It's a warning to beware of religion
that is not 100% Christ and him alone as our acceptance with
God. So what does characterize the
true people of God? He says in verse 3, we are the
circumcision. What does he mean by that? We
are the circumcision. Circumcision was an outward sign
given to Abraham. You know, Abraham was called
out of a situation of idolatry to go to the land of Canaan,
a land that he didn't know where he was going, it tells us in
Hebrews. But he heard God, and he followed God, and he obeyed
God, and he believed God. because God gave him faith to
believe, he believed God, that in him, in his descendants, would
come the one that was the seed of the woman promised in the
Garden of Eden, to redeem his people from the curse of the
law. And circumcision was an outward sign given to Abraham
to mark out the symbolical people of God. There was a cutting off
of flesh which was symbolising putting off the works of the
flesh for acceptance with God. It was a personal mark, a very
personal mark. It was a mark of identification.
It still is amongst the Jewish peoples these days. It was a
sign of God's covenant with his symbolical people. You'll read
throughout the Old Testament where if David and his armies
wanted to use a word of their contempt for non-Israel, it was
these uncircumcised. It was physically painful and
permanent. But what it symbolised was something
which was inward. It wasn't for its own sake alone. It wasn't just an external symbol. Again, turn over to Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 11. We start at verse 9. In him,
in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Colossians
1 and 2, Paul is exalting Christ, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. He's above all things. In him
dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you believers are
complete where? In him. In him. Not in what you
do. not in your success at obeying
the law of Moses as your rule of life, no, you are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in
whom, listen, you believers, male and female, physically circumcised
and not, in whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ." You see, he's talking about that
cutting off of the things of the flesh, of which circumcision
was a symbol. In Romans 2 and verse 29, this
is what we read. Well, in verse 28 we read, he
is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Paul's writing then in the first
century, he's saying he's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
who can trace his ancestry all the way back to Abraham. No,
neither is that circumcision, which is just the physical, act
in the flesh. But verse 29, he is a Jew, he
is truly one of the covenant people of God, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. You see, it's a spiritual thing.
This circumcision, we are the true people of God, We are the true people of God
who have this inward circumcision of heart. The Jews were proud
of their status as the only people in the world who were favoured
by God, but they were mistaken, because it's not in the flesh
outwardly, but it's in the heart inwardly. What is it that signifies
What is it that evidences this inward heart circumcision and
dedication to God's service and kingdom? We see it there. You
know it well. We worship God in the spirit,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. We worship God in the spirit. The true people of God
are not outwardly religious. We're inwardly religious, we're
inwardly spiritual. Spiritual worship. What do we
mean by that? It's an attitude of heart towards
God. An attitude of heart. It's an
attitude of love. It's not something you force,
it's something that happens. you know, like a man loves a
woman, a woman loves her husband, it's not something that goes
by a set of rules, it's something that happens. We love our God,
an attitude of heart towards God, and love towards God, and
of reverence towards God. This is what godly fear is, godly
reverence, adoration of the God of our salvation. because of
what he has done. It isn't just a physical gathering
together, it's a demeanour of the soul. Look what I put in
the bulletin that Don Fortner wrote about this. To worship
God in the spirit is to worship without the use of idolatrous
images and rituals. It is a heart worship of the
living God, yet it is much more than that. It is worshipping
God in the power of and under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
True worship is born in the heart by the Spirit of God. The Holy
Spirit speaks to us through the Word of God, revealing Christ
in us, and He causes us to worship God. It is the Spirit of Christ
in the heart that produces all characteristics of true worship,
humility, faith, repentance, submission, adoration, and obedience
to God. Do you see that? That's what
it is. That's what it is. That is true
worship, that is true worship. A true demeanor of the soul towards
God, conscious of living. Do we do this? Conscious of living
under the gaze of our Heavenly Father. You know, I know, I know,
that flesh is so sinful and so weak, we think that we can hide
things, and we do, from one another. We cannot hide things from God.
We live under the gaze and we're conscious of it, living under
the gaze of our Heavenly Father. But this worship is not about
place and its trappings. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman
in John chapter four and verse... Well, she starts by saying in
verse 19 of John 4, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. She says, which church do you
go to? We go to this building over here. Which building do
you go? We worship in this mountain, but you say that mountain. Oh,
well, that's interesting that you say this mountain. And he
says to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. place doesn't
matter, is what he's saying. Ye worship, ye know not what.
You're worshipping ignorantly. You're worshipping a God you
don't know in a way that is ignorant of the truth of God. He says,
you're worshipping outside of salvation, for salvation is of
the Jews. But the hour is coming, in fact
now it even is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, not in place. not in form, not in liturgy. There are certain things that
true worship, a true formal worship, has. It has the reading of God's
Word, prayer to God, it has the preaching of God's Word, and
it has the singing of His praise. It has those four elements, but
don't think for one minute that if you just gather together in
a place and tick those four boxes that that's worship of God. No.
True worship is worship in spirit and in truth. Do we worship God
in spirit and in truth? The Father seeks such to worship
Him. God is a spirit. God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. This is what he taught to that
Samaritan woman. True worship is spiritual worship. It's not carnal. It's not of
the flesh. It's not physical. It's not ceremonial
ritualism. Yes, we seek to meet at regular
formal times. We seek to hear God's word. We
seek to honour him. You know when you're talking
to somebody and you're thinking, they're not listening to me.
I'm wasting my breath, because I know they're not listening.
Their thoughts are on something else. Do you ever get that? We seek to worship God properly,
and to honour God, we come to listen to his word, to sing his
praise, to address him in prayer. But it's empty if it isn't in
spirit and in truth. So this is the first mark that
he gives us. We worship God in the spirit. Only the true people of God do
that. Only the true people of God.
We might not know much, but you know when you are a true child
of God who has believed the God of grace, your attitude is one
of reverence and worship for the God of grace. And then we
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Number two, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. What do I mean by rejoicing in
Him? We rejoice in who He is. Jesus
of Nazareth, born of Mary, two thousand and a bit years ago,
who he is, is God manifest in the flesh. He is God become man. This is the mystery, great is
the mystery of God. God was manifest in the flesh. How? No man has seen God at any
time. God is invisible to the natural
man. We cannot see God. No man shall
see my face. So how do we? We see the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He, as Hebrews tells us, is the
express image of the person of God. If you would know God, how
many times have I told you this? Philip, show us the Father, he
says to Jesus, and that will suffice. Jesus says to him, Philip,
have I been so long with you and you have not seen me? He
who has seen Me has seen the Father, has seen the essence
of God. Who He is, He is God in flesh,
come to redeem His people from the curse of the law. That's
why He took on Him flesh, the flesh of the children He took
upon Him, that He might redeem His people from the curse of
the law. He is God manifest to His people. We rejoice in Him
who makes God known to us. The unknowable God is known in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in His redeeming blood,
the cleansing power of His blood. I have a sin debt that I can
never pay, but I know that He has paid it for me, for I know
that His blood is that which cleanses from all sin. I know
that He has cleansed His people from the curse of the law by
His blood being shed, for His blood is the life the soul that
sins it shall die, it shall forfeit its life and he died for his
people. He died for his people, he died
for his sheep, he didn't die for everybody to give everybody
a chance, he died for his sheep. This is the sovereign will of
God. Hear it and believe it or be
lost forever. The cleansing power of his blood
I rejoice in the fact that that has saved me from my sins and
paid my sin debt, and that there is no sin debt outstanding against
me. I know this. Who shall bring
any charge against God's elect? If I'm amongst them and if I'm
in Him, nobody can bring any charge against me, for He has
paid it. He's discharged it. The case
is dismissed. There is no case to answer. I
rejoice in His perfect righteousness, for we must be righteous, we
must be holy. Follow after holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord. And I rejoice in Christ Jesus,
because His righteousness is made over to His people. For
he who knew no sin was made the sin of his people, and bore its
curse and its penalty. With his shed blood he paid its
price, its debt, the ransom, price, to release us from the
curse of the law. And in him being made sin and
paying that debt, he makes his people the righteousness of God
in him. His perfect righteousness is
made over to His people. I rejoice in His abundant grace
and love. He is not just a cold, distant
Saviour, but He is a loving Saviour. He is the friend of sinners. He walks with me and He talks
with me along life's narrow way. I rejoice in this, that I know
His providential care orders all things for my eternal good. However they appear at the time,
I know that it is all in His eternal plan for my eternal good,
and I rejoice in Him. I rejoice in the fact that I,
in myself, find it impossible to draw near to God in prayer
and to seek His face, but I know that there is a High Priest a
glorious High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who stands
in heaven for me interceding on my behalf and bearing up my
petitions before God that I cannot even verbalize myself I rejoice
in his union with his people by sovereign decree, that it's
by the sovereign decree of God that his people were united with
him, and it will culminate, it will be consummated in that marriage
supper of the Lamb in eternal glory. I rejoice in Christ Jesus
as do all God's true people. True believers, true believers
as opposed to those that are false and only have an appearance,
only have a profession, true believers look only to Christ
for everything necessary for acceptance with God, and they
find that he is indeed able to save to the uttermost all who
come to God by him. He is indeed wisdom from God,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. In Him does indeed
all the fullness of the Godhead dwell bodily, and in Him we are
complete. Not in Him plus a bit that we
do, but in Him we are complete. We're complete in Him. While
I was preparing it came back to me, Christine's sister, Margaret,
who died of cancer nearly 11 years ago, 11 years ago this
coming November. And I remember when she knew
that she was terminally ill, she called for us to go and talk
to her because she said, I know I'm going to die and I want to
know the truth. She had known something of it, but not the
truth, and she'd had difficult family circumstances. But she
said, I now want to know, and can you tell me what is the truth?
And I think I've told the story many times, but we gave her little
mp3 player loaded up with hundreds of sermons from free grace radio
hundreds of them and She just devoured them. She just listened
to them one after another it was it was Her meat and drink
and for several weeks while she was dying every every week or
two We went up the long journey up there to visit her and I remember
her saying to me on one occasion talking about her funeral She
said what she's discovered from what she's heard and what she
believed was this, that it's all in Christ. Everything is
in Christ. There's nothing required of us
other than to believe that he has done everything for me and
that's all that I need. It was just like the testimony
of Happy Jack. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. What is it to rejoice
in Christ Jesus? Hallelujah. What a saviour. Praise
the Lord. What a saviour. That which sounds
true superficially, but isn't, always adds things that you must
do to be qualified, to be improved, to provide a show of wisdom in
will-worship, as Colossians says. But it's of no value. It's of
no value. None whatsoever. Why is it of
no value? Because, thirdly, we have no confidence in the flesh.
We have no confidence. What does that mean? It means
none, as in zero. Yes, but we do try. I've told you this as well, I've
told you about the old woman in Southampton many, many years
ago who told me about all the work she was trying to do for
the Lord because she didn't want to go into his presence empty-handed. The testimony of a true believer
is this, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling,
not as an idolatrous object but to what Christ did there I cling,
nothing in my hand I bring. True believers seek to serve
God and to live by gospel precepts of righteousness, don't think
that we don't. True believers seek to serve God and live by
Gospel precepts of righteousness, to be honest, to be trustworthy,
to be restrained, to be faithful to God's Word. But however well
we judge we have succeeded or not, we have no confidence in
it for acceptance or for improvement with God. That's the thing. However
well we succeed or not, we have no confidence in it that it will
make us more acceptable to God, it will make us improved regarding
God, it will give us a better reward when we get to glory,
because all of that falsehood is not in the Word of God. It
is only trusting in Christ's finished work that we fulfil
God's demands on us. What is it that we should do?
That we should do the work of God. This is the work of God,
said Jesus to those Jews that asked him, that you believe on
him whom he has sent. And even that believing, even
that faith, even that trusting, it's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, lest any man should boast. We have no cause
to boast. Look at Paul, verses 4 to 8.
Though I might have confidence in the flesh as a religious Pharisee,
if any other man thinks he has whereof he might trust in the
flesh, I more. If they want to start making
a list, I can make a bigger list, says Paul. Circumcised of the
eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, of
Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning zeal persecuting the church.
Oh, all these things. but I count them as loss. I count
them as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. We
need to examine ourselves. This is right. Not needlessly, morosely, introspectively,
but to examine yourselves. As it says in 2 Corinthians 13.5,
examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own
selves. Ask yourself this question. Is
your heart filled with worship for God? And this isn't a way
of checking whether you have worked enough in yourself, no.
It's where are your affections? Is your heart filled with worship
for God, desiring to serve him and please him? Is Christ Jesus
alone the one who rejoices your heart with the salvation he's
accomplished for you? Do you dismiss any thoughts of
confidence in anything you are or have done towards God? I know
we fail, I know we have often times of weakness, and I'm sure
we get it wrong. But if you can sincerely answer
that the tenor of your spirit is yes to those things, I do
worship God in the spirit. I do truly rejoice in Christ
Jesus, my Saviour. I absolutely have no confidence
that anything in my flesh is going to give me any standing
in heaven. Then you bear the marks, the true marks, of God's
true people, and we can be thankful. Amen.