Turn with me this morning to
the book of Philippians. We're going to be looking at
verses 4-9. On this subject, no competence
in the flesh. He that is a true Jew, Paul said,
he rejoices in Christ Jesus and he worships God in the Spirit.
and has no confidence in the flesh. Believers are men and
women who have been called out of darkness. Called out of darkness. Peter said, unto you therefore
which believe, Christ is precious, but unto them which be disobedient,
That same stone, that stone which the builders disallowed, the
same as made the head of the corner in a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a
peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him.
Now listen to this. who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light." One fellow, he listened as this preacher
got up and pretty much preached the whole of the doctrines of
grace in his message. And this man was Arminian in
his theology. And when the preacher had finished,
he called him aside and he said, He said, let me see if I can kind of pull this together here
a little bit. He said, you see, he said, salvation
is like a large gray elephant. And he said, and we're all blind. And he said, and you have a hold
of its trunk, and you're feeling its trunk. And you're describing
what you're feeling. And I have a hold of his tail,
and I'm describing what I'm feeling, and another has a hold of his
leg. And he said, we're all describing the same thing, but all different. And the preacher said, well,
he said, I've got two problems with that analogy. He said, first
of all, salvation has nothing in the world to do with a large
gray elephant. Nothing in common whatsoever.
And secondly, believers are not blind. They see. They have eyes. Blessed
are your eyes. Isn't that what our Lord said?
For they see. You see. Actually, you see things
and wonder why the one sitting beside you don't see. You can't
see that? You don't understand that? Why
not? It's perfectly clear to me. That's because you have eyes
to see. That's what our Lord told His
disciples. Blessed are your eyes, for they see. But there was a
time when you didn't. There was a time when we walked
according to the course of this world and according to the prints
of the power of the air, and we bought into their lies and
deceits. We found comfort in their false
refuges. We found a sense of security
in their numbers. We found a sense of pride and
satisfaction in our giving and attending and ceremony keeping,
and on and on and on it goes. We found some hope in our works
of righteousness, which we have done. I talked to my dad one
time, who was a Nazarene preacher for most of his life, nearly
50 years. I believe he had a good hope
through grace before he died. I believe the Lord quickened
him and called him out of darkness. And he began to see some things.
And he and I was talking, and he said, you know, it's still
hard for me to believe that all those things, all those things
that I did were an abomination to the Lord. He said, I didn't
do them out of pretense. I was sincere. My prayers were
sincere, my service was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. I've got three things I want
to point out to you this morning in the lesson. First of all,
that all true believers can identify with those being called of God. that man or woman, wherever they're
at. I don't care if they're from
Alaska or California or where they are. I received a letter
from a man in California this past week, and Lord willing,
I may preach a message on the question that he asked me. But I don't care where they're
from. Believers can identify with those being called of God
because they were there. They've experienced these things.
I remember the pit from which I was dug. I'm well aware of
the shock of learning that everything that I held sacred was a lie. Now listen to what Paul says
here in verses 4, 5, and 6. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. He said, you think you have some
confidence in the flesh. Well, I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If any other man thinketh he
have whereof he might trust in the flesh, I've got more. Circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin
and Hebrew of Hebrew, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning
zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, he said I was blameless. When he talks about
persecuting the church, he's not talking about driving by
in a car and yelling some obscenity at them when he goes by or seeing
somebody at a restaurant and saying something to them to make
them to appear foolish. That's not what he's talking
about. He stood by and held the coat of them that stoned Stephen
to death. He sought paper. He said, I was
injurious. He said, I persecuted the church.
I was injurious. He said, I caused injury to people. He was zealous. He was zealous. But Paul knew all the pitfalls
of false religion. He knew something of the pride
of being born a Jew. My oldest daughter asked me one
time when she was about 11 or 12, she said, what do we believe,
Daddy? And I said, well, I don't know
what we believe. I know what I believe. I know
what I believe. Little children born of godly
parents have a great advantage, but they still must be saved
the same way. And being born into and growing
up even in a right kind of religion can have an ill effect when it's
applied wrong. Natural men apply things wrong.
They think, well, I was raised in this church. I've heard what
they preach. I know what they say. And they
just assume that they're saved men and women because they grew
up in that church. They grew up in that environment.
My parents are saved. My parents have hope, so I have
hope. But when it's under a false religion,
it's even worse. Because under a false religion,
they encourage men and women in their false hopes. Why would
any man, I want to ask this question. This is what Paul's talking about
here. He's talking about a confidence in the flesh. Why would any man
take pride in or find confidence in being circumcised when he
was eight years old? Eight days old, I'm sorry. Eight
days old. He knew nothing whatsoever about
it. His parents carried him down
and had this ceremony performed. Infants baptized. They've got no knowledge of that
baptism. Why would any man take pride in or find confidence in
being circumcised when he's eight days old? Because his parents
and their religious elders encouraged him to take comfort in it. That's why. And the same thing applies to
infant baptism and catechized children. And children talked
into professions of faith during vacation Bible school. I just
hate this time of year when I go by and see these signs on these
churches about vacation Bible school. Because you know just
as soon as it's over with, as soon as that two weeks is up,
you're going to look out there on the sign and they're going
to say 18 souls converted to Christ, or 12 souls converted
to Christ. And they're talking about these
little children. Preachers and parents encouraged them to put
stock into these empty professions. And over the years, they began
to glory in these things. Paul also mentions his origin,
born of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, I don't care how famous,
how godly, or how honored some of your past relatives were,
your true daddy preceded them, didn't he? He preceded them.
And you have His nature. And in Adam, the Scripture said,
all die. So your genealogy is not a plus,
it's a minus. And then watch this, verse 5.
As touching the law, he said, I was a Pharisee. One who knew
the law forward and backward. One who wore the law on his clothing. One who insisted upon it, taught
it, hoped in the observance of it. And for all these lawyers
that we have out here, some of them may listen to this down
the road on the internet, all these lawyers that post the law,
the Ten Commandments out in the parking lot, draw a little sign
up and cut it out so that it looks like a couple of scrolls
and write those Ten Commandments on them. And then some of them
have a miniature of that in here behind the pulpit on the wall,
all these commandments and things. And some of them even go so far
as to write them on their clothes. Write these things on their clothes. These commandments of God. Well,
acknowledging the law, displaying the law, preaching the law does
not satisfy the law. The only way that you can satisfy
the law is to keep it perfectly. Perfectly. Is to do it. And no man is able to do it.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then he said, I was zealous.
I remember my wife and I joined a little Baptist church up in
Kentucky. We were zealous in the work. We had bake sales, car washes. Oh, I don't know what all we
did. We taught young people, took them out and had activities
and things. Even went up to the jail, the
county jail on Sunday afternoon. Went up there and ministered
to those prisoners up there. And these are just a few of the
things that the religion of this world encourages men and women
to hope in. I've been there and done that.
That's what I'm trying to say. And Paul had too. And that's
what he's telling them. You know, we, as preachers and
ministers, we draw from two sources. I draw, number one, from the
Word of God. And number two, from my own experience.
And this is what Paul said, if you think you have some hope
in the flesh, I have more hope than you do. I have more hope
than you do. I can add some things to your
hope that I had. And I can help you in these matters
if you let me. And then the second thing I want
you to see here is what to do with all this religious luggage
that we have. What are we going to do with
it? What are we going to do with it? What do you do with these
empty professions? What do you do with these old
experiences? What do you do with these old baptisms? What do you
do with these old offices and titles? What do you do with these
degrees and achievements? What do you do with these things?
What do you do with those old evidences? Well, I'll tell you
what Paul did with them. He took out the trash. That's
what he did with them. He took them out and threw them
on the dunghill where they belonged. Verse 7, But what things were
gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but 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 dung, just garbage, that
I might win Christ. My friend, the thing to do with
all these valued trophies of our religious past is to count
them but lost. That's just lost. That's a waste
of time. I remember going to that little
Baptist church and we had a car wash one day and boy, we had
no idea. I thought we was going to get
two or three cars. You know, somebody from the church come
by and we get two or three cars and that would be the end of
it. We washed cars for ten and a half hours. Just one right
after the other. Hand washing. Wiping them down. Wiping the wheels down and everything.
Hot summertime. We got done and my brother-in-law
and I and my sister and my wife, we was all sitting inside and
my wife's hair was all hanging down where she'd sweated and
worked all day. And we was in there talking about
the righteousness of Christ and how our works meant nothing. And after a while she looked
up through that sweaty hair at me and she said, you mean we
did all that for nothing? I said, that's exactly right.
We did all that for nothing. Oh, take it out. Just throw it
out with the trash. had no benefit to us except as
they served to show men the error of them. That's what Paul did
with his ungodly past and those things that he counted lost.
The only time he ever mentioned them was to point out the evil
of them. And I know Christians who denounced
everything except their old baptism. But boy, they hang on to that
like it's the only sacred thing they ever had in their possession.
They hang on to that old baptism. You didn't know Christ back then.
You weren't confessing your union with Him back then in that baptism.
You had no faith to profess, yet you hang on to that thing
like it's the only sacred thing you ever had in your life. And
the same thing applies to those old experiences. Why do we cherish
and hang on to these old experiences? If we have a present relationship
with God, why do we keep going back 30 or 40 years to proof? I don't ever one time remember
asking my parents for a birth certificate to prove that I was
their son. Do you? Did any of you ever ask
your parents? Why do we do that? Why do we
do that? Throw it on the downhill. That's
what Paul's saying here. Take all this stuff. Take out
the trash. All this old religious luggage.
Just get rid of it. Throw it away. It's of no value.
And then the third thing I want you to see here this morning,
is a real hope for real sinners. Paul counted all these things
lost for Christ. He didn't just count them lost.
He didn't just look at these things and say these things are
not accomplishing anything. He counted them lost for Christ.
For Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. Salvation is in a person. It's
in a person. A person chosen of God and precious
and set apart before the world was to manifest the glory of
God in the salvation of chosen sinners. A person through whom
God purposed all spiritual blessings. One appointed to mediate the
redemptive will of God. One appointed as the federal
head and representative of God's elect. One who came and lived
and died for Him. Obeyed the law of God on their
behalf and then went to the cross as their substitute. One who
bore their sins in His own body on the tree. One who satisfied
divine justice on their behalf. One who actually saved His people
from His sins. A Redeemer that redeems. A Savior
that saves. One that was raised up from the
dead on the third day, God declaring in this our acceptance in the
beloved. Then ascending into glory, He
took possession of our inheritance and sits there unto this day
as our guarantor, ruling over all things and arranging all
things for our salvation. And one day soon, He'll visit
this earth again and raise these vile bodies And time shall be
no more. Isn't that what Scripture says?
Our hope is in a person. It's in a person. And I'll tell
you when you're going to get rid of these things. When you
see something better. When you see something better.
I told you about years ago down in Ball. There's a little restaurant
down there one of our men had in the church. And they'd worked
hard for it and built it up. And I think it was just an old
Dairy Queen when they first started and they were serving sandwiches
through the window. And by the time I got down there
to pasture that little church, this thing had grown into a,
they were feeding eleven, twelve hundred people on a Saturday
night in that place. I mean, it was something else.
But we were in there one night, Kathy and I, and this couple
came in and had this little boy. He was about a year and a half,
two years old. And on this food bar, they had them little half
ears of corn that they put in that butter, and they spiced
that butter up and put some things in it. And boy, it was good corn,
those little ears of corn. And that little baby had that
thing, and he done eat all the corn off of it, and he was wearing
about half of it. And the butter was still dripping,
and he had that ear of corn, and it was time to go. And it
was wintertime, and they were going to put his coat on. And
he wouldn't let them. He wouldn't let them have that
ear of corn. They tried to get that ear of corn and he'd just
scream at the top of his lungs, you know. And they were trying
to get that corn away from him and they threatened him, you
know, and that didn't work. And then they tried to reason
with him and that didn't work. And they tried all kinds of things
and that little kid would not let go. He'd just hang on that
thing. He was just shaking all over,
hanging on that little ear of corn. And finally, old man Stoniker
came over, and he said, folks, he said, if you wouldn't mind,
he said, I think I've got a way to get him to let go of that
corn. And they said, well, we've tried
everything. You go ahead. He pulled out a Hershey bar.
Boom. He dropped that ear of corn.
And he grabbed that Hershey bar. And that's what I'm saying. We'll
turn loose of these things, and we'll count these things done
when we see something better, when we see something better.
And that's something better as Christ. When we see Him, we let
go. We let go. God help you to receive
this message.