Turn to the book of Philippians
chapter 3. Now before I turn this microphone
on, right before we started, and I should have made me a note
because I know, I remember them right now, but I'm going to forget
them. So I'm going to ask you to help me at the end, okay?
Philippians chapter 3. Now we're still actually in the
book of Romans chapter 10 and verse 10, which in part reads,
with the heart man believes unto righteousness. With the heart
man believes unto righteousness. But I thought we have worked
Romans 10 over pretty good recent weeks, so we might just read
a different passage. And this one speaks very directly
to those issues. Third chapter, the book of Philippians. 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. And he's not talking about pit
bulls or rottweilers or German shepherds. He's talking about
people, particularly religious people who think they've been
appointed on this earth to act as God's agents in making people
behave. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. That's the cutting of the flesh.
That's doing anything to your body that you improve your favor
with God. In this particular instance,
when these words were written, it's talking about the Jews going
all over the world trying to get people to be circumcised.
Beware of the concision. For we are Paul and the persons
to whom he writes and other people in this world who are like them,
followers and believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are the
circumcision, the truly circumcised people. This was the Jews' pride
of every generation that they, unlike all other people who lived
on the earth, they were circumcised. but physical circumcision does
not change a man's heart. It doesn't change his standing
before God. God told Moses after he had been
back to Egypt and led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he said,
if you don't circumcise your sons, he said, I'm going to kill
them. And Moses did so over the protest of his wife. We are the
circumcision. We are the truly, spiritually,
circumcised in heart. We worship God in a spiritual. Worship is not lifting up our
hands. It's not clapping our hands.
It's not dancing a jig. That's not the worship of the
God of the Bible. God's children worship God in
the spirit. in the Holy Spirit and in their
spiritual part of themselves. It's not designed to just to
create an atmosphere of worship in which people begin to weep
because of the psychology being employed from the pulpit. That's
demonic. That is not a thing in the world
but Satan at work. Pity of our world. Worship God
in the spirit. Number two, rejoice in Christ
Jesus. If we've been introduced to him,
we won't ever get tired of rejoicing. Christ is all. He's our all in
all. And thirdly, have no confidence. You mean not a little bit? Not
a little bit. No confidence in the flesh. Our
flesh is just like it was the day we were born. It's just like
it was the day you walked the church aisle and took the preacher's
hand. It is pure, rotten sin. And it will remain that until
we go to our grave. It does not get better. If you
ask the believer about himself, he'll tell you it gets worse.
These people who claim to live the victorious life They didn't
read Philippians 3.3. They missed that lesson some
line. All right, verse 4. Paul now speaks to the legalist
of his day, the self-righteous Jews and plenty of Gentiles in
the same boat. In fact, all of us in that boat
until God delivers us. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. He just told us to have no confidence
in the flesh. But he said, if you want to talk
about the flesh, I'll talk with you about it. If any other man
thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. He's talking now specifically
to the Jews because of this statement in verse 5. He was circumcised
the 8th day, not the 7th and not the 9th, the 8th day. which
is what God required when He instituted circumcision through
Abraham. Of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the
law, you couldn't get any better than this. It's like saying,
I'm a Baptist. You can't get any better than
that. So you can't get any worse. Paul said, I was a Pharisee.
and not just any Pharisee. He was the most committed, the
one who gave his all to what he believed to be right, only
to discover that it was complete. Verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, people who believed and worshipped the Lord Jesus.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law, without blame. This man thought that he was
living life without sin. And do you know there are still
crazy people like that among us? And we ourselves have entertained
that thought no doubt. But alas, we discover we are
not anything but certainly not sinless. All right, verse 7. Now listen carefully. But what
things were gained to me, the things that I thought stood me
in good stead, the things that were gained to me, I counted
loss for Christ." When he met the Savior on the road to Damascus,
he lost all of his good works. They went up in smoke all at
one time. What things were gained to me,
those I counted loss for Yes, doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, His place
in the Jewish religion, His prominence among them, His reputation. Can you imagine every time He
went in a Jewish synagogue, those people virtually worshipped this
man? And now he's lost all of that. And now they have but one
goal in mind, and that's to kill this man. I've suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I might win Christ. Now what is winning Christ? Here
it is in the very next verse. And be found in him, being found
in Christ, Not having my own righteousness. You can't have
but one. Which one is it going to be?
It is the imputed, perfect, absolutely perfect righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He found in Him not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith. Now watch this little tiny preposition. It is of. There are about five
or six of these. Once here in Philippians, several
times in Galatians, and a couple of times that I don't remember
where they are, but there are several of them in our Bibles.
Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith by faith. Now I'm going to pick up speed
because I'm taking it. "...that I may know Him, and
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of crisis."
What happened on the road to Damascus described first in our
Bibles in Acts chapter 9? The Lord Jesus Christ apprehended
Saul of Tarsus and ultimately named him Paul. who is the person
writing these words. Verse 13, brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore,
as many as be perfect, he's referring to those persons that are in
Christ, and in Christ all believers are perfect. It's not the best
believers that are perfect, it's all of them or none. Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything
you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk
by the same rule." Those rules were found in verse 3, verse
7, and verse 9. Let us walk by those same rules. Let us mind or tend the same. Brethren, be followers together
of me and mark them which walk So as you have us for an example,
and now this parenthetical statement, for many walk of whom I've told
you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies
of the cross of Christ. Do you know the average Baptist
in America doesn't know that Christ has any enemies? But what
he really doesn't know is that he's one of them. And so are
we. until God conquers us by His
grace. Verse 19, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is theirs, who mind
or tend earthly things. For our conversation, Bob Margin
says this word should have been translated citizenship, for our
citizenship is in heaven. From where also we look for the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. Paul is still referring to his
natural self as a vile body. Yes, when the Lord Jesus returns,
he'll change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto
his glorious body. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Now if
you'll turn to Romans chapter 10, Romans 10, and we're just
going to take a half of a verse. That would be the first half
of verse 10. Now let's have prayer together
and we often pray at this point, I'll just
wait until the end. If God doesn't do something,
it ain't at all. And that's a million times true
when it comes to me. Lord, we have Your Word opened
in front of us. We beg of You to reveal to our
minds and our heart that are stated so plainly and clearly
in Your Holy But these things may as well be in a language
that was lost thousands of years ago because we do not understand
this book through just the natural mind. Our mind and our hearts
are prejudiced against and the God who sent it. So if we are
to profit in our souls, We are to receive blessing and benefit
from what we read and from what this preacher tries to preach. Lord, unless you make it alive
to our souls, it will not only not help us, it will make us
worse. We beg for your blessing. We
know that you're in heaven, but you are the God who is everywhere
present, and you present yourself is magnified and lifted up. Lord,
help us this day. We must have your help. Send
your precious Spirit. Show us who Christ is and what
He's done for us. All right, Romans 10 and verse
10 and the first half of that verse. For with the heart man,
mankind, men, women, whatever, Boys and girls, with the heart,
man believes unto righteousness, and then it goes on to add, and
with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Now listen
carefully. You can go to heaven, if you're
in Christ, without confession, but you can't go to heaven without
believing. So the most important half of
this verse is, with the mouth, we believe. It doesn't say a
thing about working to be righteous. It says, believe. So when you
see the word believe, or as it is here in verse 10, believeth,
which I just simply say believes, I'm not into these E.T. I don't
know how long ago I started doing this, but I just read it like
we use the word. Here's the whole thing in a nutshell. With the heart, man believes
under righteousness. Anytime you see the word believe
in whatever form, it has to do with what? Faith has but one. I don't know what that is. It's actually a who. the Lord
Jesus is the only object of saving. He's everything to us. With the
heart, man believes. Now many people think too much
of their faith and far too little of faith's object, which is Christ. Somebody hasn't heard the truth.
Soul-saving faith rests solely, s-o-l-e-l-y, solely upon Christ. Christ is the sole object of
faith. His being, that's who He is. His attributes as God and as
a human being. Not only His being, but He came
down here not just to die. He came to live from an infant
to a man of some 33 years of age, and then to go to the cross
and die. So why all those years, 30 some
years, to earn for a perfect righteousness before Him? Because
the righteousness of Christ is in people, all of them. That's the only righteousness
we have. is the righteousness of God, not only His being and
His works, but also His precious offices. And they are primarily
our prophet, our priest. Christ is all three to all of
His people. These are sometimes called His
mediatorial offices, that is, the offices that inherently belong
to Christ because he is the one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. So let's work on Christ as the
object of faith. Faith rests upon Christ, first
of all, as God manifests in the flesh. Christ is the object of
faith. as God manifests in the flesh. I'm going to turn to 1 Timothy
3.16 and read you that verse. It's the last verse of 1 Timothy
3. This is an awesome and glorious
statement. 1 Timothy 3.16. And without controversy, without
debate, without question, great is the mystery of godliness. Now Christ is the mystery of
godliness. And it has six parts to it. And
they're all in this one verse. But the most important for us
this morning is the first one. Without controversy, Great is
the mystery of godliness. Number one, God in Christ was
manifest. Can you imagine that? God wearing
human. Why was it necessary? Because
in order for him to represent us, the people that God chose
out of the human race from the beginning of time to the end
of time, in order for Christ to redeem us, in order for Him
to earn a perfect righteousness for His people, He has to be
like them. You can find this again. We're
not going to turn there now, but in Hebrews 2, I think it's
about verse 16, it says that He took not on Him the nature
of man, but Christ took on Himself the nature of man. Christ is
what now? God. manifest in the flesh. Now, if you and I get to glory,
and if we're in Him, we shall. You won't see but one God, and
that'll be the God-man, Christ Jesus. There's a man in glory
right this very hour. His name is the Lord Jesus. He's
sitting on a throne, making requests to his Father. Father, save that
sinner. I loved Him and died for Him.
He saves all His. He never loses. Now if you like
this Jesus that died for everybody and most everybody is going to
hell anyway, you can have it. That ain't no God at all. This
is the Almighty God in human flesh. Then it says, while we're
in this verse, we'll go ahead and finish it. Justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels on several occasions,
we might add, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and
when the disciples last saw Him, He was received up into glory.
Now that is called in our Bibles, six parts, the mystery of godliness. I was a deacon in a Baptist church. preacher and pastor, and I didn't
know up from down. All I knew to do was to tell
what I'd been told, and that turned out with the heart. And not only does it have to
do with Christ in the flesh, but faith also rests upon Christ
in His life. Why do we have four biographies,
if you can call them that, in the four Gospels? Because each
of those Gospels is written from a different perspective. And
even when you have all four of them, they will tell you, Doug
was taking us to John chapter 20, and must be in chapter 21
at the end of it, John says, This world couldn't hold the
books to tell you everything that the Lord Jesus said and
did. Or the books that should be written maybe is the way he
put it. But we have told you what you need to know in order
to believe. Let me read it to you. I'm not
satisfied leaving it like that. Yes, the last verse in chapter
20. John is referring now to his gospel and I suppose also
to his letters. as well as the book of the Revelation.
But in verse 31 of John chapter 20, he said, But these are written,
this gospel and all the other gospels, and for that matter
this whole book is written to this one end and purpose, that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Christ, the
Son of God. Yes, He's the Son of Man, but
He's the Son of God. He's God and man in just one. That Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through Him. That's the purpose of Holy Scripture.
That's the purpose of the book of Romans. And it's the purpose
of the Gospel of John and all the other books of the Bible.
Thirdly, this faith that delights to adore Christ in His complete
and perfect obedience to the law of God in His life. He lived
a perfect life and He completely honored and magnified and glorified
the law of God. The only person in human flesh
ever to do so. Are you back to Romans 10? If
you look back to verse 4, we ought not even need to look at
it to be able to To tell you what it says, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everybody that believes. But preacher, I'm a believer
and I don't believe he satisfied the law of God for me. I think
I have to do some of it. Well, you just go right ahead,
but you'll find out you're going to perish. If Christ is not your
righteousness, you're not going to have any. Plenty of churches
and preachers and people that will just give you all kinds
of compliments and tell you that you're the greatest person they've
ever known, and there's no way that you're not going to be on
the highest heaven. And there ain't no such thing.
There ain't but one high seat in heaven, and Christ is sitting
on it. So faith not only rests upon Christ as God manifests
in the flesh, but as Christ in His life and in His living, and
then faith looks to Christ, offering up Himself on the cross. It's
not enough to say that He lived for me. It must also be required
of us to see that He died for me. He is our substitute in that
sense. He died for everyone whom He
represented. And those persons that He represented
were persons who had already lived. persons who were then
living and persons who have lived on this earth till now and however
long this world lasts. It will be every generation.
When the last sheep is in the fold, this world is not needed
any longer. Thirdly, that was thirdly, Christ
on the cross. I think it was last Sunday. It
could have been the Sunday before, but there was an article in the
bulletin by Tim James. Well, when those words were uttered
by our Savior on the cross, John 19, verse 30, every believing
sinner reading those words ought to just glorify God for that
glorious work of redemption. doesn't need us to add not one
single thing. Faith builds her all on Christ
crucified. Faith is never done with Christ. We never get to the point that
we're so strong in faith that we don't need the Savior. Faith
ain't nothing without Christ. It's worthless. I mean, it's
a counterfeit if it doesn't constantly ever point us to Christ. No matter where He goes, in His
birth, in His life, in His death, in His grave, in the resurrection,
in the ascension, seated in glory. We need Christ in all those places
because wherever He goes, faith follows Him. Faith sees that
if Christ is risen from the dead, my soul is justified. When God
raised Christ from the dead, it declared that the sin of sin
is paid in full and paid for in full. Faith has to know something
about that. With the heart, man believes
under righteousness. This is not some dry doctrine. This is a glorious truth upon
which our souls must depend. And if we are in Him, they do. in regard to this statement in
Romans 10 and verse 10, and I'll try to make it as brief as I
can. What is it to believe with the heart? With the heart, man
believes unto righteousness. Now, how come it's not with the
brain? Because we're even more apt to enhance what we think
we have up here when what we have down here is quickly deteriorating. We have a mind, you know, that
is just beyond anything. Heart faith has but one object,
and that object is the Lord Jesus Christ. But this believing with
the heart that we're going to call heart faith, heart faith
is always born out of need. We are brought to the place.
We know that we need Him and we must have Him. Let me read
you a couple of verses here. How about turning? I won't keep
you too long. Matthew 11. Let me shorten it
just a little bit. Matthew 11.23. Our Lord is pronouncing
judgment, I think it's four different cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida, maybe it's three, Capernaum in
verse 23. Now Capernaum is where our Lord,
after he left the village of Nazareth at about the age of
30, he spent three to about three and a half years somewhere in
that vicinity in his public life and ministry. And it was all
conducted from this little town called Capernaum, which was on
the Sea of Galilee, or as it was called this morning in Doug's
reading, the Sea of Tiberias. And another place calls it the
Lake of Gennesaret. It's all the same body of water.
And our Lord was in and out of that town more than any other
single place. And yet, look what happened. Verse 23. Our Savior Himself
is speaking, and you, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven,
what a privilege the Son of God to make that His headquarters
for three and a half years. You shall be brought down to
hell, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been
done in Sodom, Sodom would have remained unto this day. Now,
buddy, that's a mouthful. But I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable. Hell will be less suffering for
Sodom than for you. Verse 25, now what does our Savior
say after such awesome words? At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Because
you've hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and
you have revealed them unto... Christ said we must become as
little children, hopeless, unless Christ does it for us. And he adds in verse 26, Father,
for so it's... that's how God purposed it to
be and that's heart faith, agrees with the justice and holiness
of God. You can find this written in
Luke chapter 7, verses 29 and 30, in which the Pharisees refused
John the Baptist's baptism. And it says that those that were
baptized of John glorified God and declared Him to be just and
righteous. in all that he did, especially
with themselves. But the Pharisees refused the
baptism because they did not take God's side against themselves. When a man is saved, God makes
us so jealous of God's right to reign and rule over us that
we agree with God everything He says about us in this book. Heart faith. agrees with and
loves God's way of salvation. Heart faith continues and perseveres. Well, I can't read this one.
It's on the fold of my paper. There we go. Finally, heart faith
is sincere and personal. It does not rest in God's gifts,
it rests in the giver. With the heart, man believes,
and with the mouth, confession is made.