Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In Philippians chapter three,
verse one, Paul said, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now, when he says finally, he's
saying, I've said all that to say this, rejoice in the Lord. In the fourth chapter and the
fourth verse, he said once again, rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say, rejoice. Now, I want to look at this passage
of scripture. I think this is one of the most
significant passages in the New Testament. And I want us to look
at the first 13 or 14 verses and see what Paul is saying when
he says, rejoice in the Lord. And the first thing we have to
understand is who is this Lord we're called upon to rejoice
in? Well, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The one who in the previous chapter,
it was said, he thought it not robbery to be equal with the
Father. Now, the only way you can be
equal with God is to be God. Jesus Christ is not like God. He's not like God at all. He
is God. In the first chapter, Paul, speaking
of him, said, to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. This is the one who, if you know
him, the last day of your life will be the best day. This is
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now Paul says, rejoice, be glad
in the Lord, as all of God's salvation is in Christ, and you're
complete in Him, rejoice in the Lord. Now he also says in verse
1, to write the same things to you. To me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe." Now, the gospel has a limited body of truth,
and if that body of truth is not preached, the gospel is not
preached. It's the preaching of the same
things. It's the repetition of the same
truth. And the gospel is unlike any
human composition in this sense. It's always new. The same things. are always fresh, are always
powerful. Now you hear the same things
of anything written by a mere human being, it's going to get
old. It's going to get stale. It's going to become boring.
It's going to become meaningless compared to what it once was
to you, but not the gospel. Paul said to write the same things
to me, is not grievous, it's not irksome. I glory in these
same things. And for you, it's safe. The only safe thing is to hear
the continuous repetition of the gospel. Now he goes on to
say in verse 2, beware of dogs. Now he's not talking about canines,
he's talking about false prophets. It's the same beware the Lord
gave when he said, beware of false prophets. And Paul calls
them dogs. Beware of dogs. Isaiah called
them greedy dogs and dumb dogs. And that would be a good description
of someone that does not preach the gospel. Greed motivates them
and everything they say is contrary to the gospel. Beware of evil
workers. They speak of good works. but
what they are are evil workers. Beware of the concision. Now
here Paul invents a new word. He was talking about the circumcision.
These people who boast in their circumcision say, you need to
be circumcised in order to please God. He comes up with a new word,
the concision, the mutilators, the emasculators. They talk about
circumcision, but all they do is cut people off. They are wrong
all the way through. And then he says in verse three,
and this is such a significant verse, four, We are the circumcision. We are the true circumcision. Now, to be physically circumcised
is not to be spiritually circumcised. This is spiritual circumcision.
This actually refers to the new birth. This refers to being born
again. This refers to being regenerated. We are the circumcision, the
true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit. He gives three marks. Here's
what a truly circumcised person does. He worships God in the
spirit. He rejoices in Christ Jesus,
and he has no confidence in the flesh. Now, let's consider these
three things. The truly circumcised person,
the true circumcision, this is the circumcision made without
hands. The truly circumcised person, first of all, worships
God in the Spirit. Now, you worship God for who
He is. You worship Him as He reveals
Himself in His Word. You worship Him in His holiness. You worship Him in His sovereignty. You worship Him in His immutability. You worship Him in His omnipotence. You worship Him in His independence. Everything God reveals with regard
to Himself, You worship Him, and you worship Him for who He
is, not for what you can get out of Him, not for what you
can benefit from Him, but you worship Him for who He is, as
He's revealed in His Word. And when you worship Him for
who He is, there's only one way it's done, in the Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can enable
one to truly worship God. Now, when I'm preaching to you,
I would love for you to come out and visit the church which
I pastor, Todd's Road Grace Church. You're welcome. We'd love to
have you to hear the gospel. Just be thrilled if you would
come. But let me say this. I don't
say come and worship with us. I never say that because you
can't worship unless God gives you a new heart to worship. Now, if you've been given a heart
to worship, you can come and worship with us, but I don't
say come worship with us to a mixed crowd because I don't know whether
you can worship or not. The only people who truly worship
God are people who worship Him in the Spirit. God is Spirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit, in the
Holy Spirit, and in truth. God is not worshipped according
to error, but only according to the truth of His Word. Now, Paul says, we are the circumcision. which worship God in the Spirit. And here's what that looks like.
He says, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. What does it look like
to worship God in the Spirit? That means you rejoice And the
word rejoice here is a different word than the word used in verse
one when he said, finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord.
In verse one, it means be happy in the Lord, be glad in the Lord,
exalt in the Lord. But here, the word means to glory
in, to boast in, to have confidence in. If you worship God in the
Spirit, you have confidence only in Christ Jesus. Paul said it like this in Galatians
6. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing
I have confidence in is who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished
on Calvary's tree. I don't look to myself, anything
I do, I look to Him only. I rejoice, I have confidence
only in who He is and what He did. That's all there is that's
going to bring me into God's presence and be accepted. Who
He is and what He did. That is the gospel. We rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now let me tell you something
that everyone who rejoices in Christ Jesus does. He says we
have no confidence in the flesh. Now, by the flesh, he means everything
that is not of the Spirit of God. my fleshly ability, my fleshly
will, my fleshly experience, my fleshly intellect. I don't
have any confidence in anything that has anything to do with
me. I have no confidence in my flesh. I have no confidence in
your flesh. Now here is the true circumcision.
They worship God in the spirit, they rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and they have no confidence in the flesh." Now Paul goes on
to expound on what he meant by having no confidence in the flesh. And when he said that, I have
no confidence in my former religious experience. Now, many people,
when they're looking for assurance that they're saved, they look
back to some kind of experience they had. Well, I must be saved
because I remember when I went down to the front of the church
and I received Christ as my personal savior. I remember when I did
that, I must be saved. Now, that's not looking to Christ,
that's looking to the flesh. That's looking to your own experience.
Now, hear what Paul says. He says, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh it,
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I've got more than
him. Here's why. Paul says, I was circumcised
the eighth day as prescribed by the law of the stock of Israel. I was a full, or I am a full-blooded
Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of the Hebrews. I'm not merely a Hebrew, I'm
a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the law, I was a
Pharisee. Now, we see Pharisees quite often
in the New Testament. It was the strictest denomination
of Judaism. It was man-made. It's not found
in the Old Testament. The Pharisees didn't arise until
about 150 years before the birth of Christ. It was a man-made
denomination. No different, really, than being
a Baptist or a Catholic or a Presbyterian or a Methodist or any other man-made
denomination. That's all they are. You can't
support denominations in the Scripture. And he was a Pharisee,
and it means a separated one. Now, he said, concerning zeal,
I persecuted the church. I believed I was right. And I
felt it my moral obligation to persecute anybody that didn't
believe the way I did. Listen, this next thing he says,
touching the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. I really believed that I had
kept the Ten Commandments. Like the rich young ruler, all
these have I kept from my youth up, that's what I believed about
myself. Now that was his religious resume,
that was his experience. But, he says in verse 7, what
things were gained to me, I thought these to be in the plus column.
I thought these things to be to my advantage, that I was a
Pharisee, that I was zealous, that I kept the law. I thought
these things were to my advantage. What things were gained to me?
Those I counted loss for Christ. I all of a sudden could see clearly
that not only were these things not to my advantage, they were
positively harmful. Loss. Garbage. Have you ever looked at your
past religious experience and seen it was nothing more than
garbage? Paul did. He says in verse 8,
yea, 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, my religious heritage,
the things that I was trusting in, and here's what I consider
those things to be that I've lost, I do count them but dung."
Excrement. That's how he viewed those things.
Dung. That I may win Christ and be
found in Him." Now, this is the only experience Paul wanted,
and it's the only experience any believer wants. When God
comes looking for me, there's one place I want Him to see me
in, in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that all God sees When he
sees me is Jesus Christ. I do not want him to see anything
else. I don't want him to see my preaching.
I don't want him to see my prayer life. I don't want him to see
my Bible reading. I don't want him to see my witnessing.
I don't want him to see the good things I do. I don't want him
to see the bad things I do. I don't want him to see anything
but Jesus Christ. Here's what that means. I want
to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law. I do not want to have anything
to do with my own righteousness. I love what Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 64, 6. He said, our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And that's what Paul considered
his own righteousness to be, his own former religion. He said,
I don't want to have anything to do with my own righteousness,
which is of the law, which is according to my obedience to
something, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ. The
obedience of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now, here's what Paul wanted,
and here's what every believer wants. I don't want to have anything
to do with my standing before God based upon anything that
I've done, or thought, or intended to do. I don't want to stand
before God in my own righteousness. I want to have nothing less than
the very righteousness of God, the obedience of Jesus Christ.
And somebody says, how can you have that? Well, 2 Corinthians
5.21 says, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. in Him. Now on Calvary's tree, Christ
was made sin. He became guilty. The sins of the elect became
His sins. When he drank of that cup in
Gethsemane's garden, he was drinking the cup of his people's sins. He was made sin. And that perfect
righteousness that he worked out, the righteousness of God,
is given to every single believer. And that's why I'm justified.
That's why I can look at judgment and not be afraid. If I thought
my standing on judgment day had anything to do with my personal
obedience, I'd be scared to death. But I have nothing less than
the righteousness of God. It's called justification. A
perfect just standing before God's holy law. But look what Paul goes on to
say. He says in verse 10, that I might know him. Not only do
I not want to stand in my own righteousness and stand in the
righteousness of God, I want to know Him. I don't simply want
to know things about Him, I want to know Him. I want to know Him to this extent,
He knows me. When He hears my cry, He hears
the cry of one who knows Him. I don't want to use his name
by way of name dropping. I want to use his name as one
whom he knows and he would recognize me as one of his. Oh, I want
to know him. I don't want to simply know things
about him. I want to know him. And then Paul says in verse 10,
not only do I want to be found in him, not only do I want to
know him, I want to know the power of His resurrection. Now
what does He mean by that? Does He mean I want more power
in my life and more victory over sin and more ability to walk
in a way that would be pleasing to Him? I wouldn't say He does
not mean those things, but He does not mean that. When He's
talking about knowing the power of His resurrection, here is
the power of His resurrection. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification. Here is the power of His resurrection
when He was raised from the dead. God looked at me. He looked at
everybody He represented and said, I am completely satisfied
with that person. They can't be any more pleasing.
They can't be any more accepted. They can't be any more righteous.
They can't be any more holy than they are because of His resurrection. He put away their sins. He was
raised again for their resurrection. Now, that's power. I want to
know the power of His resurrection that makes the thrice holy God
actually satisfied with me, pleased with me, where He could say,
I can ask for no more out of Him. Now that is power. And not only do I want to know
the power of His resurrection, I want to know the fellowship
of His sufferings. What's that mean? I want to know
that what He did, He did for me. You see, I don't believe
for a second, nor does the Bible teach, that what he did, he did
for everybody without exception. He didn't die for all men without
exception. If he did all men without exception, he'd be saved.
He died for his sheep. He died for his elect. Now, I
want to know that I'm one of them. I want to know that what
he did, he did for me. I want to be able to say with
Paul, speaking of Christ, the one who loved me and gave himself
for me. You see, if he loved me and gave
himself for me, I'm saved. I can't get any more saved. I'm
perfect in Christ Jesus. So I want to know that I had
a share in what He did. I want to know the fellowship
of His sufferings. Then Paul said, being made conformable
unto His death. Now notice the language. Not
make myself conformable, but being made conformable. The only way I can be made conformable
unto his death, if he makes me conformable to his death, and
that is what I desire. Well, what's that mean? He became
obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross,
the greatest act of obedience. And I want to be made conformable
to his death, If by any means, Paul says in verse 11, if by
any means, I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now he's talking about the believer's
resurrection. Everybody's going to be resurrected.
The Lord said some to righteousness, some to condemnation. I want
to be raised. to no longer be a sinner, to
be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, to not even
remember what it's like to be a sinner. That's what I desire. Paul puts it so clearly. He said, I want to be found in
him. I want to know him. I want to know the power of his
resurrection. I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings.
I want to be made conformable unto his death. If by any means
I might attain to the resurrection of the dead and be just like
Christ in my resurrection. That's not as though I'd already
attained. Paul said in verse 12, I'm not there yet. Either
we're already perfect. but I follow after it that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. He arrested me, he laid hold
upon me, and I want to lay hold upon him. Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do." Paul was
a man of one thing. This one thing I do, forgetting
those things that are behind. The good things, the bad things,
forget them. And reaching forth unto those
things which are before the Lord Jesus, glory, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Forget the past. Forget your
religious experience. Forget the bad things. the injustices
that have been done to you. By the grace of God, forget them. They're all a part of God's purpose. Forget the good things. Don't
try to find any hope in the good things. Forget the past and reach
forth to the things that are before the Lord Jesus Christ
and the salvation that is in Him. Paul said, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Don't miss that term, in Christ
Jesus. All of God's favor, all of God's
blessing, all of God's grace, all of God's mercy, all of God's
forgiveness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul began
this statement by saying, finally, my brethren, Rejoice in the Lord. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD, or if you look at the church website, you can get
a copy of it there. We'll send you a copy if you
write or call. This is Todd Kniper, praying that God will be pleased
to make Himself known to you. Amen. To receive a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert
at gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.