which turn back to Philippians
chapter three. I felt greatly impressed to bring
a message from this verse of scripture. Let's read it once
again. I've entitled this message, not
grievous, but safe. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous. It's not tiresome. I don't grow
weary of it. But for you, it is safe. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Look in chapter four, verse four.
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. That could be said to be the
theme of this epistle. Rejoice in the Lord. Now rejoicing is not necessarily
a feeling of happiness or euphoria. Now we like to feel happy and
we like to have feelings of euphoria, but that's not really what rejoicing
is. As a matter of fact, Paul said,
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Now I don't want to, you've seen
this in religion so much, people try to project this joyfulness
that's phony. I don't want to have anything
to do with that. But I do want to rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the reason we can always
rejoice is because we're not rejoicing in circumstances. We're rejoicing in the Lord. Now I repeat, rejoicing Having
true and abiding joy may or may not have happiness along with
it. When somebody says, I'm unhappy,
I'm thinking, watch out. I want to be happy. Watch out.
I wonder what's getting ready to take place. I love what Walter Gruber said
when somebody said, Walter, are you happy after all these years?
Are you happy? And his reply was, what's that
got to do with anything? I like that reply. I'm not called
upon to seek happiness. I'm called upon to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ, to take up my cross daily, to deny myself
and to follow him. But there is something that makes
a believer happy and rejoice. You know, when we speak of the
word blessed, it means happy, happy. Turn to Romans chapter
four. See if this makes you happy. Beginning in verse six. even
as David also describeth the blessedness. And that word is
the happiness, the happiness. Even as David also describeth
the happiness of the man under whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. saying, happy are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Happy is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now that's something
that makes you happy. Makes me happy. Makes me real
happy. In Luke chapter 10, turn with
me there. Verse 20. He says in verse 19, notwithstanding
in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice, be happy because your names are written
in heaven. Does that make you happy? To
think of your name being written in the Lamb's book of life, the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the security
you possess. In Romans chapter 12, verse 12,
the apostle said, rejoicing in hope. Rejoicing in hope. Now, here's my hope. I have a
hope that right now, now remember hope, it's not something you
can see. If you can see it, it's not a hope. That's what Paul said.
If you can see it, it's not a hope. I have a hope that when God looks
at me right now, he sees me as without sin because Christ actually
put away my sin. I have a hope that on judgment
day, he's going to say to me, well done. thou good and faithful
servant. Because if Christ did well, I
did too. Because what he did, he did for
me. And I have a hope regarding everything that happens between
now and then. Everything! It's all going to work together
for my good and for his glory. Now I can rejoice in that hope. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
19. Verse six, and I heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters
and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. Does it make you glad that the
Lord God omnipotent reigneth and he's in control of everybody
and everything and every event? He reigns. That makes us happy. That makes us glad. Now, the
man who is rejoicing is the man who is described like this, happier
the poor in spirit. If you're poor in spirit, if
you're truly poverty stricken in spirit, you know what you
are? You're happy. Happier they that mourn, that mourn over their
sin. They're happy. They're gonna
be comforted. Happier the meek. Those who believe that whatever
God does is right and they bow before his sovereign will, they
shall inherit the earth. Happy is that man who hungers
and thirsts after righteousness. He feels like he doesn't have
any righteousness of his own, but oh, how he hungers and thirsts
for it. That man is happy. He's gonna
be filled. Happy are the merciful. You know,
it's a, If the Lord God gives me grace to be merciful, you
know what it's going to do? It's going to make me happy,
happier the merciful, happier the pure in heart, those given
a new heart, happier the peacemakers, happier those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake. Now, this is the true rejoicing. This is the true happiness. in
the Lord. And I rejoicing is only in the
Lord. Now, it's interesting when I
was looking over my notes before this message, trying to meditate
on what I wanted to say, I had written down in my notes, I rejoicing
is primarily in the Lord. And I thought, huh? What do you
mean by that? Is there something else you rejoice
in? And I got to thinking about it, and I started asking myself
this question, is there anything you can rejoice in other than
Christ? No. My rejoicing isn't primarily
in the Lord. It's only in the Lord. I think of that scripture in
Ephesians chapter three, verse 12, in whom? we have boldness and access with
confidence by the faith of Him. Not we have boldness and access
with confidence. No, in whom? In whom we have
boldness. The only place I have boldness
is in Him. Nowhere else. I wouldn't dare
come boldly in any way but in Him. The Lord said in John chapter
16 verse 33, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me
you might have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation,
difficulty, trial, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the
world. We rejoice in Him. We rejoice
in who He is and what He's done for us, and it's easy to rejoice
in Him. You're familiar with the passage
of Scripture in Ephesians chapter 1, that He has 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. Does that make
you happy? Having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Does that make you happy? In
whom we have redemption through His blood. even the forgiveness
of sins. Our rejoicing is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's that all that God requires
of us, he looks to his son for. You know, the Lord said, Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. Oh, how he rejoiced and he saw
it and he was glad. David said, One thing have I
desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Now, our
rejoicing is in Christ. We rejoice in his person. I wish I could talk about him
the way he ought to be talked about, because I am in awe of
his person. His glorious attributes, everything
about him, the God-man, I rejoice in his person. Aren't you glad
he is? I'm thankful. I rejoice and adore The way He
saves. I rejoice in the sufficiency
of His righteousness. His righteousness is the only
righteousness I have, and I like it that way. I rejoice in the
sufficiency of His blood. His blood washes away all my
sins and makes me perfect before God. We rejoice in His offices. Don't you rejoice in Him being
God's prophet? The very Word of God? God speaks
what He had to say, Christ His Son. We rejoice in His priesthood,
His bringing us to the Father. We rejoice in Him being King.
We rejoice in His providence. We rejoice in His purpose. We
rejoice in His intercession, the fact that right now He's
interceding for me, representing me. We rejoice in His return. Now look back to our text in
Philippians chapter 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. And next he says, to write the
same things to you. To continually, repetitiously
write the same things to you. To me, indeed is not grievous,
but for you, It is safe. The repetition of the gospel.
The repetition. The repetition of being told
to rejoice in Christ. Paul says, repeating that isn't
grievous to me. It isn't irksome. It doesn't
get old. It's not grievous to me, but
for you it is safe. The same thing always comes as
good news. Hearing the same thing. always
comes as good news when I hear as a sinner." Now, let me speak
a few moments about speaking the same things. If a man preaches
the gospel, he's going to speak the same things. He's going to
be repeating the same truth. Now, here's the thing about the
gospel. With the gospel is, if you hear the same thing over
and over again, it's still new. It's still fresh. It's still
powerful. It's still just like you heard
it for the first time, if you're hearing the gospel and the power
of the Holy Spirit. Anything else, you can't listen
to the same thing over and over again. Your favorite song, you'll
get sick of it at some point. You read yesterday's newspaper,
it's boring. I want something to be fresh.
I want it to come today. But with regard to the preaching
of the gospel, I can hear the same things, I can preach the
same things and still be excited about them, and I can read the
same things over and over and over. A lot of repetition going
on in gospel preaching. For instance, in Genesis 6-5,
we read where God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination, this describes me and you, every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And you know, I say that a lot.
If I don't quote that scripture, the doctrine's always there. Romans 9, 11, for the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, but the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. You know, I say that a lot, don't
I? And you know, I don't get tired of it. Matter of fact, I love it. It's
a reminder to me that my God is on the throne and that salvation
is all of his grace. The Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. You know, I bring that out a
lot, don't I? And I don't get tired of it. It's not grievous,
it's not irksome, it's not vexing. Repetition can be very irritating
if it's not the gospel, even if it's someone's preaching.
Let me show you what I'm talking about. Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Now this is that woman that was I guess a sorcerer of some kind.
She had a spirit of divination and gave her masters much gain
by her soothsaying. Look in verse 16. And it came
to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with
the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters
much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us
and cried saying, these men are the servants of the most high
God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now, is there anything
wrong in that statement? No, there's not. Everything she said was true.
And she kept saying it too. Look in verse 18. And this did
she many days. She kept following them, saying,
These are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto
us the way of salvation. Now, Paul's response. But Paul being grieved. You see, what she was saying
wasn't the gospel. It was true, but it wasn't the gospel. Would
anybody be saved by hearing that these are the servants of the
Most High God would show unto us the way of salvation? Nobody
would be saved by hearing that message. That's just religious
talk. And it grieved Paul, and he turned
around and cast whatever was in her out. Now, repetition can
be irritating, and I frequently ask Lynn, If there's something
that I'm saying that becomes annoyingly repetitious, I ask
her that all the time. And she tells me when I am. I
mean, there are times you can get hold of a phrase or something
and you can just keep wearing it out and wearing it out and repeating it and repeating it
and repeating it and it can become annoying. I realize that. Now,
when I do that in repetition, y'all give me a break, Forgive
me. Don't get mad at me. I'm preaching the same message
four times a day, four times a week. I'm preparing messages
four times a week. I'm bound to get into repetition
sometimes. So overlook it. Pray for me. Ask the Lord to
cause it to where everything will always be fresh and powerful
to me. I covet your prayer in that sense
very much. But that being said, while repetition
can be irritating, the repetition of the gospel is not. Now, by
God's grace, you're going to hear the same thing every time
you come in here. Same thing. You'll hear a message from this
book. You'll hear a message with the three R's, ruined by the
fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by God the Holy
Spirit. You're going to hear about how
God is absolutely sovereign every time you come in. Every time
you come in. You're going to hear about how God is absolutely
sovereign. How that men are dead in sins and can't save themselves.
You're going to hear that God elected a people. You're going
to hear that Christ died for the elect. You're going to hear
that God the Holy Spirit's grace is irresistible and invincible
and He causes all of God's people to persevere. You're going to
hear that every time by the grace of God. You're going to hear
the gospel every time you walk into this building. You'll hear
that God gets all the glory. You'll hear Christ exalted. You'll
hear man abased. You'll hear of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. You'll hear of justification.
You'll hear of sanctification. You'll hear of glorification.
You're going to hear same stuff. Same stuff. I hope you're going
to hear it from somebody who's thrilled with it. It's always
new, it's always powerful, it's always fresh, but you're gonna
hear the same thing. Can we get tired of Christ is
all? Can that become a cliche? Or
is that the very heart and soul of the gospel? Now the same things,
he said to write the same things to you. I'm going to, I'm going
to show in just a few moments why that's so important. But
let me, let's look at a couple of scriptures that uses the phrase,
the same things. Look in Romans chapter two. I love this verse of scripture. Verse 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, you condemn yourself. Whatever I sit in judgment with
regard to you on, all I'm doing is condemning myself. 4. Thou
that judgest. What are the next four words?
Doest. the same things. Now, I have such a tendency to
become judgmental that I need to hear this over and over again. Remember, when you judge, you're
playing the hypocrite. That's what the Holy Spirit says.
That's what God says. Whatever you're judging anybody
for, you're guilty of doing the same things. And what remarkable
hypocrisy that is. I need to hear that all the time,
don't you? I need reminded. That's why it's safe for me to
hear the gospel over and over again. I think of the scripture
Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. He's always the same. Oh, that's
so glorious. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all who call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. I need to hear that over
and over again. That same Lord that I've been
describing, he's rich to all who call on him. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, it's only
through hearing the same thing that we'll be what Paul desired
for the Corinthians. He said, speak the same thing.
It's only when we hear the same thing that we'll speak the same
thing and be of the same mind and of the same judgment. Now,
there's only one gospel. Amen. There's only one gospel. That means if I come and preach
not the same things or the same thing, that means at least one
of the messages I preached wasn't gospel. I better be preaching
the same thing every time I preach. And if I'm not, something I'm
preaching is not the gospel. Now, not only, Paul said, is
it not grievous for him to write the same things, but he says,
for you, it's safe. There is safety in hearing the
same thing. This is what you and I need.
There is safety in this. Now that word safe is literally
not tripped up. It's also translated to certain
and sure and the most safe, the most important thing in my life
is to hear the gospel over and over and over again. That's the
most safe. That's the most important thing
in my life. Let me give you some reasons. Here's what I believe the most
important reason is. because the Lord himself inhabits
the preaching of the gospel. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. If I want to be in his presence,
I'm going to have to be where he's promised he is. And he's
promised he is where the preaching of the gospel is. I want to be
there. I want to have his presence. Oh, so desperately. This is during,
right, hearing the same things is where I'm given faith. See,
faith is always in the now. Yesterday's faith doesn't do
me any good. I need something, I need fresh manna today. And
the only way I get that faith, matter of fact, my faith is the greatest when
I'm hearing the preaching of the gospel and believing it.
That's when my faith is, I'm not saying it's great, it's a
gift of God and so on, so don't misunderstand me, but I know
this, when I hear the preaching of the gospel and the power of
the Holy Spirit, that's when my faith is strongest, strongest. So it's important for me to hear
the same things over and over again, because faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And I need to hear the
same things over and over again because I forget so soon. I love
that hymn we opened up with, because I forget so soon the
early dew of morning is passed away at noon when he sang tell
me the old, old story. But this is what I thought of
when I thought about this. They say if you're an addict,
you're always an addict. Like if you're an alcoholic or
something like that, you'll always be an alcoholic. Even if you
don't touch alcohol, you're still an alcoholic. If you're an addict,
you're always an addict. And you're always in danger.
Well, I am addicted to self-righteousness. and I'm addicted to sin. Those
are my two addictions. I'm addicted to self-righteousness
and I'm addicted to sin. And that's why I completely all
the time need to hear the gospel because I need those things beat
out of me. I need to hear over and over
again that my righteousness is no good. I need to hear of the
sufficiency of his righteousness and the power of his precious
blood because I'm an addict. If you let me go, I'm going to
be in trouble. I have to hear over and over
again, and I guarantee every one of you that are believers
feel that way about yourself. You feel like an addict, and
you need to hear the gospel over and over again so your addictions
won't kill you. Now, I need to hear the same
old things and I need to hear them as new and fresh because
I have the same needs. I need Christ and His grace and
His presence and His favor and His forgiveness and His mercy. I need Him just as much now,
probably in my own mind more so now. I had somebody write
me. I might have even said something
about this. I said it either to an individual or said it to,
I don't know who I said it to, but it happened this week. A
guy wrote me. He said, how's your walk in the
Lord? And I, how do you answer that? Good. Good, you know, I'm
doing great, man. And then, and he said this several
times, and then he said, he said, my walk is, I'm so thankful that
my daily walk with the Lord is better and better, and I remember
him telling me, and I wrote back to him, I said, well, I said,
with regard to my walk with the Lord, there's never been a better
master, and there's never been a worse servant. And with regard to how I feel
I'm doing, well, I know this, I need Christ more than I ever
have. And I need free grace more than I ever have. And I just,
I need to hear the gospel because I have the same needs. I have
the same need. So that's what's safe to me,
to hear the same gospel over and over again. Now, hearing
the same things is the only safe thing to do. Hearing, rejoicing
in the Lord keeps me from being overwhelmed by my circumstances.
It keeps me safe from the error of the way I will go. Look in the text. He says when
he says in Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 and 2, finally my
brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you
to me indeed is not grievous but for you it's safe. The next
thing he says is beware of dogs and he's not talking about canines.
He's talking about False prophets, beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision, the mutilators, the people who tell you you need
to be circumcised, for we are the circumcision which worship
God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. I need to hear the gospel over
and over again just to keep me away from it. I'll pray to it,
and you will too. You are what you hear. I need
to hear the gospel over and over again to keep me from being overwhelmed
by my own sinfulness. I love that scripture. He was
manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. If I'm in him, I have no sin. I can't hear that often enough.
I can't hear it. I can't hear it often enough.
Give me more. Give me more. To write the same things to you,
same truth. To me indeed is not grievous,
it's not irksome, it's not vexing, but for you it is safe. Now Paul frequently asked the
people he was writing to to pray for him. Pray for me that I might
preach with boldness the way I ought to preach and so on.
Just almost every epistle he asked the people to pray for
him. Well, pray for me. I covet your
prayer. Pray for me that I might speak
the same things and never bury. That I do so from a heart of
need, a heart that loves what I'm preaching, that the same
things I preach will always be fresh, coming from someone whom
the Lord has taught. But pray for me. I covet your
prayers. And I want to say this to all
of us. Be on guard about becoming tired
of what you're hearing. Be on guard. Ask the Lord to
deliver you from that. Wanting to hear something else
where the same things no longer move you. You know, I want to
be moved by the gospel every time I hear the gospel. I want
to be, you know, I hate it when I hear a message and I'm not
moved by that message to never be the same again after I heard
that message. Now, if I'm hearing the gospel and
I'm not moved, One of two things are true. One is the gospel's
not being preached. It's just religion. It's not
the gospel. Or number two, the gospel is
being preached, and I'm not hearing as a sinner. The only way the
gospel will come in power to me is as I hear as a sinner. And when I hear as a sinner,
the same old things are so new, they're so fresh, they're so
powerful, I need them so much. Now, Paul said, finally, brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. How often do you need to hear
that? Rejoice in the Lord to write
the same things to you. I go through Paul's epistles
saying the same thing to every one of them. Always the same
thing. Read Romans and then read Galatians
and you think it's just a shorter version of Romans. It's the same
thing. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, it's not irksome, it's not vexing,
it's not tiresome, it's not boring. But for you, it is safe. It's safe to hear the gospel,
isn't it? Really, it's the only safe thing in the world. So I
hope we have a newfound appreciation of Philippians chapter three,
verse one. And you pray for me. that I'll
always preach the same things. You pray for me that it'll be
with a heart that the Lord has done something for. And you pray
for yourself that hearing the same things never grows grievous
or irksome or tiresome to you. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
sameness. How we thank you for your gospel. Lord, how we thank you for preserving
your word, causing it to be preached to us. How we thank you for the
revelation of yourself, where we've seen your glory, your holiness,
and our need of thy blessed son. How we thank you for his precious
blood. How we thank you for our great
high priest. Lord, cause our hearts to always
burn as we hear the gospel. Lord, may you enable me, anyone
else who preaches from this pulpit, to always preach the same things. Bless us for Christ's sake, in
his name we pray, amen. You know, Paul, it might be appropriate
to go