Philippians chapter three. We looked Wednesday night at
Philippians chapter four, and I knew we'd have to go backwards
from there. That's the end of the chapter of the book. But Paul's
continuing his letter here with one exhortation, with one statement,
and with three warnings. Let's look at verse one of Philippians
chapter three. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. That's what we looked at Wednesday
night, 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, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Now that word safe, when he says
it's not grievous but it is safe, that word safe means firm. Something
that can be relied upon, something that is certain, or something
that is true. Paul's saying, it's not grievous
for me to tell you the same thing over and over and over. It's
certain, it's true, it's firm. Is that not what we try to do
every time we gather together? We'd say the same thing over
and over in hopes that the Lord does the work. Everywhere Paul
went, he preached the same thing. The Lord Jesus Christ and his
glorious salvation for his elected sinners. preached that the Lord
Jesus Christ was the end of the law for righteousness, according
to Romans 10. In Galatians, he preached to
them that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us. Everywhere he went, in every
letter that he sent out to the churches, said the same exact
thing, Christ is all. If you want to, you can, take
a liquid or you could take a we were making applesauce I'll just
use that as an example and if you want it to be thicker all
you have to do is continue to let it boil and continue to let it
boil and eventually it'll reduce down and it'll be more of a paste
won't it well if you want to boil it down all the way to what
the center of everything that we hope to preach and everything
that we believe in is all our hope before God, all of our righteousness
before God. It's Christ alone, Christ alone,
not what we do, not what we think, not what we know, but who we
know, Christ alone. And this is what Paul declares. And he says, rejoice, rejoice
in the Lord. This is his declaration to them,
rejoice in the Lord. Paul said, Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Where it's
written, curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Paul preached
that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the prophecies. He's the
end of the law. He fulfilled all the prophecies. And we see
that in Isaiah 53, the Lord is foretold he shall grow up as
a tender plant, out as a root, out of dry ground. That's what
he said, wasn't it? He said he's gonna be nothing
in him that we would desire him. But he said, He was stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He said, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. And he
goes on to say that when the Lord made his soul an offering for
sin, he was satisfied. Paul's saying that this is the
one, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that all the prophecies,
I'm just speaking of Isaiah 53, because that's just one of the
prophecies. Christ is the fulfillment of all the prophecies, isn't
he? He fulfilled every prophecy. Isaiah 53 says, by thy knowledge
shall thy righteous servant justify many. And he tells us why, because
he shall bear their iniquities. Christ is the fulfillment of
that, isn't he? He bore the iniquities of his people. This is what Paul
continually iterates wherever he went, whomever he spoke to,
whatever he was writing about, Christ is all, Christ is all. Paul told the church of Galatia,
the church of Ephesus, Christ was the sacrifice mentioned Isaiah
before the, from the foundation of the world in Ephesians chapter
one, verse four. Tells us in every single book,
we see the same thing that Christ was successful in redeeming his
people. That's our hope, isn't it? Now, this is why Paul begins
this part of this letter. And I've said this to us before,
but in a letter that we would write, it would say, dear so-and-so,
and it would begin, and it wouldn't have chapters and verses and
things. It would just continue all the
way to the end until we signed our name at the bottom. And that's
how this was written. But the Lord in mercy gave us these translators
that gave us chapters and verses. So this is just a continuation.
This is the last thing, because he says, finally, finally, I've
said all this before, but finally rejoice in the Lord. And everything
else that he's saying, finally, rejoice in the Lord. And this
is his encouragement to us. We should rejoice as we heard
Wednesday night. We don't rejoice in circumstances.
We don't rejoice in afflictions. We rejoice in the God of purpose
that's given us the circumstances, the God of purpose that reigns
and given us these light afflictions that Paul called them. But he
said, the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We rejoice
in the Lord. There's our rest. And there is
our rejoicing alone. Paul tells them, it's not grievous
to me to repeat this to you over and over and over. He said, this
is firm. This is safe. This is true. This
is our hope. This is our rest, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.
Then he gives us three warnings. There is one of three ways that
men are deceived. And I'm sure there's many other
ways that men are deceived. But Paul's primarily dealing
with three specific ways that men are deceived. He warns them
by saying, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers and the concision.
Now, I've titled this message adding to or taking away. And these three do one of those
two or both. Every warning we see given by
Paul or by any of the other apostles or by the Lord himself is a warning
against us being drawn away by the lust of the flesh to another
gospel or to a false truth in some way, shape or form. It's
always to be drawn away from the finished work of Christ alone. Men would say, or have you believe
that Christ was sufficient, and then they would say, but, and
it doesn't matter what you put after that, what I put after
that, that negates the first statement, doesn't it? Christ
is all, but, that negates it. Christ is all, period. Only the
Lord's people believe that. Only we hope in him alone. We can only rest in him and his
finished work alone. And this is what Paul's warning
us against, is being led away by the simplicity of but, just
an interjection of the gospel. In some way, whether it's before
or after we've been brought to the knowledge of the truth. The
first one he says, verse two, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Now, dogs mentioned here are
male prostitutes. That's what, by definition, that's
what they are. And what Paul's telling us is they are perverting
the gospel. They're perverting the truth.
They're going about as a harlot would with the gospel and pretending
that they're doing it in the Lord's name, that they're declaring
something in the Lord's name, but they're false. It's not true. It's a perversion of the truth. It's perverting it because that's
what prostitution does. God's design is between husband
and wife, isn't it? It's very simple. The scripture
is clear on that. He calls that honorable, husband and wife.
He calls that honorable. And everything else he calls
dishonorable or an abomination. Do you know why? Because it represents
Christ and his church. The love that Christ has for
his bride and the union that we have with him as one. That's
what it represents. So anything other than that is
an abomination or it's dishonorable, the Lord says. What does Paul say, beware of
dogs? Well, it was because they were perverting the truth. They
were taking what the Lord said is right. Here's the simplicity.
Christ is all. And they were adding to, or they
were taking away in some way, shape or form. They were preaching
that which satisfies the flesh and not preaching the truth.
Now, the reason we focus sometimes on these warnings is because,
first of all, we are purposed to deliver the entire counsel
of God, but we should never be so high-minded as to think that
we are above being drawn away from the truth. I would remind
us that Peter and Barnabas, Peter, the one that stood on the day
of Pentecost and proclaimed the gospel to all these, 2,000 souls
were added to the church that day. And what happened a few
books down the road, he was drawn away back to the law, back to
circumcision. That's what these dogs do. They
come in and they act like they know the truth. or they pretend
to be among believers and they draw men away from the truth
just a little bit at a time. It doesn't take much law, does
it, to leaven the whole lump? That's what the Lord said to
the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven. Beware of the leaven.
No, we must stand upon Christ alone. Lord, keep us looking
to you alone. Don't let us be drawn away by
these false teachers. These are those that's gone the
way of Cain, the scripture talks about. They went after the error
of Balaam. They gone after the gain saying of Korah, this is
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. You will remember in the garden
of Eden that that is the reason man fail. Eve was, that's the
reason, that's how the woman was tempted. The serpent beguiled
Eve. And he said, you know, in the
day that she shall eat thereof, you shall not surely die. God's
a liar. He knows that he knows that you're
going to be God. That's what the devil was saying. That's
what Satan was tempting her with. She said, what happened? Well,
it says when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that's
the lust of the eye, that it was pleasant to the eye. The
tree was desirous to make one wise. She took and she did eat.
That's Power, popularity, and pleasure, there's where our weakness
is in the flesh. Now, am I preaching a works gospel? No, I preface this with Christ
is all, that's the point. We are to guard ourself against
these falsenesses that would creep in and bring about, I said
we've been here a year and it's all by mercy and grace that we're
continuing to declare the truth. No, if we're led away with our
lust, we'll start, look at me and how nice I look and look
at this that I have done. That's what will happen. That's
what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He was lifted up in pride, wasn't
he? We see Barnabas and Paul were led away, led astray. Because
of the lie from the beginning, the lie of Satan is that you
can be God. There's something you must do.
That's exactly how he tempted Christ. Do we remember that?
When the Lord was in the desert fasting for 40 days and 40 nights,
he came down from the mountain. You imagine 40 days of not eating?
I can't imagine that. We're Americans. We don't do
that. We eat. And we have plenty, don't we?
The Lord's been abundant to us. We don't go without food. The
Lord came down from the mountain, fasting 40 days and 40 nights,
and he was hungry. You know he had to be famished,
physically speaking. Boy, he was full on food that
we can't imagine, though. He was the communion that he
had with his father. We can't enter into that. We
will one day. When we're made like him, we
see him face to face, but comes down off that mountain. And what
does Satan do? He appears unto him and he tempts him. And how
does he tempt him? He says, if you be God, if you say you are
who you say you are, command that these stones be made bread.
Well, that's pleasure. That's something of taste, isn't
it? And we know what the Lord told him, that man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. And Satan took him up on a pentacle and he said,
or he took him up on the rooftop second. And he said, if you be
God, cast yourself off this roof because the scriptures, and then
Satan started using scripture, didn't he? And he said, he said,
he'd give angels charge over thee to keep thee. So if he be
God, he's going to take care of you. So now he's challenging
the authority of God. What did the Lord say? You should
not tempt the Lord thy God. What is that? Well, that was
power, wasn't it? If he has the power that you say that you have,
what was the last one? He took him up on a mountain
and said, if you bow down and worship me, I'll give you everything
you see. That's popularity. That's popularity. And what'd
the Lord say? Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only. Him only
shalt thou worship. and Satan departed. See, Christ
fulfilled everything that you and I could not, that we failed
in our father, Adam, and in Eve. We failed in them. We sinned
in them. We were in them when they sinned.
Don't confuse that. We were of their seed, therefore,
of his seed. Therefore, everything that proceeded
after him is dead, spiritually speaking. Christ Jesus, His seed
is life, isn't it? And we are born of Him, not of
the seed of Adam, but we are given life in Him, spiritually
speaking. And you have these dogs that'll
come in, and they'll try to get you to go back this direction
or back that direction. That's what, it's gonna happen.
We're gonna have people that's gonna try to persecute us. They're
gonna try to sway us from the truth. May God keep us from the
dogs looking unto Him. You know how he does that? By
his gospel. By his gospel. What does it reveal? Well, Lord,
I'm a dog. I'm a dead dog sinner. I need
mercy. I need grace. I'm going to go
this way that Eve went. I'm going to do exactly what
Satan was tempting you to do if you don't keep me. Is that
not what Paul's warning them about? Look to Christ. Rejoice
in the Lord and beware of dogs. Beware, they're gonna try to
do this and try to do that. Aren't you glad that the Lord
has seated? Aren't you glad that the Lord is successful? Aren't
you glad that the Lord can't be, it says tempted and we know
what that means, but the Lord couldn't have sinned. It was
impossible, he was perfect. He had his father's blood, God
can't sin. We rest in that, don't we? Satan's still in the same business.
He hasn't changed. He's gonna tempt men to believe
that they can help God to fix their sin problem. That's what
these dogs say. There's something you can do
to fix it. No, we can't fix it. Christ has to. Christ has to. Beware of dogs. Second thing
he says is beware of evil men. That would remind us that scripture
is very clear that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived. Boy, I take comfort in the verse
that says if it were possible The very elect would be deceived,
if it were possible, but you're kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last day.
That's what the scripture says. Nonetheless, evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. I can't think
of anything more evil than adding to the finished work of Christ.
Can you? Adding to it or taking away from
it. That's evil, isn't it? Adding
one thing or taking away anything from it, saying that Christ was
not sufficient in salvation. He was, wasn't he? Do you believe
that? Do you believe that Christ successfully redeemed his people?
That's my only hope. Because if he wasn't successful,
there's nothing I can do to fix it. We know that, don't we? We've
been made to know that. Paul says, beware of evil men.
They're going to try to make you think this way. They pretend
to say Christ is all, but they add something. Grace plus works
in some way. And you know, all that does is
glorify the flesh. All that does is say, look at
me, look at me. Christ is not sufficient. Look
at me. Look what I have done. I made him my choice. I may speak
of that a lot because I know that it's. A lot of people think
that they don't do that, but they do until the Lord comes
and he gives life and said, I didn't even realize I was adding to
grace this entire time. I'm an example of that. And all
of you are examples of that, aren't you? That's how the Lord
does. He reveals that he is all. And when he does, we say, I didn't
realize I was mixing it the whole time. I didn't know that that
little bit of Lebanon, I didn't even know I was putting Lebanon
to it. He didn't realize that, Lord, keep us from the leaven.
It's going to ruin the whole lump, cause us to look to Christ
as all. Keep us from ourself, the dog. Keep us from ourself, the evil
man that would add to or take away. See, that's the message
this morning. It's not that we are to stand firm on the promises
of the Lord, looking in prayer and trusting that he is going
to keep us according to his promise. We're mercy beggars, aren't we?
Lord, keep me from myself. My fear is not just that people
would come in and sow discord and that we would have a division
and that the building would be overtaken and we wouldn't be
able to worship together anymore. That's not the real fear, is
it? Lord, if you leave me to myself, hell will be my eternal
home. There's the fear. Keep me from
this evil man. Keep me from this dog. There's
the problem. There's the problem. And he says,
you're not kept by your power. You're kept by my power. Isn't
that good news? Somebody might say, well, I'm
not gonna go back to that. I'm not gonna do that again.
I'm not gonna go fall victim to that. I've already mentioned
Paul and Barnabas. Paul said, I'm, he said, I marvel. I marvel that you're so soon. removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. This was
cause men would come in, they were sowing fear, they were sowing
doubt. That's how our adversary functions, is he sows fear. But
love, the love of Christ that shed abroad in our heart one
towards another and unto him love, perfect love casteth out
fear. That's what we do. We don't declare
the law to cause men to be afraid that they would live their life
a certain way or to do this or to not do that. No, we preach
the love of Christ, don't we? And he casts out that fear. These
men came in and said, well, if you're not circumcised, you're
not a believer. And Peter fell for it. Peter fell for it. He
left the Gentiles and went over to the Jews and said, no, I can't
partake in the pork. It's against the law. You remember,
we talked about this just a couple of weeks ago. We were in Galatians,
or maybe not even that long ago. The Lord makes it clear to his
people, he is all, he is all, and he casts out that fear. Have
you done enough for Jesus? I can never do enough for him.
Not for salvation, I can't do anything for salvation, can we?
We can't do anything. Not to attain salvation. Are
you working hard enough for him? I can't work hard enough. He's
gonna have to do all the work. Lord, keep me, cause me to have
the fruit of faith. in Christ Jesus that you're pleased
with. Don't look at what this is producing. It's sin unto death. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
as our substitute, as our intercessor, and look to Christ as our substitute,
our hope of eternal life, our substitute, our intercessor,
and our surety. circumcision that they were,
that's what it came down to ultimately was circumcision. Circumcision
they were mentioning is all look at the flesh that's what it was
about. Look at my flesh and what I have done versus look at what
you have done. And it was just that one thing that wasn't, it
wasn't that complicated of a thing to do and they gloried in that
one little thing. They thought okay we are definitely believers
because, we are definitely the elect of God because, and And
if the sentence that follows after that is not Christ accomplished
everything on Calvary, if it's something that we do, we're not
believers. If we're saying, adding anything
to the work of Christ, we're not believers. If we take away
anything from it, we're not believers. It's that simple. He has to be
everything. We have to be completely empty.
And not only empty, we have to be broken cisterns. He has to
make us a vessel of honor all by his doing, doesn't he? these
were talking about circumcision, they were saying that, what did
Paul say in our text? Look in chapter three, verse
three, for we are the circumcision, which worship God in spirit.
They were saying you have to be physically, this has to be
something physical. No, no, no, it's spiritual. That's
what we hope in. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three, where Paul deals with the same issue. Paul's not talking
about The physical but the spiritual, we're the children of promise
by what he's done. I love the Lord using the word
now in his book, don't you? There is now therefore no condemnation. It's right here in the passage
we're looking at, Romans 3, look in verse 21, but now. the righteousness
of God, without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at
this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier
of him which believe. So this is the righteousness
of God by the faith of Christ bestowed. This is his righteousness
given, not by keeping of the law, not by one, adding one dot,
one, what is it, jot or tittle? Is that how it's said? Yes, jot
or tittle. We don't add one jot or tittle
to it. No, we don't. We don't have to come in and help the
Lord by putting an eye on something, a dot on the top of the eye that
he missed, or crossing a T that he didn't cross properly. We
don't help him at all. We don't add anything to it.
No, he's all. He's all. And this is what Paul's
talking about. Beware of evil men that would add one thing
to it. Beware. He's talking about our flesh
too, isn't he? Boy, my flesh wants to add something
to it so I can get some kind of glory. That's just how we
are by nature. Lord calls me not to add anything to it. Calls
me not to take anything away from it. It's your finished work.
It's your righteousness that you might be the just. You might
be just and the justifier. See, if we add one thing to it,
we are the justifier. Do we see that? We add one thing
to it. We are the judge. We've let God
be just. How silly does that sound? No,
God is just and he is sovereign and he's the justifier of his
people all by his own blood, all by his own doing. We are
not looking to ourself to be sanctified or justified or made
the righteousness of God in him. We are looking to Christ alone.
We must be or we have no sanctification or we have no righteousness or
we have no justification. God's elect already have been.
sanctified and justified and made the righteousness of God
in him. That's why he said now, right now, right now. I've already turned back to my
text, but right now there's the righteousness revealed, not by
the law, not by the law, but by what Christ has done freely
by his grace. Now let's go back to the text
and read a few more verses here in Philippians chapter three. I've often quoted this. I've turned
back to Romans 3, because I wanted to make sure I quoted that right.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest.
Now the righteousness without the law is manifest. But here
in Philippians 3, I often talk about Paul's pedigree. And this
is it. This is his everything about Paul that made him who
Paul was. It was his, if he could have
boasted, well, let's just read it together here in Philippians
3 verse 4. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man think that he hath whereof he
might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel. of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of Hebrews,
as touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning Zeal, how serious
was I in keeping the law and doing these things?" Persecuting
the church. That's what he says. Persecuting the church. He was,
I would remind us, he's the one that carried the letters around
saying, execute this person because they're preaching Christ. Execute
this person because he's preaching Christ. He held the coat of Stephen
when Stephen was being stoned. That's where he heard the gospel,
wasn't it? That's where he heard the truth of the gospel. So finally,
one day on the road to Damascus, the Lord kicked him off of his
high horse, put his face down in the dirt and said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? And he told him, he said, it's
hard for you to kick against the pricks. He remembered what
he heard when Stephen was being stoned. He's saying right here,
how zealous was I of what I believed in, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness, he
goes on to say in verse six, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, I was blameless. As far as righteousness by the
law is concerned, I was blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I counted
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 and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him. not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. We can't add one thing or take
away one thing to it because it's by faith alone, isn't it?
It's the righteousness of God through the faith that he bestows
to his people. We don't, we can't, how can you add to perfection?
Did he not just say that it was perfection? That's what, that's
what he's telling us. It's, he's all of our wisdom.
He's all of our righteousness. He's all of our sanctification
and redemption. We don't add anything to it.
It doesn't matter how much we see our flesh and think that
we are good or that we can produce. We know we can't produce anything
good and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. We are the evil
man we must be saved from. Paul says, beware. Beware of
dogs. Beware of evil workers. And lastly,
beware of the concision. Now this one probably is the
most common one. I guess they're all common to
some degree, but this one really is the most common that we see
probably in our society, and it's taking the offense of the
gospel out, the removal of the gospel, the offense. Now, if
a man loves you, if I love you, not a man, if I love you as your
pastor, I'm going to tell you the truth. I must deliver unto
you the full counsel of the Lord. Whatever he hath said, I must
declare it. Now, it may not be popular. and
it may make somebody mad, and somebody may shoot me, I don't
know. I don't know, but I can't be afraid of what men, we can't
be men pleasers, and this is what this concision's all about,
is being men pleasers. You look on the television set,
and you listen to these men that are speaking, they're men pleasers.
They tell stories, and they say things that are entertaining,
and they make people feel good about their self. We were talking
yesterday, on the work day here, about the power of positive thinking.
Some people are talking about different books that you can
get. That was really popular. I think my mother had that book
and it was about, and I hope she don't listen to this and
say, I never had that book. I may be wrong, but I thought I remembered
that one. I may be wrong, I'm sure, but anyways. What it meant
was that as long as you thought positively enough about everything
around you, and you were doing that under the Lord, you were
guaranteed that he would bless your life. Guaranteed. It was
all about health, wealth, and prosperity. It's a lie, wasn't
it? It's not true. Should we live positively? I'm
positive that we should look to Christ. There's positivity
in that, isn't there? Lord calls me to look to you.
Yeah, we should have a positive outlook on the world because
the creator and sustainer of it. Now the world, you can't
find any glory in it. That's why Paul didn't say rejoice in
the world. He said rejoice in the Lord. We have here the men
pleasers that make it about self, taking the offense out of the
gospel. And the word concision, by definition, is those that
would cut it up, that would mutilate the gospel, they would water
it down, water it down. They would say, the most common
way, and you know this to be true, is they say Jesus loves
everybody. That's watering it down, isn't it? That's one way.
He died for everybody, he wants to save everybody, he's just
frustrated that you won't let him. We know that's not true.
They say things, well, God is a God of love. Yeah, that's true.
He's also a God of wrath. He's a God of justice. He's got
a judgment. He's a, he's a sovereign. He is the sovereign God. We know
these things to be true and we don't desire to water down the
gospel. Why? Because he's given us faith
that looks to Christ. We are, you, you know, this,
I tell this, uh, an allegory, this, uh, this account probably
more than just about any other account that I give, but, The
Lord's passing through an area in the scripture and it says
that a woman pressed towards him and was trying to get his
attention, but the disciples wouldn't allow her. And she had
a need. She had a need. Her daughter
was sick unto death. She was a Seraphim. She was not
a Jew. She was a Gentile. She was an outcast. She was a
dog by definition. And the Lord said, it's not me
to take the children's bread and give it in the dogs. And
what did she say? You called me a dog. How dare
you? How dare you call me a dog? No, she said truth, Lord. Why?
Because she wanted the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth because she had a need. The reason that the Lord's people
do not fall victim to this concision, at least for the duration of
all time. He brings his people back. We're
kept by his power. That's why he brings it. If we
all ever do fall victim to the watering down, he brings us back
to the full truth and the need that we have. We have to have
the truth. This woman would have never admitted that she was a
dog by a man. It would have been a great insult.
There'd have been racial conflict there. She could have used that
as a, you understand what I'm saying. It could have been a
very, but she said truth, Lord, I am a dog. But I desire a crumb. The dogs desire a crumb that
falls from the master's table. Is that not us? We come here
confessing, Lord, I'm a dog, and my hope is that I'm your
dog, and that I can have a crumb from your table. See, we acknowledge
him. That's what repentance and faith
does, is it acknowledge God as who he is. We don't want it watered
down. We want to see him as seated,
as high, as holy. We know we see ourself as the
chief of sinners. We don't need a watered-down
gospel to fix it. We need the truth that's sharper
than any two-edged sword. It pierces us and it heals us. We need the gospel, the whole
truth, the whole counsel of God. We must eat it whole, the scripture
talks about. You remember the sacrifice that
Eli's sons, Hophni and Phineas, they were the ones that would
take the tool and they would stab the meat as the sacrifice
and whatever the meat the claw got, that would be their portion
that sustained the priest. The priest didn't have farms.
The priest didn't have flocks of their own. This is what the
Lord did in order to sustain the priest. You take it and whatever
the meat hook grabs, that's what you get to eat. But the Lord
was very clear on this sacrifice. It must be roasted with fire.
It must be burnt first and it must be consumed every bit of
it. And what were they doing? They
were taking it. They said, give it to us raw. We want it rare. We want it medium. We want it
rare. We don't want it well done. We want it our way. We want it
our way. We want the fat. Now we know
that the fat was the part that was reserved unto the Lord. The
fat had to be burnt. Why? Well, some of you may not
like the fat, but that's the richest part of the meat. If
you were to eat the steak, that's just how it is. And so that's
what they were wanting for themselves. That's what this concision represents
here is men that see the gospel of the Lord and they take some
glory of him somehow, some way by adding to it or taking away
from it. Then what did Phineas and Hophni
do? They boiled it in water. He said, no, you can't eat it
sodden. You can't water it down. You can't have the fat that's
reserved for me. All the glory goes to me. You
have to eat it burnt with fire. Why? It represents the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary, enduring the wrath of God for
his people. It represents the sacrifice being
burnt. The Lord Jesus Christ being that
sacrifice and the fire of God's wrath falling upon him, the only
way that we can have this glorious salvation is in its entirety. The full offense of the gospel
that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and he only came to
save his elect sinners, and he successfully did so on the cross.
You and I have no part in it whatsoever. The Father elected
his people. The Son agreed to redeem those
people and the Spirit regenerates those people in time. This is
the gospel. And men hear this and they say,
yeah, but don't we have to do this? Or don't we have to do
that? Whether it's before salvation
or after salvation. Now you understand what I mean
by that before they come to the knowledge of salvation. Anybody
that says but as an interjection on the gospel has never heard
the gospel and they are not the circumcision of the spirit. It's
that simple. They're not believers yet. But those that hear, they
rejoice in the fullness of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world that he gets all the glory in it. We don't want
it watered down. We want it in its entirety exactly
as the Lord would give it unto us and we chew it up and it's
Oh, it's sweet, isn't it? But it's bitter to our belly.
What does that mean? That's what John... Remember, he took the
book, the Scripture says, and he was to eat it. And whenever
he ate it, it was sweet to his taste, but it was bitter to his
belly. What does that mean? It's the picture of the sweet
milk and honey of the Lord's Gospel to the spiritual man enjoying
the taste. But as soon as it hits the flesh
as anything, it's bitterness, isn't it? Why? It cuts us down
to nothing. It shows us that we are the dog,
that we are the evil man, and we must... We cannot have any
part of it in watering it down. And the Lord gives us faith that
flees to Christ. We don't rejoice in being the
evil man or the dog or trying to water it down. We want it
exactly like it is, don't we? We want the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. Is that not true? That's all
His doing. Now the Lord's elect are eternally
righteous in Christ alone, because the Lamb of God extinguished
that flame. That flame will never ignite
again. That sword of justice pierced one time with purpose. That purpose was to redeem his
people. You and I, we can eat that, can't we? We eat that. I want it whole. I want every
bit of it. No matter how bitter it is to
this flesh, I've got to have Christ. Can you say that? If
you can, it's because he's given us repentance and faith. Repentance and faith are not
something that we produce. I want to say that just because
recently somebody was asking me about repentance and they
said, yeah, yeah, you have to have the faith of Christ, but
you have to have repentance. And I was like, wait a minute,
what do you mean by that? I knew exactly what they meant by that.
You have to have a broken heart. You have to have a contrite spirit. It's what you do. It's how you
come to the Lord is what they were describing. That's not repentance. I will say this, and you know
this to be true, that's evidence of repentance. A broken heart
is evidence, but that's not repentance. Repentance is God-given. Repentance
is the gift of God, just as faith is the gift of God. And when
God gives repentance to see who he is, oh, we'll be broken. There's no doubt about that.
We'll see ourselves as being the chief of sinners, as the
dead dogs, as needing Christ Jesus. That's what faith does
then, is gives us Christ, points us, demands that we look to Christ. Repentance is not something we
produce or something we do. It's God-given. It's God-given. Repentance and faith is given
by God's grace alone into eternal life. I've got good news. Everything
I talked about, about being dogs and evil men in concision, that's
our flesh. That's not the new man. In Christ Jesus, we're perfectly
righteous in him. We no longer strive after power,
popularity, and pleasure unto the Lord, do we? No, we don't.
The new man does not do that. The Lord's people, we don't strive
unto that. Now the flesh, yeah, there's, We go out here, and
I use driving a lot, and I don't have road rage. I was accused
of that once. It's like, only because the person sitting listening
is like, you have road rage, don't you? You talk about driving
all the time. No, it's just relatable because we all drive. And you
go out here and drive, somebody cuts you off. Or whatever happens,
what happens? Well, you become angry, and you
want to do something, but there's nothing you can do. You want
power. And how many times have you thought about harming the
individual, or moving the car if you could, or should I ram
it, or what should I do? You understand what I'm saying?
Our flesh craves power. God craves power, not when it
comes to the things of the Lord anymore. And you know why? Because
the elder shall serve the younger. You're not your own anymore. You're kept by Christ. You're
kept by his spirit. He keeps us from owning any power
over God anymore when it comes to spiritual things. Our flesh
may rear its ugly head still and try to shake its fist in
God's face every once in a while because of our circumstance,
but are we not brought back to the place of repentance over
and over and over? That's how the Lord did it. That's
he keeps his people. He keeps his people. We're no longer the evil man
that wants to add to or take away from the finished work of
Christ for the same reason, for the same reason, there is those
that would. The Lord's people don't add anything or take away
anything from it. Their names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. We don't
want it watered down. We're not they have the concision
anymore. Why? Because we've been given a new
nature. I don't want him watered down to you. Oh, I want to see
him in his full glory. I want him to have all the glory.
I don't need it. I don't want any glory. I want to see him
high and lifted up. That's how Isaiah saw him. That's
how Isaiah, that's how I want to see him. Is that how you want
to see him? No, we're not part of the concision anymore. We've
been given a new nature, one that looks to Christ in all things. This is how we're kept. And whether they are those that
are seeking after power, popularity, and pleasure, like the dogs,
or adding to the finished work of Christ, as evil men are watering
it down, taking away from it, all three of these are equally
damning to the soul. Aren't you glad the Lord keeps his people?
He's the one that did it. He gets all the glory for it.
You and I have been made to need the fullness of God in Christ.
We don't want it watered down. You know what that, that fullness,
of God and Christ is, that's his righteousness. That's what
we need. I've got to have it. Isaiah 51 said, hearken to me,
ye that follow after righteousness. You can go ahead and put Christ
right there if you want to. Hearken unto me, ye that follow
after Christ. That's who we want, isn't it? I'm not looking to
obtain a righteousness of the law or a righteousness by what
we do, do we? We're not looking to see what
we're doing for our righteousness. I need Christ. No, I'm seeking
after him. Lord calls me evermore to do
so. Hearken unto me ye that follow after righteousness, ye that
seek the Lord. Look at the rock whence you are hewn and the hole
of the pit whence you were digged out. You ever looked at the hole
you came out of? The pit that you were digged out of. David
talked about it too. He said he pulled me out of the
mire, he put my feet upon the solid rock and established my
goings, put a new song in my heart, even praise unto God.
You ever considered the pit, the horrible pit that you and
I could not get out of? Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice,
he did it. He pulled us out of there. He
lifted us up out of despair. He lifted us up out of death,
out of death. And now we live by faith, the
faith of Christ, ever looking to him in all things. Do you
know why we look to him in everything? In closing, look at verse 15,
Philippians 3, 15. Let us therefore, as many be
perfect. And I think I mentioned this
earlier about being perfect. I hadn't read this verse now, so forgive
me, but here we are. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded. And if 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.
Let us mind the same things. How are we gonna add something
to perfect? How are we gonna add something to perfection?
That's what he just said. Let us therefore as many as be. Do you see that word be? As be
perfect. You're saying we are perfect?
If you're in Christ Jesus, you are right now. Right now, you
are perfect in Christ Jesus. Can you enter into that? Boy,
I can't, but I believe it. That's what faith does. We don't
add anything to the perfection of Christ. We don't take away
anything for the perfection of Christ. We bought by the same
rule in the same mind of the same thing that we've been taught.
What is that rule? What is that same thing he's
referring to? Christ is all. Christ, that's where we started
this message, isn't it? And that's where we're going
to end it. Christ is all. That's the same rule. That's
the same message. It's the same thing that we've
been taught. We don't add one thing to him
and we don't take away one thing from him, do we? Why? Because
he keeps his people, keeps us by his power. He's given us faith
that just wants him in his fullness.