I would be pleased if you take
your Bibles and open them to the book of Philippians. I'm
going to be speaking this morning from Philippians, the third chapter. I'll be using as a text verse
8 and 9, but I want to read and refer to several verses that
precede our text. So turn in your Bibles, if you
will. Some of you I know write to me and tell me that you have
groups that sit in the living room Listen to this telecast
and others who play the tape later on. Well, however you're
listening, if you'll open your Bible to Philippians 3, I'm going
to speak from these verses, the latter part of verse 8 and all
of verse 9. This is what it says, that I
may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, But that which is through the faith of
Christ, now watch this statement here, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now that's what we want to talk
about in the message, is the righteousness of God. The righteousness
of God. Now Paul had a great love for
this church at Philippi, a great love, several reasons. He was
God's instrument to plant the gospel here. He was the one they
heard. He was the first preacher. He was their father in the faith. They heard Paul preach and God
redeemed them. God revealed Christ to them.
And then secondly, he was now a prisoner in Rome when he wrote
this epistle. And this church had sent their
pastor down there to minister to him. He got sick while he
was there and stayed a good while, but he ministered to Paul. And
Paul sent this epistle back to the church at Philippi. He loved
these people. He was their first preacher.
And he had a special place in his heart for these folks. But
another reason for this epistle, the apostle was burdened for
this church. He was concerned about them.
He was troubled about them. And the reason is the false preachers
and false teachers. False teachers were everywhere
and have been and are. You know, Peter wrote to the
church and said there were false prophets among the Israelites
in the wilderness as there are false preachers in the early
church and in the churches now. They're just, the woods are full
of them, false preachers and false teachers and covetous preachers
and teachers. And Paul knew that. They were
everywhere. But his great concern was the fact that these false
teachers and false preachers had crept into this church at
Philippi. They had crept in. They had secretly
brought themselves into this church. And Paul was concerned
about it. He was concerned about these
false teachers and false preachers and what they were doing to these
people. Now, he said in verse 1, to write the same things to
you is not tiresome to me. I rejoice in the gospel. I love
the gospel. And it's profitable for you.
It will keep you from error of spirit and doctrine. It'll keep
you from presumption. It'll keep you from the error
of these false teachers. So I'm going to say the things
I've said to you before. I'm going to say the same things
I said to the church at Galatia, and the church at Ephesus, and
the church at Corinth. But that's not tiresome to me.
That's not wearisome at all, grievous, to write the same things.
And for you, it's profitable. But watch verse 2. In verse 2,
he calls these false preachers. that had crept into the church
and were troubling the people and denying the sufficiency of
Christ, he called them dogs. He said, beware of these dogs.
You see it there? Evil workers, flesh merchants. Beware of the concision. That
is, people that put an emphasis on the flesh. And those are strong
words now, but they're not too strong for men who make merchandise
of people's souls. It's not too strong. They call
them dogs. And that was the Jewish word
for Gentile heathens and pagans. They call them dogs, Gentile
dogs. And Paul calls these false preachers and false teachers
dogs. He said that's what they are, they're dogs. And he said
not only that, but they're evil workers, workers of iniquity. And not only that, but they're
flesh merchants. They get gain by exploiting simple people. They get gain, personal gain,
personal pain. personal possessions by exploiting
poor, simple people and making merchandise out of men sold.
You're not a person to them. You're a number. You're a statistic. You're not an individual. They're
not concerned about your heart and your welfare and your relationship
with God. They're concerned about their
things. And they'll let you know that
if you listen carefully enough. These false preachers, We're
denying and do deny the sufficiency of Christ, his person and his
word. What they try to do, they preach
a Jesus, they preach a Christ, they preach a cross. But they
add something to be done by you and me and something to be done
by them. God can and he will if you let
him. God wants to save you if you
let Him. God will meet you halfway if
you'll meet Him. If you take the first step, God
will do this. If you give your heart to Jesus,
He'll come and do it. If, if, if. They deny the sufficiency
and the efficacy of Jesus Christ, Person and Word. They just can't
say Christ is all and in all, but He is. Christ is all and
in all. And you're complete in Him. And
of God, he has made unto us all the wisdom we need, all the righteousness
we need, all the redemption we need, and all the sanctification
we need. But these false preachers, you
must be circumcised to be saved. Christ is not enough. You must
be baptized to be saved. Christ is not enough. You must
keep the law. You must keep the Sabbath day.
One day out of seven, you must not walk to the store or cook
a bowl of beans in order to be saved. You must tithe. You've
got to send us 10% of what you have. If you do, God will bless
you. Ain't a word of truth in it. You must keep the law. You
must adopt our denominational peculiarities. You must adopt
our traditions and our customs. You must wear your sleeves so
long and your hair so long and no earrings and no makeup. You
must do these things if you wanted to save. These are false prophets. And Paul was warning the people
about it. He said they're dogs. They're
evil workers. They're flesh merchants. And
they deal in the flesh. That's their area. It's flesh
and nothing else but flesh. Let me tell you something. Christ
is all. Christ is sufficient. We're redeemed
by Christ plus nothing minus nothing. And nothing of human
works, and nothing of human merit, and nothing of human righteousness,
and nothing of human worth is needed to justify a sinner's
soul. In Him we have redemption. Through His blood, the forgiveness
of sin. And Paul said, I'm going to keep
saying it. And I want you to listen to me. It's not tiresome
to me. It's profitable to you. And I
want you to be aware of these dogs. I want you to be aware
of these evil workers. I want you to be aware of these
flesh merchants who deny the sufficiency of Christ. It's not
Christ plus anything. It's Christ that saves. We're
redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ. There's none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ
our Lord. Plus nothing, minus nothing.
And then in verse 3, he declares this. These flesh merchants,
these circumcisers, these baptizers, he said, I want to tell you something.
We are the true circumcision. We are the true Israel. We are
the true people of God, characterized by three things. You see verse
3? He just talked about these false teachers. He said they're
dogs, they're evil workers, they're flesh merchants. They're flesh
merchants. We are the true Israel. We are
the true circumcision. Who what? Who worship God in
the Spirit. Who don't worship God by running
up and down the aisle holding candles, and holding hands, and
building monumental cathedrals, and temples, and putting stained
glass windows in, and steeples that point to the sky, and a
cross that's higher than anybody else's, and processionals, and
uniforms. Let me tell you something. A
man that has to put on a uniform to prove his holiness has no
holiness at all. That uniform of religion will
cover a black, evil heart just as much as anything else will
cover one. God's people are known by their
love for one another, by their grace in their heart, by their
love for Christ. They worship God in spirit, not
in the flesh, not in the form of religion, not in the rituals
and ceremonies and holy days, not in the processionals. That's
not how they worship God. Not by counting beans and burning
candles and bowing before altars and idols. They worship God in
spirit and telling you the truth. That's what the Scripture says.
That's the first mark of a true believer. True circumcision. They worship God in the Spirit.
Secondly, they rejoice in Jesus Christ. They don't rejoice in
water. They don't rejoice in works.
They don't rejoice in law. They don't rejoice in liturgy.
They don't rejoice in rituals. They don't rejoice in reformation.
They rejoice in Jesus Christ alone. He's their foundation. He's their refuge. He's their
confidence. He's their hope. He's their life.
Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. And we have thirdly,
no confidence in the flesh, yours, mine, or anybody else's. Our
confidence is not based upon men's flesh. We're all sinners
saved by God's grace. And we'll never be anything else
but a sinner saved by grace till God kills us and takes us to
glory, and we put this flesh in the ground and put dirt on
it and plant a few flowers over it and tell it goodbye. That's
when we'll be without sin. That's so. We're the true circumcision. Don't pay any attention, he said,
to these evil workers and these dogs and these flesh merchants
and these covetous false prophets. He said, we're the true Israel
who worship God in spirit, who rejoice in Jesus Christ, and
who have absolutely no confidence in this flesh. For in the flesh
dwelleth no good thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. Now then, in verse 4, he turns
the tables on them. He says to these false teachers,
if you want to talk about your religious heritage, if any man
thinks he has whereof to glory in the flesh, you want to talk
about your religious heritage, Paul says, I'll talk to you.
You want to talk about your denominational heritage, your religious accomplishments,
you want to talk about your high office, you want to talk about
your zeal, you want to boast in what you've done for God,
I've got more to boast in, and about, and of, and all of you
put together." That's what he says here. If any man, any man,
pick out your champion, bring your Goliath up on the hill.
If any man thinks he hath whereof the glory in this flesh, I've
got more. Now listen to him. He said, on
the eighth day, I was circumcised of the tribe of Benjamin. Not
many Benjamites out there. This is a small tribe, the little
bunch from which David came. This is called the beloved of
God. That's my heritage, he said. What's your tribe? Reuben? Gad? What's your tribe? Mine's Benjamin.
All right, he said, I'll go you one better. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.
I'm not a half-breed. My mama was a Hebrew and my daddy
was a Hebrew. Not many of those out there.
Then he said, I was a Pharisee. Say, you're a preacher? Are you
a pastor? Are you a deacon? Maybe you're
the chairman of the board. Paul said, I was a Pharisee.
That's as high as you can go, unless they make you the high
priest. That's as high as you can go. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. More than that, I was zealous.
I destroyed my enemies in religion. I put them to death. Anybody
that was an enemy of Judaism, I put him to death. That's my
zeal. I thought I was doing God a favor.
Not only that, but in regard to the law, the keeping of the
law, the letter of the law, I was blameless and I could charge
any man, any witness to step forward and accuse me of any
violation of your laws, Ten Commandments and all the rest of them, Levitical
and the laws governing the tabernacle. If Paul had lived today, if he
is alive today, I tell you, he'd be among the great religionists.
He'd be among the well-known. He'd be the most well-known.
He'd be the leader of religion, morality, law, the program, and
your denomination. They'd make him the president.
Because he's got all the credentials except one. He didn't know God.
He didn't know Christ. He didn't have the grace of God
in his heart. And that's what's wrong with
most religionists today. They've got everything but grace.
They talk about it. They've got everything but Christ.
They talk about it. But Paul said, you think you've
got something to boast about? You've got something to brag
about? I'm more. And brother, he read his pedigree
loud and clear. And what was wrong, and what's
wrong today, is he thought this was his title to heaven. He thought
this was his title to heaven. The fact that he was a Benjamite. The fact that he was a Hebrew.
The fact that he was a Pharisee. The fact that he was a moralist,
the fact that he was a religionist, the fact that he kept the law,
the fact that he'd done all these things in God's name. That's
what they're going to say at the judgment Christ said. They're
going to say, Lord, we prophesied in your name, and in your name
we cast out devils, and in your name we did many wonderful works,
and I shall profess unto them, I never knew you. I never knew
you. Depart from me. And then he continues. He said, I thought acceptance
with God. rested in these things. That's
what I thought. I thought that acceptance with
God, and how many think that today? Well, they think it because
that's all they're hearing preached. Do this and do that and God will
do something. Come this far and God will come
the rest of the way. That's all they're hearing preached.
But he said, I learned that all these things all of my heritage,
and all of my morality, and all of my reformation, and all of
my zeal, and all of my religious enthusiasm, that all of it was
worthless, all of my form and ceremony was worthless in itself,
worthless. Why? Because it could not meet
the righteousness God demanded. It could not meet the requirements
that God Almighty demanded. It could not meet the holiness
of God's law, it could not meet the strictness of God's justice. And therefore, he said, I count
these things but total loss. I burn them, I bury them, I cast
them out of sight, I count them but loss. I take everything that
I was, and everything that I did, and everything that I had, and
everything that I accomplished in the name of religion, and
I cast it on the heap, and I burn it. It's lost, it's erased, it's
eradicated from my very thinking. And not only that, but I counted
as so much garbage. Boy, that'd be hard for some
of us to say. Somebody comes in and says, you say, yeah, I've
been serving the Lord for 40 years. Garbage. But I've been
going to Sunday school ever since I was in the cradle row, and
I got a list of pens. I got a row of pens down to my
knees, you know, for being there every Sunday. Garbage. Yeah,
but I led the choir. Garbage. But I taught Sunday
school. Garbage. But I did this, that, and the
other garbage. That's what Paul said, dumb, rubbish. I count
it but rubbish that I may win Christ and be found in Him. My friends, this is from the
Prince of Preachers. This is from the Prince of Prophets.
This is from the man God called in a supernatural unusual as
one born out of due time on the road to Damascus and said, I've
ordained you, I've commissioned you, I've separated you from
your mother's womb to be a prophet to the Gentiles. Go and speak
in my name. That's what he said. He took
all his religious heritage and all of his religious deeds and
all of his religious works and all of his religious zeal and
he piled it in one pile and he said, take it away. It's but
garbage that I may win Christ and be found in Him. that I may
know Christ. Now watch this, let me point
out something here. I count all these things but loss and garbage
and rubbish for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
my Lord. What's this knowledge, this excellency
of knowledge? What is this excellency of knowledge
of Christ Jesus? That's a pretty good question.
What is this excellency of knowledge of Christ Jesus? Well, all knowledge
of Christ is not excellent, not even good. You say, what? That's
right. It's not excellent. The demons
have a knowledge of Christ that's not excellent. That's right. The demons believe in one God. That's what James said. You believe
in one God, you do well. The devil believes in one God.
So their knowledge, that knowledge is not excellent. And then the
demons said when Christ appeared to them in the body of that demoniac
They said, why, we know who you are. We know who you are. You're
the holy one of Israel. We know who you are. Well, that
knowledge is not excellent. Judas had a kind of a knowledge
of Christ, didn't he? He was with him three and a half
years. He ate with him, talked with him, walked with him, heard
him. If Judas said, which one's Jesus Christ? Well, he told them.
He kissed him on the cheek. They didn't know which one was
Christ. He did. He had a knowledge, one excellent knowledge, one
what Paul's talking about here. Nicodemus had a certain knowledge
of Christ. We know, he said, your teacher
come from God. The professors of religion in
2 Peter 2 had a knowledge because Peter said it would have been
better if they'd never known the gospel than to have known
it and left it. What is this knowledge? Let me
show you. He said that I, I count these
things but lost by the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. That knowledge is right there
in that name. Christ, Jesus, my Lord. All you need to know
about Him is right there in His name. Christ. What does the word
Christ mean? Anointed, ordained, Messiah,
God in human flesh. That's what the word Christ,
that's what our Lord asked Him. What think ye of Christ? Whose
Son is He? The Samaritan woman says when
Christ is come, He'll tell us all things. That crowd went out
to hear John the Baptist, and they said, Are you the Christ?
When that crowd asked Jesus, the Lord of Nazareth, said, Are
you the Christ? They knew what the Christ is.
The Christ is the Messiah. The Christ is the Anointed One.
The Christ is the Redeemer. That's who He is. This knowledge
of Christ is to know Him as the Christ. Whom do you say that
I am? He said to the apostles. And
they said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Well,
take the second name there, Jesus. The angel appeared to Joseph
and said, Thou shalt call his name Jesus. That son born of
Mary, that supernaturally conceived virgin-born miracle child, that's
Jesus. What does the word Jesus mean?
It's the Old Testament word Joshua, which means God my Savior, Jehovah
my Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
he shall save. He shall save his people from
their sins. He shall die. He shall be buried,
He shall rise again, my Lord, Christ Jesus my Lord." Sovereign,
King of kings, Lord of lords, that excellent name, the name
which is above every name, the Father hath exalted Him and given
Him a name above every name. He said, this same Jesus whom
you crucified, God hath made both Lord and Christ. That's
all you need to know. That's the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Christ, who He is. That's who He is. He's the Christ. He's the Son of God. Jesus, that's
what He did. He died. He's the Savior. God,
my Savior. He's Joshua. He's the Deliverer. That's why He did it, that God
may be just and justifier. And where is He now? My Lord.
God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall confess that He's what? Sweet little
Jesus boy. No, bud, you've missed it. The
man upstairs. Uh-uh, you've missed it too.
Well, the good Lord. No, sir, that He is Lord to the
glory of God the Father. That's who He is. That's who
He is. That's that excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my, my. Whatever the rest of the
world does, it doesn't make any difference. He's my Lord. I don't
know what the rest of you are going to do, Joshua said, but
it's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. That's who he is. Do you have
that knowledge? Is your knowledge the knowledge
of demons? We believe there's one God, always have. Is your
knowledge the knowledge of Judas? I know who he is, I'll kiss him
on the cheek. Or maybe Nicodemus. We know you're
bound to be from God, fellow, because nobody could raise the
dead but a fellow from God. No, that excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. What's that second statement?
That I may win Christ and be found, found in Him. When I'm found, I want to be
found in Him. That's where I want to be found.
I don't want to be found in the Baptist church. Heaven help us.
I don't want to be found in the waters, deep as you can make
them. I don't want to be found resting with a long, sunny eye.
I don't want to be found in the pre-millennial or post-millennial
or anybody else's millennial camp. I want to be found in Him. In Him. That's what Paul said. What is it to be found in Christ? What is it that led this man,
this religious man, to give up all his religious traditions,
all of his material possessions, all of his physical comforts,
all of his earthly relationships, and to count them but dumb rubbish,
that he may win Christ, and be found in him." What is it to
be found in Christ? Well, watch it. It's to be found
in him as he's the surety of that covenant. God gave his Son
a people. You can write that down. That's
what Scripture says. Christ said, I came to do my
Father's will, and this is the will of him that sent me, that
of all which the Father hath given me I'll lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. He's the surety of an eternal
covenant. He's the chief shepherd of a
blessed covenant. His blood is the blood of the
covenant. I want to be found in that covenant in Christ. I
want to be found in Him, my representative. I was in another fellow who represented
me named Adam, and in Adam I died. In Christ I want to be made alive.
By one man's disobedience, I became a sinner. By another man's obedience,
I want to become righteous. I want to be found in Him as
the representative who walked this earth in human flesh, representing
somebody. In Him. I want to be found in
Him on the tree. I'm crucified with Christ. God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross by whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I'm crucified to the world. I died
when Christ died. In Him. I want to be in Him in
the resurrection. I want to be in Him in the ascension. I want to be in Him seated at
the right hand of the Father. I want to be in Him the vine.
He is the life. I'm the branch. I want to be
in Him the head of the church. I want to be in Him the chief
shepherd. I want to be found in Him as my righteousness, the
Lord, our righteousness. And I want to be found in Him
at the judgment. I don't want to stand there alone.
Somebody said that old spiritual says, You've got to stand that
judgment. You've got to stand it by yourself.
I beg your pardon. If I'm in Christ, I stand it
in Him. And there's therefore now no
judgment to them who are in Christ. I want to be found in Him. Not
having my own righteousness. What's that mean? Well, there's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth righteousness.
All our righteousness is as filthy rags. Well, what does this mean?
There's some people who think they're righteous. They're going
about to establish their own righteousness. They've got a
negative righteousness. I never did do that. They've
got a religious righteousness. I fast and time. They've got
a moral righteousness. I keep the law. They've got a
comparative righteousness. I'm not bad as old Joe or Bill
or Bob. But this righteousness we're
talking about here is the righteousness of God. Read it again in verse
9, "...that righteousness which is of God." What does that mean?
It means God planned it, God purposed it, it's His righteousness. It's that righteousness that
He purposed, that He planned, that righteousness that meets
His demands. It's that righteousness which
is purchased by His Son. The Lord Jesus, in His active
obedience, in His passive obedience, fulfilled all righteousness for
those whom He represented. And then it's provided by His
Holy Spirit. This righteousness is promised
by the Father, purchased by the Son, and provided and applied
by God's Spirit. I want to be found in Him. I have two messages on this tape.
Romans 8, 28, and this one from Philippians 3, 9, God, My Righteousness. If you want the tape, two sermons
on one tape. We'll mail it to you. It costs
$2. Send a donation of $2 and we'll mail you the tape. And
join us next Sunday at 11 o'clock. Until then, God bless you, everyone.