Let's open our Bibles to Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. I tell you, I was enjoying the song
service so much, I thought, well, let's just keep singing. I appreciate
those who help us with the music and the leading of the singing.
It's such a blessing to be able to sing as a body of believers
to our great God. Philippians chapter three. You
know, if you've been a Christian for very long at all, or maybe
if you've just been a Christian for a little bit of time, you
know that the spiritual life is full of ups and downs. There
are times when we feel as though we're on the mountaintop spiritually.
You know, the mountaintop of faith. Not very often, but every
once in a while. And we feel like Simeon did that
day, that morning in the temple when Joseph and Mary brought
the Lord Jesus in to the temple and he took that baby of 40 days
old up in his arms and I'm sorry, I might struggle a
little bit. He took the Lord Jesus up in
his arms and he said, He said, Lord, let thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen my salvation. Think
about that. He was holding a baby of about
40 days old. How did he see his salvation?
Because he saw his Savior. Sometimes, you know, we can feel
like, like Peter, when the Lord asked them as his disciples,
he said, will you also go away? And we just thought, Kim said,
Lord, where would we go? To whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
you're the Christ, the son of the living God. Sometimes the Lord blesses us
to be on the mountaintop of love and we hear the gospel preached
and our heart rejoices We hear that message of like the verse
that says for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that
though he was rich Yet for your sakes he became poor that you
through his poverty might be made rich and and our hearts
are full of adoration and love and praise and for the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he would come into this world to save a wretch like
me. Oh, but how many times do we
find ourselves in the valley? You know, that valley of, you
could call it, lack of faith. The valley, lack of faith, where
we must confess, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And sometimes,
Do we even believe we feel in fear? All we can pray is not,
I believe, help my unbelief, but just, Lord, help my unbelief.
Give me faith. Help me to believe. And you know,
when you stand up here and preach, all you can preach is what you
experience. You can't preach what other people
experience. So I'll share with you some of
the things that I have had God's grace to enjoy and to struggle
with, both. sometimes in the valley of lack
of love, where it has to be said, like the Lord Jesus told the
church at Ephesus, he said, I have somewhat against thee, for you
have left your first love. Have you ever been in that valley
before? I have, where it feels like anything
and everything is more important to me than to know my God and
to be found in Christ. The Christian experience is up
and down, isn't it? It's full, full of ups and downs. And I won't even get into our
physical experience in this world, but just talking spiritually,
the ups and downs that we experience. But thank God tonight I have
a message. And this message, it doesn't
matter tonight whether you're on the mountain or in the valley.
This exhortation is for every child of God here tonight. It
doesn't matter if you're on the mountaintop or in the lowest
valley this morning. Look here, Philippians 3, verse
number one. Paul wrote, he said, finally,
my brethren. Just pause there for a second.
Isn't it wonderful to have brothers and sisters in Christ? Finally,
my brethren. Rejoice in the Lord. That word rejoice here, it actually
means to be glad, to be full of cheer. He said, finally, my
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, it's not grievous, but to you, it is safe. Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For
we are the circumcision. We are the true Israel of God.
We are the real Jews. We are the circumcision. You
know, it's easy to read over that and not really appreciate.
He's writing to Gentiles, not to Jewish people. He's writing
to the Gentiles. And he said, we are the circumcision. Well, why is that so important,
so precious? For many years, for most of this
world's history, God revealed himself to only one nation. That
was the nation of Israel. The whole world was in darkness.
And in the wisdom of man, man knew not God, did even begin
to know how it is that we as sinners might approach unto God.
And God in His mercy chose Abraham, and not because Abraham was better
than the rest of the world. No, he was an idolater just like
the rest of the world was. But God chose him. And he called
him out of that land. And you know, I don't want to
spend a lot of time there, but God revealed himself to the nation
of Israel. And then Paul writes here, he
says, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit. We worship God in the spirit,
that is from our renewed hearts, we worship God. It's not about
where we worship. We worship God in the spirit.
I thank God for this wonderful place that he's given us to come
out of the weather to, you know, to, to be able to gather together
and worship the Lord together. So a wonderful place. And I know
we're seeking the Lord's face and, and praying about whether
or not he would have us relocate or when he would have us relocate.
But we're not gonna worship any better there than we can here. We worship God in the spirit,
from our renewed hearts, regardless of where the Lord may have us
gather together. If he has us gather together
outside over here at the 7-Eleven, thank God for the place he's
given us, but we worship God in the spirit. It's not about
rites and rituals and beautiful temples and No, we worship God
in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. You know that rejoice
in Christ Jesus. This word rejoice here is different
than the word in verse one. It actually means to boast, to
brag, to glory. And you know, that's what we
come together to do. I know for every believer here
tonight, the reason you're here tonight is because you wanted
to come so that you could glory. and brag in the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in mountaintop
flesh, and no confidence in lowest of alley flesh. Have no confidence
in the flesh. Now look over one other chapter,
Philippians 4. Philippians chapter 4, verse
number 4. You'll see here that Paul goes
one step even further. He not only exhorts us to rejoice
in the Lord, but notice he says, rejoice in the Lord always. That's actually, you know, we
don't use the word that way. You could just say, rejoice in
the Lord always. That is, at all times. Again,
I say, rejoice. And you say, well, why were you
weeping? Because I was rejoicing. That's why I was weeping. Rejoice. Be full of cheer. at all times. You know, this exhortation that
Paul gives here, this exhortation that God gives to us in his word,
it's not an empty exhortation. It's not a vain exhortation.
No, God means what he says. And he exhorts us believers to
rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ
always. You know, for the believer, for
the child of God, outwardly speaking, many times seems like everything's
against us. Seems like our whole life is
a mess. You ever felt that way? Everything just seems like such
a mess. Even in those times, we are exhorted
to rejoice in the Lord. We can't rejoice in the circumstance.
There are many circumstances I have found myself in my life
that I couldn't rejoice in that circumstance. But as a believer,
I should always be able to rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always, regardless
of the circumstances, regardless of our state of mind. For you
see, the Lord Jesus Christ is the same. He's the same yesterday
and today and forever. And our rejoicing is in him.
So the Apostle Paul here rejoices us, or exhorts us to rejoice
in our Lord. And I want us to consider just
briefly four ways that we are to rejoice in the Lord, and four
reasons why we can rejoice in the Lord always. The first one
is this. This rejoicing that Paul exhorts
us to, it has God as its object. It has God as its object. It's
not your circumstance. It's not the situation I find
myself in my life. No, it has God as its object. Our great God promised, he said,
but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days. Remember, we just saw a few minutes
ago, we are the house of Israel. This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days. Saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts. And I will write it in
their hearts and I will be their God. I will be their God and
they shall be my people. I will be their God. Our God, believer, is for everything
that our God is, is for us. Everything our pastor shared
with us this morning, preached to us, the many attributes, the
names and attributes of our God, what a blessing. All those things
that he preached to us this morning, our God is that for us. He's the object of our rejoicing. I will be their God. And if God
be for us, as Paul said, who can be against us? Oh, there
can be a lot of people against us, but who's gonna be successful
against us if God's for us? His almighty power is for our
protection. You say, well, I've known believers
who've been hurt by different things in this world. I have
too. I've experienced hurt in this
world. That doesn't change the fact and the truth that God's
almighty power is there for our protection. And nothing, nothing
can touch you that he doesn't allow to come your way. His wisdom for our guidance. You ever felt that you just don't
know which way to go. I have. And you pray for the Lord's
leadership, for the Lord's guidance. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our master, our king, and we pray for his guidance. And sometimes
we pray we still don't know which way to go. You ever felt that
way? Our great God is still guiding
us. He said, I will be your God. He guides us through his wise
providence. When we have no other clue of how to go, He continues
to guide us day by day. His grace for our acceptance
and salvation and His faithfulness is our confidence. See, God is the object of our
rejoicing. That Him we sing, great is thy
faithfulness. Oh God, my Father, there is no
shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions
they fail not. Great is thy faithfulness, oh
Lord, unto me. God has been faithful, hasn't
he? He is faithful. He's faithful to us, regardless
of what our circumstances look like. Of course, All of us would love
to always, say, be in the mountain. We'd be lying if we said any
different. Isn't that true? But obviously it's not good for
us to always be on the mountain. You know, I was thinking this
afternoon when the sun came out. You know, you don't enjoy the
sun till it rains for three or four days. And you're so thankful. Oh, boy, the sun's so nice. Just
stood out on the patio. Even though I had to take my
dog out for a break, it was just so nice to go out there and feel
that sunshine. If we were always on the mountain,
it probably wouldn't feel like a mountain. Right? It's when the Lord lifts us up
out of those valleys where we think, oh, what a blessing. What
a blessing to have that fellowship with our God. Secondly, we rejoice, we can
always rejoice in the Lord's glorious work of salvation. First
of all, we rejoice that salvation is of the Lord. There's nothing
makes me happier than that truth that salvation is of the Lord. It's God who purposed it. It's
God who chose his elect. It's God who provided all that
was required to save us. Salvation is of the Lord. And
what cause of rejoicing that is at all times. See, it's not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy that he saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. You know, the Lord Jesus
Christ told Nicodemus, he said this, he said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born again, that is, except
a man be born from above, born of God, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. That means he can't even perceive
that there is a kingdom of God. As we come into this world, we cannot even perceive, apart
from the new birth, that there even is such a thing as a kingdom
of God, much less have that kingdom of God within us. We must be
born again. He said, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. You know, I don't hear this much
anymore, but several years ago, it used to be a real popular
thing to make fun of those who were born again Christians. You don't hear, maybe it's just
because I don't listen to any of that trash anymore. I don't
know, but there is no other kind. Except a man be born again, he
can't see the kingdom of God. He can't enter into the kingdom
of God. What does that mean? That means
salvation must be of the Lord if anyone's gonna be saved. Because
without the new birth, we can't even perceive that there even
is a kingdom. So as you think about salvation
being of the Lord, God the Father in the eternal covenant of grace,
he elected a great multitude of sinners that no man can number. I like that, that no man can
number. As far as I'm concerned, the more the better. That no
man can number. And he chose that people unto
salvation. And God, the Holy Spirit, in
that covenant, he agreed that he would come and he would give
spiritual life. He would birth us again into
the kingdom. And even beyond that, that he
would come to dwell within us in this world. Wonder of wonders. So we are the temple of the Holy
Ghost. That's amazing, isn't it? In
our Lord, Jesus said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not
that I say unto you, you must be born again. You must be born
from above. But what about our sins? God
said that he will by no means clear the guilty. What about
our sins? God chose this multitude of sinners
to salvation, and the Holy Spirit agreed in the covenant to come
renew and give life, but what about our sins? The Lord Jesus
agreed in that covenant of grace, didn't he, that he would come
into this world as the God-man to live a perfect life of obedience
for us. and to die on the cross under
the wrath of God as the sin bearer, as the atonement for our sins.
And he by one offering, the scripture says, that is by the sacrifice
of himself upon the cross of Calvary, by one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. But that one
offering, he put away forever that sin that created that division
between us and a holy God. The just for the unjust, that
he might bring us unto God. Aren't you glad salvation is
of the Lord? We have no way of messing any
of that, everything I was just sharing with you. We have no
way to mess that up. There's no way, but we don't
contribute to that salvation. Salvation's of the Lord, and
so we can rejoice at all times. All those sacrifices in the Old
Testament, they could never remove, not even one sin. You ever just
stop to think about all the sacrifices, all those animals that were offered,
and not one sin was ever removed by one of them? Why would so
many animals be sacrificed? because there were that many
types, that many pictures that God gave telling us of that savior
that was going to come into this world that would actually put
away the sins of the world. All of those sacrifices, they
were offered day after day, month after month, year after year.
Why? Because they could never take away sin. How many times
was the Lord Jesus Christ offered once for all, forever. Didn't take two sacrifices. Why? Because of who he is. He was
able with that one sacrifice to truly make expiation for our
sins, to really reconcile us to God. He said the night before
his crucifixion, he said, this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many. Why? for the remission of sins,
to wash our sins away. See why we should rejoice in
the Lord always. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. You
know, have you ever worked at your work, had to take an inventory?
I've had to do that before. You know, you've got to go through
and count all this stuff to make sure what should be there is
actually there. That's what that word impudeth
means here. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not taking inventory of their trespasses
unto them. No wonder the scripture says,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. The man that he refuses to take
inventory of their sins. Why? Because he laid them upon
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and he bore them away. They can't be found. It's like
going out there into that warehouse, and every shelf is empty. Where
did everything go? The Lord Jesus paid for all of
it. It's gone. It's gone. It's all been, it's
all been paid for. So I've seen, we've seen so far,
we should rejoice always because God is our God and for all that He
is, He is for us. Number two, that salvation is
of the Lord. And thirdly, the joy in knowing
that it's God's goodness and faithfulness that guarantees
our perseverance until the end. Well, that's a reason to rejoice,
isn't it? It's God's goodness and faithfulness. Can it fail? No. There's no way. God's goodness
and his faithfulness, that's what guarantees our keeping to
the end, our perseverance to the end. I could have no rejoicing
at any time if I felt that it was up to me to keep myself throughout
this world until I passed to the next. Could you? Not a bit
of rejoicing, but doesn't the scripture say, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you,
he's gonna perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Confident, being confident. He that started it, has he started
a work in you? If he has, he's gonna finish
it. He, the Lord doesn't ever not finish what he starts. He
who began a good work in us, he's going to perform it, finish
it until the day of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus said, my sheep
hear my voice. That is they, they believe that
I am the Christ. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and I've given to them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father, which is greater than
all, and no man is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of his hand. I and my father are one." I don't think in that particular
passage, I don't believe he's declaring the fact of the Trinity.
I think he's saying that they're one in mind around this, that
no sheep shall ever perish. that none shall ever be plucked
out of there. We are in our Savior's hand and
we're in our Father's hand. How in the world could we ever
be plucked and fail to persevere to the end? It's impossible.
And for that reason, we should be confident. Not confident in ourselves, but
confident in our Lord. Fourthly, the joy of knowing
and believing that God loves you. The joy of believing and knowing
that God loves you. You know, there are times in
this world as a believer where we lose that, maybe that enjoyment
of that. Oh, but what rejoicing when God
allows us just to enjoy a little bit of that fact that he loves
us. You know, in heaven, I'm convinced
one of the joys of heaven will be that there will be no doubts
and no fears. Those things will be done. Why? Because we're going to see the
Lord as he is. If we saw him as he is tonight, we wouldn't
have any fears or doubts tonight. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. I like to always, seems like
anytime I try to prepare notes for a message, I still like to
write out my notes because it kind of helps me remember a little
bit, not much. But I find myself always underlining
that word us. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, us here tonight believers. And
then I underline that word that we should be called the sons
of God. That's the amazing part of God's
love, that it's for us, that it's we that are called his sons. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, and I underline this
word, now. It's easy to think, well, you
know, one day the Lord's gonna take us to glory, to be with
him, and we're gonna be the sons and daughters of God. No, it's
tonight. It's right now. That's what the Apostle John
said, right? Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doesn't yet appear what
we shall be. Oh boy, is that true? It's not
apparent. As I look out on this audience
of people that I love, as much as I care for you and love you,
it's not apparent tonight. As you look at me up here trying
to preach, it's not apparent to you tonight. It does not yet
appear what we shall be. But here's one thing we do know.
We know that when he shall appear, that is when our Lord Jesus comes
again, we're going to be like him. Because we're going to see him
as he is. That's why this exhortation,
rejoice in the Lord always. I've read quite a few messages
by Charles Spurgeon, and he struggled to preach about the love of God.
I don't know if you've read that. But why? Because it's just unexplainable,
unspeakable. I read the messages where he
said, you know, I can, as I think about God's mercy and grace,
he says, I can enter into that because boy, I sure need it.
But that he would love me. That he would love the unlovable.
We can't even begin to, to enter into that, can we? I can't. You know, that, that hymn that
I wish it was in our hymnal. I don't think it is, but. hymn
that we love, that love to sing when we do get a chance or hear
it in a special, the love of God. Let me close with this hymn. And I apologize for reading my
notes so much. But I'll just be honest with
you. Number one, I don't trust myself. I try to take time in
preparation and, you know, every desire of Brother Streeter, when
you get up to teach, I know, and others that preach, our pastor,
we want to tell the truth on God. We really do. And you know what? The only thing
that's for sure is that all of us say something that's wrong.
I know that for certain. But I always feel the closer
I stick to my notes, I could still be wrong. But at least
I took time to study and look into God's word to see if that's
what I believe it says. So anyway, I can't even remember
the words of the hymn. So I'll read these as well. That
hymn says, the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen
can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star
and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bowed down with
care. God gave his son to win. His erring child he reconciled
and pardoned from his sin. Why? Why would God love us? I have no idea. But I want to
rejoice in it tonight. I want to rejoice in the truth
that he loves us for the reasons known only unto himself. And
he chose us. And God the Holy Spirit agreed
to come give us life. And the Lord Jesus agreed to
come and live for us and to die for us. And we can rejoice in
that regardless of where we're at tonight. Are you in the valley? Rejoice in the Lord. Are you
on the mountain? Rejoice in the Lord. May the
Lord bless His word. Thank you.