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Rejoice in the Lord…Or Be Damned! | Philippians 3:1-11 (3-17-2024: Rev. Richey Goodrich)
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The speaker starts by expressing gratitude for the prayers and support of the church. They mention their upcoming partnership with Brazilian missionaries in Nepal and their previous collaboration in training evangelists. The speaker then introduces the book of Philippians and its theme of partnership, particularly between the church and the Apostle Paul. They encourage the congregation to reflect on what brings them joy and what they are most passionate about. The speaker reads from Philippians 3:1-11 and highlights the importance of finding joy in the Lord rather than self-righteousness. They warn against the dangers of relying on religious accomplishments and emphasize the need to rejoice in Christ alone. The sermon is structured around three main points: rejoicing in the Lord as a safeguard against self-confidence, rejoicing in the Lord instead of self-righteousness, and rejoicing in the Lord as our greatest treasure. The speaker concludes by urging the congregation to find their jo Good morning Church. It's really great to be with you this morning. I found it interesting that Pastor Mark was praying for Brazil. In about three weeks I'll be partnering with some Brazilian Presbyterian missionaries in Nepal to work together to train the Nepali pastor, teaching them the Westminster Confession of Faith. And I joined with some Brazilian Presbyterian missionaries last year to train the same group of evangelists in biblical theology. So pretty neat that you're praying for that. Thank you for being a missionary partner with us so that we can go and serve the Lord and equip the saints in places like that. So really grateful for your partnership in the gospel. Let's turn to the book of Philippians as we continue our worship. Philippians 3. Philippians is often a book that folks like me think of a lot when we think about missionary partners. There's such a wonderful partnership between the Philippian church and the Apostle Paul. And he said in the beginning that he he thought of them with joy every time. And I can say that's definitely true as I pray for you each week and pray for the work of the gospel through this local congregation that I do pray with joy. But we're not going to be in Philippians 1 this morning. We're going to be in Philippians 3, 1 through 11. Philippians 3, 1 through 11. And before I read this text, I just want you to be thinking as I read this, what brings you the most joy? What are you most passionate about? What do you think about the most? What do you boast about the most? What do you talk about the most? I think Paul is going to have some input on that as we read this passage together. So please, brothers and sisters, hear the word of the Lord. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead. Friends, the grass withers and the flower fades. Our Lord stands forever. Please be seated. Let me pray for us as we continue on in this text. Our Father in heaven, we've heard throughout this service the call to rejoice in you. And even now we've seen the imperative, not an option, but a command to find our joy in you. And Lord, as we consider these things, our plea is with what great Saint Augustine said, Lord, command what you will, but give what you command. And so our plea is that as we continue to meditate on this text, as we think about this calling to rejoice in the Lord, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would give what you command. That you would give us, maybe for the first time, a saving joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or if we are already in Christ, that our joy in Christ would be deepened. That we would walk out of here after having interacted with you through this text, boasting, exulting all in Christ. Lord, we can't trump that up. We can't make it happen, but we pray that you would make it happen both for your glory and our everlasting joy. We ask this in Jesus' mighty and matchless name. Amen. So in 2014, Marie Kondo became pretty famous in America through the publishing of her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing. Some of you may have seen her 2019 Netflix series, The Art of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. And if you don't know a whole lot about Marie Kondo, you probably know at least one of the pinnacle parts of her method is this, that she tries to help people get rid of the extra things they've accumulated. She encourages a person to look at an object and to pick it up and to ask this question. Do you know the question? Does it spark joy? And if it doesn't, you know what you do? You tell the object, thank you, you've been a blessing, and you get rid of it. Does it spark joy? Well, today in Philippians 3, 1 through 11, Paul is going to do a spiritual Marie Kondo on us, and he wants us to ask what sparks joy when you think about your relationship with God. And he's going to tell us if we touch our self-righteousness and that sparks joy, that's a big no-no. We're in danger. The only thing that should spark joy as we think about our relationship with God is the Lord Jesus Christ. For Paul, unlike Marie Kondo, it's not a choice. It's not which object chooses joy or which person does. For Paul, he's going to tell us that there are deadly consequences if it's not Christ and him alone that is sparking joy in our life when we think about our relationship with God. You see, Paul was a recovering Pharisee. Paul had been addicted to self-righteousness. Paul knew what it was like to look to his own religious accomplishment and look at that as the basis for his relationship with God. And by God's mercy, he discovered that that was a wrong way to spark joy. And everywhere he went and preached the gospel and planted churches, there were those who came behind him with a damnable message that says, yes, you should believe in Jesus, but it's not sufficient merely to believe in Jesus. You also need to keep the law of Moses. You need to be circumcised if you're a male. They were called Judaizers, and they were afflicting the Philippian congregation. And so Paul is warning them, guard against that. Make sure that the only thing that sparks joy is the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he's going to tell us, he's going to warn us that unless we are rejoicing in the Lord, we are in absolute grave danger. And I think I have, I think I've captured the heart of Philippians 3, 1 through 11 when I give you the sermon title that may sound offensive at first, and I really don't mean it to be, but Paul really is telling us, rejoice in the Lord or be damned. And I don't mean that as a curse word. I mean it in the most theologically accurate portion. If we are not rejoicing in the Lord and Christ alone is our righteousness, then there is danger of damnation. There is danger of the judgment of God. We cannot have a Jesus plus something else that we rejoice in. It must be Christ alone. So he's going to drive this home in three significant movements of our text today that I hope will resonate with your heart, encourage your heart. You can look at the outline on page 8 of your bulletin, the very last page. To unpack this theme of rejoicing in the Lord, we're going to see in verses 1 through 3 that we must rejoice in the Lord as a safeguard against self-confidence. To rejoice in the Lord as a safeguard against self-confidence. Secondly, we'll see that we should rejoice in the Lord instead of the rubbish of self-righteousness. We'll look at that in verses 4 to 9. To rejoice in the Lord instead of the rubbish of self-righteousness. And then finally in verses 11 through 9, Paul will challenge us to rejoice in the Lord as your great treasure. To rejoice in the Lord as your great treasure. Well, let's dig into our first point here. To rejoice in the Lord as a safeguard against self-confidence. I bet if I was to ask you and just take you aside and say, if you could describe the book of Philippians in one word, what would it be? I suspect many of you would say joy. Philippians is known as a book of joy. And it's a theme that if you've been reading Philippians, it's just over and over and over, kind of in your face from beginning to end. I'm going to take you on a brief whirlwind tour. Look at chapter 1, verse 3 through 4. As Paul remembers his relationship with the Philippians, he says, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always of every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy. As he thought about the partnership in the gospel, it sparked joy, if you will, in his life. Look at verse 18 of this same chapter. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Paul says it doesn't matter who gets the credit, doesn't matter who gets the honor, as long as Christ is preached, the gospel is made clear, I take joy in that, and the implication is we should as well. Look at verse 26, I'm sorry, 25. As he talks about their sanctification, he says, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress, and listen to this, joy in the faith. Progress and joy is a rhetorical device, a hendiathis, where you're saying two things or one thing for two things. In other words, progress in the faith is increasing joy in the faith, increasing confidence and boasting in Jesus. Paul thinks about their sanctification as a growth in joy in Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 2, verse 2. As he urges them to unity around the gospel, he says, complete my joy by being of the same mind. If you love me, what will give me joy is if you are living out the unity that belongs to you and your shared union with Jesus Christ. Or look at verse 28 and 29 of chapter 2. I'm sorry, verse 17 of chapter 2. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you. In other words, I'll gladly suffer for you if it means it benefits you in your own walk with the Lord. And he urges them in verse 18, likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Verse 28 and 29 of chapter 2. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice in seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men. A joy in the gladness of faithful gospel workers. I think I've made the case, I hope, that this is a book of joy. It is a book of joy and rejoicing in the Lord, even as we have done that throughout our service. And so when we get to our passage, chapter 3, verse 1, we may think it's simply more of the same. Finally, my brothers, in verse 1, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble. And you're thinking, yeah right, the same things. You've said it over and over again. But he adds something that's a little bit striking here that we may wonder at. He says at the end of verse 1, to write the same things to you is no trouble to me. And notice he says it's safe for you. Why would it be safe for them to rejoice in the Lord? I mean, isn't that a wonderful just add-on to the Christian life? Something that's nice, but not necessary. How does rejoicing in the Lord give us spiritual safety? You know, I fly a lot. I've flown a lot over the last 15 years. And some of you may fly a lot. And if you fly on airplanes a lot, you kind of begin to tune out the announcement, the safety announcement at the beginning. You know, the stewardess stands up and she's telling you how to put the oxygen mask on. And I typically, I'll just admit this, I'll put my headphones in because I've heard it a hundred times. But there's certain features of every plane you should probably know about, exit row information, things like that. But there's one airline I flew that found something ingenious. It's Qantas, the Australian airline. And what they did for their safety video is they put all these wonderful highlights of Australia, all these beautiful places in the outback and the beaches. And the people that were teaching the safety activities were on the beach or on the mountain or wherever. And they were talking about it and implying it. And it's a riveting, it's a riveting commercial, if you will, or safety advice, advisement. And even I would take off my headphones and pay attention. By making the safety announcement enjoyable, they were protecting those who rode with them because they actually paid attention and listened to the safety information. Well, Paul says there's a dangerous, there's a danger out there and I need to guard you against it. And the way that I can guard you against it is by urging you to rejoice in the Lord. And what is that safety? It's these men that we often call Judaizers, those who profess they believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah of Israel, that they were followers of Jesus, that yes, he's the Savior, but Jesus is sufficient, but not enough. If you really want to be a Gentile who's welcomed in, you've got to get circumcised, keep the law of Moses. If you really want to be saved and accepted, it's Jesus plus law-keeping. And Paul has some really harsh words for them in verse 2. I mean, look at the way he characterizes these Judaizers, verse 2. Look out for the dogs. And notice this repeated language of look out. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Paul is taking everything that a good Jew, or a Jew, would say about Gentiles and turning it around on themselves and saying it's true of them. Jews were known to call Gentiles dogs. Dogs were an unclean animal in the ancient world. There weren't many pets. Most of you have dogs you love, maybe sleep with you. Not ancient dogs. Dogs were unclean. And so the Jews kind of scoffingly looked at the Gentiles as those dogs. And Paul says, you're the real dog. You're the one who doesn't belong to the people of God. They charged Paul with his law-free gospel, salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, that he was promoting lawlessness. And he says if you add anything to Jesus, you are the evildoer. You are the one that's promoting lawlessness. They said you need to be circumcised. He says your circumcision is not a true godly right. It is a mutilation of the flesh. And a good Jew knew that they were prohibited from mutilating the flesh. So everything they would say, Paul turns around upon themselves and says you are keeping people from God with your message. You are keeping people from experiencing the salvation that is found only in Christ because you are urging them to put their confidence not just apart from Christ, but Christ plus something else. And that's the subtle danger. It might be easy to recognize if it was just a religious performance, but it's giving good lip service to Christ. He's the Messiah, but he hadn't done quite everything. There's something else you should do. It's a message that was a subtle temptation to the Philippians, and it might be a very subtle temptation for us here today. Paul says it's not those who believe in keeping the law plus Jesus that are saved. He says it's those who look to Christ alone. We see that in verse 3, as he explains why he calls these Judaizers dogs, evildoers, mutilators of the flesh. Look at verse 3, for we are the circumcision. The 4 there means he's giving an explanation. We are the circumcision. In other words, we are the people of God. Jew and Gentile, though may be physically uncircumcised, but through our faith in Christ alone, we are those who are actually made clean. We are those who are the people of God. We are those who worship Jesus Christ and are accepted by God because of him. I remember a conversation I had with an older Jewish man when I was in my early 20s, and he was a friend of a friend, and she'd asked me to go help him do some stuff, and I was just talking. He was a very pleasant Jewish man. He was in his 80s, and he was physically a Jew, not super religious, and as we were getting along in the conversation, I kind of jokingly poked at him, and I said, you know, I'm more of a Jew than you. He said, how so? He said, you're a Gentile. I said, no, I'm a Jew. I said, actually, I'm more of a Jew than you, and he said, well, how so? I said, because I believe in the Jewish Messiah, and I'm more of a Jew than you, and we had lots of fun conversation about that, but that's what Paul's saying. He's saying we're actually more Jews than you because we put our trust in the Jewish Messiah. Notice how he characterizes the true people of God in verse 3. We worship by the Spirit of God, and we glory in Christ Jesus. We boast in Christ Jesus. We put our confidence in Christ Jesus. Glory is the same thing as rejoicing in. That's why he's saying that this is not optional. It's not optional to rejoice in the Lord. You actually have to glory in Jesus to be saved because that means you're putting your confidence in Jesus and in Jesus alone for your right relationship with him. Notice the contrast of that in verse 3. We glory in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh. In order to glory in Christ Jesus, you have to put no confidence in the flesh. Not like 10 percent. It's not 90 percent Jesus, 10 percent flesh. To glory in Christ Jesus, to boast in him, there has to be zero confidence that you contribute anything to a right relationship with God. You must boast in him. You see, whatever we're confident in, whatever we think we're good at, whatever we've accomplished, we tend to boast in that. We tend to praise that. Athletes do this all the time. You think of Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time, and Muhammad Ali would tell you he was one of the greatest boxers of all time. He's famous for saying, I'm the greatest, and he maybe was. But why did he boast like that? Because he had great confidence in his abilities to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, as he would say. You see, we always praise or rejoice in that which is most precious, and we put our most confidence in. C.S. Lewis, in his book on the Psalms, says something very insightful here, and he's going to substitute the word praise for rejoice, but they are very much synonyms. Listen to C.S. Lewis's insight as he studied the Psalms. He said, the world rings with praise. Lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, a player praising their favorite game, praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed that just as men, listen to this, this is his insight, as men spontaneously praise what they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it. Friends, as people, we spontaneously praise what we value. If we have confidence in ourselves before God, we are going to boast in some measure about that, but only if our boasting and our joy is in Jesus Christ will we boast in him as Paul is calling us to. And so I have to ask you, friend, what are you rejoicing in this morning? What do you glory in in your relationship with God? Reformed people, do you boast in your theological acumen, your ability to recite the shorter catechism to understand reformed theology, or do you boast in the Christ that our wonderful theology points us to? Do you boast in Jesus plus your commitment to mercy ministry or social justice? Do you boast in Jesus plus your devotion to your Bible reading plan or your commitment to pray? Do you boast in Jesus plus your perceived attempts at obedience? Paul says, don't let that spark joy, my friends. Glory in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Friends, are you fighting that your joy would be maintained and would grow? Do you see the nature of your own progress in your relationship with Jesus as a progress of growing in joy? Are you fighting for joy? Do you come to the Lord and say, Lord, would you help me to see how magnificent your son is, that he is everything, that he has done everything for me, that he is the most glorious? Is Jesus in his saving work filling your prayer life when you talk to God? Do you simply ask for things or do you spend time in prayer magnifying the fact that Christ in him alone is your Savior, that the Father is so generous in giving us his Son, that the Spirit is so glorious in making Jesus your precious treasure? Is your singing filled with songs of redemption, stirring your affections to glory, not in emotion for emotion's sake, but in the Savior who's so glorious and having a proper affection that flows from the truth of who he is? Friends, are you fighting for joy? Because Paul says it's not optional. In fact, you're in grave danger, Paul says, if you're not rejoicing in the Lord and continuing to fight and ask and plead that God would keep your joy in Christ and multiply it and help you to see what a sufficient Savior he is. I really do think Paul means rejoice in the Lord or be damned. Now, Paul moves from his imperative here to rejoice in the Lord and his righteousness by showing us the example of his own life, how he was converted from rejoicing in his self-righteousness to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, freely given to him by faith. So, let's consider secondly, in our second point, rejoice in the Lord instead of the rubbish of self-righteousness, the rubbish of self-righteousness. Now, Paul is going to highlight, first of all, his spiritual inheritance. He's going to play a game of what Proverbs says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. And he's going to say, you want to boast? Let's do a little boasting, Judaizers. Look at verse 4. He says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. He's going to say, everything these Judaizers have to offer and can say that you should do, I have what they have and I have more. But he's going to say, don't boast in it. He's actually going to list seven things in verses 5 and 6 that he could boast in to show us that we should boast only in Christ. The first three are going to be things of his heritage, things that are totally outside of his control, blessings of his birth. The last three are definitely accomplishments and then the fourth one is kind of a swing characteristic. But these first three, let's look at them in verse 5 very briefly. He was circumcised on the eighth day. Most of the Judaizers would have shared that. That's what a good Jew, if you're in a good Jewish family and a boy, you're circumcised on the eighth day. Jesus was as well. So he says, I can match that. The Gentile could never match that because they were uncircumcised. They might get circumcised later, but they couldn't be circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. Secondly, in verse 5, I'm of the people of Israel. I mean, I got the blood of Abraham in my bones. The Judaizers might have that, but the Gentiles who were tempted to this Jesus plus message, they couldn't boast in that. He says in verse 5, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. I can trace my lineage. I'm not a mutt. I know exactly where I'm from. I know exactly who I'm named after. I'm Saul, named after the first king of Israel that came from Benjamin. He knows who he is. He's got all the credentials. He's got the pedigree. Maybe to that point he could share in common with the Judaizers, but every Gentile that was listening to him, every Gentile that might be swayed to this message of Jesus plus keeping the law, he's like, you'll never get there because I've already got a head start and there's no way to gain ground. He says in verse 5, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. This may be a little double entendre, a double meaning. Could refer to the fact that just looking at his pedigree of his birth, I'm as Hebrew as you get. I like to tell people I'm as native Texan as you get. I grew up an hour down the road. First 30 years of my life, you don't get more native Texan than me. And that's what Paul may be saying here, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. You don't get more Hebrew than me. Or he may be swinging over to the achievement side, which he's about to do. Remember, Paul grew up in the Jewish diaspora. He grew up, he's Saul of Tarsus, and yet he knew his Hebrew. Many of those who are Jews in the diaspora as they went out and grew up there, they didn't know Hebrew so well. Paul says, I know the language of our forefathers and I know it well. When I was in Australia working mostly with Chinese and Korean-Aussies, many of them had come to Australia when they were three or four or just before they were born. And they grew up in an English-speaking school system. Their friends spoke English. And honestly, most of them did not know Korean very well or Chinese very well. And it was rare to find someone who'd been brought up most of their life in Australia that still could speak with a foreigner who just came from Korea or China and be able to speak in the same way. We had a few of them in the ministry, and people always looked at them as like, man, they're legit. They know the language of their fathers. And that may be what Paul's saying here. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I know the language. This is me. So if you want to look at just who I am, I've got it all. I've got the achievements. I had a professor in Criswell Bible College, and he was from Romania. And I was studying evangelism under him in the mid to late 90s. And he had lived as an evangelist in Romania in the 1980s when communism was still dominant. And he suffered a lot for the gospel. And I'll never forget Dr. Moldovan standing before us and telling us, you will be a faithful witness to Jesus Christ when you recognize that you are invincible. They can't take you out until God says they can take you out. They can beat you. They can hurt you. But they can't kill you until God says your time comes. Now, I find myself preaching on suffering a lot because I preach on missions and evangelism a lot. But I can't preach quite with the same ethos of Dr. Moldovan because Dr. Moldovan could lift his shirt and show you the scars of where he was beaten by the communists in 1980 for his preaching of the gospel. When he says they can't kill you until it's God's time, he speaks with a greater gravitas, a greater ethos than I ever could. And Paul is going to say, and that's what he's saying here, is like, if you want to boast, I can outboast you. Not only in my background, but also my achievements. Look at his achievements at the end of verse five. As to the law of Pharisee. The Pharisees were known to be the strictest sects. Those who are the most committed to the law. The top of the top. Look at his second achievement in verse six. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. That seems like an odd thing to boast in, right? But to a Pharisee, they believed that if the Jewish Messiah was going to come, they had to wipe out all blasphemy from Israel. And until they wiped out all blasphemy from Israel, the Jewish Messiah would not come. And this idea that this guy who died as a curse on a tree is the Jewish Messiah, that's blasphemy. And I will wipe it out to the death. That was Paul's mindset. He was committed. He would shed blood gladly to purify Israel. He took boasting and confidence in that. Look at his third and final achievement in verse six. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. I don't think he's claiming sinless perfection. I think he's claiming the fact that I did everything I was supposed to do. When I did sin, I made it, did the sacrifices, I did everything, but I kept to it. I could boast in what I did. Paul says, you want to boast? I'll boast and I'll outboast you. But notice what he says about these things in verse seven. Whatever gain I had, and he's saying I had a lot by worldly standards, by the Judaizer standards, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Why would he count that as loss? Why count all this historical privilege he had, if you will, all his achievements as lost? Because it kept him from the one thing that could make him right with God, putting his faith in Christ and Christ alone for his salvation. Look at verse eight. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Notice he counts those things that used to be gain, the things he would boast in, the things that he would think I'm right with God because of this, and now he looks at it, and the Greek word skubala is a little stronger than trash. It's probably almost a crude word of poop. It's just refuse. It's the worst things. These things I used to boast in and put my confidence in, they're trash, they're worthless, they're nothing. Absolutely nothing. But why did he have to do that to gain Christ? I mean, look at the end of verse eight. He says, I had to do this. I had to count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. You see, the gospel is an all or nothing thing. You either find a hundred percent of your righteousness in Jesus and his obedient life, obedient death, and powerful resurrection, or you find none of it. There's no splitting it. It's no Jesus plus myself. If you try to come to the equation and say, I'm going to trust Jesus with 95 percent of it, but I'm going to contribute something, it's nothing. You can't have it. In order to gain the righteousness of Christ, you have to come with totally empty hands. You have to count all the things you would boast in as worthless in riding your relationship with God. Have you heard how they trap monkeys in some cultures? Sometimes to trap a monkey, they'll get a little box with a little hole, and they'll put a monkey's favorite fruit in there. And the monkey can get his hand in there when it's empty, but when he grabs the fruit with the... how it shapes his hand, he can't pull it out. And what they will do is they will come, and the locals will come, and they'll throw a net on the monkey. But the monkey can hear him coming well before the net's coming, but they won't let go. They don't want to let go of that piece of fruit. They want that fruit so bad that they're not willing to let it go to gain their freedom, or we might say their salvation. And they're clinging on to what they want so much actually leads to their destruction. And Paul's saying it's like that. If you hold tightly to your own righteousness, even in a mostly Jesus but a little bit of me, you can't gain Christ. You can't have the righteousness that comes freely to those who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I wonder if you're here and you're not yet a follower of Jesus. Maybe you're a covenant kid. Maybe you're at that teenage age where you're beginning to really think about whether you believe what your parents say. Maybe you're an adult and you're here exploring the Christian faith, and maybe your perception of Christianity is that Christianity is some good advice, and maybe that Jesus has some good things to follow. And if I follow what Jesus said, I can get rid of this guilt that I feel. I can get rid of the shame that I feel. That I can get right with God and maybe hope to have eternal life. And I hope what you're hearing today is that that won't work, friends. The gospel is not an exercise in self-righteousness. It is an exercise in recognizing you have no righteousness and putting your faith in the righteousness of Jesus. You see, friends, this is why the Reformation happened in 1517. Because the church had so lost the gospel, the Roman Catholic church said, yes, Jesus is the Savior. We need to put our faith in Him and what He's done. What they essentially said is Jesus is necessary but not sufficient. I have to add my works of love that are, of course, enabled by His grace, but I've got to add something to it so that I can finally be justified or made right with God. And maybe if you come from a Roman Catholic background, you have an idea that it's Jesus plus something righteousness. And this is a passage that devastates such hopes. Paul said, if anybody could have been righteous before God through their efforts, Jesus plus or otherwise, it would have been me. And so, friend, if you're not a follower of Jesus, I plead with you. Begin to rejoice in Him. Begin to boast in Him. Stop putting confidence in your own ability. And I hope that will be some of the best news in the world for you. That if you will put your faith in Christ, He will count you as righteous. You will be beloved by the Father. And Christian, I want to point out something to you. I want you to notice the difference in the verb tense in verse 7 and 8. Verse 7, he says, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Speaking about his conversion, past tense. But did you notice in verse 8 the shift to present tense? I used to count it, and he says, I still count it. Indeed, I count, present tense, everything as lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. You see, friends, it's really easy sometimes for us to start out well and say I'm saved by Christ alone and then very subtly slip into a form of self-righteousness. Yes, I believe in Jesus, but I'm really putting my confidence in that I complete my Bible in a year plan. Have I been obedient enough in putting to death that pet sin? Am I generous enough with my resources? Am I zealous enough for the gospel? And it's very easy to suddenly fall into the confidence before God as Christ plus what I've done. Paul says, not just past tense, count it right now. Today, count everything as rubbish but Christ. Boast only in him. Rejoice only in him. Oh, friends, are you doing that, Christian? Are you boasting in Christ today and now? Friends, having seen that only in Christ we can find the righteousness that's needed to be right with God, Paul goes on to emphasize for us the surpassing worth of knowing Christ and his ongoing example will challenge you to rejoice in the Lord as your great treasure. It's our third and final point. Rejoice in the Lord as your great treasure. Again, I want to highlight verse 8. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of, and listen to this phrase to describe Jesus, the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. Is that how you feel about Jesus Christ today, friends? The surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. He is the great treasure. Everything else is rubbish compared to Christ because he is an absolute complete savior. He saves us from the penalty of our sin. He saves us from the power of our sin. One day he'll save us from the very presence of sin. He is it, and he is glorious, and he is beautiful, and he is a God of majesty, and there is nothing in this world that comes close to him. Doesn't hold a candle. Look at what Jesus said about what is necessary to enter the kingdom of God. Look at Matthew 13, 44, this very short parable, a one verse parable. What's the kingdom of heaven like? Matthew 13, 44, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Christ has to be the treasure, and friends, when you recognize that you deserve the white hot wrath of God for your sin, that the only thing you deserve from God is eternal condemnation, that you are helpless to do anything to avert that, and God out of his great love and mercy has provided his son as an atoning sacrifice and offers his son to you freely. How can you not boast in that and see that as the most precious thing in the entire world, and Jesus is the most precious treasure that to know Christ is of surpassing worth. You've probably often been asked the exercise, if your house is on fire, what's the one thing you would take? You probably thought that. Maybe it's your Bible, maybe it's your smartphone, a wedding picture, something like that. When you think about a diagnostic question like that, you begin to think about which of your possessions is most valuable. Maybe you've heard the evangelism explosion diagnostic question to try to get people to think about their need. If you were to die today, let's say you're in a car wreck on the way home, if you were to die today and you were to stand in the presence of God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? Why should I let you into my heaven? What's the first thing that came to your mind? Did you point to, well I go to church, try to keep the ten commandments, I'm a good person, oh you'll let me in because you're a God of mercy. Friends, if your first thought wasn't Jesus Christ and him alone, you're in real trouble. Paul says he is of the utmost worth because he is the only thing that can make us right with God. He's the only one that we can put our confidence in. You see, righteousness comes to us in our union with Christ. Notice verse 9. Paul says, I want to be found, notice the phrase, in him, united to him, joined to him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. You see, when we put our faith in Christ, we are joined to Christ in this very real and very mystical union. So much so that everything that Christ has done is credited to us. We are counted as righteous. We are in Christ, represented by him, joined to him. The Father welcomes us like he welcomes his son, but Christ is also in us. The resurrection power of Christ is in us so that we now have this desire to treasure Christ and to live for Christ and to love Christ and to do the things that Christ loves. That's why grace doesn't lead to sin. Grace doesn't lead to sin because grace leads you to Christ and Christ is in you. And that's why Paul can say in verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. You see, one of the evidences that you are trusting in Christ alone for salvation is that you will gladly follow him no matter what. Not because you're putting any confidence in that as the basis, but because Christ is your surpassing worth, because he is everything, because only in him is found life. That's why Paul says that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Now, there's not uncertainty in Paul's mind that he's going to be raised. He's just saying that the evidence that I'm actually trusting in Christ is my righteousness, is that he is so much my treasure, that I want to be conformed to his life, that I want to follow him if necessary to the death, that I would rather suffer than sin, that I love him, he is so beautiful, he is everything, and only if he is everything do I know that I'm trusting him as my righteousness, because salvation comes in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So, friends, Paul really does mean rejoice in the Lord or be damned. It's not an overstatement. Maybe you're here today and you walked in here and you would have said I'm a Christian, but what you mean by being a Christian is that you give intellectual assent to the truths of the gospel. You agree intellectually, and yet Christ is not your treasure. You don't boast in him. You don't find great delight in him. Maybe today God in his mercy is showing you that you actually aren't united to Christ, that you need to put your trust in him, that you have not found him to be your great treasure. Maybe today God is awakening you and you're beginning to see the beauty of Christ, that he is everything. Friend, if he is, flee to him, run to him, delight in him. And Christian, I have to say it's safe for you, and the only safe thing is for you to cultivate your joy in the Lord. To cultivate your joy in the Lord. Don't let a day pass where you're not on your knees pleading with God that he would help you to see the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. Rehearse the gospel to him in your prayers. Tell him how thankful you are that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. Exult in the fact that you have nothing to offer him, and yet he's given you everything freely in Jesus. Sing songs that exult in Christ and what he's done. Have a commitment to be here every Lord's Day with God's people to engage in these means of grace that help us to see the preciousness of Jesus Christ. Because if you do anything less, it's dangerous for you. The only safe thing for you is to be on a fight by the power of the Holy Spirit to rejoice in him. Friends, I want to come back to Marie Kondo. Marie Kondo talks about sparking your joy in things. I don't think she learned the lesson of Tolkien's books. The lesson of Gollum and his precious ring and the Lord of the Rings. You remember Gollum who was once called Smeagol. He's out on a fishing expedition with his brother Deagle and they find the ring of power. And boy did the ring of power spark joy for Smeagol. So much so that he killed his brother over it. So much so that it consumed him so that his life was destroyed and he became this despicable creature named Gollum that was the sound he made when he retched. Gollum. It's a parable of trying to find your joy in created things. And friends, when you try to find your righteousness before God in your efforts, you're trying to spark joy in a created thing. Something you do with your hands. Paul says, please friends, do not let your created efforts spark joy in your life. Rejoice in the Lord. Boast in the Lord. Friends, I urge you to heed the sweet but sobering warning of this text. Rejoice in the Lord or be damned. Let's take a moment of just responsive prayer. I just want to give you a few moments to respond to whatever God may be doing in your heart. The first thing I want you to do if you would is just pray silently and would you just spend a few moments of silent praise. Would you just praise God that he's provided his son as a gift of righteousness. Just spend a few moments in praising him for the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. Just pray silently. The second of three things I want you to pray for, would you just repent of all the times you're self-righteous. All the times you look at another person, Christian or not, and say I would never do that. Would you just repent of all the ways in which you look to your own efforts for your relationship with God. Just spend a few moments in repentance please. Finally, the last thing I'd like you to pray about, would you pray that God would help you to begin to fight for joy, to pursue joy, to ask for joy, to restore your joy. Ask him to help you to see the surpassing value of Jesus. Would you just pray that for a few moments. Father, you've heard the prayers of your people. Would you answer them in a mighty way for your glory and our good. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. you
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