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Well, good morning, everyone. 
If you turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3, you're 
looking at the first nine verses this morning of Philippians chapter 
3. And this evening, I hope to continue the chapter and finish 
it. So we'll look at the rest this evening. So we'll read the 
whole chapter now and look at the first nine verses. Finally, my brethren, rejoice 
in the Lord. For me to write the same things 
to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, 
beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are 
the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in 
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I also might 
have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may 
have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth 
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, A Hebrew 
of the Hebrews concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, 
persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in 
the law, blameless. But what things were gained to 
me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also 
count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all 
things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be 
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from 
the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness 
which is from God by faith, that I may know him, and the power 
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, 
being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain 
to the resurrection from the dead. not that I have already 
attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay 
hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself 
to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those 
things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which 
are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward 
call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as 
are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, 
God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree 
that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. 
Let us be of the same mind. Brethren, join in following my 
example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell 
you even weeping. that they are the enemies of 
the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is 
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their 
mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, 
from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed 
to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is 
able even to subdue all things to himself. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we have 
just sang and asked more love to Thee, O Christ, more love 
to Thee. And Lord, that is our earnest plea this morning, that 
as we look at this passage of Scripture that just so clearly 
points to the Savior, to the Lord Jesus. Lord, I pray that 
it would be a means where we would see Christ as in all His 
glory, that we would glory in Him and that we would and that 
we would rejoice in Him as our Savior. Lord, we stand in need 
of Your Spirit this morning, greatly, Lord, in ministering 
the Word, and in hearing the Word, and listening, and understanding 
these truths. And Lord, we need your spirit 
in the hearts of those among us who are not saved. Lord, that 
your spirit would revive their hearts and give them that change 
that enables them to see Christ as that Savior. and that gives 
that faith to look upon Him as their Savior. And Lord, we pray 
for your blessing. We pray that this morning that 
your people here would be edified, that just the light of Christ 
would shine brighter in their hearts, and that those who do 
not know Christ, that that light would ignite in their hearts, 
and that would it be a fire and that they would see Christ, and 
that they would seize upon Him as their Savior. Lord, we ask 
for much grace, and we go in the strength of the Lord, and 
we pray this in the name of our Savior. Amen. So when we jump 
into the middle of an epistle like this, it's obviously very 
important that we understand the context that we're in here. Because when Paul begins this 
chapter with, finally, my brethren, it sounds like he might be closing 
out the chapter, but we have to look at that word finally 
as more of a conjunction, tying it back to what he's been saying 
previously in here and in the first two chapters. If we look 
back at the first two chapters, he's been giving a lot of doctrinal 
teachings and theological things there, and a lot of also just 
practical instruction for the Philippians there, for the Christians 
there. So he's been encouraging them to continue on. in their 
faith, to walk together in unity, not to grumble. He calls them 
to a life of sanctification, and just one where they're functioning 
as lights in this world, in the midst of this crooked and perverse 
generation, calls them to be blameless and harmless. And all 
through this, there's this constant theme of rejoicing that we see 
here. So Paul's rejoicing just because of the godliness of the 
Philippians, He's rejoicing at his imprisonment because it's 
given him an opportunity to share the gospel to all the guards 
in the palace there. And it's also emboldened others 
to share the gospel. He's even rejoicing that there's 
some people who are sharing the gospel, preaching Christ with 
suspect motives and more for selfish ambition to try and gain 
a following. But yet he's still in chapter 
one, verse 18, he says, Christ has preached and in this I rejoice. 
We also see him rejoicing that he's confident that he's going 
to be released from prison. and soon he's gonna be able to visit 
them again. So you may be thinking, wow, 
Paul's an optimist. We should all be like Paul. Well, 
yeah, we should all be like Paul, and optimism is a good thing, 
but that's not what Paul wants us to understand in this passage 
here. Paul's not writing Philippians 
as sort of a mindset training to help them just to look on 
the bright side and focus on the positives. Not that those 
are bad things. I think it's a good thing that 
we do that. Definitely. But what Paul wants us to understand 
in this book, and particularly in this passage that we come 
to now, is what he says in verse 1 here, is to remind us of the 
source of our joy. So where does our joy come from? He says, finally, my brethren, 
rejoice in the Lord. So the source of our joy is not 
circumstances. The source of our joy is Christ. 
And that's where it's very important that we understand the difference 
between happiness and joy. Happiness is an emotional response 
to our circumstances. And where joy, on the other hand, 
has to be understood as a complete satisfaction. Complete satisfaction. So Paul's not happy about the 
fact that he's in prison, but he can rejoice that it's part 
of God's plan for him to further the gospel. He can do so because 
He has this complete satisfaction in Christ. So our circumstances 
do not determine our joy. It's not that we are joyful on 
the good days and we're miserable on the bad days. You know, we're 
not joyful on the days where we feel like we did really good 
in our walk of sanctification. And on the days where we didn't, 
we didn't read our Bible in the morning or whatever it may be, 
we didn't pray, we weren't conforming to the image, and then we're 
miserable on those days. That's not what Paul wants us 
to get here. So the source of our joy is Christ. Christ is eternal and unchanging, 
so our joy ought to be constant joy. And that's what Paul says 
later in chapter 4, verse 4. He says, rejoice in the Lord 
always, and again I will say rejoice. Joy will express itself 
in happiness, to be sure. So, Christians ought to be a 
happy people. Spurgeon says, you know, what a happy religion 
is ours, where it's our duty to be happy. So, you know, what 
greater cause for rejoicing than to know that your sins are forgiven 
and that you are reconciled with the Almighty Creator. So, we 
as Christians, we shouldn't be going about always morose and 
miserable. We need to rejoice in the Lord always. and because 
we are most satisfied in Him. So, when I say that phrase, that 
we are most satisfied in Him, some of you may be thinking, 
well, where have I heard this before? That God is most glorified when 
we are most satisfied in Him. And that's right. That's the 
coined phrase of John Piper. Now, this statement may be true, 
when we understand what true joy and true satisfaction really 
is, and that we don't confuse that with happiness. Because 
that's what seems to have happened a little bit here with this statement. 
Whether Piper intends that or not, I'm not here for that. But 
the idea is that God is happy when we're happy. So as long 
as we're skipping and singing our way to heaven, then God is 
looking down and smiling. Like I might watch my daughter 
skip through a field and chase in a butterfly. But that's not 
what Paul means. That's not what scriptures is 
taught, teaches anywhere. So Piper's statement here is 
only true when we understand what true satisfaction in Christ 
is. in the way that Paul is going 
to explain it in the next few verses here. So true satisfaction 
must begin at the beginning. It has to be at our conversion. So Christ must be everything 
to us. We must be completely satisfied 
in Christ for justification and our salvation. Complete satisfaction 
in Him. Our hope is built on nothing 
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So nothing else can come in between. And Paul is going to explain 
that. in detail in the next few verses. Matthew Henry comments 
on this verse and he says, The more we take of the comfort 
of our religion, the more closely we shall cleave to it. The more 
we rejoice in Christ, the more willing we shall be to do and 
suffer for Him, and the less danger we shall be in of being 
drawn away from Him. The joy of the Lord is our strength." 
Nehemiah 8, 10. And that last line there, the 
less danger we shall be in of being drawn away from Him, that's 
exactly what Paul means in the next line here. where he says, 
for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for 
you it is safe. So he knows that he's being repetitive 
in his teaching here to the Philippians, but he's doing this for a purpose. 
It's for their safety. Like Luther said, he says, I 
preach justification by faith to my people every week, because 
every week they forget it. See, Paul knows the tendency 
of the human heart to add our works to Christ's works. Our 
old human nature just cannot grapple with the fact that we 
do not and we cannot bring anything to the table in regards to our 
justification. Now, it's easy to agree to that statement. I 
think we all would agree to that, but that our works don't merit 
anything. But how quickly can we start 
to take a little comfort in our own actions? our church attendance, 
being raised in a Christian home, raising morally upright children, 
our morning devotion time, quiet time, whatever it may be. But 
we must always be on guard that although these things, they may 
be good things, that we do not place any value on them that 
will detract from being fully satisfied in the work of Christ 
for us. It is all Christ's work, none 
of our work, that merits eternal life. And Paul will get to that 
in a minute there. And the Philippians had to be 
especially on guard, not because of just their own hearts, but 
because of the teachings of these other evil men who had shown 
up in the city. If we look at verse 2 here, he 
says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the 
mutilation. So these were the Judaizers. 
These were the men who would follow Paul around and they would 
do their utmost to subvert his teaching. They could not handle 
that message that Paul taught, one of justification by faith 
alone, apart from the deeds of the law, apart from works. And 
they made it their aim to follow him around and try to teach the 
people that, you know, yes, you can believe in Jesus, that's 
fine, but you need to adhere to the Mosaic Law, and especially 
circumcision, if you want to be saved. So it's kind of funny 
because Paul calls them dogs here, but that was a common term 
that the Jews used to refer to the Gentiles. So Paul is now 
saying, no, you guys are the dogs. And we've got to remember 
that dogs are, you know, obviously in Paul's day, dogs are not what 
we what we have dogs like now. In those days, dogs were, you 
know, wild, just savage, uncontrolled beasts that were running around 
the city. So, Paul's comparing these Jews to dogs, since they 
were, you know, uncontrollably, and quite savagely in many cases, 
going around and polluting this pure gospel of Jesus Christ by 
adding works to it. So, and John Gill also notes 
here, he says that they returned to Judaism like dogs return to 
their vomit. And then he calls them the mutilation. Beware of the mutilation. And 
so they were preaching here that believers, if you want to be 
saved, you have to be circumcised as well. And the word that Paul 
uses here means cutting. It's just mutilation. And he's 
teaching that. Circumcision is just that. It's 
a useless cutting of the flesh. It's bodily mutilation in a sense. 
Circumcision was a sign to the Old Testament Israelites of the 
promise that God had given to Abraham and his descendants, 
that he was going to be their God, and that they would be his 
special people, and he would preserve them, he would protect 
them, and ultimately to bring about that promised seed, the 
seed of the woman, the seed that would crush the head of the serpent, 
and the one in whom all nations of the earth would be blessed. 
So now as we transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant 
here, the promised seed has come. is fulfilled. And the Jews had 
also rejected their Messiah, had broken their part of that 
covenant, and now this outward sign of circumcision as belonging 
to the nation of Israel is completely irrelevant. And the Jews had 
misunderstood circumcision the whole time. It never had anything 
to do with their salvation, but they thought that this outward 
act was something that would make them right with God. But 
yet God had clearly said to them in Deuteronomy 10 that they needed 
their hearts to be circumcised, meaning that they had that old 
fleshly nature, loving sin and self, they had to repent, they 
had to turn to God. So God didn't require outward signs, outward 
conformity, but it was a broken and a contrite heart, we read, 
a repentant heart, a changed heart. And that's what Paul says 
here in verse 3. He says, we are the circumcision. So in verse 2, when he's speaking 
of the Judaizers, he says mutilation or cutting, and he contrasts 
that in verse 3 now with the word circumcision. In some translations, 
yours might read, we are the true circumcision, and that's 
been added there to highlight what Paul is, what he's doing 
here. That true circumcision is a changed heart, a heart that 
truly desires to worship God. So if you turn with me for a 
minute to Romans chapter 2, We see that quite clear in Romans 
chapter 2. Verse 28 and 29 in Romans 2. For he is not a Jew who is one 
outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the 
flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision 
is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose 
praise is not from men, but from God. So true circumcision, it's 
not outward conformity to the law of God, it's a changed heart. 
So it's a change from either having no religion or an outward 
religiosity like the Jews had, and whether that motive was to 
earn God's favor or was just simply for the praise of men 
that Paul says here in Romans. True desire, so it's a change 
to having a true desire to worship God for who He is and for what 
He has done for us. The heart is changed. That's 
where He says, those who worship God in the Spirit. So whether, 
you know, Spirit in this verse, whether we interpret it with 
a capital S, the Holy Spirit, or a little s, we know that this 
change is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. So, when 
we worship God with true and right motives, it's by the power 
of the Holy Spirit. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit changing 
our hearts at the beginning and we continue on in that worship 
in the Spirit. So, we often say that we, Trinitarian worship, 
we worship the Father through the mediation of the Son by the 
power of the Spirit. The true circumcision, here Paul 
goes on, are those who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence 
in the flesh. So, although Paul uses a different 
word in the original here for rejoice, some translations might 
say glory in Christ Jesus, the idea is the same. It's a complete 
satisfaction in Christ, having no confidence in our flesh, in 
our ability, in our religiosity, our outward show of religion, 
none of that, but a complete satisfaction in Christ and relying 
on him and his work for our salvation. That's what makes a Christian, 
not an outwardly religious one, not someone who's just moral 
and does their best to obey the Ten Commandments, whatever it 
may be. Christian is one who glories in Christ alone and places 
no confidence in their ability. So let me ask a question. For 
those unbelievers here, why did you come to church this morning? 
Did you come to earn the praise of men? You didn't want to upset 
your parents? Or is it you didn't want to upset 
your spouse? Why was it? Maybe you wanted others to think 
that you're a decent and a morally upright person? Or are you trying 
to earn God's favor? Is that what you're doing with 
your church attendance? Trying to clean up your act, make yourself more 
savable for God? Now, don't get me wrong. Being 
in a good gospel-preaching church is a good thing. That's not going 
to contribute to your salvation in any way. There's no amount 
of church attendance, no amount of tithing, of moral reform, 
anything, any good works that can earn your favor with God. 
Because God demands perfection. He doesn't demand your best effort. 
So, I don't know what your purpose may be for being here this morning. But God's purpose is that you 
would hear from His Word what we're going to look at today, 
that all your outward religiosity is meaningless. And you need 
to understand that it's rubbish. Paul calls it later here. So listen, because you need to 
understand this, and this is a hard fact to accept. I know 
I've been there, but don't be upset with me because I'm just 
the messenger. So look at the next verse here, verse 4. Though 
I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else 
thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. So if 
our works, if our outward religion merited anything, then if anyone 
could have confidence in their works, then of all people it 
was Paul. He should be heralding this as 
loud as he can because he should be boasting about it because 
he's the one who can have, he's got all these credentials. Look 
at what he does here. He starts to list them now. So 
he circumcised the eighth day. So that means that he was circumcised 
exactly how the law stipulated there, that he was born a Jew 
and he wasn't one who, not a proselyte, someone who was Converted later 
on in life to Judaism and circumcised then but he was he's he's of 
the stock of Israel as he says next year And he's a genuine 
Descendant of Abraham. He's of the the tribe of Benjamin 
so this tribe was was the only tribe that remained loyal to 
the tribe of Judah when when the Davidic Kingdom split the 
the ten tribes split off and Benjamin stayed loyal to the 
to the Davidic line there. So Paul sort of, you know, gets 
maybe an extra credit for this, he thinks. And Hebrew of the 
Hebrews, so basically he's the best of the best. Concerning 
the law of Pharisee, now Pharisee means separated ones or holy 
ones, and I think that we're all very familiar with the Pharisees 
from the Gospels. They believed that they were 
so much better than the common people. They were separate from 
them. In regards to their outward conformity to the law, they were 
holy. Especially if you think of how 
the Pharisee prayed in Jesus' parable in Luke 18. He says, 
God, I thank you that I am not like other men. So that's how 
they viewed themselves. So much better than others because 
of that strict outward adherence to the law. And they also, the 
Pharisees also added lots of laws as well. They were just 
sort of going the extra mile for God in a sense there. So, 
and then concerning the... concerning zeal, persecuting 
the church. Now zeal was that chief attribute 
of the Pharisees, and it means a passion or a fervor, and generally 
for a certain cause. So this zeal for the law drove 
Paul to persecute the church, because the Christians were teaching 
that we could not earn God's favor through the law, and that 
we needed Christ. But Paul hated this, and he wanted 
to defend the law as a means of salvation at all costs. So 
it drove him to persecute the church, And concerning the righteousness 
that is in the law, blameless. So outwardly, he kept that law 
impeccably, perfectly. He was blameless. He was above 
reproach in any way. Now remember, this is outward 
conformity here. Notice that Paul doesn't say 
sinless, because he knew his heart. He knew that his heart 
was sinful, but the Pharisees didn't care about the heart. 
They only polished the outside of the cup. for they thought 
that was all that mattered. So this righteousness here that's 
in the law, John Kelvin says that the righteousness that Paul 
speaks of here is that righteousness which would satisfy the common 
opinion of mankind. So as long as they look good 
in the eyes of others and others thought that they were very holy 
and very good, that was all that mattered for Paul and for the 
rest of the Pharisees there. Paul has everything going for 
him here. He's a genuine Israelite by birth. He's circumcised. He's 
kept God's law perfectly in his eyes and in the eyes of the others 
around him. But then look what he does with all that in verse 
7 here. He says, what things were gained to me, I have counted 
loss for Christ. So, gain and loss here we have 
to understand in accounting terms. And to fully understand what 
Paul's doing here, we have to think of of this next section 
as a bank ledger or a statement of account. So, in one column, 
we have all the gains, all the deeds that we have done, good 
deeds, things, and, you know, sort of, if there was any good 
deeds, we stack them all in this gain column, and then in the 
other, we have all the losses, all the sin. So, keep that in 
mind as we go through this bank ledger, this statement of account 
here. So Paul, pre-conversion, he's writing his statement of 
account with God, and he's listing all these things, and they're 
all going in the gains column. They're all credits to his account. 
So when he gets to the end, He's got nothing in his loss column here. When he looks at his life, everything 
is, in his eyes, he's blameless. There's nothing that he needs 
to enter into this loss column. Nothing that would count against 
him in his standing with God. So in fact, when he gets to the 
end, he owes God nothing, and God owes him everything. So of 
course, Paul, of all people, would have much reason for boasting 
in the flesh, for confidence in the flesh. Now, common people, 
they might have lots of entries in the loss column, and hopefully 
the gain outweighs, cancels out the losses. We see that a lot, 
don't we? That as long as the good outweighs 
the bad, then we can go to heaven. How many people have their hope 
built on this? That as long as I'm a good person, as long as 
I do more good than bad, then I can go to comfort. Sorry, then 
I can go to heaven. Ray Comfort, I don't know if 
any of you are familiar with him, but if you've ever seen 
any of his work, you see that so often there is when he says, 
have you ever stolen anything? Well, yeah, I have. Well, what 
does that make you? A thief. Yeah, okay, I'm a thief, but I've done 
all this other good stuff. People's hope is built on that, 
that the good will outweigh the bad. But it doesn't work that 
way. So we have to understand that 
even though Paul is using these accounting terms here, our justification 
is not based on a tally of all our works. And then as long as 
we've kept it out of the red, so to speak, then we're accepted 
into heaven. That's not how it works. Because God demands perfection. And there's a standard that must 
be met. And that standard is not our best effort. That standard 
is not, you know, the good outweighing the bad, but it's perfection. And in Romans 3, we see he refers 
to it as the glory of God, that our sin causes us to fall short 
of that glory of God. So we see that God's standard 
is perfection. Our confession of faith states 
that it's a personal, exact, entire, and perpetual obedience 
to that law. And that's not something that 
we can attain. And why not? Let's look at the 
the rest of verse 7 here. He says that all these things 
that were gained to me, I counted as loss for Christ. So Paul's 
taken all of these things that he's entered in as gain, pre-conversion, 
he thought they were all going for him, and he's moved them 
all into the loss column. So now all this gain has turned 
into a huge deficit. And why does he do that? Well, 
there's two reasons for that. The first is that if there's 
to be any room for Christ, there can be nothing of our own gain 
in that prophet column. So to meet that standard of perfection, 
we don't give our best effort and then Christ tops off the 
rest to hit that standard. It's not Christ and my good works, 
it's Christ alone. And Christ has that perfect righteousness 
that meets God's standard of perfection. So none of our works 
are even necessary. And we'll see that as we get 
farther in here. And the second reason is why 
we don't put nothing into that gain column is that according 
to God's standard, we don't even have anything that would be valid, 
have value as something that would credit our account. There's 
nothing there. That's why Paul has moved all these things into 
the lost. They're all counting against him. So when he realizes 
that God's standard is perfection, and he sees the futility then 
of his efforts that So he doesn't just erase them from his ledger 
and ignore them, but he cut and paste from the gain into the 
loss column. So all these things that were 
going for him, all this outward religiosity, outward conformity 
to the law, all counted against him. So you might think, well, 
that's a little harsh. Aren't those good things? Why 
would they count against him, which would be sin? And we have 
to understand here then what the Bible says about the unconverted 
man. We tend to give way too much 
credit to unbelievers, you know, especially ones who are really 
nice, really morally upright, you know, good church-going folk. 
But we need to be clear, there's nothing that an unconverted person 
does that is pleasing to God. There's no good work in any way. Everything that an unbeliever 
does is sin. Everything. And turn to Isaiah 
64 for a minute to see that. Isaiah chapter 64, in verse 6, the prophet here says that we 
are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are 
like filthy rags. So our righteousnesses are filthy 
rags? Yeah, and in the context here, 
this is old covenant Israel, you know, and their law-keeping. 
Their outward conformity to the ceremonies of their religion 
was nothing but a filthy rag that did nothing to cover up 
their dead heart. And that was the problem, again, that all 
these things were done from a heart that did not love God. what determines 
if something is a good work or not. Is it done out of a true 
love for God or not? And these Israelites, it was 
not. It was done out of an outward conformity and tradition. And 
if you still don't believe me, then later I suggest you read 
Isaiah chapter 1 to see what God thinks about a heartless 
religion like that. So what determines if something 
is good work is if it is done out of a true love for God. So 
turn to Romans 8 for a minute here. It gives us a very clear 
picture of the depravity of the human heart. Romans chapter 8. 
If we read verses 5 through 8 here. For those who live according 
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but 
those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, 
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually 
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity 
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed 
can be. So then, those who are in the 
flesh cannot please God." So the carnal mind here, that's 
an unbeliever, is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed 
can be. So not only do we not need any 
of our own merit to supply here, we cannot supply any merit. So 
everything we do is, prior to conversion, is sin and is counted 
against us. So we need to understand this, 
is that we bring nothing to the table in regards to our righteousness. 
The only thing that we contribute to this statement of our account 
here is the sin that fills that loss column. And I'd also like 
to note here too, as believers, that our faith does not go in 
that gain column either. Our faith does not earn us anything. It is not something that God 
requires as part of the righteousness that earns eternal life. I'll 
explain more about the role of faith in a minute. But it does 
not earn our salvation in any way. And neither do we put our 
repentance, our contrition, anything as having any value there. Now, 
faith and repentance are good things. They're necessary things, 
but they do not contribute to justification in any way. Because 
there are those out there that say that the righteous requirements 
for eternal life in the New Covenant, where we find ourselves now, 
is now just faith on the part of the believer. and sincere 
obedience to the law. So Roman Catholics, for example, 
would teach that. They don't deny Christ. They 
say you can have Christ, but your requirement now to complete 
that work is faith and your best effort, sincere obedience. We 
see that in a lot of other theologies that are out there, new perspective 
on Paul, federal vision. There's even some new covenant 
theologians that teach this, not all, but some would. You 
know so saying that God's new standards is this simply faith 
sincere obedience So you can you can believe in Jesus as the 
one who's paid for your sin But when it comes to to earning eternal 
life That's up to you because remember eternal life had to 
be earned. It wasn't just God just didn't give it It was that 
Adam was tasked to earn eternal life there So their idea then 
is that Jesus brings you from negative to neutral, to zero, 
and then you bring yourself the rest of the way. And thankfully, 
God has lowered that bar. It's no longer perfection. It's 
just faith and your best effort. But God never did change his 
standard. His standard has always been perfect obedience to his 
law. So, like I said, Adam was tasked 
to do that in the garden. He failed. And that's why Jesus 
came to this earth. That's what he came to accomplish. 
He said that himself. He said, I didn't come to abolish 
the law, but to fulfill it. And fulfill it means to keep 
it perfectly. And the Bible is very clear that Jesus did keep 
God's law perfectly. Romans 5 verse 19 says that by 
one man, that's Jesus, by one man's obedience, many will be 
made righteous. So to teach that our repentance 
and our faith and our sincere effort can earn eternal life 
is to take away from that work of Christ. And that would be 
not being fully satisfied in Christ. So we need a perfect 
obedience to the law of God, and only Christ is the one who 
ever did that. And that's what Paul means by 
gaining Christ. It's Christ's righteousness that 
goes into that gain column. But we'll see that more when 
we look at verse nine. So Paul had to count everything at its 
loss here in verse 7, and then again in verse 8 he repeats himself 
here, but now he's speaking in the present tense. So he says, 
So he says, yet indeed I also count all things lost for the 
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. So not 
only had he had to come to that realization at his conversion 
there that all his righteousness was filthy rags, but he has to 
continually be of that mindset. He has to continually remind 
himself of that. John Kelvin here again, he says, 
he means that he continues to be of the same mind because it 
often happens that transported with delight in new things, we 
forget everything else and afterwards we regret it. Hence, Paul, having 
said that he renounced all hindrances that he might gain Christ, now 
adds that he continues to be of this mind. So as believers, 
we need to be constantly reminding ourselves of this. Now it's important 
to understand also here that all these things that Paul is 
talking about here, like his Jewish heritage, his circumcision, 
his keeping of the ceremonies of the law, he's not denouncing 
those things as bad things that he wanted to separate himself 
from. But the problem with Paul was that the value that he was 
putting on those things. So he was trusting in the signs 
and the symbols and the shadows of the things that were to come. 
He thought that there was a value, a meritorious value in those 
things, and not realizing that the true value, the true substance 
of those was what they pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
speaks to that in Colossians 2 as well. So these things were 
all there to point him to Christ. Those things were not in themselves 
evil, but they had no value. And so Paul thought that they 
had value, that by keeping them and obeying them, he could earn 
a salvation, but the real value is Christ. So when I speak about 
church attendance or, you know, morning devotional time or tithing 
or not cheating on your taxes or, you know, whatever it may 
be, those things are all good things to do, but it's the value 
that you place on those things. They play no part in your justification, 
either prior to your conversion or after your conversion. So 
there is a place for good works, to be sure, in regards to our 
sanctification that comes after a conversion. But it's important 
to understand that distinction here, that they have no value 
or no merit towards our eternal life. So if we move on then here, 
Paul says it the third time again in verse 8 here that he, now 
he says, I've suffered the loss of all things. Now, in one sense, 
he's probably referring to his current situation here. He's 
in prison, writing this epistle from prison, suffering for the 
cause of Christ. And what had got him there was 
the fact that he renounced his Jewish heritage and his circumcision 
and his law keeping and all that as having any merit. hated him 
for it, persecuted him, and incited the Romans to lock him up in 
prison. So, in one sense, yes, Paul has suffered the loss of 
many things for the sake of Christ, and those trials have helped 
to draw him closer to Christ, to help him to know what it means 
to be fully satisfied in Christ. But I think that there's another 
sense here in which Paul has suffered the loss of all things, 
of what he means here. And that's going back to his 
conversion, going back to verse 7 there, where he had to take 
all those things, all those things that were so precious to him, that he held 
so dear, and realized that they were all worthless. And then 
he had to chalk them all up as losses. And that is painful. It's painful when we understand 
that we've sinned and we need to be reconciled to God and we 
get to work trying to clean up our act. You know, we do everything 
in our power to clean up our life and make ourselves worthy 
of Him. And like the prodigal son, we 
say, I'm going to return home to my father and work for him 
to earn his favor. And then we come to the realization 
that all our righteousnesses are filthy rags, that none of 
what we do has any merit. And that is a painful realization 
when all these things that we held so dear we have to count 
as rubbish. Paul says here that I suffered 
the loss of all things, counted them as rubbish. So that's refuse 
or garbage, just useless. They had no value in regards 
to his standing with God here. And both Calvin and Spurgeon 
give an example here of a ship. an example of a ship in a storm 
where the sailors are tossing their precious cargo overboard 
in order to save themselves. So all this cargo was so precious 
to them when they were in the safety of the port. Now they're 
in the middle of the storm and they have to toss it overboard 
if they want to be saved. Now it's painful. It's a painful 
process to be sure, but it's a necessary process. So if you're 
here this morning and you're trusting in the fact that you 
go to church every Sunday, that that's what makes you right with 
God, you have to throw that overboard. Are you trusting that, no, I'm 
a pretty good person? Overboard with that. I'm doing my best 
to obey the Ten Commandments. Overboard, everything, you have 
to throw it overboard. And now why do we need to do 
that? Now look at the end of verse eight here, that I may 
gain Christ. Christ goes in the gain column, 
because he's done it all. If we are to have Christ as our 
righteousness, we must abandon all hope of our own merit. And 
that's what he says in verse 9 here. Look at verse 9. And be found in him, not having 
my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which 
is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God 
by faith. So, not having my own righteousness 
here. That's not a perfect righteousness anyways. It's not worthy of anything, 
but having that righteousness which comes from God. This is what Martin Luther struggled 
with so much prior to his own conversion here. He knew that 
his best attempt was futile, and he was at a loss. He didn't 
know what to do. He knew that he did not have 
his own righteousness. Now, Luther was not in this section of Scripture. 
He was in Romans 1. Verse 17, where it says, in it, 
that is in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith 
to faith. Then he suddenly came to the 
realization here that this verse was not talking about the attribute 
or the perfection of God, like God's righteousness, his inherent 
righteousness, where he's a righteous being, but this was the righteousness 
that God gives, a righteousness from God. And that's what Paul 
says here in this verse, that it's a righteousness from God. 
Luther called it an alien righteousness that we need, something that's 
not our own, but the righteousness that God gives, the righteousness 
that comes from Him. And this righteousness is, like 
we've said, the perfect righteousness of Christ that God imputes or 
credits to our account and puts onto that statement. It's the 
righteousness that must be in our gain column of our statement 
of account with God, if we have any hope of eternal life. Because 
only Christ's righteousness can satisfy the demands of God. We've 
already mentioned Romans 5 here, 19, by one man's obedience, many 
will be made righteous. But the Bible is very clear that 
Jesus lived a perfect life without the slightest sin. If we look at 1 Peter 3, 18, 
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God. Hebrews 4, 15, For we do not 
have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, 
but was in all points tempted, as we are, yet without sin. And 
1 Peter 1, 19 calls him the lamb without blemish and without spot. 
Now, these are only a few of the scripture references to Jesus' 
absolute perfection. But this is that perfect righteousness 
that is necessary for eternal life. Remember, that standard 
for eternal life is perfection, and Jesus met that standard. 
And this righteousness is the righteousness that God is freely 
offering to all of us. So, how does this righteousness 
become ours? So how do we get Christ's righteousness 
to fill that gain column on our account here? And Paul says that 
this righteousness comes to us through faith in Christ. So faith 
is how we receive this righteousness. It's believing and trusting in 
Christ as our sole righteousness, as the one who has earned it 
all for us. He's earned eternal life for 
us. So then God credits that righteousness to your account. 
That's called the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Imputation 
means simply to credit to your account. But before we talk more 
about faith, I want to look at another place in Scripture for 
a minute, because we've talked a lot about that gain column 
here, about having that righteousness that meets God's standard. And 
that is what Paul is emphasizing here in this passage. But what 
about that loss column? So we've, you know, everything 
that we've put in there, we have a massive debt that's incurred, 
that we've incurred with God here. And God's justice demands 
payment for that. So God cannot just simply sweep 
that under the rug and forget about it. The Bible says that 
the wages of sin is death. And, you know, the payment for 
sin is death. So our good deeds cannot cancel 
out that sin. Not even Jesus' good deeds, you 
know, His act of obedience to that law, His perfect life, that 
can also not cancel out that debt. So turn to Colossians 2 
for a minute, and we'll see what happens with that debt column 
here. Let's read verses 13 and 14, 
Colossians chapter 2. And you, being dead in your trespasses 
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together 
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped 
out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was 
contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the 
way, having nailed it to his cross. So the NASB here reads 
that having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting 
of decrees against us, and the ESV calls it the record of debt 
with its legal demands. So all that sin, all that debt 
that we've incurred, everything that we have done has gone in 
that loss column. We've incurred a massive debt. 
Jesus takes that and nails it to the cross, so to speak. So 
all that sin, goes with him to the cross, and on the cross, 
God imputes that sin onto Jesus, charges it to his account, or 
we could say that he legally declares Jesus guilty for all 
those sins, and punished him in full. Christ bore that full 
wrath of the Father against all of that sin, and paid the price 
in full. And that's what Jesus cried from 
the cross as he died. It is finished, meaning paid 
in full. So he's taken that loss column, 
and paid it in full. So all those entries in there, 
we have incurred so much debt, and now we can say, paid in full, 
paid in full. Christ becomes our surety, the 
Bible calls him. Surety is the one who has paid 
for all that debt. So, Now, we know that Christ 
did not die for the sins of the whole world, so don't go home 
and say that, you know, Ryan taught universal atonement this 
morning, or blog about it, as Pastor Butler would say. We know 
that God punished Jesus only for the sins of His elect, or 
His people on that cross. But that is God's perspective, 
is the elect. Our perspective is all who believe 
in Him. And that's another sermon in 
itself there, Suffice it to say, when the Bible says that whoever 
believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life, it 
means exactly that. So Jesus said, the one who comes 
to me, the one who believes in me, I will in no wise or by no 
means cast out. So then it becomes important 
that we understand what does it mean to believe in the Lord 
Jesus. So if we go back to Philippians chapter 3 here, Again, where 
we were, Paul says that this righteousness comes from God 
and is received by faith. So, and the same thing goes for 
the atonement, for the cancelling out of that loss column. It's 
credited to us through faith. So, through faith we receive 
the paid in full stamp on our statement. So, what is faith? So, first of all, if we look 
at Back at verse 8 there, he says, he says, So the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus. And in verse 10, he again, he 
mentions that as well, that I may know him. So faith is built on 
knowledge, knowing why Christ is an able saviour. Christian faith is not a blind 
faith. It's not a leap of faith, a leap 
into the abyss and hoping that someone catches us at the bottom. It is built on knowledge, and 
God has communicated these clear, logical truths in His Word, like 
we see here, very clearly laid out. You need this righteousness, 
but you don't have it. Christ has it. You have a problem 
with all this sin, but Christ can pay for that all. It's clear, 
logical truths. We need to understand these things. 
Because if I told you to trust in whatever it may be, that piano, 
you would have no reason to trust in that piano. to trust in Christ, 
we've just seen very clearly why he is trustworthy, because 
he lived that perfect life, because he died to atone for the sins 
of all his people. So we need to have this practical 
knowledge of him, John Kelvin calls it, so knowing what he 
did. But it's not just knowing the 
facts, you know, of his perfect life and of his atonement, that 
he died on the cross to pay for sin, not just knowing That would 
be knowing about Christ, not knowing Christ, as Paul says 
here. So faith is a resting, relying 
on Christ, on His perfect righteousness, and on His atonement for sin 
as sufficient for your salvation. So faith is giving up your own 
merits, counting them all as loss, and accepting Christ's 
righteousness as the reason by which you may be saved. Faith 
is not a force that we wield, that we use to take salvation 
and make it ours. It's not a force. It's not deciding 
to follow Jesus. It's not asking Jesus into your 
heart. It's not having heart knowledge 
over head knowledge. Faith is understanding these 
facts and then passively receiving the righteousness of Christ as 
your own and the atonement of Christ as payment for your sin. 
And that's all that it is. Faith is simply trusting that 
Jesus has done it all for you. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply 
to thy cross I cling. That's faith. My hope is built 
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And that's 
what it means to rejoice in the Lord, to be fully satisfied in 
Him. When your statement of account 
is all Christ, where He fills the gain, that profit column, 
it's all Christ. And in that loss column, where 
you've incurred so much debt, there's a big stamp that says, 
paid in full by Christ. And that's what Paul wants us 
to see here, you know, to remember, regardless of our circumstances, 
rejoice in the Lord always. So brethren, don't passages like 
this just make our hearts sing sometimes. We just need to dwell 
on this and realize what Christ has done, that he's done it all 
for us. And it's no wonder that the bride 
says of her bridegroom in the Song of Solomon there that he's 
altogether lovely, and later that he's chief among 10,000. 
So, I hope this gives you a fresh glimpse of Christ and just stirs 
your heart to love Him more. We sang that this morning, more 
love to one of my favorite hymns, and I hope that this has been 
a means to encourage you to just see Him in all His glory. So, and then tonight, we're going 
to look at the rest of this chapter, and then that really, Paul explains 
how we apply this in our daily lives as we go on as believers 
here. And for those of you who are 
not believers, as I said earlier, I don't know your motive, why 
you came here this morning, or maybe listening online. But you've 
now heard how salvation is possible. And I praise God that every week 
from this pulpit, you hear how salvation is possible. And you 
hear that clear gospel message. But I hope you understand that 
you don't bring anything to the table here. This morning, our 
brother read from Romans 10. And such a good passage that 
explains it so clearly. For they being ignorant of God's 
righteousness, seeking to establish their own righteousness, have 
not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end 
of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." So 
I want you to make sure to understand to not be ignorant of the righteousness 
of God. There is a righteousness that 
God is offering. You don't need to clean up your 
life and become a better person first. God demands perfection, 
but he's offering you perfection in Christ. He demands payment 
for sin, full atonement, but he's offering that full atonement 
in Christ. So trust in him as the one who 
has done it all for you, as the one who's lived a perfect life 
for you because you can't, and the one who died to pay for your 
sin so you don't have to. Now, don't go home and think 
about it. The devil will throw a thousand 
distractions in your way before you even get out the doors there. You don't even know if you'll 
make it home. You know, the Bible says now is the accepted time. 
Now is the day of salvation. Because there are people in hell 
today who procrastinated yesterday. You don't need to wait for feelings 
and emotions. You saw that there's no part 
for feelings and emotions in this equation here. I just laid 
out the gospel message, how that a man can be justified with God. 
And you can't find a place where feelings and emotions are going 
to fit and are going to change things. Feelings don't fulfill 
that righteous standard of God that had to be met. Feelings 
cannot atone for sin. Now that doesn't mean that the 
gospel isn't going to invoke feelings, make sure I'm very 
clear on that, but there's no value, you don't need to look 
to yourself for feelings, you don't need to look to yourself 
for good works, you don't need to look to yourself for anything, 
but look to Christ, look to Him. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Trust 
in him. Rest fully satisfied in him that 
everything he's done for you is sufficient. Believe in the 
Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are 
so thankful for the clear teaching of scripture. Lord, you have 
You have communicated your truth to us in clear ways that we can 
understand, clear terms that we can wrap our minds around. And Lord, we have just seen that 
we need Christ. We need all of Christ. And Lord, 
I pray that you would help each one of us here to rest fully 
satisfied in Christ. Lord, I pray that this morning 
would be a means that your children here would see Christ in all 
his glory, and that there would be more love for Him. Lord, I 
pray that those who do not know Christ would see that they do 
not need to offer their own works, their own doings, but that it 
is all being offered by Christ, and that they would look to Him 
in faith and seize upon Him as their Saviour. trusting in Him, 
and that they would leave here today singing, Hallelujah, what 
a Savior. Lord, we are thankful for Your 
Word. We're thankful for Your Son, 
the Lord Jesus, and it's in His name that we pray. Amen. So we'll 
close with the doxology, I believe, hymn number 568. Do so standing, please. Brother, all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures, hear 
me low. Praise him above the heavenly 
host. I'll close with Romans 15 13. Now 
may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing 
that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Father, again, we are so thankful for your Word. We are so thankful 
that we can come here and gather as believers in Christ to sing 
your praises together and to look at your Word together. Lord, 
we pray that this would be a blessing for each one here. And Lord, 
I pray that your Spirit would work mightily among each one 
of us to point us to Christ. Lord, go with us as we leave 
here now. Bring us back together safely 
tonight. and watch over us. Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So please be seated for 
a time of meditation.