The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: By Grace Through Faith

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

The only paperwork that matters on the day of judgment is not your resume, but Christ's invitation.

Amen and amen. How we do, church, doing good? You look great. If you got your Bible, grab them. We're going to be in Philippians chapter 3, and we just show you that video to let you know that the 10-10 life is in full effect. So if one of those numbers that represented over 1,000 people

who have taken a next step in regards to our abundant life initiatives, whether it's with First Coast Women's Services or senior adults or our first responders or foster care, way to go. And I also want to let you know that we have already sent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to these organizations to help them get going and a whole bunch of you. And so speaking of one of our partners, we've got an event coming up March the 20th that I want you to write down. It's for, it goes to support Seymark Ranch. And we're doing a worship benefit concert for Seamark Ranch. Seymart Ranch is a Christian set of homes and families where kids who have fallen out of foster care can go there.

It's an incredible ministry. It's going to be a night of worship with our team and Gary LaVox. In case you don't know that name, then you should listen to country music. And he was the lead singer of Rascal Flats, and now he sings a bunch of worship stuff. He's going to come here and join our team. We're going to have a big old worship night. And there's going to be a message from some of my friends and me. And so make sure you're here, okay?

Fellas, single guys, you should buy two tickets and invite. okay so good luck with that philipius chapter 3 let's dive in we've got some work to do starts out this way philippius 3 1 says this finally my brothers and here's what i love about the apostle paul he's a good preacher because finally does not mean he's even close to being finished he's about halfway through his message and he says finally if you've ever hear a preacher say in conclusion he didn't even close to done you understand what i'm saying he's just going to keep going and he says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. This is important. Over and over and over, the Apostle Paul, writing to this church in Philippi that he loves dearly is going to implore us

14 times. He's going to either use the word joy or implore us to rejoice, but here he explains a little bit. You don't rejoice in your circumstances. You rejoice in the Lord. You rejoice in the Lord. You see, because regardless of our circumstances, we can rejoice because our joy is found in Jesus. And regardless of the circumstances, Jesus is always the one that gives us joy. So we don't rejoice in our circumstances. We don't rejoice in the fact that our circumstances may or may not change. We rejoice in the Lord. And joy is the noun and rejoice is the verb. And so if you want some joy in your life, then just decide that you're going to rejoice and watch the joy start swelling up in you. By the way, that's a big part of what we do in worship. Whether you feel like it or not,

we're supposed to rejoice in the Lord. Now, I'm not saying you've got to come in here just feeling great all the time, all right, because the church is the master of fineism. You know what, fineism? How's everything going in your life? Fine. You're liar. But you bring yourself, in here, your real self, your true self, he's writing this from prison, but you watch what happens when you just decide to rejoice in the Lord. Again, I'll say it, rejoice. This is what he does. He worships, he rejoices. He's instructing the church at Philippi to do so. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you. So what Paul says here is in the next few verses, I'm not necessarily going to give you any new information.

I just want to remind you of some stuff. And what he's going to remind the church of, he's going to remind the church of the gospel. In case you're new here, let me just go ahead and inform you. I don't mind preaching the same sermons over and over and over because it is good for you and it is safe. and what he means by safe is, is any time you begin to move away from the gospel that is a dangerous place to be. Because to move away from the gospel is to move away from Jesus and you want to be with Jesus. If you begin to say, well, okay, I get the gospel, but I need to get into some deeper stuff, then you don't get the gospel.

Because it is an infinitely deep pool of goodness and love and information. and revelation that you never, ever, ever graduate from. And so the Apostle Paul is just going to remind them of the same thing. So just in case you don't know this, I have one message. I give it every week. Sometimes it's a different beginning, a different ending, but this is what we do. We study the Bible, and we just dive into the gospel week after week after week. And here's what he wants to remind them of.

I love this verse. Look at it. Look out for the dogs. look out for the dogs. This probably should have been our memory verse right here. Look out for the dogs. Why? Look how he describes the dogs.

This is true, man. Evil doers, they mutilate the flesh. Ask a horn frog if that ain't true. Just beat people down. It's not even fair. Well, much of my chagrin, he's not talking about my dogs here. If so, it would have been spelled with an eight. not at O, okay?

And so, here's what's going on here. Dogs was a very negative term that Jewish people would call Gentiles. Now the problem is, as Americans, when we hear a dog, we're like, aw, because we love our dogs. Way too much, way too much. If you have a sweater for your dog, you're weird, okay?

I'm just telling you, man. You are, you are. And let's, hey, but I'm, I don't think we don't have sweaters for ours. But we're weird too at my house. We have little beds for them. We have, it's silly. You know, treats, presents at Christmas, like they even know?

Crazy. Okay. They didn't have dogs like that in the first century. This would be like a wild pack of mangy animals that roamed around and ate trash and dead bodies and things like that. When you thought dog, you thought nasty. It was a derogatory term that a Jewish person would use against a Gentile. In fact, they usually put it together. and called it Gentile dog.

And now Paul is going to take that very word that they use to talk down to the Gentiles, and he is going to talk to the religious Jews and use that word. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil-doers. What they are doing is evil. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

We'll talk about what that means in just a second. You see, here's the thing. In pretty much every epistle of the Apostle, he is going to give a warning to the church to stay awake, be on guard, and look out. And most often, most often, the greatest threat that the church is going to face is not that evil pagan world out there. In fact, the church has always done really well with persecution. Don't believe me? Check out the underground church in China right now.

It's exploding. You know where most of the conversions in the world? are happening right now in places in the Middle East where it is illegal to claim the name of Christ and faith is exploding in those places I mean look at how the early church even began in Rome where it was illegal to be a Christian and they would kill you to death if you claim that anybody other than Caesar was Lord and it was in that darkness that the brightness of the light of the good news of the gospel shined to the point that within 300 years, the majority of Roman citizens claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Yeah, the church has always handled persecution really, really well. The church has never really handled blessing that well. Amen, the scariest thing for a person like me is not necessarily outside persecution. It's that inside the comfortable American church, the whole thing is just lulled to sleep. Just enjoy the service. You see, the greatest threat is usually from the inside. And, you know, I've fallen in love with this Scottish proverb. For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch.

And so you can fall in one of two ditches when Paul says, hey, watch out, watch out. Because the false teaching is going to come from the inside, not the outside. And so the two ditches in the church that you have to pay attention to is legalism and licentiousness. Licentiousness meaning that you've got license to do whatever you want to do. in my perspective, that seems to be what the modern American church, that is its problem. And those churches who have leaned left, who have leaned away from the scripture, have leaned out. You know why? Because the moment you move away from the Bible, you move away from Jesus, and Jesus has no problem removing his lampstand from a church that does not want to submit to the authority of the Word of God.

I mean, listen to me, there is no such thing as a progressive liberal Christian. There are Jesus following Christians, and then there's some other stuff people make up, but they still got crosses in their place, okay? Actually, they don't have crosses in their place because that's too violent. They took those out years ago so they could reach the next generation. But they ain't reaching nothing. You see? But that's not what's going on in Philippi.

In Philippi, what they're dealing with here is legalism. These dogs, these mutilators of the flesh are a group of people called Judaizers. These are people that claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but they just don't think that's enough. These Judaizers, you can kind of hear it in the name, they grew up Jewish, they grew up in the Jewish faith, and they just, they believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They just don't think that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is sufficient for your salvation. So you just got to add one more thing. Now, it's kind of a big thing.

The thing you've got to add on to there is circumcision. Now, listen, I know some of you think it's very difficult to join our church to become a covenant member, but we don't require any surgery at all for you to join. Now, that's not the only thing they were saying that you have to add, but did you basically have to become Jewish first? Like if you're a Gentile, if you're a non-Jewish person, then you had to adopt all the laws and customs, particularly circumcumcest. of the Old Testament. There's 613 laws, and you had to be like one of us culturally before you could follow Jesus as your Savior.

That's what they were teaching. And so Paul says that they are evil doers and mutilators of the flesh. That's what he's talking about. You see, ultimately, when you begin to say that it's Jesus plus anything, then what you were saying is that what Christ did on the cross is not sufficient for your salvation. salvation, but you've got to help him out a little bit. You see, we're going to spend all summer studying the book of James. And James, the brother of Jesus, is going to say that faith without works is dead.

And so works play an important role in your life as a believer. There's just not a prerequisite to your salvation. They're a result of your salvation. That the verdict comes before the performance. But once you get the verdict of not only not guilty, but you also get the verdict of, and I want to change your name and adopt you as my son, then that should fuel you on two good works, that you want to get to work for the Lord, not so that he will love you, but because he does.

This is very, very important. That the acceptance comes before the behavior. It's the only place on the planet where this happens. Everywhere else in our life, we want to behave a certain way so that we will be accepted. but the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is because of his perfect life, death, and resurrection, then we can be accepted, which ought to drive all of our behavior. This is what he meant in chapter one when he said, may your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. Not that you would earn it, but it would drive you to be changed by it. Verse three, for we are the circumcision.

If you want a full study on what circumcision is, see Romans chapter two. Circumcision was a sign of a covenant that God made with Abraham. It was an outward invisible sign of a relationship that God's people had with him, at least the males. It started with Abraham as a sign. But in Romans chapter 2 and Romans chapter 9 and Romans chapter 10 and Romans chapter 11, Paul goes on to let us know that it is those who believe that are like Abraham and that receive his blessing, not just those who are circumcides in the flesh.

You see, we, if you've put your faith in Jesus, The Bible says that Abraham believed in God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And so if you have put your faith in Jesus, that makes you, that makes us by faith God's people. And so he's saying it's not the Judaizers that are God's people. It's the people that believe that Christ is enough for their salvation. They are God's people. He says, for we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

That word glory right there, literally in Greek means to stick your neck out. It means to brag, to boast. This is why Paul in Galatian 614 is, he says this, may I boast in nothing but the cross of Jesus Christ. And he's saying that we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and we brag, We boast in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh.

Now, let me warn you, church, folk. And I got some bad news for you. Listen, man, you've been around 1122 a couple years. You're church folk. I know that bothers you. He's like, no, no, not me. Yeah. And the longer you are in church, even our church, man,

the longer you are in church, this crazy thing happens where we begin to have this tendency to, take our eyes off of boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ, and we begin to put confidence in our flesh, in our ability. And you're like, well, how do we do that? I'll tell you how we do that. We have this scorecard, and we keep this scorecard. And what the scorecard should say, the only thing it should say is Jesus. That's it. What's your scorecard? Boom, there it is, all right? I told you one time, I played in a golf tournament with Josh Scobie, the old old kicker for the Jags, and that joker can play some golf. I think he's trying to be a pro golfer

now, and he was on my team for the Tim Tebow Golf Championship. Guess what? I won. I won the whole thing. And here's how it would go. We would step up to the tea, and I would hit a cruddy one, okay? You know why? Because I ain't got time to play golf like you people. I have a job, and I love Jesus and all that, okay? I'm a little jealous, but whatever, all right? Mine would go bad, Scobie would get up. His would go good. And it was a best ball tournament, so we got to use his ball. I would get like a triple bogey. He would get a birdie. My scorecard said birdie. I turned in the Scobie scorecard and I got the trophy for first place that is still in my office. Got that? That is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had no confidence in my game, but I gloried in

Bertie man, Scoby. Okay. So that's what he's talking about, kind of. and we glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. But the longer you're around church, you begin to have this scorecard, and your score card most often is determined by the denomination that you're in. All right, Catholics, ready? You begin to say, yeah, yeah, but I go to confession. I take first communion. Like, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but then there's other things that if you don't do these things,

because I've done these things for a long time. For other people, Baptist? Oh, man, your list is so long. It is. It's so long. It's typically this. The scorecard I grew up with is that, of course you got to believe in Jesus, but you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't chew, and you don't go with girls who do. I've told you that.

Which, by the way, it was impossible in Dillon. Because it's impossible, man. I mean, the prom queen is like, hold my beer, you know. Hey, I mean, what you're going to do, man? Pentecostals? Glory, there you are. Right? But what a lot of Pentecostalism teaches, which is this part is not right, is that it's Jesus plus speaking in tongues.

It's Jesus plus a physical manifestation of the Spirit. Listen, man, when in regards to salvation, Jesus plus anything ruins everything. Now all you Presby's, all that stuff makes you nervous, right? It's doctrine, it's intellect, it's vigorous note-taking, all right? Anglicans, it's liturgy. For some people, it's baptism. And listen, be careful, man. The moment you begin to think, well, listen, no, no, no, no, no.

See, I'm a good 11-20 tour. Because I go on Thursday night, where I go to the mobile campus. We have to set ours up every week. You're on the team? No, I don't do anything to set it up, but I attend there in a seat not as comfortable as some of the other seats around town. Or I sponsor 12 Compassion Kids. or I go on a mission trip every three months.

I don't want to just wait three years or whatever the thing is. The moment you begin to put any confidence in the flesh, be very, very careful because what you are beginning to do is not boast in the cross, but you're beginning to boast in yourself. And the reason that it tends to happen is this, is that most Christians only believe half the gospel. Most Christians only believe half the gospel. Now, you don't believe an important half, but if I were to ask you right now, if you're standing before the Lord and he were to say, why should I let you into my heaven? Most people would say, because I believe Jesus died on the cross for me and forgave me of my sins. Is that true?

It's absolutely true. It's just not the complete truth of the gospel. Did Jesus die on the cross for your sins? Yes, he did. you believe when he died on the cross somehow that counted for you, then the reality is in that moment all of your sins have been wiped away. But there's more. He does not stop with the forgiveness of your sins. The full gospel, the truth of the gospel is this, that then he imputes you with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, not impartes you. Some denominations teach the

impartation of grace. That's not what it is at all, because an impartation is if I do my part you'll do your part. No, no, no, no, no. He imputes you. You don't use the word impute very much. Nobody was like, today I imputed my peanut butter on my bagel. But that's what it means. It means like to put on. And if you don't understand that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you have been imputed with the righteousness of Christ, then you will begin to put confidence in your flesh instead of full confidence in the finished work of Christ. Here's an example. imagine you had an enormous amount of debt with a bank. I don't know, trillions of dollars.

Imagine that, okay? You work for the government. So you got trillions of dollars. And you go to the bank and you're like, hey, look, man, there's no chance I can pay this off. If I work for the rest of my life all day, every day, four shifts a day, I don't have enough time in my life to earn enough money to pay off the debt that you have, I have with you. and the bank president were to come to you and say, you know what, because of my mercy and because of my grace,

I tell you what, I'm going to wipe your account clean and forgive you of all your debt. Would you be grateful? For sure. For sure. You'd be so grateful. But if that's where it ended, when you walked out of the bank, what would your condition be? Broke. And then what would you have to do?

Get to work. And you would have to get out there, and you're so grateful that your debt has been paid. for, but guess what, man, you can't buy stuff with nothing. You got to go get to work so that you could live your life. When you only believe half the gospel that when Jesus died on the cross, he wiped away my sins, then where does that leave you? It leaves you broke. And so you'll say dumb things like, well, God's the God of second chances. No, he's not, dummy. If you had a second chance at life, guess what? You would just be 0 for two. He's not just, like I've told you this before,

If I gave Reagan Capri my seventh grade daughter a calculus exam, how do you think she would do? Not good. Why? She's a Martin, but more importantly, she don't know how to do calculus. And if her teacher were to say, oh, in my mercy and my grace, I'm going to give you a second chance. Here you go again. Try harder. She would just do bad again.

You don't need a second chance in life. You need somebody to live the life that you can't live on your own and then credit you and your account for his life. So, 2 Corinthians 521 will say it this way, that God made Him, who was without sin, to be sin for us, that we would become the righteousness of God. And when you begin to understand that, then you can never, ever, ever boast or have confidence in your good works for the sake of salvation. But then you know that you will only glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. You see, this is very, very important. works are not bad man works are not bad and grace is not opposed to effort grace is opposed to earning see the difference

in ephesus chapter two paul tells us that we are saved by grace through faith and not by our works so nobody can brag about any of it but we are god's workmanship and we're saved two good works you see the difference is are you working for something or are you working from something? That's the difference. And so then Paul says, all right, we'll use me as exhibit A. 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. This is theological smack talk. He's like, anybody want to compare resumes? And then the apostle Paul is going to roll out his religious resume to compare. And there's two sections to his resume. And there's two sections to his resume. The first section is his pedigree, and the second section is his performance. And so here's

what he does. He lays out seven things. He says, if anybody has confidence, I would have confidence. Why? Because verse five, I was circumcised on the eighth day. This means ritualistically, he nailed it. He didn't convert to Judaism. He was born into it. He has been obedient from birth in accordance with Leviticus. He says, I am of the people of Israel. This means racially he's pure. that his parents weren't converts, he's pure-blooded. He says, of the tribe of Benjamin. This means he commands respect. Benjamin was the only son born in the Promised Land.

It's the only tribe that remained faithful to Judah. The house of David comes from here. It's a big, this is where King Saul comes from here. He's saying I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. He's saying, I got the right upbringing. I wasn't born on the other side of the tracks. I was born on the right side of town. And he's bragging a little bit here about his education

because a bunch of the Jewish people in the spread of Judaism would speak Aramaic, and he could read and speak Hebrew. And he's saying, so I grew up right. And not only did I grow up right, but I've been doing right. He says, check out my achievements. As to the law, a Pharisee. He's saying, religiously, I'm better than you.

His parents or his ancestors were Pharisees, and he chose to go down that path to study. He says, I love the law so much. I didn't stop with the 613 laws that God had. I even made up some of my own. As to zeal a persecutor of the church, he says, my faith was more radical than yours, that essentially he was a religious terrorist.

He says, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. He declares himself righteous. He doesn't say perfect. He says, blameless. Why? Because he's saying, even when I did mess up and break one of the laws, every single time I perfectly adhered to the law, and I gave the right sacrifice at the right time on the right day,

and I have led an exemplary life under the law. You got nothing on me. That's his resume. Anybody want to raise their hand? It'd be like, mine's better. What are you going to say? I went to many VBSs. I have memorized two of the six memory verses

from our study in Philippians. That's neat. Paul had memorized the entire Hebrew scripture from Genesis to the Italian prophet Malachi. Every single, some of y'all don't even know. They're like, really, an Italian prophet? He said, oh, you all want to brag a little bit? And he lays out seven things.

He goes, I can brag about, being ritualistically clean, my race, about being respectable, about my right upbringing, about my religion, about my radical faith, and about my righteousness. I can brag about all of those things. But whatever gain I had, and by the way, gain there is plural in the Greek, I count it as loss singular for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. He says, all these things that I had earned or been given, as compared to knowing Jesus,

they mean nothing to me. They are a loss. Let me just ask you this, man. Do you know him? Not do you go to church. Not have you been becoming a better person because you got into a disciple group and somebody's holding you accountable

and you don't drink as much during the week anymore, and you quit saying so many bad words. You see, morality will keep you out of jail. It will not keep you out of hell. Do you know Jesus? This is what Paul is saying, man. Of all, I mean, Paul's like, you may think I hit home runs,

but I was born on third base. And I count all of that as a loss compared to just the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. And he makes it personal. He doesn't just say the Lord. He says, my Lord, do you know him as your Lord? Not do you just believe all the things that you hear.

God loves you to send his son to die on the cross for you. All that is very true, but you know him as your Lord. Because here's what Paul is saying when he lays out all of these accomplishments. He's saying to follow Christ, we must repent and cherish Jesus above all things. to follow Christ, we must repent and say to know Jesus surpasses everything else this world has to offer. Now, when I say the word repent, you may think of like last time you heard that was a guy with a bullhorn going, repent, you know. Repent, it literally just means to change direction. I was the boss of me.

I was heading the way I wanted to go. And to repent is to change direction and to head towards Jesus. And we have to repent of our wretchedness for sure. but that's not a shock to anybody. Even people that don't believe in Jesus think that you have to repent for doing bad things, however you define bad things. Paul ups the ante.

And by the way, just in case you're new here, I just need you to know, you are not a mistakeer that just needs to try harder. You were a sinner that needs a savior. And if it offends you a little bit for about who do you think you are to call me a sinner? Well, I can recognize one. Me too.

And the more offended you are, the more wretched, black-hearted, selfish, idol-worshipping sinner you are. Trust me on this, man. Anybody want to say, not me, have never sinned? The moment you raise your hand, you're a prideful liar, you're O for two, it's like two of the worst ones you can do, okay? So everybody get, I mean, you can get your head around that one pretty quick. They're like, something's off.

But what Paul is saying here is not only do you have to repent of your, wretchedness, you also got to repent of your resume, all the good things that you've done in your life that you think God's going to give you a wink and really proud of you because you've done these good things in regards to your salvation. That Paul says, I consider that all a loss, man. So not only do we repent of our sin, we repent of the status that we have tried to earn before a holy and righteous God. and then he keeps going

and this will mess you up and you have to repent of your religion and what do you mean? I thought that was the point. In the Garden of Eden God creates Adam and Eve they're in this perfect unhindered relationship God has some rules

man, he has some rules and he's got a bunch of thou shouts and he's got one thou shalt not and he loves him so much he's like look man you can eat of any tree in the garden, this place is great. This is going to be great. We're going to do this thing together.

We're going to co-labor in cultivating this garden. The three of us. That tree, if you eat of it, it'll kill you. So don't do it. There's only one don't. And then the enemy tricks Eve. Adams right there doing nothing. The problem, honestly, man, the problem with manhood

is not that he did wrong, is he did nothing. And so what do Adam and Eve do? run. They run from God. And the first thing they do is they sow fig leaves to try to cover their shame that is the essence of religion. The essence of religion is, forget you, God, by the works of my own hands, I will make a covering for my own sin and shame. You got to repent of that. You see, some people need to be saved from rebellions, sex drugs, and rock and roll, and some people need to be saved of religion, Sunday school and veggie tales. Because the moment you think that your good works have earned a right standing before God,

it is just rooted in your own pride. And Paul says you've got to repent of that. Of course you've got to repent of your wretchedness and your resume and your religion and your self-proclaimed righteousness. You see, here's what's crazy about our activity. Did you know that your deeds, your actions, your actions, could either be an act of worship towards God or a total act of disrespect for who he is

with the very same action. You could write a big, fat check tonight. Biggest gift anybody's ever given to the church. And as God pleased, it depends. It depends. It depends on why you write the check. If you think, you know, you got a little side hustle over here and you know it's super shady and you're going to pay God off. The Bible says not only

is God offended, God says that even your righteous deeds are like filthy rags. And what filthy rags means, it means used menstrual garments. Imagine giving your wife that as a mother's day. Hey, here's International Women's Day. Enjoy. She would be like, nope, not impressed, offended, okay? That's what it's like when we say, God, how impressed are you by my good deeds? And yet the same thing is that you could be responding to God is first, and I want to bring my first and best to him, and you have been so good to me, I just want to live my life declaring you. Here, God, take it all. And that same deed is an act of worship. It just simply comes down to, are you doing it for his approval or from his approval? Listen, man, it's hard to be a Christian. It requires a ton of work to be a Christian. It is

so easy to become one. All you do is receive the free grace of Jesus Christ as a gift. But when you run over by the grace strain to the good news of the grace of God, it changes everything about you. And you know, you know that you don't deserve any of it. You just can't believe that God would love you and choose you and pour his life out for you. That he would come on this earth and call your name and bleed for you and then draw you unto himself and then not just leave you there as a forgiven orphan, but he would adopt you into his family and say, son, daughter, don't you want to come to work with me and building my kingdom? and you can't wait to get up every single day and work for him. But you're not working for your salvation.

That's the difference. See, it's all about knowing Christ, not your resume. Jesus talks about this in Matthew Chapter 7. This should freak some people out. Listen, words of Jesus, man, I'm not making this up. Matthew 721. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Uh-oh.

You realize, There's going to be surprised people on the day of judgment. He says, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, and here's what they're going to do, they're going to roll out their resume. Lord, here's what they're saying. You got it wrong, God. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty

works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers lawlessness. What's the key here? It's not about what they did. He's saying, we didn't have a relationship. I didn't know you. You thought you could work your way here. You didn't need a Savior. You had you. And look at the, anybody, anybody prophesied lately? I'm sure some of you have. God bless you, okay? How about the next one? Anybody cast out a demon? You would think if you're on the exorcism team at church, you're probably going to heaven, wouldn't you think? I've never cast out a demon. I've told you before. The closest ever came is,

I sent a seventh grader home from camp. That's the closest I ever. Then I met the mom, and it was one of those generational demons. That's what I figured out. But it's not root. Your salvation is not rooted in your resume. It's rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Then he says this, for his sake, Paul, back to Philippians,

for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and he had things to lose. I mean, I remember when I got called in the ministry, I was in college. I was a junior in college. and I remember going to my pastor and be like, I'm willing to lay it all down to follow him wherever he tells me to go. And my pastor very lovingly said, you got nothing to lay down. Because I was broke, man. Paul had things to lose.

He had political power. He was part of the Sanhedra. He had social power. He was a Roman citizen. He had religious power. He was a Pharisee. He had financial power. He was loaded.

He had educational power. He studied under Gamaliel. He had family power. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He had a lot to lay down. And he says, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. I told you this a few weeks ago. Me and Pastor Britt and Pastor Adam were in Africa doing a pastor's conference.

We're having this conversation with this African pastor. And he looked at us with pity and said, it must be so hard to be a pastor in America. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's awesome. He's like, God, it must be so hard. I was like, why? He goes, because it must be impossible for somebody to be a Christian in America. I'm like, dude, what are you talking about?

We're here to help you, to train you. We have thousands and thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of Christians just at our church. What are you talking about? And he says this, because it costs you virtually nothing. And the gospel is that you would lose everything for the sake of the gospel. Now, those things may be changing. They may be. There's some things happening right now where it's for the first time in a long time in American history,

costing people something to follow Jesus. And then we'll see. And then I love this. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. The Greek word is scubilon. Say scubilon. If you do a word study on the Greek word scubilon, you will see that it is slubes. slang for animal dung.

Anybody from Palakka? Is that what you call it? How about Jessup? Y'all call it rub? Oh, no, I've got some rubbish on my cowboy boots. You don't get rubbish on your boot, unless you're British or something. What word do you use? A slang term for animal dung.

I can tell you what I use. The first word's bull and the second word's scubilon. That's what I say. It's bull scuba lion, man. And I'm going to tell you, man, the English use of the word BS, we'll just call it, I'm going to say bull crap. And if you don't like the word crap, don't read Philippians. Get out of here. Go back to you somewhere else, okay?

Here's what this means, man. From God's perspective, when we bring our resume to God as if he's going to be impressed, the king of the universe is like, that's bull crap right there. That's what that is. And Paul is saying, I will give it all up to follow Jesus, fame and money and success and influence. So let me ask you, what about you? What about you? Do you think your right behavior is somehow going to earn you righteousness? If so, that's bull scubiline.

That's what it's worth. Now, here's the thing. This is very, very key to understanding this. All of the things that he counts as scubilion are all pre-salvation. the things you do as a follower of Jesus Christ is taking steps of obedience towards him are worship unto his name man but like if when we're singing you lift your hands

because you think he's going to be more impressed he's like well-skeby-law but if you lift your hands because you're just like father I love you and the Bible says lift my hands and that's what I want to do then these are these are acts of worship to a holy and just God so he counts as tough as as rubbish, as dung. There is one 17th century translation that uses the S word.

I'm not going to say it because I don't have time to not read your emails, okay, but that's what it is. And then in one verse, he's going to give us the gospel. In one verse. So he says, 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. When you see Paul use the word righteous,

it does not mean right activity, it means right identity or right standing with God. He's like, you want to get right with God? It isn't about you doing all the right things so that he won't be angry at you anymore. It's an alien righteousness. It's the fact that Jesus Christ came, And when you put, it says through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

This is the essence of the gospel that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, wraps himself in humanity and flesh. He shows up on this planet as a little baby in a manger. He lives an obscure life for 30 years. Just serving his mom and dad, his earthly dad and his earthly mom. And then at just the right time, he goes public. His cousin, John the baptizer, to fulfill the words of Scripture, is out in the Jordan, yelling at everybody. Repent, be baptized, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Then one day Jesus shows up, his cousin, and he says, behold, the Lamb of God who come to take away the sin of the entire world. He gets baptized in the Jordan, the spirit of God descends on him. God the Father speaks out loud, one God in three persons, the triune God. He is there. And then for the next three years, Jesus does the God. not merely teach stories or try to start a new religion. He begins to explain what it means to be in right relationship with God. And what he says is this.

Everything in this Old Testament that all of you children of God have been studying have been pointing to one thing, and the one thing is me. I'm here. I am the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. And he lived a perfect life. He was tempted in every way. that we have an empathetic high priest. You've been betrayed by a friend?

He knows what that feels like. You have people lie about you, he knows what that feels like. Have somebody go old crazy on you with social media? He knows what it's like to be shamed and slandered. You lose a friend, he knows what it feels like. He lives a perfect life. And he is the yes and the amen of every promise of God, the fulfillment of every prophecy of God.

He never sins one time and then he goes to the cross and not only does he die for us, he dies instead of us. He does for us what we could not do for ourselves. He pushes up on those nail-pierced feet and he says these words to Telestai. It is finished or paid in full. And anyone who would believe that when he died on the cross somehow that counted for me, then guess what? you have been made righteous before God. That you have been found in Him, not having a righteousness of your own that comes from doing good, that comes from your resume, that comes from the law. But that which comes through faith, I believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

I wish I had time to just go through Romans 3. man, if you really want to dig in the most, I think the most important paragraph in all of the scriptures, Romans chapter 3, verse 20 to 26, you read that. It gives a full explanation of what Paul gives in one verse here in Philippians. For by works of the law, no one will be declared, justified, or righteous. But we need an alien righteousness. We need someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So God sent his son, Jesus Christ, as the propitiation for our sin, the payment that satisfies. All sin must be paid for because he is holy and just.

And Jesus makes the full payment. And for anybody that would believe you would receive the right to be called a son of God. You see, the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God. And the essence of salvation is God through Jesus Christ substituting himself for man. That's what he is saying. saying.

Verse 10, that I may know him. Do you know him? You see, my greatest fear, that's the pastor of this place, man. It's so big, there's so many people, so many campuses. And we ain't stopping. We ain't stopping, because people need Jesus. So we ain't stopping. But it would terrify me to think that you would show up here week after week after week,

after week, and think that your resume is what you were going to present before God on that day of judgment. and you wouldn't know him. And it would terrify me that you would hear from Jesus. Not everyone that calls Lord Lord will be saved. And you were like, wait, what? But I went to disciple group. It doesn't save you.

Have you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Do you know him? He says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Isn't that what you want? And may share in his sufferings. You're like, wait, what? Becoming like him in his death. we're probably just gone too far.

Yeah, by definition, if you follow Jesus, that's where you're following him. You're following him to the cross. You want to gain life? Then you've got to give up yours. You've got to follow him all the way to the cross. And will you lose? Yeah, you'll lose your life.

But here's the crazy thing. Here's the counterintuitive thing. You'll sacrifice your whole life for Christ. but it's like sacrificing being hungry for a delicious steak. It's like sacrificing being thirsty for a cold glass of water. You're going to sacrifice yourself to be resurrected with your Savior, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and I may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death,

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So what does it take to a tantam? the resurrection of the dead. He's like, by any means possible, there's only one mean possible. And he did it. He's already done it. It's not try harder. It's not work harder. It's not be better. It's the fact that we studied it. Pastor H.B. covered in Philippians chapter two. That Jesus dressed himself in humanity. He came. He lived the perfect life. He submitted himself to his father. He was obedient even under death. And because he lived a sinless, perfect life, he put death to death.

Because the wages of sin is death. He didn't have no sin. So he took the keys to hell and death. And on the third day, he walked out of the grave and he was resurrected. And those of us who died to ourselves and put our faith in him, that just like he has been resurrected to new life, we get to be resurrected with him. And that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. You see, here's a quote by Jack Johnson, not banana. pancakes guy. There's a guy at our church that's named Jack Johnson. I was preaching on this last year

and he texted me and he said this, the only paperwork that matters on the day of judgment is not your resume, but Christ's invitation. The only paperwork that matters on the day of your judgment is not your resume, but Christ's invitation. See, I shared this story with you last year. I don't really have time to go through it fully, but you should Google man on the middle cross by Alistair Begg. Now the first time I told you about this I said Alistair beg, but you hear my accent and a bunch of you emailed me like I didn't know the Jeopardy guy was a Christian, okay, not Alex Trebek, Alistair Begg. It's a Scottish dude. He's awesome. So when you listen to him, it's like Braveheart preaching to you. He's incredible. That's awesome, okay? Because of his

accent, the moment you hear him, you trust him because he sounds so cool. I know when you hear me, you know, it sounds like I'm describing what the tornado sounded like at the trailer part, but Whatever. I want you to go on YouTube and watch this. Alastair Begg, the man on the middle cross. He's doing this, he's doing this conference. And you can tell us a bunch of Presbyterians. Because he's preaching his face off, man.

And there's like a choir behind him, and they're like, it's unbelievable. I mean, you should rejoice in the Lord and tell your face, okay? And so anyway, he says this. He goes, we've got to constantly preach the gospel to ourselves. And if somebody would ask you, if you were standing before the Lord and he said, why should I let you in my heaven?

If you start with first person pronouns, you've already gotten it wrong because I. No, eh, wrong. Because he, because he loved me, because he died from me, because he saved me, because he imputed me with his righteousness, is because of what he did. And then he goes on to say,

I can't wait to meet the man that was on the cross next to Jesus. In case you're new to Bible study, Jesus gets crucified between two thieves. One guy comes. comes to Jesus with his own agenda. If you are, who you say you are, do what I want you to do.

That's how a lot of people come to church, by the way. And there's this other guy, and just in his humility, he's like, I got nothing to offer. But Jesus, can I get a favor? If you've ever prayed to receive Christ as your Savior, that's what you're doing. I need a favor.

Will you do for me something that I don't deserve for you to do for me? Here's the prayer that Jesus answers 100% of the time. When you go before your father in heaven, will you remember me? And Jesus says, truly I tell you, this day, you will be with me in paradise. If anybody in all of the New Testament makes it to heaven, this brother on the cross makes it to heaven. And then Alistair Begg says, can you imagine when he gets there? And I don't know how it works.

Nobody knows how it works. People will make movies about it, but they're making it up. They don't know. There's a reception desk. The guy shows up. I mean, think about it. One minute, he's dying on the cross. And what good works did he ever do?

He would be like, from now on, I promise. From now on what? You ain't doing, you're going to be right here until you're dead. You can't even go to a disciple group. You understand? And he closes his eyes in death. He opens his eyes in glory. And he's standing before heaven.

The reception is like, you got a reservation? I don't know. Well, what are you doing here? I'm not sure. What do you mean you're not sure? Have you surrendered your life? to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? I've never heard those words.

Have you asked Jesus in your heart? Hadn't heard those words. Well, what do you, can you imagine? And so the way Alice Reck tells it is the guy's like, hold on one second, he's like, I got to get a manager, an archangel comes over. He's making this up, but it makes you think about it. So I can ask you a couple of questions? Do you believe in penal substitutionary atonement?

You guys like, what? Never heard of such a thing. Well, then what are you doing here? And the simple response is the man on the middle cross said I could come. That's how you get saved. It's not by your own works, man. It's because the man on the middle cross, Jesus Christ,

said, hey, won't you come with me? And here's what's crazy. For any person that would say, I believe he is who he says he is, I believe he's Lord, and I believe on the third day he was resurrected. I want to confess him as my Lord. I want to say, hey, can I come?

He says, yeah. you turn the reins of your life over to me and you will be with me in paradise forever. You want to come? That's what I did, man, when I was a teenager. And I didn't have Paul's pedigree. Uh-uh. I had a resume.

They called it a rap sheet, but it was, you know. And Jesus called my name, man. He said, you want to come? I said, yeah, I want to come. So what you do is you just admit it. You can't come on your own. You believe when Christ died on the cross. It counted for me.

And you cry out to Him as your Lord, and you will be saved. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? If that's you right now and you want to come with Christ through his life, death, and resurrection. And in this moment right now, you know it's not your good works. It's his finished work on the cross. And right now you want to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Then you lift your hand as high as you can right now and say, here I am. Father, save me. Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father, God, I thank you, and I praise you for salvation. Your salvation. God, I pray that every man, every woman, every student would hear your voice, and they would receive your invitation. They would submit and surrender their life to you.

They would repent of their sin, repent of their righteousness, and their wretchedness, and call you, Lord and Savior, and knowing that you are faithful to save. God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? We're going to sing. We're going to sing.

We're going to rejoice in the Lord. Okay? Because worship is war. You need the Lord to move in your life this week, then you rejoice in him right now amongst your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we're going to bring. And if there's any mode of guilt,

in bringing, just keep it. Just keep it. Because God loves a cheerful giver. But if you have been overwhelmed by the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you just want to live a life of radical generosity because Jesus poured out all of his blood on that cross for you, then you should bring it with a glad heart as an act of worship. And we're going to pray.

And we're going to pray like everything depends on it because it does. So the altars are wide open. sing like save people, and let's bring our first and our best. Let's respond.