How Precious Is Your Joy In The Lord?

As I read our sermon text, remember this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, sufficient word for his people.

Philippians 3, 1 through 11.

Finally, 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 might have confidence in the flesh if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church,

concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless.

But what things were gain 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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

Oh, Lord, I ask that you please fill your people with true joy that can only come from Jesus Christ again today.

And may our rejoicing in the Lord together be our strength as you promise.

Amen.

Amen.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

And as Luke 137 says, no word from God shall be void of power.

May it be so through the ministry of his word.

Well, like it or not, we live in the United States of America.

Whose declaration of independence includes the phrase, the pursuit of happiness.

Maybe this American ideal has never been.

So bluntly put forward as Henry Ford himself did.

There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

According to Henry Ford, the pursuit of happiness is to go after whatever your heart desires.

Well, the problem is our hearts are twisted and fallen and dark.

And happiness in this understanding is found in grabbing something in this realm of creation for myself.

Therefore, happiness is dependent upon circumstances.

And Henry Ford pointed out what I think most Americans, maybe maybe all Westerners think.

That if I work hard, I can control my happiness.

It becomes this vicious cycle, doesn't it?

Well, if I'm not happy, maybe I just need to work harder and accomplish something that will then make me finally happy.

The Bible reveals something very different about joy.

Biblical joy is so much deeper and it cannot be shaken.

True joy can't be manufactured, manipulated or controlled by fallen man.

It's not a commodity to be bought or sold.

I was curious, what would Noah Webster's old dictionary say about joy and rejoicing?

1828 defines joy this way.

Joy is when your soul feels deep, contented delight because you possess and appreciate something desirable, pleasant and good.

Let me put that the same words in reverse order.

If you possess, truly have something that is good, pleasant and desirable and you appreciate it, then you experience in your soul an emotion of deep, contented delight.

That's joy.

And rejoicing is to experience that.

And this is different than worldly happiness because this is an inward treasure.

It's a treasure.

It's a treasure that I possess in my soul that can't be taken away from me when my circumstances change.

Joy is the big message of the Bible.

True joy.

The most clear part of Jesus' teachings as they build up in all of the Gospels.

We get these insights in John chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17.

John 14 · chapter mention

And he pulls his disciples close and he reveals the joy of heaven to them.

And Jesus said in John 15, 11,

See, it's the joy of Christ himself that he wants to fill the soul of a Christian.

And that's our theme for today's sermon.

Verse one, Paul says it.

Brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

I say this again and again to you.

Rejoice.

So, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to reflect, take stock.

How precious is your joy in the Lord?

How precious is your joy in the Lord?

In our sermon text, I've divided it into six encouragements for us of this precious joy we have in the Lord.

And the first is this, that you must be reminded to rejoice in the Lord and to protect this precious joy.

You and I need to be reminded to rejoice in the Lord and also to protect it.

Your joy in the Lord needs to be protected.

And that's a big reason why we gather in his name week after week.

It's to encourage and exhort and admonish and remind one another, rejoice in the Lord.

No matter what else is hard in life, rejoice in the Lord.

This is his day.

Look at verse one.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

Experience the joy of Jesus himself.

For me to write the same things to you, Paul says, is not tedious, but for you it is safe.

In other words, Paul's saying, I don't mind repeating this over and over to you.

You need the reminder.

Plus, this joy of Christ is what I'm bearing witness to.

It's real.

It just bubbles up from my own soul.

When I think of the church in Philippi and I think of Christ and his work in his kingdom, I want to tell you about this deep joy.

And I want you to experience it.

That's what rejoice means.

Experience this joy.

And he says, for you, it's safe.

Or other translations, for you, it's a safeguard.

In other words, it needs to be protected.

His very next words are, beware.

And he repeats it three times.

Your joy will be under attack.

It will be threatened.

So you need to be reminded to rejoice in the Lord and to protect this precious joy.

Now, let me clarify it.

In verse one, when he says, finally.

One thing you can appreciate about your translation is that it's doing its best to be word for word, but it's still understandable in English.

Now, that word finally might be a bit wooden of a translation, though it's accurate.

But that same word in the original is used just as frequently to emphasize how the writer is now setting up a transition or drawing a conclusion to the arguments this far.

To refresh your memory, it's been a few weeks.

He said to them, rejoice, because the gift that you sent to me through Epaphroditus was received.

And his service to me was a blessing.

And I took his service as a gift from all of you serving me.

Rejoice as I rejoice in you.

He says, rejoice, church.

Soon you will have my fellow soldier back in your ranks serving alongside with you.

Rejoice, he's coming back.

And rejoice, because soon you'll be reading this very letter that I'm writing to you.

Paul says, I know I'm repeating myself.

In fact, he uses this command, rejoice, 14 times in the four chapters of this little letter.

I think Paul understood what we often forget.

Rejoicing is an important part of our Christian armory in the defense against the attacks of the enemy.

This life will put Christians at war with sin, Satan, worldliness and wolves.

And a big part of how we are equipped and strengthened in the battle is the joy of the Lord.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

And your joy in the Lord is worth fighting for.

So you see how in verse one, it's a command to rejoice, but don't relax.

The two go together.

It's a militant joy.

Right now, we're the church militant.

One day we'll be the church triumphant.

But right now we're militant.

In these past weeks, we sing that beautiful Advent hymn, Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel.

Remember that one?

Repeats rejoice twice.

The first time in a major key.

Rejoice.

The second time in a minor key.

Rejoice.

So it's joyful, but it's militant.

There's war.

But Emmanuel, God is with us, his church.

So we must be reminded to rejoice in the Lord and to protect this precious joy.

The second encouragement is this.

As with anything precious.

Raiders will try to rob your joy in the Lord.

Your joy in the Lord is precious.

It's the treasure inside of you.

Well, you know, the tomb raiders that would try to break into the pyramids to steal the ancient gold, silver and jewelry.

Because it's precious.

Because it's precious.

They're going to try to get in and take it away.

So his very next words are that your precious joy needs to be protected.

It will be attacked.

In verse one, he says, you're rejoicing needs to be safeguarded.

In verse two, he says, beware three times.

And he uses three very strong words.

These are threats to your joy in the Lord.

Beware of dogs.

Beware of evil workers.

Beware of the mutilation.

What did this mean?

Why these words?

What do they have to do with the joy of the church in Philippi?

We really have to read verses three and four to see how Paul continues building his argument to refute these threats.

The basis of the threat to a Christian's precious joy can be summarized this.

You will lose your joy if you start to put confidence in your own flesh.

That's what he says in verses three and four.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else thinks he might have confidence in the flesh, I mourn.

So do you see all three of these words tell us something about the threat to this church in Philippi,

tempting these Christians to put confidence in their own flesh or to feel insecure because their flesh isn't enough.

Dogs, workers of evil, the mutilation.

I love Dennis Johnson's comment that Paul paints the self-righteous Jewish legalists with the dark, unsavory hues of paganism.

He turns the table on him.

And these three words actually have a alliteration in the original language in the Greek.

The first is dogs.

The Greek word is kunas.

It's where we get the word canine.

Kunas.

Kakaos ergatas.

That's evildoers.

And katatome.

They all start with the letter K.

The mutilation.

Scholars have boiled these down into three categories.

And it's almost like it's almost like Paul has just seen this pattern.

God brings the gospel to a church.

Gentiles and all kinds of people are believing.

They're gathered together.

The spirit's ministering.

But then here comes Satan dressed as an angel of light, twisting them, trying to bind them now to put confidence back in the flesh again.

And it's almost like he's got a shorthand for that pattern.

And it's these three Greek words.

He just rattles them off under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

What is the meaning here?

The dogs are those who rob a Christian's joy by putting confidence in pedigree.

So the three Ps that we can use to help us understand are pedigree, performance, and purity.

So the dogs, it's pedigree.

He says these legalists are the true dogs.

And this is a reference to Gentiles who would be considered dirty animals and scavengers in the land.

This would be a disgusting animal that lives in the alleys and eats trash.

Even in Matthew 15, 24, Jesus used this common phrase of outsiders to the covenant people of God as Gentile dogs.

When that demon possessed, a girl's mom came to ask him and she wasn't a Jew.

And then, of course, Jesus in compassion saves her daughter.

And they believe in him by grace to turn the tables.

And Paul is following Christ's own pattern here.

In the ancient world, most dogs were not pets, but were street mongrels scavenging scraps from stinking garbage heaps.

Disgusting and defiling carpaces were what they would eat for their snacks.

In Exodus 22, 31, listen to this.

It's most likely where this became their phrase.

Exodus 22, 31, God says, you shall be consecrated to me, O Israelite people.

Therefore, you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by the beasts of the field.

These decaying carcasses don't eat roadkill.

Don't do that.

Instead, throw it to the dogs.

See, you people of Israel are clean and consecrated.

Throw the trash to the dogs.

The legalists, following the ministry of the gospel, they wanted to bind Christians to a certain diet, condemning anyone who would not eat kosher food.

And Paul portrayed them as being the ones that are feasting on poisonous food like disease infected tramps.

See how I turned the table on them?

You're trying to say you have to be kosher, have this Jewish diet to be in the people of God.

No, to bind God's true people that way is to be a dog yourself.

Their pedigree is not based on a Jewish ceremonial law.

It's not that at all.

And he's going to explain what the true identity is.

So Christians, beware of dogs.

Who would try to say, based on what you put into your mouth, you're the mutt.

Beware of that.

Number two is the evil workers.

Those are the false teachers who would try to rob the Christian's joy in Jesus by putting confidence in your own performance.

Those who place their confidence of acceptance by God in detailed, obedient keeping of the ritual, ceremonial and ethical demands of the old covenant and the Jewish tradition.

See, they're saying you have to do all these works according to the old covenant laws for the people of God in the land.

And Paul says by telling people that you are the ones, instead of doing good and performing your way to God's pleasure, you are the evil workers.

He turns the table on them in just the same way.

And the third one is the mutilation.

These are the ones who rob a Christian's joy in Jesus by putting confidence in external consecration or external purity.

These Judaizers that followed around the ministry of the gospel by trying to bind the conscience of Christians beyond what Christ intended.

They taught that if you lack this external sign of circumcision, then you are not welcome in God's presence.

And Paul turns the table on them by calling these outward Jews only pagan idol worshipers by calling them the mutilation.

That's exactly what he's alluding to.

Paul selected the very same word that the Greek Old Testament uses of those self-mutilating prophets of Baal.

Do you remember that story in 1 Kings 1828?

How the prophets of Baal come before this altar that's set up as a big, great contest and they cry aloud and they cut themselves.

They self-mutilate after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gashed out upon them.

What's more is that if a priest in the Old Testament had suffered some kind of mutilation, you know, maybe a rope got tangled around the pinky and it snapped the pinky off.

Now that priest was no longer allowed in the presence of the Holy God.

They'd had a mutilation and they were not consecrated, no longer able to be servants in the temple.

So by calling these these legalists that were putting all the confidence in this external sign of circumcision, he calls them now the ones who are not welcome in God's presence.

Because God is not looking for an outward external circumcision.

As with anything precious, raiders will try to rob you in me, just like the church in Philippi of our joy in the Lord.

Number three.

So what do we do?

We must refute the threats to our joy in the Lord.

You and I must refute.

We must fight against, push back these threats to our joy in the Lord.

Johnson again commented how the religious recipe in which Paul had been raised.

It was a formula that blended God's initial grace with a person's own best efforts in order to yield divine approval at the final judgment.

So Paul was raised in that Jewish Hebrew tradition.

God initiates you in this walk of faith and then your own best efforts at all this law keeping are what will finally give you a standing before God.

And he'll say you're approved because you did your best at the final judgment.

That's what Paul was brought up on.

I'm afraid many of us were brought up on something similar, a version of that.

And so we must refute threats like that because there will be no joy in Christ if you're living in that kind of false religious formula.

And how does Paul refute it?

Well, first of all, he's establishing his own credibility as one who can say, been there, tried that.

It doesn't work.

And he's going to bring the gospel instead.

So here's Paul establishing his credibility.

Remember those three P's, the pedigree, performance and purity.

Watch how Paul shows how he can speak to any one of those better than any of these other Judaizers.

Regarding the confidence in pedigree, Paul says in verse five, I was circumcised the eighth day.

I got that external sign and I'm of the stock of Israel.

Not only do I have the external sign, I got the internal genes.

I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.

Well, Benjamin was the favorite of Israel's sons and the only one born in the promised land,

according to Genesis 35, 16 through 18.

You remember who else was from Benjamin?

It was the first king of Israel.

Do you remember what his name was?

Saul.

See God's wonderful providence?

Saul in the New Testament, who God renames Paul,

was named after Saul, the great king from the tribe of Benjamin,

who was pleasing to men, but not to God.

Remember who Saul persecuted?

David, the type of Christ, the king after God's own heart,

just as Saul persecuted the church.

And Jesus said, you're persecuting me.

Isn't God's providence amazing?

He says in verse five, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

In other words, I wasn't a mixed breed mutt.

My parents, they raised me going to Hebrew school.

And Paul says that the Jews who follow Jesus,

if you say you follow Jesus,

you have no right to treat another follower of Jesus as second class.

That's not the gospel.

You're the real dog if that's what you do.

Brief point of application.

No one should look down on a fellow Christian based on what denomination they go to, for example.

Don't we so quickly get proud and puffed up?

If someone loves Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,

and they're growing as a disciple where God has put them,

we should praise the Lord, and we should encourage them in the faith.

There's no room for pride.

There's no room for denominationalism in that proud sense.

We don't compromise on our convictions of the Bible,

but man, we better do it with a gospel tone, right?

Number two, here's Paul's credibility for having confidence in his own performance.

Verse five, he said,

Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee.

I'm the best of the law keepers.

I wasn't like those liberal Sadducees.

I actually believe in the resurrection of the dead.

I believe what the Bible taught.

If you remember, Saul was discipled by Gamaliel,

and we read in Acts 5, 34 through 39,

that Paul's mentor was able to persuade the entire Sanhedrin.

This would be like standing up in the middle of Congress,

where you've got House of Representatives and Senators all together,

and you're able to persuade the whole nation.

That was Paul's mentor.

So you want to talk about performance?

Paul's got that.

In verse six, he says,

Concerning zeal, I was persecuting the church.

I was trying to wipe out the Jesus sect.

Well, if you and I rely on works,

or our own performance,

or things that we think we have done for God,

Paul does not mince words.

He says,

All those things you thought you were doing as a good work,

you were a worker of evil.

One example recently would be like,

Oh, you know, your church didn't do this toy drive,

or, well, I mean, our church not only did a toy drive,

we also brought Santa into the church

so that people could take their pictures with him.

Jesus says,

You're a worker of evil.

Did I tell you to do that?

You're trying to pile on all these burdens on God's people.

That's not what you're called to.

And what about confidence and purity?

Paul says in verse 6,

Concerning the righteousness which is in the law,

blameless.

The Torah, the five books of the law,

and the first five that Moses wrote,

they include, according to the rabbis who have studied them,

613 laws in the Torah itself.

But Paul says,

Not only did I keep all of those,

I also kept all of the traditions of the rabbis.

That's called the Mishnah.

And if you read reports of those who were grown up,

even today,

in that type of legalistic faith,

they will say things like this.

You're not allowed to walk more than six feet

once you wake up in the morning,

until you wash your hands with water

that you had prepared

and left by your bedside the night before.

You must wait six hours after eating chicken

before you can eat any dairy product.

You're not allowed to light a lamp.

You're not even allowed to ask your non-Jewish friend

that's in the same room to light the lamp

or turn on the light for you.

But instead you have to hint at it.

Isn't it a little dark in here?

And see if they'll pick up on your hint

and turn it on for you if it's the Sabbath

so that you're not breaking the Sabbath commandment.

You can't even rip toilet paper on Shabbat or the Sabbath.

And you have to go to sleep on your left side

and then wake up on your right side.

And if you hear the references,

where is this from?

It's not from God's inspired word.

It's from, they'll refer to rabbis

who are then scholars of rabbis.

They'll say things like it's from Shabbat

based on the Rambam.

And so you really have to understand

all the teachings of the law keepers

in order to be able to say like Paul

concerning the righteousness

which is in the law, blameless.

You can almost hear his tone.

I hate the law.

I did it all.

I tried it.

You don't want to know the true God of the Bible.

You want to keep loving an idol that you call Jesus,

which is piling on wickedness

because now you're blasphemy.

You're calling this idol in your own mind, Jesus.

But you don't really want to know

the true God of the Bible.

And yet you condemn someone who loves the Lord Jesus.

It says, have mercy on me.

And who's a chain smoker for smoking?

You know, they're not pure.

Well, do they love the Lord Jesus?

Paul says everything else is evil works.

They're the mutilation.

If you think it's your lifestyle

that gives you access to the Holy God,

you're a mutilator.

You are unfit to be in the presence of the Holy God.

Well, you and I, like Paul,

even though our context is different,

we need to refute those subtle ways

that the gospel will be undermined

and our joy in the Lord will be robbed.

The way we do that is number four.

It's we rehearse our grounds

for rejoicing in the Lord.

That's what Paul does really

with the rest of this passage.

He rehearses with the Philippian church,

third person plural,

we together, Paul and the church.

Here's our grounds for rejoicing in the Lord.

Who is it that truly belongs to God's kingdom?

Who is his covenant people?

And Paul says in verse three,

we are the circumcision.

The Jew of Jews saying,

I am one with you, Philippians.

You know, it only took 10 men

to form a synagogue,

a place where you could read the word of God.

And historians have found no evidence

that there was ever a synagogue

in the city of Philippi.

It was a very Gentile city

in a very Gentile church.

And here's the Jew of Jews

after laying out all of his credentials,

his resume,

so the Judaizers can't get a foothold.

He says, I'm with the Gentile church.

I'm with these believers

who love the Lord Jesus, nothing else.

He identifies with them

just as Christ identified with his people

while they were still his enemies.

And he tells them, church, rejoice.

We are the circumcision.

We are the covenant people of God.

Rejoice because to the church believers

from all nations,

to us belong the fullest flowering

of all of God's promises.

You know these.

Let me remind you of a couple.

Isaiah 53, 5.

You're condemned people of God.

You're banished away because you're sin.

You lost the land.

But the punishment,

the chastisement that you deserve

that will bring you peace

and restore you to God,

it will be laid not on you

but on the coming Messiah.

Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34,

Jeremiah 31:31–34

there will be a new covenant

cut between God and man

in which God will remember

the sins of his people no more.

Now the revelation we get

through Jesus Christ

and the Holy Spirit breathing out

the New Testament

is that this has happened.

Colossians 2, 11.

In him, Jesus Christ,

you also were circumcised

with the circumcision made without hands

by putting off the body

of the sins of the flesh

by the circumcision of Christ.

Christ's death on the cross

was his circumcision.

He was cut off

so that you could be grafted in.

He was punished

so that you could be blessed.

Paul says in Romans 2, 29,

a Jew is one inwardly.

Circumcision is a matter of the heart

by the Spirit,

not in the law.

Because Jesus was cut off,

he was crucified.

Now the Holy Spirit

applies his circumcision,

his death on the cross for sin,

he applies that now

to your heart and mind

through regeneration.

He melts your heart of stone.

He gives you the circumcision

of the heart

that's inward wrought in us

by the Holy Spirit.

So you can rejoice

because now you can

approach God

in Jesus Christ.

In verse 3,

Paul says,

you now worship God

in the Spirit.

Church, we too can rejoice.

We are in the unprecedented era

that Ezekiel prophesied

in chapter 37,

verses 26 through 28.

We are now God's nation

that is marked by

a central blessing

that God dwells eternally

in the midst of his people

in an everlasting covenant.

This is what we get

to be part of

by belonging to him

in his church.

So the question was,

if you're not to put

your confidence

in your own flesh,

what do you put

your confidence in?

And he answers that

very clearly in verse 3.

He says three things.

Here's where true confidence

that you belong to God

is found.

Number one,

you worship God

in the Spirit.

Number two,

you rejoice

in Christ Jesus.

Number three,

you put no confidence

in your flesh.

When we get to approach

the Holy God

through the work

of Jesus Christ,

we are experiencing,

we are rejoicing,

we are taking

what he has purchased

for us

with his own blood.

Worship is a privilege

and a right we have

by belonging to him

that he purchased

at such a high cost.

There's no way

that sinners like us

could be with the Holy God

except for Jesus Christ

who came to satisfy

all righteousness

and to make a way

for sinners like us

freely

to be in the presence

of God.

When we're in his presence,

you stirred up

to rejoice.

that's the Holy Spirit

applying to us

the joy of Christ.

Zephaniah 317 says

that the Lord God

is in your midst,

a mighty one

who will save you

and he will rejoice

over you

with gladness.

It's Jesus rejoicing

over us

with gladness

and that

stirs up

and pulls out of us

a rejoicing

in response to him.

So the true

identifying mark

of the covenant

people of God,

those who truly

belong to him,

is that you worship

the triune God.

Ephesians 218,

it's through Jesus Christ

that we have access

by one spirit

to the Father.

We must rehearse

our grounds

for rejoicing

in the Lord.

The reality is that

as much as we rehearse

this and we keep

coming together

and reminding one another,

we're always under attack.

We are in a battle.

So my fifth encouragement

for us is that

when we do have

those waves of doubt,

those spiritual doubts,

we need to follow

Paul's example,

look back on our own lives,

take stock,

and we calculate

what is most precious.

Because if we're honest,

we'll be reminding ourselves

that there is only

one precious treasure

and it's deep inside my soul

where no one can steal it.

So we battle

our spiritual doubts

by calculating

what is most precious

in your life.

Paul says,

Church,

don't let these false teachers

lead you in the wrong way.

Take my own example.

I've laid out

my credentials for you.

Don't fall into that

poisonous religious recipe.

Don't do it.

Because if you do,

it'll push you

in two directions.

you will either live

with nervous uncertainty

that you're not pure enough,

you have not performed enough,

you have not done enough,

and you'll never have

an assurance of faith.

Or,

you will be proud

and puffed up

and overconfident

in your own flesh,

in your own self.

That ambitious overconfidence

in what you'll be doing

is burdening other believers.

So don't follow that path.

Either way,

you will come up

disappointed

and hurting

the very one

who saved you.

In verse 7,

Paul says,

what things were gain

to me.

So Paul looks back

at his resume

and he said,

I used to think

that was a star

and this was a star

and all these things

made me shine.

But now I look back

and what I thought

was gain,

I had rested

my confidence

of those things.

Now I have counted

them loss

for Christ.

In the light

of the gospel,

he now finds

all those

personal achievements

repellent

and defiling

before the face

of God.

In verse 8,

he says,

indeed,

I also count

all things

loss.

loss.

The word loss

that he's using

really means damage.

What I thought

was helping

was doing damage.

He's using

banking terms.

See,

in verse 7,

he says,

what I thought

was gain to me,

I thought that

was a profit.

He says,

it was actually

counted loss.

You know,

this is true.

You get a credit

card.

You'll never

grow in your wealth

if you keep

plunging yourself

further and

further into debt.

You can never

enjoy a rich

spiritual life

if you keep

digging yourself

deeper and deeper

into a self-righteous

hole.

Paul tells

his testimony

in verse 8,

for the excellence

of the knowledge

of Christ

Jesus,

my Lord.

Everything else

pales in comparison.

This is the only

time

in the New Testament

when Paul

refers to Jesus

as my

Lord,

my God.

His testimony,

we get in the letter

to 1 Timothy 1,

1 Timothy 1:13–16

verses 13 through 16.

Paul wrote,

though formerly

I was a blasphemer,

persecutor,

and insolent opponent,

but the grace

of the Lord

overflowed

for me

with the faith

and love

that are in Christ

Jesus.

In Christ,

Jesus came into

the world

to save sinners

of whom

I am the foremost.

Why?

That in me,

Jesus Christ

might display

his perfect patience

as an example

to you

who now believe

in him

for eternal life.

In verse 8,

he says,

yes,

I've suffered

the loss

of all things

for Christ.

Paul had forfeited

his reputation,

his self-respect,

his standing

in the community,

his personal safety,

and more,

but he says,

I gained Christ.

I'm found in Christ

and I know him.

He bears witness

to the same thing

that James does

in James 1,

2,

and 3.

He says,

consider it

pure joy,

my brethren,

whenever you face

trials of many kinds

because you know

that the testing

of your faith

produces perseverance.

When you suffer

for Christ's name,

consider it joy.

James says,

no,

consider it pure joy

to suffer for Christ.

Paul says,

all of those things

that I thought

were adding my value,

this is like revenue,

profit on my account.

That was a massive debt

and I had to declare bankruptcy

before the Holy God.

those things

were damaging

my standing before God.

In verse 8,

he says,

I count them

as rubbish,

refuse,

which is rotting food,

or dung.

Children,

dung is what we flush.

That's why he says,

compared to Christ,

it's garbage.

It's worse than worthless.

If you're like me,

this is searching

because my flesh

so often wants

to go there again.

Am I doing enough?

Am I going to be,

you know,

show up before the Lord

and he's going to look

at my life?

Will he be pleased

with my performance?

And then I'm exposed

to his law

and I'm just laid low

once again.

And if the Holy Spirit

is breaking up

the hard soil

in your heart

and in mine,

we will want to weep.

I'm so encouraged

by the passage

we read earlier.

Justin read for us

Nehemiah 8

in verses 9 and 10.

After they had read

the law of God

and the people weep

and mourn

over their sin,

the Leap Knights

taught the people

and the people

all wept

as they heard

the words of the law.

But then God

said to them,

and God says this

to us now

after you've repented,

do not mourn

or weep.

This is the holy day

of the Lord your God.

Do not be grieved

for the joy

of the Lord

is your strength.

You see how quick

God is,

how ready he is

to forgive us

and to restore us.

And we rest

in Jesus Christ

and we say,

this is my only gain,

my only treasure.

This is the precious possession.

I have Christ.

I know him.

I'm right before God

because it's his righteousness

covering me.

There's an infinitely

more valuable treasure

than anything

this world can offer

and it's to have communion

with God

through Jesus Christ,

to have the spirit

of the holy God

dwelling in your soul,

the place where no robber

can break in and steal,

where moths and rust

can't destroy.

He is your treasure.

So Paul says,

I count it all.

An easy loss.

No brainer

because I got Christ.

There was a missionary

who moved to Ecuador

and into the jungles

of Ecuador

to take the gospel

to an unreached

people group there.

And he died.

He was speared to death.

His name was Jim Elliot

along with others

on his team.

But his wife

kept his story

and Jim Elliot's testimony

even dying

at a very young age

was this.

He is no fool

who gives

what he cannot keep

to gain

what he cannot lose.

So we need to battle

our spiritual doubts,

calculate what is most precious

in this life truly.

And the sixth point is this,

that when you meet your maker,

make sure

you'll be able

to rejoice.

grace.

We will all meet our maker.

Your soul will meet him

the moment you die.

And in the fullness of time

when Christ returns,

there will be a great resurrection.

Saved and unsaved

will be resurrected

and stand before

the creator

of all.

My encouragement

to you who God

has brought here today

once again

is make sure

you will be able

to rejoice

that day.

How?

That's what Paul tells us

in verses 9 through 11.

See heaven

where our souls go

and the new heavens

and the earth

where the glory of God

fills the earth

as the waters

cover the sea.

It's a place

where the angels

are rejoicing

in his presence,

delighting in him,

where the souls

of those he saved

are singing before him.

That's why C.S. Lewis

I think rightly said

joy is the serious

business of heaven.

Make sure you'll be able

to rejoice as well.

On what basis

can you know this?

When you have to give

an account to your God,

what will he accept?

According to verse 9,

your only hope

of rejoicing in heaven

when you meet your maker

is to be found

in him.

to be found

in Christ's righteousness

not your own merits,

but in him.

The holy life

of Jesus Christ

roping,

covering you

completely

so that that's all

the holy God can see

is Christ

clothing you.

Paul writes

in verse 9,

not having

my own righteousness

which is from the law,

from things

I must do.

Whatever brings

you glory

in this life,

it's really like

a big bag of sand

tied to your ankle

pulling you deeper

and deeper

into the ocean.

If it brings you glory,

it's pulling you

toward hell.

You don't want

anything

of your righteousness.

You want

the righteousness

of Christ,

that which

he freely

put onto you,

the only way

he gives it.

He says also

in verse 9,

you get this

righteousness

that is Christ

through faith

in him.

Not by works,

but by receiving

freely.

As Calvin said,

faith is the

poor beggar's hand.

It's the instrument

that God puts

the blessings

of Christ

and makes him

your savior.

You bring nothing

to the equation.

The uncompromised

only criteria

that the holy God

will accept

is the righteousness

which is

from God

by faith.

It's faith alone,

not faith

plus anything else.

And when you

behold God

in Jesus Christ

by faith,

God promises

verse 10

that you will

know him.

You will have

such close union

that he is

already sharing

with you

now in this life

the power

of the resurrection.

It says,

Holy Spirit

making you

a new creation

already,

killing sin in you,

growing your love

for God,

causing you

to rejoice.

You see how

suffering prepares

you to rejoice

in heaven.

The more closely

you and I

identify with Christ

right now

in his suffering,

in his death

on the cross

to save us,

the more he

strips our souls

away of our own

flesh and our

remaining sin.

It's suffering

that he uses

to sanctify

and prepare us

to rejoice

in his presence.

In verse 10,

Paul calls this

the fellowship

of Christ's

suffering.

We are

fellowshipping,

we are partners,

we are communing

with Jesus Christ

when we suffer

in Christ,

which God uses

to make you

more and more

conformed

to his death.

Not alive to

yourself and your

flesh,

but conformed

to the death

of Christ.

He died for you,

now he lives

in you.

You share

in his death

on the cross,

you belong to him,

and you will

share in his

resurrection.

Fellowship

with our

Lord Jesus Christ,

especially in

suffering,

is the way

that God

purifies you

and it's the way

that he grows

your assurance.

God proves

himself over

and over

and over

because in

that suffering

you are not

alone,

the Lord Jesus

was with you

through it.

And that's

the confidence

we need to

know that when

I meet my

maker,

I will be

able to

rejoice.

That's what

it means to

attain the

resurrection

from the

dead with

rejoicing.

Well,

Henry Ford

had said

from the

perspective

of proud

fallen man

under the

curse of

a covenant

of works,

this lie,

there is no

happiness except

in the

realization

that we

have accomplished

something.

You see how

Paul just

totally destroyed

that statement.

the truth

of the

gospel is

this,

that there

is no

joy except

in communion

with the

triune God

because Jesus

Christ has

accomplished

everything for

those who

love him.

Make sure

you love

the Lord

Jesus Christ

and you

commune with

him again

today.

Remember

Jesus'

words in

John 16

22,

you have

sorrow now,

but I

will see you

again.

Your hearts

will rejoice

and no one

will take

your joy

from you.

When you

meet your

maker,

make sure

you'll be

able to

rejoice.

Let's

pray.

Amen.