Knowing Christ: Moving From Rules to Relationship

It's great to be here.

Yeah.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

I am delighted to be here.

What a great opportunity to worship with you this morning.

What a gift to have a guy like Patrick putting together the songs.

These are beautiful songs.

They're such rich theology, rich things to know about who God is and the saving work of Jesus Christ.

What a great honor.

When Scott Holst asked me to be here, I was honored that he asked.

I must say I was pretty intimidated.

I sat a lot of time where you're sitting now and received some of the great teaching ministry.

But what a joy to be with you here.

This ministry has blessed me and my family for many years.

And we've benefited from the teaching, from the people, from the community here.

There are a number of us from the youth group back in the 90s who still bump into each other.

And we enjoy reminiscing and talking about some creatively good times that we had.

And we also really reflect on how God has used this ministry to encourage our faith.

One little story: a classmate of mine, Angie Wood, she was Angie Harmeson when she was back here.

Her and her husband Harry go to Bethel Church, where we are now, and are in our small group.

But Angie and I were in the eighth grade and we were in the Bible instruction course with Pastor Mike Montgomery.

And as middle school students are prone to do, I apparently we were getting squirrely, and uh Mike had had enough, and he said, All right, the next people that talk out of turn in the class, they're out of here for tonight.

And um I being a rule follower clammed up very quickly.

Um but Angie leaned over to me just a little bit later and said something, and Mike saw her, and he assumed that I was engaging in the conversation, and we were both sitting out in the hall, the next thing we knew.

Now, uh if Angie were here, I'm not sure she'd have the same version of the story, um, but it's a good memory for me, and I like to blame her, and I've told her that uh uh since.

Uh guys, since being here at Faith, uh, we've served in a number of churches, uh, most recently for the last six years at Bethel Church in Fargo.

My wife's name is Christy.

She's a wonderful lady who serves very faithfully in many ways, including our adult choir, our kids' choir.

She's the leader of our children's choir at Bethel, and she serves also on the praise team with me.

We have three kids.

Uh, Connor and Carson are twin boys, and they're finishing the fifth grade.

They love sports, they tolerate music.

And our uh daughter, Kaylyn, is in the third grade, and she'll um be finishing that up.

They're awesome kids.

I know I'm biased, but I'm gonna say it.

They're really special.

Uh this morning we're gonna be spending some time in the book of Philippians, chapter 3, verses 1 through 11.

Philippians 3:1–11

But before we do that, may I pray uh with us.

Father, thank you for the time to be together in this beautiful place this morning.

This is the bride of Christ that has been a part of your work in this region uh for many, many years now.

This is the group that has ministered to my family and me personally in such special ways.

Lord, we acknowledge your need, our need for your perspective this morning.

There are times when we're anxious, there are times when we don't know the future.

And Lord, if we're honest, we start to worry.

Thank you for these words that have been carried along by the Holy Spirit through the pen of the Apostle Paul.

And this morning, as we study your word together, would you fill us with the Spirit in such a way that our eyes would be open to the truth of who you are?

Lord, thank you that uh, though you've given me the great privilege and responsibility to teach your word this morning, it's the work of the Spirit.

It's the work of the Spirit that will truly illuminate your words in our hearts.

So, Holy Spirit, have your way as we read, as we study, as we learn, teach us and help us to leave here changed as a result.

Amen.

Well, today I want to make the case that in order to know Christ in the way that's been made available to us through his word, we as Christians must remember the core of our faith.

And in this passage, Paul outlines the core of our faith here in a really special way.

As we've already heard from the text, Paul gives a strong word of warning against about watching out for those who would distract us from that core.

It's a safeguard we see in verse one for the church, what he says.

And we're gonna unpack that this morning, but before we do, I want to share just a little bit of my story.

I was born in a Christian home.

Very grateful for that.

And not only that, I was born into a family that attended an e-free church led by a Dallas Seminary graduate.

It's a great church, great place to be.

We had great Bible teaching.

I went to a Christian school.

I never got in trouble.

I earned perfect grades.

I was a pretty good athlete.

I found some success in music.

I didn't do sex, I didn't do smoking, I didn't do booze, I didn't hang out with anybody who did.

Okay.

By all accounts, I was a good Christian kid and who tended to do the right thing, at least when people were watching.

Here's the thing you may not have known about me in those days.

I felt really secure in what I knew about God.

Sometimes I was even a little arrogant.

I knew more Bible stories than most.

I had more passages of scripture memorized.

I could answer questions in Sunday school.

I was proud of my accomplishments, and I liked it that the teachers in school said nice things about me.

I felt secure in thinking that though my sins were real, the sins of others were probably more and worse.

And that gave me a false sense of security.

You might say that I was a really skilled sin manager.

Okay?

That was a big part of my DNA.

I looked the part of a good Christian kid and I liked it.

And more than that, I like the accolades.

I like the rewards.

I really enjoyed getting an attaboy from whomever would offer it.

I think you could say I was a pathological people pleaser.

That was kind of my who I was, and who I still struggle with, if I'm honest.

It was under these conditions that I was finishing my sophomore year of high school, and a Christian girl at school took a little bit of an interest uh in me, and I thought, hey, that's natural.

She's a Christian, I'm a good guy, let's uh let's get together.

And so we started dating.

And it wasn't long after we started that she abruptly broke up with me.

And that was the first time in my life where that people pleaser bubble that I had sort of been living in really got popped.

Uh she didn't like me anymore, and I was devastated.

I had uh left all my friends to go hang out with hers.

She hung out with a different crowd, and that left me alone for the summer.

And so a guy that had relished in being around people and relished in, you know, other people's approval.

There's nobody around.

And I remember sitting at home thinking, uh, this is not what I think it should be, and it hurts.

Um fortunately, God had something better, and I'll share more on that later.

But Paul, here in this passage, is writing to the Philippians to encourage them in light of his imprisonment.

Paul is in a Roman prison.

Actually, he's under house arrest in Rome, and he was the founder, the shepherd, the teacher that everyone in Philippi looked to.

And everyone in the church knew that being in a Roman prison was not a good thing.

It was bad news.

The Romans were brutal and unpredictable.

And the reality that Paul could die at the hands of the Romans was no doubt on the minds of everyone in the church.

And they were anxious.

And so Paul writes this letter to remind those in Philippi that even though things get hard, God could still be trusted, regardless even of the outcome of his imprisonment.

It was possible that Paul would die, but he wanted the folks in Philippi to trust God.

And with that encouragement in this section come some strong words of exhortation.

In fact, Paul warns the people strongly.

He wants to remind them, and I would say, of four key things to remember as they pursue God.

Four things that are vital to growing in their faith.

And so let's go to the text here together.

First, uh, we want to remember who we are, who we were.

Remember who we were in Christ before we entered into that relationship with God through Christ.

Remember who you were before you gave your life to Christ.

In this passage, there are a couple of examples of what the former life may have looked like.

In verse 2, Paul offers a warning to those who were called the Judaizers.

To the Judaizers.

These were a group of people who believed in Christ as Messiah, but also believed that Christians must meet certain outward requirements in order to be counted righteous.

You might say that they had a works-based view of their righteousness.

And as these people, these Judaizers, are purporting their message, they're apparently taking advantage of Paul's imprisonment.

And they're saying to the Philippians, look, see what Paul's been teaching you, look where it's got him.

He's in a Roman prison.

There's something more important that you need.

You need to add this to your faith.

You need to add your works of righteousness.

Paul comes out swinging.

Okay, in verse 2, let's look at it together.

Look out for the dogs.

Look out for the evildoers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Paul says, watch out for these people.

Now you'll notice as we dive into this text that Paul organizes what he's communicating, often in groups of three.

Okay?

So we're going to see lots of groups of three here as we unpack what's going on in this text.

And the first group of three reminds people to look out for the dogs, to look out for the evildoers, and to look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

So first, look out for the dogs.

Paul called those who advance a works-based righteousness dogs.

Okay?

There's some irony in this statement because often in the first century the Jews referred to the Gentiles as dogs.

But here Paul flips it.

He turns it on his head.

He says, Those who rely on their works, the Judaizers, are like a pack of dogs running wild.

They're crafty, they're cunning, they're uncontrolled, and you need to watch out for them because if you're not careful, they'll devour you.

So he says, look out for the dogs.

Two, and he kind of amps it up here as he goes.

Not only does he call them dogs, he says they're those who do evil.

These are people who do evil.

Now, these are folks who really prided themselves in their appearance as righteous.

Okay?

Paul wouldn't stand for it.

These people, though they looked righteous, Paul knew something else.

He reveals their righteousness as simply a disguise.

And what's behind that veil or that mask is evil.

He doesn't mince words.

It's not just kind of bad.

It's not just a lesser sin.

He says it's pure evil.

How many times do we think that our righteousness, our self-righteousness, our own pride is just a little bit bad, but boy, what that person's doing is a lot worse.

I've been there.

And three, he amps it up even more.

He calls them mutilators of the flesh.

They're mutilators of the flesh.

Now, circumcision was given to Abraham and to the Israelites as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel.

And this was a good thing.

This thing reinforced their faith.

But with the coming of Christ, circumcision was no longer necessary.

And those who claimed that it was still required were no more than gross mutilators.

Paul is calling them out.

He's saying, they're mutilators of the flesh.

This is not God's intent.

They're putting their faith in a works-based righteousness.

Paul warns don't go back there.

Don't go back to the dogs.

Some of you perhaps have struggled in that way, wanting to go back to this works-based righteousness.

I've struggled.

Let's not revert.

Let's remember who we were so that we don't go back there.

Amen.

Now, lest you think Paul doesn't know what he's talking about, listen to this.

There's a parallel group of three regarding Paul's own testimony, his own background.

He reminds us that he has a certain insight into works-based righteousness.

He was, in fact, one of the chief proponents of a works-based righteousness, one of the ringleaders, if you will.

And before his conversion, Paul was Saul, and he was one who persecuted the church.

He was like a Judaizer, except I would argue he was even more fully invested in a works-based faith.

Listen to the verses in chapter three, verses four to six.

He says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

As to the law, a Pharisee.

As to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

As to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Paul was born into the right circumstances, right?

We see that.

He was circumcised according to the law, identifying him as a member of the nation of Israel.

He was of the tribe of Benjamin.

The tribe of Benjamin was one of the esteemed tribes of Israel.

It's where the first king of Israel came from.

It was regarded.

And that made him a Hebrew of Hebrews.

And these things were his pedigree.

This was his heritage.

This was who he was.

But even more than that, we see that Paul was an active pursuer of this works-based righteousness.

So he was born into it, but he was also a deep participant.

And there's three more things here that we observe.

One is that Paul was a Pharisee.

And being a Pharisee isn't something you were necessarily born into.

This was something you pursued.

And to become a good Pharisee, you memorized large chunks of the Old Testament, of the Torah, and you followed a very tightly wound set of prescriptive rules that helped to make sure that you were in God's will.

In fact, rules that were outside of the Torah that were added to it.

So Paul, he got after it when it came to his works-based faith.

Not only was he a Pharisee, but number two, he was a zealous persecutor of the church.

It wasn't enough just to be in the faith.

He was going to be out front and he was going to make sure that anybody that challenged the faith that he knew would be snuffed out.

So Paul was a zealous persecutor.

Number three, not only was he zealous, but he was blameless.

But not blameless necessarily according to God's word, but blameless according to that legalistic code.

He was without fault.

You couldn't find any holes in how he acted as a Pharisee in his outward workings towards God and towards people.

Now we know that there's more going on there, but Paul outwardly was legalistically blameless.

I think if you would have asked Paul in the first century post-conversion, post-the road to Damascus, he said, What were you like before?

I think he'd have said, I was a dog.

I was a dog.

I was one who did evil.

And you should watch out for people like I was.

Beware of the men who mutilate the flesh and call that righteousness.

I know I was one of them.

So I wonder what Paul would have said to me as a sophomore in high school.

Now, I knew Christ, so Paul's story and my story, they're not exactly parallel.

I had a genuine relationship with him.

I loved him.

But the reality is, I put way too much emphasis on my own accomplishments, on my works.

And I think Paul pastorally would have come beside me and said, Andy, stop placing your identity in what people think about you.

Stop placing your identity in your accomplishments and what you think you can do for God.

God has something way better than that.

Stop.

Remember who you were.

Remember who you were.

It's important to remember that where we've come, and it's in remembering who we were that we can appreciate something better.

Okay?

We're talking about who we were.

Let's talk now about who we are in Christ.

Paul's making a case that we are something very different than what we were as those who pursued a works-based faith.

The second word of exhortation says, remember who you are.

Remember that your identity in Christ isn't about your works.

Your righteousness isn't earned by you, it's earned by your Savior.

Stop trying to earn God's favor and live life in Christ.

For who you are is one who is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Listen to verse 3.

Paul says, For we are the circumcision.

We who worship by the Spirit of God, we who glory in Christ Jesus, and we who put no confidence in the flesh.

The identity of the Christian as one who is pursuing a faith-based righteousness rather than a works-based righteousness.

In fact, one who lives in a faith-based righteousness is this that we are the circumcision, that we are those who are shaped and molded and marked by the work of Jesus Christ in what he accomplished on our behalf at the cross.

It's through Christ that we've been, we would say, justified, that we've been made right with God.

And with that in mind, there's another group of three here.

I think it's really interesting how these groups of three come along.

Number one, the church is made up of those who worship by the Spirit of God.

The church is made up of those who worship by the Spirit of God.

Our worship isn't made acceptable to the Father because Patrick puts a lot of time into preparing for the service.

Our worship isn't made acceptable because we have hearts that are into it and engaged and after it for the Lord.

Our worship is made acceptable because of the Spirit of God in us.

And he wants us to care, he wants us to engage.

But what makes it acceptable is what who he is in us by his spirit.

And we as Christians, we as the church, are marked by the Holy Spirit, and we are those who worship by the Spirit of God.

Number two, the church is made up of those who glory in Christ Jesus.

The first century Christians love to glory in their works.

They love to stand on the street corners.

They weren't Christians, they were Pharisees.

The first century Jews.

They love to stand on the street corners and pray so everybody heard them.

They love to give in a way that everybody knew how much they were giving.

It's different, Paul says, for those who are in Christ.

We are those who glory in the work of Christ, not in ourselves.

We glory in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, in his activity in our lives and what he accomplished.

Our glory is in Christ.

So the church is made up of those who worship by the Spirit, two, those who glory in Christ Jesus, and three were made up of people who put no confidence in the flesh.

The Judaizers had confidence in their circumcision.

The Pharisees' confidence was in their rule following.

My confidence often as a younger man was in my background or how much I knew or my ability to please people.

As we know that there's no outward activity that can give us confidence.

Not even baptism, not even sharing the Lord's Supper, not even showing up to church every Sunday.

We're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Ours is a circumcision of the heart.

That's our identity.

Let me ask you in what are you putting your faith this morning?

Is it your performance?

Is it your baptism?

Is it your church attendance?

Is it your work ethic?

Your generally nice demeanor?

I don't know how many times I've asked people in my office in counseling situations, if you're to stand before God when you die and he asks, why should I let you in?

I don't know how many people have said, well, I was a pretty good person.

I I was a good dad or a good mom.

I was nice to people.

I did more right than wrong.

Is that you this morning?

Are you putting your faith in yourself and what you've done, or are you putting it in Christ?

Guys, Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us fall short.

And Romans 6.23 says, the wages of sin is death.

We can't save ourselves.

What we earn as a result of our falling short is death.

But Romans 6.23 says, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We this morning are those who are marked.

For those of us that are in Christ, those of us that have given Him our lives, that have put our faith in Him, we are those who are marked by His grace through faith.

Stop trying to do it yourself.

Stop with your pride, stop with your self-sufficiency.

And Paul reminds us, guys, not only is it a works-based faith wrong, it's evil, right?

It's very wrong.

It's every bit as evil as any other sin.

It disqualifies us from God.

God's plan.

And only through Christ are we saved.

So remember who you were in Christ.

Remember who you are in Christ.

Guys, Paul's life was different because of the mark of Christ.

I want you to listen to his heart bleed as he's writing to the Philippians in verses 7, 8, and 9.

I think you can hear Paul's, both his pastoral heart, but also his testimony.

He's been changed by who Jesus is.

Paul said, Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things.

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.

It's another group of three.

Ready for it?

Another group of three here.

Paul's new identity is based on these three things.

What was what I once counted gain, I now count loss.

All that Saul pursued as a Pharisee before he became Paul, before he came to Christ, all that Saul pursued was to the detriment of the cause of Christ.

And beyond that, everything in his life, not just his religion, not just his leadership, his outward faith, but everything, and this is too, was a detriment compared to knowing Christ.

There's this progression.

We're moving forward, we're amping it up.

There wasn't one thing in his former life that could be counted as positive compared to this new knowledge of and relationship with Christ.

It was all as lost.

And number three, Paul makes an even stronger point.

What does he say?

This loss is not insignificant.

This loss was as rubbish.

This loss was as rubbish.

Another translation might be dung.

Okay?

Dung.

We're going to talk more about that in a moment.

But Paul comes to see that knowing Christ is at the center of his new life and ministry.

The old way is as rubbish compared to now knowing him.

And Paul was willing to let go of everything in his former life.

His new identity was Christ.

When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, everything changed.

The whole course of his life moved from earning his place with God to receiving the gift of grace through Jesus Christ, who met him, who called him, and who changed him by his Spirit.

Paul came to a deep conviction that his relationship with God was no longer about what he did, but about who Jesus is and was in his life.

It's worth noting, so let's hang out in verse 8 here just a little bit.

In our upper Midwestern culture, we tend to be skeptical of those who stand up on platforms like this and use kind of a shock-in-awe approach.

You know, I think that's probably rightly so, but uh, when Paul uses the word rubbish here, he's really using a word that would easily shock his audience.

The word is scuba on.

Okay, it's a Greek word.

I'm not a Greek scholar.

I don't know much about Greek except the helps that I have in my uh you know, study tools.

But here's what the translators of the Net Bible say about the word scuba on.

Okay, you ready for this?

The word here, translated dung, was often used in Greek as a vulgar term for fecal matter.

As such, it would most likely have had a certain shock value for the readers.

And this may well be Paul's meaning here, especially since the context is about what the flesh produces.

Okay?

I don't mean to be crass, but it's here, and I think it's the right translation.

Folks, I was sitting with a friend talking about this passage, and he reminded me this week.

He said, Nothing good, nothing that smells good comes out of the body.

What the flesh produces stinks.

Okay?

It's a good reminder, isn't it?

What the flesh produces stinks.

It smells bad.

And don't go back to it.

That's the old way.

Everything that we were before Christ is as dung.

Everything we are in Christ is beautiful, is justified so that we can be made acceptable in our relationship with the Father.

Um I'd never swear from this pulpit, okay?

I don't swear.

Um my parents are going to be here in the second service.

I wouldn't, but I think Paul swore in Philippians chapter 3, okay?

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Um he used a bad word, but he was making a point.

Everything before Christ is as dung.

It's rubbish, it's junk.

Don't go back to it.

Folks, remember who you were.

You were a sinner in need of a savior.

Some of us were pursuing legalistic righteousness, some of us are running far from God, but we were all equally in need of a savior.

Remember who you were.

And remember who you are.

Remember that you are one who is marked by the work of Christ in your life.

We are justified because of him.

The third thing I want you to remember this morning is to remember who you're becoming.

Though we've been justified, we are being, the word is sanctified.

We're being made more like Christ by the power of God through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.

God's not finished with us yet.

He wasn't finished with me, he wasn't finished with Paul, and he's not finished with you either.

So remember who you're becoming.

Verses 10 and 11.

Paul said, My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, to attain, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

I like how the net Bible puts this.

Okay, this is this is that was the net translation.

Actually, you probably saw that.

I like when it says Paul says, My aim is to know him.

It's active.

He's pursuing, though he already knows, he's pursuing knowing him more.

His aim, his goal as one who has been justified is to be sanctified.

Okay, what does it look like?

Three things.

It looks like knowing the power of his resurrection.

It's through the power of Christ, through the power of his resurrection that we're saved.

We can't be good enough.

It's acknowledging, God, I'm gonna, I can't save myself.

I can't earn my favor with you.

I place my trust actively in the power of your resurrection.

Two, it's sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Wait a minute, let's just camp on this uh for a few minutes here.

We're nearing the end of our time together, but we've got to talk about this.

I thought we were to live an abundant life in Christ.

Who said anything about suffering?

Well, I told you about my experience as a sophomore in high school.

Now, as I share this, I'm aware that there's far greater suffering than what I experienced as a kid in high school.

And yet it was real for me at the time, and it was part of how God shaped my story.

So, in looking back, I think in that time, this girl broke up with me.

I was left alone.

For the first time in my life, I experienced some depression.

It was hard.

I remember sulking a lot.

I remember praying for God.

God, would you lift me up out of this?

I don't like feeling this way.

My people pleaser bubble was popped, and I couldn't bring it all back together.

My accomplishments, my pedigree, my skills really didn't seem to matter anymore.

And I could no longer manage my emotions.

I just felt lousy and I didn't like it.

And it was in this general state that I went to Cooperstown Bible Camp.

I heard Greg talking about Cooperstown earlier.

That's a special place.

It has been for many years.

It was in my life, still is.

And though I was already a believer in Christ, I think God had a desire to allow me to be broken, to suffer before I would be ready to receive from him what I really needed.

And I thought my circumstances needed to change.

I wanted people to like me again.

But what I would learn is that what really needed to change was my attitude towards God.

And so here I am at camp.

Okay, I remember going through the week and being led by worship leader and speaker Peter Ide.

And Peter was a special guy in a lot of uh young people's lives.

He's still ministering in really great ways.

And as he led us to a deeper understanding of what it meant to worship a holy God, my perspective started to change.

And I remember at one of the last chapels of the week, uh, Peter was leading us in worship, teaching us from his word.

And I remember understanding in a new way the greatness of God.

And I remember uh reflecting on this amazing God and then thinking about my present circumstances.

And for the first time in my life, and I would say this was a time when I really first learned how to worship in a deeper and more full way, but I finally released my heart to the Lord and I said something to God to the effect of this.

I said, Okay, God, Uncle, I'm sorry for trying to make my own path.

Thanks for leading me down this hard road, thanks for this suffering, reminding me that my life really isn't about me, it's about you.

And in the midst of this trial, in the midst of this suffering, rather than pursuing more knowledge, God, why?

Rather than pursuing a different outcome, God take this away from me.

What I really need more than anything is to trust you.

And my perspective changed.

I still struggle as a people pleaser.

That's part of the flesh, but no longer is that flesh in here.

It's here.

And I war with that flesh, not as one who's identified by it, as one who's been changed.

It's Christ.

He is my identity.

Who I'm becoming is one who is winning more and more battles with that flesh by God's grace.

That's what God invites us into.

And he uses, sometimes, at minimum, I would say often, he uses the pain in our lives to bring us closer to him.

You ever see suffering as a curse?

It's pretty natural to think that way.

I think Paul had a different perspective on suffering.

Paul saw suffering as an opportunity to grow.

And it was through suffering that he was being sanctified.

So identification in Christ's death was a part of knowing God.

So we need to remember who we were, we remember who we are, we remember who we're becoming.

And finally, in the last part of this passage, reminds us to remember who we will be.

Okay, who we will be.

Knowing Christ means that one day we'll be glorified.

Okay, so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead.

There's a day coming when we will be raised up.

Jesus will return, and our bodies will be raised up with our spirits, and we'll be made new, and we'll be glorified.

The foundation of Christ's work in us, his righteousness for us, his work of sanctifying us through the Spirit has an end game.

When Paul talks about attaining to the resurrection of the dead, he acknowledges that though the work of Christ is complete in us for salvation, the final results of that work will be glorification.

We'll be with him in eternity forever.

And at the resurrection, our spirits will be joined with new resurrected bodies.

We'll live in eternity with Christ, and we'll no longer war with the flesh.

We'll no longer suffer.

The sanctifying work of Christ will be made complete, and it'll be a good day.

A great day.

And eternity will be changed forever.

You need some hope in the midst of suffering?

Remember who you will be.

Don't forget, you were lost, but you're now justified in Christ.

And because you've been justified, you are being sanctified through the work of the Spirit.

And as you're being sanctified, remember that you will be glorified in the last days with our Savior.

This is our hope as followers of Jesus Christ.

This was Paul's hope.

This was the hope of the Philippian church.

And this can be your hope and my hope.

As we close here, I want to remind you just very quickly of a few things.

One, be vigilant.

Don't let anyone hijack your faith.

Don't go back to the rubbish.

Okay?

Live in Christ.

Two, remember who you were.

It's important to remember where you've come so that you can be on guard.

Don't go back to the evildoers.

Three, remember who you are.

You are in Christ.

Your mark is different than it was before.

Four, remember who you're becoming.

When you encounter trials, and you will, Jesus said, in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

When you encounter trials, rather than saying, God, deliver me, perhaps you might say, Lord, teach me, help me to know you better through this.

And five, keep the hope of glory first and foremost in your thoughts, in your mind, in your heart.

That's that hope that will lead you through.

Remember who you will be.

We pray together.

Father, thank you for giving us your word.

Thank you for this great challenge.

These great reminders of our identity in you.

Lord, we so desperately want to know you.

We want to live in light of this beautiful relationship we have with you through Christ.

We want to know you better.

And perhaps, Lord, there are some of us this morning that are struggling.

We're trying to earn our spot with you.

And though we know the gospel, we're like the Judaizers.

In the deep parts of our spirit, we just can't believe that that's enough what you've accomplished for us.

Forgive us, Father.

Forgive us for trying to earn our favor with you and help us in an active way to put our trust in Jesus Christ.

Lord, there are potentially some here who've not yet begun this relationship with you.

They've not had a conversion to being renewed or regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit in their heart through Christ by faith.

And God, for those that don't yet know you, who've not yet been justified, I pray in your name that you would help them to come to a place where they can surrender.

They acknowledge what Romans 3.23 says.

All have sinned and fallen short.

I'm one of them.

We are all one of them.

We fall short.

What Romans 6.23 says, I believe the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

And in John 3.16, we understand that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Perhaps even today there would be some who would begin a new relationship with you, a new life in you, because they put their trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross and in his resurrection.

Help us to know you more fully, Lord.

Keep doing the work in us, keep sanctifying us.

And Lord, as we wait, we put our hope in you and we ask, would you come quickly?

We pray this all together in Jesus' name.

Amen.