Take out your Bibles and turn back to Philippians chapter 3. Picking up in verse 4 this morning, page 981 in the Pew Bible. You're gonna need that in front of you. Open it. Follow along. Make sure my words come from these words. My job is not only to teach you the Bible, but to hopefully also teach you how to read and understand the Bible for yourself. It's not really rocket science. When I first sit down on Tuesday morning with a text that I'm going to preach the following Sunday, all I do is read it over and over and over again before turning to commentaries, before checking other sermons. I just want to soak in the text. I read it in the ESV. I read it in the King James. I read it in the NASB, sometimes other translations. Then I look at the Greek. Don't be too impressed. I use lots of helps for that. But all I'm trying to do in this first stage is just sit in the text. Before seeing what other people have to say about the text, I want to make sure I can understand the text. And it sounds really simple, but it's really important. One of the key things to doing that for me and for you is simply time and patience. Read it and read it. Again, and as I start to read it, I start to ask questions of the text. What does this mean? Why does Paul tell us this? How does this relate to that? What does that word mean? I'm not trying to create meaning. I'm trying to find and understand the meaning. It's there in the text. It's in the words. So, one of the first things that I'm doing in those early stages is I'm looking for key And as I've repeatedly mentioned, one of the first things I'm looking for is repeated words. When there are repeated words, we are being alerted that this is important. So I want to key in on those words. So, we finished verse 3 last week. Look over at verse 3, and then on into verse 4. What stands out to you? What's the repetition? Confidence, into verse three. Christians put no confidence in the flesh. Transition, new verse, kind of a new section. Verse four, though I have reason for confidence, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence, I have more. Right, so you see confidence there three times in a few short words. That tells me that whatever this is about, it has something to do with confidence. And then as I keep reading the text, I'm still looking for other key words and repeated words. And my eyes, maybe this is because of me, but my eye then lands on what is one of the most important words in the Bible in verse six, righteousness. And if I keep reading, I see it again in verse 9, twice. Not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but a righteousness from God through faith. So apparently, whatever this passage is about, righteousness has something to do with it. And now I'm wondering, what does confidence have to do with righteousness? How do confidence and righteousness relate? And what are confidence and righteousness? Well, let's start with confidence. My mom was in town last weekend, so Melissa and I got to escape into the city for one night. We basically eat and sleep, that's kind of our goal, right? No kids, we're gonna eat and we're gonna sleep. I ate the best burger I've ever eaten in my entire life at Emily's in the West Village, go get it. I ate a cronut for the first time, delicious. And we got to go to a show that my little sister gave us tickets to. The show was about a teenager struggling with anxiety and depression. His psychologist tells him to write encouraging letters to himself. Why? Well, the third line of the show says this. They're going to help you build your confidence. So a young man is struggling to fit in. He's struggling to find hope. What does he need? Just a little more self-confidence. What is that? What is self-confidence? One Psychology Today article defines it as Belief in one's self and one's ability to succeed. Oxford English Dictionary, best dictionary, defines it as a feeling of trust in one's own abilities, qualities, and judgments. These are pretty good definitions. Confidence is belief and it's trust. Which, when you look at the Greek word for confidence in verses 3 and 4, you'll find that it comes from the Greek word pistis, which is the word for faith. So confidence is trust or belief. Confidence is trust or belief. Another musical. Two in one sermon. You're welcome. But this is one of the best ones of all time. Sound of Music. Everyone, come on. If you haven't seen The Sound of Music, you are missing out. Watch The Sound of Music. Wonderful music, terrible theology. The heroine, Maria, played by Julie Andrews, the failed singing nun, becomes a singing nanny, but then becomes the singing wife of the dashing Captain Von Trapp. Trapp, played by the dashing Christopher Plummer. Can she handle all of this? A captain, seven children, all this new responsibility. Is she up to the task? So, of course, she sings about it. Let them bring on all their problems. I'll do better than my best. I have confidence they'll put me to the test. But I'll make them see I have confidence in Me. I have confidence in confidence alone. I have confidence in confidence alone. Besides which you see, I have confidence in me. Meaning, I trust in, I believe in, I rely on me. She says she's up to the task. She's able. She can handle it. She's qualified for the job. And so she rests in, and she boasts in, and she finds her confidence in herself. Just like Maria, Paul is addressing this same question. Can you handle this? Are you up to the task? Are you able? Are you qualified? For what? For God. For gaining Christ. For knowing Christ. The question before us this morning is how does that happen? How can we be right with God? How can we be saved? How can we find, theme of the letter, joy? And his answer, the answer to the confidence question is righteousness. Righteousness is how we can be right with God. Righteousness is how we may gain Christ, know Christ, be found in Him. But as always, we've got to define our terms. We need to make sure we understand what we mean by this Christian word, righteousness, because there are two types. of righteousness. Two ways that we attempt to gain Christ and be right with God. Paul, in this passage, is going to brilliantly lay both of these out and then show you how the first, the one that everyone depends on and trusts in, what we're going to call credential righteousness, is utterly worthless. It's trash. It is refuse. But then, beautifully, in one of his most succinct yet superb summaries of the Gospel, he's going to show us how the other, Christ's righteousness, is our only hope, and thus the only source of the joy that this letter is about. So remember our context. Verse 1 of Chapter 3, Rejoice! Do that now by resting in Christ's righteousness. Rejoice, as we're going to sing at the end, by finding yourself dressed in His righteousness alone. So we need to unpack what exactly this means. Let's do this with four points. Point number one, verses four through six, we're gonna see our tendency to find our confidence in credential righteousness. But then how, point number two, credential righteousness is nothing but loss. Point number three, good news then, Christ is gained. Therefore, point number four, find your confidence in Christ. Righteousness. That's the goal. That's what we're gonna follow through. Let's read the text. The outline is supposed to reflect the text, so let me read it for you. Philippians chapter three, 981. I'm gonna read all of one through 11, just to get the whole thing in our brains, but we're gonna focus on verses four through nine, and we'll come back and tackle 10 and 11 next week. But this is what God has to say to you today. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh, for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. If you would bow with me, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I'm very thankful for your word. I am both thankful and excited, humbled by the privilege now of preaching your word. Father, we are completely and utterly dependent upon you in this time. Father, I pray that you would forgive me, even now, of my attempts to establish my own credential righteousness. I pray that you would set aside any desire to pridefully demonstrate my own brilliance or creativity or to wow a people with my ability to teach and preach your word. Father, forgive us for how quickly we forget that our righteousness is only in Jesus Christ. Father, use this time to divest us of any belief and trust and confidence in ourselves. Show us how hopeless it is to try and establish our own righteousness. And Father, use that to drive us to the righteousness that you have provided so graciously for us in Jesus Christ. Father, only you can do this in us now. Father, help me. Help us in the preaching of the word. Help us in the hearing of the word. Father, we ask for you to work now on our behalf, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, point number one, coming out of verses four through six. Confidence in Credential Righteousness. Look again at the connection between verses 3 and 4. Christians are those who put no confidence in the flesh. Why is Paul highlighting this fact at this point in his argument? Well, it's because of verse 2. It's because of these false teachers that he is addressing. Judaizers. Paul wants us to understand these guys are teaching that we should put confidence in the flesh. Because they are teaching that there is something that we must do. There is something that we must add to the work of Christ. Remember, they're coming behind Paul and teaching that if you want to be a real Christian, You've also got to be circumcised. You've also got to keep the law of Moses from the Old Testament. In other words, they are teaching that if you truly want to be right with God, if you truly want to be righteous, here is this thing that you have to do. And Paul is emphasizing that Christians put no confidence in the flesh in direct contradiction to this false teaching that explicitly encourages confidence in the flesh. But look at how he does this. It's so good. I love Paul. He's gotta be the best writer who's ever lived, right? Because he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That's not fair. But it's masterful writing. Look at what he does. He says, guys, brothers and sisters, Christians are the people of God. The people of God put no confidence in the flesh, but, but, if anyone could put confidence in the flesh, it would be me. He is, in effect, saying, guys, I am better than you. More importantly, I am better than the Judaizers. I can out-Judaize even the Judaizers. OK, you want to consider putting your confidence in the flesh, because that's what you would be doing if you listened to these guys. Well, you want to consider that? Let me show you. confidence in the flesh. And so in verses five through six, he runs through a list. He gives seven things. He gives seven qualifications, seven credentials, seven facts about himself in which he once placed all of his confidence. Seven things that set him apart and prove his religious, spiritual superiority to everyone. If anyone could be right with God based upon their religious pedigree or performance, it's me," says Paul. What are these seven credentials? Let me run through them quickly. The first four are inherited. The second three are accomplished. Four are received, three are achieved. First, circumcised on the eighth day. Literally, it says that Paul was an eight-dayer. These Judaizers were teaching that you had to be circumcised to be a Christian as an adult. Some of these guys were probably converts, meaning they were circumcised as adults. Not Paul. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day, as that Mosaic law that you're so preaching prescribes. Hey, I did that. I was no convert. I am no Johnny-come-lately. He's saying, as he is with all of these, that he is pure Jew through and through. And the second, he is of the people of Israel by birth. Again, no convert here. Paul had the right nationality. He is of the chosen people of God. No other nation in history was so privileged, given God's word, his law, his prophets, his covenants, his commandments. Paul was of no mixed stock. He was a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had the right family background, the right nationality. And he specifies that even further in number three. He is of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, the son of the favored wife, the only one of the 12 born in the promised land. Benjamin, the only tribe, along with Judah, that remained loyal to David when the other 10 tribes split away. Benjamin, the land in which Jerusalem itself was located. Paul is not just an Israelite. He even knows which tribe. He can trace his lineage all the way back to Benjamin. He's of the right family. So number four, then he is a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was born of Jewish parents, both of them. And he was raised faithfully by those Jewish parents. Remember back to Vijay's message in Acts chapter six, it was the Hellenists versus the Hebrews, both Jewish, but the Hellenists were those who spoke Greek and to some degree had been more influenced and shaped by Greek culture, not Paul. He was a Hebrew's Hebrew. He spoke the language. He was raised in the culture. He was as Hebrew as you could be. Those are all his inherited credentials, who he was by birth. And so now he shifts to his accomplished credentials now out of that what he himself has done number five in the verse five as to the law of Pharisee the word Pharisee literally means the Separated ones. These are the guys most committed to the Hebrew Scriptures most committed to the law. Hey get that law Judaizers that you're saying you have to keep Paul was the strictest keeper of that law. Paul knew that law. I mean, he proves it in his writings, doesn't he? Probably had much of that law memorized, but also had probably done and performed much of that law. And all the other laws that they had built and constructed around the law as a fence to protect them from getting too close to breaking that law. If anyone could be right by keeping the law, it was Paul. Number six, as to Zeo, verse six, a persecutor of the church. Paul didn't do anything half-heartedly. He was so zealous for the law, so zealous for the purity of the Old Testament faith, that he persecuted Christians. He arrested them. He oversaw their murder. If anyone could be right with God based upon their passion, their sincerity, and their zeal, it was Paul. And so finally then, number seven. And here's our word. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Paul. has great confidence, had great confidence, based upon these seven things. This is his religious pedigree and performance, and it was unrivaled. He says he was blameless when it came to the law. Again, not claiming that he was sinless, but claiming that no charge of God's law, of breaking God's law, could stick to him. He performed and externally obeyed that law better than anyone. Therefore, Paul says, If anyone was righteous, it was me. No one else had a credential righteousness that could match Paul. But here's now where we need to pause and define our terms. We defined a confidence at the beginning, trust, belief, reliance. Now let's look at righteousness for a second. Again, it's one of those words that we just kind of use and throw around without really understanding what it means. This whole section is about righteousness. The whole book of Romans is about righteousness. So we better make sure we know what it is. You know I love the words, uh, dikaiosune, righteousness, righteousness. The easiest way I think to understand it is just drop all those vowels in the middle. Let's just part in it simply means rightness, where it means right or just. Righteousness is simply right behavior or right conduct, and the fact that it is right implies that there is some sort of standard that it is right with. So righteousness is both legal and it's personal, it's forensic and it's relational. But again, all that still sounds pretty complicated. When you hear righteousness, I simply want you to think right or just. And I want you to keep in mind that in English, we get two different sets of words out of this, unless we think they're different. We might look at this more in detail next week, because I ran out of time. We get the words right righteous and righteousness from this word, but we also get the words just, justice, and justification out of this word. These things sound like two different things to us. In the Greek, they're all coming from the same, this basic one word. That's important to keep in mind. With all these social justice arguments and all these things happening right now, let's use the correct terms. Maybe next week we'll look at that. Righteousness is rightness and justness. And this has to start with God. God is righteousness. righteous, which simply means that God always does what is right and just. Deuteronomy 32, 4, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Psalm 19, 8, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. I love that. It's rightness. that rejoices the heart. Not comfort, pleasure, entertainment. It's rightness that rejoices the heart. Isaiah 45, 19, I, the Lord, speak truth. I declare what is right. What is right? What ought to happen? What ought to be? Well, it's whatever conforms to God. Whatever conforms to God's perfect moral character. He is right. And so he always does right. Or he is holy, and so he always acts righteously. God's righteousness could be described as an expression and outworking of his holiness, his set-apartness, his absolutely moral purity and perfection. He is good, and he does good. He is holy, and so he acts righteously. Now follow along with me here. It got a little crazy in the middle of this sermon. I'm going to try to set up a little bit of a logical argument to hopefully help clarify what is going to be an extremely important point in this passage. An argument is just made up of a series of statements, of premises, that then lead to a conclusion. That's the first premise that I want to establish with you. Write this down. We're going to run through seven of these in the course of this sermon. Premise number one is that God is righteous. You've got to keep that in mind. If we're going to understand what salvation is, you have to start here. Premise one, God is righteous, which then leads to what we're going to look at next, which is premise two. To be with God, you must be righteous. Premise two, to be with God, you must be righteous. All right, think back all the way to the Garden. Those first three chapters are so important. In Genesis 1, 27, God creates everything, and then at the pinnacle, the height of his creation, he creates us. Male and female, he creates them. Henry read my mind. We talked about this at Sunday school a little bit again. Again, contrary to popular current belief, male and female actually mean something. Male and female are something different. Male and female are good. Gender. is both given and good. And this is one of the areas that we're going to look most strange these days, but also an area of great opportunity as we have the privilege of preaching and modeling the goodness of gender, the goodness of masculinity and femininity. God made us different. and together we beautifully reflect Him. Side point, we're gonna talk about that more sometime soon. Genesis 1.26, he says, let us make man in our image after our likeness. So you see, God made us like Him, which means since He is righteous, He made us righteous to be righteous. Genesis 2.17 then, He gives the first man the law, a command, don't eat. of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." In other words, obey me about the tree and live, disobey me about the tree and die. Implication, obedience, goodness, righteousness is required to be in relationship with God. Leviticus 19.2, God commands his people, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. God's holiness expresses itself in his always doing what is right and just, so he could just as easily say, you shall be righteous, for I, the Lord, your God, am righteous. We're getting to this next month in Sunday school. I'm really excited about teaching on Matthew 5, 17 through 20. For now, listen to verse 20. Jesus says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So whatever that means, and I'll spend a whole week on it coming up, but whatever it means, Jesus is clear that righteousness is required to enter the kingdom, heaven, to know God, to be right with Him. So to be with God, you must be righteous. Why do you think that everyone everywhere thinks that you get to heaven by being a good person? I just walk out onto the street right now and ask the first person that you see why they think they'll go to heaven or whatever they believe about the afterlife, and they'll say something to the effect that they're a pretty good person, or that they're good at ways they're bad, or they have done these certain things that are required. Why does everyone believe that? Why does every religion teach that across this whole globe? What's because of this fact? It's because we were created in the image of God, and it's because, as Susan nailed it Wednesday night, it's because of the covenant of works. God said, obey me and live. Adam failed. We failed in Adam. And death entered the world through sin, and then death spread to all men because of all sin. That's Romans 5. But deep down, every single one of us knows that because we were created in God's image, because we were included in that original covenant of works, we were in Adam, that to be with a righteous God, we have to be Righteous. Let me simplify. Let me be clear. Hopefully this is not the opposite of being clear. It'll hopefully become clear later. You do have to be a good person. You do. I'm gonna explain what I mean by that so you don't freak out. But not only that, Jesus goes on saying, after our righteousness needing to exceed the Pharisees, in Matthew 5, 48, he says we must also be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect. That's premise two. To be with God, you must be righteous. Perfectly righteous. But, bad news. Here's premise three. You are not righteous. Pretty simple. Premise three. You are not righteous. God is righteous. To be with God, you must be righteous. You are not. Romans 3.10, surely you know it by now, none is righteous, no, not one. The thing that God says that you have to have, that you have to be righteous to be with him, you do not have it, and you are not it. Verse 12, no one does good, not even one. Listen, I'm being intentionally provocative, okay? You do have to be good to be with God. You do have to be righteous to be with God, but you're not. And you know that you're not. We all, if we're honest with ourselves, know that we're not actually good people. We know that the world's constant refrains of be who you are and follow your heart and you're a good person. And we know that it's all a lie. It's rubbish, as Paul would say. When we're left with ourselves, When we're left with our hearts and our thoughts, with all the walls down, we know that we don't measure up. We know that we don't meet the standard. We know that we are not right, nor right with. We know that we are not righteous. It was as G.K. Chesterton said, original sin is the one doctrine that we can prove. Just read the newspaper. Just look at your own heart. You have to be righteous to be with God. You are not righteous. So what do you do? Premise four. You try to be righteous with credential righteousness. Premise four, you try to be righteous with credential righteousness. That's the point that Paul's making in verses four through six. Paul is laying out for you, and he's establishing his credential righteousness. He's laying out all the things that he was and did to try to be right, to be good, to be with God. And he's doing this because he's playing the Judaizers' game. This is the same thing that they are doing. Acts 15.1, some of them, these guys were teaching, unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. That's the Judaizers. That's credential righteousness. You are not right. Here are the things you need to do to get right. Here are the credentials that you need to get in the door. I haven't defined credentials yet, but credentials, we know what they are. They're just qualifications or their achievements. So credential righteousness is the attempt to be right and to be right with God by something that we do or achieve that then qualifies us. And this is the natural state of all of us. This is what we all try to do. If you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, this is what you are trying to do. If you are here this morning and you are a Christian, this is what you are so prone to slip back into. It's wired deep within us. I must be good enough. Okay, then I must do something to be good enough. Let me demonstrate to you and myself and to God that I am good enough and that I am righteous. How do you do it? If you were to take verses four through six, and you were gonna write your own personal verses four through six, if anyone has confidence in the flesh, it's me, what would yours look like? Prayed the sinner's prayer in the sixth year of the people of America, the exceptional chosen Christian nation of the Bible Belt. a Christian of Christians, literally born in seminary, born the son of a pastor, taught Greek in family devotions, as to the law in the South, don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with girls who do, I messed it up, blameless. Religious studies major, studied under one of the most celebrated non-Christian scholars in the world, Bart Ehrman. Studied under one of the most celebrated Christian scholars of the Gospel of John, Andreas Kostenberger. Sprinkled as a Presbyterian, baptized as a Baptist, master of divinity, beginner and quitter of Doctor of Philosophy, reader of more books than anyone, blameless in Bible reading, plan, box checking, leader of super compelling Bible studies, preacher of fantastic sermons. devoted husband, both affectionate and strict father of four. All of that. What is that? All of it. That's my righteousness. That's my credential righteousness. All of that are things that I am tempted to put my confidence in. All of those are things that I am tempted to boast about. Like even that, like it's kind of one weird little humble brag, a little bit, right? But that's what Paul's kind of doing. Those are the things that I'm tempted to boast in and trust in and depend upon. Those are the things that I want you to know about me and be impressed by so that I can then feel a little bit better about myself and a little bit more righteous. That is my spiritual resume. my credential righteousness. What is your credential righteousness? What do you put your confidence in? Your ethnicity, your family background, your obedience, your devotions, your morality. What do you boast in and trust in? Where are you tempted to find your righteousness? Whatever it is for you, Paul's is better. Anyone who could put confidence in the flesh, it was Paul. He was more righteous than the Judaizers. He is more righteous than you. He is more righteous than me. So number one, God is righteous. Number two, to be with God, you must be righteous. Number three, you are not righteous. Number four, you try to be righteous with credential righteousness. Number five, pretty simple, credential righteousness doesn't work. Credential righteousness doesn't work, which is also our point number two in the outline. I know it's confusing. Just follow the outline. I'm giving you an argument within the outline. I came up with the outline and then the argument, and I just shoved it all together. You're getting both. Just be patient. Point two. Credential righteousness is loss. Look at verse seven. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss. Just in case he isn't clear, He repeats himself two more times. Look at verse eight. Indeed, I count everything as loss. Second part of eight, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. Three times, loss. Hey, all that stuff, that super impressive spiritual resume that I just gave you, nothing. Rubbish, or as the King James better puts it, dung, refuse, excrement, manure, muck, all of that. Not just nothing, not just nothing, but it's actually loss. Not just neutral, but actually negative. And notice the metaphor that he's using in verses seven and eight. This one's over my head because I'm worthless when it comes to numbers and money. That's what I have my wife for, BJ, Derek, Judy, Ricky, Anna Marie, Steven. There's a lot of money people in here. That's not me. This one's up here, right up your alley, on the banking and accounting stuff. Look at how he's explaining righteousness. He's explaining it in terms of losses and gains. And then I was going to put, and then, and debits and credits. Then I went down the rabbit trail, started reading about actual accounting, and I got very confused. Apparently my personal bank account, credit and debit, is different than accounting credit and debit. Like that's a different thing or something. It was very, maybe you guys can explain it to me afterwards. So I'll stick with losses and gains. Or we could say assets and liabilities. And notice that he uses the word counted three times in these two verses. He's assessing, he is counting. Think of it like your checkbook. Does anyone in here still actually balance a checkbook? Anybody? Anyone? Oh, Jerry, I knew you. There's a few of you. All right, there's a couple of you old timers that kind of do the checkbook still. I had to go out and ask my wife, like, hey, where's the little balance thing that's supposed to be in the back? And she had to find it for me so I could look at it. There's the transaction, right, the big part. And then there's two columns, generally, for the two different types of transaction. Our Chase transaction register lists them as payments, withdrawals, and then deposits and credits. But I looked on Google, some of the old ones just said, debit, money out, credit, money in. All right, so when I pull up my online banking, there will be debits, money out, credits, money in. And it seems right now like a lot more debits. But imagine that what Paul is saying, imagine it like this. Money's important, of course. We sometimes get that wrong. I try to be more spiritual about money than the Bible. Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. It is good to have and make and save money. I need to provide for and feed my family. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5a, anyone who does not provide for his own household, listen to this language, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. That's strong. So money is good. You need money to live. So imagine if you're working super hard to save up and build your credit and fill your bank account. So you cut the spending, you stop eating out, you cut the cord on the cable, you save and you save and you save and you keep going to the bank every week and you keep depositing everything you can as often as you can. And this goes on for a while and you're starting to feel pretty good about things. You've deposited a lot of money in your account. You have a lot of credit. But imagine that you're also like me, and you don't actually pay a whole lot of attention to your bank account. Finally, one day you do. You go in and look at it, and you're devastated. Because apparently, somehow, every time you thought that you were crediting money into your account, you were actually somehow debiting money out of your account and transferring it elsewhere. Everything that you thought was there is not there. But not only is it not there, but now, the amount that you thought was there, you actually owe. Where you thought there was credit, there's actually debit. What you thought was great gain, actually turns out to be great loss. That's what Paul says your supposed credential righteousness is like. These things that you thought were helping you were actually hurting you. These things that you thought earned you favor actually earned you disfavor. These things that you thought were gain were actually loss. I want to be clear, he's not just saying, hey, this is a neutral thing, no big deal, this doesn't really help. No, he's saying it harms. All your hard work, all your boasting, all your efforts to be good and impressive and righteous are actually doing the opposite of what you thought. They are actually costing you. They are actually loss. Why? Well, it's because of sin. Pretty simple. Because while, yes, you do have to be righteous, you are not righteous. And bad news, it gets even worse. There is nothing you can do to be righteous, or earn it, or gain it. And all of your attempts to do so are not just hopeless, but they are harmful. Why? Because not only do you sin, but Jesus says that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. And slaves, by definition, This verse just solves the whole argument about all these things. Slaves are not free. Jesus says you are not free. He says you are owned by sin. You are not then free in your sin to choose and do righteousness. Romans 8.8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Why not? Verse 7, because the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. Sin is a rejection of God. Sin is hatred of God. And if you have sinned, even on one point, and you know that you have, James 2.10 says that you are guilty of breaking the whole law. And since God's demand is perfect righteousness, you are already perfectly disqualified. There is nothing that you can do about those already committed sins. If you were perfect from here on out, it wouldn't matter. because the sin that you already committed separates you from God. And thus, now, all of your attempts in that sin to try and get back to God, to earn your way to Him, to be righteous, will fall eternally short. And not just that, but these attempts are also an affront and an offense to Him, because in your sin, as we see with the Judaizers, remember what Paul called them in the middle of verse two? He calls them evildoers. All your attempts are not actual attempts at actual righteousness. They are not actual attempts rooted in love and desire for God. They are actually self-interested, self-motivated efforts to save your own skin. They are still ultimately about you. Premise five, credential righteousness is loss. It's loss. Credential righteousness is loss. Everything that you've done and tried that you thought was gain, Paul says, hey, it was actually loss. Every attempt you made to try and assert your goodness, every boast, everything you've tried to place your confidence in, he says, it's trash. It's loss. So follow his argument. God is righteous. To be with God, you must be righteous. You are not righteous. You try to be righteous with credential righteousness. Credential righteousness doesn't work. Credential righteousness is nothing but loss, which means, then, that you need another kind of righteousness. Premise six. Christ's righteousness does work. Christ's righteousness does work. Back to the outline, point number three, Christ is gain. Look at the end of verse seven. Paul counts all of that loss for the sake of Christ. Verse eight, he counts everything as loss. Why? Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Christ is gain. gain, everything else, everything you try and put your confidence in is in the loss column. Only Christ is in the gain column. And we're going to come back and look at this some more next week, so we won't spend a ton of time on it now, but I don't want you to miss just how Paul speaks of Christ here. Notice his passion and notice his devotion. We've seen already that he was a zealous man in verse six, now he's zealous for the right. thing, the one thing. Notice his zealousness for Christ. Verse 7, all of that verse 4 through 6 greatness, all of that credential righteousness, that spiritual resume, and it's impressive, better than anyone's, he had it all, he had done it all, he was great, he gained much in the eyes of the world. Paul says, all loss for the sake of Christ. Everything on the one side, only Christ on Paul chooses Christ. Everything Christ. Give me Christ. Verse 8, we're finally to it. He joyfully gives up everything for one thing because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And that's the only spot that Paul speaks like that in all of his letters. He talks about Christ as Lord a lot, but every other time it's a reference to his deity, his majesty, his transcendence. It's only here that he talks about Christ as my Lord. There's a warmth and an intimacy. There's a joy and a delight. Paul is of one mind and one heart. He is singularly focused. Nothing compares to knowing Christ. He will count everything else as trash. He will lose everything else as long as he gains Christ. Why? Why is knowing Christ of surpassing worth? Why is gaining Christ worth losing everything else? First of all, and again, more next week, it's simply because of who He is. It's simply because of chapter 2, verses 5 through 11, that He's God. in the flesh. He is God in all His transcendent glory, in all His infinite power and wisdom, in all His infinite love and beauty and grace. He's God. He's the one we were originally made in the image of, the one we were originally made for, the one we were originally made to know and love. Christ is your purpose. He is what you were made for. He is everything. And thus knowing Him and being known by Him everything. Nothing else matters but knowing Christ because of who He is. But right now, in the course of Paul's argument, we're focused more on what Christ has done. Why should you be so willing to give up everything to gain Christ? Verse 9, to be found in Him. How? 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. Credential righteousness doesn't work, but you still need righteousness, so you need another righteousness, and here it is. This is the last point, right? It's Christ's righteousness, or even better yet, Christ's Righteousness. I've left no time for the most important point. Good thing we have next week, but this last point is confidence in Christ. Righteousness. All your attempts to be righteous and good will fall woefully short. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so you are in desperate need of help. Your righteousness doesn't work. Your righteousness doesn't exist. Therefore, your only hope is another's. Righteousness. So again, look again at 9. Paul only wants to gain Christ. Gaining Christ is being found in Christ. There's Paul's favorite language again. He doesn't call us Christians. He calls us those who are in Christ. Union with Christ. But how in the world, here's the question, how can sinful, unrighteous Paul be found in holy, righteous Christ? He tells us in verse 9. This is the gospel. not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. In other words, not credential righteousness, not this thing that the Judaizers are teaching you, not circumcision, not law-keeping, not anything we do or add or achieve. Paul now understands, by the grace of God, that he has no righteousness in himself. There is no credential righteousness. It's all rubbish. But he knows our argument. He knows that God is righteous, and thus he still needs to be righteous with God. So, not having a righteousness of his own, but... One of the best words in the Bible. but that which comes through faith in Christ. Let me clarify, he says, the righteousness, here's the word, prepositions are so important, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That's the gospel. Credential righteousness is a righteousness from you. Christ's righteousness is a righteousness from God. That's why Paul, that's why all he wants is to know Christ. That's why this letter written while chained to a Roman centurion in prison is so full of joy. Paul knows that he isn't righteous, and he has done and tried everything. If anyone is righteous, it's him. But he knows he's not. He knows it's not enough. He knows that he falls short, and it is that realization It is the very thing that causes him to just burst with joy in Jesus. Because it's in Jesus and in the gospel, we see that the very thing God demands of us is the very thing that God provides for us. You must be good. You must be righteous. You're not righteous. You cannot achieve righteousness. but you can receive it. You can achieve it, but you can only receive it. The gospel is that the righteous God provides for his unrighteous people the very righteousness that we need to be with him. We don't have it. We're not righteous. But Christ does and is. And the gospel is that God graciously gives to us Christ's righteousness. It is a righteousness from God, not us, which means it's not works, it's not credentials, it's not anything that we do, it's from God, which Paul points out means that it's only through faith. It is only humbly received by putting your faith, your confidence in Christ alone. He is righteous. And because of his substitutionary work on behalf of his people, because he comes to take our place and pay our penalty for our sin and die our death in our place, God is able to then count us as righteous because we are in Christ. We are clothed, dressed in his righteousness alone. We are Christ's. We read earlier, An hour and a half ago, in Romans 3 24, we read that we are justified. Remember, righteous and just are the same word. We are justified. We are declared righteous by his grace as a gift. How? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This whole passage is 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we, who knew a lot of sin, might become the righteousness of God. Christ, the Righteous One, takes our sin so that we, the sinful ones, can receive His righteousness. We are not righteous, but Christ is, and we can be counted righteous in Him by faith. That's why chapter 4, verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. How? Because of this. Because your righteousness problem has been solved, and that was your only real problem. You can be right and right with God, not because of anything that you've done, not because of credentials, but entirely because of what Christ has done for you. So, God is righteous. To be with God, you must be righteous. You are not righteous. You have tried to be righteous with credential righteousness. Credential righteousness does not work. Christ's righteousness does. Therefore, the conclusion, finally, put your confidence in Christ's righteousness. That's it. That's his whole point. Don't put your confidence in anything else, not in the flesh, but only in Christ. That's the only place you will find hope and joy. That's the only thing that you can boast in, because He's the only one that can solve your righteousness problem. 1 Corinthians 10.31. Close with this. Sorry, 1.30-31. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. If you would, bow with me and let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that it is alive. Thank you that it works. Father, I ask now for your spirit to do your work in accordance with your word. Father, I ask that anything that I have made unclear that you would clarify. I ask for anything that I have said incorrectly that you would allow to fade away. Father, I pray that verse nine, the wonderful gift of your righteousness given to us by grace, received through faith, would shine bright and clear, and that we would not only understand it, Father, but that we would delight in it, and rejoice in it, and that we would learn to rest in His righteousness alone. Father, I have demonstrated on numerous occasions this week that left to myself, I am not righteous. Father, I am so thankful that I am counted perfectly righteous in Jesus Christ. Father, remind every single one of us of that this morning. Father, fill us with joy because of the gospel. Fill us with joy because of your grace. You are perfectly righteous and we are not, and yet we get to be with you. because of Jesus Christ. Father, forgive us for our apathetic. We are about that sometimes. Father, fill us now with a great affection and love and thankfulness for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I ask and I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.