Now, I've got a most interesting topic today. I'm going to speak to you on this subject, from religion to rest. From religion, its activities, its endeavors, its wheel spinning, its uncertainty, from religion to rest, to peace. Now, if you're interested in this subject, I want you to open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. I'm going to be dealing individually with each verse. Romans, or rather Philippians 3, verse 1 through 14. Now, turn there to Philippians 3, verse 1 through 14. Now, I do not know, I do not know of a chapter in God's Word which has a clearer message for this particular religious day, like Philippians 3. Now, really, I do not know of a chapter in God's Word that has a clearer message for this day and a chapter, the message of which is most applicable to this day than Philippians chapter 3. And these first 14 verses, now this will help you if you're taking notes, write these three things down. We have in verse 1, 2, and 3, Paul's exhortation or advice. We have secondly in verses 4 through 7, Paul's experience. And then in verses 8 through 14, we have Paul's expectation. Now, that's my outline. Paul's exhortation, Paul's experience, and Paul's expectation. Now, here's my prayer. This is what I'm asking God. I'm asking the Lord, the Spirit of God today, if he will anoint this particular message and make it a special blessing to everyone who hears it. I do know this. The poet put it this way. He says, we've listened to the preacher, and truth by him has been shown, but we need a greater teacher from the everlasting throne, because application is the work of God alone. I can tell the truth, straight, scriptural, biblical truth. But, and it'll reach these ears, but it'll never reach a man's heart unless God, by His Spirit reveals it to the heart. All right, let's look at verse 1, Philippians 3, Paul's exhortation. He says, Finally, my brethren, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. Now, this is the theme and watchword of every believer, rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my joy. He is my song. He's my cause for rejoicing. Not in myself, but in Him. I have no cause to rejoice except in Christ. I rejoice in Him. He's my only cause of rejoicing. He's my source of joy. He's the fountain of joy. He said that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be fulfilled. I rejoice in the greatness of His person. I rejoice in His incarnation. Don't you? I'm glad He came to earth. I rejoice in His righteousness. I'm glad I don't have to look to my own, aren't you? I rejoice in His atonement. I rejoice in His sin offering. I rejoice in His ascension. I rejoice in His intercession. I rejoice in His return. I rejoice in His presence. And you know, if we know Him like we should, as Paul said, we can even rejoice in afflictions. Rejoice in our trials, knowing that they come from Him and knowing that they'll work together for His glory and our good. In fact, David said, Rejoice in the Lord at all times. Let His praise continually be in your mouth. So that's the first exhortation or word of advice Paul gives to us, to believers. He says, Rejoice in the Lord. You're not going to find much outside of Christ in which to rejoice. and nothing in yourself. Rejoice in Him. And then he said this, he says, continuing his exhortation, he says, To write the same things to you to me is not grievous, that is, it's not tiresome, but for you it's profitable. They must have said about Paul what they say about me. They say of me, well, you hear Mahan once, you've heard all he's got to say. He preaches the same gospel all the time. That's what Paul said he did. He said to preach the same things, to write the same things, to declare the same gospel, it's not tiresome to me. I not only rejoice in the person and work of Christ, I rejoice in the gospel over and over and over and over again. It's never tiresome, never tiresome. But I tell you this, he said, not only is it not tiresome to me, but it's profitable for you. Because hearing the gospel over and over again will keep your mind on Christ. And hearing the gospel over and over again will keep you from self-righteousness. And hearing the gospel over and over again will keep you from errors of spirit. How can you hear of His love and not love? How can you hear of His mercy and not show mercy? How can you hear continually of His grace and not be gracious? How can you hear over and over again how He was rich for your sakes, He became poor, and not be generous? See what I'm saying? And hearing the gospel over and over again keep you from false doctrine. You won't be susceptible to every wind of doctrine that passes over your head and comes near you. So Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord. and to preach and write and declare the same gospel to you, the gospel of Christ Jesus over and over again. I never get tired of it, and it's profitable for you." And then he says, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Preacher, what's he talking about? He's talking about false preachers. He calls them dogs. That's what Isaiah called them, dumb dogs. Dumb watchdogs that don't bark. Greedy dogs that care only for themselves. He calls them evil workers, workers of iniquity. That's what Christ called them at the judgment in Matthew 7 when they said, We preached in your name, did many wonderful works and cast out devils. He said, I never knew you, workers of evil, workers of iniquity. Beware of these dogs. Beware of these evil workers. Beware of these workers of iniquity. Beware of the concision, the circumcisers, The false preachers who glory in the flesh, who glory in numbers, who glory in outward show, who glory in vain show in the flesh, they glory in these things. They glory in vastness, greatness, how many, how much, how big, how long, instead of, he said, rejoice in the Lord. Beware of these fellows now. Don't be taken in by them. He says, we're the true circumcision, we're the true Israel, we're the true sons of God. And then he gives in verse 3 there, three marks of those who are true preachers, true Israel, and true sons of God. And he says, here's the three marks of those people who belong to God, who glory in God, who are servants of Christ. Number one, they worship God in spirit. They worship God in heart, not in form. not in uniforms, not in ceremony, not in processionals, not in traditions, not in candle burning and fleshly displays. That's not how they worship God, by all standing at the same time or sitting at the same time or holding up their hands at the same time or saying the same thing or kneeling at the same time or forming a processional. They worship God in heart. Wherever they are, with whomever they are, they worship God in spirit. God's a spirit. God is spirit. And they that worship God worship Him in spirit, not in form and tradition and flesh and fleshly displays and these sort of things. That's not worshiping God. Worshiping God's when my heart is God and when my heart adores God and when my heart praises God and when my heart bows to God. Not only do they worship God in spirit, they rejoice in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone. He's their wisdom. He's their sanctification. He's their righteousness. He's their redemption. Joyous in Christ. They look to Christ. Rest in Christ. Trust in Christ. Have faith in Christ. And thirdly, they have no confidence in the flesh. None at all. And what flesh are we talking about here? No confidence in the flesh. Well, we're not talking about you saying, I've got no confidence in any man living. I do. I do. I have confidence in my wife. I have confidence in my son. Have confidence in my daughter. Have confidence in some of our folks at the church. They're people of their word. He's talking about this. He's talking about put no confidence as far as your relationship with God, as far as the forgiveness of your sins, as far as your acceptance with God. Put no confidence, spiritual confidence in the flesh. No confidence in your works of righteousness. No confidence in your religious feelings. and your religious emotions and your religious profession, no confidence in the morality of this flesh, this flesh is not moral, it's not spiritual, it's carnal, it's fleshly. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer? No, these for sin could never atone. God must save and God alone. So when Paul says, this is the mark of a true believer, He worships God in spirit, not in tradition, form, and ceremony, an outward show, calling God Lord with his lips. His heart loves God. And he rejoices only in Christ. And he has no confidence in any religious experience or duties or works or doings or feelings to appease a holy God or anybody else's doings. You see what I'm saying? This is a good exhortation. Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord. Keep to the gospel. And don't you put any confidence in the flesh, as far as God's concerned, because in the flesh no man can please God. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. Christ said the flesh profiteth nothing. All flesh is grass. Isaiah, exhorting the preacher, says, Comfort my people and cry out, and the servants of God cry out. What shall I cry? Cry, he said. Somebody cry. He said, well, what shall I cry? What do they need to hear? Two things. All flesh is grass, and behold, you're God. That's the twofold message of the pulpit. There's nothing good in man, and all good's in God. There's no light in man, God is light. No truth in the flesh, truth is in God. There's no power in the flesh, all power is God. He's able to save. All flesh is grass, behold your God." Isn't that a good exhortation? All right. Now look at verse 4. Let's look at Paul's experience. He had just said, have no confidence in the flesh. And he's speaking here of religious flesh. Religious flesh. We can't have any confidence or peace before God in our religious works, in our religious deeds, in our religious duties. We can certainly have some confidence in men as far as men and women are concerned. Many people are true to their word or they'll die trying to be true to their word. They'll die trying to fulfill their promises. You can believe them. It'd be an awful situation if you didn't believe anybody. But as far as God is concerned, before God, there's none good, no, not one. Before God, there's none righteous, no, not one. Before God, there's none that understand it. Before God, the flesh, prophetess, nothing. All right, he asked in verse 4. He just said, have no confidence in the flesh. And then in verse 4 he says, do any of you boast in your flesh? If any man think he hath whereof to glory in the flesh, read it there, I more. Do any of you glory in your works, in your religious works, in your traditions, in your denomination, in your heritage, in your profession, in your righteousness, in your gifts? In your ability, in your talent, do you have confidence in your old profession, in your old experience? Do you have confidence in your religious background? Do you think that you can bring these things before God and say, God, I went to church all my life, and my mother and father were Christian people, and they raised me right, and I never did do this, and never did do that, and never did do the other. Like a preacher I heard on TV a few nights ago, he'd never tasted whiskey, never tasted wine, never smoked a cigarette. Never. You think these things are gonna have any weight with God? You have any confidence in your flesh? Well, Paul said, if you do, if you do, I got more to boast of than you ever thought of. Why, he said, I was born of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a Pharisee. I was a member of the Sanhedrin. I graduated from the leading seminary of my day, the school of Gamaliel. I was zealous for the law and for the truth of the Old Testament. I was blameless before the law. I was the most respected, moral, religious teacher in my whole nation. So there you have it. But look at the next verse, verse 7. But all of these things that were so important to me and such gain, all these things that were gain to me, I thought they were good. I thought they were good. I thought they were gain. But all this flesh and all these duties and all this self-righteousness, I found to be utterly worthless, worthless, loss in the light of God's goodness and God's justice. I found them, rather than helping me, rather than helping me, I found that these professions and experiences and gifts and doings and righteousness, I found rather than helping me, they were a stumbling block keeping me from God's mercy, keeping me from God's Messiah, keeping me away from Jesus Christ, the true righteousness of God. So I heaped all these things together, all these big, great, powerful, important aspects of my whole life in every area of religion. I heaped them all together and I said, I count them lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Oh, I'll tell you this, and I find it almost 40 years of preaching the gospel, people who come to see, come to understand through the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit, they quit playing the game of religion. They quit going through the motions. They quit looking back to an old experience that stayed old. They quit trying to find peace in works and self-righteousness. People who come to see, through the Word of God, the awesome, infinite holiness of God, the holiness of God and the righteousness of God. People who come to see, by the Word of God, the awful, utter ruin of humanity. spiritually dead, who come to see the inability of this flesh at its best state to please the Holy God. People who come to see the glorious gift of God's grace, the unspeakable gift of God's love, Christ Jesus, in His person and work, in His obedience and death, in His suffering and sacrifice, in His mediatorial intercession, all who see Him turn their backs on their old tradition and on their old experiences and on their old religion and on their old works and count all those things but loss that they may win Christ and be found in Him. It's always true. Our repentance not only includes a repentance for sin, but it includes a repentance of dead works and repentance of our righteous rags. And we turn loose of all our idols and we turn only to Christ. That's what Paul says. That's his experience. He's saying now to any of you, we are the true Israel who worship God in spirit, in heart, who rejoice only in Christ, who have no confidence in anything identified with, related to the flesh where God's concerned. No confidence. Do you have confidence in the flesh? You're going to go back and try to prove you're saved by something that happened 30 years ago? A feeling, an experience, a profession? You're going to go back to when you were a preacher or a teacher or a Sunday school teacher or a choir leader? or something, or when you had an experience down in the woods, behind a barn, under the shed, at the front of a church, at a mourner's bench, and try to bring that before Almighty God as your hope for eternity, you're going to go back and see the fact that you never did this and never did that, and tried to live right, and bring that fleshly rotten rags before God as your covering. Why, He said, I got more than you'll ever... You put all yours together, and I'll top every one of them. I was this, that, and the other, He said. Hebrew of Hebrew, Pharisee of the Law, before the law blameless. But I counted all the things that were gained, that I held to, that I looked to, that are rested in, that are built upon, I counted them lost, that I may win Christ." You think about that. You say, but preacher, I've given my life to religion. Paul was 40 years old. He'd given not only his life, but his soul to it. He'd kill for what he believed. He had blood dripping from his hands because of what he believed. All right, let's look at his expectation. He said, yea, doubtless, without a doubt. I count all these things but loss. My family, my friends, my future. My works, my deeds, my efforts. My tradition, my learning, my heritage. My profession, my experiences, my morality. And my friends, if you want me to make it stronger," he said, I not only count these things but lost, I count them but dung, garbage, rubbish, that I may win Christ and be found in Him. At one time, Paul felt that he could find favor with God by who he was and what he did. That's right. Oh, but when God revealed His holiness, Paul said, I died. When Paul saw his own sin, the sin of his religion, that's where he lived, was in religion, the worthlessness of all his deeds, of all these years, when he saw Christ as his perfect righteousness, Christ as his redemption, Christ as his sanctification, Christ as the fulfillment of all God's requirements, Paul said, I renounce. Everything I've ever done, ever said, or ever given, or ever claimed to be, I renounce it. I count it but dumb. He lost ceremonial bondage and gained Christ's freedom. He lost a false peace, a phony peace, and he gained real peace. He lost pretended glory, and he gained eternal glory. You know where all the fullness of God dwelleth? You know where all the fullness of God dwelleth? Not in your water baptism. Not in your mourner's bench. And not in your preacher's hand. And not in your religious denomination. You know where all the fullness of God dwelleth? All the fullness of His love, of His mercy, of His grace, of His forgiveness, of His power, of His deity, of His kingdom. All fullness dwelleth in Christ. and you are complete in Him. That's plain as I can make it. And then let me give you something here, Paul's expectation. In these verses, Paul declares that he has three goals. This man who was wrapped in religion, this man who was wrapped in the false rags of religious tradition, this man who gave his very life to religion, morality, and laws, and dues, and the misery of all that religious tradition. And God broke the shackles, and God set him free in Christ. God brought him to the Redeemer, made him a new creature in Christ. Now he loved God from the heart. Now he served God, not for reward, not out of fear, but because he loved the Lord. And he had three goals. When he was awakened to the holiness of God and saw Christ as his righteousness, He said, I got three goals. Number one, look at it. He said that I may win Christ and be found in Him. That's my goal. Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. I have none. The law does nothing but expose my corruption and confusion. Yours too, if we get a good look at it. So I want to win Christ. And I want to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ, by the obedience of Christ, by the faithfulness of Christ. And secondly, he said, oh, secondly, that I may know him and the power of his resurrected life. You say, didn't Paul know Christ? Oh, yes. What's he saying here? I want to know him better. You know, I get the idea some people walk down an aisle and make a profession except Jesus, and then they say, Good-bye, Lord. I'll see you in heaven. I'm all fixed up now, you know. But Paul wanted to learn Christ and to know Christ and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He said, I want to know Him. I seek after Him. And I want to know something about the power of His life, of His resurrected life, of His glorified life. Christ laid our sins aside and died for them and came out of the tomb in the power of God in a glorified body. And Paul said, I want to know something about the power of that resurrected life. And I want to know something about the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to be counted worthy. to suffer for His sake. I want to bear in my body the marks, the scars of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to sit on the sideline and watch others engaged in this battle of truth and this battle for the glory of God. I want to be right in the middle of it. I want to know the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to walk with Him like Enoch of old. That's my goal, to win Christ and be found in Him, to know Him. Do you have a friend that you've known for two or three months, four or five months? When you've known him five years, will you know him better? Will you walk closer? You will if he's a real friend. And that's the way Paul's talking about the Christ. I want to know him better, and I want to know the power of his resurrected life, and I want to know the fellowship of his suffering. And you know his third goal? That I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead. He said, I hadn't already attained. I'm still in the flesh. I'm not perfect. You know, these people that claim to be without seeing, claim to be perfect, did they never read God's Word? Paul said, I'm not perfect. He said, I haven't laid hold, apprehended, laid hold upon that for which I've been apprehended of Christ. Nevertheless, he said, forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward. toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Christ my Lord. Those are my goals. You know he doesn't mention a thing about a crown or a reward in heaven. He said, I want to win Christ, know Christ, and rise from the dead in His glory. Now this message is from religion to rest. And on the back of it is the death of death. Write for it. Send $2. We'll mail it to you. God bless you.