Let's take our Bibles, please, and turn to Philippians chapter 3. As you're turning, let me just say one more time what a joy it has been to be here this week and to sing with you and pray with you and study the scriptures with you. When Dr. Pettit first asked me, I was intimidated and frightened. I hear that he is inviting Dr. Doran, and I hear that he is inviting Dr. Barrett, both of whom I have such high regard for, and I thought, I have no business being here whatsoever. And then he said he was inviting Will Galkin, and I said, oh, I'm okay. Just kidding, Will, I'm just kidding. I love you and the Lord appreciates your ministry. It's been a good time. Listen, there is no better theme than we can focus on, that we can focus on then the sufficiency of Christ. He is so much, and His finished work and His satisfying work, His continuing work of sanctification, what a joy it has been. Tonight, let's put our attention on Philippians chapter 3 for a time. We're going to talk about true righteousness versus self-righteousness. Philippians chapter three, this is the word of God. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. that I may know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. For getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Lord, we ask you tonight to speak to us through the scriptures. How blessed we are to have time that is set aside where we can remove ourselves from our normal schedules and distractions, and we can especially focus on the Word of God. And we pray that according to the scriptures, you would take the Word of God, and by your spirit, that you would teach us, that you would open our eyes. I ask you, Lord, as a preacher of your word tonight, that you would help me to communicate your word with accuracy and with clarity. And I pray that you would work in power. We need to hear from you. We're not praying and asking this because we're so good. We're praying and asking because we're so needy. Now, Lord, fulfill your will. Draw sinners to Christ. draw saints to Christlikeness, and do what we cannot do, for we depend on you, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Your unrighteousness will damn you, but not as quickly your righteousness. The enemy of your soul is both your unrighteousness and your own righteousness. In Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is giving us one of his autobiographical portions of Scripture, And he's not boasting, but he's showing the folly of depending on anything but the righteousness of Jesus Christ as we approach God and desire His acceptance. And he tells us that self-righteousness is damning. He tells us that self-righteousness is dangerous. He tells us to beware. He's working for our safety. He contrasts self-righteousness with true righteousness, self-righteousness coming through the law and through the flesh and through human effort and through human regulations and through human endeavor. He contrasts that with true righteousness, which comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm perpetually reminding the people whom I'm privileged to pastor that we are not the good people. That's not pseudo-humility. It's not piety. We are not the good people. The Apostle Paul makes that clear here. He makes that very clear in 1 Timothy chapter 1, and you know the passage well, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he's not pointing at people out there. He points at himself, and he says, of whom I am the chief. I'm never quite sure whether to say Paul was the worst sinner he knew or the best sinner he knew, but he was a big-time sinner. And in a passage that follows on one of the depravity lists of Scripture that included all kinds of immorality, including homosexuality, in 1 Timothy chapter 1, right after listing all of these heinous sins, the Apostle Paul says, I'm still the chief of sinners. I'm still the worst sinner I know. We're not the good people. We are utterly dependent on the grace of God. In Philippians chapter three, the Apostle Paul writes to us, to Christians, and he tells us to beware of any confidence in our own efforts. In verse one, he tells us to rejoice in the Lord. Verse 1, he says, rejoice in the Lord. Now look, he is speaking to brothers, to Christians. He says, finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord. So this whole message that's warning against self-righteousness, it's not written to unbelievers. He's warning Christians not to go back and trust in their own efforts to make them acceptable to God. So he speaks to brothers. He's giving us a reminder, he says. He says, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. You're in peril. You're in danger. Let me tell you something. Let me remind you of something that I've told you in the past because it's safe for you. And he tells them to rejoice in the Lord. I've preached the texts from Philippians where Paul says to rejoice in the Lord. And I have in some ways treated it kind of like a Christian greeting card. You'll be happy. It's going to be okay. Be happy in the Lord. And I would say that joy is as constant as its cause. And that's true. If you rejoice in your family or your job or the economy or anything else, pastors, if you rejoice in the progress of your ministry, your joy is going to be up and down. And he says to rejoice in the Lord. It's even more poignant when we remember that the Apostle Paul is writing from prison, and he speaks of joy and joy and joy in the book of Philippians. Now, I confess to you, I've undervalued the book of Philippians. I think of it kind of as a, almost like a bumper sticker where Paul is telling people to smile, God loves you. You know, there's an old song that says, don't worry, be happy, and Philippians is that kind of book. You know, it's just so happy. The heavy lifting in the New Testament is done in books like Romans or Galatians or Ephesians, and then Philippians is kind of a lightweight. That is so wrong. Philippians contains the kenosis passage. It tells us about the humility of Christ and then the exaltation of Christ. Philippians is where the Apostle Paul says that if I die for the sake of the gospel, that's fine with me. If I live, I'm living for the gospel. If I die, I'm in the presence of Christ. There are so many beautiful passages regarding soteriology, regarding our faith in the book of Philippians. It's not a lightweight book. And frankly, the commands to rejoice in the Lord is not just a sanctified way of saying, have a good day, be happy. He's actually telling us to rejoice in the Lord as opposed to rejoicing in ourselves, in our effort. He's saying to rejoice in the Lord as opposed to rejoicing in religion. In fact, the entire passage is going to be giving us all of these words that really are talking about our faith, our confidence. He starts in verse one, he says, rejoice in the Lord, and he definitely is not saying just be happy all the time, because immediately he's going to say beware, beware, beware. So he's not just saying be happy, he's saying your confidence, your boasting, should be in the Lord, not in something else. In verse 2, he warns against false teachers. In verse 3, he tells us to rejoice, and then he speaks of our confidence. If you mark your Bible, it probably wouldn't hurt for you to underline confidence in verse 3. And then verse 4, he speaks again about confidence and about his trust. Verses seven and eight, he's going to talk about his gain and loss, what is really valuable to him. And then finally in verse nine, two times he's going to talk about faith. Now listen, Philippians three is not talking about being happy, nor is it saying that your life is fine, but there's something a little bit better. The Apostle Paul is not saying that I had all these good accomplishments, which in and of themselves were okay, but now I have upgraded to life with Christ. He's actually warning us against false religion. And he says, rejoice, boast, be confident, trust in the Lord, and not in yourself and not in your performance or your effort. Tells us to rejoice in the Lord, And on the heels of that, he tells us to repent of legalism, to repent of false religion. Now, I'm choosing the word very specifically on purpose. It's not just because it starts with R, okay? He's telling us to repent. Verse 2, he starts warning against the Jews. Specifically, he's warning against a group we call the Judaizers. And we run into them especially in the book of Galatians. They said they believed in Jesus, but it was Jesus plus, Jesus plus adherence to the law, specifically Jesus plus the ritual of circumcision so Essentially they're saying if you're going to be a Christian you have to go through the halfway house of being a Jew Gentiles if you become Jewish through circumcision then you can go from there as a prerequisite and you can become a Christian The Apostle Paul is warning against them. And again, it's not happy language. He warns against false teaching and Let me just give this word of exhortation to you as brothers and sisters in Christ. I know that sometimes we get weary of controversy, we get weary of warnings, we get weary of messages that are kind of a polemic, that have an edge to them. Do you know every book of the New Testament gives warnings against false teachers? Everyone I believe with one exception and that would be the book of Philemon Philemon was sent in tandem with a letter to the Colossians which really warns against false teaching The Bible warns against false teachers again and again and again and here we have a warning against those Who try to combine the work of Christ with the work of the law or the work of Christ with the efforts of the flesh? Paul says beware of them three times. He says beware look at verse 2 and He says to them, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. It's caustic, hard language. First he calls them dogs. That's not a nice thing to do. Can you imagine Joel Osteen getting up and flashing a big smile and then saying, hey, beware of dogs. Can't imagine Joel Osteen issuing that kind of warning, but the Apostle Paul does. And I think there's some irony in it because Oftentimes, the Jews would think of Gentiles as dogs. In fact, even Jesus, when He was speaking to the Syrophoenician lady, He said that He came to the Jews, and it's not right to take the food for the children and give it to the dogs. And of course, in great faith, she perseveres and says, well, at least give me crumbs. And He ended up answering her request. The Jews thought of the Gentiles as dogs, and Paul ironically turns it around and he says, you beware of these Judaizers. They're dogs, they're vicious, they're hurtful. And then he says to beware of evildoers. He's talking about the same people, not three groups. He says they are evil workers, evildoers. They may have a reputation for piety, but they're actually gross sinners. He goes on, he says, beware of the concision. Beware of the concision. The ESV says, beware of mutilators of the flesh. Now, right after this warning, look at verse two. He says, beware of the concision. And then there's a play on words in verse three. He says, for we, and he's speaking of believing Christians, whether Jew or Gentile, true born-again Christians, we are the circumcision. which worship God in the spirit, not just through rituals, through law. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. There we have again, rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord, not in circumcision or the law. It says, so we worship in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. So he says these people are typified by their dependence on circumcision, and he says they're mutilators of the flesh. And I think he's doing a couple plays on words. What he's saying is they believe that by cutting the flesh, I mean the body, through the ritual of circumcision, they believe that the ritual of cutting their flesh actually makes them acceptable to God. And he says they're actually just the concision, they're mutilators. Their doctrine is a bloody, harmful doctrine. But then he says when they believe you can please God by cutting your flesh, He's going to take that term and not just speak of circumcision, but he's going to talk about having confidence in the flesh as a spiritual thing, the flesh as opposed to dependence on God, any confidence in human effort. So he uses circumcision. He says, let's just branch out from that and talk about the idea of trusting anything. It's ludicrous to us. It's ludicrous to us. that a male, by cutting a portion of his flesh, could be acceptable to God. It's ludicrous to us, and it's ludicrous to the Apostle Paul. But in his day, it was actually a great debate. We read about it in Acts chapter 15. When the gospel had gone to Gentiles, and then there's going to be a debate about whether Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised, the Apostle Paul would say, absolutely not. Galatians chapter 5, he's going to write, I think to the believers that were being described in Acts 15, these Gentile believers, and he writes them a letter and he says, the Judaizers are actually having some success in changing your mind, and some of you Gentiles are going to get circumcised, and I'm telling you not to do it. because it's not valuable. If you try to please God through that portion of the law, you're going to have to try to please God through all of the law, and you're going to be apart from Christ. Christ will be of no use to you. He actually speaks with severity and, I think, some sarcasm. He says in Galatians 5, 1 through 12, at the end of that passage, He says, I wish those who taught you you need to be circumcised were actually castrated. And what he's saying is, if they really believe that cutting your flesh makes you acceptable to God, they might as well just continue. And you say, that's shocking. It is shocking. And it's Scripture. The Apostle Paul says that there is nothing in our flesh, whether physically or as a picture of spiritual efforts, nothing in our flesh can make us pleasing to God. It's a ridiculous notion. Now, I doubt that anyone here would say that circumcision is necessary in order to please God. But I wonder if we have our circumcision equivalence. You know, we have this idea, I think probably from our own sin nature, our own bent towards self-righteousness, perhaps from some well-meaning but very dangerous teaching that we've received from parents or Christian leaders. But perhaps there's something that we've kind of added to the gospel. And we've said, now, if you really want to please God, of course you need Jesus, but you also need to, and now you can fill in the blank. The Judaizer said you needed to be circumcised as one example. We may say, if you really want to please God, you need to make sure that you do this or that you avoid that. And it may be some conduct. It may be the amount of time you spend in Scripture, which is a good thing, but it doesn't make you acceptable to God. It may be the kind of things you view or don't view or listen to or don't listen to. And those aren't insignificant things, but they don't make you acceptable to God. It might be the way you dress, which is important, but it doesn't make you acceptable to God. could take things like the length of your hair. Imagine the Apostle Paul saying, listen, if guys having a short haircut makes them acceptable to God, then go ahead and go bald, cut off all of your hair so you'll really be acceptable to God. And it's laughable, it's a joke. Now, you can fill in the blank with what the circumcision equivalent may be. But it is very tempting for religious people well-meaning people, conscientious people, to believe that God is more pleased with us because of anything we do. And let me tell you something, circumcision was not a bad thing. It was a thing that God commanded, but it was never intended to bring favor with God. It was never intended as something that somehow made you acceptable in the sight of God, and the Apostle Paul argues against it. The first case study that he gives us of false religion, of legalism, is the Judaizers. You say, yeah, I'm not like that. Well, the second case study that Paul gives us is himself. Look with me at chapter 3, and verse 4. He says there are people that have confidence in the flesh. They have confidence in their observance of the law. They have confidence in their own performance and they think God will receive them because they're so good. The Apostle Paul says, alright, let's talk about human performance. Let's talk about human merit. If you can earn the favor of God, let's see if I can do that. I'll put my spiritual resume against anybody's. You ever heard Brian Regan is a comedian, and he has this discussion about somebody at a party who's a meme monster. You ever heard of that? Somebody at a party that's just, me, me, me, me, me, I've done this, I've done that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me. And Brian Regan says, I always admire the few men in the world who have walked on the moon. And they can listen to all of these bragging and, you know, people one-up each other. You tell a story and they say, well, that's nothing. I have, and they try to advance the conversation. He says, imagine if you're one of the people that's walked on the moon, and whatever people say, you can kind of just sit back. He says, give them a line, let them run. And then you can say, I walked on the moon. All right, on top of that, you have a great story. That's a great story. I walked on the moon. You still want to compare, you know, you want to compare war stories? You want to compare scars? Well, the apostle Paul is saying, all right, let's play the game. These people are so impressed with their effort and performance. You want to compare stories? None of them have a story that compares to mine. He begins describing his resume, and he says in verse 5, circumcised the eighth day. All right, let's just get that out of the way. They are concerned about circumcision. Check. I've been circumcised. I was circumcised the eighth day. Okay, not later in life. According to Leviticus 12 and verse 3, I was circumcised the way a Jewish boy is supposed to be circumcised. So I've got that one covered. That was easy. Then he starts talking about his stock. his genes, his family. He says, not only circumcised the eighth day, but I'm gonna combine the next three statements. He says, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews. Okay, not only have I been circumcised, but I am a pure-blooded Jew. And I am of the tribe of Benjamin. I was named after the first king in Israel. Don't mess with me. You want to talk about your Jewishness? I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I am a man's man, is kind of the idea, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Next he goes on and he talks about not only his birth, not only something that happened to him as an infant boy, but now he says, as touching the law, at the end of verse five, I was a Pharisee. You want to talk about observance of the law? I was a Pharisee. I was a highly respected Pharisee. I got a PhD from Gamaliel University. I mean, I wasn't just an average religious Jew. I was a leader. I was a Pharisee. And I obeyed the law. He's going to say the same thing in verse 6. At a human level, I obeyed the law. Now he adds something that really none of the Judaizers could compare themselves with favorably. He says in verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. You want to talk about religious commitment? I mean, these guys are impressed because they harass you about circumcision. That is nothing. I persecuted the church. Now, we read this, and we know the story well, and our eyes kind of just run over it, and we yawn, and we move on, but when the Scripture talks about Paul's persecution of the church, this guy was so ambitious. He was so relentless. Don't forget what he did. You say, oh, it's talking about when he was there at the stoning of Stephen. Yeah, that was the beginning of it, If you want to look at Acts chapter 8, after the stoning of Stephen, here's what scripture says in Acts 8 verse 1. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women and committed them to prison. This great persecution in Jerusalem was all under the watch of Saul of Tarsus. And he wasn't content with Stephen's martyrdom. He says, now I want to go after other men. I want to go after women. I don't care who they are. I'm going to hunt them down. Chapter 9. Verse one says, Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. It's interesting to me how the Lord, when he converted, when he regenerated Saul of Tarsus, He redirected his passion. But Saul of Tarsus, we think of him as such an ambitious missionary. He always wanted to go to the next city, to the next city, to plant another church, to go to the regions beyond. That was true as a missionary. That was true as a persecutor of the church. He had that same ambition and drive, but it was in the opposite direction. And he says, I don't want to just be in Jerusalem. I want to go to another city, another place. I'll lock him up and I will I will bring bloodshed. I'll wreak havoc on the church." And now he says to the Judaizers, you want to talk about religious zeal? I persecuted the church. He's ashamed, but he uses himself as an example. Says in verse 6, regarding the righteousness that was in the law, I was blameless. I was blameless regarding the righteousness of the law. Was he perfect? No, he wasn't perfect. But regarding a human righteousness, an observable righteousness, a religious righteousness, he said, I did it. I kept the rules. Everybody was impressed by me. I was blameless. You remember in the message yesterday, I said, if you think you can find satisfaction outside of Christ, you need to compare yourself to Solomon. If Solomon and Ecclesiastes couldn't find satisfaction under the sun, I mean, he was richer than you. He had a thousand women. He had so much wisdom, so much success. If Solomon couldn't find satisfaction outside of God, you certainly can't. Well, let's apply the same reasoning to Saul of Tarsus. If Saul of Tarsus could not please God by rules and regulation and effort and intensity and desire and good intentions, if Saul couldn't please God based on performance, you certainly can't. Saul had quite a resume. We come to the portion of Scripture where he says that all of those impressive things He counted but loss. Look with me in verse seven. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. I could either hold on to my performance or I could have Christ. I couldn't have both. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I do count them but dung so that I may win Christ." He's not describing just a rearrangement of his priorities. He's describing utter and absolute repentance. Please hear me on this. If you were to meet a Buddhist, or a Hindu, or a Muslim, and you told them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they said, you know, that is beautiful. And here's what I would like to do. I'm going to continue my Buddhism, but I'm going to add Christianity. I'm going to continue being a Hindu, but I'll also be a Christian. We would say, no, the Bible says you can't do that. The Bible commands you to repent. 1 Thessalonians 1.9 says that the Thessalonians had turned to God away from idols. You can't have Buddhism and Christianity. You have to repent of Buddhism in order to believe Christianity. The Bible again and again and again commands us to repent. Isaiah 55.7 says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord. and He will have mercy and turn to God for He will abundantly pardon. The Bible calls you not only to believe in Jesus, but to repent of your sin and your righteousness. Saul is describing himself and he says, I had all of these spiritual credentials and I had to repent because my confidence in my performance was as damning a false religion as Hinduism or Buddhism. Paul's righteousness was sending him to hell. I began the message by saying, that unrighteousness will damn you, but not as quickly as righteousness, as your own righteousness. Look at verse 9, which really is the focal point of the text. He says, what I want, I'm counting loss. I think it's the language of repentance. I'm declaring spiritual bankruptcy. What Paul is saying is, I came to a point where I said, I have nothing. I have nothing. Nothing in my hands I bring. When I was a freshman here, I was in a class called Principles of Christian Growth. Dr. Minnick took us through the Sermon on the Mount, and he talked about those who are spiritually destitute, the poor in spirit. They have nothing. They know that they are wretched and blind and naked. And we come to Christ and say, I've got nothing to offer you. not my intensity, not my devotional life, not my circumcision, not my conservatism, not my best effort. I got nothing. The Apostle Paul says, I repented. I despaired of any other hope. I didn't want my own righteousness. Look at verse nine again. I wanted to be found in him, not having my own righteousness. And we just had a description of what that would have looked like. The righteousness, which is of the law, but instead I wanted to win. I wanted to gain this, that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. This religious man finally realized he had empty hands, an empty wallet, empty pockets, an empty account. He says, I've got nothing. My righteousness is going to damn me. Isaiah 64, six, you know well, it says, even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And Paul uses kind of a shocking word. He says, I counted these things as dung, as dung. What did he count as dung? Being a Hebrew of the Hebrew, being circumcised on the eighth day, certainly being a persecutor of the church, being blameless in his external efforts to keep the law. He said, it's not just that those things are subpar, they are dung. And I'm turning from them. I'm repenting of them. Calvin says, Paul acknowledges that nothing was so injurious to him as his own righteousness inasmuch as he was by means of it shut out from Christ. You repent of your righteousness and your unrighteousness. Depending on your own performance to any degree is a false religion as damning to your soul as Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam. It's a false religion. You say, well, what do you do instead? Verse 9 says, you repent of your righteousness and you rely on Christ alone. Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul is talking about his countrymen, the Jews, and he says, they keep trying to establish their own righteousness. It's an important phrase in Scripture. They're trying to establish their own righteousness instead of the righteousness of God. It's an earned righteousness, not an imputed righteousness. It's works, not faith. It's like Luke chapter 18. You know the picture in Luke chapter 18? Christ says, there is a Pharisee and he stands in the temple and he says, Oh God, I thank you that I am not like other men. And he goes through a list of his spiritual performances. And the Bible says that man was not justified. He was damned. He was condemned. He was lost. And of course, the contrast is with the publican. He comes to the temple, he can't lift up his head to God, and instead he beats on his chest and he says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The apostle Paul is playing both parts in Philippians chapter three. He said, there was a time when I was the Pharisee saying, God, I'm so good, you owe me something. And by God's mercy, he was stopped in his tracks and shown that his righteousness was damning. And then the apostle Paul actually became the publican that said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And he was saved. You don't trust your own righteousness. You trust in the righteousness of God. And you can read about it in Romans 1, 16 and 17. It talks about the gospel because therein the righteousness of God is revealed. Read Romans 3, 21 and 22, and it talks about the imputed righteousness of God. Beautiful passage. Please turn with me for a moment to 2nd Corinthians 5 Verse 21 Speaking of God the Father and his treatment of God the Son it says for he God Hath made him that is Jesus to be sin for us Who knew no sin? that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Not an earned righteousness, not a deserved righteousness, an imputed righteousness, which is a righteousness granted by faith. So Romans will talk about how we are justified by faith. Galatians will talk about how we're justified by faith. It is what? Theologians call an alien righteousness, an alien righteousness. What that means is we need a righteousness that comes from outside of us. It's foreign to us. It doesn't originate with us, it's outside. All we have is filthy rags, and we say, God, I need something outside of me, and we're given the righteousness of Christ. There are so many pictures of this in Scripture. I remember as a student listening to a message from Zechariah chapter 3, and on several occasions I heard it preached by Dr. Barrett, and it changed my life. It changed my life, because it's a picture imputed righteousness. It's a picture of justification. Turn for a moment. I'll give you a second to find it because whoever turns to Zechariah, right? We have this vision of Joshua, not Joshua the battle of Jericho, Joshua the high priest. I'll read five verses. Zechariah 3, says, and he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him, to oppose him, to accuse him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. and stood before the angel." And now we have Christ, the defense attorney, the advocate from 1 John 2, 1 and 2. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. And I will clothe thee with change of raiment." So I'm taking your filthy garments off. I'm clothing you with clean raiment. Verse 5, and I said, let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, stood by. Isaiah 61.10 says that the believer has been clothed in the robes of righteousness, not his own, the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ. Now, Zechariah, in one sense, doesn't finish the story. It says, the filthy garments are removed, clean garments are granted. And you say, that is beautiful. It is beautiful. So what happened to the filthy garments? What happened to the filthy garments? We took them off. What happened to the filthy garments? Were they washed? Were they burned? Were they hidden? Were they buried? And to complete the picture, we go to the New Testament, where we read again in 2 Corinthians 5.21, God made Jesus to be sin for us, even though He knew no sin. And the idea is the filthy garments are preserved and held awaiting the coming of Christ. And when he was crucified, the filthy garments of Joshua and the filthy garments of you and I were placed on Jesus. And he dies as a sinner, even though he was righteous. 1 Peter 3, 18, Christ also has once suffered for sinners, the just in place of the unjust, to bring us to God. He gives us his righteousness. like the parable of the wedding feast. A man dares to enter in his own clothes, and he's judged because he wasn't clothed in the provided robes that every other guest had. Paul says, I despaired of my own righteousness, my best effort. I depended on Christ. I needed a righteousness not my own, a righteousness that came through faith in Christ Jesus. There are so many beautiful illustrations. I think of Mark Twain's story, The Prince and the Pauper. There are two boys that look remarkably alike. That happens in novels. It's just good fortune. Two boys look a lot alike, and one's a king and one's a peasant, a prince and a peasant, and they say, for fun, let's trade garments, and they trade garments, and by trading garments, they trade destinies. The rest of the book is how the pauper is treated like a prince in spite of himself, and the prince is treated like a pauper in spite of himself, and it's a picture of justification. We're given the righteousness of Christ. Now, we sing of this. no merit of my own his anger to suppress. My only hope is found in Jesus' righteousness. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." He's saying, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. We're not the good people. Our righteousnesses will damn us. We turn from them, we repent of them, we count them lost, we count them dung, and we say, my only hope is faith in Christ and the imputed righteousness which God gives. Now, I conclude with this. Someone may worry and say, Pastor Chris, you keep saying it's not our effort, it's not our effort. Isn't this going to lead people to lose living? Aren't they going to be reckless and irresponsible? Listen, right after Paul says, I don't trust my own effort, I trust in the righteousness of Christ, I trust in justification, he begins telling us about how he stretched forward to grow, to progress in Christ's likeness. He wanted to apprehend, he wanted to make progress. The rest of the chapter talks about his sanctification. But the message of Scripture is this. It's not, do this and live. It's live and do this. It's what Will Galkin told us this morning. Because of our identity in Christ, now we can obey. But the obedience grows from our standing with God. It's not the cause of our standing with God. Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord. to repent of legalism. It's false religion. It tells us to rely on Jesus Christ alone, his imputed righteousness. And then he tells us the result is that we will reach for Christ's likeness. Verses 10 and following. Our self-identity is this, we're not the good people. We're sinners, the worst, the chief. We're saved in spite of us, not because of us. We realize that there are two kinds of righteousness and they are rivals. There is self-righteousness and true righteousness. We depend on true righteousness of Christ. Jesus alone, not Jesus plus. Now, I appeal to you. Some of you, you think Christianity is so hard. I keep trying and failing. I feel like giving up. I can't do this. I can't do it." Totally, you're exactly right. You can't do it. If you could have done it, then Jesus wouldn't have had to come. Stop trying. Say, Jesus, I've got nothing. Save me. And he will. You say, I'm already a Christian. I've already been born again. Okay, well, let me remind you, brothers. Let me warn you. Let me encourage you. This isn't just about how you get saved. It's your whole mentality of your approach to God. Tomorrow, I'm going to pray. And I'm not going to pray because, you know what, technically, I've been pretty good today. I didn't lust a lot, and I was pretty honest, and I'm not real proud. I mean, kind of. But I don't gauge my performance and say, I think I'm on praying ground. And then if I sin, I don't say, well, I can't pray today, because I sinned, and now I'm, ugh. Sometimes we talk about keeping short accounts with God, or getting right, and we have this idea that my relationship with God is really, it's here and there, depending on how I'm doing. Now, I'm not telling you that your obedience doesn't matter after salvation, but I'm telling you this, you never approach God because you've had a good day. It's the whole point of praying in Jesus' name. So I close with this. Try this for starters. Start your prayers in Jesus' name. Don't end them in Jesus' name. Don't just sign off. You know, in Jesus' name, sincerely, you actually start your prayer in Jesus' name and you say, God, I approach you in spite of my righteousness in spite of my unrighteousness. I approach you in spite of me because of Jesus, because of his righteousness, because of his blood. I pray in his name." That's what it means. I pray in his name because of him. And God, you hear me. And it's never because of me. It's in spite of me. You accept me because of Christ. Now help me to obey. Change me, grow me, make me like Christ in my habit, in my lifestyle, because you have declared me to be righteous in Christ, not by works, but by faith. Your righteousness will damn you. So you repent, and you despair, and you cling to Christ as your only hope every single day of your life. and he is sufficient. God help us, let's pray. I thank you, Lord, for the scriptures. Thank you for the ministry of the Spirit. I pray that you will apply your word to our hearts, change our flawed thinking, and increase our dependence on Christ alone. I pray that you'll minister. You know needs. I have no idea what's happening in the hearts of people here today. I pray that you, by your grace and for your glory, will work in hearts. When, Lord, when? Don't let Satan prevail. Show that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. When, I pray, and we will reserve all the glory for you. We pray in spite of us because of Jesus in his name, amen.