But let's go to the word of God this morning, the book of Philippians. And we're going to go through a quick Bible study. So fasten your seatbelts and try to as best you can to to stay with me. Hopefully everyone's had their Dunkin Donuts coffee. Yes. Oh man, I guess not. How many of you had coffee at least? You know, it may not have been Dunkin' Donuts, but I had mine this morning. It keeps me going in the morning. Philippians chapter number three, we're reading the latter portion of this letter, and we'll look at this good portion of this chapter, hitting the highlights. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, again, thank you for these, your people. Father, we lead busy lives. We've come to hear from you, not from Brother Pinto, but from you. So I pray that you'll speak to us through your word this morning. Challenge us where we need to be challenged and help us to apply. Lord, Father, we know that you don't want us just to be hearers, but doers of the word. And Lord, I need that. I need this this morning. And I pray that you would help, Lord, speak to our hearts, help us to be responsive. Jesus name Amen Paul is writing this letter to the church at Philippi and the church at Philippi as you as you most of you know, probably that he When he started this church, he started this church with two families Lydia and her and her family and then the jailer and his family and of course, we know what happened with the Philippian jailer and and what God did there, and what a wonderful story. Every time I read through that, it's, you know, I think we kind of take it for granted. Those of us have been saved for a while, and we've heard preaching and teaching on this chapter, but I never want to get, never want to let the scriptures grow old. And and I'll say, you know been there done that type of attitude So let's let's let's so I go over those stories and I say wow, you know God did a wonderful thing of planting a church in the midst of opposition But this church later on had been a blessing to the Apostle Paul. He's writing this letter on their house arrest he's in Rome and And he is writing this letter waiting to get before Caesar to plead his case. He was falsely accused of bringing a Jew into the, I'm sorry, a Gentile into the Jewish court there in Jerusalem. And of course, there was an impending riot when the Roman soldiers came down and rescued him from being probably stoned. And he was taken to Caesarea, and he was there for a couple of years. And his nephew said, look, if you go back to Jerusalem, there's a plot to have you killed. So he then falls on his citizenship with Rome and said, I want to bring my case to Caesar. And so he, of course, goes through that perilous trip across the Mediterranean, and we know about the shipwreck and all that. He gets to Rome, and then he has to wait another two years. under house arrest. How many of you have ever done anything with the state of South Carolina like registration or something like that, right? And you know what it is, right? Hurry up and wait type of thing. And that's basically what he had to do. He had to hurry up and wait. And as he's waiting, though, he's not moaning his situation. He's not complaining. If you read through the whole letter, you know how he starts his letter. He said, basically, and I'm paraphrasing, I have an opportunity to witness to the praetorium guard and give him the gospel. Probably chained to the guards that were guarding him and they were going through their shifts probably and he was able to witness to them and imagine that This Praetorium Guard was the special, kind of like the Secret Service, or speaking of Secret Service, right? Heard a lot about that lately. But they were probably close to the Caesar, Augustus himself, and probably Caesar Augustus may have gotten the gospel because of this situation. But Paul is rejoicing in that. He's telling the church, hey, I'm OK. I'm having an opportunity to be in ministry to get the gospel out where I'm at. Brothers and sisters, we're at a time in our nation's history where we're bemoaning and rightly so the condition of our country. But understand that, as I mentioned this morning, our condition in our country is a spiritual one. We are where we are because people are unsaved that need to hear the gospel unsaved people do unsaved things They think in terms of unsaved ideas It's not Bible. They're not thinking about God they obviously The world wants nothing to do with God and so they're doing what what what unsaved people do so the the ultimate answer is to reach unsaved people with the gospel and And so Paul is doing what he could to reach an unsaved Empire called the Roman Empire and he's doing it one person at a time Let me encourage you brothers sisters wherever you're at You know those those people that you meet every day in your routine your workplace your neighbors have they heard from you and Have you given them a gospel track? Have you spoken to them? You know, Paul is in a situation where he could easily be looking at the guard over to his right or left, or maybe both sides, I'm not sure, and say, well, there's a pagan, unsaved Roman Gentile dog who deserves to go to hell because after all, he's a pagan guard. He could have just, Stayed quiet, not say anything, but no, I believe he gave his testimony as to how the Lord saved him and that Jesus is the only way to heaven. And he was able to witness. He took advantage of the opportunity to witness. Let me encourage you, brothers and sisters, take the opportunity to get the gospel out this week. get the gospel out. That's the hope of our nation. That's what the Lord's waiting for. He's waiting for us as Bible-believing Christians to get the gospel out while there's time. And so that's what Paul was doing. He talks about that at the beginning of the letter. He sends this letter because They had just given him, through Epaphroditus, who was probably the pastor of the church there, he had given, the church there gave him a gift, probably a financial gift, helping him while he was under house arrest. So he's writing this letter, basically kind of like a missionary letter, thank you for sending your support. And so he's writing this letter to really thank them and encourage them at the same time And he never like I said, he never complains in this letter. You never see anything saying. Oh, what was me? I'm suffering for Christ. It's nothing not that kind of a of a spirit in the letter, but he's encouraging them He gets to the latter part of this letter and he says this in chapter 3 and verse 1 finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord and Now he's saying this from, you know, under house arrest. Rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but to you it is safe. You know, sometimes preachers, you know, what I'm going to preach this morning, you've heard before. There's nothing new. The Bible is still the same Bible. It's still teaching the same truths. And Paul is basically saying, you've heard this before, in a sense, he's saying, to write the same things. So he's kind of reiterating what he's taught them probably in person when he's stopped by to visit with them on his missionary journeys. It's not grievous, it's not something that should, you know, get you in a negative spirit or say, oh yeah, I've heard that before. Oh yeah, preacher, why do you keep saying the same thing? No, it's like he said, it's safe. He says, you need to hear this again. And brothers and sisters, God repeats a lot of truth in the scripture. Over and over and over again, and I and I think we need to be careful that we don't get bored with it that we don't kind of you know shut shut down because you know when you hear the preacher say turn in your Bibles, you know Those of us have been saved for quite a long time, you know fundamental Baptist we know the routine right and Right after the special, and thank you for that special, brother, appreciated it. We know it's time for the preaching, and so it's like, okay, turning your Bibles, and I think I, you know, sometimes, well, okay, we'll do it because it's time to do that, and then we get that glassy-eyed look, you know, that I'm getting from some of you right now, you know, you're kind of, I'm not sure, you know, the lights are on, but is there anybody home? I'm wondering with a few of you. All right? But I hope that you understand that God does that. Many times, He goes over the truths because we tend to kind of forget them. We tend to kind of just, you know, other things come to the forefront of our minds. You know, I have no idea what you're thinking about right now. There might be some things you're thinking about before you came this morning. There might be some things that are supposed to happen this afternoon that you're thinking about right now. But let me encourage you to, let's focus this morning and understand that God does go over some things more than once because they are important. And that's what Paul is saying here to the church at Philippi. And then he says in verse 2, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. When he mentions the concession, he's talking about obviously those Jewish Pharisees that were basically, we know that Paul was a Pharisee before he got saved, and so he was part of the leadership that was going about to persecute the church, and we know what happened on the road to Damascus. He trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior, and he was completely changed. And so now his burden is to reach those very people that he was working with to destroy the church. But a lot of those leaders said, whoa, wait a minute. We thought Paul was on our side working for us, helping destroy to put off, like Andy Griffith, right? Nip it in the bud, right? We're trying to stop this movement. We're trying to stop this movement, and now Paul is working against us. And so a lot of these Pharisees, they were going behind Paul and basically going to these churches that were being started, and they were going to these Gentile churches. A lot of them were Gentiles that were starting to come to know the Lord, and so it's like, wait a minute, Gentiles and Jews meeting in the same place, claiming that they are saved, that they have salvation, and what is this? And so they would go and they would try to convince or to teach the false doctrine that you have to be a Jew to really be saved. You just can't receive Jesus and that's it. You're a Gentile, you need to also become a Jew. And so Paul was saying basically, beware of these people. How many of you have pet dogs at your home? Raise your hand. Okay, a lot of you. You see the phrase, beware of dogs. I am sure that you're not thinking, not my dog. Not the dog that I bathe, not the dog that sits with me on the couch, that goes with me in bed, that I huddle and I cuddle and perfume and put clothes on. I don't know what else they do with dogs these days. I've seen a lot of things done with dogs today that I thought to myself, preacher, I'm thinking, I don't know that I would do that with my dog. But they're part of our family, right? So if you say beware of dogs, it doesn't have quite the impact, right? But what if I said to you, What if Paul would say, beware of rats? Now, anybody have pet rats? Nobody has a pet rat, okay? Dogs, during the time of Paul, were like the rats around garbage heaps, okay? So when he says beware of dogs, think of rats in our day and age, okay? Been to the big city of New York? Anybody been to the big city of New York or dare to be there? How many of you have ridden the subways or had enough courage to ride the subways? Of course, this is a guy thing probably, all right? But when I'm waiting for the next car, I go over to the edge and look down at the track to see the rats. Is there going to be a rat? And we're talking about rats. They're big. So it's like, I want to see those guys. But if I actually saw one on the platform, what would be your reaction? Whoa, right? You steer, you stay away. And that's what Paul is saying. Beware of these false teachers. So he's using dogs to kind of picture the idea that anyone that would add words to salvation, you need to steer clear, you need to beware of them. And in our day and age, you've got a lot of people, and there are some religions out there that will say, yes, you need to receive Jesus Christ, but you also need to, and whenever you hear that, but we also need to, Beware, okay? Beware. So Paul is saying, wow, steer clear of that kind of teaching because it's false. It's Jesus plus nothing minus nothing. And Paul, of course, came to that realization. And so he's reminding the church at Philippi, he's reminding those believers, watch out, beware of them. And then he goes on to say this, for we are the circumcision, in the next verse there, and he's talking about himself because he's a converted Jew, he trusted Jesus Christ. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. And look at that next phrase, has no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. And that's what salvation is. It's saying, Jesus, I receive you. I trust you alone for my salvation. It's not being a member of Freedom Baptist Church that's gonna save anybody, any more than being a member of my church, Gospel Light Baptist Church in Maine. That doesn't save anybody. It's not Jesus plus being baptized. It's not Jesus and then putting on a nice suit, a jacket, and cleaning up and being in a Sunday morning service. It's nothing, nothing, no works, not of works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Right, so Paul is just going over that again and he's saying we have no confidence. Those of us that have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior have no confidence in the flesh. I hope, my trust this morning, that every one of you understand that salvation is Jesus alone and that you are trusting in Jesus alone for your salvation. We have no confidence in the flesh. When we stand before God, the only reason why we will be in heaven is because of Jesus. There will be no righteousness that will compare with the righteousness of Christ. Anything that's good about any of us as believers is God working in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And it's going to be all the glory goes to Jesus. And so Paul is making that very clear here. Verse number four, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. You want to talk about good works? Okay, here's what I did before I trusted Jesus. Here's where I was at. Verse number five, circumcised the eighth day. Every male Jew had to be circumcised eight days after birth. of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisees." So he's basically saying, look, I was as Jew as any Jew can be. I came from the best tribe. And then he says, I was a Pharisee. A Pharisee was really a teacher in the synagogue. He read and studied and taught the Old Testament scriptures every Sabbath day, on Saturdays, and he would do that faithfully. Paul was not just a nominal Jew, he was a practicing Jew. He believed in all of the laws that were added to the Old Testament in the Jewish tradition. So he's saying, look, when it comes to good works, I did the good works. I was a good person. And maybe perhaps you're here this morning, you're thinking, you know, I'm not that bad. I'm good. I don't, you know, I don't commit any crimes. I'm good with my family. I'm a good husband. I'm a good wife, whatever the case might be, wherever you're at. And there are good people. All right. As far as we would say on a human level, what good is, right? And Paul would say the same thing. He would say the same thing about himself. Look at verse number six, concerning zeal. In other words, I put to practice what I was teaching. I wasn't just teaching this, the law, in the synagogues. I was putting it to practice with zeal. He says, touching the righteous, this always strikes me. Touching the righteous, which is in the law, what's the next word, church? Blameless. You know, he said, you know, as far as I was concerned, now again, this is Paul looking at Paul. I was pretty good. You know, I kept the law. I did what I should have done as a Pharisee. And then he says this in the next verse, but what things were gained to me, these righteousness, these good works that were gained to me, he says, in verse number seven, those I counted lost for Christ. Now, picture this. Paul is on his way to Damascus. He has the permission from the Jewish leadership to arrest any of these people of the way that believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that salvation was through Jesus. So he's on his way. We know the story. The Lord knocked him off his horse. He realized for the first time when he saw Jesus in all of his glory and holiness, he realized what he wrote in Romans. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. If you read through that book of Romans and you read, you know, the place where Jesus brought him to, he realized that even as a Jew, he was a sinner just like the Gentiles were. And for a Jewish man like Paul to come to that position, boy, the Lord had to humble him. The Lord had to bring him to that place. When we witness the people, brothers and sisters, and let me encourage you to witness the people and give out tracts, but understand, the Lord has to do a work in the heart of that individual to bring them to the place where they realize that they're sinners and they need a Savior. If you can't get them past the idea that, oh, yeah, I'm all set, I'm good, I go to this church, I go to that church, I'm a member here, I do this, I do that, you know, if that's where they're going to stay, then it's hard for them to see their need of a Savior. But Jesus came to the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle Paul, we've just finished reading, I'm blameless, I'm blameless. He sees Jesus in all of his holiness, and he realizes, boy, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And he's speaking of himself just as much as he's speaking of everyone else, Jew or Gentile. Church goer or not church goer? You know, religious person or not religious person? All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And when you think about this, God is three times holy. He is perfect. He's without sin. None of us are that. None of us are that. In motive, in action, consistently doing what God wants us to do, we've all failed in that. And Paul realized that. So he comes to that realization, and he's saying right here that, you know, he looks at all these good works, and he had to come to the place where he realizes, I'm gonna either trust in my good works to save me, or I'm gonna trust in Jesus Christ 100%. It's either or. You can't mix the two. It's like oil and water. You cannot mix them. They're gonna separate. And so before Jesus Christ, Paul comes to this conclusion, and he is really sharing this in the letter, just reminding the Philippian believers that it's not by works of righteousness, and I was a good Pharisee. I kept the law. In his mind, I did what I was supposed to do, but I counted those things loss. So he's looking at this and he's saying, forget the good works, I chose Christ. Verse number seven. Verse number eight, yea, doubtless, 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, all these good works, but dung that I may win Christ. So, you know, the Lord brought him to that position. You have to just admit. You have to repent. You have to confess. I need Jesus Christ. I can't be good enough to go to heaven. I cannot be good enough. All of my good works, they're not gonna cut it. That word dung is a strong word. I use this illustration many times. I may have used it here, I'm not sure, the last time I was here, but I'm a single guy and I go to churches and we have many times, like this evening, there'll be a meal for the whole church family and there'll be leftovers. And the ladies, of course, knowing that I'm a single guy, they feel sorry for me. And they say, Brother Pinto, we've got some food left over. What we're going to do is we're going to give you that leftover food. We're going to put it in a container. You can take it with you, and you can microwave it at home, and you can have something to eat. So I said, thank you very much. And I take it with me, and I go home with it. And ladies, you'll be proud of me. I actually put it in the refrigerator. So that's a good start, right? So I put it in the refrigerator and the problem with me is that when I put it in the refrigerator, somehow or other it gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator and it stays there and I forget all about it because, of course, I just reach in and get what's at the front of the refrigerator, right? So I'm grabbing, I'm grabbing what's at the front of the refrigerator. And then the day comes when I finally go like this and I look and I bend over and I see there's a container in the back of the refrigerator. Oh, there's a container back there. OK. And I go, well, there has to be a leftover. I forgot all about it. This could be weeks ago. Could have been months sitting at the back of the refrigerator. So I pull that container, not even knowing what's inside. I open it up. And you can imagine, it's some kind of a fuzzy green culture that's been growing in there who knows how long. I would imagine that the scientists would be glad to kind of examine it and see what kind of life forms have grown off of it. Who knows? Looking at it and of course leash, you know what that means, right? I gotta throw it all out But wait a minute women. What if I decide that? Like if it's like a piece of meat and only half of it has the fuzz growing on it and the other half doesn't Would it be okay if I just cut the part that has a fuzz and throw that off and then eat the rest of it? Would that be okay? No Why not? It doesn't have anything growing off of it You still don't recommend I eat it, right? Throw the whole thing out? How many would say, throw the whole thing out, Brother Pinto? But wait a minute. But part of it's good. But I still need to throw the whole thing out? Okay. That's the way God looks at our good works. You see, we stick to that good part. We say, yeah, but Lord, I did this and I know this. And the Lord looks at that like we look at my, you know, rotten leftovers that I pull out of the refrigerator months later. That's the idea of the word dung. None of it's good, throw it all out. When Paul came to Jesus, he had all of this good works list, and Jesus said, no, can't use any of it. It's no good. Remember that verse from the Old Testament. Our righteousnesses are as what? Filthy rags. Of course, don't want to be gross this morning in a mixed crowd, but a filthy rag is something you got to throw out you don't even consider keeping. Okay? That's the way God looks at our good works. That's how holy God is. And I think that we have to have that renewed understanding of who God is. And that only comes from really getting our minds to the scripture and realizing that we need Jesus Christ for salvation. There's no other hope. And so Paul is basically reiterating his salvation experience in a way to teach the Philippian believers, if good works is not gonna do it, then do it for me, won't do it for anybody else. I was religious, but that wasn't good enough. I came from the best tribe, best tribe as a Jew, that wasn't good enough. I was sincere in my belief. That's the idea of concerning zeal, persecuting the church. He did that because he honestly believed he was serving God. Sometimes we can be sincerely wrong, okay? Sincerity doesn't justify our actions. We've gotta go to a standard, and the standard is the holiness of God, the righteousness of God. We come short of that, we missed it. And so Paul is, again, making sure that the Philippian believers understand, whatever these Pharisees have told you, that you have to become a Jew, that's not gonna cut it. I looked at my Jewish works, and I had to decide, you know what? I'm gonna count them but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, because Jesus is holy, Jesus is God, Jesus is the Messiah that we're looking for. He's my only hope of salvation. He's my righteousness, so I'm gonna take that. because that's the only thing God will accept. So he goes through that portion and reminding the Philippian church about what true salvation is. It's all Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to say this, I want, verse number nine, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, of course he listed that earlier, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That righteousness that Jesus Christ gives to us when we depend on him 100% for our salvation. The moment we've come to Jesus Christ, we're saying, can't depend on my righteousness, it's not good enough, it's done, gotta throw it out before God. And what God gives us in place of our sinfulness is the righteousness of Christ. And think about that. When I came to Jesus Christ and I asked him to save me, all I had was my sin. He took my sin, he took your sin, if you've trusted Christ as Savior, and he put it on himself. He became sin for us when he died on the cross. He suffered the punishment that we deserve to suffer. And then in place of our sin, he gave us his righteousness. What a swap, think about that. This is what Paul is referring to here. I want the righteousness which is of God by faith. You only get it when you trust what God says 100% in the word of God. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but through his mercy, because of his mercy he saved us. This is Paul's desire now as a believer. that I may know him, verse number 10, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. There was a part. There is a verse in Galatians 2.20. I think a lot of you may have it memorized. I am crucified with Christ. How many know that verse? You have it memorized? Okay. There is a song that I remember from that, putting this verse to music. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ. me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. How many know that tune? Okay, let's try it, ready? I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That capsulizes Paul's life and his testimony. When he came to Jesus, he came with good works, that wasn't good enough. And he realized that, I need to die to that. Probably, I would say, a lot of the pastors that I've baptized have used the phrase, buried in a likeness of his death, raised in a likeness of his resurrection, or something like this, raised to walk in newness of life. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. The Holy Spirit comes and resides in us, and there's a change that takes place. Even though we don't, you know, at the point when I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I didn't realize what was going on. I knew I needed Jesus, but I didn't understand all that the Lord was doing at that moment when I trusted him. But we became new creatures, new creations. I love this passage, it's in the same book, Philippians, I think I already quoted it, chapter number two and verse number 13. You might wanna turn to it, look at it, you may have marked it, you may have it memorized. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. From the moment that I trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, He gave me new desires. How many of you had that experience? New desires. Before I got saved, I was a Catholic. growing up in the Catholic religion as a boy, and that's all I knew. And then I had a friend of mine come and witness to me about the Lord and ask me the question, are you saved? And for the first time I heard that question, I thought, okay, literally, right? Yeah, it was one time I almost drowned and I'm, no, no, no, no, that's not, that's not it. And he tried to explain to me what salvation was from the Bible. And so after much witnessing, he wasn't sure that he was doing it right. So he said, why don't you come with me to a Wednesday night Bible study? And again, you have to understand, this was all kind of weird for me. For one, I didn't like going to, any former Catholics here? Okay. Okay. A couple of you probably would understand this, but they would have what they call a mass. That's the Catholic service. And I would go to the 12 o'clock service. on Sunday because I didn't have to wake up early. And it was only about 35 minutes long. And they had a rock band, which I enjoyed listening to during the service. And so I did my religious duty. But my mother was the one that was kind of saying, you need to do this, you need to do this. I didn't have any desire. I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior on a Wednesday night at the pastor's home. Now, just going to the pastor's home, really, the whole thing was kind of strange to me. First of all, I didn't want to go, but I was encouraged to go. And it was at a pastor's house. And I'm going, that's not a church. And it's on a Wednesday night. That's not a church day. So the whole thing is strange. But I realized that I wanted to know Christ. I wanted to have that salvation. So I went. The pastor, we knocked at the pastor's house door, and the pastor's wife answers the door. Curtis, my friend, introduces me to the pastor's wife. I brought my friend Raul. He wants to trust, he wants to be saved. And so, she got excited and she said, she turned over and she said, Bob. Curtis brought a friend of his and he wants to get saved. So she was all excited I didn't know what I was getting myself into. She's excited. I'm going. Oh, okay What are they gonna do right? And so the pastor comes to the door. He takes me over to the dining room He opens the Bible and shows me from the Bible how to be saved I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. And we went down to the small family room where he had some chairs set up and a pulpit, and turning your Bibles, which again, was, you know, we take it for granted, right? But we didn't bring Bibles to the Catholic Church. We didn't need it. And I didn't have a copy, per se, a small copy to bring with me, and I never thought about doing that. But after all of that, I go home. And I say, Mom, I got saved. Now, imagine, you know, Mom, my mother was a nominal Catholic. She didn't go to Mass, you know, regularly at all. And she's going, okay, okay. And so, I gave her the brochure. It said, Faith Baptist Church. And she's looking at the brochure and she's, This is a Baptist church. I take my father's name, so I was junior, okay? Junior, this is a Baptist church. You're a Catholic. Mom, I got saved, I got saved. You know, it's like that didn't say anything to me. But I trusted Jesus Christ as my savior. And then it wasn't long before I found myself going to church on Sunday. And first, especially that first Sunday, you know, they knocked on my door. Are you going to come to church tomorrow, Raul? And I said, sure, what time? And they said, we'll come by about a quarter to nine. Quarter to nine. quarter to the nine in the morning, and I'm going, a quarter to the nine? I'm used to going at 12 o'clock, mass, you know, I'm going, okay. You know, and sure enough, they came by, they picked me up. They took me over. At that time, the church had just got started, was just planted. That's why we need church planters in New England. The pastor altar came to start. the Faith Baptist Church in Wallingford, Connecticut. If it wasn't for laborers coming and seeing the need in New England, I would not be here today. And so that fall, I trusted Jesus Christ and they were meeting in a school building for church on Sundays. So they take me over there and of course there was Sunday school. And then there was the morning service. But I was just used to a 12 o'clock mass for 35 minutes. So we go to Sunday school. We split up for Sunday school. And so I thought that was a service. So after Sunday school is over, everybody's gathering at the gym, and I'm ready to go out the door. Okay, I'm going. Where are you going? I said, well, it's over, right? Oh, no, no, there's another, there's a morning service, and I'm thinking to myself, another service? Didn't we just have a service, right? So I'm going, okay. So we go in there, and we go into the gym, and they had the chair set up and all that, and the pastor preached, and we left, and he took me home, probably, it was probably close to 1230. I left at a quarter to nine. So I go get in the door, and it's like, My mother was thinking, what were you doing all this time? I said, Mom, we're having church for two hours. I don't know. I mean, that's what they do, I guess. And you know what, Mom? They invited me to come to church tonight. She said, oh, no. You had enough church. No church tonight for you. But you know what? The Lord was already working in me, both the will and to do of his good pleasure. And I find myself wanting to be with God's people. And so sure enough, the following Sunday, I was there Sunday night and then didn't want to miss Sunday school, didn't want to miss Sunday school, didn't want to miss Sunday school, didn't want to miss the morning service, didn't want to miss the Sunday night service, didn't want to miss the Sunday night service. And and so all of that was my mother thought, what? What were you drinking over at the pastor's house? You know, what were you smoking over there? Here's the thing. The thing is that when the Lord comes in, He gives us new desires. He gives us new desires. He changes us from the inside out. Paul's talking about that. He's saying it's not Paul anymore trying to do, trying to please God. It's Jesus and just Jesus changing me from the inside out. And that's the idea. I am crucified with Christ, the old guy that I was. That's dead now. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And so Paul goes on to say that I may know him And the power of His resurrection, the idea of a new life. Are you living differently since you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? If you've trusted Christ, the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. We're not talking about perfection here. What we're saying is, is that Lord gives us a new desire and there's just something about what the Lord does inside of us that it's like we can't be like we were before. And so that's what Paul is saying here. It's about Jesus and me, and I want to get to know him. I want to get to know who he is. I want to get to know what he likes. I want to get to know what his will is. And that encompasses all of verse 10 there, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship. When we have fellowship, we're together, correct? We're having the same experiences. Paul is basically saying, I want to have the same experiences that Jesus did when he suffered for me when he died on the cross for me. And I'm stopping on purpose. Think on that. I want to suffer like Jesus suffered for me. And he did in his ministry. We know that he was stoned. We know that he experienced the beatings for the cause of Christ. But he did it because that's what he desired to do. It wasn't a problem for him to suffer for Christ. being made conformable unto his death. The idea is the old man's gone, the new man, Jesus, is living in me, and I want more of that. I want more of that. What I wanna encourage us as a church family to think on this morning is this, is that Paul is writing this letter 30 years after he trusted Christ. He's 30 years into the ministry. How many of you would believe that outside of Jesus Christ, that Paul was probably the greatest Christian that we know of in the Bible? How many would agree with that, okay? I would probably think of Paul as probably be one of the greatest Christians that we read about in the New Testament. He's 30 years now. He's under house arrest. He's writing this letter to encourage the Church of Philippi. And he's saying what he's going to say now, we're going to read, really think about this. He could have just rested on his laurels. He could right now he is. In a sense, being persecuted for for preaching the gospel. He's going to stand before Caesar so that he can be free, so he can go back to preach. But he spent four years unable to do what he was doing. Two years in Caesarea before he goes to Rome for another two years, and all because he's doing what the Lord called him to do, to preach the word. He was faithful at it. You could say that he could have done one of these things, I'm an evangelist. I'm a pastor. I'm a missionary. I suffered for Jesus. The Lord actually has used me to write a good portion of the New Testament. And remember, he talks about how the Lord took him up to the third heaven. Remember that? And he speaks of that in third person because he doesn't want to make like he's boasting. Unfortunately, he felt like he had to do that because his authority as an apostle was being challenged. But think of all of the experiences Paul had. Think of all that he did for Jesus. And he could have just said, yeah, you know, I'm the great apostle Paul. But you know he didn't say that. I believe that if Paul were a live today preacher and he was standing here and we were to say, Paul, we believe you are the greatest preacher, missionary, evangelist, he would have been embarrassed. He, look at what he says. This is what really, I think, is a challenge to us. It should be. Verse number 12, he says, not as though I had already attained. Attained what? The resurrection from the dead. The idea is, I wanna be like Jesus. I wanna live a life in such a way so that no one sees Paul, but everybody sees Jesus in me. And he says, not as though I had already attained or achieved that goal. Either we're already perfect or complete. But I follow, I pursue, I follow after that if I may apprehend that for which I'm also apprehended of Christ Jesus. That's a mouthful there, but basically the Lord saves us so that we can be like him. He apprehends us so that he can change us. If any man be in Christ, he is a what church? A new creature, that's the goal. God the Father wants us to be like his son, Jesus. When he saved Raul Pinto, he saved Raul Pinto from Raul Pinto. He saved you from you. And what he wants to see in you and in me, he wants to see Jesus in us. Not a better brother Pinto. There is no better brother Pinto. No such thing. There is Jesus in me, the hope of glory. Paul talks about that. And he says, I follow after that. So then he says in verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. Remember, 30 years later in full-time ministry. He says, but this one thing I do, forgetting 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. I'm pressing to be more like Jesus. I'm not stopping. I am not coasting. I'm not thinking I've arrived. And the thing that I think is a challenge for those of us who've been saved for decades is that we've become comfortable perhaps, maybe a little, you know, I don't want to say this, but perhaps maybe we're just too comfortable complacent in our spiritual walk where we think we're there. We're here, you know, Sunday morning, we're not, you know, we're not home, we're not in the pool, we're not going out, you know, staying away from church on a warm summer day in South Carolina. No, we're here, you know, with our good clothes, and we're here, we sing our congregational songs, so it's almost like we're just, okay, we're doing that, so, you know, we're good. But really, Paul is saying here, look, I haven't arrived to the place in my spiritual walk with the Lord where I feel like I'm good, that I've arrived, that I'm doing everything that the Lord wants me to do to be like Him. I keep pressing toward the mark. I don't want to coast. I don't want to think I've arrived. And I wonder in our fundamental Baptist churches, in our country, where we've kind of gotten used to the routine. And there's a couple of us that understand the ritualism of Catholicism, right? We knew what to do when we walked in. You walk in, and you didn't have to go every Sunday to the Catholic church. They had a little pamphlet in the pew. to give you the order of the service. So in case you haven't been there for months, no problem. I'll just, what do I do next? What do I do next? Okay, I stand up here. Okay, it says sit here. Respond to the priest here. Okay. Okay, sit down. Amen, and pray. Okay, and yeah. But of course, we don't have that as Baptists, right? Fundamental Baptists. But we pretty much know the routine, don't we, when we walk in? For years, I was the music director at our church in Connecticut. And we'd always fill out what I call the menu, but basically an order service. Basically, we would start off with a special, or actually an opening song, right? Prayer, special. Congregational song. Congregational song. Shaking hands, probably, at that point. Then after that, announcements, offering. Then after that, one more song. And then, can anybody guess after that one last song what would be next? Special, see, you got it down, right? Special, right? And after the special, the preaching, all right? Yeah, and you know, depending upon what church we're in, we get into that kind of mode, and I'm not against having an orderly service, so don't misunderstand me, but I think what we've done is, okay, I did all those things, and preacher preached, and it wasn't as long as Brother Pinto's message, so amen, praise the Lord, God bless, amen. Well, preacher, thank you, God bless you. I might make it tonight. I'm not sure. I got some things going this afternoon, so I'll try and be there, right? And we're good. We go home, and we're feeling good. But Paul never got to that place. He never got to that place. And that's what challenges me, brother. Because I'm thinking, I don't know that I could claim anywhere near the experiences and the price that Paul paid in ministry. Never. I can't. I can't even touch the hem of the garment. And he has come to the place where he says, I've not arrived? So what does that do for the rest of us? Where does that leave us? We've got some work to do, do we not church? We need to be pressing. And it doesn't matter what age you're at, we all have different areas of our life that we should be pressing toward the mark. I know that I don't pray the way I should. I know that I'm not in the word as much as I should be. I know that I am not giving out the gospel as much as I should be. And after 50 years of being a believer, I should be doing more than I've ever done in my life, in my spiritual life. But you know what? I find myself, it's so much easier to coast. It's so much easier to say, yeah, I've been there, done that. And all I'm trying to do this morning of church is say, church, look, our country is dying because of us. If we're honest with ourselves, Our church is dying not because of President Biden. Okay? And I'm not trying to be political. I might probably get a few people giving me angry stares right now about this. But all I'm saying is, it's not about the politics. It's about what's happening in local churches this morning. You see, you know what Jesus is doing this morning? If any man will open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. That's Jesus trying to get into Bible-believing churches. He's not knocking at the door of the White House this morning. He's not knocking there, okay? In fact, I hope that you've been praying for President Biden. Whatever your feelings are, we are commanded to pray for the President. By the way, when Jesus, when Timothy, when Paul wrote that letter to Timothy, and he talked about praying for those that, you know, in leadership, you know who was in leadership then? Who was in leadership? Nero. A pagan, godless man who committed more believers to death than probably any of the Caesars that ruled Rome, any of the emperors that ruled. He said, pray for them. We should be praying for him. We should be praying obviously for God's will in the election. I'm not against that. I think we should be salt. I think we should be light in our country. I believe that we as believers should be salt and light in respect to our voting. I'm not against that. But brothers and sisters, God is looking to the church house, not to the White House, as to whether or not the United States should be spared. It's up to us. And we need to be like the Apostle Paul right now. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So the question that comes to me is, how's my prayer life? How's my Bible life? When was the last time I gave a tract to somebody? This morning I was, the Holy Spirit got after me and said, you got your coffee, You got your egg and cheese on a multi-grain bagel, and here's a man right now that needs to get a gospel tract. I didn't have a tract on me. I go to the table. I'm eating. And the Holy Spirit says, you need to give a gospel tract to that gentleman. Anybody ever have a consistent Holy Spirit talking to you, right? And you're trying to, and how many have tried to ignore it? Yeah. And finally, I said, okay, Lord, I'll do it. So I'm going out the door. I go into the glove compartment, not because Brother Pinto is some great Christian, but because I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and I need to do this. And I got two trascas of another gentleman that saw me walking out on a Sunday morning, humid, hot. Okay, this guy is different. Right? Didn't have time to talk to either of those two gentlemen, but I put those tracts on the counter because the Holy Spirit said, do it. And God, like the seed, He spread the seed. Brothers and sisters, when was the last time we gave the tract out to somebody? Talk to somebody about the Lord. That's what Paul is talking about. I press in these areas. There's so much more we could say, but for lack of time, let me encourage you tonight, this morning, all right? We talked about save New England, but all of our country needs to be saved, right? But how is that gonna happen? It's gonna happen if we take up Paul's challenge. I press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'm not going to coast. I'm not going to stop witnessing. I'm not gonna stop reading my Bible. I'm not gonna stop praying. I'm gonna keep doing more. One more passage of scripture and we're done. Hebrews chapter 10. You know this passage very well. Pastors probably preached on it, hit on this. You've heard other preachers hit on this, and you go, oh, I know where you're going, Brother Pinto. Hebrews 10.25, I can know it already. I have it memorized. All right, great. Hebrews 10.25 is in a context, in a chapter that I would encourage you to read in its entirety, and I think it'll have more of an impact on you. But this is the verse that impacts me, not just verse 25, but all of the chapter. But look at verse 25, again, you know it. Not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together as the manner of some is. And you're here this morning, so you're not doing that. But look at the last portion of this. But exhorting one another, and look at the last phrase. And so much the what, church? So much the what? More? As you see the day approaching? Do we know what that day is? What is that day? How many of you believe that Jesus is coming soon? Okay. So you know what that, so you know, for lack of, you know, just for the sake of this message, I believe God's using the Apostle Paul here under inspiration of Scripture. So much the more. So don't forsake, but so much the more, as you see the day approaching. In other words, the closer it comes to the coming of Christ, we should be assembling more. We should be having more church services. More church services? What if your preacher got up and said, you know, brothers, we wanna make an announcement. Starting this week, we're gonna have church every night at seven o'clock. Yeah, we'd be going, preacher, can I talk to you? Right? We'd be going, right? In the New Testament, Book of Acts, they met every day. Do you think that the First Testament believers in Christ were just sitting around, nothing to do, Waiting for the apostles to have church? They had work. They had families to support. They had things to do, places to go. Now, I am not saying, you know, that you need to have church every night, but my point is this. When these 3,000 people got saved in the book of Acts, They were so hungry and thirsty for spiritual things that they did their best to always be under the hearing of the preaching and the teaching of the gospel that they wanted more. They weren't satisfied with just one or two services. They took in as much as they could take in. concern for me, for us in our churches in the United States of America is that we're just kind of, oh, hum about all of it. There's a hunger that's lacking. There's a spiritual thirst that's lacking. You know, we want to do less, not more. And the Bible says we should be doing more. So that means I should be witnessing more. That means I should be praying more. That means I should be godly in God's people. Every time the doors are open, I should be there at least. Never missing Sunday school, morning service, evening service, midweek service. That's the minimum. Why? Because I believe Jesus is coming soon. Why pass out tracts? Because I believe Jesus is coming soon. Why should I be in my Bible every day? Because I believe Jesus is coming soon. You see the impact of that? If we really believe that, then we should be doing so much more, not less. And Paul was saying, really, towards the end of his ministry, I want to do more. Paul, you want to do more? Let me encourage you this morning. Go over those passages of scripture. Pray that in whatever area where we need to press the reset button, let's do it. Let's do more. Maybe in your prayer time, maybe in your Bible time, maybe in just giving out the gospel, being a witness. All of these empty spaces should be saying to us, there are more people to reach. There are more people that need the gospel. Let's do more of it. Let's do more of it. That's what we're saying. I say the wingland. We're seeing churches planted, but we need more We're seeing God do a work in parts of New England, but we need to see more why because Jesus is coming He may come before the day's over Let's stand with our heads bowed eyes closed. Thank you for hanging in there with me father. I thank you for your word Lord, there's so much there, but I believe I gave what you wanted me to give to your people and Now I pray, Lord, help us. Help us to realize that we need to keep pressing in our spiritual lives. Father, help us not to be content with wherever we are, whatever level we're at spiritually. Help us to realize that we need to go forward, that we need to press toward the mark to be more like you, Lord Jesus. Oh, Father, help us to hunger and thirst. for righteousness, help us not to put our spiritual lives