Philippians 3:1-11 - Pursuing Jesus By Trusting Him Alone

Main Idea: You must abandon all efforts at self-righteousness & turn to Jesus alone for a relationship with God Himself.

1. JESUS’ RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SURPASSINGLY BETTER

a. He is God incarnate.

b. He is the only perfect human.

c. His payment for sin & victory over death is final.

2. HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LAUGHABLY INFERIOR

a. We attempt to redefine true righteousness.

b. Our best efforts do nothing to make us perfect.

c. Our endeavors to add to Christ cause everything to fall.

d. Since He paid it all, we’re called to simply rejoice in Him.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

We have been in a study of the Book of Philippians, and I have really, really enjoyed this time together in God's Word. I hope that it's been a blessing and a challenge to you. As each week, we've dived into different ways in which we pursue Jesus.

We pursue Jesus by loving others, by focusing on Christ and not being worried about maybe people and their opinions or what they're doing, but focusing on following Jesus wholeheartedly, focusing on kind of His end goal that we realize if we are

here, we are here to serve others. And if God takes us home, it's glory forever. But while we are here, we are here to serve others.

We've learned about what it is to pursue Jesus by seeking His kingdom and His righteousness and discovering that we ought to live, behave as citizens of His kingdom and not of this earth's kingdom.

We learned about having a humility and a service and a love for others.

We learned last week about appreciating those that invest in us and do for us what Christ would do if He was here, of serving us, loving us, encouraging us, and how we ought to show that same love and encouragement to others.

And today we are entering into what's been termed kind of Paul's theological autobiography. So Paul is the man that's writing this letter to the church at Philippi.

They'd sent one of their pastors, Baphroditus, with a gift to help Paul while he was kind of on a house arrest imprisonment in Rome.

And he sends this letter back with Baphroditus to thank them for their gift and to interact with a couple of problems that the church was encountering, encouraging them in their faith, encouraging them, follow Jesus in all of these ways.

But Paul didn't start off being like this great spiritual apostle, this messenger of God, this scripture writer. That's not where he started off. And this chapter dives into how he came to view the world through the lens of Jesus.

That's what the entire book of Philippians has been about, viewing life through who Jesus is and what he's done. And Paul here details how he got to that point. I want you to travel mentally with me back 2,000 years to the city of Jerusalem.

There was a young man that was there in Jerusalem, about 600 or so miles away from home. He was kind of from the Turkey region, and now he was down in Jerusalem.

He was training under one of the most prestigious teachers of the Old Testament law, and he was a very, very zealous religious man. This young man had learned the Old Testament scriptures extensively.

He had memorized all 613 commandments that were in the Old Testament law, and not only that, he memorized all of the laws that they put on top of those 613 laws.

That they said, okay, well, you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, so we're going to make sure that you don't sow any seeds on the Sabbath, that you don't pick any nuts and break a nut open and eat it. That's working on the Sabbath.

There were laws on laws on laws, and this young man knew all of them.

He heard about a new heretical group that claimed that the promised Savior of Israel, the Messiah, the King who would usher in God's kingdom and reign on earth, that he had come in the person of Jesus from the tiny town of Nazareth.

The blasphemers who followed this Jesus weren't just content to believe this themselves. They were consistently in the temple complex telling other people that they too needed to believe in Jesus.

Of course, that was completely against God's law, this young man thought, and Israel had already been exiled from the promised land once.

And the young man did not want God to punish Israel again for allowing these proclaimers of a false Messiah God to speak their heresy freely. So he worked with the religious rulers, and they gave him the power and authority to arrest these heretics.

He wasn't lazy about following these orders. He went door to door, nowadays, if someone's going door to door, maybe they're selling a rainbow vacuum, maybe they're with the Jehovah's Witnesses.

This man was going door to door to find people who believed in this Messiah, to arrest them, to throw them into prison where they would be killed. He did such a great job that the heretics scattered across Israel.

They went to nearby Samaria and even went as far up as into Syria.

Hearing about a group of them in the city of Damascus, the young man asked the leaders of his religious group, the Pharisees, if he could follow them and then bring them back to Jerusalem for trial and punishment.

They wholeheartedly endorsed his mission and he began his journey. As he got almost to that kind of central city of Damascus, Scripture would tell us that a light shone from heaven.

It blinded the young man, Saul, the others that were with him traveling, because he couldn't drag all of these heretics back to Jerusalem by himself.

So the people that were with him, they saw the light and they heard the sound of a voice speaking, but only Saul heard the voice. And the voice said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads.

That would be something that you would put in an ox to move it in a particular direction.

And the young man who had given his whole life to knowing the Old Testament scriptures, to knowing the commands on commands on commands, realized in that moment who he was persecuting was not heretics. He was fighting against God's people.

And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, the one you're persecuting. He sent him to go into Damascus, where he said a Christian named Ananias would give him back his sight.

He did. And he became the greatest proponent of Christianity. He would travel all across Europe, across Asia Minor, declaring the gospel, preaching about this Jesus that he had once fought so hard against.

He would come to the realization from talking with other Christians that Jesus had come to this earth, that he had lived a perfectly sinless life. He was truly God in the flesh. He was the King of Kings.

He had come to set up God's kingdom, but it wasn't a kingdom that overthrew the Empire of Rome. It was a spiritual kingdom.

It was one in which people from every nation, from every group of people, from every language, not just the Jews, everyone could enter into and be a part of God's kingdom. So that's what he went around preaching and declaring.

He set up communities of Christians, of believers in Jesus all across the known world. It got so bad that people said that he had turned the world upside down. Truthfully, it was Jesus that had done it, but he did it through this man, Paul.

But there were some that were still in the belief system of Judaism that said, okay, we think Jesus is the Messiah, but you need Jesus and you need to bring along all of these other things.

You don't have to give up the 613 commands and the commands on commands in order to follow Jesus. In fact, you have to bring all of those other things along with you. Through much of Paul's ministry, this was the battle that he was facing.

He had some times where other religions, where maybe the Greek gods or the Roman gods and those that worshiped them, got upset with Paul for certain things.

But in almost every town he went to, the main persecution he endured was not from those worshiping entirely false gods. It was those that were trying to say, you need Jesus and this. They were called the Judaizers.

They were those that wanted to marry what Jesus had done with what they could do. Last year, our church went through the Book of Galatians, and I know Pastor Ron walked through many of these truths with us.

And today, Paul is warning the Philippians about both this group of people, but he wants to teach them a better underlying truth, the same truth that we're going to look at this morning.

That you must abandon all efforts at self-righteousness and turn to Jesus alone for a relationship with God himself. We're going to do something a little different this morning.

We're going to walk through the passage together, and then look at two points at the end of the message. So normally we work all the way through it.

We're going to look at the passage first, and then look at the two points that we can see from this portion of Scripture. Before we do that, I want us to pray. As I pray, I want you to ask God to speak to you today.

Don't approach this as, I've already known Jesus for a very long time. There's nothing that I can hear today that will encourage me or help me in my Christian walk.

I promise you, what we will see in God's Word will be something that will bless your heart. Maybe you might be one that you have been religious for a very long time, and you might today come to the same realization that Saul turned Paul also did.

That would say, oh, it's all Jesus, him alone, his righteousness. Let's pray. Ask God to speak to your heart this morning.

Dear Lord, we pray today that you would be glorified as we study your word. God, we ask that you would help us to realize again our desperate need for you and for you alone.

God, we pray that Lord, as I preach, I want to pray that you would continue to speak to my heart. Thank you for the encouragement that you've brought this week for the challenge to my pride.

And God, we pray that you would work in an incredible way today. God, if there's someone here that does not know you as Savior, they have never turned to your righteousness alone. God, we pray that today they would make that decision.

We love you, Lord, and we pray all of this in your name. Amen. Let's read through this passage.

We'll dive into what Paul is saying. Verse number one of Philippians 3, in addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It's about seven times in the book of Philippians that he'll say that phrase, to rejoice in the Lord.

This is kind of the heading on everything else that he's going to say. He says, rejoice in the Lord. Then he dives into why we would do that.

To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. Watch out for the dogs. Watch out for the evil workers.

Watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. I'm going to stop here. Maybe you, like me, aren't particularly fond of animals or maybe dogs in particular.

Maybe you're more of a cat person and you'd go, yeah, watch out for dogs. It's not talking about actual literal physical dogs.

The Jewish people in kind of a very racist thing in the first century called those who were either not full-blooded Jewish people or those that were Gentiles, they called them dogs. It was dogs during this time. They weren't your cutesy little pets.

You didn't stick them in a purse and hang out with them. You didn't keep them in their house. They were those that would come in, that would make messes, that they would tear things apart, that they might attack you.

Many of us would know the phrase from, I don't remember which Australian movie it is, the dingo ate my baby. You would have this, that dogs were a bad thing.

And here Paul is turning it back on its head that to these Judaizers who would try and disrupt people's salvation, people's understanding of what Christ had done and what it means for us. He says, watch out for the dogs.

The dogs are not those that aren't the same race as me. The dogs are those that are seeking to negate Christ's finished work. He says, watch out for the dogs.

He says, watch out for the evil workers. So at the end of chapter 2, he highlights both Timothy and Epaphroditus, as these are good workers. These are the people that are declaring the gospel to you.

Christ finished work for sin on our behalf. And he says, these people, these ones that would tell you another gospel are not good workers. These are evil workers.

He says this, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. So here he's doing a play on words. It's the word catatome.

And then in verse number three, it's paratome. So he says, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.

The Legacy Standard Bible phrases this as a false circumcision, that these people were telling these new Gentile believers, those that were in Philippi, many of them Romans, some of them Greek or Macedonian, that they were coming in and telling them,

okay, you accepted Jesus, that's great, but in accordance with the Old Testament law, you also need to be circumcised. And what Paul says here is that circumcision isn't gaining you any favor with God. It is a false circumcision.

This is just a mutilation of the flesh. So he gives these three, watch out, look out, be aware of what's happening. And then verse number three, he says, for we are the circumcision.

He says, we are the true circumcision. We're not the catatome, the mutilators of the flesh. We are the peritome.

We are the true circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, the ones who boast, who glory in Christ Jesus, and those who do not put confidence in the flesh. What identifies those true believers in Christ as opposed to the false ones?

It's those that worship by the Spirit of God. I think of Jesus' words in John 4, where he says that those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.

That who they are genuinely, from their soul, from their inside, they actually love and want to worship God, and those that do it in accordance with truth.

So it's those who worship by the Spirit of God, those who boast in Christ Jesus, not in their own righteousness, not in, look how good I am, not look how much money I've donated, not look how many years I have been in this religious institution.

It's those that boast in Christ Jesus, in His finished work, and those who do not put confidence in the flesh.

We've seen this word show up a couple different times in the book of Philippians, where at the very beginning, Paul says that he is convinced, he is confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in the Philippians, that they were

saved, that he would bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, that God was going to continue that work. He says, do not put confidence in the flesh.

So he starts off with this, rejoice in the Lord, not in yourself, not in your circumstances. Rejoice, be happy, be well off in the Lord.

He says, watch out for these three things, dogs, those that would judge you maybe because of your race, that would judge you because you have trusted in Christ alone. He says, those are the people that are truly dog.

So watch out for dogs, watch out for evil workers, those that are not preaching the same gospel that you have heard from myself, that you've heard from Timothy, that you've heard from Epaphroditus.

He says, watch out for those who want to do religious things that don't have any basis in the gospel of Jesus. He says, they mutilate the flesh. And he says, here's the marks of a true believer.

And then he dives into this. He says, those that put confidence in the flesh, those aren't God's people. He says this in verse number four, He says, if it was a party, if it was a challenge, if it was a competition on who.

Could be the most righteous in human eyes, he says, I'm in the running. And he gives the reasons why for this. He says, I was circumcised the eighth day.

He says, I was, from the very beginning, before I could make any volitional choices, my parents were obeying God and following in circumcision on my behalf.

That I wasn't someone that, you know, got disobeyed the eighth day commandment, and I was in at 30 days or I was in at 75 days. He says, I was right on time, right with the religious schedule. I was circumcised the eighth day in the line of Abraham.

He says, of the nation of Israel, that is from the lineage of Isaac and Jacob. He says, I'm from God's chosen people. I'm not from Ishmael, one of the other sons of Abraham.

He says, I'm not from the line of Esau, one of those other sons of Isaac. He says, I'm from the line of Israel, the chosen nation, the chosen people. He says, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.

That is Jacob's favorite son. So he says, I'm from the line of Abraham, following in circumcision. I'm from the line of Isaac and Jacob.

And I'm from Jacob's favorite sons, Benjamin. I'm from his lineage, the very first king of Israel, King Saul, after whom Paul was no doubt named in his Hebrew language. His name was Saul.

He says, I come from a lineage of kings, from the favorite son. He says, I was a Hebrew, born of Hebrews. He says, I'm pure-blooded, that I'm not like maybe a Samaritan, that they had intermarried with some other groups of people.

And so I am pure-blood Jew. I am a Hebrew born of Hebrews. So my lineage, my bloodline is impeccable.

And he says, regarding the law, a Pharisee, he wasn't a Sadducee that said, okay, I know God says there's angels, I know God says there's miracles, but I don't really believe it. I don't really trust in that. He was not like one of those.

He wasn't one of the ones that completely isolated themselves, like perhaps the Essings, and that would say, okay, that's really nice, but we're not going to encourage the others of God's people to follow the law. He says, I was a Pharisee.

I was the one that not only did we observe and follow God's 613 commandments, we made, it was way more than 613 laws on top of those commandments. He says, I was the most religious, and I encouraged people to do the same.

He says, regarding the law, a Pharisee. Regarding zeal, persecuting the church. He says, I didn't leave it alone when there was something that I thought was wrong.

He says, I pursued it. I was zealous. I wasn't lazy in what I was doing to follow my religious fervor.

Anything that was religious or good to do, I did it. He says, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

He says, when anyone looked at my life in comparison with God's Old Testament law and anyone looked at me versus any other Pharisee, me versus anyone else in Israel, they'd go, oh yeah, he's blameless.

There's nothing that I can like put a handle on him and say, oh yeah, but he disobeys this Sabbath law or he disobeys this money giving or this tithing law. He says, anything that was good, I've done it.

He says, I am, he says, on a human standpoint, if it's confidence in the flesh, if it's man righteousness, I'm the cream of the crop. There's no one that has a better claim to human perfection and righteousness than I do.

And he says this in verse 7, But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered, I have led my mind to think that it is a loss because of Christ.

Everything that made me lifted up in front of people, everything that proclaimed how good I was, is a loss.

When Paul was on some different journeys, he was on a ship once that they would pay for specific items to go on to the ship, to be traversed across. One ship in particular was from Egypt to the island of Cyprus, then to Rome.

And as they were traveling along, a great storm came and they had to chuck all of the cargo. It was a loss.

It was something that was weighing them down that not only did not help them in their journey of trying to navigate the storm, it was something that was going to cause them to sink.

And Paul here says, all of my human righteousness, all of the accolades, all of my background, all of my religious fervor is a loss. I've got to chuck it.

He says, more than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Here Paul says this, there is nothing in this world, no action, no hope, no sacrifice that you can make that is more valuable, it is surpassing value to know Jesus Christ.

This isn't just a knowledge about him, this is to know him intimately and personally. That the God of all the ages, the one who is perfection, the one who has never lied, the one who has never ever done wrong.

That though we are imperfect, he sent Christ to be the substitution on our behalf. That we that were alienated would become children of God. That we who deserved condemnation, that the only place that we could go as a result of our sin was hell.

He loved us far too much, and he invited us into relationship with him.

Not on the basis of us doing enough things, but on the basis of faith, of calling out to the Lord saying, God, you have done it all, and now you invite me to say, yes, Lord, I will follow you. I will believe in you. That's all it takes.

The value of knowing Jesus is so much better than any amount of religious fervor that you could ever pour out. The value of knowing Jesus is more than all the good works you could ever try and do to merit God's favor.

Knowing Him is better than all of it. He says, because of Him, because of Jesus, I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dung so that I may gain Christ. Here, he's drawing back to verse 2.

This word here, dung, is taken from two words in Greek. The word is sky-balon, it's from skyon, dog, and balo, that which is thrown. So he literally says, that which is thrown from dogs.

He says, everything from my background, a lifetime of good works, a lifetime of perfect religious pedigree, is only dog poop in comparison with knowing Jesus. It's a startling statement.

It's meant to be shocking to our natural senses that we would say, wow, all that matters is Christ. You might have been in church since you were two years old, and you're 92 years old now.

Can I tell you, it's not about your righteousness, it's not about your perfect attendance, it's not about any of the works that you've done, it's about what Jesus has done on your behalf, that He loves you, that He wants a personal relationship with

you, that each day as you go through your life, you would have the Holy Spirit inside of you that would tell you the Word of God, that would guide you into following Him, that would warn you in times when we would naturally want to go against what

God has said, that He would encourage us to faithfulness and to following Christ, that when we go through hard times, that He is with us, that He bears our sorrows. Isaiah 53, that He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. From Hebrews

chapter 4, because He has suffered and been tested in every area like we are, we can go to Him and find grace to help us in our time of need. Knowing Jesus is so much better than anything else.

He says, I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dung so that I may gain Christ.

Here, He is quite possibly thinking about Jesus' words that He says, where He says, what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his soul?

And here Paul says, I have lost the whole world, my house, my job that I had had, my status as a Pharisee. Everywhere I go, I am being attacked and run out of town and imprisoned. He says, I have lost everything, and I gained Christ.

Because of Him, I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dung so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

Not found to be righteous like Him, not found in maybe a church, not found in a denomination, not found in works, we are found in Him.

In Him, we have safety, that as we turn to Christ in faith, as we accept His gift of salvation, the work that He's done on our behalf, His perfect gift of righteousness placed on our behalf, 1 Corinthians 12 would tell us that the Holy Spirit places

us into the body of Christ, that we are found in Him. And if you are found in Him, you are also found with all of the rest of God's people too, that He didn't save you alone, He saved you to be in community with all those who are also in Christ.

He says, be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount.

He told the people there, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, the strictest, the most religious people, unless you're more righteous than the more religious, you will never enter the kingdom of God.

For those people, that was a shock. Like, we've got to be more righteous than the most righteous pastors or monks or whoever in your mind the most religious people are. Unless I'm more righteous than they are, I can't be one of God's children.

But what Jesus would go on to say is, it's my gift of righteousness. It's not something you earn, it's something that's received by faith that God says, here it is, offered to you freely, and we receive it by faith. We don't earn it back.

He's not asking for a payment plan for it back. It is freely, once and for all, given to us. He says, my goal is to know him.

And the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. My son just got some Play-Doh yesterday from family, and you can push the Play-Doh into the mold, and it's conformed to.

Paul says, I want to know Jesus. I want to know the power of his resurrection, realizing, growing in knowledge of what it means that Jesus is alive, that he has conquered sin, and death, that he is Lord of all.

I want to increase in my knowledge of that, in the fellowship of his sufferings, realizing that the hard things that I go through in life, my struggles, my testings, my hurtings, God is with me, and I have fellowship with him in his sufferings.

I want to grow in that, and I want to grow in being conformed to his death. Romans 6 would tell us that we have been crucified with Christ.

We've been buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, that we would realize we are dead to sin. We are dead to our old life.

When Paul went through this, it was a big, drastic change from being a zealous Pharisee to being an outcast preacher of the gospel. For you, is this your goal? To know Jesus.

Do you know him today? Do you just know about him? Have you ever entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ?

Have you ever turned from your sin, from pursuing your own way, from pursuing your righteousness, and turned to accepting Jesus' righteousness by faith and following him wholeheartedly? His goal is to know the power of his resurrection.

Do you realize that because Jesus lives, there is hope for your day? Because Jesus lives, there is hope for Tabernacle. Because Jesus lives, there is hope for America.

Because if even death itself can't stop our God, what can? Power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, do you know that God is with you in your heartbrokenness?

That the one who sweat great drops of blood in the garden is with you in your hurt, in your sickness, in your pain? Are you being conformed to his death, realizing that sin no longer has a hold on you? You are not enslaved to sin any longer.

Now you have become his child, his servant, the one that follows the Lord. And then verse 11, he says, assuming that I will somehow reach or arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.

He here does not say, and I know that I am going to be in the resurrection at the end of my life.

Here he knows this is God's work in him, that it isn't something that he goes, great, I prayed a prayer, and so now I know that I'm going to reach the resurrection from among the dead. He goes, it's Jesus.

And I know that if he's bringing me to the end of my life, I know if he is the one that is saving me, that it's in his hands. Here it's not a boast on Paul's part of, I know my future. He says, God knows.

My goal is to know Jesus. If you will, it's God's goal that he brings me to the end of my life there, as in Philippians 1, 6, being confident that the one that began the work in you will bring it to completion. So here's Paul's testimony.

He says, this is who I was. I too, just like these Judaizers, I was a dog. I was one that was ravenous towards the people of God.

I was an evil worker. He would mention in Acts 24, 5 and 6 that he would go and he would try and compel the believers to renounce Jesus, to blaspheme his name. He says, I was these people.

He says, but God did an incredible work in me. Today, as we close, we're going to look at just these two truths. Jesus' righteousness is surpassingly better.

Why is his righteousness better than ours? What makes it so that he can offer us salvation, he can put good works on our account that we can't put on our own? Why is his better?

First, Jesus is God incarnate. Hebrews 1.3, the son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

John 1 and verses 1 and 2, in the beginning was the word Jesus, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

In John 1.18, no one has ever seen God, the one and only son, who is himself God, and is at the Father's side. He has revealed him. Why is Jesus righteousness better?

He's God. So the definition of righteousness is Jesus. Not only that, but he is the only perfect human.

He is the only one who has never thought, or said, or done anything that breaks God's law. Romans 3 says this, the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Since there is no distinction, because everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Here I'm not preaching to the worst of you or the best of you. All of us have fallen short of God's glory because of our sin.

He says, they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

God presented him as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint, God passed over the sins previously committed.

God presented Jesus to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so that he would be righteous and declare righteous to the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 10, 3 and 4 says, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness. They have not submitted to God's righteousness, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

In 1 Corinthians 1, verses 30 and 31, it is from God that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us. He is our righteousness, sanctification and redemption in order that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Jesus is God incarnate. He is the only perfect human. His payment for sin and victory over death is final.

Think of John 19 and verse 30, where Jesus said it is finished, to telestai. It's what a banker would put when a loan was paid in full. Telestai, it's done, it's completed.

It's what someone would do when a painting or a sculpture was completed. To telestai, it's done. When Jesus paid for your sin, he said it is finished.

He didn't say it's 98% of the way there, and you better live a good life for a number of years in order for you to get the rest of this. He says it is finished. His righteousness, his payment for sin is enough.

It's final. Romans 5, 8-10, God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more than since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath.

If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, then how much more having been reconciled, will we be saved through Jesus' life?

In Hebrews 10, 10-14, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Every priest stands day after day, ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins.

But this man, Jesus, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. By one offering, he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. So Jesus' righteousness is surpassingly better.

And then human righteousness is laughably inferior. He says, rejoice in the Lord. He says this, that we attempt to redefine true righteousness.

That all of us want to say that we are holy. We are without blame. And we might have a list, like Paul had a list of, here's the things that I did.

Here's the person that I was. When anyone looked at me, they said I was a good person. And Paul says all of that was dog poop.

That's the thought that is said to us. Your righteousness is laughably inferior. Because we attempt to call good what God has called bad.

We say this is acceptable. This is okay when God says it's not. Judges 21 tells us, in those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did whatever seemed right to them. Proverbs 14 says, there is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.

Isaiah 5 says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Many of you would realize in our world today, that's much of what takes place, that people call good what God has called evil, and people call evil what God has called good.

Luke 16, Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God's sight.

Romans 10.3, again, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God in the attempt to establish their own righteousness. Why can't we be righteous enough to get a relationship with God or maintain a relationship with God? It's laughably inferior.

We attempt to redefine true righteousness, our best efforts do nothing to make us perfect. Think of Isaiah 64 and 6. All of us have become like something unclean.

All our righteous acts are like a polluted garment. All of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. In all of our best efforts of service and giving, there is selfishness that tinges us.

There is impatience that is in us. All of our righteousness is not enough. Our endeavors to add to Christ cause everything to fall.

Galatians 1, verses 6 through 9. I'm amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another real gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him.

As we have said before, I now say again, if anyone is preaching a gospel to you contrary to what you received, a curse be on him. Jesus doesn't say if you turn to him alone and add a couple of other things, it's totally fine.

Like you can have Jesus and you can sprinkle on all of your good works and all of your righteousness, and maybe if you have other gods, you can throw them in too, and that way you're totally safe if any of these religions are true, or if no religion

is true, at least you've got it all in the basket, and you've got all of your safety net, and it's all there for you. God says no, that's not how it works. It's Jesus alone or nothing.

He says anyone that preaches a gospel to you other than Jesus' righteousness alone, he says, may he be cursed, anathema.

Galatians 3, all who rely on the works of the law, on your good works and righteousness, they're under a curse, because it is written, everything who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.

Think of Matthew 17, where there's the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus goes up to the top of this hill with Peter and James and John. As they go up there, as was their habit, Peter and James and John, they kind of fall asleep.

They wake up and they notice Jesus is there, and he's there with two of the most notable people from the Old Testament, Moses kind of pictures those first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah.

And you have Elijah there, who represents the prophets, kind of that summary that would often be said, the law and the prophets, the entirety of the Old Testament. And Jesus is there with the Old Testament prophets.

And Peter, in his effervescence, goes, Jesus, this is wonderful. Let's set up three tabernacles. That's tense, by the way.

I don't know if everyone knows that. Tabernacle is a tent. He says, let's set up three tabernacles, one for Jesus and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

It's so great that we're here. And suddenly God speaks from heaven and goes, this is my beloved son. Hear him.

When it comes to our good works, it's not Jesus and some other things. It's not Jesus and religious fervor. It's not Jesus and priests.

It's Jesus alone. He can be our only safe haven. We're not righteous enough for it.

We try and rewrite the rules so that we can become righteous. And that's not how God sees it. Our best efforts are like filthy rags.

Our endeavors to add to Christ cause everything to fall. And since He paid it all, we're called to simply rejoice in Him. Paul says at the onset of this, in addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

He says to write to you again about this, there's no trouble for me. He goes, I like preaching the gospel. He says it's a safeguard for you.

He says this is something that cannot fail. The gospel will never fail you. You won't get to the end of your life.

Go before the Lord and say, the only reason I should be in your presence is Jesus' righteousness. God will never say, that's not enough. I need Jesus' righteousness and something else.

It's Jesus' righteousness alone. So, rejoice in the Lord. That as you look at your salvation, don't go, God, I thank you that you've had me do all of these things for you.

Like Paul go, God, all of that was nothing. Like that was a loss. That was something I had to get rid of, my own righteousness, or counting that as something great that I did.

It's all you. Thank you for saving me. Today, as Paul here encourages the Philippians, do you know the gospel with such joyful clarity that you're aware of false teaching and teachers?

This was something Paul mentioned over and over and over again in his letters of the truth of the gospel and then warning them against false teachers.

As we look at salvation, as we look at Jesus' righteousness, do you realize that truth with such joyful clarity that you're able to see when someone goes, oh yeah, that's great, you have Jesus and also you need baptism for salvation?

Or hey, you have Jesus and also you need to do this weekly ritual or you need to do this thing with a pastor at certain points in your life.

Are you able to see that for the false teaching, the false gospel it is, because you rejoice consistently in the fact, I know Jesus and I know it's his righteousness alone that saves me.

In conclusion today, you must abandon all efforts at self-righteousness, self-justification and turn to Jesus alone for a relationship with God himself.

This is primarily for those that do not know Christ as Savior, that you have never turned to Jesus alone. This is for you, but if you do know Jesus as Savior, this is true for your walk with the Lord today.

That you don't get more stuff from God, you don't get more favor from God by doing things or by giving things or by praying certain amounts of time. It's not that you get more favor from God by doing those things. It's still all Jesus righteousness.

As you live the Christian life, the way you got in by faith in Jesus, by turning to him, by repenting of sin and following him, that's the exact same way that we live every day of our Christian life.

It's not based on, hey God, I did this many things, so now you really owe me for something. It's God, you are my father. I know you.

I am your child. And I'm calling on you. Have you turned to Jesus alone as your Lord and Savior?

If you have not turned to Jesus, if you've never accepted his righteousness for your sin, I would encourage you today, please talk to me after service. I would love to share with you how you can know that you're going to heaven.

I know Pastor Ron would love to do that. If you have a friend, if you have a family member that's with you, talk to them. It is the most important decision.

Paul says a lifetime of religious fervor is nothing compared with knowing Jesus. If you don't know Jesus, please talk to one of us after the service today.

And then, do you know the gospel with such joyful clarity that you're aware of false teaching and false teachers? That there will be people that come in that attempt to preach another gospel. And we are called to not listen to them.

If someone ever comes and preaches in the pulpit or teaches in a Sunday school class and goes, Yeah, Jesus is great, but you need Jesus and this. We have a responsibility as Christians, as believers, to go, Nope, you're out of here.

If Bryon Self ever preaches anything other than that gospel, Jesus, righteousness, and work, and gift of grace alone by faith alone, kick me out. I don't want to be here. That is the gospel.

Have you ever personally entered into that relationship of knowing Jesus? If you have, remember, the way you got in is the way you stay in.

You believe in Jesus, His righteousness alone, His walk with you, His knowing, His power of His resurrection, the fellowship of sufferings being conformed to His death, that He brings you to the end of your life, delivers you to heaven.

All of that is His work. Will you rejoice in Him? Let's stand.

We're going to pray. We're going to have a hymn of reflection, a time of invitation. Maybe you would say, I desperately need to know Jesus.

What you talked about, of accepting Jesus' gift of salvation. I have never done that. I'd invite you, as we sing, come forward to the front.

Pastor Ron's up here, and he would love to pray with you or maybe pair you up with another person that would talk to you about receiving that gift of salvation.

Today, if you do know Christ, are you rejoicing not in your own righteousness, but in His?