Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome back to Faith Word Baptist Church.
Very nice to see you all here for our Sunday night service.
If you'd all please find your seats now and take a hymn.
We'll go to Hymn 442.
Once again, we'll begin this evening with
We Gather Together.
Hymn number 442.
442.
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.
Hymn number 442.
Lift up your voice on that verse with me.
Number 442.
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.
Hymn number 442.
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.
He changes in His Basedness He is Excellent
He's hired us to guide us, our God, with us,
joining for gaining, maintaining His kingdom in time.
So from the beginning, the fire we were living,
the war was our sign of hope in time.
Here on the way, slowly, the leader is back.
And pray that our still or near is just where you will be.
Let life on the kingdom escape inflation.
And may we ever praise the Lord and make us free.
Thank you, Lord, for seeing this evening.
We want to go to Lord in prayer for the service,
so I've asked for Alexander Larson, if he could
take some prayer, please.
Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord God,
for the opportunity to be able to come to church tonight.
We pray, God, that you please bless our service, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Man, hymn number 439, 439.
Count your blessings, hymn 439.
We'll sing the psalm together on that verse now, 439.
Lift it up now.
When of all life's will unto our tempest not,
when you are discouraged, thinking all is fun,
count your many blessings, take them one by one.
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the musty man with you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every now and then I'll cry.
And you will be singing as the days go by.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
When you look at others with their legs and bones,
think that Christ as Father still is well controlled.
Count your many blessings, but he cannot find.
You're rewarded heaven for your own online.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath un-blessed.
So amid the comfort, pleasure, great or small,
fear not be discouraged, God is all for all.
Count your many blessings, angels will attend.
Help and comfort give you to your journeys end.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, take them one by one.
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 28.
We've got the soul-winning times listed there below,
as well as salvation and baptisms.
This Sunday morning, a week from now,
we will have donuts and coffee before the service at 10 a.m.
for all the birthdays and anniversaries in December.
Also, if you have any cool pictures from the year
or any kind of a church activity, mission strip,
soul-winning, baptisms, just anything imaginable,
whatever fellowship, whatever shots that you took
of any church stuff, if you have any good ones,
then send them to this email address
so that we could consider them for inclusion in the yearbook.
Keep praying for our expectant ladies in the church
that they will have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
On the back, Christmas caroling is coming up.
It's a fun thing that we like to do every year,
and I know I always enjoy it.
My kids always get really excited about it,
and it's gonna be coming up on Thursday, December 19th.
We're gonna meet right here at 5.30,
and we're gonna get organized
and get you out the door in a big group
so you don't have to be nervous
about singing or anything like that
because we'll put you in a group of like 20, 30 people.
That way, if you're not confident,
you can fade to the back.
Make sure we have some strong singers in each group
that can be the, you know,
that can kind of be the front men of the group,
and then we'll send you out
for just one-hour maximum of caroling,
and then when we're done caroling,
we're gonna come back here and have cookies and milk.
So we want you to bring the cookies,
so basically just do it like a potluck
where different ladies in the church,
teenage girls, ladies, whoever, dudes for all I care,
as long as you know what you're doing,
bake some Christmas cookies
so you can showcase all your best Christmas cookie recipes.
I'm assuming that my wife's gonna
bring those cinnamon stars,
the famous cinnamon stars,
so we'll get all the Christmas cookies going.
We'll provide the milk,
and we'll have just some fellowship after the singing.
We can exchange like war stories
from the caroling,
and it's gonna be a great time
on Thursday, December 19th.
And then don't forget that Pastor Mejia
is preaching on December the 4th,
so that's a Wednesday night.
If you don't normally come on Wednesday night,
mark your calendar to be there
on that particular Wednesday night, December 4th,
to hear Pastor Bruce Mejia
from First Works Baptist Church
in Anaheim, California,
and that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and add a what?
Oh, right.
So on Thanksgiving Day,
there's gonna be a men's hike
that's organized by Brother Reggie Noble,
and so warning, this is not
an official church activity, so if you get hurt,
you're gonna sue him and not us.
No, I'm just kidding. You can sue us whenever you want
because we don't own anything.
So always free to sue us.
So anyway, we're gonna meet here
at 6.30 a.m.
So be ready to roll at 6.30, is that right?
Nah, just get here around 6.30, okay.
Yeah, so be here at 6.30,
meet up here bright and early,
6.30 a.m. to go
for the hike on Camelback,
and, you know, the psychology
behind this is brilliant
because you go out there and hike
and then you just have no guilt
about just going crazy at the Thanksgiving dinner
just pounding all that
meat and the side dishes
and the cranberry sauce
and all the great, you're just gonna be
pouring on the grape and be like, hey, man,
come back this morning.
And so it's just totally a guilt-free binge
I highly recommend.
So that's this coming Thursday
meeting here at
6.30. Who's been on one of these Thanksgiving
Camelback hikes?
Yeah, lots of people. Alright, great.
Who thinks you're gonna go this year?
Alright, we got some brave souls.
Very good, lots of people. Excellent.
Alright, so thank you for reminding me about that
and let's go ahead and count up
the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday the 21st,
anything from Thursday? Got it?
Got it.
Okay, and then how about Friday?
Anything from Friday?
Okay.
Alright, thank you.
Okay, and then Saturday.
Okay.
And then anything else from Saturday?
What about today's Sunday? Brother Scott?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Got it.
Gotcha.
Okay, anything else from today?
Alright, very good. Keep up the great work
on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Alright, you should find the insert in the front of your
hymnal with the song entitled, Lord Bless Our Home.
If you don't have an answer, we have a few extra
we can give out.
So let's sing it out together on that first.
Families all around us are crumbling
every day. Lord bless our home.
Families all around us
are crumbling every day.
Healing to the enemy
and throwing life away.
Find our lives together.
Guard us with your truth.
When the struggle seems to break,
Lord, keep our eyes on you.
Lord, bless our home.
Contact our home.
Let it be a refuge in this world of sin.
Lord, raise the dead.
Feel us strong and true.
And when we need you most,
Lord, draw us close.
Lord, bless our home.
We give our home to you.
In your goodness,
our God was in your plan.
Now, let's face the future.
Oh, let us keep your hand.
Keep us warm and tender.
Keep us clean and pure.
Drive us to each other's hearts
and make our love endure.
Lord, bless our home.
Contact our home.
Let it be a refuge in this world of sin.
Lord, raise the dead.
Keep us strong and true.
And when we need you most,
Lord, draw us close.
Come into each other.
Lord, bless our home.
We give our home to you.
There shall be showers of blessing.
Hymn number 224.
Sing this out together on that verse now.
224.
There shall be showers of blessing.
This is the promise of love.
224.
Sing it out now.
There shall be showers of blessing.
This is the promise of love.
There shall be seasons refreshing.
Showers of blessing.
Showers of blessing we need.
Mercy draws down the stars falling.
But for the showers they weep.
There shall be showers of blessing.
Preciously fighting again.
Over the hill and the valley.
Showers of blessing.
Showers of blessing we need.
Mercy draws down the stars falling.
But for the showers they weep.
There shall be showers of blessing.
Set them upon us, oh Lord.
There shall be showers of blessing.
God let them wander thy world.
Showers of blessing.
Showers of blessing we need.
Mercy draws down the stars falling.
But for the showers they weep.
There shall be showers of blessing.
God let them wander thy world.
Showers of blessing.
Showers of blessing we need.
Mercy draws down the stars falling.
But for the showers they weep.
Alright, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Philippians chapter number 2.
Philippians chapter number 2.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Philippians chapter 2.
Beginning in verse number 1.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.
And none should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,
but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless
and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth
the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain,
neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice
and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause
also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus
to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state.
For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state.
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.
But ye know the proof of Him, that, as a son with the Father,
He hath served with me in the Gospel. Him therefore I hope to send
presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord
that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I supposed it necessary to send
unto you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow soldier,
but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed
after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not
on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice,
and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord
with all gladness, and hold such in reputation. Because for the work of Christ
he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service
toward me.
Thank you, Father, for 5th Ward Baptist Church and the King James Bible.
I ask you, Phil, Pastor Anderson, with your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our ears to receive your
Holy Word. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen. This evening we're continuing to talk
about the book of Philippians, and tonight I'm going to preach about some key
doctrines that are found in the book of Philippians. Now, in general,
the book of Philippians is really a very practical
book. It's not really a very heavy doctrinal book. It has a lot of
practical advice, and it talks a lot about how we should live our lives, and so forth.
But there are some really key important doctrines
that are found in the book of Philippians, and I think it's always important to hammer these things
because we never want to take anything for granted about what we believe.
We've got to continually hammer the fundamental doctrines and
remind ourselves why we are a Baptist, and why
other religions and other denominations are in error, and they
are not following what the Bible actually teaches. And so I'm going to show
you four key doctrines tonight that are found in the book of
Philippians. The first one is in chapter 1, if you flip over to verse 21,
and that is this. Those who are saved go
immediately to heaven when they die. Okay, now
the opposite of this is a doctrine that's called soul sleep, that
claims that when a person dies, they're just sort of asleep in the ground,
and then they're unconscious until a later resurrection
or what have you. But no, the Bible clearly teaches
that those who are saved go immediately to heaven when they die, and the opposite
is true as well. People that are not saved go straight to hell when they die, which is
why in that story in Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus, he dies
and he lifts up his eyes, and boom, he's in hell, he's in torment,
father Abraham, send Lazarus back to go talk to my family,
proving that his family is still alive, they're still there, that it's happening at that
moment. He's burning in hell, talking about his siblings still being alive.
So that proves that when a person dies, they go straight to hell if they're not
saved. Well, if you're saved, you're going to go straight to heaven. Of course, your body
will sleep in the earth. So when the Bible talks about people sleeping in the
dust of the earth, that's talking about the body, whereas there's no soul
sleep because of the fact that your soul will go straight to heaven
the moment that you die if you're saved, and that's found in Philippians chapter 1, beginning
in verse 21, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain, but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor.
Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I'm in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide
and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. And so we see
that the apostle Paul wants to go
and be with Christ because he knows that if he dies, it's gain, right?
To live is Christ and to die is gain because it's far better to be
in heaven with Jesus Christ than it is to be living on this earth. So he's not
scared about dying at all. Elsewhere he says, O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And so
Paul is very clear here that there's staying on this earth
to help other people or there's going to heaven to be with Christ.
It's not, well, I'd rather just be asleep in the ground for the next few hundred
or maybe even thousands of years until Christ returns. No, he wants to
depart and be with Christ. Flip over, if you would, to 2 Corinthians
chapter number 5. 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you from Revelation chapter 6.
Revelation chapter 6 says, And when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God
and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying,
How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood
on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them.
And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their
servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.
So in Revelation chapter 6, we have this picture of the
souls of the martyrs up in heaven. They're conscious,
they're awake, and what are they saying? How long, O Lord,
holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
They're clearly experiencing time if they're saying, well, how long
until God's going to do something? Showing that when you die
and you're saved, your soul will be in heaven and you
will be awake, you will be conscious, you will be experiencing the passage of
time, you will be aware of things that are going on, you're not just going to be
in some kind of a soul sleep. The moment you die, you will be in heaven with Jesus Christ
and you don't have to wait until resurrection day. I remember going to a Baptist
church and having my youth pastor say, well, here's what I believe.
He said, I believe that when you die and you're saved,
you're just automatically, like, just warped to the final judgment. Like, like, you just die
and then just, boom, you're just at the, you're at the end.
He's like, I don't really have a Bible verse for that. That's just kind of what I believe.
It's like, well, who cares what you believe? You know, the Bible talks about people waiting around saying,
hey, how much longer until you do something here? They're clearly
aware of what's going on on the earth. And the Bible, of course, talks
about us being compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses of
the saved that have gone before us. How can they be witnessing anything if they're not even
conscious or awake or even in heaven? Okay.
Look down at your Bible there in 2 Corinthians chapter number 5 verse 6. It says,
therefore, we're always confident knowing that whilst we
are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, right? Because
like right now, I'm in my body and I'm not physically in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is up in heaven, physically
seated at the right hand of the Father. I'm down here on this earth. And so
while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord for we walk by faith, not by sight.
We're not looking at Jesus. We're not looking at the Lord in heaven. We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. And this is exactly
what he said in Philippians where he said, I desire to depart and to be
with Christ. He's saying we're confident and willing rather,
meaning that that's preferable to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord. So it's not about just, hey, I just wish I could just
die and go lay on the ground for a while. No, no, no. It's to be present with the Lord.
It's to depart to be with Christ, which is far better.
Now if you would, flip over to
Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you from
John chapter 8. Speaking of people being aware of the things
that are going on on this earth, people that are in heaven, are they aware of what's happening?
The great cloud of witnesses, as it were. And then we have the martyrs
saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, does it not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Seems like they're aware
that judgment has not yet hit the way they want to see it hit.
And they are going to be satisfied in a very short
amount of time thereafter. But it says in John 8,
you're turning to Mark 12, but in John 8, 56, Jesus said, your
father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it and was glad. So Jesus Christ is on this
earth talking about Abraham who lived 2,000 years earlier
and says Abraham rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it and he was glad. So he's looking forward to it
and then he saw it and he was excited about it.
Sounds like he's alive. Sounds like he's conscious.
Sounds like he's up in heaven aware of what's going on.
And the Jews said unto him, thou art yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am. Right? So Jesus has eternally pre-existed
which is our next key doctrine from Philippians that we're going to see in a moment.
Jesus existed before Abraham.
Look at Mark chapter 12 verse 26 speaking about Abraham. And as touching the dead
that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses how in the
bush God spake unto him saying, I'm the God of Abraham and the God
of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the
dead but the God of the living, ye therefore do greatly err.
Now, some people could maybe look at this verse and say,
well, you know, what it's just saying is that they're going to resurrect.
He's the God of the living because they're going to resurrect. But clearly if it says that he right now
is presently the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he's not
the God of the dead but of the living, then in one sense they're
dead because at the beginning of verse 26 he calls them the dead
but in another sense they're not dead, they're the living. Now in what sense
are they dead? Their physical body is dead. In what sense are they
living? Their soul is living in
heaven. They're aware of what's going on. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ
stay and so God is not the God of the dead
but of the living. So who are the living? Abraham's the living. Isaac's the living.
Jacob's the living. These are people that are alive right now
in heaven. Their body's dead but their soul is alive. And this is why
Jesus could say, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Right? In a sense I'll die in the sense that my physical body will die.
But I could also say I will never die because
the moment that I breathe my last breath I continue to live in heaven and there's no
lapse there. I'm not going to go through a period where I'm dead and then
come back. My body will. My body will go through a period like that and then be
resurrected. Jesus Christ was alive,
he died and it says that for three days and three nights he was dead.
And then now he's alive forevermore. We're not going to go through that.
We went through that. We're never going to be dead. Only our body's going to be dead but
Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. So with respect to the soul, that's true. That's what he's saying.
And so number one key doctrine from Philippians
is that those who are saved go to heaven immediately when they die. And you know what?
You may think that this is important or not important but let me tell you something. This is important
stuff. Because when you start chipping away at these key doctrines
you start getting into all kinds of weird things and heresies and false things.
And of course we know that the Seventh-day Adventists and other cults, they teach
this soul sleep stuff and it's a gateway to other wrong doctrines.
We want to hammer these things and know that we know them. Look, I was out
soul winning, talked to a guy out soul winning that was telling me about
the degrees that he had and seminary degree that he had and he
was on staff at a church and I said to him, if you were to die
right now, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? And he said, well, I'm not
really sure that people go straight to heaven when they die. Now this guy was saved.
You know, he knew Christ as savior. He wasn't doubting
his salvation. He knew he had eternal life by believing in Jesus. It's just that he wasn't sure about
the whole soul sleep thing. I showed him the verses that I just showed you right now
and then he said, you know what? I'm convinced. You're right.
We do go straight to heaven. But it's like,
wait, what were those degrees again? And that's my point is that,
you know, we could take these things for granted and just assume, oh, yeah, we all know that.
We all believe that. But you can go through churches and Bible
colleges and seminaries and not even be solid on these doctrines. So we want to make sure
that we never take these things for granted. And it's good to just kind of dig
these holes nice and deep and establish these firm foundations
in the word of God, which brings me to my second point. And these are some other really key
doctrines that we need to hammer in Philippians chapter two. If you want to turn back there
is Christ's preexistence and
divinity. Right. Christ's preexistence and divinity.
What do we mean by that? His divinity is the fact that he is God.
Jesus is God. Now, we say that Jesus
is God. We're not saying that Jesus is
the father because there's God, the father, there's the son
and there's the Holy Spirit. Okay. God eternally
exists as three persons. But it's important to understand
that Jesus Christ did not come into existence at a later
date. It's not like there's God the father and then he creates Jesus
or that Jesus is a lesser created being or that Jesus
is a lower divinity or that he's a God. No. Jesus is
every bit as much God as the father is God, as the Holy Spirit is God.
They are co-equal in the sense they are all equally divine.
And Christ preexisted which is why Jesus said unto them
before Abraham was, I am. Right. Which is also
a reference to the fact that the Lord said to Moses at the burning
bush, I am that I am. And of course that was Jesus
talking. And so look at Philippians chapter two. Again, as
I mentioned this morning, this is one of the most famous passages in the New Testament.
You know, it's probably one of the top ten most famous passages. Pretty big one.
Philippians 2, 5 through 11. It says, Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal
with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the light of the cement. Now in order for
him to be in the form of God, thinking it not robbery to be equal with
God and then to take upon himself human form,
that means he had to have preexisted before he became a human being.
He had to exist in heaven as God and then basically become
a human being. Take on human form in that sense.
Now the first thing that I want to be really clear on
here in verse number six is the fact that the King James
has this right. The modern versions
have a very poor translation of this, okay? The way that they
translate it is misleading and it's just
not a good translation whereas the King James nails this and gets it right.
And here's the thing. The King James translators, they're not getting, they're not taking
liberties here with the Greek or anything. I mean, they are translating what the
Greek says actually literally in this passage. They are just
straight translating it and yet these modern versions and the modern
scholars, they have some strange ideas about this statement, okay?
So let me just break this down for you, okay? Jesus who was in the
form of God, he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. Now the word robbery is
the key word here, okay? And this is, basically it's a Greek word
that's not used very often so that's why the translators can get a little
you know, carried away with it or do strange things with it in other versions
but it's very clear what it means. It's used, even though
this noun is very rare, the verb is used all throughout the New Testament
Septuagint, other Greek literature to talk about
stealing things, robbing things, snatching
things away and it could also, it basically has a
meaning of snatching something or grabbing something quickly, taking it away or whatever.
It could be used positively or negatively but it's used about stealing stuff,
okay? And that's where we get this translation in the King James, robbery,
which is correct. Now what the modern versions will do is they'll
say that he didn't consider equality with God
a thing to be grasped or something to be grasped,
okay? Now there are a couple problems with this translation, okay?
Problem number one is that it's very easy to read
some of these modern versions and wrongfully walk away
with the idea that somehow God just couldn't quite, or Jesus couldn't quite
grasp equality with God or that it wasn't really something that he had
a right to grasp or could grasp or quite did grasp. It makes it
sound like he's coming short of equality with God, okay? And here's
the thing, the whole point of translating the Bible into English
is to make it so that an English speaker can understand what it's
saying and get the right idea. And so people could say, well, you know, if people get that wrong idea
that's their problem. Yeah, but here's the thing, when you read the King James Bible, you get a
clear idea because it says he did not think it robbery
to be equal with God. Is Jesus being equal with God
robbery? No. Why is it not robbery? Because it
is something that he rightfully possesses. Very easy to understand
in the King James Bible, right? I mean, the King James Bible, this is a great text
on Jesus being equal with God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. Is he committing
a robbery by being equal with God? No. Is that robbery?
Is that stealing? Does that take away from God's glory? Absolutely
not. King James, impossible to
misunderstand here. The modern versions, a lot of people
end up misunderstanding. You know, he did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped. Now that's not
what the modern translators intend for people to walk away with. The translators
of the NIV, the ESP, they're not trying to get people to think
that Jesus isn't equal with God in this verse. That's not what they're, that's not what they're getting at. But my
point is the way they're wording it though could easily be misunderstood that way. And
it doesn't come off as being a powerful proof text for the deity of Christ like it
does in the King James where it's like a power verse on the deity of Christ.
Now let's talk about what the modern translators actually mean
because this is problem number two. What they actually mean when they say
well he didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped, what they're saying is
that it's something that he didn't think he needed to hang on to but that he's ready to let it go.
That he's ready to let go of
equality with God. And then they translate the next part where it says
he made himself of no reputation. They say he emptied himself.
Which is just a foolish translation because human beings can't empty themselves.
Okay? And again if you look at the Greek word here
yeah it means emptying something only about inanimate objects.
And this word is used about people all the time and it never
refers to someone emptying themselves because what does that even mean? It sounds like you're,
I mean I don't want to be crude here but you know I can think of some meanings for
emptying yourself. What does that even mean? How do you empty yourself? How do you, like he's just
a shell of a man? What does that mean he emptied himself?
That is a wrong translation. That is just some
little school boy Greek looking at this word, oh,
oh, kenos, that means empty. No, only when it's talking about objects.
It does not mean empty when you're talking about people.
Because people can't be empty. People can be poor.
They can be vain. They can have no reputation.
They can have no financial resources. Those are the type of meanings
that you would apply to people, not just he emptied himself.
What? That, in fact, it's not even a good sentence in English.
Like it's not even logical. It's like what is that? Hey, uh,
Jesus emptied himself. What the heck? Like what are you even saying?
Now, again, the King James though, impossible to misunderstand.
He made himself of no reputation. Right?
Jesus, when he's up in heaven, has all power,
all glory. He has the ultimate status
in heaven. Equal with God. I mean, how do you get a higher
status than being equal with God? You can't go any higher. But then what did
he do? He made him a little lower than the angels. He went from being
equal with God to taking on the form of a servant.
No reputation, meaning that he didn't walk around on Earth
as a big shot from a big family, coming from
money, coming from nobility. No, he took upon himself the form
of a servant on this Earth. He made himself of no reputation.
Now, what makes more sense to you as a 2024
American English speaker? He emptied himself?
Huh? Or he made himself of no reputation. I think we all
understand what it means for someone to have no reputation.
It means that they don't have any kind of a special status
as a human being. And so,
don't ever let these people tell you, oh, scholarship has come so far
and the King James is just, you know, based on more advanced scholarship and more
modern techniques. The KJV is outdated. No, the KJV is a great
translation. The KJV is the par excellence
translation in the history of mankind. It's an awesome translation.
And don't let these bozos try to hit you with stuff that doesn't even sound
good in English, is equivocal and hard to understand
and misleading, okay? Because
it's not that Jesus, you know, didn't want to hang on to his equality
with God, because last time I checked, when Jesus walked on this Earth, he was still equal with God.
Because the Bible even says that he made himself equal with God
and that's why the Pharisees wanted to stone him, because he was making himself equal with God.
And so, these people
are wrong. It's a false doctrine. No, he was in the form of God.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Not like, well,
he didn't want to grasp. And again, the word
has to do with seizing something. So, it's not talking about, like,
hanging on to something that's already yours, which is what these scholars wanted to mean, like,
that he didn't think it was something he needed to grasp onto and hang onto. He was willing to let
go of his equality with God. You know, it's problematic, to say
the least. It's just a lot better when you just have the right
Bible. And this is why these wrong versions, man, just get rid of them.
And some people are like, well, I'm King James, but I like to study
from the modern versions just to get another perspective or to sort of use it as a commentary
on the King James. Worst commentary ever!
Worst commentary ever is, oh, let's see what it says in these other
versions. Bad idea, okay? Read the King James,
compare Scripture with Scripture in the King James, okay?
Uh, you know, look things up in the dictionary if you need to.
Talk to spirit-filled, saved Christians who've studied the Bible for a long time.
Don't go running to the NIV or the ESV to figure out what it really means, because it's
going to lead you astray, often, because it's bad scholarship,
it's a, a lot of times it's based on a bad manuscript that says something different in the original
language. And even in cases like this where the original language says the same thing,
in all the manuscripts it's just bad translation, bad
thinking, bad understanding. The King James gets it right.
You see, the problem with modern scholarship, the problem with scholarship in general,
is that scholarship has to justify its own existence. You see,
there's nothing cool about being a scholar who studies all the original languages
and gets super good at original languages and just says, hey, the King James was right all along.
The traditional interpretation stands. Genesis 1, 1,
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. You know, you're not going to get famous
saying that the King James says the same thing as the original.
No, it has to be like, ooh, here's a new interpretation on Genesis
1, 1 that nobody's ever thought of. It's, you have to come out with all these
new things, all these novel ideas, and then you publish
your paper and it just sends a shockwave through the academic community
because you've got this new interpretation from the Greek or the Hebrew, right?
Getting up and saying, well, you know, it turns out the King James scholars nailed it.
You know, how do you publish that? You don't.
And in many ways, of course, we know that
this, that a lot of these people, like I said, they have to justify their
existence. Textual critics shouldn't even exist
because the textual criticism was already done four or five hundred years ago.
They did all the textual criticism. They figured out the text. They mass produced
it, translated it to the world. Why are we reopening that issue
when God has already shown us through providence
that that is the word that he preserved, that's the word he used.
Now all of a sudden we just want to reopen textual criticism and, folks, it never ends.
It's not like the ESV is like, okay, we're done.
No, if you don't have a Greek textus receptus
and, you know, the bozos, they get upset about how many different
editions of the textus receptus there are, okay, but Nestle Alonde is
on its 28th edition. And they've already planned
the 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd edition. So the 32nd
edition of the Nestle Alonde has already been planned. And then they're already talking
about where they're going to go with the 33rd edition. I'm not kidding. This is not an exaggeration.
It's literally, and I mean they make dramatic changes to this thing.
Nestle Alonde, 28th edition. Okay.
And it's not going to stop changing. It's going to keep changing. The 33rd
is not going to be the final edition. There's going to be a 34th. It's going to be a 35th.
Then I'm sure they'll have AI figuring it out.
AI will be rewriting scripture eventually. You have the Skynet
version. But the point is that the King
James Bible is right here. Jesus Christ
was in the beginning with God and he was God.
That's why he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Why is he not
stealing glory from God? Because here's what Jesus said in
John 17 verse 5, Now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was. So before the world was even created,
Jesus had glory with the Father. They both
had glory. They both shared that glory. Jesus isn't taking
away glory from the Father because they both had that glory before the world even began.
John 17, 24, Father,
I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory which thou has given me. Sound like
a robbery to you? My glory which thou
has given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. So in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Before
that, Jesus was in the beginning with God and he was God, sharing glory
with God, being loved by God the Father before the world even began.
And so it says he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, verse 7,
but he made himself of no reputation.
Again, King James gets it right, emptied himself
while you could technically say they're literally translating the Greek word.
Not when you're talking about people. It's wrong because people
can't empty themselves. If I said to you, brother
so and so emptied himself, what does that even mean?
God emptied himself. Jesus emptied himself.
What the heck? You know, it's not good doctrine.
Makes a lot more sense to say he made himself of no reputation
and that is how that word can function when talking about humans.
It can talk about not having money, it can talk about not having a reputation,
not having status, it can talk about being vain
in a bad way. You know the Bible talks about like vain people, light persons, right?
Well here's the thing, obviously Jesus wasn't a vain or a light person,
but you know what? He was a person who was humble in that way.
You know, taking on the form of a servant, no status, no pedigree,
just an ordinary guy humanly speaking, right?
But of course he was God in the flesh, humbling himself
to take upon him the form of a servant, verse 7,
he was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, right? So Jesus was
obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Now let me stop and say this,
is that all of these words kind of have to do with appearance
and we don't want to misunderstand these, okay? So we start out with him
in the form of God. Form has to do
often with appearance obviously. Being in the form of God,
it says that he was in the form of a servant,
he was made in the likeness of men, obviously likeness
also can be like an image or what something looks like,
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death. So we don't want to misunderstand this that Jesus only looked like God
or that he only looked human. That would obviously be ridiculous and absurd because
the Bible says that he was in the beginning with God and he was God,
okay? And then also how do we know that he was really human? Well,
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He died.
So this shows that he was taking on
mortal man's form, right? Because he is basically able to die
on the cross for us and Jesus actually died. Don't let anybody
tell you that he didn't really die, okay? Jesus was human
and he was divine both, okay? And
don't forget this key doctrine that Jesus is 100% God and 100%
man. He's not part God, part man, half
God, half man, the God part and the human part. He's just
100% God and 100% man, okay? And so
Jesus Christ when he was on this earth was
a real human being, not just going through the motions
of being human, but he was human enough to where he died on the cross, of course.
And so the reason that the Bible is just using
these words like form and likeness and
fashion is because the context is about what other people
think of you, your reputation and how you look to other people.
Obviously, if we read the book of Philippians and we see the emphasis
on this like we saw this morning, they obviously had a problem
with ego in the church at Philippi, right?
There were obviously people in the church that had a big ego, you know? And that's
why the whole epistle is hammering these things. And I don't even
have time to show it all to you this morning, but in chapter one there's a lot
about ego in chapter one. I mean all throughout the book there's a lot about ego.
And so this is obviously something the Philippians had a problem with,
worried about what people think, having a big ego, fighting
for status, wanting to be the best, wanting to be seen
as the best. And so Jesus is in the form of, he's
God, he's got that status and he takes upon the form of a servant.
He's made in the likeness of man. The emphasis on this appearance
is like what people are seeing because that's what the
Philippians are too worried about, status in the eyes of others.
It's not to take away from the fact that he really was God and then he really was
human because of course he was both.
And then it says he, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Obviously Christ
obeyed the father when it came to dying on the cross
because in the garden of Gethsemane, what does he say? Let this cup
pass from me, if it be possible. Nevertheless, not my will
but thine be done. So he's humbling himself and being obedient
to God the father. Wherefore,
meaning for that reason, God also hath highly exalted him
and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the father. Now I've spent maybe a little too much time on that point so I want to
move on but it's a key point. Number one, we said
those who are saved go immediately to heaven when they die, right? That's a key
doctrine from Philippians chapter one. From chapter two,
here's a key doctrine. Very practical book but still
we have some key doctrine. Jesus pre-existed
as God. So don't let anybody tell you
that Jesus came into existence 2,000 years ago in Mary's
womb. Nope. Before Abraham existed, he already
existed before that. He is eternally pre-existent and
he is equal with God. He's not
a lesser God. No, there's only one God eternally existing
as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are co-equal
in their deity, in their divinity. So we see Christ's pre-existence
and divinity. Let's go to another key doctrine found in chapter
three and that is this. New Testament Christians
are the true circumcision.
We are the real Israel. We are the true Jews.
The so-called Jews and Judaism and the nation
state of Israel are a fraud according to the Bible.
If you actually study the New Testament, there's no way around this. We get this from
the book of Philippians as well. Look at verse two of chapter three. Beware of
dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision. And look, the Apostle Paul is talking to Gentiles
in Philippi, which is a city in Macedonia,
modern-day northern Greece. We're the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Now, this is a great passage.
It's a powerful passage that just completely
sinks the battleship of this crowd that says, well, you know,
the Jews are God's chosen people. No, we're the circumcision.
Oh, the so-called circumcision calling us the uncircumcision. Nope,
we're the circumcision. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile
because we're the circumcision spiritually. The Bible says
he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter whose praise is not
of men but of God. Now, let's stop and really look at verse
2, though, because verse 2 has got some great things in it as well.
Beware of the concision. What does the word concision mean?
Well, this is a play on words because we're talking about
circumcision, and now instead of Paul
calling the Jews the circumcision, which is what they're typically called, he calls
them the concision. So this is the
paradigm that other people have is that, okay, the Jews are the
circumcision and the Gentiles are the uncircumcision, right? That's the wording
that the Bible will typically use about those two groups. Paul is kind of turning
that around and saying, no, actually we're the circumcision. They're the
concision. So he's giving them like a derogatory term
taking away their claim to being the circumcision because he's saying
they're not the circumcision, they're the concision. And what does concision mean?
Well, you know, just looking it up in the dictionary, it says it's archaic
and that this is the definition, a cutting up or off
a mutilation. So cutting up,
cutting off, mutilation. So the idea here is something's being cut off,
something's being mutilated, right? But we're taking away
the spiritual component because of the fact that circumcision is
something that God prescribed, something that God ordained,
something that Abraham was told to do and it was a sign
of the covenant between God and the children of Israel, right? So
that's something that has a spiritual connotation. When we hear the word
circumcision, you know, we're thinking about, okay, this is something
that God gave to Abraham. So what Paul's doing here is he's taking away that
spiritual component and it's just a mutilation.
It's just chopping something off. It's just removing flesh. Why?
It's sort of like if I said, oh, these people that are baptizing babies, that's not
baptism. That's just giving them a bath,
right? You're taking away the spiritual component by calling it a bath,
right? You know, oh, you just sprinkled them. You just gave them
a little shower. You just dunked them in the water. You just gave them a little bath. And this is what I
tell people. If you got baptized before you were saved, you didn't get baptized. You just
got wet. You got wet is all that happened to you.
You didn't get baptized because you got to be saved to get baptized. You got to believe in
Jesus. Well, here's the thing. That's what Paul's doing here with this.
Saying they're not the circumcision. They're the concision. All they did
was chop some flesh off their body, but that does not make them
the people of God. They're not the circumcision because they don't rejoice in Christ Jesus.
We're the circumcision. They're just the concision. They're just people who
have a little bit of skin removed from their body.
And so that's what he's doing with that. But he's also
doing something else here because he says beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,
beware of the concision. Now, if you look at the word concision,
we talked about it. You know, it's obviously just saying, yeah, they chopped
that part off, but meaningless. What about dogs?
Well, if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter number 15.
Evil workers obviously needs no explanation, right?
The Jews were working evil because they're the synagogue
of Satan, because they don't believe in Jesus, and if you don't have
the son, you don't have the father. They're the enemies of the gospel of Christ,
et cetera. We don't really need an explanation on why they're called evil workers.
But I want you to be clear that it's the same group in all
three cases. Dogs, evil workers, the concision.
Were the circumcision. Now, why is he calling them dogs in this passage?
Because of the fact that in Matthew chapter
15, we can see that the Gentiles are actually
in kind of a parable referred to as dogs.
Right? So, like, look at Matthew chapter 15, verse 21. It says,
Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Zidane.
And behold, a woman of Canaan. So this is a, not a
Jewish woman, but a, uh, Gentile woman,
came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord,
that son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil.
But he answered her, Not a word. And his disciples came up beside him, saying, Send her
away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I'm not sent,
but under the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So, at this
stage, Jesus only wanted to preach to Israel.
He has a short ministry, three and a half years, and he's
only going to preach to Israel. And when he sends out his disciples, he says,
he says, Go not into any of the cities of
the Samaritans. He says, Go not to the Gentiles, into any city of the Samaritans,
and are ye not. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
after he rides from the dead, he expands that and says, Go teach all nations. Go into all
the world. But during his earthly ministry, he wanted to cover all of Israel
and get it done. And so he says, I'm not
sent, but under the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Because this woman
wants healing, but yet, for her son, but yet
he's not going to do it because she's a Gentile, right?
Or a daughter, I'm sorry. And then it says, Then came
she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said,
It is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
So this is an allegory or a parable. He's, he's basically calling
Israel the children and calling the Gentiles
the dogs. Now, it doesn't mean that they're literally dogs or that they're,
or that they're just that gross or bad or whatever, but it's just a parable. It's just like,
it's just an analogy of like, well, we've got to first feed the children
before we feed the dog, right? We love our dog, want to feed the dog.
We've got to feed the kids first. And so he's saying, No, no. I've got to
be focused on my mission here of reaching Israel.
She said, so she plays along with this parable here, and she said,
Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered
and said to her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that hour. So Jesus really likes what she said
here, where she kind of plays along and says, Hey, you're right, but
you know, throw me a bone here if I'm a dog.
So she basically kind of enters into the parable, and he says, All right, I like your attitude.
I like your faith. He gives her what she wants. So again,
what do the Jews think about the Gentiles?
Well, we're the circumcision. They're the uncircumcision. Paul flips that around
and says, No, no, no. We're the circumcision. The Jews are the concision.
And then he flips this around, too, and says, You know who the dogs
are in the New Testament is actually the Jews, not the Gentiles, right?
God has flipped things around where it used to be that
Israel are the children and the Gentiles are the dogs.
Well, now the Gentiles are the children if they believe in Jesus
because the Bible says they that are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.
The Gentiles that believe in Christ are the children of God.
Every saved Christian is a child of God. So he's
basically flipping this around, and so he's kind of calling
them, You guys are the dogs. You guys are just mutilators of the flesh.
We're the children. We're the circumcision. We're the people of God.
So this is a great doctrine from Philippians because
let's face it, a lot of people are wrong on this. They think
that the Jews that reject Jesus are God's people. Again, it takes a lot
of mental gymnastics. It takes a lot of cognitive dissonance to understand
how unsafe people who reject and possibly even hate the Lord Jesus
can somehow be his chosen people and blessed and all.
The Bible says if you don't believe in Jesus, you have the wrath of God abiding on you.
Facts. Alright, and then one last key doctrine that I want to
cover tonight. First of all, we said number one, those who are saved go
immediately to heaven when they die. Number two, Christ's pre-existence
and divinity. Number three, we found that it is
Christians, New Testament Christians, that are the true circumcision.
According to Philippians 3, the other people, they just chopped skin off.
They're just mutilators of the flesh. They're just, you know, choppers off
of whatever. They're just the concision. Doesn't mean anything. It's like, oh, you
got baptized. No, you just got wet is what you did.
You know, it's like the Catholics think they're eating the body of Christ or something.
They ate a cracker is what they did. But number four,
the fourth key doctrine that we can derive from Philippians is, of course,
the most important doctrine of all, which is salvation by faith, not
works. Look at Philippians chapter three, verse seven.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I
may win Christ. And here's the key verse, verse nine, and be found in him
not having my own righteousness, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith. Right? So the faith that saves us,
right? That is our righteousness in the sight of God.
So God looks down from heaven and sees me as righteous, not
because of any righteous acts that I perform. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. We have Christ's
righteousness imputed unto us. Our
sins were imputed unto Jesus when he died on the cross, and then his
righteousness was imputed unto us. It'd be like if the bank just
switched my account with like a million, you know, my account's like overdrawn
and then there's some millionaire and they just switch the account numbers.
Right? That's basically what happened. Christ took on all our
debt and paid for it on the cross, and then all of the righteousness
gets put on our account. We have Christ's righteousness imputed
unto us. That's why Paul says, I don't have my own righteousness, but that which is
through the faith of Christ. By believing in Christ, I
have received his righteousness imputed unto me,
and it's the righteousness which is of God, meaning from God. It comes from God
by faith. So I believe in Jesus and I get righteousness from God,
granted unto me, given unto me, not what I actually did.
Go to Romans chapter 10, this is the last place we'll turn,
and make sure that we're understanding this correctly in Philippians 3, 9.
Be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. So the right righteousness comes through
faith in Jesus, the wrong kind of my own self-righteousness
comes from the law. Now, by the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight, the Bible says. Nobody's gonna be
justified by the law because by the law is the knowledge of sin. All the law does is just show you what a screw-up
you are. Right? You read the law of God, you're not gonna be like,
uh, me, me, yeah, me, me, also me, also,
no, you're not gonna do that because you're gonna be like, ooh, I broke this one, I broke, you're not gonna think like,
oh, this is just describing me, the perfect person who follows all these things.
All these things have I kept from my youth. Baloney!
No, when you're reading the law, you're like, uh, ah, ee, uh.
Because you've done it. You've broken God's law. You're not perfect.
And if you actually say that you have no sin,
you deceive yourself. If you say that you've not sinned,
you make him a liar, and his word is not in you. That's what the Bible says.
So, righteousness doesn't come from the law, which would be,
and look, let's just stop and talk about what are some of the laws. How about this one?
Thou shalt not steal. Is that a law? Yeah, that's one of the
big ones, right? Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet.
Right? Honor your father and mother. Right? Those kind of things, stop
and think. So, therefore, if I go through life
honoring my father and mother, not stealing, not killing,
not committing adultery, not bearing false witness, and not coveting,
and keep, you know, having no other gods before, that'd be my own righteousness.
It's just me going through life doing the right things. Will that save me?
No way. Here's why. Because whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. So I can get up here, and I
can truthfully say, as myself, Stephen Anderson, I can say, you know what? I was a virgin
when I got married, and I've been faithful to my wife for 24 years. I have not
committed adultery in any way, shape, or form. I haven't committed fornication or adultery.
I get up and say, look at me. I'm so righteous. Okay, take me straight
to heaven. Nope. Because guess what? Have I ever looked upon a woman
to lust after her in my heart? Well, me and Jimmy Carter both have to say
yes to that, okay? Whether people like it or not. And so it's just
reality that probably virtually every single man on this
planet would either have to lie or admit, yeah, okay,
guilty as charged, right? We're human. And then it's like,
oh, well, I've never murdered anyone. You know,
I'm 43 years old, and I've never killed anybody. Yeah, okay. But have you
been angry with your brother without a cause? Or have you hated someone
wrongfully? You know, whosoever hated his brother is a murderer, right? So what if you
just had hatred or anger in your heart
that was not justified? Well, then now you have broken the law of God,
right? And you don't have to break all of them.
Whosoever should keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all.
So that's why no one can be justified through the law
of God. And when people try to tell you, well, it's not through the law, but it's
by being a good person.
What is the law? The law is telling you how to be a good person.
Like, what do they mean? Well, it's not that you have to keep the law, but you just can't, you know,
you just can't go out and sin, though. Sin is the transgression
of the law. So you can't just sit there and say, well, it's not by keeping the
Mosaic law, but it's just by being a good person. Well, you know what? Being a good
person is a big component of the Mosaic law. And I realize the Mosaic
law also has ceremonial things, but a big part of it is the moral law.
So if you talk about being a good person, not sinning too
much, what you're saying is justification by the law. That's what you're saying.
And so, therefore,
you know, we can't expect to get into heaven on our own righteousness,
which is of the law. The problem is it's not good enough. Now, theoretically, if you kept
the whole law perfectly and never sinned, then, yeah, you could just walk right into heaven
because, well, how could you go to hell? You didn't do nothing.
If you've never sinned, then you know what? Yeah, go to heaven on your own without Jesus.
But there's nobody like that. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Now, look at Romans 10, verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. First thing
to point out is they're not saved. That's why we've got to desire
that they get saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness.
What's God's righteousness? The righteousness which is of God by faith.
That which is through the faith of Christ, according to Philippians 3.9.
Ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, that's the righteousness through the law.
Not stealing, honoring father and mother, not killing,
not committing adultery. Oh, look how good I am. You know, sorry,
it's not good enough. And, of course, we should all be
doing the right things and following God's moral law, but
not as a way to get to heaven, just as a way
to do right in the sight of God in order to please God, in order to live a blessed
life on this earth. You know, we want our days to be long on the earth, we're going to
honor our father and mother, but we don't honor our father and mother in order to enter heaven.
And so the Bible says that they're going about
to establish their own righteousness and they've not submitted themselves
under the righteousness of God. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Right? So before you're saved, you're doing good deeds
and following commandments in order to establish your own righteousness, but when
you believe on Jesus, that's over. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. No more law for righteousness.
In 2024, Steven Anderson is not relying on the law for his righteousness.
That ended when I believed in Jesus Christ, because I'm already there.
I've already achieved it. I already have it. So I don't need the law
for righteousness. I need the law as a guiding principle for my life
to show Christ that I love him, to show God that I love him, to love
my neighbor, because let's face it, all the law and the prophets just hang on these two
things, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor, so obviously if I'm going to love God
and love my neighbor, I'm going to be doing those things. But is it for righteousness?
Is it for my, and in this sense, righteousness is talking about,
you know, your ticket into heaven, being seen as righteous before God,
being justified in the eyes of God. Am I doing the law for righteousness?
No, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone who believes. For Moses described it,
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by
them. You have to do all those things, and nobody does them perfectly,
but if you do them, you will live a good life on this earth. They are helpful
in this world, and we should do them, but not for salvation.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead.
But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Right? It's not you going about to establish your own righteousness.
You know, I was just giving the gospel to a guy not too long ago, and he's just telling me
like, man, you know, I've been working on it for like a year,
cleaning up my life, trying to get right with God, because I really want to get baptized,
but I want to make sure I'm saved first, and so I still have to keep cleaning up my life.
There's still some more sins I need to quit. I mean, this guy's just on a program
to establish his own righteousness.
Right? All he needs to do is just confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus,
believe in his heart that God raised him from the dead, saved. Done.
And thankfully this guy did get saved. But it took me hours
to explain it to him, because he was just kind of stuck on this thing of
works-based salvation. And so then it says, after that,
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. So again, the righteousness doesn't come
from actions that we perform in this world, or sins that we
abstain from in this world. It comes from our heart, just believing in Jesus.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. Ashamed in this context means, it doesn't mean embarrassed,
it means let down. If you believe in Jesus, you're not going to be let down. He's not going to let you down.
Why is he not going to let you down? Because whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. No one gets left hanging.
No one gets left down. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
The same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So again, Philippians is not necessarily typically thought of as a doctrinal book.
It's not like Romans, where it's just continually
getting you doctrine. It's more of a practical book, talking
to a church that struggled with pride, struggled with ego,
struggled with people kind of trying to get status and reputation
and things. And so it's really focused on
teaching them to have unity, to put aside those things, to not worry about those
things, to think about other people. But in the process, he ends up giving
us four really key doctrines
that we really want to make sure that we're solid on. And you better make sure you're solid on
all four of these things because you don't want to get screwed up on these things because
one false doctrine leads to another. Thankfully, our
fundamental Baptist brethren are 99% going to be right
about people going immediately to heaven when they die, the moment they die. But you know what?
Out there in this world, you start getting into other denominations. It's a jungle out there, people being
wrong on this. You know, number two, Christ's pre-existence
and divinity, I would say 100% of fundamental Baptists are going to get this
right. Thank God. That's a key important doctrine. Number three,
New Testament Christians are the true circumcision.
That's a rough one for a lot of churches. And you know what?
I'm sorry, but it's a big blunder.
Obviously, it doesn't mean we can't be their friend. It doesn't mean that if that's not the best church in your area,
you shouldn't go there. Hey, if it's the best church in your area, go there in spite of that.
But it's bad, you know, because it ends up leading to a bunch of other
problems because it's so woven into the warp and
woof of the New Testament, this idea of Christians replacing
the physical nation of Israel, that if you don't get this right, you end up
getting goofed up on a lot of other things because it's just on every page.
So you got to get this nailed down. Again, I'm not
mad at the fundamental Baptists that are wrong on this. Obviously,
I came out of that and I grew up that way. And even, you know, even
an adult, I believe that way and whatever. But the point is, though, we need
to get that right, okay? And the old IFB
needs to fix that because it's going to keep messing up their doctrine if they don't
fix it. And then number four, salvation by faith not works.
Well, if you're saved, you got that right. If you're wrong about that, you're not even saved.
You got to be saved through faith in Jesus. But
Philippians is a great book for the practical stuff. Also,
some great key doctrines helps us really nail them down.
We're thankful for this wonderful book. Let's borrow it in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much
for Philippians. Thank you so much for the assurance
of our salvation, knowing that we're saved by faith
in the eternally pre-existent, equal with God,
Savior, Jesus Christ, and that the moment that we die
we'll go straight to heaven, that we're God's chosen people, we're the
circumcision. Lord, thank you so much for all these wonderful blessings
and all the gifts that you've given us through Christ, and it's in His name
we pray. Amen.
Amen. Take your hymnals together. Go to hymn 441.
Hymn 441.
Great is Thy faithfulness. Hymn number 441, sing this out together and be dismissed.
Hymn number 441, sing it out into the Lord.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
O God, my Father,
there is no shadow
of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not
like the passions they
hail not, as Thou hast
been, Thou forever
will be. Great is
Thy faithfulness. Great is
Thy faithfulness. Morning
by morning, new mercies
I see. O
I have needed Thy hand
hath provided. Great
is Thy faithfulness, Lord
unto me.
Summer and winter and
springtime and harvest.
Sun, moon, and stars in their
forces above,
join with all nature
in plentiful witness
to Thy great faithfulness,
mercy, and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning,
new mercies I see.
O I have needed
Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Lord unto me.
O I have needed Thy hand hath provided
for sin and the
peace that endureth.
Thy own dear presence
to cheer and to guide.
Strength for today
and pride, O for tomorrow.
With ten thousand beside.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
Morning by
morning, new mercies
I see. O I
have needed Thy hand
hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Lord unto
me.
May a good thing tonight. We are dismissed.
Thank you.