Quit trying to make yourself acceptable to the Lord. Rest.

To Rest in Christ is to be Found in Him with His Righteousness Resting in Me on the Basis of Faith Alone

Philippians 3:7-9

(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at Bottom. Notes are throughout)

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Turn to Philippians 3:7-9. We are in Philippians 3:7-9. As you are turning there, I want to share about two very important figures in Christian history. One was Augustine. The other was Pelagius. These two men represent two ways of thinking that Paul is going to touch upon in our passage. The two ways of thinking are two ways that people think today. Augustine and Pelagius were contemporaries of each other. Augustine was born in 354. He was an early church leader who was a theologian who contended for the faith. Pelagius was also born in about 354 too. Pelagius was a monk who was heretical in his theories of sin, and Christianity. By heretical, I mean he was wrong and led others astray through his false beliefs. From Pelagius' writings, we can surmise that he was not saved. Augustine set out to refute the cultic heresies of Pelagius. Out of all the ancient church theologians, Augustine probably influenced the great protestant reformer, Martin Luther, more than any other man--especially through his refutations of Pelagius. BB Warfield, the Princeton theologian, said of Augustine,

"It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation."--BB Warfield

Yet, Augustine lived a thousand years before the protestant reformation. His significance for you and me in the reformation of the church can also be seen in his influence upon John Calvin, who was another great protestant theologian. Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian. The foundational issue of contention between Augustine and Pelagius centered around the doctrine of original sin.

What is the doctrine of original sin?

The doctrine is that everyone is conceived in sin because of the sin of Adam and Eve. In this condition, all are lost, and so all start out separated from God. Augustine and Pelagius' argument had to do with the question of:

To what extent are you free in respect to sin and choosing God?

Pelagius believed that your responsibility concerning your actions before God always implies that you have natural ability to choose God, and to choose not to sin. In other words, if you have the moral responsibility to obey the law of God, then you must also be born with the moral ability to do it. Or the Pelagian heresy can be worded this way;

You and I have the moral responsibility to obey God and not sin, therefore we must necessarily be born with the ability to naturally, through enough effort, quit sinning completely--that is, if we truly desire to do so.

Pelagius asserted that this self-acquired virtue (self righteousness) is the supreme good, and because of it, God takes notice of your obedience. God gets impressed with your self righteous actions, and so He then rewards you. Pelagius believed all these things based upon his denial of original sin. Again, original sin is the doctrine that all have inherited the sin of the first man, Adam, and so all have a sin nature. But Pelagius said that Adam's sin affected Adam alone. In the meantime, everyone else is born good, and supposedly everyone's nature throughout their lives is indestructibly good. One huge consequence of this belief, is that Pelagius denied your complete need, and your complete dependence upon God's grace to be saved. Pelagius also argued that even though God's grace may help you achieve righteousness, God's grace is not really necessary to achieve righteousness. You and I, and anyone, can supposedly achieve God's required righteousness through our own works. 

Augustine, on the other hand, had a  Biblical view of the fall. Augustine said humans are a "mess of sin." What this means is that we are not able to make ourselves alive. We are radically corrupted in Adam's fall as his children. Augustine taught that according to the Bible, while you are dead in your trespasses and sin, God must do an initial work of enabling you to receive Him, and His salvation, as a miracle action by divine grace. In this process, we cooperate with this grace, and freely choose God; but only after God's initial work of freeing us to do so. Martin Luther, who opposed the heresies of Arminius, which were heresies similar to those of Pelagius of a thousand years earlier, rightly argued the same points from the Bible as Augustine. Luther pointed out that the flesh profits nothing and that this nothing is not a little something. Augustine did not deny that fallen man could still freely will. He argued that fallen man still has free will (liberium arbitrium). Nevertheless, fallen, and in sin, people have lost their moral liberty. It is the principle that the state of original sin makes us unable to freely refrain from sin. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain sinful. They are chained by our sin nature with its evil impulses. We are slaves of sin according to Romans 8. So, in our slavery to sin, our freedom that we have to will must always be in sin, leading to sin. Thus in your flesh, and left to your flesh, you freely will, but free only to act in sin, to reject the one true God, and be obedient to sin; because we are born slaves to sin. This is the key issue. But another key issue is that there are consequences for both ways of thinking. Pelagius believed in salvation by works. Augustine believed in salvation by God's work. Augustine believed in resting in Christ's righteousness.

300 years before Pelagius was born, a Pharisee named Saul lived out a kind of Pelagianism. Saul had been born, raised, and lived, according to works based righteousness that profited him nothing. But, Saul was not born again. When Saul became born again by God's work of righteousness, he realized the truth. We know him as Paul the apostle. Paul received the revelation from God of the great necessity of resting in Christ's righteousness, where resting in Christ is to be found in Christ with His righteousness resting in you on the basis of faith alone through God's grace alone.

All this leads us to consider our passage this morning. I am going to start back in verse 2, where Paul starts describing the contrast. Speaking of the Judaizers who believed in works based righteousness,

"Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

From here Paul continues, and this is where we come into our primary passage under study,

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung so that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith," Philippians 3:

Please prepare your hearts to learn from God's word with me this morning in this expository sermon titled,

To Rest in Christ is to be Found in Him with His Righteousness Resting in Me on the Basis of Faith Alone
[pray]

@1 I need to be found in Christ with His____________resting in me on the basis of faith in Him alone.

Paul the apostle was once the showcased example of an exceptional keeper of the Old Covenant law. At one time, Paul believed in works based righteousness. He was an expert. Unlike gentiles that were in the Philippian church, Paul was an authority on Judaism. God uses Paul's life to explain some important principles about works based righteousness versus the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It is important for us to know that the situation that we have strolled into here in this passage, is that the gentiles of the Philippian church were being bullied by Judaizers. The church was intimidated by the Judaizer's pious expertise in ritualistic Law keeping. But Paul was not impressed, nor intimidated. God uses Paul to annihilate any inclination toward the theory of works based righteousness and salvation that might infect the body of Christ. One way that God did this was to trump the Judaizers at the outset as being small time novices compared to Paul's former life in Judaisim. Paul is doing a slap down maneuver in his teaching. He says of Himself, concerning his own view of how he could be found in respect to righteousness in keeping God's Old Covenant law, that he was blameless. Paul was the consummate model of someone who could be pointed to as a person worthy of attaining merit with God. But you can't really do it. Nobody can, and this is what God is saying. Before Paul was saved, Paul could have been Pelagius' poster child. Unsaved Paul, is, in a sense, the poster child of so many people who believe in works based righteousness. Maybe you can relate to Paul. In other words, maybe you have a list of things that you point to as your things that you do that supposedly make you acceptable to God. If so, then you are living a lie. But Paul is about to blow the Judaizers away by using himself as an example of the highest degree, and then slap his own self down to nothing.

Paul was circumcised the eighth day, just as the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Law Covenant stipulated. Some of the Judaizers in Philippi were gentiles that had converted to Judaism, so they were circumcised later. They missed their opportunity to fulfill this eighth day aspect of the Law. But not Paul. Further, a male infant does not circumcise himself. Somebody has to do it for you, so works based righteousness people are left at the mercy of circumstances, and the decisions of others. Either way, if you were not circumcised on the eighth day, then every single existing day after that you are a living legacy of the fact that you have not fulfilled the law in yourself perfectly. In our context, the judaizers are trying to convince the church that circumcision was an important work to make you righteous if you were a male. Paul (who was circumcised) rebukes them and calls them evil workers and dogs. Any works based righteousness sinner who is a judaizer could not compete with Paul. Paul could easily be tempted to boast in this as something that brings favor with God and man, but that is not what Paul is doing. But Paul is boasting to make a point. Paul is pointing out those things which bring favor from other men (from evil workers and dogs) concerning the pride of self-righteousness. So, Paul continues with his impressive credentials. Paul was of the nation of Israel. He was a physical inheritor of the covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His roots also goes back to Moses, and the Old Covenant Law. All of this is the heritage of being a direct descendant through Jacob, who was Israel. Paul was not a convert to Judaism from among pagan Gentiles like so many Philippians were. Paul was also a Benjamite. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the spiritual core of the Israelite matrix for hundreds of years prior to the Messiah's coming. Saul, the first King of Israel came from the Benjamites. Paul was originally named after king Saul. The Benjamites were the only tribe that remained loyal to king David and his successors. Paul knew who he was genetically. But, many Jews by the time of Paul could not trace their tribal ancestry as a refined lineage. Intermarriage over the years of exile had blurred tribal distinctions--but not for Paul. His family was pure Benjamite and he could confidently say so. Paul was also a Hebrew of Hebrews. The phrase Hebrew of Hebrews, was a phrase that meant that Paul was a Hebrew out of Hebrews. In other words, there was no intermarriage in Paul's blood line to upset his direct link to Abraham, who is first called a Hebrew in Genesis 14:13. Paul could even go on about how righteous he was, and about how much he achieved. His efforts were works that were spotless and superior. Think about this, because Paul wants us to think about this:

If anyone's efforts should pay off when it comes to achieving righteousness it should be the efforts of Paul.

When it came to the Old Covenant Mosaic Law, Paul was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were one of the most influential, zealous, and strict law keeping sects of the Jews. Today, we usually think of all the Pharisees as the breakers of God's Law, but this is not the way it was. The Pharisees were strict keepers of the Law of God. Paul said concerning himself,

"... according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Acts 26:5

Paul had been like an elite Moses, Martin Luther, John Calvin kind of guy in the system of Judaism. Paul could easily be tempted to boast in this as something that brings favor with God and man, but he did not. As to zeal, (before his salvation, when He thought He was protecting God and His Old Covenant law in Judaism) Paul persecuted the church, which he believed to be a heretical cult. Paul's point is that just because you are zealous and just because you claim to be following God, doesn't mean that you really are. In our zealousness, we could actually be against God. Paul had been against God in his zeal. The self righteous (who bask in their sermons about works, and their secret thoughts of how they are checking off the boxes on their righteousness list) are really against God too in their zeal.

Finally though, Paul's biggest point of all, is that concerning the righteousness which is in the law, Paul was found to be blameless. This is where the stage lights turn up and the main spotlight really shines on Paul's example of self righteousness. Paul says in Romans 3 that the Law was weak and unable to make anyone become inwardly righteous unto salvation, but nevertheless, according to keeping the list of rules, Paul did it impeccably. The Law was the template for the Jews to do certain things that God commanded. To not do them was to be unrighteous in disobeying God's command. Doing them was to be doing righteousness. It was that simple. But the Jews did not realize that doing the law does not make one righteous. They did not realize the revelation of God that Paul realizes. It is the prophetic revelation that Jesus explained,

"You therefor must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48

Keeping the law perfectly does not make one perfect like God is perfect. I repeat, Keeping rules perfectly does not make you perfect like God is perfect.

@2 Keeping rules perfectly does_______make you perfect like God is perfect.

All the work in the world is not perfect enough to achieve this perfection. But you must achieve it. So the question is,

How?

Are you ready for the answer?

Only rest can do it.

That's right,

You must rest to be righteous.

This is the lesson that God wants all of us to learn in a life changing way. But, Paul was only doing what the Law told him to do. That is, he did everything in it, except he added to it extra works that manifest the sinfulness that was hidden in his heart. He persecuted Christ, and persecuted the body of Christ. But the point is that the Law was the big standard of obedience, but obedience does not necessarily mean that keeping God's law keeps you from being a slave of sin. For about 1400 years, the Law was Israel's standard of doing the righteous things that God commanded. Paul, though sinful, was simply working hard to do what Moses told him to do. Paul reiterates in Romans 10,

"... Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness." Romans 10:5

Paul could have easily asserted works based--law based-- righteousness as demonstrated in his law keeping. Paul was blameless in the outward stuff. So in this certain way, Paul could boast if he wanted to. No judaizer could argue with Paul's credentials, and few compared with Paul in respect to Judaism. This is what God wants us to see about Paul. Nobody can compare to him in respect to self righteousness.

Today, you will often hear of how people live moral lives. You will hear people who claim to be Christians say that those moral people were so good that God will probably save them on the day of judgment. How many of you have heard that before? Weeks ago, the presidential candidate for the Democratic party, Barack Hussein Obama, who claims to be a Christian, said that he believed that Jews and Muslims who live moral lives are just as much "children of God" as Christians are. Barack Hussein Obama is wrong. The true children of God, are the true circumcision who must be found resting in Christ Jesus as the body of Christ. Obama also said that though his mother was not a Christian when she died, she was a generous person, and so therefor he was assured she would be in heaven. You will find this said about Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Hindus, and even atheists. The problem, though is that their hearts are wicked. All are conceived and born in sin. None is righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All are lost. All are sinners. Only in Christ the covenant does God forgive, and cover our sins and iniquities by grace through faith. But, if anyone could boast in apparent self-righteousness, it would be Paul. Paul even said of himself in his restless work,

"... I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers." Galatians 1:14

The Judaizers of Philippi would have been impressed. What an amazing work ethic. If any person could have achieved such a concept as salvation through sheer self effort, it would have been Paul. But Paul is carefully laying out an important point. God is telling you and me something. The Point is that though Paul could boast if he wanted to, he would rather die first. Why? Because everything that Paul is saying that he could boast in concerning Judaism, is worth absolutely nothing compared to the New Covenant relationship with resting in Christ and His finished work in us. The problem is that before Paul was saved, Paul had achieved doing things that were righteous things because they were things that God said to do, but Paul did not possess inward cleanliness. Paul's deeds were righteous, but Paul wasn't. Paul was busy with works so that He could be found blameless in outward things, but He was not resting in pure righteousness that is given as a grace gift in the Messiah in His inward man.

You need clean-Christ in your inward man.

The Judaizers, who were harassing the Philippian church, thought like Paul did before Paul was saved. This is the way Pelagius thought. Hopefully this is not the way you are thinking. Hopefully you are not trying to do righteous things, thinking that it will make you righteous inside. The problem is that everyone fails. And each day people see that they are not righteous. They never rest in trying to attain what only Christ attained for them. Their eyes have not been opened to the glorious truth, beauty, wonder, and finished work of God in His good news. They need to see what Paul says concerning all of that stuff he was doing to make God accept him,

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung so that I may gain Christ,"

@3 I count all things to be loss in view of knowing____________my Lord.

All of Paul's achievement in the past doesn't matter. Paul is saying what you and I need to be saying every single day; every single moment. Are you saying it? Or are you gauging your salvation on your own efforts, and how much you can keep up the keep up? Are your mistakes driving your view of your salvation? Are your successes driving your view of your salvation? It's all wrong. You need to be resting in Christ. You need to rest in Him, and say,

Nothing in my life is worth anything compared to the exchanged life of Christ's righteousness.

I need to quit trying to make myself acceptable.

I'm already acceptable in Him.

Resting in Christ is where I want to be found.

What God wants you to say is,

I was lost, but now I am found in Him with His Righteousness resting in me on the basis of faith alone through grace alone.

Notice the stark way that Paul rejects so-called works based righteousness. His godly contempt comes through crystal clear. He hates it so much because He knows that God hates it so much. Paul says that any of the previous gains of merit of his former life in the flesh, (where he was religious but lost), is really like dung. Dung is what God says that all your works based righteousness really is. You know what dung is; when you watch a parade, and there are horses trotting down the street, dung is what happens when one suddenly stammers in its gait, lifts up its tail and drops something down onto the road. It is foul refuse. It stinks. It is unclean. It is gross, and a man usually must run up with a shovel and scoop it off the road to eliminate it from the public. This is what all your works based righteousness is folks. It is the stuff that you flush down the toilet. Now think about this. Think about what dung is. Now think about the bizarre irony of one of the most deceptive boasts that people make. It's so twisted. It's so opposite of reality. The crazy thing is that people are trying to point to that foul stuff as their righteousness.

Is this going to be your answer before God on the day of judgment?--Producing for him a sack of dung instead of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?

This is what we are talking about, and God views all of our self righteous attempts to please him as dung. To make the deception even worse, legalistic people think that if you don't follow the rules that they do, then you are the one that is somehow covered in dung. This is the curse of the short lister. It is the curse of the standard bearer. It is the lie of works based righteousness. It wants to make their dung into cleanliness, and it wants to make your precious rest that you have in Christ into worthless dung. Make no mistake about it, a righteousness of your own derived by works, can never ever bring true inner righteousness. Instead, it brings more, and more sin. A righteousness of your own derived by doing lists of things that people want from you, or of doing everything in the Bible perfectly, or not doing everything the Bible says not to do perfectly, brings pride, selfishness, and blindness to how wretched and sinful your heart really is in your own self. That is how self-righteousness works. We look at what we are doing, or avoiding. We look at our accomplishments, instead of at our hearts. But Paul says he doesn't want to be found covered in all that dung anymore. He wants to be found in Christ--covered by the precious blood of Jesus. You and I need to be found covered, and washed by the blood where the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. This is what we all need because we will always fall short of God's high standard of righteousness in our own works. You can not be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, but Christ is perfect as His heavenly Father is perfect, and that is the point. This is the great necessity of being found in Christ and His perfection, and in His work, and in His righteousness that He puts in us. This is why Paul says over and over again, that we need to be found in Christ. In Him we rest, and while we rest in Him and His work in us, we give all glory to Him. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, that God calls us who are weak, so that

"... no man may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us

[1] wisdom from God,

and

[2] righteousness,

and

[3] sanctification,

and

[4] redemption,

so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" 1 Corinthians 1:29-30

@4 Christ became to us wisdom from God, and___________, and sanctification, and redemption, so that we should boast in the Lord and not our own works.

So unlike Pelagius, and unlike Arminians today who think they are offering up their superior choices to God in pride, yet sinfully saying their boast is not really pride, but rather humbleness, Paul wants to boast, but Paul wants to boast according to the truth. Paul wants to boast completely in the Lord, and His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. For you and me to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ is to boast in the New Covenant. What God is using Paul to convey to us is that Paul's old life is obsolete. Judaizers are liars. This was the huge revelation for people in that first generation, but it has to continuously become a huge revelation in every generation. Every generation finds its form of hybrid Christianity where people try to rely upon works based righteousness. They will try to rely on the Old Covenant Law codes to attain this righteousness, and they will push this on you. But, because of the New Covenant in Christ, the Old covenant is obsolete. All who rest in Christ are resting in a new and better covenant;

"6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old [covenant Law codes] as the [new] covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second." Hebrews 8:6-7

And this is the point. The list of rules of the first covenant was not faultless. It did not, and could not make anyone righteous. All are born in sin, in bondage to sin, and what is more devastating for anyone who is trying to work to attain righteousness is that the Law was given so that sin would increase. The Law was not given so that sin would get smaller, and be diminished. Paul says,

"19 For as through the one man's [Adam's] disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [Christ Jesus] the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; ...

@5 By the obedience of Christ the many are made___________by faith in Him.

[This is the problem with Law righteousness. It falls short because it was added so that transgression against God would increase--not decrease. But the other problem is that contrary to Pelagius and anyone else, all have been made sinners in Adam. Paul continues,]

... but where sin increased, [Because the Law came in] grace abounded all the more, ...

[the next verse is so key]

21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:19-21

Sin reigned in death for everyone before the Mosaic Law, during the Mosaic Law, and even afterward for all who are not saved in Christ. Works don't keep sin from reigning in you. You are not saved by your good works. You are saved to do good works, but in your salvation, you still sin, and when you sin, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ your Lord. We do not crawl up on the cross and re-do His work for Him that He did for us. We rest in Him where grace reigns as King. So this is why the writer of Hebrews goes on to say that Christ is the Mediator of a better, more excellent covenant, which was established on better promises, and then punctuates the whole point that every judaizer, and every works based righteousness employee needs to see,

"8... He says, 'Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant  ... 10 For this is the covenant I will make ... 12 I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. 13 When He said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." Hebrews 8:8-13

This is why Paul says His Law abiding citizen days are as being dung rather than blessing. So Paul says that He would rather be found where he now rests, which is in Christ,

9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith," Philippians 3:7-8

@6 Being found in Him, I have the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of____________.

Faith is your big connection to God.

"... no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "The righteous man shall live by faith." Galatians 3:11.

"... by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;" Ephesians 2:8

The gift is there my dear Christian, but you must believe in it to rest in it at all times. The same grace that you received when you first believed is the same grace that keeps you years later. The same grace that saved you when you were a baby in Christ, is the same grace that keeps you saved now when you fail. We must believe; but the point has to do with what you are believing in. We must believe in God's grace. The point is that for you to rest, you need to have faith that you are there resting in God's grace. To cease from working to make yourself righteous enough, you must have faith that you are righteous enough already in Christ. When you are completely trusting in Christ to be your righteousness, then there is nothing to boast about is there? This was the difference between the Biblical thinking of Augustine, versus Pelagius' philosophy. It affected their whole outlook on life. Philip Yancey wrote in his book, "What’s So Amazing About Grace" Zondervan, 1997, p. 71

"By instinct I feel I must do something in order to be accepted. Grace sounds a startling note of contradiction, of liberation, and every day I must pray anew for the ability to hear its message. Eugene Peterson draw a contrast between Augustine and Pelagius, two fourth-century theological opponents. Pelagius was urbane, courteous, convincing, and liked by everyone. Augustine squandered away his youth in immorality, had a strange relationship with his mother, and made many enemies. Yet Augustine started from God's grace and got it right, whereas Pelagius started from human effort and got it wrong. Augustine passionately pursued God; Pelagius methodically worked to please God. Peterson goes on to say that Christians tend to be Augustinian in theory but Pelagian in practice. They work obsessively to please other people and even God."--Yancey

We do not want to be Christians who are Augustinian in theory but Pelagian in practice. We do not want to be working obsessively to please God. You are saved by the difficult work of Christ on the cross, plus the easy work of God in effectually giving you the gift of faith. Christ worked to please God on the cross, and we need to receive that grace completely by God's easy work of faith to live out each day of our Christianity without condemnation, and without creeping into little pockets of works of self righteousness. Rest. That is the word from the Lord. Rest in the finished, completed, finalized work of your Savior.

Some of us here have come from religious backgrounds. You've done your best. Some of it you may not want to boast about, but there is a lot of it that you could boast in. What really matters is whether we had God's righteousness imputed to us in Christ. Some of us could boast about things we have avoided. Maybe we were never sexually immoral. Maybe we never cheated on a test, or on an income tax form, or on our spouse. Maybe we never missed a church meeting. But the question is; Were we in Christ?; because being in Him is what makes God accept us. Right now we need to be just as careful with the way we view our Christian walk. God wants us to walk the worthy walk, but the worthy walk is one of resting in Christ. Pelagius claimed to be a Christian. The Judaizers claimed to be Christians. They claimed that Jesus was the Messiah. But they had not rested in Him. They would not let go of all those things they could point to. So, their Christianity was summed in their own works instead of God's. They became preachers of a false religion. You and I need to give all the glory to God for any spiritual growth and progress that we have attained. Give thanks to God every single moment that He forgives you of your sinful failures. In the same way that it is a grave error to measure your righteous standing by a series of victories over the flesh, it is just as grave to measure your righteous standing by a series of failures. God has called you and me to believe what false proclaimers of truth refuse.

"4 Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:4

@7 Christ is the end of the law for _________ to everyone who ___________.

Brothers and sisters I urge you to rest in Christ knowing that what this means is to be found in Him alone with His righteousness resting in you on the basis of faith alone. Do this, and you will be well pleasing to God.


------------------------------------------------------------------
@1 I need to be found in Christ with His____________resting in me on the basis of faith in Him alone.
@2 Keeping rules perfectly doe_______make you perfect like God is perfect.
@3 I count all things to be loss in view of knowing____________my Lord.
@4 Christ became to us wisdom,___________, sanctification, and redemption, so that we should boast in the Lord and not our own works.
@5 By the obedience of Christ the many are made___________by faith in Him.
@6 Being found in Him, I have the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of____________.
@7 Christ is the end of the law for _________ to everyone who ___________.

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung so that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith," Philippians 3: