What Is A Christian? (2)

[0:00] The following sermon is made available by Lakeside Bible Church in Cornelius, North Carolina.

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[0:40] When our daughters were just babies and young kids, I can remember Julie changing their eating patterns at various stages of their growth. There came a time when even as young babies where the milk alone was insufficient in and of itself to be necessary for their continued health and natural growth as little baby human beings.

[1:05] So I remember Julie at first with each of them beginning to supplement their milk with this disgusting watery substance that she tried to convince me was cereal. That's what she said it was at least.

[1:17] I don't think it was cereal. It was something nasty looking. But whatever it was, it had a certain amount of nutrients in it that was able to supplement the milk that the girls were getting so that they were able to continue to grow and feel more full and get the nutrients that they needed that maybe the milk didn't quite provide.

[1:34] But there came a time when this quote unquote cereal was also insufficient. And so it wasn't that they could just have the milk and the cereal now. They needed something else. And so Julie would go by the jars or she would get a blender and she would put some green beans in a blender and she blended up until it was real nice and mushy and gross.

[1:51] And she would begin feeding the kids more solid foods in that way. And eventually that wasn't enough. And they worked into chopped up proteins and then so on and so forth until they got to be the age that they are now.

[2:01] And they pretty much eat anything and everything that they want to eat. They never gave up milk. In fact, even still today, you're going to see Ashlyn or not Ashlyn, but Harper most of the time, if she's going to ask for a drink, she's going to ask for milk.

[2:15] But even as babies and as young kids, there was never a time where they gave up milk completely. In fact, most of the time when you saw them as young children, even toddlers, they had a bottle of milk somewhere around in the stroller or in their hand or in their bag.

[2:28] They always had something like that, even though their regular meal and the regular nutrients that they got was coming from the chopped up chicken or the mushed up peas or whatever it was that they had at that particular season.

[2:40] But no matter how prevalent the milk was, no matter how necessary the milk was to their diet, ultimately, it was still insufficient in and of itself to continue to help them as they grew and to continue to give them the nourishment and the nutrients that they needed.

[2:59] The early church was fighting a form of false Christianity that viewed the doctrine of Jesus Christ in a similar way to my girl's diet.

[3:13] The teaching of Christ was certainly present and it was even prevalent and predominant in their theology. But they viewed Jesus as insufficient in and of himself to provide salvation apart from their own religious works, their moral deeds, and their own especially Jewish structures.

[3:35] The church leaders in the New Testament fought this and they contended with these people, confronting the deception over and over as we read the Bible. And we looked at many of those instances last week. The New Testament writers warn of the false teaching time and again, and Jesus confronted them head on.

[3:51] And even taught that our enemy, Satan, is insistent on inserting counterfeits every time that God starts a truth or plants a truth.

[4:04] We see that in the parable of Matthew 13. God plants the seed of his word and he begins to grow into wheat according to the parable.

[4:14] But during the night, the enemy comes along and sows tares among the wheat. And it takes time for the wheat and the tares to grow. And even in the earlier stages of their growth, they look exactly the same.

[4:26] It's impossible to tell the difference between what's the wheat and what's the tare. They look the same on the outside. They use the same language. They use the same Christian verbiage. All the things look very similar. But the longer that they continue to grow, the more evident it becomes which one is the true and which one is the false.

[4:44] And so Jesus confronted this over and over. Well, the false teachers that Paul anticipated being a problem to the Philippian church, we talked about last week, are known as Judaizers.

[4:57] And their deception wasn't always easy to notice because their language was very Christian. They didn't deny the person and work of Jesus Christ. They actually believed that Jesus was the Son of God.

[5:12] They believed that Jesus died a death that in some way or form helped atone for the sins of mankind. They believed in the power of his resurrection.

[5:26] They believed that he really did raise from the dead. And it was a part of their theology. It wasn't that they taught that Jesus was bad or that he was wrong. What was so deceptive is that they taught that Jesus just wasn't enough.

[5:43] They insisted that through Jesus had to be supplemented by conformity to the Old Testament law. And they had a particular fixation on two components of that law.

[5:57] One was circumcision and the other was certain dietary restrictions. They believed that because of their obedience to this religious code, that they were in fact the true people of God.

[6:11] That those who would just accept Jesus and his teaching and his death and his resurrection alone were not actually the true people of God. That you must also take that knowledge of Jesus, pair it with religious works and conformity to the Old Testament law in order to achieve true salvation.

[6:30] And so Paul uses the entire chapter of Philippians 3 to reemphasize what true Christianity is. And all the way through the chapter, he contrasts the true against the false.

[6:43] The true Christian versus the false Christian. As we have studied in these first three verses, he does that really head on as he confronts these Judaizers and their approach to the Philippian church.

[6:55] In verse number two, he deals with three warnings as it relates to these false teachers. And in verse number three, he highlights three identifying marks of a true Christian.

[7:09] The change of focus comes for us through a transitional phrase in which he proclaims that we are by implication the true circumcision. And of course, that comes just after he states in verse number two that these Judaizers were of the false circumcision.

[7:27] He uses the word concision. Let's read the verses together again just to refresh our memory and then we'll jump into our notes for the day. Finally, my brethren, in verse one, rejoice in the Lord.

[7:40] To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Here's the warning. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers.

[7:52] Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision. By implication here, you could put in brackets, we are the true circumcision. Which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

[8:10] Three warnings against the false. Three truly identifying marks of the true Christian. Now, before we jump into the three marks, I want to take just a moment to once again trace a few instances where the New Testament writers confronted this false teaching.

[8:28] In fact, we could go to a number of different places and look at all of the defenses that they made in defense of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ. The first one is in Romans chapter four.

[8:39] It's really the first 12 verses. Romans chapter four in the first 12 verses. Paul uses a defense against this false doctrine that specifically points out the fact that Abraham was saved prior to his circumcision.

[8:56] The Judaizers and the Jews especially, they correlated their place in God's family as the children of God with also being synonymous with being the children of Abraham.

[9:08] They took great pride in their national heritage. And they believed that just being the children of Abraham, which was seen in the surgical operation of circumcision, or at least as a woman would be believed this to be, it would be a matter of their intellectual thought and their belief and their faith and their heart.

[9:28] They believed that this is what made them the true children of God. But Paul points out in Romans chapter four that Abraham was actually counted as righteous before God on the basis of his faith prior to him taking the sign of circumcision.

[9:45] So Paul's first defense against the Jews and the Judaizers was even the very one that you say you belong to in Abraham was not even saved by circumcision or obedience to the law.

[9:56] The law did not even come to be in existence for hundreds of years after Abraham. And his own obedience to God's command for circumcision for he and those that would follow him came after God had already declared him righteous.

[10:12] Let me read a portion of it to you. Paul writes, And then he illustrates that.

[10:40] Paul says, In other words, those who work for their salvation, salvation is not actually a gift of grace.

[10:54] It is actually in some way an indebtedness that God has for the individual that has compiled his good works. And so Paul says, simple logic tells you that work salvation has nothing to do with God's grace.

[11:09] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. And then if he skipped down just a few verses, if you happen to turn to it, he goes on and he says, Cometh this blessedness then by the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also to those who are circumcised or also to the Gentile?

[11:33] And then he answers, For we say that faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness. And how was it counted? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

[11:45] So Paul's first defense against these Judaizers is the very one that you even claim to follow in this was counted as righteous before God before actually obeying the law.

[11:56] Now then this is in conjunction with Romans chapter two. Write down that reference. You can check it later. Romans chapter two, verses 25 to 29. In this defense, Paul mentions that the true people of God is not a matter of national heritage, nor is it a matter of religious affiliation.

[12:18] The true people of God is a matter of the heart. Here's what he says as a part of that section of verses. He says, For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

[12:35] But a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter.

[12:46] So Paul's first defense in Romans four is Abraham was justified before God. He was counted as righteous before God on the basis of his faith prior to his obedience.

[12:57] And then his second defense is, being the true people of God is not a matter of your affiliation or of your heritage. The true people of God is a matter of the heart. Now Paul mentioned in the book of Galatians, in fact, the entire letter of Galatians is written to confront the Judaizers and their assault on the churches in the region of Galatia.

[13:19] In fact, if you really want to dig deep into how Paul confronted this specifically in his churches, start with the book of Galatians. It will tell you so much there. But in chapter two, Paul mentions two things as a part of this defense.

[13:32] One, he says that if the Judaizers are right, then Jesus is a liar. And then he says, if the Judaizers are right, then the death of Christ is pointless and it's in vain.

[13:46] Here's what he says in Galatians two. He says, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?

[13:59] God forbid. When Paul was writing to the Galatians, the Judaizers he was dealing with there weren't as focused on circumcision as they were focused on dietary restrictions. And as he's writing to these Galatian churches, he brings up a specific instance when Peter falters and he begins to capitulate to some of the Judaizers in order to save face in front of the Judaizers that had come from Jerusalem.

[14:24] He separates himself from the Gentiles and he begins to associate with them instead. Before the Judaizers had shown up, Peter was happy to participate in all of the eating of whatever food he wanted to eat with the Gentiles.

[14:38] And he enjoyed it and he liked it and he reveled in it because that was his freedom in Christ. But as soon as the Judaizers showed up, he got insecure about eating things that were against the dietary restrictions.

[14:52] And so he left the Gentiles and he stuck closely to the Judaizers, making it seem like he was agreeing with them about salvation coming on part by works.

[15:05] So Paul's confronting that specifically to the Galatians. When he writes in this verse, he says that if those of us who follow Christ and by implication eat whatever we want to eat because Christ has lifted these dietary laws, if that means that we're actually sinners because we've done that, then you have actually made Christ a liar.

[15:26] Because in Mark chapter eight, Jesus made it very clear. What goes into the body does not defile a man, but that which cometh out of the body defiles a man. For from within the heart is adulteries and fornications and murders and licentiousness and a whole list of things that Jesus goes through.

[15:44] And his whole point was what goes into the body isn't a matter of defilement as far as I'm concerned. It's actually what is in the heart of a man. And so Paul writes and he says, if you're going to demand these types of restrictions, what you end up doing is making Christ a liar.

[16:00] And then in the last verse of that section of verse 21, he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

[16:12] If it was possible for us to earn salvation in some way, even with religious commitment, even if knowledge intellectually of Jesus Christ is a part of that, then what was the point in Jesus's death?

[16:25] If his death was insufficient to make an atonement for our sin, then what was the point in it to begin with? So if you're going to attach a legalism to the doctrines of Christ, what you end up doing is rendering the doctrine of Christ and his death as vain and pointless.

[16:42] And then the last one I'll give you before we jump into verse three is perhaps the most famous dealing with this evil doctrine. It's in Acts 15. Write that down. Acts 15. If you've studied the book of Acts recently, you know that this is the Jerusalem council.

[16:57] This topic of circumcision and dietary laws had come up among many of the churches. And in the early church, they were navigating how they needed to approach it and what the truth was about it.

[17:11] In Acts chapter 15, Peter is the one that ends up making the defense of justification by faith in Christ alone. Here's what happened.

[17:21] Verse number seven. When there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

[17:41] He's referencing a man named Cornelius, a Gentile who had come to faith because of the preaching of Peter. Peter witnessed it apart from the law, apart from circumcision, apart from dietary restriction.

[17:54] Peter witnessed it and the Holy Spirit confirmed it on the man's life. And so Peter goes on to say, and God, which knows the heart, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us as Jews that believed.

[18:11] And God put no difference between us and them, purifying their heart by faith. faith. And then he confronts the Judaizers and he says, now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.

[18:33] But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, we shall be saved, even as they shall be saved. Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring as they did what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

[18:56] Here's the final defense and the most powerful defense. That Gentile conversion in Acts 15 had been confirmed by the Holy Spirit apart from the law.

[19:10] Peter says, you know, you have heard the stories, Barnabas and Paul give representation to theirs as well. How that they went and they preached the gospel to the Gentiles, not only did they believe, but apart from circumcision and apart from dietary restriction, apart from conformity to the Old Testament law, not only did they believe, but God demonstrated his acceptance of their faith and their justification through Christ alone by giving them the Holy Spirit and showing us signs of the power of the Holy Spirit on their life.

[19:42] So Peter and Paul and Barnabas come to this Jerusalem council in Acts 15 and they say, we gotta leave off these restrictions. This legalism is not necessary. These people are believing the same way that we believe and accept and apart from circumcision, apart from the law, the Holy Spirit is demonstrating his power as would only be evident in a redeemed, regenerate person.

[20:04] And so as we study the defense of the early church and the defenses of the early New Testament church, we begin to see how we too should defend the gospel of justification by Jesus Christ alone and faith in him.

[20:21] The same defenses that the early church used is the same defense that we are to use today. When someone approaches you with a Christian label that says, yeah, I'm a Christian, yeah, I believe Jesus.

[20:34] Yes, I pray to Jesus. Yes, I believe in his death. Yes, I believe in his resurrection. The test is not in their intellectual knowledge. The test is, is it Jesus Christ alone that you trust?

[20:47] And if they say my salvation is found in Christ plus my baptism, that's a false Christian. They're strapping on the works of the law to the gospel of grace and they render Christ's death as insignificant and vain.

[21:02] And if they say, yes, I trust in Christ but I have also prayed through my rosary and I've had this system of prayers and I've lit a number of candles and I've gone through a number of processes and I've done the catechisms and I've done the Eucharist and I've done the communion and I've done all the things and I go on visitation and I share about Jesus to other people and I serve the poor and I help the widow and I help the orphan.

[21:22] If they attach anything at all to Jesus Christ alone for salvation, it is not a true Christian. And what they end up doing without intention is they make Christ a liar and they render his death pointless and vain.

[21:42] So when you approach people in your life and a witness and they tell you, yes, salvation is by this but it's also by this. These are the defenses that we use.

[21:53] Not the defenses of our own logic, the defenses of the Bible and the defenses of the church that have stood the test of time. How can you know the false versus the true?

[22:04] You get really familiar with what the real thing is. So Paul uses verse number two to say warning, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

[22:16] And then he says, get to know the truth. And the more familiar you are with the truth, the easier it's going to be to spot the counterfeit. Some of the counterfeits are elaborate and they're difficult and it's hard to wade through it.

[22:34] But Paul gives us one of the most comprehensive descriptions here of what a true Christian is in all of the Bible. And he says, here is the true Christian. Here's the marks.

[22:44] Here's how you know the difference between the counterfeit and the true. They worship God in the spirit. They rejoice in Jesus Christ. They take no confidence in the flesh.

[22:57] They worship God in the spirit. They have no confidence in the flesh and they joy in Christ Jesus. notice that these marks do not produce salvation.

[23:11] Did you notice the difference between the false marks and the true marks? Look with me again in verse number two. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

[23:28] The marks of the true do not speak of what you do. The things in verse number three are not things that you do.

[23:39] They're not actionable. They don't speak of function. They speak of attitude, of spirit. They don't produce salvation.

[23:53] They only give evidence of an inward reality. But each of these three marks do represent a different facet of our response to the gospel.

[24:03] And that's how I want to frame it. First thing, write it down quickly. True worship. True worship. It's the first mark. Worship God in the spirit. Christians are fundamentally worshipers of God.

[24:18] In fact, that's the whole purpose of salvation. God has made it possible for us to bring him the glory that we were created to give. And through the imputed righteousness of Christ by faith, we are then made to be true worshipers by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

[24:38] But there's a lot of confusion about what worship actually is. The Judaizers would have said, of course we worship. We worship faithfully and committedly.

[24:50] But worship is not a mere external practice of religious rituals that takes place in a specific dynamic or place. True worship is a matter of the heart and is ultimately exercised in our spirit before ever being demonstrated in an outward form.

[25:12] True worship is not what you do. It is your response to who God is and what he has done. Many Christians define worship in a way that is only meant to be an element of praise or recognition.

[25:30] For instance, many only think of singing when they consider worship. Churches will have a staff member that they call the worship pastor and really what it is is the music director.

[25:41] It's their song leader. But what they correlate in their minds to worship is really just limited down to singing. But true worship is really a matter of how you live your life.

[25:53] It's all encompassing in the thoughts and actions of a true Christian. It's our response to the wonderful grace of God that has been given to us in the gospel.

[26:07] Our worship does not provide salvation. It's a response to our salvation. For the true Christian, every moment of your life is an act of worship.

[26:19] every decision we make is to be a response to the character of God and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. And limiting worship to an external ritual actually angers God.

[26:36] Samuel wrote that he told King Saul that hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? He says, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.

[26:55] Turn with me quickly. I want you to see this. Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah chapter one. Listen to what God says to the nation of Israel.

[27:10] Isaiah chapter one, verse number 11. Verse number 11. God says, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?

[27:25] That was the external worship. That was the way they went through their worship rituals, sacrifices, the whole system, celebrations, festivals, the new moons, all of these things God had outlined in the law for them to observe.

[27:37] But he says, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Sayeth the Lord. I am full of burnt offerings of rams. In other words, I am sick and tired of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of e goats.

[27:55] When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination to me, God says.

[28:06] The new moons even the solemn meeting. Solemn meeting, a reference to the holiest of days.

[28:18] Day of atonement. Your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hates. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, that is in praise and in song, I will hide my eyes from you.

[28:33] Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear you. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.

[28:44] Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fathers. Plead for the widow. And then he says, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

[28:55] Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. What's the whole point in what God is telling the nation of Israel there?

[29:07] He says, all of this external stuff you're doing, I don't care about it. Keep your sacrifices, keep your incense, keep your new moons, keep your festivals, keep your holy days.

[29:18] I don't care about the external worship. What I care about is your heart. And if you will come to me in faith and you will trust me and you will call out to me then I will accept your sacrifice.

[29:32] Then I will accept the new moons and the Sabbath. Then I will take into account the holy days. God is not interested in mere outward forms of religious worship.

[29:43] He is interested in the genuine nature of your heart and your spirit. So Paul says the first indication of a true Christian is somebody that doesn't worship the Lord in spirit.

[30:00] The Judaizers cared all about the outward part. They cared about the circumcision and the laws and they cared about the meetings and the Sabbath and the holy days and the festivals and all the things.

[30:12] That's what they cared about. That's what they wanted. But God said that's not it. Those things can't help you. Those things are to be a sign to you of the salvation I provide alone through my son Jesus Christ.

[30:29] There's a lot of people that say they're Christian and guess what? They go to church every single Sunday. They don't miss a Sunday. They will find their place in worship at 10 o'clock every Sunday morning.

[30:42] They will sing the songs. They will open their Bibles. They will take the notes. They will serve in the ministries. But all they care an evidence of true worship.

[30:56] True worship is a matter of your spirit towards God. And while we're there, I'll just mention how guilty we can be of often judging the sincerity of another person's heart on the basis of their outward forms of worship.

[31:16] How guilty are we as Christians of judging a person and their worship on the basis of whether or not their voice is loud enough and their hands are high enough or their tears are wet enough.

[31:33] And when we do that, we contribute to an error that says that worship is summed up in an external performance. That's not true worship.

[31:44] True worship is a matter of your heart's response toward God and it's not limited to a church service. It is all encompassing every moment of every day of your life.

[31:56] So what does worshiping God in the spirit actually mean? In contrast to the Judaizers who viewed worship as an external exercise, true Christians are concerned with their spirit towards God.

[32:08] God I will have you turn there we don't have time now but if you write down John chapter four John chapter four Jesus is waiting at a well in Samaria and a woman comes to draw water and he has this awesome conversation with this lady where she ends up trusting!

[32:29] In the midst of this conversation she says I perceive that you are a prophet you worship in Jerusalem we worship in Mount Gerizim now where's their true right place to worship and Jesus says you're in essence he says you're you're too focused on a place worship is not about a place he says the day is coming and the hour draw at night and it is even here he tells the lady when the true!

[32:54] worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth what's the truth it's the word of God what's the spirit our hearts response towards that truth you say well I worship when I come to church yeah this is just a corporate expression if this is what you consider your worship it is far lacking your worship is every day it's every decision you make being cognizant of the fact of who God is and you it is our spirit response to him that's true worship he says the mark is true worship the last two true faith and true repentance true faith and true repentance are the last two marks he says rejoice in Christ Jesus that's true faith and he says they have no confidence in the flesh these are really two sides of the same coin the mark of rejoicing in Christ Jesus has to do with our faith while the last mark has to do with what we leave behind in order to follow

[34:00] Christ in faith word rejoice means to boast and it ultimately refers to who's getting the credit for salvation the Judaizers give themselves the credit because they did everything they were supposed to do they were proud that they followed!

[34:15] the rules the true Christian gives Christ all the credit it's Paul told the Corinthians let the one who boast!

[34:27] boast in the Lord Jeremiah said thus saith the Lord let not the wise man boast in his wisdom let not the mighty man boast in his might let not the rich man boast in his riches but let him who boast boast in this that he understands and knows me God says that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love and justice and righteousness in the earth for I delight in these things declares the Lord what is true faith true faith is acknowledging that it's actually only of Christ that you can be saved the battle between the true Christians and the false Christians in the early church had to do with what made a person righteous before God the Judaizers believed it was their own goodness the true Christian recognizes that that's futile and that it's actually only Christ that can truly make you righteous before

[35:27] God so then the true Christian does not boast in what they do they boast only in what Christ has done there's a song that I know that we'll sing here at some point I'm sure it's called my worth is not in what I own some of the lyrics say this two wonders here that I confess my worth and my unworthiness my value fixed my ransom paid at the cross the writer says that on one side I am immeasurably worthy and valuable to my savior Jesus Christ but in reality I know that I'm worthless because I come to him empty handed with nothing to offer and then it crescendos into this praise in the chorus it says I rejoice in my redeemer greatest treasure wellspring of my soul I will trust in him no other my soul is satisfied in him alone where is your boast where is your satisfaction is your satisfaction found in that you've completed the religious list of things you're supposed to do or is your satisfaction found in what

[36:47] Christ has done for you and then finally as true repentance have no confidence in the flesh and certainly is logical we don't have to spend a lot of time here the true Christian leaves behind every single good work and religious effort in order to follow Christ Jesus said that in order to follow him we must deny ourselves and this denial includes every personal effort in earning salvation this isn't something you do it's an evidence of your spirit that as you exercise faith and rejoicing and you make your boast alone in Christ Jesus at the same time you're letting go of the circumcision and you're letting go of the baptism and you're letting go of the communion and you're letting go of the visitation and you're letting go of all the other things in order to make your boast of Christ alone recognizing that in my flesh and in my deeds there is no confidence let me close it this way

[37:50] Paul opens this section by commanding that the Philippians in would appeal to these believers and would pull them away from Christ strap the yoke of legalism on them after their salvation so he reminded them of Christ's love in chapter 3 his salvation true salvation in order that he might strengthen their joy here's what Kent Hughes says this is helpful there is the safety of the joy of the Lord to be so full of joy that no other efforts appeal to us to have tasted what is good that is in Jesus Christ to have tasted what is good so deeply that we have no taste for the allurements of the tempter for the joy of the Lord is actually our strength how can you push forward when you're faced with a temptation to fall back into a legalistic view of

[38:56] Christianity remind yourself that the joy of the Lord is your strength how do you truly experience the joy of the Lord only in recognizing truly that he alone can provide salvation for you there's freedom in that do you know Christ in that way have you experienced his love so deeply that there is no appeal at all into the allurements of false Christianity around us there's no allurement at all in your heart as to what you need to do now because you are satisfied in Christ alone if you experience that love if someone today were to accuse you of not being a true Christian what would your first defense be would you say what you mean

[39:56] I went to church this morning I didn't just go to church I went to church in the elementary school gym and sat for an hour listening to a guy in a hard folding metal chair and not only that he told me that next week when I gotta come I gotta listen to babies cry and watch kids run around of course I'm a Christian who else would do that if they weren't a Christian that's not the evidence of a true Christian would your defense be well you know when I was when I was really young my parents brought me up in church and that's just what I've always identified with I appreciate the truth I appreciate the love that they exhibit and yeah I'm a Christian of course I'm a Christian I'm an American right or would your defense be you know what you're exactly right I don't deserve to be but I haven't done anything to actually earn this my boast is in Christ he has saved me I'm a

[40:58] Christian not because I'm good I'm a Christian because I'm forgiven I'm not a Christian because I got it all together I'm a Christian because I recognized that he did this for me and my life's purpose now is to live it in accordance with what he has done to truly worship to let every decision I make every dollar I spend every hour of folly in some way be a response to what he has done for me that's the mark of a true Christian thank you for listening to this sermon made available by Lakeside Bible Church feel free to share it wherever you'd like please do not charge for it or alter it in any way without express written consent from Lakeside Bible Church don't forget to visit us online at lakesidebible.church!

[41:51] or find us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Lakeside Bible NC if you live in the Charlotte or Lake Norman area we'd love for you to attend one of our worship services we meet every Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

[42:03] in the gym at Cornelius Elementary School we'd love to meet you because of the