Okay, somebody tell me how you know you are going to go to Heaven when you die. How do you know for sure? Or do you? If you don’t know for sure, then we will change that before you leave here today if you want. But first, somebody tell me why you deserve to go to Heaven. Anybody?
I’ll tell you why I know I am going to Heaven. It is this
right here. My family calls it the Mayflower Document. My cousin documented
back fourteen generations and proved that my family on my mother’s side is
descended from two families that came to America on the Mayflower. I don’t want
to brag but it’s kind of a big deal. Not many people can prove their ancestors
came over on the Mayflower but here I have proof that I come from two different
families.
Not only that, the oldest relative was William Brewster who
was responsible for their spiritual training and was the preacher for their
worship services. That is absolutely the truth. I promise. Now, that ought to
be enough to get ya into Heaven right there, right? But wait! There’s more! Four generations later, my great, great,
great, etc. grandmother married Hancock Lee of Virginia and their descendent
was the illustrious Confederate General Robert E. Lee. So, now you know I’m
going to Heaven, right? Now, almost all of my family is mentioned to have gone
to church. That has always been important since the very first, even though
some of them were Presbyterians, which may or may not get you into Heaven but
let me skip down to my grandfather, from generation number twelve. Harvey W.
Graham was a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Baptist churches all
over Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia for over 50 years.
Then my father, Richard B. Blair, was a pastor for about the
same length of time all over Texas and now I am a pastor and have been for
nearly ten years. So…that proves that I am going to Heaven, right? That’s how I
know. I mean, what else could God want? I have a very spiritual bloodline. And
except for great grandpa Eustice who was indicted for swearing in a county
court, they all lived very moral lives. And if that wasn’t enough, I’m pretty
sure that at this point in my life, my good deeds now outweigh my bad deeds. I’m
getting closer, at least. Surely that’s plenty to get me into Heaven! Do you
want to hear about some of all my good deeds? No? Why not? What do you mean
that’s not how it works? If I were God, that’s how it would work! But aren’t
you glad I’m not God???
Aren’t you glad you don’t have to work your way into Heaven
or be dependent on your family history to get you there? In fact, not only is
this Mayflower Document not helpful to get me to Heaven, it could actually be a
hindrance if I put any stock in it at all to do that. In that case, it’s less
than helpful. It’s actually harmful and it’s the same with anything we try to
do on our own except to have faith in Jesus.
As we go through the beautiful little book of Philippians,
we come to chapter three and we see that Paul has his own Mayflower Document
and it puts mine to shame. He will tell us about it but he will also tell us
what we need to do to go deeper in our relationship with the Lord. Let’s read
it in Philippians 3:1-11.
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no
trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a
safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers,
those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the
circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and
who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons
for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence
in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of
the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;
in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the
church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But
whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of
Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have
lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain
Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own
that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that
comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to
know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation
in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so,
somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
I love how Paul starts off here with the word “finally.”
Like a good preacher, he says finally as in “Finally, I’m halfway through.”
It’s like a preacher saying, “Let me close with this…”and he goes on for
thirty more minutes. No, actually Paul is saying “furthermore” or “also”
but he’s shifting gears here just a little bit in his letter but he wants to
make sure that you remember that in all of this, “rejoice in the Lord!” No
matter what happens, whatever is said and done, we will always have joy.
Now, how many of you were a little bit insulted when Paul
said to watch out for those dogs and compared evil men to dogs? Us dog lovers
don’t like it when people talk like that, right? But in those days it was a
good insult to people to call them dogs. And all through here Paul is comparing
people who have wrong ideas about how to get to Heaven with what he and we now know
to be truth. Just know that Paul could get away with it. If you are trying to
witness to somebody today, calling them a dog is probably not going to help
your case.
I said earlier that if I were God, getting to Heaven would
be a matter of good deeds outweighing your bad deeds, right? Doesn’t that just
make sense? You have to earn things in this world. There’s no free lunch. You
have to work and try and work harder and try harder and maybe, if you are a
really good person, then you get to go to Heaven. That seems right to me and it
has always seemed right to people just like it did for those people Paul is
calling dogs and evil men. They just were living out what makes sense and what
seemed right. But Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that seems right to
a man and in the end leads to death. And it’s talking about eternal death in
Hell separated from God and everybody else. Paul calls it having confidence
in the flesh. Do you see that in verse 4? Confidence in the flesh is
thinking that you can do or be or have anything of your own making or in your
own ability any way to get to Heaven and be right with God.
In the world that most of us live in, not many people put
much stock in being a Pharisee or Hebrew or any of the other things that Paul
had a claim on but there are a lot of people today that think that because they
are a good person, they are going to Heaven. Some people think you have to go
to church or give your money to the church or be baptized in the church. Or
maybe their mother was a Sunday School teacher and their daddy was a preacher,
so they are automatically headed to glory. None of that is true.
I have a good friend who is another denomination who has
people in his church that believe that when you die, Jesus is going to ask if
you had musical instruments in your worship and if so, adios right to Hell
baby. I will call those people misguided. Paul called them evil-doers and dogs
and would say that their religion is rubbish as he says in verse 8 about
his own good deeds.
Let’s make sure that we are all on the same page here and
after we do, I want us to see how Paul says we should live. But first, how do
we get to Heaven? Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God- 9not by works, so that no one can boast.” We are saved and go to
Heaven as a gift of God. In John 14:6, “Jesus answered, "I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.” We are saved by God’s grace and through faith in Jesus and when we are
He will change us. Now, all that stuff I
mentioned earlier: the church attendance and baptism and giving and doing good
things; those are all commanded for us to do. Those are all things that
Christians do but they don’t make you a Christian. People that are going to
Heaven do those things but just doing those things won’t get you to Heaven.
Make sense?
Now, I want to show you another word here that Paul uses. We
talk a lot about going to Heaven and being saved and that is right and good but
look at the word that Paul uses in verse 9. He says all that other stuff
– the heritage, the good works, the outward obedience – is all rubbish compared
to “a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” Paul
uses the word “righteousness” here. What does it mean to be righteous?
It simply means to be right with God. Our sin – anything that displeases God –
makes us automatically unrighteous. We are not right with God. We are out of
His favor and doomed to Hell. One sin gets you there, big boy. I have to tell
you.
But we become righteous when we put all our faith and trust
and hope and belief in Jesus. Then Jesus takes our sin and gives us the ability
to be right with God. It’s a crazy good deal. We get to be righteous based on
what Jesus did, not on what we have done. Now we are getting to the good stuff
here. From verses 1-9 we see how not to do it and we see how
we should do it but in verse 10 we start to see what to do now.
Now that we are right with God, how should we act? What should we do?
Well, let me ask you a question. And you are going to think
this is a weird question but here me out. What’s the purpose of marriage?
Is the purpose of marriage to get to file differently on your income tax and
get a financial break? I hope that’s not your plan. Is the purpose of marriage
to have somebody to help you make the bed in the morning? That’s nice but it’s
not the reason people get married or it shouldn’t be. There are some good
reasons to get married and there are plenty of bad ones but if you really love
someone, you marry them to know them better. You marry that person so
you can love them more and know them more and know them better and more
intimately. You want to spend your time with them and grow old with them and
you want that more and more as you know them better.
Paul is madly in love with Jesus – as we should all be – and
he just wants to know Jesus better. See, so many of us get caught up in just
getting to Heaven. That’s the goal and when we hit that goal then we are done.
I got my fire insurance. I’ll put in a little time in church and Bible study
and I’ll pray when I need something but let’s not get carried away, right?
No! Paul is saying he has gotten way carried away! And he
wants to go further because he knows that is where the blessings are. His love
for Jesus started the ball rolling but then it became obvious that the closer
he got to Jesus, the better his life became WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES! More Jesus, more love, more Jesus, more peace,
more Jesus, more joy, more blessings in this life and more treasures in Heaven.
This life is a wisp of smoke. Eternity is forever and ever and ever. Paul
wanted to know Jesus so bad he even wanted to understand the suffering of
Jesus.
You know, there is a lot to be learned by suffering. Malcolm
Muggeridge once said, “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back
on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with
particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that
everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has
truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and
not through happiness. Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990.
There is a lot to be learned by suffering but the greatest
thing we can learn is more about Jesus; how He lived, how He died, what He
thought, what He felt. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I
now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.” If you truly are a believer, a disciple, a child of the
One True King, then you are loved and because we are loved, we love Him and
will suffer for Him and with Him by crucifying ourselves and allowing God to
work in us and through us to do whatever He wants us to do.
And our lives will reflect that. Our language will reflect
that. Our attitudes will reflect that. Our habits will reflect that we don’t
even live anymore but it is Jesus who lives in us and through us. Does that
describe you today? Would your spouse agree that describes you? Would your boss
agree? Would your friends agree?
If not, then make that change today right now in your heart.
Come to the altar right now if you want. Don’t wait until you go home. That’s
Satan telling you to just wait. Do it right now.
If you don’t have that kind of relationship with God through
His Son Jesus, then do that right now. You can. Right where you are. Ask God to
forgive you of your many sins. Repent – turn away – from those sins and lose
that lifestyle. You don’t have to understand everything. You never will. I
don’t but I trust Jesus with my life and you can too.
Pray this prayer right now: Father God, I come to you a
sinner in need of a Savior. I realize I can’t do it myself. I can’t be good
enough or smart enough or ever be right with you on my own. I trust that Jesus
has provided that way by dying on the cross to pay the price for my sins and
coming back to life after three days and I want to have a relationship with you
on that basis. I know I can do that because you tell me so in scripture. So
please forgive me of all my sins. I apologize and want to live for you the rest
of my life. Please help me do that starting right now. I trust you. Amen.