Pray to be Liberated From Legalism Through Christ and to be Able to Boast of Christ (Phil. 3:7-9)
We will share the Word of God today regarding the confession of faith made by Apostle Paul. I want to clarify something that may have been a misunderstanding during the previous Healing Evangelism message. If there are a thousand people evangelized, is it really evangelism? Yes, it is, but there are very few people who will evangelize to thousands of people. The reason I said that is, I’m saying there is an evangelism that anybody in the world can do, that God speaks about in the Bible. If you want to evangelize to thousands of people, imagine how hard you must work for that, people who cannot work diligently cannot do that. Of course, they have God’s grace, but that’s not what I was trying to say. I was talking about the evangelism anybody can do in the Bible.
We are talking about the evangelist Paul, and previously, his name was Saul and he was part of the Pharisees. What is the background of the Pharisees? There was a movement, after they were released from captivity from Babylon, “We want to do the Word movement correctly,” and that’s the beginning of the Pharisees. They were saying, “You need to know the Word of God very well and you also need the diligence to upkeep the Word,” and the Apostle Paul was a member of the Pharisees.
The Jewish people all knew this, but every male child who was born had to be circumcised within 8 days of birth. “I was part of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of all Hebrews. Blameless in regards to the law,” this is something to be very proud of, because the Pharisees were the elite of the elites. So, he persecuted the church with all of his strength. The characteristic of legalistic people is that they look down on the gospel of the cross and they look down on the church. Why do you think that is? They say, “I am more righteous,” so they are opposing the gospel, actually, and they criticize the church freely. Those are the ones who are legalistic because they say their righteousness is greater. That is the legalistic people. They never save the church; they are always breaking down the church. In Matthew 16, it says the church is raised on the rock based on Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 3:6, “As for you persecuting the church as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” In terms of the law they created for themselves, the Pharisees had an extra 613 laws they put on top, and Paul was saying he was faultless in regards to the law because he never went outside of those laws. Why do you think they kept the law? They kept the law because God told them to keep the law, so their characteristic is that they’re very diligent for God.
In fact, if anything, ift there was a war that broke out, they won’t fight because that would break the law so they would be beaten to death, so they prioritized following the law above their own life. Because so many people were dying that way, they changed the law saying, “if there’s an enemy attacking, don’t just be beaten to death but you can fight in self-defense,” but aths it the extent to which the Pharisees tried to live according to the will of God. Because they were doing so well on their own, when they saw someone else doing something different, they came to the reaction of “I have to kill these people” and that was the reputation of the Pharisees. The morals and ethics of the world are not even close to competing with the legalism of the Pharisees.
Philippians 3:7, Apostle Paul who lived like that confessed, “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” Even all of the pride he had for keeping the law was blocking him from knowing Christ. And even being part of the elite group of the Pharisees, he laid it down. Why do you think He laid those down? He didn’t lay them down legalistically. If he wanted to continue following the law, he could have continued to do what he was doing.
It’s because, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, for Whose sake I have lost all things.” Basically, once he realized what the gospel is, he laid everything down. The gospel isn’t even anything that great, it’s just about Jesus Christ dying in the cross and resurrecting, so why is it of such great value that he should do this? It’s not about knowing or memorizing tremendous amounts of new knowledge, it’s just that Jesus Christ died on the cross and resurrected so what’s so great about the gospel? It’s because of this gospel that Paul’s life changed.
If you have come to church because of the gospel but your life is n’to changed because of the gospel, then you actually do not know the gospel yet. You may know the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross and resurrected, but what does this fact have to do with my life? That knowledge must become the greatest value, the greatest thing of my life, in order for me to change because of it. Before that, it’s just the cross of Jesus Christ, it’s not enough to change my life, so that’s why people have to keep on talking with the law. The law is just setting up a standard saying, “I’m right and you’re wrong,” so you’re just fighting with the elementary knowledge of the world.
It turns out this is elementary knowledge. Why is the law elementary? The law allows you to know your sin. God created the law in order to trap everyone under sin. Does that mean the Jewish people who followed the law were not sinners? They were sinners ever since birth. God created the law to help people realize they were sinners already. Because we hold ourselves against the law, we realize, “I am a sinner.”
But Paul said, “In regards to the law, faultless.” Those are the people who are not aligned with God. Through the law, they need to realize, “I am a sinner,” and because of that, they have to go towards the gospel, but instead of elevating to that level, they play around at the basic level, whether they are right or wrong. Romans 3 says not one is righteous. Was Apostle Paul righteous? No, even he was a sinner. Even if you keep all the law, you’re a sinner. It’s impossible to keep all the law, but even if you do, you’re still a sinner, why? Because of Original Sin.
These people did not understand the reason and goal for why God gave them the law. That’s why the Bible says the Law is simply a guardian that takes us to Christ. These people think they’re so great and righteous, but it turns out, they are completely at the basic elementary level, and once you realize who Christ is, you realize this is the greatest knowledge.
He says, “I consider everything rubbish and I have laid down all things for Christ.” Everything he was holding onto except Christ was preventing him from going to Christ like the law and belonging to the Pharisees, but once he realized Christ and the cross, he let everything down, that is how he holds onto Christ. Even emphasizing the law, he let that down, why? Because he realized he was a sinner.
If you realize you’re a sinner, you’ll realize the law isn’t going to cut it for you; you need forgiveness. In the past, he did not realize he was a sinner, so he did not need the cross or Jesus Christ. There is a very important point here. Is the gospel not everything for the churches today? Is there something other than the gospel that is greater to these kids? Is there anything else of greater value than the gospel? If that is the case, we are caught on something, then what happens? We are moving around, holding onto rubbish, and Apostle Paul was able to realize that by God’s grace. Because he let go of everything else and held onto only Jesus Christ, he realized that everything else is within Jesus Christ and that’s how people become very simple.
Philippians 3:9, “And be found in Him,” meaning He is now a new creation. The old things have passed and the new has come, he is no longer teh Paul of the past. He has discovered a new creation and new life in Jesus Christ. What’s next is important, “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” is extremely important. Why do we keep asserting ourselves? We say we are righteous on the basis of the law, and that’s why we assert ourselves and fight with others. Paul was like that in the past, and that’s why he was always debating and fighting, “I am right, I am right,” with the law as his basis.
His goal was ultimately to reveal that he was righteous, because, “If I am righteous, it means that person is less righteous,” so he was spending his entire life using the law to kill people spiritually. But one day, on the road to Damascus, Paul realized by God’s grace that, “Even if I keep all of the law, I’m still a sinner.” Jesus appeared to him personally, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul said, “Who are you?” Jesus said, “I am Jesus Christ, Whom you are persecuting.” Then he realized he did not know who Jesus was, but he was using the entire Bible to persecute Jesus. From that point, he completely changed to be for the gospel.
“Everything I read in the Bible that I thought made me so smart was only at the elementary level.” The righteousness he has is only through faith in Christ. He realized, “I’m not righteous because of anything I do or don’t dlo, but because of the simple fact that I believe in Jesus Christ who fulfilled all of the law on the cross.” It is such a thin line of difference, but it took him decades to understand.
The same thing happened to Martin Luther, he used to be a Catholic and he was in such suffering. He was saying, “How can I overcome this?” No matter what he tried, he could not overcome that. One day, he was reading through Romans 1 and God gave him grace, not a single person is righteous, but only within the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. The one who believes in this is the righteous one. We can never say we are righteous before God with our actions. Only when we believe in what Jesus Christ has done are our sins covered up and we are considered righteous. The righteousness that is from God, by faith.
When that takes place, there is nothing for us to boast about, there is nothing to brag about ourselves about, because there is nothing righteous about us, but if we continue to assert and cling to our own righteousness, it means the gospel has not come into us yet. Then we have to wait until we realize. There are some little children who argue with adults. My daughter does that a lot. Then, do you think I let her do that because I lack logic? I just say, “okay,” and I let it pass on because even if I tell her the truth, she cannot understand. But she’s under the misconception that she’s right and that she’s won and she’s great. It’s Because she’s not going to understand what I’m going to say. That’s what the gospel is like.
There’s no reason to judge other eppel because we are all sinners, that’s what the church is. That is the truth of the gospel because, either way, we are not able to follow the law, so the fact that you expect something of the law from others is wrong. Humans have to be covered up with righteousness; we can never ask to be righteous on our own. This is something the Apostle Paul lived with for decades within the group of Pharisees, but he changed after receiving the gospel, and from that point on, he confessed, “I am a sinner of all sinners,” because he persecuted the church and he was standing by when Stephen was martyred.
He said he was doing a good job, but that was actually sin, and he was a leader of all sinners, and now the only thing for him to boast about is the gospel because only in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed; only in the gospel can I come to life. It doesn’t matter how well you try to think because your doing well is irrelevant to God. It doesn’t matter how much you try to live a good life; a sinner is bound to be far from God.
I said this earlier, but in Genesis 3:4-5, humans ate the fruit of knowledge and good and evil to know what is good and what is evil. But that knowledge of what is good and what is evil is based on the standard of themselves. That’s why fighting, conflicts, and wars will continue until the day of Jesus’ second coming, because everyone has the standard of themselves. That is sin, and that is being seized, but people don’t know that, so you have to evangelize and let them know.
There is a good and evil that God sees. Simply put, if you do not come into the gospel, that is evil,; and if you do come into the gospel, that is good. Relying on the gospel is good work. It doesn’t matter how much you talk about morals and ethics, if it doesn’t come from God then it is garbage, it is rubbish. If anyone has scars or mental problems, it’s’ because either self-centeredness on the law is too strong. If you received a scar, it’s not one-sided.
I look at my older brother, and maybe it is because he is the firstborn, but he had a lot of scars from his father. We received the same kind of discipline from our father, but even after he passed away, the scar remains, and the fact that he has received a scar about that is because of his self-centeredness to receive that scar was too strong, and the father’s self-centeredness was too strong, too. Then, of course, there’s no choice but to receive scars in the family because they don’t have the gospel. All of those things were never to intentionally give scars, they were trying to do better for the family but they were actually giving scars to one another, and that is the good and evil that humans decide on their own.
Even a parent who disciplines their family is based on their decision of what is good or evil. We need to actually teach the good and evil from God, and the good from God will save people. But the good and evil people talk about is, “If I like it, then it’s good; if I don’t like it, then it’s bad,” that is the characteristic of a sinner seized by Satan. No one is aware of that, they don’t know it that’s why they teach it and relay it to others. These people are sinners and are already trapped under curses and disasters but they don’t know it, so that’s why we must teach it to them. They are so bound in their self-centeredness, they are so seized by Satan, to think that whatever they like is good and whatever they don’t like is bad and we need to teach them the Truth.
Look at Genesis 6, they took whomever they liked as their wives, so whatever they liked it was good for them, but what does the Bible say? All of their hearts and thoughts were evil all the time. That’s the decision that people make when separated from God. They do things to try to improve their lives, but it results in disaster. In Genesis 11, the people gathered together, “Let’s try to develop ourselves and gain our own strength, “but that was evil in God’s eyes. They were saying, “Without God, and with the strength of only mankind, let us do the best we can,” and that was evil in God’s eyes. Look at the people that are living in the world right now. “We’re trying to work hard on our own, what’s so evil about that?” But that’s evil.
They’re so full of hot air, “I know what I want and I make my decision to live my own life, why is that so evil?” but the Bible says it is. Because the gospel is not being relayed to them. If the gospel did get relayed to them they either receive God’s grace or they are more full of hot air; there’s only one of two options. Because the Bible said it’s evil, this is sin, and it says this is what it means to be deceived by your father, the devil.
Would unbelievers understand that? “I’m just making decisions I like, why is that evil? I’m just doing things that are good for myself, why is that evil? Isn’t it obvious that I shouldn’t do things that hurt me? Why is that evil?” But their thoughts and hearts were always wicked all the time. Every decision humans make centered on themselves is evil in God’s Eyes. Then what is it that God desires? That is our walk of faith. That is how we go in the path of God’s blessings.
Then, what about us? The people inside the church? How do we think and make our decisions, and what is the goal with which I live my walk of faith? Is it for whatever I want? God says that’s evil, but the “good” is going towards whatever God desires. Whatever I like is evil, whatever is good in God’s perspective is what is “good.” Then what am I holding onto as I live my walk of faith right now? For us, we hate it when we face a problem because it’s a problem to me. But that is the thought of a human who is centered on themselves and separated from God. You must find God’s plan within the problem God gave you, that is how you find what is good, that is the decision that the good or righteous person makes.
A lot of other people live religious lives, “I want to get whatever I want,” but the Bible never says that. You have no idea how many believers there are who are not aligned with the Bible. But they still follow that with so much faith, but the Bible never said anything about that. That’s something that is not in Christianity, it’s in other religions. The Bible never says that. It says, “only in the gospel, only Christ is righteous.” God Himself is righteousness and reveals his righteousness is only Christ. We say whoever believes in this is the righteous one. So there’s nothing for us to boast about except the cross. If we have anything to boast about is the grace of God we have received.
Philippians 3:3, it says, “We serve God by His Spirit.” But the people who don’t do that are in verse two. They are evildoers, trying to serve the church with their own diligence, that’s what Paul is saying in Philippians. So they boast of themselves so much, but they say there’s nothing to boast about other than the gospel. Because it only took place by the cross and the tribune God, that’s all we have to boast about.
I’m not saying it’s bad to brag about the good things that happen to your daughter and son, but as time passes, you should try interpreting that with the gospel instead, with every person you meet. For example, there’s nothing to boast about my daughter, but let’s say there is, and every time I’d meet someone, I would say “my daughter…” I’m not saying that’s a bad things, I’m bragging about something brag-worthy, but if you really have pride in that and keep boasting about your own daughter like that, you have to think, “Does this person really have experience in the gospel?”
I’m not telling you to force yourself to shut your mouth and not brag about something you want to brag about. If someone does something physically well, then that’s brag-worthy, yes, but if someone keeps doing that, they are not aligned with the cross, it means it’s possible that this person is living with the righteousness of the law a lot. That means if this goes on a little further, they’re going to see something is wrong, and they won’t be able to endure that. And because they are bragging about their own righteousness, they even take a knife to the church.
That’s the reason why Apostle Paul, before receiving the gospel, persecuted the church and God himself. This is how much of a difference the gospel alone can make, so we have to take this Word of God and look at ourselves with it. You don’t experience the gospel just by knowing the word, “Gospel,” just because the pulpit message talks a lot about Christ and the gospel doesn’t mean you’ve experienced it yourself. You’ve just heard the word a lot but it doesn’t mean you necessarily experienced the gospel yourself. It’s just that you have the word knowledge, stuck in your brain like knowledge, but you haven’t experienced it realistically, then you have no choice but to reveal your own righteousness with the law.
That’s not what the church is about. Every single person has a legalistic nature, However, you need to at least know the future of your life will be led by God in the direction of the gospel. What is there to brag about? We have been changed into a new creation by God’s grace, and now, when I serve the church, it is because God’s grace has changed my heart and his Holy Spirit gives me the strength, then the only thing that’s left to possibly brag about is God. That is the difference between the gospel and not the gospel that the church of Philippi is receiving through this word.
Then what about the churches today? Is the environment of the churches today flowing in the same gospel-centered way that apostle Paul was talking about or is it centered on the righteousness of humans and their action? When you look at your family, what is the environment or atmosphere of your family? Is it an environment that reveals the good deeds of people in your family, or is it an environment that exalts the grace of the gospel. That is the difference between being Saul or being Paul.
Saul went to church, he went to the Temple, if anything, he went more diligently. You guys come once a week but Paul went every day and he didn’t even get married; he staked his life on this, and there’s no greater diligence than Saul, but still Saul was Saul, and he played around with elementary knowledge. He was working diligently for God holding onto the Bible but not able to go beyond himself, in other words, he was running diligently with the things of the earth.
We need the things of heaven; God must cover us with His righteousness. That’s the things of heaven, so the church may exist in the world, but it’s different from the world. But unfortunately, the logic of the world has come into the church as in people are arguing, “I’m right, you’re wrong, I did good and I did bad,” that’s not a church at all, and that’s the reason why churches are closing, that is the reason why individuals and familiare are being destroyed That is the reason why we blessed individuals who are meant to save the world are not able to save the world . That’s the extent to which the region or result changes. Your spiritual problems can never change with your thoughts. In Romans 7, Paul suffered so much. He says, “There are two laws inside of me, one is the law of sin.” What is the law of sin? Because he had the law, the law created sin. Because we have the law, we have sin, and because we have sin, we have death. Because of that, he suffered so much internally in Romans 7. Because he received so much grace from the gospel but he had lived his entire life as a legalistic person. So, Satan would so subtly oppress Paul with his nature of legalism. So, he suffered so much inside his heart.
In Romans 8:1, he tightly holds to the gospel. That’s how frightening our nature is. In that moment, we need to hold onto the gospel abruptly, but there is a nature that prevents us from doing so. We need to realize there is no way for us to follow the law properly on our own. Even if I sin according to the law, that’s why I need to ask for forgiveness in Christ. Therefore by Christ, we have been moved by the law of sin and death into the law of the spirit of life. We are not moved like that because of our own righteousness and actions, but only by faith and the gospel of Christ and his righteousness are we moved into the law of the spirit of life.
Just because you have a cross or come to church doesn’t mean you’re a believer. You might be a believer by yourself, but you’re not a member of a congregation. You have no choice but to live with your internal problems unresolved. Even if you are in church or you’re a person like that, you must still be saved. Non Believers have not heard the gospel, but there are a tremendous number of people inside of the churches that have not heard of the gospel either. Because they are living such a legalistic life, they have ever heard the gospel. Yes, they have heard of Jesus, but they never heard of why it must be Jesus, the gospel.
We had a representative prayer earlier. There are people who are outside of the church who haven’t heard the gospel but there’s a tremendous number of people inside the church who haven’t. In order for you to explain to the point inside the church what is the gospel and what is the law, you have to experience the gospel personally, then it’s easy, you see it, you see why this person is suffering. On the outside, its seems like they have no fault, but they are breaking on the inside. That was Apostle Paul, he looked perfect on the outside, he was successful in the world, he had endlessl diligence, however, on the inside, he was so oppressed while he strove to live such a righteous life. Even though he kept all the law, he was still not resolved internally. Christ died on the cross for me and resurrected and gave me this grade. Until I realize that, it will not be resolved. So, in order for me to be liberated from myself, we must go through the cross.
What does Buddhism say? They say we never have problems to begin with, if a problem comes, it’s not really a problem, they say, “The ‘you’ you know right now is not the real ‘you’ there’s another ‘you’ that’s the real ‘you,’” and that’s how they change people. All they don’t know is the gospel, but I think it’s the greatest of all religions because yes, originally, there were no problems. It was only a problem because you think it’s a problem. Other religions are begging to try to solve their problems, but Buddhism says there’s no problem to begin with, and knowing that fact is your liberation. That’s why they say everyone can be Buddha.
Buddhism is a very deep concept and you shouldn’t be worse off than a Buddhist. Those people do not have peace inside. It doesn’t matter how much they try to change their thinking to believe, “The ‘me’ I know is not the real ‘me,’ there is a true ‘me’ in the universe,” then their internal problems can never be resolved. The source of life of the universe, the Triune God, must come into me in order for that to be resolved. When my life begins centered on the life of the Triune God, everything is freedom. Only from that point on, can we let go of our heavy burdens, and now, we may be working hard, but there’s no need for us to rest. Until that point, the source of life, Christ, is not within us, so there’s no one we can rely on.
Today through Philippians, we are looking at ourselves again through the gospel. It’s not about my righteousness, actions, or efforts,but it is simply believing in the work of the Christ He has already done, so there’s nothing else for us to do but to boast of Christ fully. Don’t you think that’s the beginning of evangelism? If you don’t have anything to be proud of but if you’re being told to boast about Christ, then you have no choice but to say evangelism is hard. But we need to give the proper evangelism to our future generation so that they know what they need to be proud and boast about. But if they aren’t proud of the gospel but they are more proud and want to brag about the things of the world, it’s going to be hard for them. Of course, that’s a necessary process and training. But I’m saying this because we’re getting to know what is the core essence of the gospel.
Prayer
Let’s hold onto the Word God gave us and pray. Have I experienced the gospel? Or am I still holding onto my righteousness of the law? Let us pray together.
David Abrams. The law school evangelism camp, toq proclaim the gospel to the law school, because you need to boast of God. Am I right? Not only do you boast here, but you can boast of Jesus Christ on the law school campus as well. Let us pray together right now for the Law School Camp, and let us pray also for the evangelism camp in the Rise Kohyang Middle and High School, because I believe God will raise up the committed workers and teams to go into those fields. Allow me to remain within those flows. Let us pray.
Tomorrow we have the LA Young Adult Retreat, and it is from 9am to 9pm. I put the schedule up on the AMC Kakao Talk, so please take a look at that. It’s in Palos Verdes, about 50 minutes from here, so please coordinate rides among those who are driving. Let us pray for the Young Adult retreat as well as the Sunday Message at church. Let us pray for the Sunday Message. Also tomorrow there is the Youth Evangelism School who are gathering at our church, and those who are far away will worship on zoom.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the members of the kingdom of God, the multiethnic people, and the remnants who desire to hold onto and testify of only the gospel, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.