Christ Alone

what we're going to be talking about, which is Christ alone. Almost every endeavor has, every field of endeavor has some kind of award system for those who accomplish some kind of achievement. If you're in a university setting, you get scholarships for achieving academic honors, or you may be recognized at the commencement ceremonies for achieving certain status of academic honors. If you're in some companies or corporations, you may be given bonuses for outstanding performance achievement. The television industry has the Emmys, the film industry has the Oscars, the music industry has the Grammys, the writing industry has the Pulitzer Prize, and athletics have their own system of awards, whether it's for individual achievement in the field of athletics or team achievement. There are trophies given, there are awards given for outstanding achievement. Most valuable, this, most valuable, that leading contender for this or that or the other or championship team. So we kind of live in a culture that awards achievement. In fact, we are so achievement oriented and award oriented that we've gotten to a point where in some cases, especially in athletics, everybody gets an award. We don't want anyone self-esteem to be harmed. And so everybody's going to get some kind of an award. There's very easy for us to flip that over into the spiritual realm and to think that heaven is a reward for good behavior. And so we have spiritual trophy cases as well. Things that we have achieved, things we have done, things that we have accomplished, ways that we have lived, that we can put into the trophy case and say, here it is, these are my achievements. Now look at all the awards. God, I think I deserve a place in heaven. Or at least, if you're a little more humble than that, you might think, I think I've got a pretty good chance of getting there because of all that I have done. Well, in Philippians chapter three, Paul writes to tell us of his own testimony about how he came to the conclusion that none of his achievements could ever earn him entrance into heaven. It was only Christ and Christ alone that could save him. Only Christ alone was his hope for getting to heaven. Paul does that by way of a personal testimony. Now if you have your Bible open to Philippians chapter three, you see that this is the way he starts. He starts out by saying, finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. And some have noted that although he says finally, he writes half more of his book. Well, actually the word finally means furthermore or in addition. That's what the Greek word really means. And I know what some of you are thinking. Yeah, John, that's what you mean when you say finally too. I've got about 20 more minutes to go. Well, that may be true, but Paul is really saying, I have something else I want to address. In chapter one, he's talked about suffering for Christ in chapter two. He's talked about serving Christ. Now he's going to talk about sharing Christ. What Christ means to him and what Christ should mean to all those who are in him. So he says finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. And the emphasis here is not on rejoice, it's on the Lord. In other words, if you're going to glory in anything, if you're going to boast about anything, it should be the Lord and not yourself and not your own achievements. And he says to the Philippians in verse one, it's no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. And it is a safe guard for you. Now Paul is going to get into some warning here. He's going to get into some warning about human achievement and what we do and feeling like that can somehow gain us merit in the sight of God. So this whole passage is both a warning and a personal testimony of Paul. Now he came to the conviction that none of his achievements in any way gained him entrance into heaven. It was only Christ and Christ alone that could save him. Now in order for the focus to be on Christ and Christ alone, in order for our hope of heaven, our glory, our rejoicing, our boasting to be in Christ and Christ alone, four things have to be true. And these are the things that Paul both warns about and shares by way of his own personal testimony. The first thing is that there must be a constant defense, a constant defense against those who would teach that salvation is gained in part or in whole by what we do. Now this is where the warning comes in and Paul warns very strongly against legalists, against what in the first century were called the judyizers, people who taught that okay, if you want to say faith in Christ is necessary for salvation, that's all right, we'll let you say that, but you've got to add to that being a good person and following the mosaic law and all of those things. You've got to add your own works to it. Paul is teaching against that here and he says there's got to be this constant defense against false teaching. In fact, he reserves his harshest words for those who would mix works with grace and with faith for salvation. Notice how he talks about these people in verse 2. He says watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. It's clear from the following verses that he's talking about people who teach that in order to be saved, in order to get to heaven, have your sins forgiven, you need to add some of your own works to whatever faith you have. Salvation is a matter of doing something, of gaining, earning, achieving and being rewarded by God with salvation. These are the people Paul's talking about. These are the ones he's warning against. And it's a strong warning. In the original that Paul wrote in, the word beware is actually repeated three times. I think the King James actually renders it best here by saying beware, and the NIV just says it one time, but three times Paul says watch out for those dogs, watch out for those men who do evil, watch out for those mutilators of the flesh. Now why is he so tough on these guys? Look at the words he uses on them. He calls them dogs. That sounds pretty strong. By the way, he's not talking about that little nicely groomed lap dog you have at home. He's not talking about that kind of dog. The word he uses here is the word for a scavenger dog who roamed the city streets looking for anything to eat, would do anything to get it, would attack anyone standing in his way. That's the kind of dog he's talking about. In the same vein Isaiah warns about false shepherds, false teachers, false prophets in the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 56. Notice how Isaiah uses the same kind of terminology. Verse 10, he says, Israel's watchman, these are guys who are supposed to be watching out for the good of the nation, priest, prophets, spiritual leaders. They are blind. They all lack knowledge. They are mute dogs that cannot bark. Now what he's talking about there is a dog that cannot warn about trouble, about difficulty, about false teaching. Many go on to say they lie around and dream. They love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites. They never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding. They all turn to their own way. Each seeks his own gain. Now that's just as tough in the Old Testament as Paul was in the New Testament. That's pretty strong language. But God has no use for people who claim to be spiritual leaders but who cannot warn of false teaching on the one hand. They have no bark. They cannot bark about danger. But they got a lot of bite and they devour whatever they can from God's people for themselves. That's the kind of person that he's warning against there. That's kind of person Paul's warning about. False teachers who are just in it for what they can get and do not warn God's people of error and false teaching. And the false teaching is adding works to faith in order to gain salvation. The Paul says, watch out for those dogs and then he calls the men who do evil. They're not saying they're morally corrupt people necessarily. They may be religious people, maybe good moral people. They may look really good but the harm they bring to the church. The harm they bring to people by teaching that somehow you can work your way to heaven. That kind of harm is impossible to estimate. And so in that sense they do great evil toward the church when they teach this false teaching that you can get saved on your own. So they are people who do evil and then thirdly he says they are mutilators of the flesh. And it's clear that what he's talking about because of what he says in verse 3. He says he's talking about people who practice the Jewish right, both a physical and religious right of circumcision. Now in the Old Testament circumcision was a physical mark that identified the Jewish people as God's covenant people. The outward sign in mark that they were God's covenant people. The problem was is that people began to put faith and confidence in the religious ritual and not the reality of the heart. And so even in the Old Testament people's hearts strayed far away from God but they thought they were okay because nationally, ethnically they were still God's people, the Jews. And they had the mark of the covenant. And so Paul really is talking about anyone who places confidence in any kind of religious ritual or right or ceremony to be right with God. In our day he would probably say people who are trusting in their baptism or people who are trusting in their confirmation or people who are trusting in going through the mass or communion or people who are trusting in anything they have done by way of a religious ritual. That's what he's talking about here. And he has strong condemnation for people who teach that those things can get you to heaven because they can't. So there must be a constant defense against this false teaching. Now look at what he says in verse 3. He says for it is we who are the circumcision. In other words we who are the true people of God not just because you're ethnically or racially a Jew but we are the true people of God who? Well we who worship by the spirit of God who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh. Who are the true people of God? The people who have come to Christ the people who rejoice in glory in Christ alone and have no confidence in human achievement to get them to heaven. But it is simply through Christ that we place our confidence in our hope. Jesus Christ the one who died for our sins on the cross. The one who did all that was necessary before God to pay for our sins. You can't add anything to that. You can't do anything to earn merit before God. Christ alone has done the work and it is those who come to God through the spirit of God as they are drawn to God through the Holy Spirit who glory in Jesus Christ and His death alone that are saved. Those are the true people of God. Not people who try to add anything to that to get to heaven. So there must be if Christ alone is our hope there must be a constant defense against the false teaching that you can add anything to what Christ has already done to get you to heaven. Constant defense against that. And I know I know that this church will constantly always be on the defense against that. There are good pastors here and good deacons and leaders and others so many of you who know the word of God and you know you know when you're hearing something that's not true. That's somebody's adding a little bit of works into the grace of God. And so always maintain that constant defense against false teaching. Second thing that must be true if Christ alone is to be our hope of heaven there must be a conscious denial. A conscious denial of any good in human achievement to get us to heaven. Now that's what Paul talks about in verses 4 through 6. He says at the end of verse 3 these people, true people of God put no confidence in the flesh. Now look at how verse 4 starts. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. And then he begins to list them. This is Paul's trophy case. This is what Paul had done as a religious Jew to try to get himself right with God. This is what he had done to try to save himself to get himself and have this is his trophy case. And he had a pile of trophies. He had a lot of stuff going for him. And he was put in his confidence in all of those things to get him to heaven. Some of you may be doing the same thing. Some of you may be putting your confidence in these same things to gain acceptance with God. There are seven of them. Look at what he says in verse 4, actually part of verse 5. Here's the first trophy. Circumcised on the 8th day, that's ritual. Paul had gone through all the right rituals, all the right ceremonies. And we've already talked about that. And why important that was to the Jewish faith of going through that which was not just a physical surgery but was a ritual, a religious ceremony. It would be today like you saying, I was baptized as an infant or I was baptized as a teenager as an adult. And because I was baptized my sins were washed away and I know I'm right with God. But baptism is a work that you do. You know, obedience to God. No work that you do can save you. And so it would be the same thing as saying, I went through that religious ceremony, that ritual or I was confirmed when I was 12 years old or I was introduced to this class or cataclyzed or whatever. Any religious ceremony that you go through, if you all you've got as ritual, you're not going to heaven. So Paul had that trophy. Second trophy he had was relationship. He says there in verse 5 of the people of Israel. In other words, I was a blood-borne Jew. He had pride in his ancestry. And some people are counting on their ancestry to get him into heaven. You know, you ask some people, are you saved? And first thing they'll say is, you know, my granddaddy was a pastor, my father was a deacon in this church. My mother was a Sunday school teacher. Well, that doesn't mean anything. As far as you getting to heaven, I mean all those are wonderful things. But that doesn't get you into heaven. The grace of God doesn't flow through human veins. God has no grandchildren. Nobody gets into heaven because of their parents. So you may have relationship, but that's not going to get you to heaven. So Paul had ritual, he had relationship. Thirdly, he had respectability. He says of the tribe of Benjamin. Now if you were a Jew in the first century, that would say something. That would say you're of the respectable part of Israel. You see, Benjamin was the tribe that gave Israel her first king, Saul. Benjamin was the only tribe that stayed with Judah when the other 10 tribes seceded and made their own nation and went into idolatry. Benjamin was the only tribe that stayed with you. Benjamin was the respectable tribe. I mean, that's the kind of history. That's the kind of thing you want on your resume. That's the kind of thing that you want other people to know. You're of the loyal, good, faithful tribe. You're respectable. And there are some folks who are trusting their respectability to get them to heaven. I'm respectable. I keep my word. I'm a man of my... I'm a woman who does what she says she will do. I'm respectable. Well, that's not going to get you to heaven. That may gain you brownie points and be pleasing to people, but it won't do anything to get you into heaven. Paul had that. Fourthly, Paul had race. He had race. He was confident in his race. Notice, he says, a Hebrew of Hebrews. In other words, I was a Hebrew full-blooded Hebrew, both of my parents were Hebrews. So I'm a Hebrew that came from both Hebrew parents. And when you talk about being the right ethnicity, the right race, listen, my friend, your race, whatever it may be, gives you no advantage before God. None at all. Doesn't matter what race you may be, your race gives you no... Your ethnicity gives you no advantage before God. Everybody of every race on planet earth is on equal standing before God. We are all sinners and we need to be saved by grace the same way. So Paul had race going for him. That wasn't any good. The fifth trophy he had was religion. Look at it there. In the verse 5, in regard to the law, a Pharisee. In other words, of all of the parts of Judaism, of all of the parties in the religious part of Judaism, I was the most conservative. I was the strictest. I was the one who had morality of the highest kind. If you were a Pharisee, you were considered by the average Jew to be very devout, very sincere about your faith. He had religion. He had religion. Notice, sixth, he had reputation. Verse 6, as for zeal, persecuting the church. I mean, anybody could look at this guy. Look at his record. He's got a reputation for being not only a Pharisee and a religious person, but a real zealous one. I mean, one who believes so strongly in his religion that he went after Christians and persecuted them. I mean, that's a guy that really believes something. It's a guy that really stands for what he believes. He's got a reputation for being way out there as far as commitment and faithfulness is concerned. Some people think that their reputation is going to get him into heaven. Some people think that because they have the reputation of being a very kind, generous, faithful, considerate person, that that surely will mean something to God. Well, those are wonderful qualities, but they don't mean anything as far as getting you to heaven is concerned. Paul had that. Seventh, Paul had righteousness, at least a form of righteousness, the end of verse 6. As for legalistic righteousness, faultless. Now, that is a huge statement. Paul was being honest with this. He was the kind of person that when it came to being religiously righteous, to being a good moral man outwardly, you couldn't find anything wrong with him. And there are a lot of folks today that think, if I live that way, if I live a good moral life, if I do my very best and have a good reputation among the community, I have that kind of righteous person that I'll get to heaven. Well, notice what Paul says about all of those trophies in his trophy case. Notice what he says about him in verse 7. But whatever was to my prophet, talking about all seven of those things, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. In other words, that was what I was counting on. That was in the prophet column for me. I was counting on that to get me to heaven. You know, my righteousness, my reputation, my religion, even my race, my respectability, my relationship, my ritual that I'd gone to. I was counting on that. That was my trophy case. I was going to present that to God and say, look at this impressive thing. Now reward me with salvation and entrance into heaven. And Paul said, I came to realize that is nothing but a zero in God's eyes. I counted it, loss for Christ. See, there was a time in Paul's life when he was on his way to Damascus, ready to persecute the church, arrest believers, put them in prison. Hopefully, if he could, he would take some of their lives. He would have some of them killed. And on that road to Damascus, God broke through his pride and self-righteousness and dependence on all of his works and showed him that he was simply a sinner that needed Jesus Christ. And he was already under conviction. He had seen some Christians die like Stephen and others at his own hand. And he was already under conviction because, you know, when you watch a really devout Bible believing faith in Christ person die, it's different. And he had watched some Christians die and he could see the hope they had. And he was already under conviction. And when God spoke to him on that road, he said, it's hard for you to kick against the pricks. I'm pricking your heart. I'm convicting you. It's hard for you to kick against that, isn't it? And Paul had to say, I came to the end of myself and I realized I needed Christ and everything I had in my trophy case went in the lost column. And I claimed Christ as my savior. That's what Paul means when he says, rejoice only, boast only, glory only in Christ. Christ alone can save you. Not anything you've done, not any trophies you've built up because of your good life. You know, the Bible teaches very plainly that heaven is not going to be a place where we can boast about how we got there. I'm reminded of a story I heard. It's not a true story, obviously. You understand when you hear it, a story about a man who went to heaven. And when he got into heaven, he immediately noticed there's a big gathering of people over here. And so he asked the angel, what's going on over there? And the angel said, well, it's show and tell time. And so people are talking about their experiences here on this earth. And the angel said, do you have something you'd like to show and tell? You'd like to share. And the guy said, well, yeah, yeah, I do. I'd like to talk about the great flood we had in Pennsylvania back in 1889. And the angel said, well, that's fine for you to share that story. Just remember Noah will be in the audience. Now, if you think you're going to appear in heaven someday and list out for God all the wonderful things you've done that ought to get you into heaven and allow you to stay there, you're going to be up against some stiff competition. Just remember that. But wait a second. Let me back off of that. Nobody is going to be there who has placed their confidence in what they did to start with. Because the Bible teaches very plainly, it is by grace you are saved. And that, not of yourselves, lest any man should boast. It is not of works, lest any man should boast. Jesus Christ did all the work that was necessary, all the work that could be done for you to be saved was done by Christ when he died on the cross and paid to God the penalty for your sin. He died pouring out all his life as a sacrifice for you. God pouring out his wrath for your sin on Christ as he died. Christ did everything that's necessary for you to be saved. There's nothing can be added to that. You can't add anything to the sacrifice that Christ made. And that's what Paul's saying. All my trophies in my trophy case, there came a point when I realized a point of conscious denial where I realized that was nothing. I had to count that. Consider that loss for the sake of Christ. In order for Christ alone to be our hope of salvation, there must be a conscious denial of any achievement, human achievement that could get us to heaven. Thirdly, if Christ alone is going to be our hope of heaven, there must be a considered decision. Now in verses 7 through 9, you'll find three times Paul uses the word I consider. I consider. That is a decision that is make made after being convinced of what's true. Verse 7, he says, but whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Paul had made a considered decision. He had been convinced of the truth and considered what was in the gain column and what was in the loss column and what had been in his gain column, what had been profit to him, he says, all those trophies that he mentions in verses 4 through 6. He now put some in the loss column and he says, I realize those don't amount to anything as far as gaining entrance into heaven and I counted them but loss for the sake of Christ and then in verse 8 he says, what's more and he's writing this 25 years after he got saved. And what he's basically saying is I still consider that to be the right choice, the only choice. I still believe this Paul is saying, I still consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness, the greatness of knowing Christ that far surpasses anything I've ever accomplished in life. That's what I'm talking about, knowing Christ, my Lord, he says, and he says, all those things that I had, I consider them rubbish, trash. Now it's not that those things in and of themselves are necessarily bad, but if you're depending on your own self-righteousness, your own works to get you to heaven, you're depending on a pile of trash. That's pretty plain and simple, but that's what Paul says. He says, I came to realize, I considered this, I thought this through, I was convinced by the Holy Spirit that all those things I was counting on, they're just a pile of trash. Good in and of themselves may be, but as far as gaining acceptance into heaven and cleansing me of my sin, no better than a pile of trash. But what's really valuable, and this is what he means when he says, that I may gain Christ, it's not that I may deserve or win Christ in the sense that I get a prize, the word gain here means to count something of infinite value. What he's saying is, I came to realize true value in things. What I was depending on to get me to heaven was just a pile of trash. The real value was Christ. The one who was infinitely valuable for salvation was Christ. And so I recognized I needed to throw all those other things, I was depending on a way as rubbish, as trash, and put my hope in Christ who is of infinite value for salvation. No one else, nothing else can save you. And so Paul says, with that done, verse 9, I will be found in him. I think he's talking about when he stands before God, he will be found in Christ. That's what his desire is and that's what his certain confidence is, that he will be found in Christ. When he gets to heaven, he knows that he's not going to be standing before God saying, look at what I did. Look at this, I was pretty good over here. No, no. When I get to heaven, I just want to be found in Christ. That's the only thing that's going to allow me to be in heaven. And to be saved is to be in Christ, Christ and Christ alone can save you. So the only hope for you when you stand before God is that God looks at you and says, I see that you are in Christ. It's in the record books of heaven. There was a day when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, turned away from your own works. And here it is recorded in the legal books of heaven. The righteousness of Christ is on your account. You've been justified. You're in Christ. My friend, that's the only hope you have when you stand before God is to be found in Him. And so Christ and Christ alone, there must be this considered decision to place your faith in Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation. And I guarantee you, if you do that 25 years from now, you'll still feel the same way Paul did. That's, you'll feel even more convinced of it than ever. That's the only hope I have is Jesus Christ, Christ and Christ alone. But not only if he is to be alone, our hope of salvation, not only must there be a constant defense against any teaching that would add works to that, not only must there be a conscious denial of any good achievement of the human achievement that will get us to heaven. Not only must there be a considered decision to trust Christ as your Savior, there must be a consuming desire. And this is what follows that conscious, that decision, that considered decision to trust Christ. This is what follows. When you trust Christ as your Savior and you begin living for Him, He should also be your consuming desire. Because it's no different after you get saved, everything still should revolve around Jesus Christ. Not only is He our only hope for heaven, He is our only hope for living as God wants us to live. And so Christ now becomes not just the way to heaven, He becomes a consuming desire for you to live for Him and to please Him, to glorify Him. And this is how it works its way out for Paul. Look at his life ambition. His consuming desire in verse 10, I want to know Christ. You say, wait a second, Paul, don't you already know Christ? Haven't you already trusted Him as your Savior? No, no, He's talking about a different kind of knowledge here. He's talking about a growing knowledge, a deepening knowledge, a more personal knowledge of Christ and who He is. A more intimate relationship with Christ where you're growing to know Him better and longing to be more like Him. That's what Paul wants. This is consuming desire and that ought to be our consuming desire to know Christ more deeply, more closely than we have in the past. So Paul says, I want to know Him and then I want to know the power of His resurrection. Paul's not talking about entering into the resurrection of Christ in the sense that I'm going to be resurrected too. What he's talking about here is in my personal life, I want to know the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I need that kind of power to live in a way that glorifies God. I need that kind of power to be obedient to God. I need that kind of power to overcome sin in my life. And that power is available to you and to me, not only to Apostle Paul. Look at what Paul prayed for the Ephesian church. It's on the screen. Ephesians chapter 1. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power. Notice the next two words, great power for us. Who believe? Now what kind of power is He talking about? That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. You see what Paul's saying there? I want you Ephesians to know this and your personal experience and your Christian life, I want you to know the kind of power that raised Christ from the dead. You talk about supernatural power. That kind of power will help you live every day of your life to glorify God. That kind of power will give you the strength you need to obey the Lord when it's tough. That kind of power will give you the ability to witness for Christ, to maintain a testimony for Him even when it may mean ridicule and mockery. That kind of power will help you to overcome any sin or addiction or habit in your life. That kind of power is available to you and to me. So Paul says, I want to know that. I want to know that. I want to know Christ more deeply and I want to know that kind of power in my life. Christ becomes now his consuming desire. But not only did I want to know the power of his resurrection, verse 10, he also says, I want to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Now here it's getting a little tough. I don't think he's talking about the sufferings of Christ on the cross. I think he's talking about the life sufferings of Christ. The sufferings that anyone who lives like Christ and is experiencing his power through his or her life will sometimes face. It's the sufferings of living so for Jesus Christ that you at times will be misunderstood or mocked or ridiculed, maybe even persecuted. Paul says, I'm willing to understand a union with Christ in those kind of sufferings. Now that's not something that we should say just very lightly. That's something we should consider very deeply. And I willing to so be committed to Christ that I'm willing to experience the kind of mockery and ridicule misunderstanding, misrepresentation that Christ did. I want to have a partnership fellowship with his sufferings. But then he goes on. He says, there's something else I want to know. Christ is my consuming desire, becoming like him in his death. Now he's not talking about, I want to die like Christ did. Paul uses terminology like this quite often in his letters. Let's quickly just look at a few occasions, Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. 1 Corinthians 1531. Sorry, I gave you the wrong verse there. 1 Corinthians 1531 says, I die daily. Paul told the Corinthians. I die daily. And then in 2 Corinthians, he said this, we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Now what's he talking about with language like that? I die daily. I carry about in my body the death of Christ. I think he explains it most fully in Romans 6 and 2 verses really hop out at us in that chapter. He says, for we know that our old self, speaking of the person we were before salvation, our old self was crucified with Him with Christ so that the body of sin, in other words our body as controlled by the sin nature, might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. What he's talking about is that you are a new creation in Christ, you're a new person. The old person you were before has been nailed to the cross. You're no longer that person. And you have the opportunity because the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You have the opportunity because you have a new nature, new inclinations, desires, motivations given by God at salvation. You have because of all of those spiritual dynamics, the possibility of doing away with that old way of life and living a new life in Christ. A life that is powerful and victorious and is able to overcome sin and is not a slave to it anymore. That's what Paul's talking about. He says, I want to know that. It's not that he's saying, I've conquered that, I've got that down, I live perfectly, no. He says, that's my consuming desire. I want to be like Christ in His death. I want to experience that kind of death to the old life and living a new kind of life in Christ. That's my consuming desire. So is Christ not only your only hope of heaven, is he your consuming desire right now that you might know him better and understand what it means to have the power that raised him from the dead operating in your life and understand what it really means to fellowship in his suffering, share in his sufferings because you're sold out to him and then to know what it means to be living a new life, not the old life which really has been crucified with Christ. You're consuming desire, Christ alone, Christ alone. What Paul is really saying in this whole passage is that human achievement and human effort and human goodness will never get you to heaven. Even try to mix it with faith and add your little contribution to what Christ has done that will not get you to heaven. It is Christ and Christ alone that can get you to heaven. There was a woman in a church that was arguing that point with the pastor of the church and saying, you know, I just believe that we have to do something. I really believe that salvation, she said, is like a robot and you have two ores, one of those ores is faith, one of those ores is works. And you got to be rowing with both of them in order to get to the destination, get to heaven. If you just row with one of them, you just go around circles, you don't get to heaven. And the pastor said there's only one thing wrong with your illustration. Nobody is going to heaven in a robot. And he's right. Nobody is going to heaven in a robot. The only way you will ever get to heaven is if you are not in a robot, but if you are in Christ, Christ and Christ alone can get you to heaven. Anything else you're trusting in that you've put in your trophy case, thinking God will reward you with heaven is nothing. It will not get you there. Christ and Christ alone can save you. The real question for you to ask yourself this morning is this, am I in Christ? Am I trusting Him and Him alone for my salvation? Paul had to come to that place and you and I must also. If you've never come to that place, there'd be no better time than today to recognize that only Christ can save you and place your confidence, trust, your hope alone in Christ to save you. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that there is no other way. Lord, if we had to work our way, we'd never know if we'd done enough. And so, Lord, I thank you that you've given us the clear, clear direction in your word that it is through Christ and Christ alone that we can be saved. Thank you for making it so simple and yet what a great cost it was to you to give your Son and to Christ to give His life. Father, thank you. Thank you so much for the way of salvation. And I pray, Father, that if there's anyone here this morning that is trusting in their own stored up trophies to get them to heaven, that they would count those as loss as nothing and turn to Jesus Christ in faith this morning. We ask in His name, amen.