Turn with me to the book of Philippians,
Philippians chapter three. This is a passage of scripture
that we reference, quote, we read
portions of time and time again. But I want us to just look for
a very few minutes at verses seven to 10 and consider the proclamation of the Apostle
Paul after the Lord was pleased to cross his path in mercy and
made him to be honest about himself. I'm trying to think which preacher
it was that made the statement. He said, God doesn't send honest
people to hell. He makes them honest. He makes
them honest. be honest about themselves, about
who the Lord is. The apostle Paul, it said in
verses four to six, when he got to talking about men that brag
in themselves and what they've done for the Lord, he said, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
he said, I am more. People that brag think that they've
really done something for the Lord, that they have, I mean,
they're really faithful. Oh, all these, you know, that
brother, there was a prodigal and then the brother that didn't
leave after the prodigal son came back, and that other brother
heard all the music and hoopla, and he asked one of the servants,
he says, what's going on? He says, well, your brother's
back. and told his dad after he realized, he wouldn't even
go in. Just didn't want to go and just separated himself. His
father told him, he said, all I've got's yours. That older
brother told him, he said, all, you know, all, he said, I've
always been faithful. I've always been faithful. I
never did all that stuff that my brother did, but now when
he comes back, you kill the fatty calf. Paul was saying, if you
thought you had reason to be confident. He said, I had more
than you ever did. He said, I was circumcised the
eighth day of the stock of Israel. What he was saying, he said,
I was circumcised on the exact day according to the law. He said, I wasn't like Ishmael,
circumcised as a teenager. He said, I wasn't that. He said,
I was of the stock of Israel. He said, I was from the people
that were found to be faithful. He said, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness, which
is in the law blameless. He said, I was from the tribe
of Benjamin. Now he said, if you don't remember,
that was Jacob and Rachel. I was from good parents. They were not proselytes either.
They were Hebrews. I came through the tribe that
that God was pleased to bless the first king of Israel. I was from the house of David.
My parents were pure, touching the law. He said, I was a Pharisee. What that held to the strictest
of observance they thought in their mind to the law. And he
said, you talk about zeal. He said, those, these Christians,
those that were saying that the law was not the means of salvation,
he said, I was blameless before the law. And these Christians
that are saying that salvation, that a man's not justified by
the deeds of the law, uh-uh, no. He said, I'll tell you what,
they deserve to be persecuted. They were lying on God, he said.
Oh, when it came to the dictates of the law, he said, he said,
I saw myself as without blame. No, no blame whatsoever. But
when it pleased God, the Lord crossed the path of this Pharisee. And I'm telling you what a, what
a blessed picture that is because by nature, we're all Pharisees.
We all see ourselves as those that have pleased God. He stopped Saul of Tarsus on
the road to Damascus and exposed the error of his ways and sent
him to a preacher that would preach to him and give him instruction
concerning God's will. And Paul said in verse 7, after
the Lord was pleased to reveal himself to me. But what things
were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. All the so-called advantages
of his birth, his education, all of his self-righteousness,
and his so-called conformity to the law, Everything that he
thought was gain to him concerning his salvation, everything that
he trusted in, everything that he valued. Now you think about
this. Some of us here, I've told you
this, some of us here, no difference, most here came up here in the
gospel. hearing the truth. And I realize
until the Lord opens our eyes, you sit under the gospel until
God gives you a heart to understand it, you still don't believe it.
But for some of us, it came up under false religion. I mean,
these things right here, I mean, I can enter into this. Things
that we trusted in, things that we did, things that we saw ourselves
as being faithful, faithful, Paul says, those things which
were gained to me, I counted loss. Detriments. There were detriments to me.
They were lost to me. He beheld his self-righteous
thoughts and actions to be nothing more than deceiving lies concerning
salvation. These self-righteous works that
man by nature holds dear, and they do, they do, I'm telling
you. You think, I walked down the
aisle. I walked down the aisle. I prayed
the sinner's prayer. Well, I was repeating what the
preacher was saying, but I mean, I prayed, I said it, you know. He told me, he said, you're saved. And I believed him. I believed him, I had given my
heart to Jesus. And I trusted in that. I can
go back in my mind right now, in my mind right now, I can go
back, I don't know, I was seven, eight years old, I don't know.
I was in Calvary Baptist Church. You remember just about where
I was sitting. Seven years old, that was a long time ago. Walking
down the aisle. Two aisles, he's got one aisle,
that's a big church, that's a big church. Two aisles, people, people,
people. Went down there and gave him
my, you know. I had to go back a few times and make rededications,
you know, because I stumbled, rededicated my life. But I'm
telling you, walking down that aisle and rededicating my life,
getting in that baptismal pool, I remember, and trusted those
things. They were gain to me. Paul says, what things were gain
to me, I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss permitted, allowed. of all things, and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ. All these things that were formerly
something to me. Paul said, now I realize they
were obstacles, hindrances, lies, lies, lies that were damaging. And all these things that he
counted to be so important were nothing but detriments. and he esteemed them all lost,
they're all. Now you that know him, that know
something about what I'm talking about, now you think about this.
You'll enter into this and you'll say, you know what, that's right,
they were lost. They were hindrances to me, hindrances. Paul realized through the revelation
of God's Spirit that this loss that he experienced, these things
that are lost, that was actually the, from the mercy of God. It was God's mercy that these
things were lost. Lost for His good. What did He
lose? He lost the trust that He formerly
had in Himself, in His own righteousness. And He gained by the grace of
God the blessings of knowing the Lord, knowing Christ. Delivered
by the grace of God from the bondage of the law. Thinking
he'd done it, that's what he just said. You think you had
something to glory in? He said, I had more than you.
You didn't have anything compared to me. That's what he's saying.
That's how highly he thought of himself. He was delivered from what he
formerly and ignorantly loved and held to, rescued. I've suffered
the loss of all things. And he said, all these things,
I was born a Hebrew and a Pharisee, on and on and on, tribal Benjamin. He said, I count all of that,
but dumb, but dumb that I may win Christ, but that I might
gain Christ, be freed from the bondage of trusting in myself.
Everything that God was pleased to take from me, I realize now. He said, I've been freed. Freed
and cry, all these things according to this life, hindrances. Now
I know that there's some blessings in this life we can truly enjoy,
but I'm telling you, nothing must be catered to. Religiously
speaking, anything, nothing. Don't cater to anything that's
a stumbling block to following Him. The things that are the
dearest to the dearest friends or places of honor or whatever,
They are lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Don't
put anything, don't put anything ahead of hearing the Lord, trusting
Christ. Paul, he was an outcast. He was
a Pharisee, but now he's an outcast. The Lord was pleased to reveal
himself to him. Everything that he trusted in,
everybody that was his buddies and this, that, and the other,
they now, He's, they hate him. They hate him, wanted to kill
him. That's why they had to put him out through a window and
got him in. He said, he said, I count all
those things bedrags, but worthless, detestable rubbish. You see,
all that, I mean, I mean, these things that, we went to church
and everything. Yeah, Paul said, yeah. He said,
I was in church. I was a Pharisee. And I trusted
in these things, I trusted in myself, my heritage. And he said,
they're rubbish, rubbish. He said, anything that's a hindrance
to Christ, he said, it's done. He said in verse nine, to be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God. You know, I'm telling you, man
by nature thinks he's righteous. Paul says the righteousness which
is of God, known by faith, realized by faith, trusted in, trusting
the Lord by faith. That's the language of one that's
beheld something of the wretchedness of himself. It's good. It's good to be reminded what
we are. The Apostle Paul had been personally
taught of the Lord, by the Lord, and God's people all are too.
We'll all be taught of God. I can tell you these things right
here, show them in the scriptures, but you know how you're gonna
be taught if the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God shows you the
comforter himself. They bring all these things that
the Lord has said. So Paul knew, as all the sheep
of God do, that what he was, he was by the grace of God. He
said that at verse 9, be found in him. You know, a man or woman that desires to
be found in him, it's because they're in him. Because they
won't think that way. They were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world, crucified with Him at Calvary,
accepted in the Beloved. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5,
17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. That believer desires to be found in Him. not having his own righteousness. This is what he desires, which
is the law. This is what a believer wants.
I don't want to look. I don't want to think. He doesn't
think that way because God showed him. But this is what he said,
not having my own righteousness. You that know it, you know what
this is saying. You don't, you don't. The thought
of thinking that I'm somebody before God because of what I
do is repulsive. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. Righteousness, which is of God.
Christ, our refuge. Christ, our city of hope. Verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death. Vine's concordance gives a wonderful
definition of the word know. As we said, that I may know him. The Lord said in his high priesthood
prayer, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, that
they might know thee, know you. and Jesus Christ whom thou have
sent." Vine said this, he said, the word know, that I may know
him, it means to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, to
recognize, to understand, to understand completely. To know
in the sense of realizing, to know. that I might know Him. And the power of His resurrection,
that is, to know something of the miracle of being raised in
Him, that God's accepted, that God's accepted what He did. Paul
said that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings, that I might count it an honor
If he calls me to suffer for his namesake, because of his
namesake, that I might realize the fellowship of his sufferings
and be made conformable unto his death. That is, that I might
know something of the humility and willingness to take up my
cross and follow him. I want you to turn and I'm gonna
stop right here. I got up this morning. I told
Glenda, I said, I've got three messages, three messages this
morning, two of them written down, one of them that I can't
get off my mind. I want to read a passage of scripture
concerning this thing of hearing the Lord, knowing the Lord, and
the importance of that. From what I've preached before,
preached right now, Luke 10, Luke 10, I may preach on this,
Lord willing, Luke 10, I want to read verses 38 to 42. Luke 10, 38, And it came to pass,
as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house. He had a
sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. You know,
when Paul was praying that I may know him, that I may know him,
be found in him. But Martha, verse 40, was cumbered
about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, does thou
not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her
therefore that she help me And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful. And Martha has chosen that good
part, which shall not be taken away from her. What was that
one thing needful? Verse 39, she had a sister called
Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. Paul prayed, desired, oh, that
I may know him, that I may know him. Do you know how we're gonna
know the Lord? hear his word. I cannot stress
enough to myself and to you the importance of sitting under the
gospel and hearing what God has to say for his glory and our
good.