if you'll open your Bibles to
Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter 3, we'll
begin reading at verse 7. But whatever was to my profit,
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. I want to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in
his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow
to attain to the resurrection from the dead. I want to look at a statement of
Paul that we have referred to many times. In the years that I've been here,
I'm sure I've preached on it a few times, but I believe it
is one of those things that requires regular reminders, both to encourage
us in our way, in the path that we walk, even that path which
is Christ. You know, he said, I am the way.
And the word translated way means the road, the path, And we say
it's our way. Of course, it's his way, because
he is the way. And yet, it's proper to call
it our way, because that's the way we walk. And as we walk in that way, we
can be distracted. We can be discouraged. And it's
good to be reminded of what it is to walk in that way and how
wonderful it is. He says, I want to know Christ. You know, if you can figure out
what it is you truly want, you will know yourself. Now, I realize
there's a lot of things we want. And there's nothing wrong with
that. There are things in this world that are nice to have. There are actual things, and
then there are relationships that are good to have. I realize that this world is
under a curse. But understand there is nothing
in this world other than human beings, nothing in this world
that is essentially sinful. And as I mentioned to someone
on Facebook, this is my father's world. And that means he owns
it all. He gave it all to his people. That doesn't mean I can lay claim
to your property. You know what I mean. Everything
in it, though, has its proper use, its good use. And as a freeborn
son of God, I'm allowed to use it. Nothing wrong with wanting
those things. But when I say, if you can find
out what you want, I mean, what is that thing you want so much
that you would be willing to lose everything else to have
it. Because nothing else means anything
if you don't have that thing. Paul let us know what it was
for him. And he pretty much did give up everything to get it.
He says, I want to know Christ. Now many people, if I'd asked
that question, you know, and they weren't already familiar
with what I normally preach, you know, they might have thought,
OK, what do I want? Well, I know what the spiritual
answer is. I want heaven. That's not the right answer.
Unless, of course, you understand what heaven really is. But the
conceptions of heaven that are in most people's minds are not. what heaven is about. Others might say, well, and there
certainly wouldn't be anything wrong with wanting this, as long
as it's not the overriding want in your life. You want a happy
and successful family. It's Father's Day. I put up a
post today on Facebook. which I said, what a blessing
it is to be a father. And I know just like everything
else in this world, there are parts of being a father or mother,
you know, that are difficult, stressful. But certainly with
regard to me, I have three children. All of them profess to know the
Lord. All of them worship where the gospel of God's free grace
is preached consistently. I am blessed. I am blessed. And that would be better than
what others might say to be their chief want. But Paul tells us,
and I believe that really if you can get down to the very
heart of hearts in a believer, this is what you'll find there.
I want to know Christ. And if it costs me everything
I have, then so be it. Now, that's not
saying that you want to be tested on that statement. That's not to say that you're
saying, yeah, just go ahead, Lord, take it all. I'll be faithful. No, you don't want to do that.
You know what our Lord taught us to pray? Lead us not into
temptation. I've heard people say, don't
ask the Lord for lighter trials, ask him for a stronger back.
That's not what the Lord taught us to pray. He said, lead us
not into temptation. Don't bring us into these difficulties
that test whether or not we really know
you. Now we know he's going to bring
some of those. But it's not as though we pray
for them. And of course, the next line
where it says, lead us not into temptation, he said, but deliver
us from the evil one. Well, why did he put that on
there as he taught us to pray? Because he knows even though
we pray, lead us not into temptation or trial, trouble, all that.
Some's going to come. And in that time, we will not
prevail because we are strong. We'll prevail because our Savior
is strong and stronger than the one who tempts and tries us. But Paul, he didn't say, I will
give up everything in order to gain Christ, in order to be found
in Christ, that I may know Christ. He said, I did. I did give it all up. Knowing Christ, I remember being taught in philosophy
class in that subject, or that part of the subject that pertains
to knowledge. What is knowledge? How do you
obtain it? But he said there are three kinds of knowledge.
There's knowledge of facts. And then there's knowledge how
to. I know how to ride a bicycle. Then he said, then there's knowledge
of persons. And to know someone always involves
knowing some facts about them. But it's something more, something
that must occur. or you cannot possess
that kind of knowledge. And that is, there must be a
personal encounter with that person. I know a lot. I know about a lot of people. I know about Abraham Lincoln.
I've read several books about him. I've got a set of books
that takes up about that much room. on my bookshelf, and in
it is supposedly everything he ever wrote that they can get
hands on. And I can tell you this, the
man was a master with English language. And you know me in language. I'm fascinated by language. So
to see someone write like he did, that's something. But for all that I know about
Abraham Lincoln, I don't know him. I've never met him. I've been studying the writings
of the Apostle Paul as far back as I can remember. And I could
tell you some things about Paul, and I could even speculate some
things about Paul. that would at least be plausible
speculations, but I don't know Paul. Paul says, I want to know Christ.
There are people who gain a great deal of knowledge from the scriptures. They can quote vast portions
of it. They can argue theology and do
a good job of it. And you might listen to them
and think that they know Christ. Just because they can intellectually
handle the scriptures well does not mean they know the one who
inspired them. And I've also met some people
that didn't have a great deal. of scriptural knowledge. They did not have what we might
call a deep theological understanding in the way we normally think
of theology. But they knew Christ. They knew
Him of whom the scriptures speak. I like that. The man born blind, but the Lord
healed him. And when he was confronted by
the scriptural intellects of his day, he said, I don't know whether
or not he's a sinner, but I know this. I was blind, and now I
see. And he's the one that did it.
He didn't say that last line, but that was understood. He had
had a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, and it was a
personal encounter of such profound consequences that when they responded
to him, oh, you're altogether lost in your sins. We know Moses,
we know where he came from, we know these people. But this man,
we don't know where he came from. And you know, the Lord had never
said a word to this man about who he was or where he came from. And yet this blind man said this
to them. And I love him for saying it. Wish I could think of things
like this to say at the appropriate time. He said, now here's a wonder.
Now you'd think a man born blind being made to see by a man just
telling him to. You'd think that'd be a wonder.
He said, well now here's a wonder. This man opened my eyes and you
don't know where he came from. What's that mean? That means
the blind man knew where the Lord was from. He knew more about
the Lord than did the scriptural intellectuals standing
in front of him, and yet the Lord hadn't told him, he hadn't
been to seminary, he had had a personal encounter with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul's saying this, that
I may know him. You say, well, hadn't he had
a personal encounter with Christ? Yes, he had. But, you know, we
have personal encounters with people, and we would say we know
him, we know her, and yet we don't know them as
much as they can be known. And if they're the kind of person
we like, we hope to know them better, even to know them fully. You know, we all understand the
beginnings of romantic love, but if people are patient and let such love follow its
proper course, there comes a point at which you are not just attracted
to a person because they look good, or you think that they
have the kind of personality you'd like to be around, the
time comes when you really want to know them. You want to know them, and this
is beyond the physical aspect. When the Bible uses the phrase
that someone knew someone else, we know what that's referring
to. And indeed, that is certainly a very personal contact with
that person. And that's why that word can
be used to describe that relationship. But anybody that's been married
for very long knows there's much more to know about your spouse. There's much more knowing of
them than that. And when those who get married
tough it out through the really tough times. And I'll tell you, if you do
get married, those times are coming. Because you have two
sinful people trying to live under the same house. And nothing less than determination
will make you find a way to live peaceably and enjoyably together. But in those circumstances, or
in all the circumstances of life, as you spend your time with your
spouse, you come to know them better and better and better. And that is, I believe, part
and parcel, at least, of what our Lord meant when he talked
about two people becoming one flesh. You know each other so
well, and this knowledge of one another has affected both of
you such as that your interests entwine and can become so great that you cannot imagine life
without them. I imagine every married person
from time to time thinks what it would be like to lose their
spouse. And then maybe it's just me and
people like me who are always looking up hypothetical situations
and wondering how I would react to that. And a few occasions where I've
been able to talk to those who have experienced this, they identify
with this statement that I made as to how I thought it would
be. I said, my feeling would be, why live? Why do anything? Because you come to know someone
to such a degree that everything you do, everything you think,
and everything you look for has some relation to them, and its
significance is found in some relation to them. And if they're
taken away, then there's no more significance or meaning to what
you do. Now there's things I enjoy doing,
and I don't mind doing them by myself. But I got to thinking, if I did
them, and I didn't have my wife, I wouldn't enjoy them. Certainly
not as much. Why? I couldn't go home and tell
her what I did. I couldn't go home and say, I
found one of these, you know, I went and drove by a sign and
it said, you know, County Park over here. So I just drove to
see what it was. Boy, it was nice. We've got to
go there sometime. And I believe it's something
like that that Paul meant when he said, I want to know him more
and more and more until my life has no significance apart from
Him. Until I can't think of any reason
to do anything apart from how it relates to the Lord Jesus
Christ. To know Him in some measure is
essential to salvation. Our Lord prayed in John 17, and
this is eternal life, that they may know you in Jesus Christ
whom you have sent. How do we know God? There is only one way to know
him. You can be a theist, that is
you can believe there is a God without knowing him, You can
be trained in your church about the attributes of God and the
acts of God and all this. You can learn all those things.
But the Lord didn't say, this is eternal life to know about
you. He said, this is eternal life to know you. And he didn't
say it's the way to eternal life. He said, this is eternal life.
Most of the time, you know, if you speak of eternal life to
people, what they think you're talking about is just a life
with an infinite amount of time. Well, it involves that. But there's going to be an existence
for unbelievers that goes on forever. And that's not eternal
life. That's eternal death. Eternal
life. Life itself, as the scriptures
define real life, arises from your connection to Him who is
the life. Eternal life is to know God. To know God is eternal life. And then the Lord said, to know
God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sinned. Now, one interesting thing about
the Greek language, the word translated and can also mean
even, in the sense of to know God, even Jesus Christ, whom
you sent. You see, God sent Christ, but
Christ is God. Now we might say, well, the Father
sent him and all that. Well, the Lord did say, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. You say, well, don't you believe
in the Trinity? I believe in the Trinity as much as I can
understand what it is. But there are simply, there is
simply no way to describe in human language what God in his
absolute essence is. That's why he came. That's why
he became flesh and dwelt among us. so that we can know him,
not through a series of propositions set forth in a theological system,
but know him by personal contact. Because when you have come in
personal contact with Jesus Christ, you have come in contact with
God. He says, I want to know Christ.
And then he goes on to say, the power of his resurrection. I was raised in, well, they didn't
mention this much when I was a little kid, but I do remember,
probably it's mostly from my college days, because I went
to Bible schools, and I went to Bible schools that were associated
with the free will fundamentalism of my youth. and the guest speakers
that they would have come in for our chapel services. Every
one of them thought that somehow they were going to, it seems
like, they were going to come in there and of course they were
going to preach the most powerful message they had. And then, and
they're going to get you stirred up to do big things for God.
And they would talk about, you want that resurrection power. It's amazing how people can take
words out of the Bible that are next to each other and then turn
them around to suit whatever it is they wanted to say. Paul didn't say, I want resurrection
power, as though that were something
he could wield, as though there was a power given
him to do things or make things happen. Or even that this resurrection
power was a power by which we suddenly live this so-called
abundant life, which they think means a life more overflowing
with happiness and success. People will always twist the
scriptures to make their promises and make their blessings appealing
to the flesh. But understand this, God has
not offered That's really not the right word that God doesn't
offer, but you know what I mean. God has not held out in His promises
anything that the flesh is interested in. Nothing. And that's why not a whole lot
of flesh shows up here. Because as much as is possible,
I try to preach His promises that way. And those seeking for fleshly,
outward blessings are going to be very disappointed when they
come here and all we have is Christ. Not as though we think
that's a small thing, but to the world, let's face it, Christ
is not much. At most, He is the key to what
I want. They don't see him as the reward
itself. Our Lord said to Abraham, I am
your shield and your exceeding great reward. He didn't mean
by that, you'll get your shield from me and you'll get your reward
from me. He said, I am your shield and I am your exceeding great
reward. Paul understood that concept,
and he did esteem Christ as the reward itself. He esteemed Christ
as the blessing. Not just the blesser, the blessing. That I may know Christ, the power
of his resurrection, What is the power of His resurrection?
Well, the power of His resurrection is our resurrection. That is,
the outworking of that power. To know it is to experience the
resurrection. Of course, that hasn't happened
to us yet, has it? We're still in this flesh. The
day is coming, friends, when you will experience that. Paul describes it this way. When
the Lord returns, which is when the resurrection happens, he
says, we will not all sleep. That is, we'll not all be dead.
There will be some of God's people here when he returns. Then he
goes, but we will all be changed. Why? Because what we are in this
flesh is not fit for heaven. It can't exist there. And it
would find no blessing there. And he says, so when Christ returns,
whether you are living or dead, you will experience what the
resurrection means, which is this, to have a life, even in
this body, that is not the life of Adam, but the life of Christ. to have a body that is not part
of this old creation, which is under a curse and is going to
be destroyed, but to have a body that's made up of the new creation,
just like our Lord's. When He rose from the dead, His
body, it was recognizable, if He wanted it to be, but He was
capable of doing things that we wouldn't be capable of doing.
Evidently, such bodies will be ours. We shall be like him, says
John, for we'll see him as he is. The resurrection is the extension
of the power of his resurrection. And in Romans chapter 6 verse
4, Now I can understand why people misunderstand this
particular scripture, and some of it has to do with the modern
way we use the word life, because we use the word life to describe
that principle of life within us. We're living creatures. So
life makes us living creatures. We use that word, life. But we also use life to mean
lifestyle. And so here, when Paul says, In verse 6, what shall we say
then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By
no means, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried
with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too
And our translation says, we too may live a new life. That's
not what that text means. He says, so that we may walk. And that's the word that they
would use to describe lifestyle. We may walk in newness. of life. Until you know Christ,
no matter how you're living, you are walking, that is, no
matter how you are walking, let's put it that way, no matter how
you're walking, no matter what your conduct is like, you are
walking in the oldness of death. You see, the way a believer lives,
his walk, is not determined by a law written in stone. It is directed by a life put
in him. And it's a new life, and it expresses
itself in a new way of living. What is this new way of living?
Well, we would hope that it would touch the matters of morality,
and indeed it will. But it means to walk in love. What is the fruit of the Spirit?
And it's the Spirit that gives life. So the Spirit is the power
behind the life that's been given to us. What is the fruit of the
Spirit? Love. Love. That's why I've mentioned something,
you know, People like law because law sets a boundary on how good
they have to be. It says as long as I don't wrong
my neighbor, I've done okay. As long as I don't steal from
him, then I'm clear. As long as I pay my bills, the
rest of it's mine. As long as I give my tithe, Rest
of it's mine. You know what love says? If my
neighbor is in want, and I have what he needs, I'll give it to
him. You know what love says? Love says, I love God, and I'm going to give everything
I can. Love says, in love to God, well,
keep those Ten Commandments. I'm going to go farther than
that if I can. I'm not going to just hold my
hand back from murdering. I'm going to tell others what
real life is. I'm not just going to hold my
hand back stealing. I will provide to those in need,
to the best of my ability, more than this, I will tell them about
the unsearchable riches of Christ. To walk in love. And I'll not
just talk about how Jesus forgives our sins, though that's a good
thing to talk about, but when they sin against me, I'll forgive
them as God for Christ's sake forgave me. And we could use that with regard
to every aspect of our lives. Yes, it's expected that we live
differently than we did beforehand. But Paul was probably one of
the most moral men alive before the Lord met him. Nobody would have brought an
accusation against Saul of Tarsus, not under the law of the Old
Covenant. He plainly said, and it's right here in Philippians
3. He says in verse 4, if anyone
else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh,
I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day
of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee, for zeal, persecuting
the church, as for legalistic righteousness, which is a reasonable
translation, strictly it's as pertains to the righteousness
of the law, I was faultless, blameless. Well just how much
better can you act? When Paul was baptized, what
kind of higher moral life could have he begun living No. When he says that we may
walk in the newness of life, it means we walk according to
the life that has been given us in Christ. That's the power
of his resurrection, because our life comes through his resurrection. We should strive to do all that
we can to be decent, moral people. But we need to go beyond the
demands. And really, this is easier in
some respects. We need to quit walking by an
external law and walk by the law of that life. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, kindness, goodness, et cetera. And as Paul said in
Galatians, if you walk in the Spirit, once again the Spirit's
the one who gave us this life, and His way, you know, just like
you carry the genetics of your natural parent, in some respects
you carry the genetics of the Spirit of God, for He brought
you life. You carry the genetics, as it
were, of God Himself, the way of God, And he said, you just walk according
to that life. That's why it was such a good
thing when Brother Walter Groover, the missionary, having preached
so much on the freedom of the believer, so powerfully of the
freedom of the believer in a message, some guy came up to him afterwards
and said, if I believe that, I just sin all I want to. Brother
Groover said, I already sin more than I want to. Is that how you are? That might
be, because there's a different life in you than the life of
the flesh. There's another life in there,
and it's saying different things than the flesh is saying. Paul says, you want the power
of the resurrection in you? That power is already in you.
Walk according to it. And then to be transformed, that's
the power of the resurrection. In verse 21 of Philippians 3,
who by the power that enables him to bring everything under
his control, and by the way, that's power he gained through
the resurrection, he will transform our lowly bodies
so that they will be like his glorious body." Now, he does not mean by this
that we're looking forward to a whole lot of glory for ourselves
in the sense of praise and honor and all that. But what the believer
will be is glorious because it's full
of the glory of its creator. And that comes to us through
that power of the resurrection. And then he goes on to say, I
want to know Christ, I want to know the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. And yeah, that's OK. But they've
translated the Greek word twice there, fellowship and to share. We're getting that all from one
single Greek word. He says, I want a share in his
sufferings. In other words, to me, the first
and most important thing in this sharing in his sufferings, he
suffered for sin, and all the sin for which he suffered is
gone. I want to get in on that. Not the suffering part. I don't want to suffer like he
did, but I want to share in what he did because it brings about
a glorious result, the forgiveness of sins, justification, sanctification. I want to share in that. I don't
want to miss that. But I think also, if you take
it within context, He's saying, I know that if I follow Christ,
if I'm utterly devoted to Christ, and if I go around preaching
the message of Christ, I am going to suffer. And I will be suffering
because I'm declaring the sufferings of Christ. And I will suffer
like Him in this sense. Men will despise me. Men will persecute me. Men will do everything they can.
to bring an end to my life so that there is an end to my voice.
And that's exactly what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's not saying I want suffering. He's just saying knowing that
you cannot, as the scriptures say, they that would live godly
in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. He said there's no way in the
world. I'm going to be able to walk as He walked, knowing the
world, I'm going to be able to walk according to this newness
of the life that's been given to me without being persecuted.
And let it be. Let it be. Becoming like Him in His death,
submissive. giving himself completely over
to the will of the Father. Some of the most powerful words
ever spoken were in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the Lord,
and again, we can't understand this much. He said, if there's any
way that this cup can pass with me, without me drinking it."
And then he doesn't say it, but his meaning was, let's go that
route. There's any way for this work
to be accomplished without me drinking the wrath of God? Let's
go that way. Then he said these words, and
in these words, brethren, is our salvation. Nevertheless,
not what I will, but you will. That is absolute submission to
the will of the Father. Now, I certainly can understand
the point of our Lord. There are providences that God
brings into the lives of His people, virtually unbearable. And we're not looking for that.
And so I can understand Him saying, look, if there's any way that,
you know, we can get through this patch of time without me
having to endure that. Let's go that route. But do we
have a heart that also says, but Father, your will be done. Your will
be done. And then Paul went on to say,
Translators say that somehow I might obtain the resurrection
of the dead, as though Paul's saying, I'm trying everything,
hope that by one of them I'll get there. I don't know why they
put that aspect in it. That word simply means, by this
means. By this means. You say, you mean
if you don't know Christ and the power of His resurrection
and the sharing of His sufferings, and you are not made conformable
unto His death, that you won't attain to the resurrection of
the dead? That's true. Now, none of us experiences any
of that perfectly. We all experience some of it.
If you're not in submission to God, what's that make you? A rebel. I mean, that's the only
two choices there are. If you've not shared in his sufferings,
and if in this world you don't share in the sufferings that
come about through your identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I'll admit, we Americans, we aren't suffering much yet. Give
it time. Might not happen in my lifetime,
but who knows what'll happen in the next 20 years. Do you know him? Not as much
as you want to, but you do know Him. When we arrive in the presence
of our God, faultless and full of joy, there will be no introductions. He will know who we are, and
we will know who He is. It may be the first time we see
Him with our eyes, but it won't have been the first time we had
personal contact with Him. Well, may God work in us more
and more of that very thing which Paul says, I want this enough
that if it costs me everything else, I'm going to count what
I lost to be garbage. Now think of that. He didn't
say I'm going to moan and bellyache about everything I had to give
up in order to know Christ. He said what I lost in the process
of gaining Christ and being found in Him, coming to know Christ,
those things I lost, to me, that's just so much garbage, goes out
of my house every two weeks on a Wednesday. And we have yet
to cry over anything we put out there. Well, may the living God