Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Paul's epistle to the Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 11. If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead, Paul's epistle to the Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 11. In the first part of this chapter
he speaks of those things that he might have had confidence
in, that is in the flesh. And he rehearses how that he
was, as a Hebrew circumcised the eighth day, of the stock
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as
touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But then he says, but what things
were gained to me, that is, gained as a Pharisee going under the
law, those are counted lost for Christ. In the epistle to the Hebrews,
the writer there emphasizes the excellency of Christ over all
the types and all the shadows, over the bulls, and goads, the
blood that was shed there, and His excellency over Moses, over
the law, and even over angels." And here the Apostle is pointing
again to Christ, how exceeding, needful, how precious, how vital
is Christ. And then he has set before him
the end object, not just at that time when he said that he desired
to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, or absent
from the body and present with the Lord, but going even further
beyond that, because he says we in this body, we groan, not
that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. And at death, the
soul is unclothed. It is released from its tabernacle
here and returns to God. But in the resurrection, then
it is clothed again with that celestial body. That is why we
finished our reading at our text, if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead, and then continued our
reading in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 35, but some man will say,
how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? And the apostle therefore goes
right through explaining and showing from nature, from seeds,
from the differences of flesh, that there is this change. There is a celestial body, there
is a terrestrial body, the glory of one is of one glory, and the
glory of the other, another. And when he comes then to the
end of that chapter, then he puts a victory there. He says in verse 53 For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. He then says in verse 57, but
thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we go back to our text, and
the Apostle is wanting to attain this victory. And he will use
any means to attain it, but they must be those means that are
approved of God. And those things that he was
brought up as, that he trusted in as a Pharisee, were not valid
means. They were not things of which
he could look at his life as he narrates it here and says,
I know I shall attain to the resurrection of the dead. But he does. put things here
in the context of our text that tells us how it is that he knows
that he shall attain to the resurrection of the dead. And it is with that
thought to have an alphabet for us here to be looking not just
even at death but the final consummation of all things, where God will
have all of his people with him for eternity, and they shall
be in the resurrected and raised body. And how shall we know,
here below, how shall we know this side of the grave, that
we will attain to that? Don't you? Job, in all of his
afflictions, he could say, I know that my Redeemer liveth. He also
could say, that though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and
not another. Though his reins were going to
be destroyed within him, though worms destroyed this body, yet
he should seek God. And he had that persuasion that
he would do that. It would be Job that would be
raised again. His dust that was completely
consumed would be raised to be a glorious body and in that body
he would see God. And here is Paul desiring that
same thing and to have that same assurance. Assurance is a very
biblical thing. that we may know that we are
in Christ, we may know that we shall attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, but it's only by the way that is set before us
in the Word of God. And the Apostle here, he strives
for this, he desires this, and this is his aim. It's good for
us Well, really, those of us that have been in business or
whatever it is, whether you're in the home, whether you're working
in the kitchen or the home, if you haven't got an aim, what
you're gonna do in day, you just dabble about with this or that,
and you don't get anything done, you need an object and an aim,
what you're aiming for, and so it is in the things of God. Again
and again, there's an end in view. When I come to preach the
word, I hope there's always an end in view. What is it that
I desire that is laid upon my spirit to impart to you and to
the hearers that they might grasp one specific truth or have some
aim set before you so you go out from the chapel and you can
say we have leaned today, we have heard something that shall
remain with us and that shall really profit our souls. don't
just aimlessly, as it were, go through a text, there is a message.
And John, in 1 John, he's very clear, this is the message, and
he's bringing a message before the people. The Lord always had,
in all of his parables, he had a teaching in view, an aiming
view, what he was to be imparting to them. And so, my desire this
evening is that we, that I and you, might also have that assurance
that we might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And so I want to look at two
main points this evening. The first is, to this end, he
counts that as to the end of attaining the resurrection of
the dead, he counts all things as loss that he might win Christ. That is, going back to verse
7, verse 8, those verses leading up to our text, that is the first
thing, he has Christ set in view. and everything else he counts
as lost. And then secondly there are four
main means, four means by which we can be assured of a glorious
resurrection and all four they centre in Christ. So first it is the counting all
things as lost that we may win Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
He testified that we cannot serve two masters, we cannot serve
God and mammon. Many times in His ministry, those
that came to Him were faced with this. The young man that wanted
to know what he should do, that he might have eternal life, The
Lord sat before him the law, and when he said, well, all these
things I've kept from my youth up, so the Lord then said him
one extra thing, and he said, well now, go sell all of the
house, and give to the poor, come follow me. And he went away
very sorrowful, he had great riches. The Lord said, how heartily
shall they that have riches or the riches enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And what was set before him was
eternal life that he was saying he wanted on one side, but there
is the riches on the other side. But Paul says, I value eternal
life so much, I value Christ so much, that I am willing to
part with all of these other things that I might have Christ. We think of Abraham. He was called
to go out from Ur of the Chaldeans. He went out not knowing whether
he went, leaving all of his former life, what he was doing, and
that he might be a follower of the Lord and inherit those promises
that the Lord would show to him. We think of how it is set forth
in Hebrews that it was an act of faith that he actually did
that. But it was a parting, it was
the same as with Ruth and Orpah, a confluence, one that would
not leave, would not let go of her own people, of her gods. And yet Ruth, she claimed to
Naomi, she parted away from her people, came unto a people that
she had not hitherto known. And the Lord so blessed her in
that. And often through the Scriptures,
come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty." It's a letting go of what we have
been trusted on to then embrace what is of value and what shall
land us safe above. Paul pictures this same teaching
in Romans 10, where he desired his own countrymen to be saved,
and he says that he bared witness that they had a zeal, and Paul
has spoken of his zeal here, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, and he said that they were faultless, that they
were going about seeking to fulfil the law. to work out a righteousness
of their own and were ignorant of the righteousness of Christ. They were unwilling to let go
of what they perceived was their title to heaven, their good works,
their own righteousness. But Paul says no, you must let
go of that first that you have the second. Another illustration
of that is in the near kinsman, again in the book of Ruth. When
Ruth desired Boaz to cast his skirt over her, to redeem her,
he says, there is a kinsman nearer than I. And that person had to
be eliminated first. And that really set forth what
we are by nature. No man can redeem his own soul. Remember, he could redeem land,
but when it came to Ruth, he says, I cannot redeem it, lest
I mar my own inheritance. If we tried to redeem our own
soul, then we'd die, we'd perish, because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. As soon as our blood was shed,
That doesn't atone for our soul, that doesn't satisfy the law,
because that's sinful blood, and we perish. So we cannot redeem
ourselves, but that has got to be realized first. Paul found
this when he says, I was alive without the law once, but when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The law is still
master under Christ, brought him in as guilty, it slew him,
it took away that trust that he had in his own righteousnesses. And he narrates those righteousnesses
here, but he says those things that were gained under the Hebrew
religion, under the system as it was with the Jews, the scribes,
the Pharisees, what we're going there, he counted but lost. He
would stand alongside the man who'd been born blind and had
been cast out of the temple. Dost thou teach us? Thou art
altogether born in sins. And Paul says, I'll stand by
you. I'll get rid of all of my standing amongst these that have
cast you out. I don't value that at all. It's
no value for my soul. But Christ is. We think of how
the Lord told the parables of the man that found the treasure
in the field, and that he went and sold everything he had, that
he might buy that field to have that treasure. And the man that
found the pearl of great price, and he sold everything that he
might have, the pearl of great price. And all the time the Lord
is teaching that value that Paul had here, Those things that are
going to be, those I counted, lost for Christ. And all the
time setting forth how precious Christ is, how vital He is, how
needful He is, and Him right to reflect said, doesn't that,
don't they? I could from all things parted
be, but never, never, Lord, from Thee. The value of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I'm He, He shall perish in your sins. He is the one thing
needful. Again the hymn writer, I without
Him, perish must. And this then is the main aim
of the Apostle as he's looking for the resurrection of the dead,
he's looking solely unto Christ, And no doubt remembering what
our Lord said, because I live, ye shall live also. And how that
the Lord had made intercession, Father, I will that they who
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. And so he says, Yea, he gave
us, I count, all things but lots for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. May it be our desire and our
prayer that we might think more and more of Christ, that we see
him more and more as needful and as precious to us, that when
we think of eternity, when we think of the time of our death,
when we think of the resurrection, that our hopes are solely placed
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I often think of this, that,
of course, when someone dies, and I witnessed the death of
both my parents, was there when they died, and one of our own
congregation at Cranbrook with him when he breathed his last.
Friends at Oakington, they just, a few days ago, with Lance Morley
as he breathed his last, and brought a lot of things back
to remembrance, because there is flesh in its utter weakness,
has no power in the day of death, it cannot retain the spirit,
the spirit must depart, and it cannot hold that back, and yet
then at the resurrection, even more helpless, because the dust
is returned to dust, there's no willpower there, There's none
of our might. There's none of our power. It
must be a power outside of ourselves. It must be a will and a purpose
outside of ourselves. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle sees this.
And this should be our sole aim and desire here below. That there
be Christ as all and in all. And in this first point, It then
is balanced that those things that may be lost, the reputation,
or friends, or even the friendship of relatives, those things that
need to be lay assigned, that we might have them, those things
that are a cost to us. In our day there's not much,
but in other nations, and maybe in this nation, in certain communities,
it is amongst the Muslim community or amongst the Jehovah's Witnesses
or others to be following after Christ, there is a great cost
of what it is to be cast aside, to be disallowed as any value
at all towards salvation. For us it's a denomination, it's
easy to think, We are the people, we've been brought up under the
sand of the truth, we're strict Baptists, and to read secretly,
just resting in that, thinking that this would ensure that we
will attain to the resurrection of the dead. But the apostle
says, no, there are those things I once thought and once trusted
in, but now I count them lost, and I desire Christ, alone. I want to look then secondly
for means by which we can be assured of a glorious resurrection
and again they all centre in Christ. The first is this which is in
verse 9. to be found in him. That is,
the apostle says, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That is the first. We've already
mentioned in Romans chapter 10, this is the very point that he
was setting forth before his fellow Jews, that they might
be found in Christ, or found covered with his robe of righteousness. He must make it very clear that
it is the blood of Christ that atones for sin, That is what
answers the demands of the law. Without shedding of blood, there
is no remission. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. And yet it is the righteousness
of Christ that is our standing and fits us for heaven. If we
are to stand faultless before the throne, it will be enhanced
righteousness and not our own. And so that is the first means,
and this is what he desires then, to be found in. So how is it, how can it be that
we are to be found in Christ's righteousness, not our own? We
read in another place that we are to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now, just superficially
reading that, we might think, well, that's getting more and
more holy, more and more godly, but it's not, because grace and
works are opposite. Many a child of God often is
very down, perplexed, and wonders where the sea will end, when
they are in effect brought in the place in Ezekiel, turn again,
thou son of man, thou shalt see greater abominations than these. When it is that the Lord shows
us more and more our sinful heart, knows not that our outward walk
is careless and sinful and with reproach from the world, but
inwardly, we feel the corruption. We feel those things that go
on within, that the Hemrider says that corruption's too base
to name. Evil things go on in the heart,
and our Lord speaks of it, what comes out of the heart. They
are they that defile a man. I think it's one of our Heavens
295, asked the Lord, I am my crown, faith and every grace. And the Lord answered the prayer
by crosses. And instead of feeling the growing
in godliness, they were showing more and more of their sinfulness. But it is in that way that God
makes us to not trust in our own righteousness. but to be
trusting in Christ, making us more and more to realize if ever
my poor soul be saved, his Christ must be the way. And if I knew
it slightly at the first, I know it more and more as I go on,
more and more realizing that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. to wear this crescent with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not, the good
that I would I do not, the evil that I would not that I do, a
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of
death? And Paul says, if I do that which
I would not is no more either to it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. And more and more he is feeling
a sinner And he says, I am the chief of sinners because I persecuted
the church of God. And that's another aspect, another
thing that God brings before his people, if I know anything
of it. It is not sins. It is sins, but
not only sins that we committed day by day now, but we think
of in Psalm 25, remember not the sins of my youth. where you
think of the hemorrhoids, past offences, pain in my eyes. You think of what it must have
been with David when the Lord said that the sword shall not
depart from thy house. When Absalom rises up, when the
trouble's in his own house, where do you think his mind would have
gone? Right back to his adultery, to his murder. And though those
sins have been blotted out, forgiven, Yet they still were remembered.
Same as the Apostle Paul, he says, they're not worthy, because
I persecuted the church of God. And though we realize we know
that the Lord is far as the east is from the west, so far have
he removed our transgressions from us, and he has blotted them
out in forgetfulness, yet for us, we do remember them. But that again is what the Apostle
says, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching
forth unto those things that are before. I press toward the
mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He would not let those things
behind him drag him back, discourage him from going forward, or listen
to Satan saying, how could you be a child of God if you've done
this and this and this? Those things that we remember
behind are designed to humble us, to take away our own righteousness,
to mar our own pride, to bring us humble in the dust, and to
bring us to solely be trusting in Christ alone. And it is in
realizing that, the realizing the Lord is bringing us into
that experience, that what He is doing in our lives is making
sure we never rise up and so on better than that one. Aren't
I a godly man? Aren't I a good man? And how
easy it happens, in Emory again, the heart uplifts with God's
own gifts, makes even grace a snare. One of the first times I was
brought to pray, kneeling at the chair in my own home, and
I knelt there and I had no prayer card. I didn't know what to pray
at all. And as I was kneeling there,
all manner of evil thoughts came into my head. And I thought,
what a terrible thing is this. I'm in the attitude of prayer,
and all this evil is going on in my mind. And so I cried to
the Lord, Lord, deliver me from this evil, this terrible evil's
in my heart. And I prayed after that, manna
poured on the Lord to deliver me from the evil. Then I stopped
praying, and I didn't know what to pray anymore. And then I thought,
that was good prayer, wasn't it? What a lovely prayer that
was. And then I thought, a moment
ago you didn't have any prayer, and then you had all the evil
thoughts, and now you're proud of your own prayer that you prayed
that God gave you. So I went back to praying again.
I pray the Lord to forgive my sin of pride, and deliver me
from the pride in my prayers. And it's so easy. I get proud
of my preaching, proud of my conduct, it rises up so easy,
and the goodness of the Lord for us is to humble us and to
put us into the dust, and it will be very real things, mistakes
we've made, things we've said, things that when I get home sometimes
and Hilary says, you know, you've quoted that wrong, that's not
in the Bible, and she's very kind about it, but sometimes
it's enough to make me realize that I cannot, I cannot lift
up in pride and His great mercy will urge so. That unrighteousness,
it feeds on self, it feeds on pride. If we are to have the
righteousness of Christ, the Lord Himself will see to it that
that's put in the dust and that we see more and more the suitability
of that perfect spotless robe, His perfect light, from the moment
he was conceived to the moment he died. All the time on this
life he wrought out a righteousness to give to us as if it was us
living that perfect life that he lived for us. Imputed righteousness
of Christ is a vital doctrine and the one way that we will
be assured that we actually are found in him And having that
righteousness not our own, is on the other side, our own righteousness
is being marred all the time. Sometimes it's easier to discern
our own righteousness being marred, than our trusting in Christ's
righteousness. But there'll be the two sides
to it. And I often think in scripture
truth, well in natural things, Even in photography, we need
a contrast to be able to see something. And in scripture,
in our experience, we need a contrast. And the contrast here is our
unrighteousness on the one side and Christ on the other. How
can we hope to attain unto the resurrection of the dead if we're
trusting in our unrighteousness? We have no ground for it. But
when we've been made to trust in Christ, that here is the first
thing one means whereby we may be assured of a glorious resurrection
because we are trusting in Christ's righteousness alone. The second point is to know Christ. It is I in verse 10, that I may
know Him, that I may know How can we know Christ? Here
below he's ascended into heaven, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
known by his people. The Lord says in John 10, my
sheep, they know my voice, I know them, they know me. And then
he doesn't have anything to do with sheep, or even with Cackle,
I used to phone with my father, they knew him, they knew his
voice, they didn't know me, their voices were similar, they wouldn't
come for me, they'd come for him. And it is to know the Lord
in that way. My mind went to the way the Lord
describes himself in Exodus, in Exodus 34, and this is just
after the golden calf, after the Lord had blessed Moses. The Lord descended in the cloud
and stood with him there, proclaimed the name of the Lord. And you
know, as I read these verses, especially verse 6, If you think
how it's been in your life, in the Lord's dealings with you,
your soul, your life and providence, would you not say amen to this? The Lord passed by before him
and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to
the fourth generation. Do you think how David came to
know the Lord when he was bringing up the arm dancing before the
Ark, but they weren't bringing it up according to the pattern.
They were not on the shoulders of the Levites, but on a cart.
The Lord slew Uzzah. David feared to go before the
Lord, but then they put the Ark in the house of Obed-Edom. The
Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and so then David was encouraged
to take up the ark and do as they had been bidden and bring
it up again. The fear of the Lord is always
taught where there's a revival. There was with Ananias and Sapphira
in the New Testament, great fear came upon the church. What a
contrast with the mercy shown to Saul, Paul. If Ananias and
Sapphira had been slain immediately for lying to the Holy Ghost,
what would happen to Paul when the Lord converted him and showed
him mercy? And it is in these ways that
we learn to know about the Lord, how merciful He is, how long-suffering
He is. I can think of things in my life
where the Lord has not dealt with me as my sins deserved. I looked for wrath and the Lord
gave me mercy. The Lord kindly And when I was
angry with him, just spoke a soft word that took away all my anger
and humbled me before him and realized I had no cause for anger
at all and it was all my fault. And these things are learned
by experience so you can say, I know the Lord. I know his dealings. I know his character. He is a
God. that is so kind while suffering
at most, we think of the end of Psalm 107. Whoso is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord. Have we not had those things
in our lives? All those changing things in
Psalm 107, And each time they fell down, there was no one to
help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He
saved them out of their distresses again and again. He didn't say,
I've saved you several times, and you keep going back into
the mire pools because of their transgressions, they're afflicted.
I'm not going to help you anymore. The Lord didn't do that. And it's for them to know the
Lord. as only his people can, take
my yoke upon you and learn and be, for I make a loving heart,
ye shall find rest unto your souls. How much do we know, or
do we say, like the one that buried his coin in the ground,
I knew thee, that thou wast an austere man. Thou didst reap
what I had not sown. He kind of portrayed a picture
that this was not a nice person, a person that was to be feared
or slandered, but the Lord is not that. And so this is what
the Apostle desired, to know Christ, to know His teaching,
to know His methods, to know His dealings with one's soul,
to know His voice. How much do we and can we say
that once we did not know Him, but now we do? Whom to know is
life eternal. The third point was to know the
power of His resurrection. It is going on in verse 10. And the power of His resurrection. When the Apostle writes to the
Ephesians in chapter 1, he wanted them to know power of his resurrection. He wanted them to know him in
how they were called, how they were born again. And so he says
in the first chapter of that epistle to the Ephesians, he
says in verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him. So you start like, know
Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His
calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints. And then this verse, verse 19.
what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us all to believe
according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at
His own right hand in the heavenly places. Remember Paul here is
desiring to attain unto the physical resurrection of the body. But here he is saying to the
Ephesians, you have been raised from spiritual death. Chapter
2, you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And now he is saying in chapter
1 that the same power that was used to raise Christ from the
dead is put to quicken one dead sinner into life. That's how
much thou It's not a free will of the creature. It's not by
the will of man. It's by the power of Christ that
is exceeding great power. Only we realize how dead in sin
we are. How impossible it is. The natural
man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them.
They're impossible that any should come to a knowledge of the Lord,
except they receive power from above. Except the Lord quicken
them. and give them eternal life. In
verse 5 of chapter 2 in Ephesians, even when we were dead in sins,
have quickened us together with Christ by grace you saved, have
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Those that have known the power
of Christ's resurrection in the spiritual way, in raising their
souls from spiritual death to spiritual life, they will know
what it is to have a part in the resurrection. They shall
attain to that second resurrection. They've already known the power
of Christ. They already acknowledge it.
There's solemnly those that are named as Christians They do not
acknowledge that power. They say, well, we just accepted
Christ and we just believed. And the way that they preach
is as if man has power to do that. But in doing so, they take
away this one assurance and one witness of having a part in that
resurrection of the body. May we truly know the power of
His resurrection. I believe we know it, not just
at the beginning as well. We know what it is to be restored
if we've been backslidden, we're in a far off state, the Lord
brings us nigh again. David knew what it was, a man
after God's own heart, when he committed the adultery and murder,
the Lord hath also put away thy sin. But Psalm 51, restore unto
me the joy thy salvation, take not thy Holy Spirit from me."
All his supplications was he wanted that power, he wanted
that restoration of the union, the fellowship, the love to be
restored again. They that have no changes, fear
not God. And again going back to Psalm
107, didn't they know it again and again? Fell down unto hell,
helpless, cried unto the Lord, and he delivered them, he saved
them, he lifted them up. They knew that power. I believe
I've known it myself, I've seen it in others, dear sister in
faith, in Australia, that I took her funeral when she died at
81, and the times I've seen her, so blessed, and then afterwards,
right down low again, but waiting, the testimony of her life was,
I have not power to revive myself, but my God will come again and
He'll revive me again." And He did a month or so later. She
was so blessed and favoured again. And I've seen that in others,
and now I trust in myself as well. The reviving power of the
Lord again and again. You think of the psalmist, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. What are you hoping here? That
the Lord will revive him. The Lord will quicken him again
and make him alive again. May it be an encouragement to
every poor sinner, the fewest low, discouraged, barren, earthbound,
hard, cold. Under the reviving of the Lord,
you quicken, you revive it all again. May it be a reminder every
springtime of the reviving hand of the Lord in nature. And I
trust some of us have known what it is to our lives, to have had
those reviving times again. And if that is so, we've known
the power of His resurrection, not just at the beginning, but
again and again through our lives. And that again is one means,
a means that is valid according to the scripture, that we may
attain or know that we shall attain the resurrection of the
dead. The last one is to know the fellowship
of his sufferings be made conformable unto his death. In verse 10, the fellowship of
his sufferings, and he speaks of it conformity. You know, if
we are conformed to this world and we're exhorted in Romans
12 that we're not to be conformed to this world, that is, we're
not to adopt its values, its behaviors, its mindset, its worldview,
not to follow the surrounding culture or follow the crowd,
come out from among them and be separate. But if we, on the
other side, is to be made conformable unto Christ's death, that is,
in a spiritual way, here below, conforming or mirroring what
Christ's death was. And we think of baptism, that
is, setting forth what Christ's death is, being buried with Him
by baptism into death, and risen again in newness of life. It is a debt to the world and
self, and a life unto God, and our lusts crucified, a slow,
a painful death, and our cross taken up. The Lord says that
if we don't take up our cross and follow Him, we have no part
with Him. Each of us does have a cross. to take up, and every cross is
different, and each one it is what the Lord has appointed for
us. He says in me you shall have
peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer, I have overcome the worlds. But that tribulation the Lord
chooses out, He says in the parable of the sower, that many that
appeared to walk in the right way, as soon as persecution or
tribulation arose because of the Word, then they were offended.
Peter says, the trial of your faith being much more precious
than the gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, shall
be found unto praise and honor and glory at that last day. And this is the last day is what
we're looking for, and so as Christ was in this world. If
they have persecuted me, I will persecute you. If they have done
these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. And this is the path of fellowship
with his in his sufferings. Even in a natural sense, We might
hear someone going through some sufferings, an operation or something. We've never gone through that
before. And we think, well, we're sorry for you. The Lord helped
you. But then maybe a year later, we have the same operation. And
when we're going through the pains and the fears and the doubts
and the long recovery, we think of our brother or sister in faith. And we think, now I know what
you endured. Now I know what those pains were.
And you have some fellowship you didn't have before. And so
it is with Christ's sufferings. They all forsook Him and fled
when that happens to us. Then we know what that was. When
we have the hiding of the Father's face, my God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me? Then we know what that was. Job
knew what that was. Oh, would I knew where I might
find Him and I might come even unto His feet. And so those things
the Lord brings us into, that makes us to have fellowship with
the Lord. We realise what his sufferings
were, we realise what he went through, and we feel a little,
sometimes it can be even in a very simple way the Lord uses it.
I can probably use this illustration before, but years ago coming
back from the culverts, only half a mile walk from there to
our home, and carrying the bags and shopping, They started to
cut into my hands and my shoulders felt that they were going to
drop out and I thought, I've got a few more steps, I'm going
to put these down and have a good rest. And then I thought about
the words of our Lord, all his bones, all his joints and the
pains that he had. And I thought, you're not going
to stop, you're not going to put these down, you're going
to walk home with them. And I did. And I always remembered
it and how much it made me think in that simple little a way of
fellowship, what the Lord's physical pains and sufferings were. I
don't think we really much enter into it remembering He was a
real man, just like you and I. Physical sufferings, but also
in His soul. You shall see the travail of
His soul and be satisfied. Those that shall have a part
in the resurrection of the body, resurrection with Christ, attain
unto that glorious resurrection, they shall know these things
here below. These are what Paul says, if
by any means, these are valid, right means that he has already
set before us. And what I've tried to set before
us here this evening to be found in him, that is, having Christ's
righteousness, not our own, to know Christ and to know the power
of His resurrection and to know the fellowship of His sufferings
be made conformable unto His death. May we have this assurance
and this token and blessing that what the Lord has wrought in
our lives are these means, are these tokens that when We die,
and at the last day, we shall lie down in our flesh, see God. Amen.