Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Philippians chapter 3 and
reading for our text, verse 8. Verse 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss, For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
8. And what is upon my spirit this
morning is loss that is gain. Loss that is gain. In chapter two of this epistle,
the apostle directs our attention to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, and the path that he walked. The Apostle ever desired
to be, and may we be as well, desiring the same, to be a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to those that he wrote
to, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. We read then in the second chapter,
let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, verse
five, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. And we have a picture of our
Lord in the glory that he had before the world was. Our Lord
spoke of it when he was upon earth, of that which he had with
the Father before the world was. His greatness, his glory, his
majesty. But then we read in verse seven,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. And so we have a picture
of the fullness, the blessing, the glory that our Lord had,
that he laid aside. that he lost as it were, that
he put away, how that he laid his glory by, how
that he became a man, and that he humbled himself here below,
and was obedient even unto death, laying down that life that he
was given, and yet taking it again. We have in the Lord Jesus
Christ that the path to glory must be first through loss. We read in verse nine, wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we see the gain that
he had. In God's most perfect will, It
was impossible that he should remain at the Father's right
hand, remain in glory, and then be given the glory of salvation,
the glory of redeeming his people, the glory of a Saviour, the glory
that came through his sufferings, through his willing loss, through
his humility, through being made low, If our Lord was not willing
to lose that glory that he had before the world was, then he
would never have had the glory of redemption, the Savior, the
glory that he has now as the Savior of his people, the Redeemer. the glory that belongs to him
through the work that he accomplished here on earth in the salvation
of all of his people, an innumerable multitude who no man can number
that are saved because of what our Lord did on this earth. So we have set before us first
by the apostle in the second chapter, the path of our Lord. Loss that was gain. Loss that must be, that there
should be a real gain. And this is a path that all of
the people must walk in, all of the people of God. We understand
in natural ways what it is, don't we? In a daily way, we probably
hardly think of it. But if we go to the shops and
we have some money, that which we've earned or been given, and
we make a judgment, there in the shop is something we need,
whether it's food or some other thing, and we're prepared to
give away our money that we might receive that article. We're always
pleased if we feel that we've got a bargain, that we've parted
with less than we thought we'd have to, to gain what we are
then bringing home. There is a cost to it. And we make that judgment all
the time. In a natural way, we know the
value of money, the value of natural things. But do we know
the value of spiritual things? Do we know what it is to lose
natural things, but to gain spiritual blessings, to lose our own selves,
as it were, that we might gain Christ? Man naturally does not
put any value upon the things of God. He doesn't put a value
upon the Word of God, the ways of the Lord. He doesn't put a
value upon gathering together in the house of God, keeping
the Sabbath day, spending one day with the Lord. he wouldn't count that to be
of any value. But here the apostle speaks of
those things that where there is a loss, there is a gain. Now I want to look with the Lord's
help at six examples from the word, six important areas where
there must be loss if there is to be a gain. And I'm going to begin with our
text, with the apostle here, in Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 8. He says, Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but loss. For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ. And he goes on, and 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 by faith. renouncing our own righteousness,
our own goodness. It's a very hard thing for a
man, a woman, a child, to own that in them is no good thing,
that they cannot appear before God in their own righteousness,
their own good works. The apostle He tells of those
things that he did have and that for a Pharisee were of great
value. Those things that he might trust
in, which he says, in the flesh, that he was circumcised the eighth
day. The stock of Israel of the tribe
of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law
of Pharisee. those things concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless. Those were things that he was
trusting that were his salvation. And we are all like that. We
all have things that we think we shall be able to stand before
God accepted in the sight of God. But those things, those
things are to be renounced. Those things are to be lost. Until we are brought to be a
hell-deserving, helpless sinner, we cannot be saved. Hymn writer
says, if ever my poor soul be saved, "'Tis Christ must be the
way." It is to come to the place of the stopping of our mouths. If we have found out in doing
something wrong, how quickly we always look for something
to mitigate and to be an excuse, a reason that our guilt is not
quite so bad. a reason why we should be shown
some leniency. We are like that. But in the
things of God and regarding our soul, there is nothing, nothing
at all that we can bring before God and give as a reason why
we should not be sentenced to death and then eternal death,
eternal banishment in hell. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. It is the law was given that
all the world might be brought in guilty before God. But the
truth is all the world is not guilty before God. But those
whom God designs to save, he will bring in guilty. He will
bring them to the law He will bring them to see that that which
they were trusting in they must relinquish. And it's a very hard
thing to do that. It's a very hard thing to let
go of what we once were trusting was our credentials for heaven
and to say, no, I cannot trust in that anymore. I must let go
of that. I must look for help elsewhere. and truly look for help elsewhere. Sometimes in natural things,
it may be we were trusting to something to save us, something. If we were adrift in the water
and we were clinging to a log or something like that, and we
thought, well, that will save us, And then we were cast a rope
and told to let go of the log, to hold on to the rope and we'd
be pulled to safety. To let go of that log, to let
go of what we were trusting in and then trust in something else
is a very big thing. Sometimes we have a sense of
this if we were to change employment, change our jobs. He may have
been in employment for many years in that firm. We know the people,
we know how the firm works, been a regular income. And even when,
and this is a path I approve, we've had a job so offered us
and so clearly seen as the Lord's hand and the Lord's way to actually
send in our resignation. to let go of that employment
and then to embrace and take another employment is a very,
very hard thing to do. It's a big obstacle. I've known what it is when it's
been so clear the Lord's hand and yet I've been so backward
and so dragged back from doing that. These are things in a way
we do through life, a letting go of one to embrace another,
and none is so important, so vital, in the matter of salvation,
is our righteousness. We are either trusting to our
good works, or we're trusting to what Christ has done on our
behalf. Either trusting to Christ's righteousness,
or to our own righteousness. And what is vital is that we
lose our own. Willing to acknowledge we have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, that is in me dwelleth
no good thing in my flesh. And to trust solely in Christ's
righteousness, his perfect life, his atoning death, his precious
blood shed at Calvary. And so that is why the apostle
here In embracing the Lord, in believing the Lord, he cast away
all of that which he once trusted in. In fact, as well, he lost
all of the fellowship and company of the other Pharisees. We think of the man that was
born blind, And his parents, when they were asked concerning
the Lord, they wouldn't give an answer because the Jews had
said any that confessed the Lord Jesus Christ would be cast out
of the temple. They knew the cost that was involved
in that. The Apostle Paul knew it as well,
and he suffered in that way. Cast out, persecuted. But this loss to him was gain. He says, I have suffered the
loss of all things, all temporal things, his position in the church,
his position religiously, but really those things that he was
trusting in himself. But he counts them but done,
that I may win Christ. owe to be nothing in our own
eyes, to value the precious doctrines of the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his righteousness above everything else. This is
the path the apostle went. It touched him, his personal
faith, his outward position in the church. It's no wonder that when he writes
to the Romans and he has that desire for his own people and
he sees them in a position that he was, but he sees them unwilling
to part with what was their righteousness. He says in Romans 10, they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. They had not let go. They were
still clinging, clinging to their own works, own righteousness. Loss that is gain. No poor sinner
that truly confesses his sin lets go of his supposed righteousness. shall ever really suffer losses
shall we gain. Our Lord is a surety that is
the blessings that come through Christ come when his people have
nothing to pay and they have nothing of their own. The loss
comes first. The path our Lord went we must
go to. But then secondly, Christian
separation from the world. We are not to be a people that
says, stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou. But God's children
are called out of the world that lieth in sin and wickedness. God says that whosoever will
be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. The friendship
of the world is enmity with God. And so, in that sense, there
is to be a loss. The Apostle Paul, when he writes
to the Corinthians, his second letter, he says that God's people
are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Especially that applies in marriage. A believer should not marry an
unbeliever. It applies in the house of God,
in joining together, in worship and round the Lord's table especially. It applies to close business
agreements and partnerships, not joining together with those
that have very, very different standards in how they do their
business. And so we read in 2 Corinthians
6 verse 14, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. So he says before the Corinthians
a very great difference between a believer and an unbeliever. A believer in the true and living
God and one that is following idols. God's grace makes a difference. His work in the sinner's heart
makes a difference. And where that difference is,
then there is a separation. One day there shall be an eternal
separation between the righteous and the wicked, but that is to
be reflected here below. And he says, wherefore come out
from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing, and I will receive you and will be a father
unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty." When the Lord begins to work with
his people, then there'll be those things that they have to
separate from. There'll be friends that are
still doing those things that we feel we cannot continue on
in doing. Those places that we once visited
we cannot now visit. And it's a hard thing to say,
I cannot go with you now, I must separate. It is also hard when
we say, well, not only can not we go with you, but we are going
to go with the people of God. We are now going to be doing
things we once did not do, and we are not going to be doing
things that once we did do, And we are going to separate from
the company of those that are still walking on the high road
to hell, that are still walking in sin and evil. And it is a hard thing to separate,
but that separation is vital. Our Lord spoke of the necessity
of taking up the cross and following him. that if any man would put
a husband, a wife, a brother, a child, a parent, in front of
him, he is not worthy of the Lord. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. True religion
is a very personal thing, and where that work is done, where
his people are snatched as brands from the burning, where they
are chosen out from the people, attracted and drawn to Christ,
then there is to be a separation, a willing loss, a willing separation. But what a beautiful promise
here. It shall be not all loss, but
gain. That loss is a gain. He promises
here, I will receive you. I will receive you and will be
a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty. It's a beautiful promise, but
it's a promise on a gracious separation, not a self-righteous
one, but one which is vital if the Lord has given us light.
and shown us what is evil and what is sinful and what is inconsistent
with the true faith of God. Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God, that's what Moses said of Moses, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And Joshua, he
says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So we have this in Paul's letter
to the Corinthians. We also have it in the beautiful
account of the story of Ruth, in the book of Ruth. We have it there, where Ruth,
the Malbitess, married Marlon, the son of Elimelech, who came
out of Bethlehem because of the famine there. And yet she was
bereaved of her husband. Her mother-in-law also lost her
husband. And her sister-in-law, another
Malabiteess, she lost her husband as well. And yet We read of the
choice that Ruth made. Naomi was to go back to Bethlehem
to her own people. And she tried to get both Ruth
and Orpah to stay in Moab. She couldn't promise them any
other husband. or any hope of sustenance, they
would return back to her land as beggars, really. They were widows with no man
to take care over them. But we read saying of, with Ruth
in Ruth chapter one, verse 15, now Ruth claimed to her And Nehemiah
said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone bang, and to her people
and unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law. And
Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die. And there will I be buried. The
Lord do so to me, and will also, if aught but death, part thee
and me." She really claimed to her. And then in the following
chapter, there's a word in chapter two that Boaz speaks to her. And Ruth had fallen on her face
at verse 10. Why have I found grace in thine
eyes, that thou shalt take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto
thee, It hath fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband, how thou hast
left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity,
and art come unto a people which thou newest not here to form. And so really the whole book
of Ruth, the whole account here, the blessings that Ruth had in
joining with Boaz in the line to Christ, they all came and
hinged on her being willing, willing to leave. leave her father
and her mother, leave the land of her nativity. The loss that
she had was to be then her gain. And so this is the path that
the people of God will have to walk, they're called to walk,
is a path of loss, of separation, But in that loss, a gain, a gaining
of the Lord as their God and the people of the Lord as their
people and a fellowship with them. May we be held to make
that choice. May we be held to suffer that
loss willingly, to count it a loss. worth that we might gain the
Lord and his people. In the third place I want to
speak of stopping in a wrong path even if it costs us. Sometimes we can feel trapped
as it were. We have begun to go in a path,
to walk in a way, and we've already made our laying out of money,
there's already so much a commitment in it, maybe we've entered into
a contract and then we find out that there's something sinful
or wrongful in it, and it wouldn't be right for us to continue in
that way, but then we think, but if we break this contract,
then it's going to cost us money, and we can't get that money back. And so there's that pressure
to do what otherwise your judgment would say don't do, because we've
already laid out some money, And that is then influencing
us. We don't want to suffer the loss
of what we've already laid out. And so the temptation is to continue
in a wrong path. Well, this was a path that was
walked by Jehoshaphat. And we read of, I think it's in Two
Chronicles, and it was his son, Jehoshaphat's son, Amaziah, he
gathered Judah together, made them captains over thousands
and captains over hundreds. Now, he led them forth to war
because the company that was coming against them, they felt
was too much for them. So he hired, as well as his own
people, 100,000 mighty men of valor out of Israel. This is
after the division, of course, of the tribes, Israel, Ahab's descendants were the kings. They
were following idols. They're an idolatrous nation
and Ephraim, one of the most amongst them. And so here is
a godly king, one of the kings of Judah, and he is joining with
ungodly Israel. He hired them for a hundred talents
of silver. The money is outlaid. Then we
read, But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let
not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with
Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt
go, do it, be strong for the battle, God shall make thee fall
before the enemy. For God hath power to help and
to cast down. So the prophet is saying here,
this is 2 Chronicles chapter 25, that the path that Amaziah
is going in is the wrong path. Stop, don't go in that path. God is not with Israel. He's not with these people, go
back. But then we have an objection
from Amaziah. Amaziah said to the man of God,
but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have
given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered,
the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. And Amaziah then listened and
separated. Are we in that position? Where we've made a contract,
we've made an agreement, we've maybe paid our money or must
pay our money to go out in a certain path, in a certain direction,
but now the Lord has shown us that that is wrong. We should
not go in that way. But what is stopping us from
obeying the Lord is this thought Well, what about the money we've
paid? What about what we have already
done? Well, here the path is clearly
set before us. Suffer the loss of it. The Lord
is able to give much more than that back. Don't worry about
the loss of it. The Lord has shown you a path. Do not walk in that path because
of money already outlayed that you will think now is just wasted. How many times there is something
that will arise as to a reason why we will not obey the Lord,
do what is right in His sight, loss that is gain. May we remember
it in this particular context. May we count those things but
as nothing that we might be obedient and follow the Lord. And bless
the Lord that he has given us warning and direction before
it is too late. The fourth thing I bring before
you is that of Christian giving. Israel of old was given the path
of tithing. Jacob, when he was blessed at
Bethel, agreed that all the Lord that would give him, a tenth
he would give unto the Lord. And Israel was exhorted to tithe. It was through that way that
the temple or tabernacle at first was made, and then later the
temple. And the Levites sustained and
provided for from the tribes of the people. Those times that
God's people withheld that. And we have that in Malachi chapter
3 in verse 10. The Lord had said, will a man
rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? And the Lord answers in tithes
and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for
ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it. It's not
that we buy the blessings of God, say, well, we've given to
the Lord, given to the Lord's house or given to his people.
Therefore the Lord must bless us. But the Lord has ordered
this. The Christian, unlike the world
that prospers laying up, the Christian prospers laying out. And it's in that way that it
shall be returned to the Lord. We think and say, oh, well, if
we give 10 pounds to the house of God, to the Lord, to his service,
to his work, then we're 10 pounds poorer. But the Lord says, you
may give 10 pounds, but I will make sure that you get that repaid,
that His blessing upon our work, our labours, that that shall
be there replenishing that. And we've proved it so many times. It's one of the best gauges of
how we are spiritually is how close we guard our money, how
generous we are in giving to the Lord's cause. We might say,
well, we're not under the law, we're not under tithing. Some
of the dear brethren under the gospel days, they say, well,
we're not under tithing. Our freewill offerings and the
offerings to the Lord, whether tithing or not, they should be
given freely and willingly. how they accepted of the Lord. But in a gospel day, the brethren
say, well, we should start with the tithing as the minimum, and
then our free will offerings should go beyond that. You might think, well, that's
quite a lot, isn't it? Well, the minimum rate of tax
for this land I know there's a threshold first, but it is
20%, not 10. But nevertheless, it does give
a gauge as to what our heart is. Right through the Old Testament,
there was that need of the maintenance of the house of God. There still
is that. There still is the provision
for the Lord's servants. The Lord hath ordained that they
that preach the gospel should live of the gospel, and it is
in the way of the giving of the people of God that that is provided. And so, with our text, a loss
that is gain, a loss, what we might say, in giving, is a gain
in blessing for our souls, is again even as the Lord further
blesses and gives us even in a monetary way. I believe we
are proved we have never ever suffered lack in a monetary way
from a giving in the Lord's name and Lord's house or giving to
the poor whichever way it may be is giving to the Lord. And so this is another aspect,
another thing that should not ever be overlooked by those that
really fear the Lord and value their own souls. If we truly
have been weaned from the world and delivered from the love of
riches, then we want to give not just our money but our time,
our energy, our strength, Give those things to the Lord. Loss as it were, even so ought
we to lay down our lives for the brethren. Those hours that
we could have spent doing our garden instead going to visit
one in hospital or to help a brother or sister in need. Those things
sometimes have really pulled at our heart. We've struggled
to make that choice, to make that loss, as it were, in our
own cause for another. But how many times we have proved
that that loss, that we viewed at first as a loss, was a gain. And sometimes those blessings,
well, to this day, we have not forgotten, and they're still
very precious to us. So Christian giving, whether
money, time, energy, or whatever it is, loss that is gain. The fifth one I bring before
you is the keeping of vows. Remember the beautiful account
in the first book of Samuel, chapter one and two, of how Samuel
was born, born to Hannah. And Hannah, when she had prayed,
she prayed in the tabernacle, and she made a solemn vow that
if the Lord would give her a man-child, then that she would lend him to the
Lord all the days of his life. We read in verse 3 of chapter
1, She vowed a vow, said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed
look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and
not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid
a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days
of his life. No rays had come upon his head. The Lord did give her a man-child. The Lord did fulfil her petition. But then her vow. What a hard
thing to do. For a lady then to give up that
child, to lose that child, to give him to the Lord. In the
longing and desire for a child, or for anything, it's easy for
us to promise things, to vow a solemn promise before God that
we would do this. Many of the Lord's people, they
have said if the Lord answered in this way or that way, then
they would join the church, then they would be willing to do this
or that. But when it has come to it, they
may have found it very hard to fulfill that vow. Maybe you're
in a position now, the Lord has answered your petition. He has
heard your cry. Dear friends, remember what you
may have promised the Lord when you've asked for those things
you now have. Well, in verse 23, in chapter
one, Hannah had said that she was
not going to go up to the tabernacle until Samuel was weaned, and
that may have been three or four years. But Elkanah, her husband,
said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good, tarry until thou weaned
him, only the Lord establish his word. So he is giving a caution
to Hannah, in effect he is saying, Yes, you can delay it, but don't
not do it. It must be performed. The vow
must be performed. And so, dear Hannah, she did.
She comes, she says in verse 27, for this child I prayed,
and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.
Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth,
he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshipped the Lord there.
Eli worshipped the Lord as he heard these things. But then
we read in the following chapter, we read how that Eli blessed,
in verse 20, that Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said,
The Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent
to the Lord. And they went unto their own
home. Did Hannah suffer loss? Yes,
she had Samuel in the house of God, but we read this, the Lord
visited Hannah so that she conceived and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before
the Lord. She didn't suffer loss. She didn't
end up having no child to nurse at home. The Lord gave her five. And so, again, may we think of
this in the keeping of our solemn promises before the Lord, keeping
of our vows before the Lord, a loss that is gained. The last one I'll bring before
you is that loss that we all shall have at death. Our body must be laid in the
grave. This mortal must be laid in the
grave. Why? Why the loss of our lives? Why the loss of this body? We have the A beautiful answer
in 1 Corinthians 15, at the end of that chapter. This corruptible must put on
incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that death, that is written, death is swallowed up
in victory. You know, death for the people
of God, that loss of all things here below, the loss of their
mortal life is vital. If they are to be given a body
that is incorruptible and undefiled, if they are to be with the Lord,
which is far better. The Apostle says, absent from
the body, present with the Lord, desire to depart, to be with
Christ, which is far better. It is a loss. A loss for those
left behind. A loss for the one that is leaving. It's a hard thing to leave loved
ones. We have not yet walked that path.
We've seen those that have walked in. We've seen the Lord's dear
people that have walked in. They've had a good hope of heaven.
They're longing to be with the Lord, but it's hard to part with
those they're leaving behind. And it's hard for us that have
been left behind to part and to part from them and to not
see them anymore here below. But it is a vital thing for the
people of God. are we made willing for that
loss with a realisation of the gain and of what we shall enter
into and be blessed with upon that loss. And so we have in
the words of our text, loss that is gain. Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ. May the Lord add
his blessings.