I want to begin by saying a word
about righteousness from this text. In verse 9, Paul rejects
what he calls his own righteousness, not having my own righteousness,
which is by law keeping. What he called his righteousness,
what he trusted in as his righteousness, was his imagined ability to keep
God's laws, touching the law, blameless in his own mind, in
his own heart, and probably in the testimony of others who he
fooled. But you can't fool God. When
he found out what true righteousness is, he said, I won't have mine. I won't have what I call righteousness. I reject it. But he lays hold
of the righteousness of Christ. And this is the phrase I want
to spend just a moment on, which is of God by faith. Of God by faith. When you think
about the issue between you and God, what happened in the garden?
No more righteousness, we fell. Fell from a state of perfect
law-keeping into sin. Sin is rejection of, it's disobedience
to God's law, not just in deed, but we know in heart and spirit
and word. But when Paul found out what
true righteousness is, He laid hold of the righteousness which
is of God. The word of there, you may think
we're getting down into the weeds a little bit here, but it's very
simple. The word of means out of, from, the point from which
action or motion proceeds. It's of God. It's from God. It starts with God. The point
from which action or motion proceeds It comes from God to the sinner. The word by, in verse nine, of
God, by faith, the word by indicates where that which comes from God
is applied. If you look up that word, it
has to do with where, location. So it's something that comes
from God, but where that happens, where God gives you righteousness,
where that which comes from God is applied, the mode by which
God gives us the righteousness of Christ is faith. It's faith. He causes us to believe on his
son, and hence the righteousness of God, not of words, but by
faith. Notice also that all of the things
spoken in all of this context, and I want to point them out
a little bit. We have righteousness. We've talked about that. We have
righteousness. We, we have righteousness. True righteousness. The only
righteousness there is. The righteousness of Christ.
We have faith. By faith. He gave it to us by faith. We
have in verse 10 knowledge. that we might know him. We experience
the power of his resurrection. We'll talk about that a little
bit today, Lord willing. We're included in the fellowship
of his sufferings. We're conformed or made in the
image of his death, verse 10 and 11. We have attainment. We attain unto the resurrection. See all these things? All of
those things are a product of what? Verse eight, winning Him. Winning Him. It's a person. The bestowing and attainment
of all spiritual blessings is in essence the attainment of
communion with relationship to the Son of God. Him putting us in Christ and
Christ in us. That's how all of that comes,
every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. When God reveals
his son in you and puts you in him and makes him thereby your
all, like we just said, all that you need, all that you
want in your new man, These truths become then more
than intellectual concepts. They become more than doctrines
that you agree with. As the scripture in an extreme
case points out, Satan agrees with the doctrine. He knows who
God is. He knows how sinners say. But, Instead of just intellectual
concepts, these truths, these blessings, the gospel is an experience of Christ. It's God putting Christ in you
and you in him. Salvation, we can't trust our
experiences, but we do experience what God did for us. Rather than just knowing facts
about him, you know him. That's what I mean
by that. That's what our text is about
in verse 10 this morning, that I may know him. If you look at that word, know,
it's an intimate relationship. It's a union. The Lord pictures that in marriage
where he says a man and a woman become one flesh. That's what
our Lord prayed in John 17. They are one even as we are one.
That's what we're talking about. That's what it is to know him.
You don't just agree with facts about him, but he's you and you're
him. There's no distinguishing between
the two of you. One. And we do experience that
in this life. We can know him in that way in
this life. Now listen, faith does come by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. You do learn about him
before you know him. You have to learn about him before
you can know him in this sense, in a saving sense. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But as Job said,
seeing him by faith is beyond just hearing of the ear. I've
got to hear of him, but if I'm gonna know him, it can't just be physical or
earthly understanding. It's got to be spiritual understanding. I've heard of you, Job said,
by the hearing of the ear. And there's nothing wrong with
that. He's not denouncing that. That's good. But now I see. Now I see. I was blind, but now
I see. That's the eye of faith he's
talking about, because many saw him with physical eyes. It didn't
save him. They rejected him nonetheless,
as we all do, apart from God's saving grace. But when you see
him by faith, like Job, you're never the same again. You die to self and come alive
to God by his miraculous power. John 17 warned, these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son. When we talk about what happened
on Calvary, there's nothing wrong with talking
about my soul was saved. I was redeemed there. But the
biggest thing that happened on Calvary was God's son was glorified. It just happens to glorify him
to save a wretch like you. It's a real good relationship.
You need saving, and what glorifies and exalts Him is saving you,
pathetic as you are, and I am. That thy son may also glorify
thee, as thou hast given him the power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. So there it is, of God. We're
given eternal life from God to us. But how's He gonna do that?
This is that life eternal. This is where he bestows it.
This is how God gives it, the mode he uses in order to give
it to us that we might know him. That's faith. That we might know,
that they might know thee, the only true God. If you look up
that word in Jesus Christ, it says the only in this translation,
the only true God in Jesus Christ, that word and can mean even also,
I believe it does. the only true God, even Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast seen. To know him is to know God. The
spiritual knowledge as opposed to mental knowledge only is detailed
in 1 Corinthians 2.9. Let's look at it together. 1 Corinthians 2.9. That we may
know him is what we're talking about. And that we have to distinguish
between just somebody, the Pharisees, for example, I guarantee you
the Pharisees knew the scripture better than you did. And better
than I did. But that's not knowing God. Nothing
wrong with that. I want to hear by the hearing
of the ear. But it's a miracle of God's grace if we're ever
able to see him. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, God gives those, the scripture says. God hath made both of them.
And look at 1 Corinthians 2 now, as it is written, I have not
seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God have prepared for them that love Him. But that
doesn't mean we don't know them, that we don't know those things,
that we haven't seen those things. God has revealed them unto us
by His Spirit. We're not gonna figure it out,
we're not gonna perceive it in our natural state. But we know
them nevertheless because God reveals them. We know crying, we know his gospel.
We know who God is. We know how a sinner's saved.
We know what happened on Calvary by revelation, unto us by his
spirit. For the spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. So how do we know? Because his
spirit is within us. And again, that's mysterious,
but it's inseparable. The Spirit does not indwell us
as some alien presence. When Simon Peter was able to
say truthfully, from his own heart, Lord, I love you. He didn't
say the Spirit in me loves you. He said, I love you. But we know
that love for Christ is the fruit of the Spirit. It's not some
alien presence in us It's the new man, it's the new creature.
It's who we are now. It's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me, because the real me now is Christ that
liveth in me. I live, yet not I, yet not I. but God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit, and he indwelt us with his Spirit, verse 11.
Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of, out from, originated by God. The Spirit which is of God. that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. What is that? Free. That
we might know free grace. We might know what free grace
is, as opposed to just Grace Baptist Church. The grace they're
talking about in there, ain't this grace. God giving you a
chance is not grace. We know that the things that
we have from God are freely, without a cause in us, given
unto us by God. That's spiritual knowledge. That's
supernatural knowledge. And we tell everybody about it.
Which things also we speak. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. When we speak it, when
we tell everybody, Unless you have that same spirit, you're
not gonna get it. You're not gonna get it. For they are foolishness unto
him. First of all, it's a joke. He doesn't care. He has no interest. But it's also impossible for
him to know them because they're spiritually discerned and he
has no spiritual life. He has no spiritual understanding.
But he that is spiritual, discerneth all things That's that word judge
it there. It means you you got it you get
it you discern it By revelation by the Spirit dwelling in us
things that can't be known any other way Yet he himself is discerned
of no man for who has known the mind of the Lord and that he
may instruct him. Now there's two ways to know
the mind of the Lord. To be as smart as God would be
like you think, well, you know, I know this as much as God and
I can, if I, you know, I can instruct him. No, that's not
how we know him. That's not it. The way we do know him is we
have the mind of Christ when it comes to the discernment of
spiritual truth, the gospel. We understand the gospel and
it's freely given unto us by God. that life, that spirit,
that knowledge, that understanding, that perception. So just as we
see in this passage that righteousness comes from God, we see also that
knowledge of him comes from him. It's freely given. And just as
righteousness is a person, that knowledge is not just an education,
it's a relationship with a person. And then to know
Him, Paul says here, is to know the power of His resurrection.
And that may be all we have time to talk about today, but what
a thing to talk about. You think about this, the power
of Christ dying and being raised again. He says that I may know Him that
I may know the power of his resurrection. And notice the words that I may,
that I may. He doesn't say I know them, but I strive that I may know
them. I desire that I might know them. I seek God that I might know
these things. Not that he's already attained,
he says later. These things are never arrived
at in this life. You're never gonna know God.
The scripture says we don't even know him as we ought to know
him, much less perfectly as he is. Oh, that I might, Paul says,
that I might, that I may, that I may. They're pursued in this
life. Not attained in this flesh, but
pursued. Pursued, pursued. That I may,
that I may, that I may. Resurrection assumes death, but
it includes the triumph that Christ's death on Calvary was
and is. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
15. Verse 35. We won't expound this part. We've
talked about this several times. Maybe I'll say a word or two.
Some man will say, how are the dead raised up and with what
body do they come? He says, you're a fool if you
ask that question. It's a foolish question because
that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. To ask
that question is to ignore what's right in front of you. If you've
ever planted a seed and saw a life spring forth, that makes you
a fool to question God raising you from the dead. If God can
do that, and that which thou sowest, verse
37, thou sowest not that body that shall be, But you sow bare
grain, and it may chance of wheat or of some other grain. It's
gonna change. It's gonna be something different. But God giveth it
a body as it hath pleased Him. That's what He's gonna do with
you too. And all we know about that body is that it's just like
Him. Is that enough? Is that enough for you? It's
gonna be fashioned like unto His glorious body. That's about all I need to know
about that. Under every seed his own body
all flesh is not the same flesh But there's one kind of flesh
of man another of beasts another of fishes and another of birds
They're also celestial body the different bodies so they have
different glories verse 42 So it is with the resurrection of
the dead you're gonna you're gonna be so in corruption But
it's raised in incorruption see verse 42 there so in dishonor
verse 43 it raised in glory and Sown in weakness raised in power
so a natural body raised a spiritual There is a natural and there
is a spiritual And so it is written the first man Adam was made a
living soul the last man the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit Adam was given life Christ is life and How be it that was
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth
earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. And as is the
earthy, such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly,
such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit. the kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery,
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality, So when
this corruption 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. What
does that mean? O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. We're dead
by nature because of sin. Christ came and bore our sins
and put them away by the sacrifice of himself and rose from the
dead this way. When he rose from the dead, this
is how he rose from the dead, Hebrews 9.24, for Christ has
not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in
the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he have
suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in
the end of the world, that he appeared to clear away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. His own precious blood was shed,
his own soul made an offering for sin, and then he rose from
the dead and entered into the holy place not made with hands.
as our substitute, our representative, our sin offering, our righteousness. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin, without sin unto salvation. That's the power of his resurrection.
From corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from decay
and corruption to glory. When we
were without strength, we had no power. Where's power gonna
come from to save us? No spiritual understanding, no
ability to please God in our flesh, Christ did what we could
never do. He died and rose again that we
might be justified with God. What the law could not do because
of my flesh. God sent his son to do it. But
when he did it, he said, I've done it. I've done it. The power of his resurrection
is seen in that his death was not just him garnering sympathy
from God for us. Religion seems to think that
God feels so sorry for his son, and his son gave such a price
that now he feels sorry for us, he's gonna save us. No, it's not garnering sympathy
from God the Father. What happened at Calvary and
at the garden tomb was not so that we would have a chance to
be saved if we do something about it. What I want to attain unto, Paul
said that I might know him in the power of his resurrection.
What I wanna know about, I say with Paul that I may know the
power of his resurrection. I wanna hear about in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn something about how we
were given the victory over death, hell, and the grave through Jesus
Christ, our Lord, by his power. Because he died and rose again.
I have died. Next phrase in our text we'll
see next time. Conformable unto his death. I've
died and am born again by the power of what he did for me.
Paul said, I want to know some more about that. We don't need to learn anything
new. I've heard. People preach over decades and
their message now in some cases is completely different message
than they preached 20 years ago. Gospel's not like that. It's
not like that. I don't need to learn something
new. I need to just learn what I think I know already. Don't you know about Christ's
resurrection, Paul? Well, yes and no. I said no. There's no wordy or complicated
jargon needed to define the power of Christ's resurrection. Power
here means getting the job done. And the job that Christ got done
when he had laid down his life and took it up again. What got done. And remember now
how he described that. Remember how he described his
death? I have what? Power. That's what we're talking
about. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it up again. That's the power of his resurrection.
And what got done by that power is God was glorified and I was
saved. Plum saved. E.D., past tense,
saved. May God give us an ever-increasing
knowledge and understanding, and then one day, perfect knowledge
of that power, the power of Christ and what he accomplished for
us when he died and rose again. Amen. Let's pray.