Paul says in verse 7 that all
of the things he had mentioned in verses 5 through 6 That before he had considered
wins gains In the pursuit of Christ look at the things he
mentioned there the fact that his he was born in a religious
family and they circumcised him the eighth day and According
to the law of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and
Hebrew of all the Hebrews he had traced his heritage back
to the original tribe That's touching the law a Pharisee he
was taught and learned the religion of the day based on the law and
the ceremonies in the Old Covenant Concerning zeal persecuting the
church. He was zealous for the God that
he worshipped in false God Called him Jehovah. He was still a false
God God of Paul's imagination The God that would be impressed
by his works and heritage Zealous enough to kill Zealous
enough to put everything on the line to make a lot of enemies. Didn't
bother him. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless. He was the real deal in religion.
He believed it. He was all in on it. He was blameless in the eyes
of men. But when he realized that the
law He said in another place, when the commandment came, when
I understood the spiritual nature of the law, sin revived. I realized
what I was and that the old me died in the sense of trusting
in myself, in the sense of trusting my own works. And so that's what he's talking
about here. These are the things that he counted as wins. These
were gains. Verse 7 there in our text what
things were gained to me. That's the things he's talking
about his heritage is his keeping of the law his zeal for God his
Deepen Commitment to his religion But when he met the Lord Jesus
Christ And began in his heart to pursue Christ and and the
righteousness of God which is in Christ, he saw that those
same things that he called wins before were really losses. And think about this. Why are
those things losses? Why would it be bad to be circumcised
when God said, circumcise your male children on the eighth day?
Why is that a bad thing? Why would it be bad to be zealous
for God? Why would it be bad to keep the law outwardly? One
reason. Turn with me to Luke 18. How do these wins turn into losses? Or how is it that they're losses
to begin with? And Paul just realized it one
day by the grace of God. Luke 18, nine. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Now he told this parable, the
parable that he told was the parable of the Pharisee and the
publican. And you remember that where the
Pharisee stood and thank God I'm not like other men. Thank
God I'm not a sinner. Thank God I do all these good
things. Thank God for my many wonderful works that I do for
God. Thank God I'm not like that wretched publican. And the publican
smote on his breast and wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to
heaven and said, God, mercy, mercy, mercy on me, a sinner.
Mercy. Was there anything wrong with
the things that the Pharisee did? He tithed, he kept the law
outwardly. He was distinct from other men
in his moral behavior, at least when people were looking. What was wrong with those things?
That verse nine that we read, Luke 18, nine, he spake this
parable of a certain which trusted. They trusted in themselves That's the problem Not a thing
wrong with the things that were true of Paul in and of themselves
Neither were the good deeds that the Pharisee boasted of bad things
the key word is trusted The religious advantages that
Paul enjoyed as a lost religious zealot were disadvantages with
regard to true righteousness in Christ. If you want to be
righteous before God, trusting in what you do is not advantageous
to that end. Because he trusted in those things,
he trusted in himself that he was righteous, and God had to
teach him that all the things that were precious to him and
valuable to him and made him what he was, he thought what
they made him was ungodly, anti-Christ, and hell-bound. Notice that trust in Christ excludes
all other trust. Paul refers to his religious
heritage and works in verse seven, all the stuff he talked about
in five and six, that's what he's talking about in verse seven,
and then in verse eight, he takes it to the extreme. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss. All of it, everything and everybody,
Loss, loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. You see that? Not just the religious
heritage, but everything, everything that stands between me and Christ
is a loss. It's a disadvantage. So he's
saying here while I'm on the subject, there's nothing at all
that's not a loss, but Christ. And think about this now, that's
an easy thing to say. That's real easy to say. But Paul was able to say this
from experience. Look at the rest of verse eight
there. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things. It's easy to say now. We sing some songs like that.
Take the world and give me Jesus, take everything. You know, he
probably sang, you know, Martin Luther's great song, A Mighty
Fortress. It says, let goods and kindred go in this mortal
life also. The body they may kill, but God's
truth about it still. It's easy to sing that. But Paul's goods and kindred
did go. You know, we sing nearer my God
to thee, beautiful song, even though it be a cross that raiseth
me. Even though my rest is a stone, darkness be over me, my rest
a stone. But if you really had to sleep
on a rock, you might sing a different song. Paul had been there. He said,
I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but
done. that I may win Christ. Not only his religion that was
so meaningful to him before, it was everything. He gave up
everything. He was so zealous in that and high up in that and
highly respected in that. That's something that's not easy
for men to give up. The acclaim of so-called the,
you know, the so-called holy people of the world. But also, I'm pretty sure he
was well compensated in his other job, don't you think? As being
as high up in the religious hierarchy as he was, the religious empire,
he was very high up in that. And next thing you know, he's
making tents so he can eat. While suffering all that he did
in the name of Christ, being stoned, being shipwrecked, being
despised, being chased out of town, being left for dead, being
whipped with a cat of nine tails. He had to make tents in order
to eat. Living by the grace of God on
the gifts that were given and sent to him by those he had preached
to. He had suffered the loss of everything
he had before. and it didn't bother him a bit. And again, I'll say what I did
a while ago. I honestly hope I don't ever suffer the loss
of all things in that sense. But I could stand to lose some
pride, how about you? I could stand to lose my selfishness. I could stand to lose my self-righteousness. I could stand to lose my pettiness,
my passion for stupid things and disregard for others and all
of the evils of my flesh. I could lose that. And in a sense
we do, we do lose those things in the sense that Paul did. In
what sense is that? I can't trust him anymore. I
can't trust him. Those sins that I call righteousness, those things that I call good
works that are really filthy rags in the sight of God, I can't
trust him anymore. How about you? The excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, drives from us all trusting in ourselves
that we are righteous. Now, will self-righteousness
pop up in our minds and hearts occasionally? Of course it will.
We still have this flesh. We still have evil pride and
selfishness in our hearts. But also by the grace of God, there's a new heart within us By Christ in us, we will count
all things but loss that we might win Christ. We will do that if
we know it. Simon Peter was self-righteous,
wouldn't you say? He said to the Lord Jesus, these
others, the Lord said, you're all gonna betray me. And then
he said, not me. These might, these others might,
but I will not. That's self-righteous. Not me. I could never do that. Have you
ever said that yourself? Somebody does something horrible,
man, I could never do that. Don't ever say that. Don't ever
say that. Don't ever think that. But I'll tell you this about
Simon. God showed him what he did. God showed him what he was. God took his hand off to the
extent that he realized what a coward he was and how little
he truly thought of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what
he did? He went out and wept bitterly. Not a sissy, Simon, not a sissy.
He was a hard man. And he cried like a baby because
God by this strange mercy that breaks
hearts, this strange mercy that reduces us to bitter tears. Simon learned when the Lord turned
and looked on him as he was betraying his Lord. He stood there having
denied his Lord. He taught him that his hope was
not in his own determination, Ability to be true to Christ,
but his hope was in Christ being true to him And we learned that
yet Can we count it all but loss Simon at his very best. I Now
you think about that. He was sincere. He said, I'll
die with you. I'll stand there and die with you. He was sincere
about that, but at his very best, he was a failure. Man is altogether vanity in his
what state? His best state. We've got to learn that. All
of our works, all of our self-righteous, all of our proud, all of our
religious heritage, everything about us that makes us proud,
that makes us think that we're gonna gain favor with God by
those things. God's got to knock it out of
us. He's got to knock it out of us. But as Simon was failing, as
he was falling, The Lord Jesus was bearing Simon Peter's sins
to the cross. And that's the spirit in which
Paul wrote here. All of the best of what I am
just makes me a loser. But Christ, having Christ, and not my own righteousness,
makes me a winner. Christ is the winner. And he
won for me. And notice here, thank God for the grace of God
in a sinner like us. Paul wasn't looking to win heaven.
He was looking to win Christ. Salvation is a person. Heaven is a person. The excellency of knowing Christ
was worth losing everything. We don't even have to think about
that much, much less experience it. Can we be honest with ourselves
about that? Can we be honest about it? Paul was that merchant man seeking
goodly pearls, and when he found the one pearl of great price.
He counted all that he had as dung that he might have that
pearl. The rich young ruler in Matthew
19 could not suffer the loss of all things. That's what the
Lord told him to do. Go sell everything you have and
give it to the poor and come follow me. He couldn't do it because he
had many possessions. And you will too until you know
who Christ is. Paul did suffer the loss of all
things. And the difference is grace. Grace through faith. Grace through
faith that God gives that we might believe on him, that we
might know who he is. Think about this, and we're gonna
read a passage about it. The very first thing that Paul
mentioned about his own righteousness in verse five is something that
we talked about in this study previously. The first thing he
mentions about his own righteousness is what? Circumcised. But then when he met the Lord
Jesus, he said in Galatians 5.2, behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Again, let me reiterate, what's
wrong with circumcision? What's wrong with that? Well,
look with me at Galatians 5, please. Galatians 5.1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Free from what? Free from what? And be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Free from the bondage of the
law. And here's to what extent he
means that. Free from the, what's the bondage
of the law? Our trust in it, our trust in
our keeping of it. That's what binds us and keeps
us from the Savior. Because look at it. Don't be
entangled with that yoke of bondage. Be free, stand fast in the freedom
wherewith Christ hath made us free. We didn't break free, Christ
freed us. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. That's the bondage of the law.
And what is he saying? Circumcision itself, the outward
damage is what damns you? No. Look at verse three. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he's
a debtor to do the whole law. If you start out on that footing
with God, then you better be perfect. inside and out, in thought,
word, and deed, and character, in spirit. Look at verse four. This clears it up a little bit. These are not separate thoughts.
This is the gospel. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. In other words, if you're circumcised
in order to be just before God, I walked an aisle and now I'm
just with God. I made a decision for Jesus and
now I'm just with God. I live the Christian life and
now I'm just, then Christ means nothing to you, not only from
your perspective, but from God's perspective. You forfeited grace, you've fallen
from grace. He is become of no effect unto
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from
grace. It doesn't mean you had grace and then you lost it. It
means you are not on a footing of grace before God anymore.
You're not at all, ever, you never have been, and you're not
going to be until all of your righteousness, all of your law
keeping becomes what it was to Paul, done. that you might win
Christ. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. Remember when I said
it's by grace through faith. The difference between the rich
young ruler and the apostle Paul was faith, which is given by
grace. You're falling from what? Grace. And so you have no faith. You're
not on a footing of grace before God. If you were, God would give
you faith in his son. We hope for righteousness by
faith. Where is that righteousness?
What is that righteousness? For in Jesus Christ. That's where
it is, that's where righteousness with God is. And in him, it doesn't
matter whether you've kept the law outwardly or not kept the
law outwardly, as far as you're standing before God is concerned.
Circumcision nor uncircumcision. Maybe you say, well, you know,
I'm gonna be sure and I'm gonna be proud, you know, I'm born
into a Christian family and that, you know, I'm a Christian. That doesn't profit anything
with God. That doesn't amount to any righteousness with God
whatsoever. What if you say, well, I was
born uncircumcised and I'm not going to be circumcised because
I know that's worthless. Well, that knowledge doesn't
help you either with God. Don't trust that either. Don't
trust your understanding of that. Trust Christ. In Christ Jesus,
the only thing that avails anything is believing on him. is looking
away from self and all that we are and have done and looking
to Him and what He did for me on Calvary. That's where righteousness
with God is, in Christ Jesus. Again, what was wrong with circumcision
in the sense that Paul used it here? It was a religious distinction
that the Jews trusted in. They trusted in it. Their identity
in their eyes and mind was defined by it. They thought they had
favor with God by that ordinance. When the gospel is that favor
with God is only by and in Christ our righteousness. Christ our
only righteousness, Christ our perfect righteousness. Winning comes by losing. Look at Matthew 10, 37. Matthew 10, 37. Those things that were wins in
my mind became losses that I might win Christ. Matthew 10, 37. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he
that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy
of me. What is the significance of taking
a cross? Look at verse 39. He that findeth
his life shall lose it. and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it. That's the significance of the
word cross. That's what crosses are for,
people lose their lives on them. And to take up your cross and
to follow Christ is to die to self and be made alive unto God. That's what baptism is. It shows
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that in Him, I died and was made alive in Christ. Notice one word in closing in
this passage, and there's so much more that we could say about
this. You know from my preaching that this is one of my favorite
passages of scripture, Philippians 3, where Paul describes when
Christ saved him. But notice, let me make this
statement. It is the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus. That's a good sentence, but it's
not the word of God. Here's the word of God. The excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Paul is speaking of the excellency
of the knowledge that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is my
Lord and my God. Remember what the Lord said to
that rich young ruler when that young man called him good master? The Lord said to him, there's
none good, but one. And that's God. It's whoever's
sitting on the throne. He's the only one that's good. He's saying to that man, if I'm
not God, then I'm not good. But if I am good, like you say,
then I'm God. If that rich young ruler understood
that and seen that and believed on him that he was the son of
God, how fast do you think he could have sold everything he
had and followed the Lord Jesus Christ? He would have called it in, wouldn't
he? If he'd had a phone, he'd have
called it in. My Lord, my Lord, good master. If he'd have known, his testimony
would be Paul's and not one of going away sorrowful. Remember what the Lord Jesus
said to the woman at the well? In John 4.10, Jesus answered
and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is
that saith to thee, give me to drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given thee
living water. Isn't that what John the Baptist
did? Think about it. He said to that woman, if you
knew who I am, You'd be asking me for water, and not this water,
but the water of life. Remember what John the Baptist
said when the Lord said, baptize me? He said, I have need to be
baptized of you. And sayest thou, baptize me? It's the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Lord, show us who it is that
speaketh with us this morning. Amen.