Let us turn to God's Word again
and directing you for a little while this evening to words that
we find in Philippians. We read in 1 Corinthians but
turning now to Paul's letter to the Philippians in chapter
3 and I'll read verses 10 and 11. Philippians 3 verses 10 and
11. Paul declares that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings
be made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And I want us to
consider something of Paul's desire as we have it expressed
in these familiar words, this passage in the third chapter
of the letter to the Philippians Paul's desire then you might be aware that our late
friend Sidney Norton many years ago when he was the pastor at
Squitchy Lane there in Somertown in Oxford he did issue a little
magazine called D.E.P. I think it was before he set
up the Banner of Truth magazine with Ian Murray. He was issuing
this little magazine D.E.P. Doctrine, Experience and Practice. That's what the letters stood
for. Doctrine, Experience and Practice. And those are the three vital
parts of all real theology. and I want us to consider this
desire as Paul is expressing it in the words that we've just
read as a text I want us to consider this from those three perspectives
and so first of all tonight to look at this verse doctrinally
as it were the doctrine that stands forth so prominently in
this verse and is of course the doctrine of the resurrection,
that I may know him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ whom he
has been speaking of previously, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, And then again in the 11th verse he says,
if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead. The principle doctrine then that
we have in these two verses is that of the resurrection. But there are other truths associated
with that. And I trust we will see something
of that as we look at this verse for a little while. Not only
tonight, but if the Lord willing, we'll come back to it the two
following Thursday evenings. Now, Paul is speaking very much of
the power of the resurrection. We know also in Scripture there
is what is said to be the power of darkness. When they come to
arrest the Lord Jesus Christ there in the Garden of Gethsemane,
those who were the chief priests and the elders, how the Lord
addresses them and says, but this is your time and the power
of darkness, evil and sin, the ungodly. how they love the darkness. Again, we have those words in
the third chapter of John, this is the condemnation that light
is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. How the darkness and the power
of the darkness is associated with all that is against God
and contrary to the to the word of God and the ways of God. Again,
we read in Ephesians, of the unfruitful works of darkness. And it's interesting, isn't it,
when we read of the way in which the Lord Jesus exposes the betrayer,
when he exposes Judas Iscariot there in the upper room. He gives
him the sob, you see. And that's how he identifies
the one who's going to betray him. And we're told in John 13,
30, Judas, having received the sop, went immediately out, and
it was dark. And it was dark it was night
that's what it literally says but it was the the darkness that's
associated with the night it's simply a fact it was the evening
of the day it was night time as we meet now at night time
but thankfully we we have artificial light we have electric light
so we're not all together in in the dark but there is some
spiritual significance surely in what is added there in that
verse in John 13, having received the sob, Judas went immediately
out, and it was night, was the time of darkness. And here is
God fulfilling His purpose in the dark. The night and the day
are the same to Him. God is always fulfilling His
purpose. when the Lord prays in His high
priestly prayer. Remember how He speaks of how
He had kept those that the Father had given to Him, those who were
His disciples, those who were the apostles, He had kept them
except the betrayer, the son of perdition. that the scripture might be fulfilled. It was all in fulfillment of
the purpose of God, even what was associated with the darkness. Not that God is the author of
sin, of course that is not the case, but God is sovereign. Although
He's not the author of sin, God is light, we know that. God is
light, and in Him is no darkness, at all. And when we read of the
Lord Jesus in those remarkable words that open up the gospel
according to St. John, where we see him as the
Word which was God. In him was light, and the light
was the life of men. And the light shined in the darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not, says John. Darkness comprehended
it not, does not overtake the light, is not able to seize the
light. Lord Jesus is that one who comes
and declares himself I am the light of the world he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life
and so we do have that that's called the power of darkness
but the power of the light overcomes it all and the purpose of God
overcomes it all And when we think of the words of the Lord
Jesus in relation to what was before him, the death that he
must die, his obedience to that death, the death of the cross.
Therefore doth my Father love me, he says, because I lay down
my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me, I lay it down of myself. I have power. to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father." Now, we have the word power there twice with regards
to the Lord and His voluntary sacrifice. No man takes it. He
has power. But the word is literally authority.
I have authority to lay it down. I have authority having given
his life he has authority to take it again to raise himself
as it were from the dead this commandment have I received of
my father he has authority because he's doing the commandments that
the father had given him and again those words that the
Lord speaks in the garden this is your hour and the power of darkness. But there it's a
different word, it's not the same word, it's a word that has
the idea of strength and might. And that's the word that we have
here really, in the text. It's not the word that has the
basic idea of authority. that I may know Him and the power,
it's the might, the strength of His resurrection that is being
spoken of. And how important it is that
we recognize that when we consider the rising again of the Lord
Jesus. What a mighty miracle is that
resurrection because of what was accomplished by that death.
It was a death like unto no other death. it was that that was visited
on the son of God in his human nature and there of course it
is a judicial death he's not just suffering at the hands of
men yes there's been a mockery of a trial there is that judicial
aspect to it but it's it's divine wrath that is being poured out
upon his soul as he bears the punishment of the sins of all
those that were given to him in the eternal covenant It is
the greatest of miracles, surely, the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that is the doctrine, I say,
that really stands before us in these words of the text. What does he say? That I may
know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship
of His sufferings, be He made conformable unto His death, if
by any means I might attain onto the resurrection of the dead.
And I want tonight to just consider then this great doctrine of the
resurrection and to consider two points with regards to this
truth. First of all, we see that here
we have the vindication of the Lord Jesus Christ in that work
that he has accomplished, the vindication of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and then in the second place, I want to say something
with regards to the Christian's knowledge of and union with the
Lord Jesus Christ in terms of this doctrine. First of all,
the vindication of Christ, and he is vindicated of course, both
in terms of who he is, his person, and also in the work that he
has just accomplished. He's vindicated in his person.
And Paul makes that so clear when in the opening words of
the epistle to the Romans he makes reference to the gospel
that he preached. It's interesting because In that
chapter that we were reading, 1 Corinthians 15, we see him
defining the Gospel, as we read those opening verses.
It's a definition of the Gospel, but we have that other definition
of the Gospel also in the opening words of the epistle to the Romans. He speaks of himself as a servant
of Christ, he's calling to be an apostle, and he's been separated
unto the Gospel, And it's that gospel that God had promised
in the Old Testament Scriptures. And then he tells us what this
gospel is. It concerns God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And then
we have this tremendous statement declared. The margin says the
Greek is literally determined, marked out to be the Son of God
with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. And there again the word power,
it's not that word that literally means authority, it has the idea
of strength and force, is declared to be the Son of God by a mighty
demonstration of God's great strength in the resurrection
from the dead. And how This doctrine of the
resurrection is so paramount when we come to the Acts of the
Apostles. Here is the situation where one of the twelve has fallen,
Judas, he's denied the Lord, betrayed
his master, he's fallen from his office, He is completely
apostate. He commits suicide. But then they have to find one
to replace him. And in the opening chapter of
the Acts, when we come to the end of that chapter, we see how
they decide to make choice by drawing lots. And the lot falls
upon Matthias. The lot is cast into the lap.
The whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. It's God's sovereign
choice that the light falls on this man, Matthias. And what
are they choosing this man to be? To be a witness with us of
his resurrection. One must be chosen, says Peter
in Acts 1.22, to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And when When Peter preaches
after the glorious descent of the Spirit, how he preaches very
much the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the language
that we have there in chapter 2 at verse 23. He says, Him being delivered,
that is Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken Him by wicked hands and
crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up having loosed
the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
beholden of it. He has broken the bounds of death. And then he says at verse 32
this, Jesus, hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. This is what these apostles are,
they bear continual witness to his resurrection. And then again,
as with Peter, so also with Paul, when we read in Acts 17 of his
preaching there at Athens. And he speaks, doesn't he, at
the end of that sermon, in Acts 17 verse 31, he says, that God has appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him up from the dead. This is
the assurance that God has given to all men there will be a day
of reckoning, a day of judgment. And God has raised up his Son,
the one to whom he has committed all judgment. And it seems that
these men make such an emphasis upon the resurrection that those
philosophers there at Athens, they speak in the 18th verse
concerning Paul's preaching, what will this babbler say? And some say, he seemeth to be
a set of forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. It's interesting, he doesn't
say he preached unto them as strange gods in preaching Jesus,
but it's gods in the plural. It's almost as if he so emphasizes
the truth of the resurrection that Jesus is a God in their
eyes and the resurrection is a God. There's such an emphasis. It is a vindication of the Lord
Jesus. who He is. He is God. He is the
eternal Son of the eternal Father, and how He is declared, how He
is marked out as the Son of God by the resurrection, how God
owns and acknowledges Him in raising Him from the dead. But
it's not just that the resurrection vindicates Christ in His person
as God-man, but the resurrection is also a vindication of the
work that He had accomplished. the person of Christ but also
the work of the Lord Jesus he rose as a justified person that
is part of the great gospel mystery without controversy great is
the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified
in the spirit in his incarnation he is manifest in the flesh In
His resurrection, He is justified in the Spirit. How the Father is owning that
work, that obedience that He has rendered, the obedience of
His life, but also the obedience of His death, because He is obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And do we not see
these things being referred to in prophecy? Isaiah 50 and verses
7 and 8 clearly speaks of the Lord Jesus. We know that the
prophet has much to say concerning the promised Messiah, and he
is speaking of Christ there in those two verses in chapter 50.
How his face was set like a flint. And we know that when his time
was come, How He set His face to go to
Jerusalem. His face was set, He would go
to Jerusalem. But what do we read in Isaiah
50 and verse 8? The words of the Lord Jesus,
He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me. The
Father has justified Him. He was delivered for our offenses,
and He was raised again for our justification, it says. and so
those who are in him, those who are united to him all their justification is in
him all their righteousness is in him and this is what Paul
is saying in this tremendous passage how he expresses really
his desire back in verse 9 he wants to be found in him he
says not having mine own righteousness which is of the law that that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection." And so here we have this great doctrine of the
resurrection, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the significance of it, that He is here demonstrated to be who He really is. He is the Son
of God, but He is the Son of God manifest in the flesh. He
is the God-Man, His person, and His work, that work that He has
accomplished here upon the earth. But turning in the second place,
to the Christians' knowledge of and union with this Lord Jesus
Christ, And this is what Paul desires,
he wants such a knowledge that I may know him, he says. The Lord says, doesn't he, in
his prayer, the high priestly prayer, this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. And he's speaking of that same
knowledge as the apostle in the passage. back in verse 8 he speaks of
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord and all
that he was and all that he had as an Israelite and there he's spoken of that
in the previous verses you see how he was circumcised on the
eighth day, he was of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin,
he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the Lord, he was a Pharisee,
he had great zeal for the religion of the Jews, he was a persecutor
of this troublous sect of the Christians. Oh, he reckoned that
with regards to the Lord of God, he was blameless, he was righteous
in himself. and then he's brought to see
that all this is nothing but the dross and dung he counted
it all loss for Christ 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 dung and you know what dung is it's that what you
get on you feet when you put them in the wrong place when
dogs have been around and you can't get them off your feet
sometimes that's what he counted all those privileges as they
were as dung that I may win Christ and be found in him oh he wants
this knowledge and what is this this excellence of knowledge
it's surpassing it's superior and it's not just a matter of
of the mind and the intellect. It's not just a doctrinal knowledge,
it's something far greater than that. When he has to speak against
his opponents, those who had entered amongst the Corinthians,
and so many of the Corinthians have been taken in by the false
teachers, what does he say? He will not know the speech of
those who were puffed up, but the power, not the speech, but
the power. How that Gospel had come to him.
How it had pleased God to reveal His Son in him. How He had preached
that Gospel to others, and when He writes to the Thessalonians,
He tells them, Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. All this knowledge that he had
wasn't something he'd attained by his own efforts. It wasn't
that he'd applied his own mind, and he was doubtless a man with
a great mind, and he had a wonderful education, it sat at the feet
of Gamaliel. But all his privilege, all his
learning could never bring him to such a knowledge as this.
The natural man-receivers, not the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. All Paul was aware of that. We
think of the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel. No man knoweth
the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. and
the word whom the Son will as the force of whom the Son willeth
it's the stronger of the two verbs to will it's a sovereignty
of the will of God and we see it don't we with regards
to another of the apostles Peter's experience when he confesses
thou art the Christ the Son of the living God blessed art thou
Simon by Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. This is the knowledge then that
he really desires that I may know him. How can he know him? It's the power of his resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead." What is it really?
Well, it's being brought to the realization, the experience we
might say, of what it is to be united to the Lord Jesus. It's
union. It's union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the knowledge that he
is really speaking of. That he and Christ are one. Now, one of the Puritans, Richard
Sibbes, with regards to that union, speaks of three degrees. There is, of course, we know,
an eternal union between Christ and his people, Christ and his
Church. And we have it there in the opening
chapter of Ephesians. concerning God's eternal purpose,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, according as he hath elected us in the Lord Jesus
Christ from all eternity. That's what he is saying there.
There is an eternal union because in the eternal covenant there
were a people who were given to the Son by the Father. the election, the election of
Christ. There is then an eternal union. But then Sibbes, the Puritan,
says there's also, in a sense, an historical union. The first Adam is the head of
the human race. But the last Adam, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, is the head of the election of grace. And we know when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. The first man is of the earth,
earthly. The second man is the Lord, from
heaven. In that sense, there are these
two men. There's the first man, Adam,
and there's the Lord whom God sends forth in the fullness of
the time. And Christ comes as that one
who is the head and the church is his body. We
see that quite clearly at the end of Ephesians 2, and then
of course later in chapter 5, when the apostle is dealing with
the whole matter of relative duties, he speaks of
husbands and wives, and when he speaks of the husband in chapter
5 of Ephesians, he makes it quite clear that as the husband is
the head of the wife, so Christ is the head of the church. You
know the passage there in Ephesians Ephesians chapter 5. Here we see then something of
the wonder of that union between Christ and
his church which is his body. By nature we're all in Adam,
we're all descended from Adam. And Adam stands at the head of
the race, a covenant head in that sense. as by one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners, says
Paul. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Or there are these two men, the first man and the second man,
the first Adam and the last Adam. And we read those verses there
in 1 Corinthians 15 concerning the significance of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If the dead rise not,
then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, ye are dead in your sins. Such is the union,
you see. Christ's resurrection is our
resurrection, and is He not spoken of later there? We didn't read
the passage, but later In verse 47, the last Adam, we're told,
was made a quickening spirit. The last Adam is that quickening
spirit. He's that one who comes, of course,
to preach, and he preaches the necessity of the new birth. And now we see the union between
Christ and His resurrection, and believers and their regeneration,
and they're coming to faith, in terms of the same power that
was there when Christ rose again, that is now put forth in the
soul of the sinner. Those verses, and we've referred
to them many a time in Ephesians 1, 19 and 20, the exceeding greatness
of his power to us would you 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. And the language, the language
of the Apostle, how he so emphasizes the wonder of it. It's not just
power, it's not just great power, it's the exceeding greatness
of his power to Oswald. And it's according to the working,
it's after the same manner of that that we see in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, because I live,
ye shall live also. I am the resurrection of the
life. Whosoever believeth in me shall never die. Or do we
believe that? That the Lord's resurrection
is our resurrection. Thy dead men shall live, he says.
together with my dead body shall they arise." There is then this
eternal union which is accomplished in the
fullness of the time by the coming of Christ but then how it has
to be experienced becomes experimental in the souls of those who are
born again, born from above. And what then what? well there's
that blessed expectation that's not the end of the matter
there's the expectation of glory and did we not read of that there in that 15th chapter in 1st Corinthians now is Christ risen from the
dead and become the first fruits of them that slept For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits. Afterward they that are Christ's
at his coming." There is to be a general resurrection. And Christ's
resurrection is the guarantee of that. Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And isn't this what Paul
is expressing here, his great desire? If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Death has lost its sting. Lord,
yet where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We know that there are those
who all their lifetime are fearful. All their lifetime they're afraid
of dying. But what does the Apostle say,
writing there in Hebrews 2 and verse 14, For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. This is the power of the resurrection
then of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or we can say to that repentant
thief upon the cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. It is absent from the body and
it's present with the Lord. The Lord is heard in all his
prayers. And that remarkable prayer in John 17, Father, I
will, he says. And in many ways there, we might
say he's addressing God as his equal. It's that stronger word
again, that stronger verb, to will. He can speak to the Father
as one who's equal to the Father. Father, I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am why does he wish to have them
there that they may see my glory he is that one ultimately is
to be glorified in the complete salvation of all his people all
those who are united to him Christ is risen and Christ is risen
indeed and that's our comfort and even now as we come together
to pray to him we know that he ever lives to make intercession
for all that come to God by him. May the Lord help us in that
by his grace we might live up to such privileges as we possess
in the resurrected Savior. May the Lord bless the Word.
We'll come back to it, if He will, next week, and consider
more particularly the experience, the doctrine. I say the experience,
and then finally we'll look at the practice. The Lord bless
His Word. Let us, before we pray, Sing our second praise, it's
the hymn 488, the tune Church Triumphant, 868. Uprising from the darksome tomb,
see the victorious Jesus come. The almighty prisoner quits the
prison, and angels tell the Lord is risen. 488, tune 868.