Let us turn once again to Philippians
chapter 3 and reading verses 10 and 11. In Philippians chapter
3 verses 10 and 11, that I may know him and 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. In Philippians 3 verses 10 and
11, last Lord's Day, we were considering here something of
Paul's desire. This whole portion is one in
which of course he speaks of his own experience not the only
occasion in the epistles where we find the apostle doing this
we have it also in such a passage as Romans 7 or Galatians chapters
1 and 2 but we have it again here in Philippians chapter 3
and he speaks previously of his pedigrees answering those who
were legalists who said it was necessary for Gentile believers
to submit to the Lord of Moses, to receive circumcision and then
be subject to all of that law. But he warns of these false teachers,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision,
illegal cuttings, not circumcision. He says we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. The true circumcision then is
not that that is in the letter. Remember the words that we have
at the end of Romans 2, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh,
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. The true
circumcision then is a spiritual circumcision. And Paul is answering then these
who said it was necessary to receive a literal circumcising
for the Gentiles as he were to become Jews and to be subject
to the law and as he answers them he speaks
of himself and his own pedigree which have no confidence in the
flesh he says though I might also have confidence in the flesh
and then he goes on to speak of what he was by his birth and
by his upbringing, by his education. He was circumcised on the eighth
day. He was of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. And touching the Lord, he was
a Pharisee. All with regards to these things,
he had so much to boast of. But what does he say? He counted
all these things but lost. for Christ. Yea, doubtless I
count all things but thus, for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord." The excellency of the knowledge of
Christ. And all else he says in comparison is but dung. His
one desire then is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said that such spiritual
desire is a true mark of the grace of God in the heart of
a man. We have to examine ourselves
with regards to our desires. Do we have spiritual hungerings
and thirstings? Are we those who long and yearn
after such a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? We see it
in the experience of the godly man. The psalmist speaks of his
desire Psalm 42, as the heart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for
God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? And then we see David again in
those familiar words of the 63rd Psalm. O God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul
thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power
and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Oh, he
has a thirst after God's great desire. It's the mark of the
godly man. Again in Job we have it, Or that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even to his seat. says Job. Is that how we come to a prayer
meeting? We want to find God, we want
to know that God is here and we want to come before his seat,
we want to order our cause there at the mercy seat, we want to
pour out our hearts in prayers unto our God. Are we those then
who can say that we have the desire of David or of Job or
of Paul as we see it here in this third chapter of Philippians? There is desire. But then we
observe that there is also difficulty in this work. In verse 11, if
by any means, he says, I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. If by any means. Now the if here is not the if
of doubt. It is the if of difficulty. The same as we have in 1 Peter
4 and verse 18, if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and the sinner appear? The righteous are scarcely saved,
that doesn't mean that there's doubt with regard to their salvation,
there is not. Their salvation is secured in
the Lord Jesus Christ, but oh, it's a way of difficulties, it's
a way of trial, it's a way of trouble. And so what do we have
here in verse 10? He expresses his desire in terms
of the fellowship of Christ's sufferings being made conformable
unto his death. And it's these words that I want
to draw your attention to more particularly this evening. The
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. Here we see something of the
believer's suffering. and the believers' sanctification. And I want us to follow that
simple twofold division as we look at these words. First, to
consider sanctification. We have to distinguish sanctification
and justification, as I'm sure you're very much aware. And he's
spoken previously here of the great doctrine of justification,
and justification by faith. Look at verse 9. his desire is
to be found in Christ he says 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's by faith that is
justification and to justify it's a judicial term we're to
think in terms of the court of law and we're to think of the
prisoner who stands accused before the law of God and because he
has transgressed that law he is worthy of condemnation and
he is to be pronounced by the judge as guilty but the justified
sinner you see is not pronounced as guilty but he is pronounced
as righteous and he is righteous not because of anything in himself
His righteousness is altogether outside of himself. It's the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that righteousness
is imputed to him. It's reckoned to his account.
And so though in his own person he is guilty, he is worthy of
condemnation, in the court of law he is pronounced not only
an innocent man, free from guilt, but more than that he is also
pronounced as righteous because Christ was made under the law
for him and took his law place and Christ bore that punishment
that was due to him therefore his guilt is gone Christ was
punished in his place in his room in his stead but Christ
also under the law fulfilled all righteousness he obeyed the
commandments he lived a righteous life and that Life of Christ
is reckoned to his account, so he's not only cleared of guilt
by the blood of Christ that washes away his sins, but he's also
accounted righteous. And this is Paul, you see. As
a Pharisee, he thought he was a righteous man, he thought he
kept the law. Look at what he says back in
verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. He really thought he was blameless,
sinless, because he kept the commandment, but he didn't understand
the commandment. As he acknowledges in Romans
7, he says the law is spiritual, and I am carnal, sold on the
sin. He might keep the letter of the
law outwardly, but the law has to do with more than the outward
conduct, it has to do with the heart. He did not of himself
accomplish any righteousness. And so he dismisses it now as
dung. And his one desire is to be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Now that's justification. But
we're concerned here with sanctification. And there's a difference between
these two. Now the basic meaning of the word sanctify is to set
apart, to set a thing apart from secular use to holy use. And God, in his sovereignty of
course, has set apart a people to himself. We read in Jude,
the opening verse of Jude, short epistle, of those who were sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father has sanctified the
people, the Father has set them apart and He did that in the
decree of election, He chose them, set them apart to Himself
and they are preserved in the Lord Jesus Christ and they are
called by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit. That's the
basic meaning then of the words to sanctify, to set apart. But
it also has this idea of being conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Set apart, yes, but also conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian is to be
a follower of the Lord Jesus. In other words, he is to walk
in the path of obedience to Christ's precepts. And Paul, again writing
to the Corinthians, says, Be ye followers of me, even as I
am of Christ. Follow me. Follow Christ. Only follow me as far as I follow
Christ. And again, look here in verse
17, he says, Brethren, be followers together of me. and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. For many walk, of
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame. Who
mind earthly things? For our conversation, our manner
of living, he says, is in heaven, from which we look for the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. they are to be following then
in the path of obedience to Christ and that to avoid those who are
the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who walk contrary
to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is to be
a conforming to Christ's image and so we have it Here in verse
10, he says, being made conformable, being made conformable unto his
death, that is, unto the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the Puritan Richard Sibbes makes this interesting observation,
he says, whosoever brags of justification, he must show it by his sanctification. If with those who desire to be
found in Christ and accounted righteous because his righteousness
is imputed to us. It will be seen that we are those
who are true believers in Christ as we desire also to know what
it is to be sanctified, to be set apart from unholy ways and
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. as we have at the end of that
10th verse, made, being made, conformable unto his death. That is the Christian's calling.
Now it's interesting, is it not, that the Lord Jesus Christ in
a sense is conformed to the image of his people. In Romans chapter
8 and verse 3 We read that God sent his own son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
in that sense in the same form as the people that he came to
save. Now true, he was without sin. He was preserved free from
every taint of original sin in the virgin birth. It was that
holy thing that was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Holy Ghost. The human nature was a sinless
human nature. And yet, we're told now that
God sends his son in the likeness of sinful flesh. It made him
to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? He knew no sin
and yet he was made in the same form as his people because he
was to suffer and die as their substitute. That is part of Christ's
union with his people. He comes where they are, he sits
where they are, he identifies with them. And so believers in
union with the Lord Jesus Christ are those who desire to express
their true union with Him, not in the same way as He was made
sin. He came to be made sin for them,
but their union is different. They come as those who would
die for sin. He died for their sin. when he was identified with them.
But in their union, it's not that they're dying for their
own sins, but they desire to die to sin. And that is very
much part and parcel of their sanctification. They are to die
to sin, just as Christ died for their sins. And we see it, do
we not, quite clearly in that portion that we read at the opening
of Romans chapter 6. And there at verse 6 he says,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. The believer
is to die to sin. Again verse 11, likewise reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. dead unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. We could have read a part of
Romans chapter 8 because we see similar truths being declared
in that chapter. In Romans chapter 8 verse 12
he says therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh
to live after the flesh for if you live after the flesh you
shall die but if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body you shall live the believer is to mortify put to
death the deeds of the body he does it not by himself he does
it through the spirit of God it's the same thing as we have
in chapter 6 dying to see putting the deeds of the flesh, to the
sword as it were, killing them, dying to them. This is being
made conformable unto his death. Christ identifies with his people. He is made for them in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He dies for their sins. That's
part and parcel of his union with them. And their union to
him is expressed in this, that they are those who have this
desire to die. to sin. They go to sin. And that, I say, is a relevant
part of their being sanctified, conforming to the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, of course, we need to be
clear that when the deeds of the body are mortified, put to
death, we're not to think that that means that the old nature by degrees, becomes a better
nature, becomes a more holy nature. We're not saying that at all.
The old nature is always the old nature. The old nature never
changes. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, says Christ. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. And that's in John chapter 3
where he speaks of the necessity of the new birth. In the new
birth the person who experiences that great change, which we call
regeneration, becomes a partaker of a new nature, a partaker of
the divine nature. There's still the old nature,
which is born of the flesh, but now there's that that is born
of the spirit. And now these two are contrary,
you see. As Paul says in Galatians 5,
17, The flesh losteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, and ye cannot
do the thing that ye would. Or the believer wants to die
to sin. But the old nature is ever there, it's always the same.
Even though he mortified the deeds of the body by the ministry
of the Spirit, that old nature doesn't become any better, doesn't
grow any holier. The believer's soul in that sense
you see is like a battlefield. We have it in the Song of Solomon,
what you see in the Shulamites, as it were the company of two
armies. The Shulamite, that is the bride, and that is Christ's
Church. And what you see in the Church,
in individual believers in the Church, two armies, a conflict. The field of battle, that's the
soul of the child of God. Now remember what we've said
with regards to the union between Christ and the Church. Christ
comes where his people are, he is made in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, and he dies and suffers for their sins. and
they are united to Christ and there is a similarity here they
don't die for their sins Christ was born the punishment of their
sins but in their sanctification they do have the desire to die
to see they want to die to see they want to mortify the deeds
of the body they want to be conformed to the image of Christ's death
now in dying for sins what did the Lord Jesus experience He
did not know great anguish and travail in his soul. The hymn writer says the pangs of
his body were great, the greater the pangs of his mind. How the
Lord Jesus knew what it was there upon the cross when he was made
sin. He was bearing not just the cruelty of men and the mockings
of men he was bearing the wrath of God he was being punished
by God as the substitute and he knew great travail in his
soul as he died for sins and so the believer too as he dies
to sin he will know something of travail in his sanctification
cannot be avoided. It's a painful exercise, is it
not? Mortification, putting to death
the deeds of the body. And how Paul certainly knew these
things. And he makes that so very plain,
of course, in that seventh chapter of Romans. How often we should
be thankful to God that there's such a chapter in the Word of
God as that of Romans chapter 7. Look at what Paul says there
at verse 14. He says, we know that the Lord
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which
I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. This is a man who has such desires,
such longings to be, to win Christ, to be found in Christ. And yet,
how he is so much aware of his old nature. and the sins of his
old nature. O wretched man that I am, he
cries out, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
I myself serve the Lord of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. How he is learning all the time
his complete, his utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is dependent upon Christ for everything, is he not? Remember
what he says, that great verse in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. For this is what he is speaking
of here, you see. to be conformed to Christ's death. He wants to know what it is to
die, to die to self, to die to sins, to die to his own nature.
And he can only do it as he increasingly learns his dependence upon another,
even upon the Lord Jesus Christ. says some remarkable things in
the course of his epistles. Peter speaks of things hard to
be understood. There are certain statements
that we find quite remarkable. He speaks, does he not, one place
of filling up the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. the sufferings for Christ, as
it were, and for his church. We have it, I think, in the Colossians epistle. There
in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 24, "...who
now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which
is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." for his
body's sake, which is the church." What a remarkable statement it
is. To fill up that which is behind
the afflictions of Christ. Now he's not suggesting for a
moment that there was some inadequacy in the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We know that that cannot be the
case. because, as he says to the Hebrews, Christ by one offering
has perfected forever them that are sanctified. But what he is
speaking of, you see, is his own experience. His own experience
as he exercises his ministry and as he's at one with a pattern
to them who should hereafter believe. He is the pattern believer, as
we've said so many times. And that is the case here in
this chapter. He's answering those who were
legalists, as we said at the beginning. That's the general
context of this third chapter of Philippians. It begins, Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, To write the same things to you,
to me indeed is not grievous, but to you it is safe. He's concerned
about them being ensnared by these legalists, who are preaching
the necessity of circumcision and coming under the law, marrying
together Christ and Moses, saying that salvation is not altogether
of grace, but it's also of works, that there's something for the
believer to do. It's interesting, he opens with that short sentence,
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. All of salvation
is there, in the Lord, and not in anything that they can do
of themselves. How he confounds these legalists
and the, as we've said, He looks to himself, he looks to his own
life, his own experience, what he was as a pharisee, and yet
what he was made by the grace of God, a justified sinner. And
that justification demonstrated by his desire to be a sanctified
sinner, to conform to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ even
to conform to his death. He looks to Christ as his man
for everything. As he says at the end of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 that no flesh should glory in his presence but of
him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according
as it is written He that glory hath let him glory in the Lord.
The believer's justification is in Christ, the believer's
sanctification is also in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I said
here we have these two things, sanctification, yes, but he also
emphasizes this aspect of sufferings. The fellowship of his sufferings,
he says, being made conformable unto his death. Fellowship with Christ in suffering. Christ is the head, of course.
The head of the body, the church. And as the head suffers, so too
does the body suffer. A passage that brings out the
idea of the church as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is that
that we find in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and there in verses
12 through 27 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12 he says as the body
is one and as many members and all the members of that one body
being many are one body so also is Christ then he speaks of the
different members of the body verse 27 now ye are the body
of Christ he says and members in particular and as Christ is
the head and the head is united to the bodily so as the head
suffers the body also suffers when Paul Or as he was then,
Saul of Tarsus was confronted at the gates of Damascus, and
the Lord apprehended him. This is what he speaks of here,
you see, he speaks of being apprehended. In verses 12 and 13 of this chapter,
he speaks of being apprehended, he was arrested by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ, as he were, laid a hand
upon him, there at the gate of Damascus. And what did the Lord
say? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. The Lord Jesus then had done
with his sufferings. The Lord Jesus then was risen
and ascended on high, he was at the Father's right hand and
yet he says to that man, I am Jesus who thou persecutes. How did Saul of Tarsus persecute
the Lord Jesus Christ? He was breathing out threatenings
and slaughter to Christ's body, to the church. You see there
is a union, there is a union. In all their affliction, He was
afflicted, says Isaiah, or that blessed union between Christ
and his church. When the church suffers, Christ
suffers. As individual believers, you
see, we're not alone in our sufferings, in our sorrows, our sadnesses,
our trials and troubles and tribulations. We have that grace-tight priest
who is touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. He suffers
when his people suffer. But also, of course, the reverse
of that must also be true. As Christ identifies with his
people in their sufferings, so they, in their own sufferings,
are identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a two-way
union. They also feel for Him. Romans 8.17, they are joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him. Did Christ,
my Lord, suffer? And shall I repine, asks John
Newton. And does he not remind these
Philippians at the end of the first chapter, unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but
also to suffer for his sake. having the same conflict which
he saw in me and now here to be in me. Paul knew what it was,
you see, to have that conflict, to suffer for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what is he saying here to
the Philippians? All that faith, that saving faith that they had,
where did it come from? It is given in the behalf of
Christ, he says, to believe on Him. We have to look unto Jesus
who is the author and finisher of our faith. You want faith?
You say to me tonight, oh I want faith, I wish I had real faith,
saving faith, justifying faith. I wish I had that faith that
Paul is speaking of here in verse 9. Or to be justified through the
faith of Christ, to know that righteousness which is of God
by faith. You say to me I want faith, ask
Christ. He gives faith. He is the author
of faith. He is the finisher of faith.
But you see how sufferings go hand in hand with the faith.
And to you it is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe
on him but also to suffer for his sake. Where there is faith there is
the trying of faith and God joins those two things together. And now Paul certainly knew that. He speaks of my bonds. He was in prison. This is one
of the prison epistles. He was confined there in Rome. He was not a free man anymore. Maybe under some sort of house
arrest. There was a measure of liberty but he was not free to
come and go. He says then here in verse 7 in
chapter 1 it is made for me to think this of you all because
I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and
in the defense and confirmation of the gospel ye all are partakers
of my grace and then again he speaks of those bonds in verse
13 my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace in Caesar's
palace and in all other places. How he was willing this man to
suffer in the course of his ministry as he sought to exercise that
gift that he had received from the Lord Jesus Christ to be an
apostle and to be the one who was to preach this gospel to
the Gentiles when he has to deal with the situation at Corinth
where the false apostles, the false teachers had come in and
stolen the hearts of the people, turned them against him. See
how he defends himself there in chapter 11 of 2nd Corinthians
and verse 23 following, he says, Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool, I am more. in labours more abundant, in
stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often
so on, and he lists all that he has to endure as he seeks
to fulfil his ministry. Verse 28 he said, Beside those
things that are without that which cometh upon me daily, the
care of all the churches, Oh, this man, you see, he knew what
it was then to enter in some measure into the
sufferings of Christ, the fellowship, the fellowship of his sufferings,
he says. And I say that that is the lot
of all who are true believers, they'll know something of sufferings
for the sake of Christ. He says, does the Lord, if any
man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me. There is a cross to be borne
if we are those who are the true followers of Christ, if we are
those who really want to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And these things are left here
on record, are they not, for us, for our instruction. that
we might be established, that we might know the same longings
and yearnings, the same desires as this Apostle Paul. Always desire, you see, to know
the Lord Jesus Christ, the excellency, you see, the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may know Him and
the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead." May the Lord bless
to us his words. Now let us, before we turn to
prayer, we'll sing the hymn 282 and the tune is Buckland 400
and 50 in 282 it is my happiness below not to live without the
cross but the Saviour's power to know sanctifying every loss
282 It is my happiness below Not
to live without the cross But the Saviour's power to know Sanctifying
death Trials must and will be full
But with humble faith to see Love inscribed upon them all
This is happiness to me Friars make the promise sweet
Friars give new life to bread Friars bring me to his feet Lay
me low and keep me there I mean no trials here, no chastisement
by the way. Might I not with reason fear
I should be accost away? May escape the rod Sunk in earthly
vain delight But the true child of God Must not, would not, if
he might