Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles back to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. The title of my message comes from
verse 11. The first four words of verse
11 if by any means, if by any means. This phrase is one of utmost
importance. It is a phrase that I struggle
to find another phrase that would rank stronger than this. The
song that was just sang started with, more than life to me. This
phrase is even stronger than that. I believe two things about
this phrase. First, it says, if there is any
way possible, any chance for me to be saved, I want it. I'll take it and whatever comes
with it. Beggars can't be choosers. Once
we find out there is only one way, we want it even more. Teach me thy way, O Lord. And
secondly, if by any means says to me, nothing is more important,
there isn't anything I want more. There isn't anything I wouldn't
give or anything I wouldn't do to attain it. if by any means
puts an unrivaled importance on attaining whatever it is.
So let me say these two things again in a shorter way. If by
any means says, if I can have this one thing, I'll take whatever
comes with it. Whatever byproduct, whatever
happens, if I can have this one thing, I'll take it. And it also
says, if I can have this one thing, I'll give up anything
that I have and everything that I have for this one thing. Let
me try to give an illustration to explain what I mean by this. So often, I'm very guilty of
hearing something that someone says is important. and I give
it lip service and hear it, and instead of admitting I don't
get it, or admitting that it hasn't really indented my thoughts,
that I haven't really thought about it, I just say, yeah, I
got it. But I want us to really understand what this phrase means.
So I'm going to give an illustration that was something that was the
strongest thing I could think of, earthly speaking, that we
could all maybe enter into understanding. is uncomfortable to say, I'm
gonna try to get through it. I have a precious little one-year-old
girl in the nursery. And if I found out tomorrow that
she was sick and dying, by the grace of God, I would say the
phrase, if by any means. I would ask everyone I know for
help. I would track down any doctor
who had any idea what to do. I would read everything I could
find on the subject, all of this while praying to the Lord without
ceasing. And if I found a way that she
might be saved, I would grab onto it so tight. I would go
to whomever or wherever I had to go that I would find hope.
And I would also, Lord willing, give up everything to attain
life for her. Everything is on the table. I
would give up my possessions. I would give up my health. Lord
willing, I'd be willing to give up my dignity for her. And if necessary, Lord willing,
I'd give up my life. I'd give up anything. With all
of that said, You and I are in a worse situation than that.
We aren't dying, we're already dead. We've been spiritually
dead since the fall of man, since Adam ate the fruit. And if you
know that you're dead in sins, doesn't it make sense that you
would search for a way to be saved? I said I would do anything
for a way that might, that word might, save my daughter, even
just a slim chance. Because I know that I can't save
her. I don't have any ability to even
help. Just like I know that I can't save myself. I have no ability
to save myself eternally. Our situation is much worse than
the illustration I gave but I have great news for someone who is
spiritually dead. While our earthly remedies are
barely even reliable, those who attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, verse 11 there says, if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead, those who attain unto that,
which is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is 100% sure. It's not of this world, and therefore
doesn't have the pitfalls, the doubts, and the failures of this
world. There's no partial remedy. When
someone is sick, there might be something that can save them.
Maybe there's a chance, or we can do this, we can't do that.
But a child of God is made whole, complete. There are no mistakes
with our Lord, such as the phrase we hear so often is, we thought
we had healed them. We thought we fixed it. And also
being cured doesn't mean just this time, and it may come back. The Lord Jesus Christ is holy,
and his sacrifice is perfect. He is the only way of salvation,
and if you want life, spiritual life, by any means, we must seek
the Lord. Before we look at what preceded
this verse 11, let me apply this, if by any means, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I said two things about that
phrase. The first, if there was a way
to be saved, I'd take it and everything that came with it.
There was only one possible way that a sinner could be saved
and our Lord Jesus Christ did it and took every single thing
that came with it. Everything that we deserved and
everything we should have gotten, he took it all just to save us. And secondly, there is nothing
more important than that way which gives salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ was the only person who was willing, the only person
who was able to save us, and there was nothing that could
stop him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only person that can save a sinner, the only way to salvation. He
came to this earth and was made flesh with one purpose, to save
the children of God. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which is lost. He knew what he had to
do. He knew that he would be mocked.
He would be ridiculed. He knew that he would be beaten.
He would be tortured and he would be killed. But that was the only
way you or I could be saved. And to save us, he endured the
worst means possible. That if by any means to save
his children, he endured the worst possible means to do it.
And though man constantly tried to interfere and Satan would
tempt him, there was never a waiver on the job at hand. From when
our Lord was a child and he said, I must be about my father's business.
To when he said, my time is at hand. Then on the cross he cried
out, it is finished. And as he bowed his head and
gave up the ghost, three days later he arose from the grave
and ascended on high where he sits today on the throne in glory. And because it was so important
to Him, we can rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. We
are so thankful He did all of that to save His children. And
I pray that the Lord would give us the attitude, if by any means,
when we seek Him, that we would understand that phrase, it means
so much. Paul begins this chapter saying,
look in verse one, finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord. This is the theme of every believer
and it's repeated over and over again. And Paul acknowledges
this by saying in that verse, finally my brethren rejoice in
the Lord to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. When you tell your children that
they're not allowed to run into the street, I tell my kids that
all the time. When they're playing, can I go
play outside? Just don't go near the street. Just don't go in
the street. And I've told them plenty of times. After I tell
them and they hear me and I think they understand, that doesn't
mean that I stop telling them. I continually tell them to remind
them that they can't run out into the street. Just the other
day I was walking with someone and talking to them and all of
a sudden they just reached their arm out and hit me across the
chest and said, stop. I was just getting ready to run
out in the middle of the street just talking. I was just getting ready to walk
right into the street without even looking. Paul here says, it's not grievous
to me, but for you it is safe. This applies to the Gospel more
than anything in the world. We need to hear this over and
over and over again. Look at the heading at the top
of this. My Bible says, giveth up all things for Christ. Paul says, to write these same
things to you, it's not grievous. I don't mind doing it. You need
to hear it. And that's why the message is
just repeated over and over again. We just have to hear it. We just
have to hear it. It reminds me of when I was a
child, and when we were in the car, and my parents would put
a cassette tape in of a message, and it always started with the
same song, How Great Thou Art, that we just sang. And when it
was over, it would end with a couple seconds of that song. And whenever
we would watch the TV program at home, it would start with
that song. And then when it was over, it
would play the song again. And I always used to run back
to the tape place in the church when they would record the tapes
and send them out to people. And it was awesome looking at
all the things they were doing. But when they tested the tape, they just
listened to the first five seconds. And so I heard that song for
five seconds. And then they put the new tape in and played it.
It's the song for five seconds. And I remember it bothering me,
and I went to my mother, and I think I was around five or
six, and I said, mom, everybody's gonna think that this is the
only song we know. To which she replied, if we only
knew one song, let it be one where we sing how great our savior
is. We just need to hear it over and over and over again. Part
of that is because we don't really abide by the if by any means.
Other things are more important to us. They just come in our
mind and we forget about this. Paul here in verse two gives
us a warning. He says, beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision. warning the people
of false teachers, the Jews who were teaching works and ceremonies
of the Law were necessary to salvation. He calls them evil
workers because they were misleading the people in changing the Gospel
of Christ. He warns us of the concision
or people who use a custom or a ceremony as part of being saved. In the Old Testament circumcision,
much like sacrifices in the Sabbath day were used as tokens of the
Israelites covenant with God. They thought they were better
because of these things. But the false preachers were claiming
that you couldn't be saved without being circumcised. Now we believe
and practice baptism and taking the Lord's table. We do that
so that it's a situation where when someone wants to, they recognize
with the body and the blood of Christ. And we relate to that
and say, we're completely dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ's sacrifice
for our salvation. choose to be baptized because
we want to say, we want to identify with Him and say that I lived
in Him, I died in Him, and arose in Him. That's all I'm counting
on for my salvation is being in Him. But it's important to
realize that our works or anything we do or any ceremony has nothing
to do with salvation. They've got nothing at all to
do with it. And He continues in verse 3 where He says, for
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. These
evil workers wanted the title, the form, and the outward sign
of the circumcision. They were stuck on the tokens
of the covenant, not on Christ, the one who fulfilled the covenant.
Let me give you an illustration of that. We've got a young man
who was overseas in the military. And I know that his mother has
a picture of him that is a way to look at him. Now, we know
she knows what he looks like, but she has the picture to see
him. And the picture is a great reminder. When he comes home
and walks in the house, she doesn't pick up the picture and looks
at the picture and say, I'm so glad you're here. The picture
is a token, a reminder of Him. So when He comes, you put your
arms around Him and you hug Him and you're so thankful for Him
to be home. The difference, it's the difference
between having the Lamb of the Old Testament sacrifice and having
the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God. In verse 4-6
here, Paul illustrates this point, the end of verse 3 where it says,
confidence in the flesh." Look at verse 4, "'Though I might
also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcise
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning
zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless.'" Paul tells all of these religious
Pharisees, you think that you are something special. You're
bragging about all these facts and all these things about yourself,
that you've got the right bloodlines, that you've got impressive titles,
that you follow these Old Testament ceremonies, and on and on with
the things that they brag about. And he says this, and he basically
tells them, I have so much more reason to brag than you. I have
done all of these things better than you. But he says, I've done
all of these things and there isn't a man who has so many reasons
to boast and confidence in the flesh as I do. And he says all
of this not to brag, but he says this to follow up in verse 7
where it says, But what things were gained to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. At one time, Paul thought these
things were necessary for righteousness, and they would earn him favor
with God. But when Christ was revealed
to him, they all became worthless in themselves. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our sacrifice, our sanctification, and our righteousness. Salvation to so many people is
treated like a scorecard. They act like, I did that wrong,
minus one point. But I apologize for it, so I
go back up a point. I've gone to church, I deserve
so many points. I'm a member, I've done this. I tithe so much,
I've done this. And it's like this scorecard
that goes up and down, and they feel good about themselves just
lying about what they've done being worth something. That which
was everything to Paul became nothing, and Christ became everything. Our sin gives us an infinitely
negative scorecard. And there's nothing that we can
do to gain anything. There's no good work, there's
no action, no ceremony that gives us even a mite of any credit. We just are a negative, an infinite
negative in our own self-righteousness. We must be born again. We must have a new nature, a
new heart, and all of that can only be done in the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't do anything. We're completely
dependent upon Him. And in verse 8, Paul emphasizes
this again in case anyone misunderstood him. Look at 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 dung that I may win Christ. A child of God counts all things,
everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege of knowing
Christ Jesus our Lord. When we say if by any means,
we truly mean that everything is worthless compared to just
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else has any value. Turn with me to John chapter
17. John chapter 17. Look at verse 1 of John 17, These
words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said,
Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. Verse three, this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. Humanly speaking, Paul seemed
to have a very prosperous life until the Lord was revealed to
him. Then, after that, Paul was beaten,
Paul was stoned, Paul was cast into prison and troubled by earthly
things for the rest of his days. But if by any means he might
know the Lord, He was willing to renounce the Jewish ceremonies
along with worldly honor, his reputation, his substance or
material things, his worldly comforts, all of his advantages. If you are a child of God, most
of the worldly treasures will not be yours. And some advice
for all of us here, and especially our young people that I need
to hear this constantly, be careful to chase after the worldly goods. For the allure of the flesh is
incredibly strong. What we don't want is for ourselves
and our families to hold on tight to the things of the world until
they become our if by any means. We find something, and we dwell
upon it, and we desire it, and it sooner or later becomes our
if by any means, that we would give up anything for this. As
an illustration, if you take a firecracker, okay, a little
firecracker, and you put it in your hand, and you light it,
and it explodes, it hurts, but it'll just leave a little mark
on your hand. But if you take the same firework, and you wrap
your hand around it, and it explodes, it will destroy your hand. If we hold on to the things of
this world tightly, what we do is we, Lord willing, God will
have to break our hand to take it away from us. If we find something
that is more important to us, if we're a child of God, the
Lord will take it from us. but we just need not hold on
to the things of this world. Look to the things of Christ.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. On the surface, it seems like
a child of God as Paul here loses so much when the Lord reveals
Himself to him. Paul here, he lost all his self-righteousness,
all the earthly things that he found comfort in, but what he
actually did was he gained Christ's righteousness. He lost all this
ceremonial bondage that he found comfort in and he found peace
in, and instead gained true freedom in the Lord. He lost all this
peace that he thought he had. So many people just walk around
this earth as if everything is wonderful. And instead, when
the Lord was revealed to him, he saw what true peace is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he lost a pretend glory,
or his self-righteousness, or the man-made glory, or the credit
from all men. And instead, he gained eternal
glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this verse 30 of 1 Corinthians
1. 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 glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. If the Lord reveals himself to
us, what we get is wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, and everything that we could ever want. The
things that we don't really value until he shows us. It's everything. It's the only thing that matters.
Turn to 2 Kings 5. but I want us to look at a short
little story here that is a good representation of us and our
misunderstanding, if by any means. Look at 2 Kings 5 verse 1, Now
Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great
man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor,
but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy. She says, If Naaman
went to this prophet, he would heal him. Verse 4, And one went
in, and told his lord, saying, Thus, and thus said the maid
that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go
to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six
thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. brought
the letter to the king of Israel saying, Now when this letter
is come unto thee behold I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee that thou mayest recover him from his leprosy. And it
came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that
he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make
alive that this man does sin unto me to recover a man of his
leprosy? consider I pray you and see how
he seeketh a quarrel against me.' And it was so that Elisha
the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his
clothes that he sent to the king saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? Let him come now to me and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." In this circumstance
I want a couple of things for us to see before we get to the
end. For one, it says how that the Lord gave Naaman the victories.
Naaman had found favor with the Lord. And this maid that was
basically a servant to them, that the Lord sent this woman
to him to tell him. And how when the Lord sends someone
to teach us, we need to listen to what they say. This maid just
said, if he were to go to the prophet, the Lord will heal him.
He goes to his king and the king sends him to the other king and
all these things and he takes all this money and everything
he's got. He does this in the way that he thinks it should
be done. He does all the things that he thinks is necessary.
His way is the way it should happen. And that's important
because when we get this we'll see what happens. So in verse
9, Naaman came with his horses and with a chariot and stood
at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth, and he went away, and said, Behold, I thought he will
surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord
his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the
leper. Naaman here had so many things that were more important
than him being healed. All Naaman wanted was to not
be a leper, but when he was presented with a situation to not be a
leper, to be healed, we realize that there were other things
that were more important to him. In this way, he could not handle
that this prophet had treated him as if he was lower than him.
His dignity was too important to him. We realize that he thought
he would pay his way to get healing. He thought that everyone would
look at Naaman when this was done. He said, I thought for
sure he'd come out and stand and call him a name and make
a big ceremony out of this. Look at verse 12, Are not Abana
and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of
Israel? He says, this river is dirty I want to go to my river.
May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went
away in a rage. May we beg the Lord that he doesn't
let our pride, our dignity, and everything that we value so much
in the flesh get in the way of coming to him. I'll say something
in a second to emphasize that we can't come to him. He's got
to draw us. But Naaman here is such an example of us. I heard
the illustration with Pastor Nybert saying that if we could
promise that eternal salvation could come to you for a million
dollars, we'd have so many people try to pay it. But if we say
it's free, nobody's interested. It's just ridiculous. But for
some reason, we let this flesh and our opinion of ourselves
and our pride and everything about it stand in the way. Naaman
here, has a burden. He's a leper. He can't get close
to people. People have to make, I'm sure
there are people talk behind his back constantly. It doesn't
matter how powerful he is. And if he can just get rid of
the one thing, yet he won't do what it takes because it's not
what he wants to do. It's not his only thing. He is
here saying healing is not by, if by any means, something else
is more important. Look at verse 13, And his servants
came near and spake unto him, and said, May we all have someone
who comes to us and tells us this. May the Lord send us a
messenger to give us this phrase, My father, if the prophet had
bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have just done
it? how much rather than when he saith to thee, wash and be
clean. This man who I'm sure was a little
scared to make this comment to his master. But he said, if if
they had told you to give them all your money and everything
in the world, you would have done that. But you just won't
do this. Verse 14. Then Naaman went down
and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying
of the man of God. And his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood
before him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God
in all the earth but in Israel." There are a lot of people who
give lip service to the importance of salvation. but nobody, including
us, nobody will give a second thought to salvation or the Lord
Jesus Christ apart from us being made to by him. We ask our Lord,
Lord, make us to desire you. Make us to come to you. Make
you the most important thing to us. Turn back with me to Philippians
3. We will never on our own come to the Lord. May the Lord
send us, may He send us messengers, may He constantly draw us in.
Look at the end of verse 8 through verse 11 and we're going to see
three things that together make up our, if by any means. These
three things make up our one desire, our soul and our heart's
sincerest hope. Look at the end of verse 8. that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. Turn a couple pages over
to Colossians 1. That I may win Christ and be
found in Him. Look at Colossians 1 verse 21. And you, that were sometime alienated,
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,
and the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and
unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight, if you continue
in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister. 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.
Where have I made a minister according to the dispensation
of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of
God? Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to His
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles." What's the riches
of glory? Which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Whereunto I also labor, striving
according to His working, which worketh in me mightily. Paul says that God would make
known the riches of glory, which is Christ in you. Look at verse nine here. And
that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having, I'm
sorry, go back to Philippians three. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith, that
we win Christ and be found in Him having nothing to do with
us. We didn't have anything to do
with it. Look at verse 10. The second
thing, that I may know Him. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made
conformable unto His death. We know the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we want to know him so much more and continue to learn of
him. We want to see and know the power his resurrection gives
to us and to know his sufferings, dying daily to sin in this world.
These three things, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
that I may know the Lord Jesus Christ, and in verse 11, the
third one, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, the resurrection of the body in the likeness of
Christ in the great day of the Lord, as well as a moral and
spiritual resurrection that lifts us out of the death and darkness
of the world and sin. This phrase, if by any means,
I don't have a better way to say it, so you just have to keep
repeating it. There's just one thing needful. Everything else in this world
should just pale in comparison. Everything in this world combined
cannot compare to what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
everything that we could possibly attain in this world or something
that we love It's all worthless. It has no value whatsoever. That's
what we want, by whatever means it pleases God to bring us to
this place. We want to win Christ and be
found in Him. We want to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we want, if by any means,
that we might attain unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.