Go with me if you would back
to Philippians 3 I Enjoyed being able to go to
Cross for last Sunday to fill in for brother Donnie while he
was preaching in a conference And I was very thankful that
I didn't have to go alone My brother went with me and I
enjoyed the company. And on the way back, we started
talking. It's a good three-hour drive
there and a three-hour drive back. And on the way back, we
started talking about the only thing that matters. The only thing that matters.
Verse 10 says, that I may know Him. That I may know Him. Now my flesh, my 41-year-old flesh, just like
your flesh, has some things that it believes are important in
this life. For the amount of time that I'm
supposed to be on this earth, I have some things and you have
some things that we all believe are important in this life. Whatever it is that we end up
doing, we all want to be successful at it. Whatever it is we end
up doing. We all want to be successful.
We don't want to be failures. We want to be successful. We
all want stability. financial stability, emotional
stability. We're trying to achieve comfort
and peace in every way possible. That's what we want everything
around us to be. That's our aim and our goal.
We want everything around us to be comfort and peace. We're trying to pay off our houses.
We're trying to pay off our cars. We're trying to pay off our credit
cards. We want to owe no man anything. Freedom. Freedom. Financial freedom. Freedom in every way. All of those things are wonderful
to have. There's nothing wrong with any
of those things. All of the things that I just stated, there's nothing
wrong with any of them. If you end up paying off your
house, I will applaud you. That's wonderful. But every now
and then, in the midst of all those things, sometimes God in
His goodness sends His Spirit to His child And his spirit reaches
in and grabs the heart of that child and squeezes it. And it
creates a solemn groaning, just a remembering. It reminds us
of the only thing that matters. Those things are great. But sometimes we are reminded
of the only thing that matters, that I may know him. Success is not success if I don't
know him. Think about that for just a minute.
Success. How's everything going? Successful. Success is not success if I don't
know Him. Yeah, He's successful, all right.
He's so successful, He doesn't ever have time to worship God
anymore. He's too successful. Success is not success if I don't
have Him. Stability is not stability if
I don't have Him, if I don't know Him. The flesh thinks it
is. Comfort and peace is not comfort
and peace. If I don't have him, I can cry
peace, peace all I want to. But if I don't have him. Freedom is not freedom. If I
don't know him. Oh, that I might know him. Sometimes I get up. This gets
a hold of me. Sometimes it gets a hold of me.
Oh, that you might know him. Oh, that they might know him. That they just might know him.
Know him and not just know, but love. Love, not just know who
and what. But love and need, who and what,
if I could wish one thing for myself, one thing for my children,
one thing for you, one thing for every person in this town,
it's that we might know and love the only thing that matters.
The only thing that matters. This is life eternal. That we
might know him. that we might know Him. I mean
know Him, not know of Him, not know about Him. I mean know Him. Everything that we believe is
important in this life is not going to amount to a hill of
beans. I say that knowing that if the
Spirit of God does not impress that on the heart, the flesh
will hear that and say, yeah, that's true, brother, and then
go right after those beans. But sometimes it gets a hold
of me. Everything that we think is important
in this life will not amount to a hill of
beans. It'll amount to less than a hill.
A hill of beans is worth something. If come the end of this life,
we hear him say, I never knew you. In the end, this is all that
matters. Happiness does not matter. Financial
freedom does not matter. Well, a man's got to work. Yeah,
he does. But. The only thing that's going to
matter come the end of this life is that we know Him. Know Him. What is it to know
Him? What is it to know Him? Paul
said in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed. He said,
I know whom I have believed. But turn over to 1 Corinthians
13. This is the Apostle Paul speaking. And he said in verse 9, for we
know in part. He said, I know whom I have believed,
but he said, we know in part. And we preach in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. When that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be
done away. When I was a child, I spake as
a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. Lord, help us to do that. For
now, we see through a glass darkly. But then we're going to see him
face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. We know Him, but we desire
to know more of Him. More, more of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, that we might know Him. Now,
what is it truly to know Him? Go back to our text, Philippians
3. The Apostle Paul tells us quite a few things from verse
7 to verse 11. That will officially be the text
for this message. And he says quite a few things
in these verses, but I want to condense them down to three things.
He really is telling us three things in light of the only thing
that matters. Three things in light of his
heart's desire. He's telling his own heart's
desire. What he wants to attain. The
thing that he must have above everything else. The only thing
that matters. The only thing that matters.
He clearly tells us what it is at the end of verse 8. He said,
that I may win Christ. Verse 9, he said, and be found
in him. Verse 10, he said that I may
know him. Verse 11, he said, if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. I want
to live with him forever. I want to win him. I want to
be found in him. I want to know Him, and I want
to live with Him forever. Now, I want us to see the evidence
of attaining this only thing that matters. That's the only
thing that matters. And I want to see the evidence
of what it is to attain that. Before we do, I want us to acknowledge
this. I don't want to ever take this
for granted. There may be someone who hears this at some point
who does not yet know this. So I don't want to ever take
this for granted. The only way that we can win Christ is if
He first wins us. That's the only way. 1 Corinthians
15 verse 57 says, Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. The victory was His, and He gave
it to us. The song, A Mighty Fortress is
Our God, one of the verses in that song, it says, Did we in
our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We
wouldn't win. We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ
Jesus, it is he. Lord, Sabbath is his name from
age to age the same, and he must win the battle. He must win the
battle. The only way that we can win
Christ is if he first wins us. The victory is his. The only
way that we can be found in Christ is if He is found in us first. Christ in us is the hope of glory. That's the hope of glory, Christ
in us. Back in Philippians 1 verse 6
says, Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath
begun a good work in you, We'll perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. The only way we can be found
in Him is if He's first found in us. He began the work in you. The only way that we can know
Him is if He first knows us. He says to every child of His,
every single child, He tells that child, Before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. So attaining this only thing
that matters is something that he gets all the glory for. If
we attain it, if we attain him, then there is something that
he will resolve in our hearts. There's something he'll put in
our hearts. He gets all the glory for it. And there's something
that will be an absolute resolve in our hearts. Now, what is that?
What goes on inside a person? What does the heart and mind
of a person who truly knows him? I want to know him. What does
the heart and mind of a person who has truly won him? been found
in him. What does that heart and mind
become convinced of? Three things. Three things. I pray the Lord might apply this.
I pray he might apply this to our hearts, to our hearts and
our minds. Back in Philippians 3, verse 7. But what things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things 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 dumb. When a sinner
knows Christ, and Christ knows a sinner, this is what that sinner
will say. And I honestly pray, I sincerely
pray the Lord will effectually work this in our hearts. I pray
He'll cause us to say this. If it's not Christ, it's loss. If it's not Christ, it's loss. If it's not Christ, it makes
no difference. If it's not Christ, it doesn't
matter. If it's not Christ, it's worthless. It's nothing. It's just dumb. If it is going to come between
me and Christ, may that be, you know, we all have decisions to
make, decisions with everything in our life, decisions with job,
decisions with everything. May this be the first thing that
enters our heart. If it is going to come between
me and Christ, let it go. It's loss. It's worthless. It's nothing. It's dung. He said, What things were gain
to me? The things that I thought were
important. I thought this was important. I thought this was
an important component of life. The things that I thought mattered,
He said, I now count all of it loss. Forget about it. Verse 8, He said that I might
have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Knowing Him, having Him, winning
Him, being found in Him, that is all that matters. That's all
that matters. That's the first true evidence.
That's an evidence. of knowing Him. Do I really know
Him? Do I really know Him? That's
the first evidence. Having a desire to unknow everything that's not
Him. Everything that does not bring
me closer to Him and give Him all the glory. Paul said in 1
Corinthians 2, I have now determined not to know anything among you
except for Jesus Christ crucified. That's it, letting everything
else go. All right, here's the second thing that Paul said concerning
this only thing that matters. The end of verse eight, he said,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him, 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." When a sinner knows Christ and Christ knows
a sinner, this is what that sinner will say. The righteousness of
Christ is the only righteousness there is. The good works of Christ
are the only good works there are. That's it. The only work
that recommends me to God is the work that Christ accomplished
for me and gave to me. His good deeds are the only good
deeds I have. Verse 9 says, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law. Verses 4 through 6,
we read them just a minute ago in the scripture reading. He's
telling us everything he thought Made him acceptable to God, just
like everybody in works religion does. So proud of himself for
these things. Everything that he was so, so
self-righteous over. And he said, I've thrown them
all away. Everything. I don't have any goodness in
me that makes me worthy. of being accepted into His kingdom. So the only thing that matters
is that I have His goodness. That's all that matters. That
I have His righteousness. That I have His perfection. Verse
9 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 by faith, to win Him And we will find this to be so. We will find this to be so. To
win Him is to lose everything else. Now, when we win Him, we
gain all things that matter. But to win Him is to, in the
heart, lose everything else. To be found in Him is to find
no acceptable righteousness outside of Him. To be found in Him. I want to be found in Him. That's to find nothing acceptable
outside of Him. Nothing. And to know Him is to
know, verse 10 goes on to say, the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. To know him is to know the power
of his resurrection. Look with me back at Romans chapter
1. Romans 1 verse 16 says, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. It is the power of God unto salvation. To know Him is to know His gospel.
The power of His resurrection. Verse 16 goes on to say, To everyone
that believeth. To know Him is to know His gospel. To know Him is to believe His
gospel. It's to need His gospel. It's to see our only hope to
be in His gospel. And what is His gospel? Look
back at Philippians 3. Verse 10 goes on to say, The
fellowship of his sufferings. That's his gospel. The fellowship
of his sufferings to know him is to know that the only thing
that matters come the end of this life. This is the only thing
that matters. Every time I say that it just
hits me again. It hits me again. This is the
only thing that matters. Is that come the end of this
life? all of the suffering that he
went through for sin, I suffered in that suffering. That's the
only thing that matters. The fellowship of his suffering. It's to know that his death was
my death. To find that out, come the end,
as we stand before God, his death was your death. God punished
me in Him. But here I stand deserving nothing
but punishment. Yes, and you were punished in
Him. When He died, I died. When God
buried Him, God buried me. When God raised Him from the
dead, God raised me from the dead. Verse 10 says 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."
This is the only thing that matters. After all of these other little
things in life are finished, some of them are going to have
some kind of effect on us for three score and ten. affect us
and they are important to us and all of those things. But
winning Christ, being found in Him, knowing a saving union with
Him, is life eternal. And it's all that matters. And
this is my honest, sincere prayer. It's that the Lord might cause
us to truly see this and live this. I mean live it. My prayer is that the Lord might
honestly go to work on this heart. Might honestly perform an operation
on this heart and cause us to see that union with Christ is
the only thing that matters. And that He also might cause
us to live Union with Christ is the only thing that matters.
How often am I going to spend in communion with him? Well,
how often should a man spend in communion with his wife? Should I go home today? I don't
know. May the Lord cause us to see
a living union, husband and wife. is the only thing that matters.
And may the Lord cause us to live. I mean live, not under
bondage, not under guilt, not under fear, under love. May God put a love in this heart,
causing me to see union with Him, hearing from Him. If He
would just speak to me for just a second, that's the only thing
that matters. It doesn't matter how great my
day was, it doesn't matter how terrible my day was. This is
the only thing that matters. Christ is not, I pray the Lord
might ingrain this in our heart. I mean ingrain this. Christ is
not a big part of a believer's life. May the Lord teach us that. Christ
is not number one in a believer's life. May the Lord honestly teach
us that. Christ is not a big part. He is not number one. Christ
is all. I mean, Christ is life. No Christ, no life. He's all. He's all. He said,
Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness. Lord, teach me to do that. Teach
me to do that. All right, what does today hold?
What's most important? Teach me to seek my only hope
first. Teach me to seek the only thing
that matters first. Teach me to seek Christ and His
righteousness and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable unto His death. Teach me to desire that. Cause
me to love that. Because He is all, and He's the
only thing that matters. The only thing that matters.
Knowing Him, having Him, being found in Him. That's the only
thing that matters. Lord, help us. Alright, let's
all stand together.