From Religion to Rest

And yet I know that God used
men to write this book and did not overlook the circumstances
nor the personality. I can't explain that. I do know
that Paul wrote this book of Philippians and he wrote Romans
and he wrote other books in the New Testament, about 13 in all
or 14. And those written by Paul bear
his characteristics and personality, yet it's the Word of God. It
is the inspired, inerrant, verbally inspired, unbroken Word of God. And when he wrote this book of
Philippians, he was in prison awaiting execution. This is one of the prison epistles. This is one of the last of Paul's
writings. And he says in chapter 3, verse
1, finally, finally. That's not the end of
the book, there's another chapter, quite a few more. In fact, this
is just the middle of the book. So finally, finally must have,
I know it has to do with God's inspiration, but it must have
something to do with summing up. all that He has tried to
say and all that He has tried to present to them, and all that
He has tried to convey to them in His ministry, finally. Finally,
my brethren. And as I read this chapter, I
do not know of a chapter in the Word of God that more ably sums
up what I have tried to preach here and what I am trying to
preach here. under three headings. My exhortation. What does the word exhortation
mean? My advice. My message. And then secondly, my experience. And then thirdly, my expectation. That's the outline of the message. And I think that's what Paul's
giving us here these last days of his own ministry. Finally,
my brethren. And here, you know, it doesn't matter what a man
says, it'll do little good unless God says it. Very little good. He can say it a thousand times.
In fact, the Apostle said, I'd rather preach five words in the
Spirit of God than a thousand words in an unknown language. Unknown. And if it's not understood,
it's not known, is it? So if I can just give you a few
words tonight in the power of God's Spirit. Someone said one
time, we have listened to the preacher. And truth by him has now been
shown. But oh, how we need a greater
teacher from the everlasting throne, because revelation is
the work of God alone. So who knows? I may say it tonight,
and it may be heard. And I may say it tonight and
it may not be heard. But it doesn't depend on how
I say it, I know that. All right, here's my exhortation.
Finally, my brethren, number one, rejoice in the Lord. Now I know that doesn't mean
make noise. I know that doesn't at all mean
to make noise. I believe rejoice, and that seems
to be one of the themes of this book of Philippians. I think
Paul uses that word rejoice about ten times. Rejoice. Rejoice. And I watch my television, and
I see all the religion about me, and they seem to think that
means let's see who can out scream the other one, or out clap, or
out shout. But I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. I believe rejoicing in the Lord
is to be glad in God. Be glad. It is in my heart to give approval
to all that He is and all that He does and all that He will
do. I'm glad God's on the throne,
aren't you? I rejoice. This morning I spoke
from Psalm 139. I rejoice in my heart. I rejoice in the greatness of
my God. I rejoice in the sovereignty
of my God. I rejoice in the omniscience
of my God. He knows all things. I can read
that where the Lord possessed me and owned me and besets me
behind and before and encircles me and lays his hand upon me
and does with me what he will. I can read that and my soul will
be glad. I'm glad. That's the way I want
it. I rejoice. I rejoice in His greatness. I rejoice in His incarnation. I can hear that angel as he came
to Joseph there and he said, Joseph, don't be afraid to take
Mary to be thy wife. For that holy thing conceived
in her is of the Spirit of God. It's the Son of God. And thou
shalt call His name Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sins. And this is a fulfillment of
that which the prophets spoke. Call his name Immanuel, God with
us. And I rejoice. Cold chills go
up and down my spine. I'm glad. I'm not going to throw
a song book. And I'm not going to jump up
here and click my heels. I couldn't if I wanted to. But
I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad he came to
this earth. I rejoice. that He was made flesh. Don't you? I just rejoice. I
rejoice. And then I rejoice in His righteousness. I rejoice that the Lord Jesus
Christ, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, as Ronnie prayed
a moment ago, that He literally walked this earth and He met
every jot and tittle of God's law and obeyed it perfectly. He went to that cross and was
wounded for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquities,
and the literal chastisement of my peace was laid on him. By his stripes I am healed. I
am glad. I rejoice. I rejoice that it
is so, that he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. I am glad. I am
glad. And then I rejoiced in His exaltation. My Heavenly Father called Him
to glory. Christ whom He sent into this
world, who said, I finished what you gave me to do. I finished
the work you put in my hands. And the Father called Him to
glory. And I don't know how to even visualize this, because
there's one God. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand till I make thine enemy thy footstool. And
I'm glad. And I'm glad. And I want no one
to rival His crown. I want Him to have no competitor
and no rival. He's worthy and He alone is worthy
and I'm glad. I rejoice in that. I rejoice. And I rejoice in His intercession. I know that intercession, and
I know a lot of preachers try to picture Christ saying, now
He calls us by name. I know. I know my sheep, I call
them by name. I know that. But His intercession
at the right hand of the Father, He ever lived it to make intercession
for us. In His intercession, He doesn't
have to say anything. You see, His very presence, now
watch this, and I honestly believe the whole
religious world somehow, someway has missed, has literally missed
the gospel. But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the blessed second person of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy
Spirit, yet our God is one God. And before the foundation of
this world, before this world was ever made, before God ever
created the heavens and the earth, there was a covenant, there's
an everlasting covenant, there's a mediatorial kingdom. Christ
was made the surety of people were given to him out of every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. He was a lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Cleared back in eternity. And when God made the world and
created Adam, and Adam fell, and then God began to reveal
the person and work of that Redeemer, the person and work of that Mediator,
the person and work of that Representative, the person and work of that Servant,
He began to reveal to people. The person, He revealed it to
Adam and Eve, and to Satan. He revealed it to Job. He revealed
Him. to Noah, he revealed him to Abraham,
he revealed him to Moses, he revealed him to Israel. The surety,
the redeemer, the representative of his people. And then he came
into this world and fulfilled all that was written of him.
And accomplished the work God gave him to do. As the surety
and representative and mediator of a people. As their king. As the captain of their salvation.
as their brother, as their chief good and great shepherd. And
he died on the cross, he was buried, and he rose again. And
when the Father raised him from the dead, the Father as much
as said, I accept him and all who are in him. I accept him,
I accept what he did, and I accept all for whom he did it. You with
me? And when he took him to glory
and sat him down at his right hand, Then He sat down at His
right hand all who are in Christ, and all who are represented by
Christ, and all for whom He obeyed and suffered and died. He's our
forerunner. He's our representative. He is
literally us. We are in Him. We were chosen
in Him, redeemed in Him, made righteous in Him, raised in Him,
exalted in Him, and seated in Him. So in intercession, He doesn't
have to say a word. The fact that he's there is sufficient. You understand what I'm saying?
The fact that he's there. There's no bargaining. There's
no pleading. There's no exchange. If he's
there, I'm there. Where the head is, the body's
not far behind. And I rejoice in that. I rejoice
in it. I don't understand it. I rejoice
in it. I believe it. I rejoice in it, and I rejoice
in his return. And that's what Paul is saying. Finally, brethren, rejoice in
the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. And then
he said, secondly, to write the same things to you. The same
things. I rejoice to preach the gospel. I've stood in this pulpit now
for many, many years. Right here in this pulpit since
1955. That's 33 years. Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night, and other times. And I preach
this same gospel. I talk about that charity. I
talk about that representative. I talk about that righteousness.
I talk about that death. Some of you have heard me and
others say the same thing. Somebody said, if you hear Mahan
once, you've heard him. I said, alright. Paul said to
write the same things to you, the same things, to me, is not
grievous. What's that word grievous? To
me it's not tiresome. It's not tiresome. Not at all. But for you it's safe. What does
that word safe mean? It's necessary. Now I can tell
you this. Three things. First of all, hearing
the gospel of Christ regularly and often, the same gospel, Hearing
the Word of God, hearing the Gospel regularly will keep your
minds and thoughts and hearts on Christ. It will keep your
hearts and minds and thoughts on Christ. And I'll tell you
this, I don't have to work where some of you work, in public work.
But I do know this, you're here today and you've heard this Gospel
and your hearts have rejoiced. And tomorrow morning now, you've
got to go back out into the world with all its confusion and conflict
and difficulties and temptations and its chaos. I know a little bit about what's
out there. I was in the Navy for a couple of years. I worked
in a steel mill. I worked for the Veterans Administration.
And I know a little bit about what you know a whole lot about.
And I do know this, pretty soon you're going to have to hear
this gospel again. You're going to have to hear
this message again. You're going to have to come
around the table again and be encouraged and be exalted. Now is that not true? Am I not
telling the truth? And I do know this, you start being absent
from the place where the children's bread is being given, and you
start being absent from the green pastures and the still waters.
And if you're an honest man or woman, you'll notice there's
a change taking place. There's a change. There's something
going on that's not good. That's exactly right. And Paul
said, this is what he's saying, for me to preach these things
to you, the glory of Christ, the grace of God, the gospel
of the Son of God, over and over again, I'm not going to get tired
of it, but for you, it's necessary. For you, it's necessary. You
know, Darth and I have been married 42 years, and she doesn't always
fix hot biscuits for breakfast and gravy and bacon and eggs. Not always. When Paul comes over,
she does. Or Don Fortner comes up, she
does. Or Gary Shepherd's there, she does. But you know, I guess
I've eaten a ton of gravy. But if she'd get up and make
it in the morning, I tell you, it'd still be good. Never get
tired. And I never get tired of this
gospel. It's infinitely greater. It's infinitely more wonderful.
And I need it. I need a regular, I need a steady
diet of gospel, and you need it too, because of what's out
there. Now I know that, the conflict,
the chaos, and you just need the gospel. The second reason
why you need it, it keeps you from self-righteousness. If you come here kind of feeling
like you've a pretty good boy, and you hear some of these grace
preachers, you go away knowing you're not when you hear the
gospel. It keeps you from error of spirit. Error of spirit. That's right. And we're so susceptible to error
of spirit, we're susceptible to two errors. Many errors, but
two specifically. One, we're susceptible to that
old monster, self-righteousness. It dies hard. Even old John Knox
said he had trouble with it on his deathbed. He had given his
life for God, preaching and teaching, and he had a little struggle
with self-righteousness. And another is error of spirit. Just not long ago, I told my
Sunday school class about this this morning, just not long ago,
I preached somewhere, and there are two men there that
have some differences. I don't know what their differences
are. But I was standing at the door of the church, and the other
man was standing across from me. And I watched this gentleman
come up the aisle, and I know about the differences, and I
wanted what he would do. And he did what I thought he'd
do, because I know human nature. I regret that I know it so well.
But he walked up and shook hands with me and spoke to me and turned
his back on the other man. And walked on out and wouldn't
speak to him. That's evil. Isn't that evil? That's an arrow of spirit. And
you know what would keep me from that arrow of spirit? The gospel. That's right. Hearing regularly
about Christ. Hearing of Christ. I don't want
to be caught up in the air of spirit. Bad attitude. Bad attitude. Bad attitude means
bad heart. That's exactly right, bad heart.
You see, like I told McClatch, when you won't speak to a person,
you're killing them. That's right, you're wishing
they're dead. You say, that's not that serious. Oh yes it is.
You're saying you don't exist. And there's just one way for
me not to exist, and that's to die. And when you turn your back
on me and will not speak to me, and will not greet me, or you
or someone else, you're saying, it'd be fine with me if you weren't
there. And that's a bad spirit, you
see. We need to be delivered from error of spirit. And here
in the Gospel, it will deliver us. It will keep us down in the
dust ourselves at the feet of Christ. Keep us coming to Him,
the Gospel. And thirdly, hearing the gospel
will keep me alert against false teachers, false teachers. And the world is full of them,
full of false teachers. Did you get those three things?
Paul said to write the same things to you, to preach the same things,
the gospel of Christ, God's glory, Christ's glory, man's fall, our
sinfulness, our inability, our wretchedness, our need of Christ. Yes, sir, hearing that keeps
my mind and thoughts on Christ, and keeps me from errors of spirit
and self-righteousness, and keeps me alert against these false
preachers and false teachers. That's what he says in the next
line. He says in verse 2, you beware of dogs. Brethren, who's
Paul talking about there? Dogs. He's talking about other
preachers. You say, that's strong language.
Paul was bare-bowled man. In fact, he said, if anybody
preach any other gospel than the gospel I preach, let God
damn him. Let him be cursed. That's right.
Let him go to hell. He said, I don't care if it's
an angel from heaven. That's how strong God was. But
he borrowed this dog from Isaiah 56. Hold your hand there and
turn to Isaiah 56. Here's where he got it. He got
it from the prophet Isaiah. He got it from the prophet Isaiah.
He calls them dogs. I tell you, my friends, the Apostle
Paul is very strong in his warning against false teachers and false
preachers. And he tells us this in Corinthians.
In 2 Corinthians he tells us this. He said the messengers
of Satan will change themselves into angels of light, preachers
of righteousness. Our Lord said they'll come to
you as in sheep's clothing, wolves in sheep's clothing. And here
in Isaiah 56, listen to verse 10. His watchmen, they're supposed
to be his watchmen. They say they're his watchmen,
but they're blind. They're all ignorant. They're
all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. They don't
warn men. Sleeping, lying down, loving
the slumber, and they're greedy dogs. which can never have enough. They never have enough. They
take from people and they never have enough. They are shepherds
that cannot understand. They all look to their own way,
promote their own program, seek their own glory. Everyone for
his own gain from his quarter. That's who they are. Beware of
dogs. Beware of them. Beware of the
evil workers. Our Lord said they'll stand at
the judgment and say, we preached in your name and cast out devils
and did many wonderful works. And He'll say, you're workers
of iniquity, workers of evil. And listen to what He says about,
beware of the concision. You know what that is? That's
flesh merchants. Let me show you that in Galatians 6. Flesh
merchants. Flesh merchants. They delight
in works and flesh and numbers. They delight in a show. They
delight in a show of hands or a show of flesh. They delight
in all of these things. Galatians 6, 12, listen. As many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised or baptized or catechized or something else. They constrain you to do something
publicly. Only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire that you
have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. They
may brag about their numbers and their converts and all these
things. Beware of them. Beware of them. And then the
fourth thing here under his exhortation, verse 3, now watch it. For we
are the circumcision. We are true Israel. We are the
true believers. And he gives three marks of the
true believers. He says, first of all, we worship
God in spirit. Our worship of God is not in
the flesh, Holy days, special days, Sabbath days, all of the
things the carnal age to worship. We worship God in spirit, in
heart, in soul. We worship God. We adore the
Lord God. We worship Him. Secondly, we
rejoice in Jesus Christ, in His person and work, and in Christ
alone. And thirdly, we have no confidence in this flesh. And
that brings me to the second thing here, Paul's experience
and my experience. And many of you have had the
same experience. Now watch how this flows. I've got to go back
just a moment now, and I don't like to be repetitious, but he
says, finally brethren, here's my exhortation. Rejoice in the
Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. To write
and preach these same things to you is not grievous, it's
not tiresome. For you it's safe. You need it.
You need it. And I warn you, beware of these
false teachers. They seek to draw disciples after
themselves. They're flesh merchants. They're
merchandisers of flesh, butchers of men's souls, and they do it
for their own gain. They do it to get followers.
They do it to get a name for themselves. They do it for the
praise and honor of men. They do it to be known. You know
that. For we are the true Israel. This
is the true believer, the man or woman who worships God in
his heart, who rejoices in Christ and has no confidence in his
flesh or that man's flesh or that leader's flesh. His confidence
is in Christ. Now then, verse 4, though, here's
my experience, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
Now, if any of you think Any other man thinks he has whereof
he might trust in the flesh. What is the flesh? Religion,
or professions, or experiences, or deeds, or works, or whatever.
Learning, intellect, knowledge, theology. Do you think you have
whereof to trust in the flesh? Do any of you have any confidence
in your heritage, in your works, in your religion, in your profession,
any hope in these things? He said, I'm over. You bring
your experience and I'll put mine beside it. You bring your
heritage and I'll put mine beside it, he said. You bring your denomination
and I'll put mine beside it. You bring your morality and I'll
put mine beside it. Watch him, listen to him, verse
5. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of
the tribe of Benjamin, the beloved tribe. I'm not a half-breed,
I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. My mother was a Hebrew and my
daddy was a Hebrew. As touching the law, I was a
heresy. I held the highest office. Concerning
zeal, you talk about dedication and zeal. I persecuted the church. You want to talk about morality?
Touching the righteousness, which is in the law, nobody could charge
me. You want me to tell you why some
men won't run for public office today? I know different people
say, well, I don't especially like the Republican candidate,
and I don't like the Democrat candidate, and I don't like the
Congressional candidate, but it's kind of the lesser of two
evils. I want to tell you why qualified, capable, able men
don't run for office. Because they do not want the
press and the media and the magazines to start investigating their
lives clear back to the time they were in kindergarten. That's
one reason. I said, they couldn't stand,
about half of you here couldn't stand that kind of exposure.
Could you? This is what Paul is saying about
his religion. He said, put me under the microscope. I'm blameless. And now what is
he saying? Touching the law of God. Blameless. Paul had run. Paul had run. You see what he's saying? He's
saying, you got anything to glory in? You want to talk about your
heritage? You want to talk about your ancestry? You want to talk
about your works? You want to talk about your religion? You
want to talk about these things? You want to talk about your profession?
You want to talk about what you've never done, what you have done,
and so forth for Jesus? I'll lay mine down beside it,
he said. I'll lay mine down. You think you got something glory
in, I have more than that. Watch it. But, but, what things,
all these things, that were gained to me, that were important to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. All of these things will
not make me acceptable before God. He saw all these things
to be worthless in the light of God's holiness and God's righteousness. Worthless. Absolutely worthless. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. And that's what Paul is saying.
Verse 8, he said, doubtless, I count all things, all things,
I count my family, my religion, my profession, my morality, I
count all things but loss, total loss, for the excellency of the
knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. Now I'm not asking anyone
here to have my own personal experience or the experience
of Paul. But I do know this is the case. I do know in the United
States of America, as things are right now, this is a religious
nation. It's a fundamental Protestant religion, religious nation. And almost everybody in this,
especially in the Bible Belt, in Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky
and Boynton County and all up and down here, everybody's religious. And everybody has some kind of
hope for heaven. Everybody's in the same state
of the Apostle Paul, right here, before he met Christ. And I was
in that state. I was raised in religion. When
I was Luke's age, and these little children here, I sat in a Baptist
church. Not like this church. I sat in
a fundamentalist, organized Baptist church. And I heard sermons and
I made a profession of faith and I got baptized. And I went
away to the Navy and I came back and I got back in church leading
the young people. I came up here and had some success
in leading young people here at Pollard Baptist Church. And
I was religious and moral and zealous and dedicated to a cause And then I went away to school
and I studied three years in a fundamentalist Bible college
and tried to win souls and all these things and got into all-night
prayer meetings and all this sort of thing. And then I came
up here in April of 1950 when I was 24 years old. And I sat
down and God sent a prophet, God sent a preacher. God sent
a man my way like He sent Philip to the eunuch, like He sent Paul
to Lydia, like He sent Paul to the Philippian jailer,
like Onesimus came up and I sat down and this man talked about
things I had never thought about, never heard about, never studied. This man talked about the character
of God. This man talked about the sovereignty
and glory and power, the matchless might of the living God. You
see, the God I'd heard and the God that was sort of, you know,
He sort of wanted to and would like to if you'd let Him, you
know, and He's kind of an impotent God, a God that we talked about
His throne, but it wasn't much of a throne. You know what I'm
talking about. But this man preached the power
of God, the purpose of God, the glory of God, the Lord, and he
preached Christ Jesus not as an offer, he preached Him as
a gift. He preached Christ Jesus not
as an effort, but as an exalted, victorious conqueror. He preached
Christ as a surety, as a substitute. He preached the effectual work
of Christ. He didn't come to try to save,
He came to save. He came to save. His work was
effectual. His righteousness would make
a man perfect before God without anything added to it. He preached
the Lordship of Christ. He cried not for men to accept
Jesus as their personal Savior. He called on men to bow down.
Bow down. Worship God. Follow His feet. Submit to Him. Receive His Word. Receive His Gospel. Receive His
Son. Crown Him King. I never heard
that. It wasn't give God a chance.
It was may God be merciful to me. In other words, at that time,
I saw the utter ruin of men. I'd heard about a fall, but it
wasn't a complete fall. It was just sort of a slip. I
knew men. They said man was dead, but not
plumbed in. But I saw the inability of the
flesh. I saw what David Brainerd saw. David Brainerd said, I saw
this one day. I saw that God required absolute,
perfect holiness. A perfect holiness. And I couldn't
produce it. He said, I saw that God required
absolute, perfect, yielding, complete faith. And I didn't
have it. And he said, I saw that God could
give me that righteousness And that repentance and that faith
are passed me by. And I was shut up to cry unto
Him, Lord if you will, you can make me whole. And I'll tell you this, I'm not,
like I say, I'm not requiring anybody to have my experience,
but here it is right here in front of you in Philippians 3.
Here it is. Here is a man raised like we
were raised, except more so. Here's a man who had the credentials,
except more so. Here's a man that had the morality
and the religion, only more so. And yet here's a man said, I
count. Take it all. Take it all. Take all of my intellect
and all of my theology and my righteousness and all my morality
and my works and my deeds. And I count it but dumb that
I may win Christ. I count it lost for the excellency
and the knowledge of Christ my Lord. This thing of salvation
is not a cooperative effort between you and God. It's Christ alone. Plus nothing, minus nothing.
Now, let the rest of you turn to Acts 13 for a moment. Just
one moment. Let me show you something here
in Acts 13. And I'll be brief. Acts 13, 38. And here is the apostle summing
up his message. And he says here in Acts 13,
38, listen, Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin.
And by him, and by him all that believe are justified from all
things by Christ, in Christ, from which you cannot be justified
by the law of Moses. That's the summary of it. It's
Christ. It's Christ. All right, here's
my expectation. That's my experience, and here's
my expectation. It's threefold, my expectation. And we begin with verse 8. And
Paul says, "...Yea, doubtless, and I count all things, all things
but loss, all of my credentials, everything, for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and I do count them but rubbish, number
one, that I may win Christ and be found in Him." That's my expectation. That I may win Christ and be
found. Be found by whom? Be found by
God in Him. Before God in Him. Now watch
it. Not having my own righteousness, my own holiness, I have none.
Even my righteousness is a filthy rag, which is of the law. But
that which is through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness
of God, which is by faith, which is of God by faith, that's my
expectation. That's my expectation. I want
to win Christ and be found in Him. Then secondly, verse 10,
that I may know Him. Now Paul knew Christ. He said,
I know whom I have believed. But here's what he's saying,
I want to know Him more deeply. I want to know Christ more intimately. I want to know Him. And watch
this, and I want to know something about the power of His resurrected
life. Do you see what he's saying?
My expectation is before God to win Christ and be found in
Him. Not in the church, in Christ. Not in religion, in Christ. Not
in the law, in Christ. That's where I want to be found.
Not having my own righteousness. I don't have any. I don't claim
to have any. I want His righteousness. I want to be robed in His holiness.
But I want to know Him. I do know Him, but I want to
know Him more intimately, more deeply. And what's this? And
I want to know the power the power, the reality of his resurrected
life. Now what is that? The power of
his resurrected life. That's the reality of the indwelling
Christ. That's the reality of the indwelling
Christ. In other words, if Christ lives
within me, then the grace of Christ, and the love of Christ,
and the joy of Christ and the patience of Christ, won't it
be evident? I want to know the reality of
his resurrected life. This is in opposition to the
cold, formal, dead profession of religion. The reality. I want to know Him
and the reality of His resurrected life. You see, when the Lord
Jesus Christ walked on this earth in the flesh, bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh, man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and all
these things, then He died and He was buried and He rose again.
And He arose glorified. He arose victorious. He arose having conquered His
enemies. He arose having been victorious
over all these things, and He walked before His disciples as
the resurrected Lord. Well, I'm not preaching a victorious
life. I'm just saying this, that there's
victory in Christ. There's a peace and a joy and
a rest that's a reality. And that's what Paul said he
wanted to know, the reality. Alright, in the next line he
said, and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings. The fellowship of his sufferings.
I want to not only be able, but willing to bear the sufferings
of Christ, the marks of Christ, the scars of Christ. That's what he's talking about
there, the fellowship of his sufferings. He said, my brethren,
if the world hate me, it'll hate you. Well, let them hate me. Paul said that to Timothy, he
said, you be willing to bear affliction for the gospel. Be
willing to suffer. Christ suffered for our sakes.
It is given unto us not only to believe on him, but to suffer
for him. And all who would live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. That's what he's talking about
here. And then, next of all, being made conformable unto his
death. More like Him. Like Him in His
love, His forgiveness, His sacrifice, conformed to His image. More
like Christ. That's my expectation. And then
thirdly, verse 11. Here's my expectation. I have
three goals that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Found in Him. Whatever it costs. I know all of us like to look
back. Especially when we get to the
end of life, we like to look back. We like to talk about what
we've done, or what we've given, or what we've experienced, or
what we've... Like they said up yonder, the
judgment I've done, he said, I count that but loss. I want
this moment to win Christ and be found in Him, having His righteousness.
I just want to know Him and the power of His resurrection. the
fellowship of His sufferings. I want to be made conformable
to Him. Here's that. And thirdly, you know that old song, when
the saints go marching in? Well, I want to be in that number.
That's what he's saying here. That if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. That's what I want. That's my expectation. That I
shall arise. It's Job's expectation. He said,
I know my Redeemer liveth, and though worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh I'll see God. I know this religious world's
got it all cut and dried. They're sure for heaven as if
there's already there. There may be people here tonight that
got that same attitude, but Paul didn't have it. Look at the next
verse. Not as though I had already attained.
I haven't attained. I want to attain unto the resurrection. I'm not there. I'm not already perfect. I know a lot of religious folks
that are. They're snob and snub and satisfied as a contented
cow out in the field, chewing his cud. Not Paul. Not Paul. But I'll tell you what
he said I do. I follow after. If that I may
apprehend What do you do when you apprehend a criminal? You
lay hold on him. You apprehend somebody, you lay hold on them.
He said that I may lay hold of that for which I've been laid
hold of by Jesus Christ. That's my goal.

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