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In thy presence we are happy. In thy presence we are secure. In Thy presence all afflictions we can easily endure. In Thy presence we can conquer, we can suffer, we can die wandering from Thee We are feeble as I love. Lord, keep us night #42 in the Appendix.
That's right.
Father, we thank you. The weekend start this morning.
Reading with this hymn and address it unto thy Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus and we, uh, we realize that in my presence there is full happiness and.
Was brought to realize that our experience is often quite different and we just pray that the effect of being here this morning. My draw hearts and to be more Lord Jesus and vigilantly and still the challenges that we each face. We thank you are sufficient and so we just pray that our hearts may be warmed and be attentive thy word and we ask you for thy health Lord Jesus asking it in my name Amen.
We've been reading in Philippians chapter 3.
00:05:02
Begin the first three maybe?
Philippians 3, verse 3.
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 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 circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law.
A Pharisee.
Concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost. For Christ gave doubtless. And I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And you count them but dumb, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my known righteousness which is of the law.
But that which is through faith.
Of praise the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him in 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, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything ye be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless, for unto we have already attained, Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example and sample.
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, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to.
Even to subdue all things unto himself.
Yesterday we were looking at this chapter with emphasis on the first few words of the 10th verse of the chapter that I might know him. And so with that emphasis, we see certain things that the apostle Paul brings before us that will help us or hinder us from knowing the Lord Jesus better than we do.
And particularly the beginning of the chapter, we see some things that are a hindrance to us in knowing him. And the apostle Paul brings out another one where we finished, uh, as far as we got in the end of verse three, he says, have no confidence in the flesh.
In any measure in which we find our confidence in our flesh is going to hinder us from knowing Him.
The flesh is the condition in which a man is born in his state before God. That is, man today is born as a child of Adam's race.
But sadly, Adams Rice now has in it, and each child of it has that thing in it called sin.
A willful desire to have one's own way, regardless of what God has to say. And so God has looked at man before him as being in that condition, called in flesh a man that lives before him with sin in him.
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And says of man in that condition in Romans 8, they that are in flesh.
Cannot please God.
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, God no longer was looking for anything from man in that condition.
In fact, the death of the Lord Jesus was to deliver him from that condition in which he was and bring him into a new condition before God, which is called in spirit.
And so the Apostle Paul, before he learned that for himself.
Was.
Perhaps a pattern?
Of what man can rise to in the flesh.
And he describes it in these verses, If any man thinks he can have confidence in the flesh, I more he excelled as a man in the flesh in religious things.
He isn't bringing out that I lied, I cheated, I stole, and things like that. That man condemns. But actually he was one of the most zealous examples in the Bible of a man that sought to please God, really sought to be something before God according to what the flesh can be. And what did it lead him to?
Persecution.
God's people. And so the best that flesh can do in spiritual things, it will end up an enemy of what God wants from us spiritually. And that's what Paul was, but he did it with a good conscience. He he was a person that other people might envy and look up to for his zeal and any measure in which we try to please God according to the power of.
The flash that's in US, it's going to have the same results as Paul. It's not going to help at all, but actually it'll work against the purposes of God.
In verse 5.
That those who hang on to the Law of Moses might be characterized.
And this.
These indeed are formidable.
And they might think very important.
And that they were before the Lord Jesus died.
So he describes and then from verse 5 on.
That we all know that since all these things were prophet and meant nothing.
Were circumcised, the Jews were the circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. So circumcision was one thing, even though they don't fully understand the meaning of circumcision. Circumcision really is cutting off the flesh and set themselves apart for God. So he was proud of the fact that he was accustomed. So we'll see that in verse 5, circumcised on the eighth day. Second thing it was proud of was the fact that he was the stock of Israel. Nothing to do with newer birds, but it was a stock in Israel.
Not just that. Then he said he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Oh, that's still not enough. He says he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and above that he said he was a Pharisee. So as if it were, things got better and better for him from the root of his health, his genealogy, and his background. And then he would even go on and talk about his zeal, concerning zeal, he says, persecuting the church.
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And not only that, touching the righteousness, he looked at himself as blameless. 7 things that he could have been proud of. Now let's turn to first Timothy chapter one, verse 12. We can see that apostle Paul put it in a different light in the book of Timothy there in regard to what he had and what he was. First Timothy chapter one, verse 12 and 13, he said, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me.
For that, he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Who was before a blasphemer? Oh, he's not proud of that now, is he? In this, uh, in this passage, who was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, perhaps, maybe the next verse too. And the grace of our Lord's, of our Lord was exceeding abundant.
With faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
Now the Lord Jesus says something to say about the Pharisees.
And and look.
11.
Stop inverse.
42.
But woe unto you Pharisees, for ye tight men, and rule, and all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment, and the love of God.
These are to have done and not to leave the other under.
Go unto you Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seeds in the synagogues and greetings in the markets.
Who want to use gripes and Pharisees hypocrites, for he has graves which appear not.
And men that walk over them are not aware of them.
And then you said something to the lawyers, too.
And he said, Go unto you also, ye lawyers, for ye late men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourself touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Go unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your father's killed them.
Truly bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your father's, for they indeed killed them, and ye built their sepulchre.
Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.
As a person in the world, everyone born into this world and as he starts to grow up.
He set certain values for himself.
He forms certain ideas about what's important and what's valuable and what will make him happy.
He may not be aware of it, but every one of those things that he wants to gain for himself.
Have himself at the center of his own interest. Man lives back basically naturally for himself.
I must make myself happy. And so he decides on those things that he's going to go after as a means of giving himself a happy, satisfied, contented, successful, whatever it is. Like. For some it may be money, for someone else it may be some kind of excitement or thrill that he goes after. For someone else it it may be something else.
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But everyone forms it, everyone has it, and at the center it's really himself. And the apostle Paul here in says verse 7 concerning this list of things that he had followed after. They were things that he saw as game for himself. That's what he went after.
I thought it was rather striking. It's a little more modern example of the same thing is when Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, was nearing the end of his life with the cancer that he had, he decided to have a biography of his life written.
And he was asked something about facing death and so on and all that. He had gained the tremendous wealth. He was one of the four or five richest people in the United States at the time of his death.
And they asked him about that. That was his game, if you will, as to this life. And he said.
In the cemetery, it doesn't matter who had the most money.
In the cemetery, it doesn't matter who had gained the most money.
He was facing the end of everything that he had sought in his life and the apostle Paul in bringing before us knowing Christ.
What does he say in verse seven? He says those things which were gained to me, those I counted, loss for Christ.
He was saying when I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, it changed everything. It changed everything. The whole focus of my life changed. The whole motives that I lived for, changed the whole value system on which I treated gain and loss and decided on what was important and what wasn't. Everything changed.
For me.
And he summarizes one very important aspect of it, perhaps the central point of it in that is.
He lived for himself.
His whole life, the flesh always does. The confidence that he had in the flesh was what I can be, what I can do, what I can gain.
But when he said to the Lord, Who art thou, Lord? He owned a new master Lord.
And now instead of living for himself, his whole life was changed and he said now I live for someone else, not myself.
I live for my Lord.
And for Christ to have him is my whole game now.
And every one of us needs to come to that same point in our life, otherwise we'll waste our lives. And if we try to have a mixture of well, this is for the Lord and this is for me. It's the same principle, although a different application here. When it calls it concision, it's the try attempt to mix the old life and the new life and get the best of both. And it doesn't work. It does not work. It does not fulfill the purpose of God and it doesn't make the.
Human being happy that tries it. And so Paul is now going to bring before us and wanting to know Christ better. He says this is the change and this is the change that we have to start with in our lives as well. If we want to have Christ, if we want to know him, he has to be not only number one, He has to be everything ultimately, practically to our souls if we're to know him as he wants us to know him.
This is the transition from Saul to Paul.
Kind of wonder sometimes why his name got changed, but it helps to explain.
That which Paul was taking confidence in the flesh.
And he's contrasting that with rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Just want to go back to the third verse and ask a question because I see he speaks of three things there. He says we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And so I see where he's going through those last two. But where does the part about worshipping God and the Spirit come in, in terms of this chapter?
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Chapter 4. I think you have something of the answer to the first one of the three.
The woman at the well.
Lord had to say to her, You worship, you know not one what?
She had a religious desire. She had a certain thirst in her after God that God had put there, but she had no idea how to fulfill it. She had no sense of relationship with God.
And the flesh doesn't.
The Flash doesn't man in the flesh.
Can't approach God.
And so when they God established for himself to test man in the flesh, he established Judaism as a perfect religion to see if man could have a relationship with God and what he is in his natural condition before Christ died and.
He was afraid.
He couldn't approach God, and so the priesthood was established. If you had something to offer to God, you had to bring it to the priest. The priest then took it for you, and he was used to bring it to God on your behalf.
Because man naturally feared to come into the presence of God in in the condition in which he was, and as the consequence he couldn't really worship God as God wanted it to be. To worship God is to give God.
The overflow of a heart that appreciates him and knows him. And man after the flesh can't know God in that way, and so he can't worship.
But when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Then we have a new life given to us and we can worship God. That new life, the Spirit, works in that new life and enables us to worship God because we now have the Spirit. As the woman in the well learned, in the end she was one that the Lord brought out to her the coming of the Spirit for her.
So that she could worship God.
To rejoice in Christ Jesus, the second of the three.
And naturally, do not rejoice.
In the same things that God rejoices in, man finds his pleasure in that which is not according to what God finds his pleasure in when.
Cane flew his brother Abel.
He was afraid, as we always are. Whatever you do to somebody else, you'll be afraid they'll do it to you. If you lie, you'll be afraid people will lie to you. If you've stolen, you'll lock your doors because you'll be afraid people will steal from you. If you ever commit murder, you will be afraid that somebody will murder you. Whatever you have done that produces in us the tendency to fear someone will do it back to us when?
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He was afraid.
And the Lord in mercy, said Cain, I'll put a mark on you so that you will not be murdered. But then he spent the rest of his life outside the presence of God, turning his back on God to try to find happiness in a world without God for himself. He didn't rejoice in what God rejoices in. And so here in this chapter, we learned that when we previously had no capacity to find joy in the Lord Jesus.
When we accept Christ, when we receive a new life, when we start to live on the other side of the cross, from the side we were born on, then we can rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Uh, one more comment. The highest level you get in the whole of the book of Romans is chapter 5 and verse eight. We joy in our God. You can't go higher than that really. And it we couldn't joy in God until the matter of our sins was taken care of that separated us from God, but there is no higher fulfillment.
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For creature to find its joy in Christ and in God. And now we have the capacity to do that. We weren't born with it.
But we who have life in Christ now have the capacity to joy in God and to joy in Christ.
When I thought I umm would suggest with it at me to not apart from what you said, but just to add to it. The umm, I understand the J&D translation has that uh, we worship by the Spirit of God here and.
So it's all of what you have in, in John four, that now the, the worship of God is not just what they have in the Old Testament, which was according to the flesh. It's not that at all. It's completely different, but it's in the spirit and in truth. And uh, here we have that. It's not just in spirit as left up to our spirits as to how we're going to do. It seems to me it goes beyond to the fact that we worship by the Spirit of God.
Umm and sets aside our wills even in the matter and makes that a thing that's really up him from him to him. And, uh, reminds me of the verse in second Corinthians chapter three with the Spirit of the Lord is there's liberty. It's not our liberty, but his. And so that brings out worship and perfection and fullness if we allow him to do it in that way. But to me, it's been such a helpful verse because I remember when we got to Malawi and.
And we were there in the assembly at the beginning and didn't take long before we noticed that here were a couple of brothers before the meeting getting together and deciding, OK, you're going to give out this ham, you're going to give out this him, you're going to read these verses and you're going to pray at the table. And the whole meeting was decided. They were worshipping by the thought of one or two brothers and not just waiting on the Spirit of God. And so to me, this is a very helpful verse because you can go to 1St Corinthians chapter 12 and chapter 14, and we can see how the Spirit of God leads us to ministry.
And deciding who would administer what in the assembly. But here's a very key verse I believe is to the Spirit of God, uh, leading out in worship to God. We know the Lord Jesus is in the midst of Hebrews chapter 2, uh, leading out praise to God in the midst of the assembly. But here we see it by the Spirit of God that he doesn't working in one another to bring out that craze.
Parts two and three of that verse with.
Some other verses down the chapter I I missed that it seemed to imply that.
No, I was just talking about worshipping by the Spirit of God.
Umm, no. We were talking about how these verses go on and speak about how Paul was and glorying in the flesh, but that was being set aside. The brothers were bringing that out and he now goes on to speak about rejoicing in Christ Jesus. I was just looking at connection normally.
Sometimes it helps by looking at the theme of the subject of the chapter 1St instead of trying to interpret a single verse by itself. So we know the book of Philippians is is quite straightforward with the four chapters. In this particular chapter, I believe it speaks of Christ being our object and that's why we can look at the chapter and start dividing a little bit how it begins by.
Looking at the hindrances which I believe you, you had before you yesterday in verse two of verse two there, you have to be aware that in verse two, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concessions. Those are the three hindrances that keep us away from Christ dogs.
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In scripture it is a picture of the shameless evil. It's not dogs in a sense of a good pet. It's this. They, they're just shameless things. Even in the day of the pasta, in the apostles day, they were shameless evil going on.
And it applied today be more so and we see that going on. So we have to be aware of that. And, uh, and when it comes to evil workers, it speaks a false doctrines. Those are the things that could draw, draw us away. I suppose I should mention the conditions. It speaks of the spiritual pride. So we see shameless evil. We see false doctrine abound and we see the spiritual pride that's christened of itself too, isn't it? That can draw us away. Then he talked about his own pride as if it were.
Those seven things that he listed, that he as an Israelite.
Could pride himself off, uh, those things helping the stock of Israel, being Pharisees and so on. But then as our brother pointed out that in verse seven, he, he learned a very important lesson. He counted all of that to be done. It was just a loss. It was nothing because he found something better. And then he was able to go on in the late on verses there and he speaks of seven different things. Now he will speak of seven, uh, uh, perhaps new things that he discovered as a Christian.
As one who's redeemed. So we find that in, uh, verse, uh, the end of verse 8.
That is, that I may win Christ.
It's not quite exactly if the worship that you you were Speaking of him, but I think it's the beginning of it, isn't it when we put the evil away when we walk away from that, when we set aside our own pride and learn that I may win Christ. That's the first thing that he learned that I may win Christ and then he said and be found in him or how precious it is to be found in Christ. Now at least some of that for others to expand. Let me point out those few things there.
And and then is it having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is true faith of Christ? Oh, his own righteousness is now nothing. Isn't it that the righteousness which is of God by faith? And then he said that I may know him. He wants to be found in him. He wants to win Christ now. He wants to know Him. And then the power of his resurrection.
Oh, that's still not enough. The fellowship of his suffering.
Being made a conformable until his death and then in in verse seven he said that I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ us then he can truly say this as brethren in verse 13 I count up myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do. Oh now he narrow it down all this thing doesn't matter now down to the one thing.
One thing that he wants to do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Those we had in verse seven, there were the things that previously had been important to Paul and by which he measured his life and his goals in life, as we would say.
But having come to know Christ, it changed everything. And he had to, if I could put it this way, reevaluate his life, reexamine that which his life was all about. And God gave him the heart to do so. And in verse eight, he expands a little on his thinking about it. He says well.
This used to be important, and that was important and that was important, but none of those things are going to achieve the objective of having Christ for my game.
In fact, they've been a hindrance to me.
So I don't value them anymore.
They're not important anymore to me. They once were very important. They once were the whole center of my life when I was the center of my life. But now that Christ is the center of my life and now that I want to have him for my game, I have to re examine and reevaluate everything that used to be important to me.
00:40:11
To make it practical in a real sense of the word, we all have.
So many waking hours to our day and the responsibilities connected with it and hopefully we fulfill them as we should. But most every one of us, and just to try to make it practical, every one of us has a certain number of hours in each day, which is somewhat we would call discretionary. That is is left to us to decide how to spend it. Certain times we sleep, certain times we eat and so on.
But then there's and work and study and whatever our responsibilities are. But when you have one minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour.
Do you ever think about it in terms of how can I spend this time so that I may know the Lord Jesus better?
Is what I'm going to do in the next 15 minutes something that's going to achieve that objective in my life? Am I going to know him better in the next 15 minutes?
Or am I going to spend it some other way?
And so the apostle Paul put value on the activities of his life. And he said, well, if I do this.
It's gonna help me to know him, and that's what I want. That's the objective of my life. That's the desire of my life to know him.
Is this going to give me the true knowledge of God?
Or is it just gonna be spec?
Pleasure me a little bit, but then when it's over, it's gone and I don't know God any better. In fact, I may be farther away than when I started the 15 minutes or whatever it is. And so in verse eight, he said, I look at all those things that I described in verses 4567 and now I re I re examine them.
And uh.
There's the manure pile.
The dung pile might as well put that set of things on the pile because I never knew Christ that way. It didn't sound, it didn't bring any closer relationship with himself or knowledge of himself. And so now I look at it and I say, if we could put it this way, what a waste.
I just wasted that much of my life for nothing. It'll never count for eternity.
Another way of looking at it is to say, am I going to spend the time in such a way that it will still matter when eternity comes?
Or will that activity that I'm going to have now be an activity that when life is over?
It had no lasting value.
I I don't wanna go too far in what I'm saying because I wanna say, say something else to balance it. God has made us natural creatures, and physical activity and boating and so on are all part of the way God made us. And he doesn't mean by what he's saying here that there is not a place for the enjoyment of nature.
There is, and God provides that for us and for our good. But the question here is motive. What is my motive and what I choose to live? How I choose to live my life? Paul's motives were totally changed.
I'd like to try to illustrate some of what we have in this third chapter of Philippians with an illustration.
I sat in this room every year from the time I was a little baby until I was in my 20s and heard these messages. And I'll admit that sometimes they went flying over my head and I should have maybe connected on to some of the things that were said. Well, if I were to give everyone, young child, teenager, young adult, send them in the mail or give them in person a key. And it was to a safety positive box where you live near where your home is. And I were to give you a key and a number saying this is the number and this is the key. What would you do with that key? Would you take it and maybe put it on your key ring or put it in your top drawer or maybe?
Hanging in the wall or maybe displayed in the little case, What would you do with the key?
00:45:03
Well, I trust each one. If they were given a key to a safety positive box and tool that in there there were riches, they would take it and they would open it. They would make it personal. They would act on what they were given with the expectation of that fulfillment. Well, I'd like to give a little key here and it's not everything, but a little key here in the book of Philippians, there's at least five times that I know the apostle Paul used the expression my and I'd like to read them and one of them is in this chapter.
In Philippians chapter one and verse three it says.
I think, my God, upon every remembrance of you. I thank my God, upon every remembrance of you.
Umm. And then further down verse 13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the powers. Then in chapter 3 and verse eight, yeah, doubtless. And I count all things, but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them but dumb, that I may win Christ.
And in chapter 4 and verse one and therefore.
My brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy in crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved, and in verse 19, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul had made this personal. It was real to him. And so when there was thankfulness.
To his God it was real. And when there were bonds, they were in Christ. They were in Christ. He didn't look at the bonds as something to shrink back from. He didn't look at the difficulties of something to run from. They were in Christ. And so in the middle of these five minds, we find in chapter 3 for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And I think that each one of us could.
Gain immeasurably great blessing in considering.
Is he your Lord? Is it personal? Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44 says The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in the field, to which with a man hath found he hideth, and for the joy thereof goeth and selleth all he has, and buyeth that field.
Well, to find Christ there is a cost. When Jesus calls his disciples, he called them publicly and he said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
But they followed the Person of the Lord of glory, the Person, that glorious Person in whom was all the fullness of the Father, who upheld all things by the word of His power. They kept his company. And that's what God wants for each one of us, young and old. He wants us to keep His company for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. But there's a cost. But the cost is ever only and always worth it.
Everything that we lose is worth losing for the cause of Christ. The treasure is the key, the riches that we will have to never be taken. They'll never burn up, will never fade, will never get old. The things that are real and true and precious. And if we want these things, we want the joy that He wants to give us. There's some gratification. There's some pleasures, sinful pleasures, destructive pleasures.
It'll be a cost, but the cost is worth it.
Verse 9 makes the contrast my own righteousness.
With the righteousness which is of God, God's righteousness. So there's a matter of my own righteousness and God's righteousness.
And the apostle Paul.
And most people.
In some measure, within themselves have this sense that yes, there is God and yes, I'm responsible to God and, uh, I hope that I can be acceptable.
00:50:08
With God when I have to leave this life.
It's just part of the way God made us that sense of responsibility and accountability to Himself.
The Apostle Paul did all that he could in the flesh.
To be righteous, to be right with God.
He labored far beyond perhaps anyone in this room has ever tried to be in that regard, to make himself have a righteousness that God would accept and can I say he could take credit for, he could be proud about. He could say I excelled my fellow man.
In zeal for God and man will be religious as long as he can have the credit for it.
And, uh, Paul was amazing, man. There's the 10 commandments. He basically could say nine of them I kept.
Not many people in this room would care to say they kept nine out of the 10 E even though we're not under them and even though we're not under keeping the Sabbath. The only thing that Paul actually could say as far as the zeal concerning the as he says in verse 6, the righteousness which is in the law blameless. What slew him. What he knew he became short in was what was something inside of himself he coveted but that wasn't seen by other people.
That was within him, but in the outward details, he didn't lie, he didn't cheat, he didn't steal, He kept the Sabbath day and so on. He did amazingly well for a man in the flesh. But in this verse 9, he's saying.
I found out it wasn't worth anything. I did come short.
I wasn't righteous before God. I couldn't deal with what I was in my covetousness in the Spirit. And so he says. But I found in Christ the answer to the desire of my own soul.
He, his work himself is my righteousness with God, and that was everything to Him.
It ought to be to us. Paul was looking at it in a deeper way, I think, than simply saying Jesus died for my sins and someday when I have to leave this earth, I'll get to go to heaven.
Since I don't wanna go to hell.
That's that's true, but it's shallow.
For Paul, the very desire to be righteous before the holy eye of God was a very serious matter, and he had found the answer to his need in Christ. And so he says that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, he had to turn aside from confidence in himself and in the flesh.
And say I couldn't do it.
But I look to another I trust in Christ to be that which I cannot be myself before God. And He was. And so did it make him a thankful man? Yes, it did.
He rejoiced in Christ Jesus. He found his joy in that one which was for him before God, what he could not be in himself, and it gave him a joy a little bit more to verse three and and brought before him something that he valued. May we value it, brethren. May it be important to us to want to be righteous with God and find in Christ.
That which satisfies that desire.
Taking up these truths.
Umm, and this instruction, umm, we're getting this help because we probably have need of it.
And umm, I think that we can say that there's a tendency in each one of our hearts to umm, as brother Don was saying, to desire to to be righteous before God. And there's a.
There's a, uh, a process of growth that we each go through where we have to learn the experience that the Apostle Paul had to learn as well, that this righteousness is not produced.
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In the, uh, capacity of the first first man.
Umm, it is quite typical for us as natural men to take up the law to.
Umm, umm, offer to God, umm, this righteousness that we desire for him to find from us. And umm, the Apostle Paul here, he's completely, absolutely through with the law. He, he, he's come to the realization that, umm, naturally, naturally speaking, he doesn't need a law to achieve.
The righteousness that God desires in his life. But sometimes we're slow in learning that the law is useless and produce in bringing us to this point where we are enjoying the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus. And I, I would just like to give us a little indicator sometimes possibly when we really are unconsciously.
Umm, relying upon the law and its principles to create this righteousness.
Umm, sometimes we we find in our hearts a pride in spiritual things.
We actually think that we've risen to a level that we can be satisfied in our Christian life, that God is pleased with us. It's called spiritual pride. And I know that we all know what it is because.
That's kind of how our natural heart works, and we think that we have attained to something God is pleased with in ourselves.
And I just want us to to realize, well, that's an indicator that there is something at work in us which is producing our own righteousness because pride will be the result. It's called spiritual pride. Spiritual pride can do a lot of damage and it will never do what this chapter is seeking to do in our Christian lives to bring us more into the appreciation and the value.
Of Christ.
And so may we have grace to recognize this indicator that at work is an attempt to create our own righteousness in the flesh in the first man. And we really haven't gone through the process of spiritual circumcision. We had it. We've had it in previous verses, but it's a very, very important principle.
That we laid hold on to circumcision is having done with the flesh, it's having cut it off. It's it's seeing it at the cross and God dealt with it there and it's got absolutely no value. If there's spiritual pride in my life, if I am not motivated by the grace of God, I don't have a sense.
That God has come in and done everything.
With regard to bringing me into relationships and into acceptance with himself.
Then I probably don't completely understand what circumcision is. So I, I, I love to be able to sometimes have these keys to help me to understand sometimes maybe what's going on within my heart. Pride is something that it's, it's a, it's a product of the first man and we have the flesh and so.
I don't think any of us here can say, well, I'll, I'll never have pride again. But it is an indication when pride is at work and when we're, when we begin to get lifted up in a spiritual way, it's the result of the activity of the flesh in our hearts. And it often can come in a spiritual, in connection with spiritual things if the flesh is at work.
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Take up a little of the theme, verse if you will, verse chapter 10, verse 10.
Those first five words that I may know him.
That I may know.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
The Son of God.
That he might participate with us.
In flesh and blood.
Different from us in that He had not sinned in himself, he was not in the condition of being in flesh.
But he participated in flesh and blood.
As a holy man.
He was known as a man amongst men.
His office, the carpenter's son.
Is not this the Carpenter?
His life was a participation with us.
Humanity.
In that place where we are.
As man had become before God.
But when he died.
He died to all of it.
Some people would say I wish I had lived when Jesus was here so I could have known him.
As he was when he was here.
You can't be known that way.
When the apostle Paul said that I might know him.
He recognized very well.
That he could not know him as a man after the flesh.
We cannot know him.
As a man after the flesh.
He is a man.
But he died.
On that cross.
And so, on the day of his resurrection, he could only be known in a new way.
And those who were to know him.
Had to know him differently than they had known him three days before.
Mary, the first one who had the privilege of seeing him on the day of his resurrection. She wanted to re establish contact with that man who had come into the world and that she had known in that way.
And to express that she wanted to touch it.
And he said to her, no.
No.
He knew what was in her heart, he knew the desire and love of her soul to himself. And she wanted, now that she saw him alive again, she wanted to pick up where they had left off, if you will, and come to know him again in that way. And what he was saying to her was Mary.
I'm not to be known that way anymore.
You get to know me now in a newer and better way.
You know me as man in resurrection.
You know me as a man that has done.
With that old creation, with all that Adam and his race were, I can't be known. I'm not associated with that race anymore.
I belong as the first fruit of a new creation.
And everyone that is going to have a know me now must know me in that way.
I can't be known the old way.
And that's what's before the apostle here. He says that I might know him. And what is the next words? The power.
His resurrection. To know Him now is to know Him.
On the other side of death, into that which introduces eternal life, into that sphere of things where sin is going to be perfectly removed.
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And where man is going to be to the pleasure of God, and God is going to find his pleasure in man without the hindrance of sin, and so on.
And that's what's before the apostle here. And brethren, only way we can know. You can't know him after the flesh. You can't seek to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the basis of the atom relationship, it was ended for man at the cross. There was nothing anymore that God was seeking to get from man after flesh.
It was worthless. It was useless. The apostle Paul recognized it and re examined his life and said all the past is past, that it didn't. It didn't do any good. I want to know it.
I want to know him as he is.
And if you and I are going to have a relationship today with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's with a man who is on the other side of death, the other side of the cross, in living power, in a new creation.
Because it says when he in Second Corinthians chapter 5, as in all have died otherwise he wouldn't have had to die for us if we weren't in that condition and now we know him and newness of life.
May the Lord help us to evaluate our lives and to live our lives as those that belong to a new creation, and that way we know Him.
In 2nd Corinthians 5, isn't it though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth knowing Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ is a new creation, old things are passed away and hold all things have become new.
So that one extra for that, that could be a 5, which is very important. The same chapter says the love of Christ constrains us.
The love of Christ does not constrain the flesh.
It constrains the new man. It constrains what we are in Christ, righteous before God, with a new life and a divine nature. And that life that we now have in Christ is constrained by His love. But if you try to be constrained by Christ in the flesh, it has no power to constrain us. We will have the will of the flesh.
And in fact, if he stands in the way.
The heart is at enmity against him in the flesh, and will say, I will not have him.
Let him be crucified.
If you were.
I if this thing was a magnet and you were magnetizable, you're not Joe, but if, if you were, uh, something that was attracted by magnetic power, then the post in front of you, if it was magnetized, would constrain you. It would have a pull on you. That was in the nature of what you are and what it is.
And so in Christ and what we are in Christ, and having a divine nature, and what he is.
Pulls us to himself.
I I like it.
In Peter, Peter's conversion, as we would call it, is found in Luke chapter 5 when he's on the boat. He'd known the Lord Jesus, I don't know, for weeks or months or longer and.
That day the Lord what uses his boat and sends him out to get his wages of the fish for the use of the boat. Peter doesn't properly do what he's told, but he half does it. The fish come into the boat. That's where Peter gets converted and he says the first words out of his mouth are here he is. He's in a boat. He's at the knees. He puts his knees before the Lord Jesus.
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And he says, the Lord depart from me.
Right. I'm like a sinful man. Oh Lords.
I don't know what he expected the dude Lord to do, to climb out of the boat and walk on the water away from him or something, but the point in it is, even though he felt his sinfulness at that moment, because there was light in Peter, he was constrained to get as close to the Lord as he possibly could.
And the love of Christ will draw us.
In the Newman draws us to himself and holds us there.
When it says here was 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
We would like to have it this way, the power of his protection.
Because we are constantly praying about being protected on the way to the conference and the way home, and when we are at home, working, doing all kinds of things, we would like to be protected.
But the power is in his resurrection.
The power of his sufferings.
If I'm underway and summaries like suppose you wanna go to Mexico, these things are happening. Somebody comes to you, to you there. Of course these are happening in this country too.
And says give me all your money or I'll shoot you.
What would you say?
The best thing to say would be my life is hit with God in Christ.
You can't shoot me.
Unless God has appointed you to do this right now, I'm not gonna give you my money. You can shoot me because I know where I'm going. My life is hit with God in Christ. But would you do that if you had the faith that God wants us to have? We could do it because He wouldn't shoot you.
If he didn't have the power from God to do it.
So that's the power of his resurrection, because we are looking for a life to go on for eternity with the Lord Jesus.
And if you're not looking for it.
What are we looking for?
The Lord Jesus, when he left here in this world, what kind of fun did he have? Did he have fun?
His greatest ambition was to please God, his Father.
That was what his greatest joy was to do, and that's why he was here and that's why he lived.
He didn't have any fun as the flesh wants to have.
The only, uh, place he went.
And there wasn't fun, but that was life. He went through a wedding celebration.
And there he made the water into wine. The joy in the Lord.
What else did he have that could make him joyful? Just to please God the Father and that the power of his resurrection that we can have to make him joyful in the way we walk, and that that includes everything.
We don't need all these.
Protection, those insurances, the world is full of it. You have car insurance, you have a life insurance, you have a furniture insurance and and you can have insurance for everything. We really don't need that. We gotta have to have it because the man has made a law that we have to have it. God has made that law.
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Got it because hasn't made cheapest loss or things like that. We have to live by it because we are using cars. That's the only way we that's the only reason. The Lord Jesus didn't need any of those and yet he had the greatest joy that a man can have in this world and that was to please God.
That's the power of his resurrection.
It has to do with debt made conformity conformable to unto his death.
What does that mean?
Our time is up, brother.
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We thank the.
Our God and Father, that we know something about the power of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Practically.
We don't know how to.
And look at it or to use it.
But we know that it is there because he is alive.
He had the same power in heaven now that he has while he was living in this world as a man. Perfect man. We thank thee that we could look at him.
As the one who he really is.
The Son of God.
We know that we cannot comprehend him in all things.
But we can have faith, and we thank the.
That thou hast given the face which we need to live on in this world of wickedness.
Because of his power.
Neither of the flesh.
Had a faith in the Lord Jesus our Savior. We thank you for this time together there.
And we could have more reading meetings if we had.
Provisions to make for it and learn more about him. We thank Thee that we could have what we had before us today, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Amen.