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Father, with another hour before us, now we just pray that now we'll continue to feed our souls with that which is convenient for us, and give us the grace to walk in obedience to Thy Word with Thanksgiving and joy, until we see His face and we ask Him in His name, Amen.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Verse 4.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh. I more circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, in Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of 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, Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, 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. And 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, rather than I count on myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth into 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, where 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 for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and I'll 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 once also we look for the Savior of 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 even to subdue all things unto Himself?
Don't want to attempt to direct things in an improper way, but I just suggest that if we spend a lot of time on 4-5 and six, which are things that need to be addressed for sure, we won't have a lot of time to consider all the positive, encouraging things that follow in the verses 7 and on. So let's just keep that in mind perhaps that we have a lot in the rest of the chapter.
00:05:18
One of the things we might want to keep in mind is.
Is that from what we gather from these verses that of Paul lays before us? Of course, no confidence in the flesh. God can use empty vessels.
But I, I think, I think you probably would agree that uh, uh, he cannot use vessels that are full of self.
And if if if you're a nobody.
God can use them, but if we think we're somebody, I don't think the Lord's gonna do much with us. Some of the greatest, uh, uh, Christians that I've done the great things for God have been men who have had nothing to begin with. I was just reading recently the a little biographical sketch of AAW Tozer, and he was a man, really. They might give someone is rightly said. You could probably put it all in his academic learning.
And his biblical understanding of things on the back of your thumbnail that God used this man and a mighty way because he was dedicated to the Lord. And I think that's what the the message that God would have us to understand that Paul here though he had all the credentials he had all of the background, but it meant nothing to Paul because the the subject of which Paul could would excel in and what was called to do.
Was to exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and I think that that that's what we find when he's saying verse 7. But what things were gain to me those I counted lost for Christ. And so the great subject that Paul was he was absorbed and the glorious person of Christ, as he later on will say in this very chapter. We haven't come to it yet, but he said that I may know him.
This was Paul's great obsession.
So I just thought I'd make that little comment on that because we finished up whether I might have no confidence in the flesh and the oth the others think that they have something. You know, Paul had it, but he laid it all aside.
And just to make back that up with another man that I had in mind was John Bunyan. John Bunyan was an illiterate man, having no background, no qualifications. But what did God do? He took a man like John Bunyan to write one of the great Christian classics, The Pilgrim's Progress. And John Bunyan also has written a lot of other good things. Uh, he's written a lot of good poetry. He's, he's, he's given us a few sermons and so forth, but God used him mightily.
He took some something, a man that was nothing, and he made made him something.
I was thinking the list that, uh, Paul.
Includes here between 4:00 and including six. They're easily understood that I just have a question about the last one. Just simply, umm, touching the righteousness, which is, which is in the law, blameless and, uh, how could Paul, umm, claim that? I wonder if somebody could explain that for me.
Let's see like the whole outward form of what men could see or.
Judaism was a religion it someone could go and worship uh in quotation marks, but not.
They can do that in a note word way, but uh, uh, all does say that the commandment that flew and was also on that covet, which was something I wasn't seeing from the out outward that wasn't apparent, but Paul knew it in his own heart and.
I just wonder if just referring to what he could glory and what he could, uh, show for himself to manage and his nation and to those that.
Respect them, but Lord looked into his heart before his new thought. He was in reality.
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Uh, looking at him, you know, like a rich young man that came to the Lord and he was blameless. I mean, he could say that he kept those things from his youth. Overlord, uh, touched inside of him and about what was in his heart.
So what he really was?
Hmm.
For that is Romans Chapter 7.
And verse 7, all referring to himself, says, I had not known lust, except the law has said, Thou shalt not covet.
I wonder if it could be viewed in the light of of Group One where it's.
Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.
In other words, it's not hey, that he obeyed the law to the T or kept the law, but he kept the ordinances of the law. He was he did what was expected to send you got a sent off from if ties were expected, he brought the ties whatever the law of the ordinance is called for.
Starting to do it. That's that's how I've taken it. It's it's.
Up and he was able to actually keep the law and love the Lord his God with all his heart and soul. And that whatever the ordinances or the law was that that was expected of an Israelite, he was diligent to to seek to do it.
Connection with Paul, it says here, uh, in our chapter in the uh, sixth verse concerning zeal persecuting the church.
And, uh, interesting that connection. He did many things that we would not consider to be good, but in.
Connection with Walkie, actually with glory and the first verse he had. The fifth verse is basically things he was born into, but starting with being a Pharisee and these other things that those were things that he did himself. And in the first Timothy, the 1St chapter and the 13th verse we have his view of what he was.
Umm, after he was saved, it says in verse 13, because who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly.
In unbelief.
So we looked back at all those things from God's point of view instead of from a Pharisees point of view. From a Pharisees point of view he had no fault, but from God's point of view he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious. But he found mercy because he did it in unbelief.
And so that's part of, uh, what leads him, uh, to the rest of this chapter is the realization of how great the mercy of God is in his life.
You go out on a starry night and look up. Each of those stars has a has a beauty, and it's a it's a fascinating thing to look up on a clear night.
But you know, all those stars are there when the sun's out. You just can't see them because they're really eclipsed by the glory of the sun. It's so much brighter.
Than, uh, any of the stars in the sky. And so with the apostle Paul, you might say, is the man in the flesh. He could look at all these things and list them off all these bright points. You know, it says in Acts when he was on the road to Damascus here the crowning thing was that he was persecuting the Church of God. How much more could he show his zeal than to seek to stamp out everything that was contrary, as he thought to the law of God?
Everything that opposed what God has given, and he had God's authority in his mind.
And there's nothing more persecuting more awful than its persecution than religious man. Cain was a religious man. He brought his good things too, just like Paul could list these things that he thought were good. And what did he do? He slew Abel. He slew the man that was accepted by grace. And so the man who seeks to be accepted by God on his own works will always persecute the true child of God.
Who stands, uh, by grace alone in God's sight? And so he persecuted for what happened? That light shone from heaven around him. And you know, it says that light shone from heaven. And he fell to the ground. And that voice came. Saul saw wide, Persecutest thou me?
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It's hard for thee to kick against the ******. And he could say later to the Pharisees. I have lived in all good conscience before God.
Till now he was persecuting the Church of God with a good conscience. He thought he was doing service to God.
But as soon as that voice reached his ears, he knew it was Jehovah that was speaking to him.
And when he said, why persecute is thou me? It must be Jesus Christ.
And he realized that the very God who he thought he was serving was the one that they put on Calvary's cross.
The very one who he thought he was doing service to and persecuting the Saints of God were one with him.
And then his conscience became engaged for the first time in connection with what he was doing. Why, it's hard for thee to kick against the ****** of conscience. And you know later when the apostle recounts that, he says a great light from heaven shone. And then he recounted again, he says the light above the brightness of the sun, it eclipsed everything else, everything that he might have as a credit for himself.
It was just he faced like those stars are gone and the brightness of the sun. He saw a glory that was far beyond anything, anything he might ever have for himself. And so these things that are listed here.
You might say in a certain sense, outside of persecuting the church aren't bad things. They're the things that the flesh can glory in. Good things, religious things. Man's religious, he has things he can boast, and this isn't the sins of the flesh.
Being recounted, it's the religious things, things he can boast in.
Even those are eclipsed by the glory that shines above the brightness of the sun.
From ascended Christ. And that's what filled his soul on the road to Damascus. And you know, as he spoke about it, it just kept getting brighter. Every time he talked about it, it was brighter until it's above the brightness of the sun when he recounts it later in the book of Acts. And so it should be with us. That should just be a glory that ever grows before our souls, brighter and brighter until it eclipses everything.
Of ourselves.
We all have things that the flesh would glory in.
That there might be something we can show or.
Be religious about It's not religion, as we probably often heard. It's a person.
Man has religion. That's not what's offered to us in the word of God, a person, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Far different than religion Paul had. Saul had religion. He had more than anybody else and plenty to boast him. But he didn't have Christ.
And when he saw Christ, really, And he said, I don't want all the rest.
I suppose we could say that the the great reality of God and of a risen, living Christ and the great salvation that has accomplished captivated Paul's heart.
That he found then that something that would cause him to see no value in the earthly things.
There's a that little hem we sometimes sing well, we're only pomp and glory. Your charms are spread in vain. I've heard of sweeter story. I've found a truer gain for Christ. The place prepare it. There is my blessed to vote. There shall I gaze on Jesus? There shall I dwell with God?
So the Apostle Paul was spoiled, and we should be too, because we know our destiny is to be with Christ in glory.
Time is short, earthly life soon flies by, eternity is long. So why do we live so much for the world? Why don't we do like the apostle Paul? Here I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now this world doesn't have anything for the Christian. And I think of the words that we find that Paul writes in Galatians.
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God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified in the May. What Paul is saying, the world is like a crucified man.
A crucified person was a person that was an all scouring of all things was nothing. And Paul says the world.
Is crucified into me. I look at the world the same as people who look at a crucified man. It's a terrible sight, and I am crucified unto the world.
Paul had the opposite view too. The world was crucified unto him, but the world looked upon him and he, Washington, and the world didn't have anything. Well, didn't want him either, because he belonged to the Lord Jesus, holy and solely. And so it's wonderful to see that, that Paul.
Here finds his right priority. You know, we've heard that saying people say, well, they they haven't got their priorities in order.
Well, maybe that's something we ought to think about. What is our priority? Is our priority the Lord first, me second, or other people second? Me third? Or is it me first?
We grow in our souls and these things line upon line, and then our apprehension.
As the Spirit of God unfolds the word of God to us, and the apostle says, I counted all things but lost.
You know, and if your house burned down, you'd say we suffered a great loss.
But if you said we had a dung pile Outback and the Creek overflowed and washed it away, I'd say, well, no great loss.
What a growth and a soul to say I counted all things but lost and he says no, I do count them but done. I counted them but lost. I don't count them a loss anymore. I used to think it was a loss. It's not a loss. It was just done, had no value and so there it's the work of the Spirit of God to.
At the glory of Christ would grow in our souls in that way that.
When something comes up and the Spirit of God speaks to me and I know it's not right, maybe something I'm going on with or something I hold on to and and I asked the Lord for strength to give it up and I feel like it's a loss.
But you know, walking that path, be obedient to what the Lord has to say, counter the loss, get rid of it, and eventually you'll count it as done that it had no real value anyway.
I guess some of the things that we think in this life are so important. And the final end, that'd be like the Apostle Paul says here, it's done. I remember when I was stationed in Germany and I, I had bought a very beautiful Motorola radio. It was a real big, it was shiny and so forth. And anyhow, I was detailed to another city called Witchburg.
And, uh, I was in a hospital there for a while and, and I left my radio up there and I got back down to Nuremberg. I had orders to ship out, so I asked someone to bring it down to me. I put great value on that thing. And it was something that a 19 year old soldier of, you know, at that time, I thought it was just wonderful. And for years I, I lamented the fact that I had lost that thing. But you know, today.
It matters little.
It wasn't important. So you know, many of the things that we think are so valuable and so important aren't really all that important at all. So to me that thing means absolutely nothing. If I had it, I could dump it in the river right now. So, you know, The thing is that that Paul had his priorities in in order. He knew what was most valuable and he knew what was not. Everything that pertains to the Lord Jesus and our growth in him.
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As we seek the glorifying on our hand for what He has done for us, that's the important thing.
Damon was a man.
Like Saw.
And when the prophet sent a messenger out to them and said go dip in Jordan, he went away furious.
And so man clings to nothing more, far more even, than his earthly possessions.
He clings to his religiousness and what he thinks it gives him.
Above other men.
What he thinks it gives him in the sight of God.
And so Naman went away and rage, and you know the servant came to him, and he said, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, who thou not have done it? Something to give credit to the flesh, something you could boast in Naman. Climb the highest mountain, go, conquer a city, go. Whatever it is, wouldn't you have done it?
But Grace says just wash and be clean. Grace says you have nothing to bring, you've got nothing to boast him. All you've got is filthy rags. It's worthless. And so religious man hates Grace.
Because it makes nothing of him and all his vain boasts.
And so the apostle Paul, it was just a great work of the Spirit of God and his soul. And so with each one that's brought to Christ to count all those things lost and then done, to let it all go.
What he saw so captivated his soul that he would not let anything come in between him.
And the Excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord, he wouldn't let anything come in between him and winning Christ or possessing Christ to be found in Christ is a is a standing before God that we have and in Christ we have the righteousness of God to win Christ, I think is more the thought of the practical possession in my heart and it's in the enjoyment of the person.
And enjoyment of the person who is sitting at God's right hand in glory, a glorified Christ, that I may win Christ, it's so captivated his soul, he said. I don't want anything to come between me and the possession of what I've seen, and by any means I want to attain to that. Don't let anything get in the way.
And he can only speak for himself.
He cannot speak for you and I in this passage.
He can only speak for himself. This is very personally individual for each one of us.
All is different than the other apostles.
The other apostles followed the Lord in his earthly pathway. They had high hopes of the Kingdom being introduced and they saw the Lord rejected. You know, those hopes in a certain sense were dashed, and they saw the Lord.
On Calvary's cross they saw the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, they bore witness to it, and then as well as resurrection and being caught up to glory, And Peter said that he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ.
And he looked for the glory that should follow. And that's a theme through Peter's epistles.
Paul did not witness the sufferings of Christ, but he was caught up to the 3rd heaven and he witnessed his glory and he said that's where I want to get to, that's what I want for my own soul.
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And if it means passing through suffering to get there, then that's what I want to do. Peter said we saw the sufferings that we look forward to the glory. Paul says, I saw the glory. I'm going to go through the sufferings to get there, no matter what it takes, no matter what. I've got to count, but lost. And you know what humbles our hearts when we read this portion, when we realize what we cling to?
And what we are willing to.
Disabled the Lord Jesus for in our lives that we might have something for me.
It's easy to talk about those who suffer for Christ and maybe sort of Daydream glorious thoughts about ourselves of what we do for the Lord in foreign lands and the gospel mission field and this and that. And then it comes to a little thing to give up in my home.
Or the way I dress.
Or my associations in life and I say it's too much to suffer for Christ.
No, I can't be like him in that. That's too much to give up. Well, we haven't seen the glory that he's in. I caught his right hand. We haven't had the vision that Paul had for his soul.
He can't speak for us, he says. I want it for you. I'm going to tell you about it.
I want your heart to be enraptured too. It's gotta be. You can't do it for you.
So he doesn't say we through here. This is me.
You know when you think of that verse, verse 10, that I may know Him.
The Apostle Paul had the most unique experience. He met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul was caught up to the 3rd heaven. He saw and heard things that he couldn't communicate.
Paul was taught the gospel on the backside of a desert for three years personally by the Lord.
Paul had all kind of revelations. Paul had the great certainty that the man who died on the cost of Calvary was alive.
Didn't he know him? Sure he knew him. Do you know him? I know him if we put our faith and trust in him. But what does the apostle say here? That I may know him?
That is the move.
It it's not the indicative mood. He didn't say I know him that I may know him. There's more more of Jesus. Would I know more of his grace to others show so the there is a way that we should make this our goal in life. Have you ever prayed Have I ever prayed, Lord, that I might know thee better. I might have a deeper appreciation of myself.
That you would be more more real to my soul today than you were yesterday. Then he goes on to say and the power of his resurrection. Well, the Paul knew he met the risen Christ. What does he mean by the power of his resurrection? I believe he means now, of course, it it might be far a little more more than not. I might not be on the right track here, but I think that Paul says here.
That the power of the resurrection might be more of a reality to me. It's not just an academic thing that we say, well, yes, Christ rose from the dead, but let me ask my own heart and yours, Has it gripped my heart?
So I think of that Blessed One who has conquered the power of death, come forth from that tomb. I think Mary Magdalene knew something about the the power of that resurrection.
'Cause when she came to that tomb, and the Angel said, I know you seek Jesus, for he is not here, He is risen as he said.
Come see the place where the Lord lay. I don't know if Mary Magdalene, she probably did in that tune. Come see the place where the Lord lay. That blessed man that died for you and me is alive today, and may the power of His resurrection grip our hearts, motivate us.
00:35:07
Comfort us, sustain us in all of our trials and problems that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.
In the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. He breathed on the disciples and said, Receive thee Holy Spirit.
And that verse was fulfilled that had been spoken by the Lord earlier and John, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And so the Lord Jesus, risen Son of God, he as a life giving spirit imparts a character of life to his own that.
Is characterized by resurrection. I should should put it.
So we call it resurrection life, and that resurrection life was his own life, having been raised from the dead by the power of God, by the glory of God.
And that life was.
To be lived in the power of the Spirit of God. So he says, receive ye Holy Spirit.
And so, as each one of us, our new creatures in Christ, we are in possession of the life of Christ raised from the dead, the Spirit of God being the power of that life, and Christ himself and glory raised from the dead.
The object of that light. And that's what the apostle says that I may.
Know Him in the power of His resurrection to know and walk day by day, and the power of a life that will never taste death.
In a life that.
Is only to be able to be walked in by the power of the Spirit of God that rises above everything in this scene, every obstacle.
The power of his resurrection.
The mighty power of God, when He raised Him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, and He seated you and I there as well, by that same power, and by that power that God raised Christ from the dead, is the.
Because it was by the Spirit of God as the same power by which you and I, and the only power by which you and I.
Can walk for Christ through this world, and that's what he wanted in his walk.
To know the power of that resurrection, its practical effect on his walk.
By any means.
I might miss the garbage translation. I might arrive at, umm, the resurrection from among the dead.
I would suppose that means that of course when Paul is home and glory, the old nature is completely left behind, and the only thing that is left is the new nature, divine life. And so this would be the.
Shall we say perfection?
So he's aiming for that, isn't he's gonna fall short, but this is his target. I think that's what that means.
If by any means.
And so he died at the hands of the executioner, didn't he? If by any means.
I might be like Christ.
Then so be it, whatever the cost.
I heard his account that years ago Brother Gill was asked to the conference. Brother Gilly said, uh, the question was asked to him, if you knew the Lord was coming tomorrow, what would you want to do today? And he said, I'd like to die so that I might pass through what the Lord passed through and experience the power of resurrection that he experienced when he was raised from the dead. And that's what the apostle sang, if I should die, then so much the more like Christ, for he died.
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And went into the grave. And I'll be raised from the dead by the same power of God. So much the more I'll be like him.
By any means, I want to be like that one who has become the object of my heart and who, as we know, the heart's object.
Forms us were formed by the object of our hearts. We love money and we want money. We're going to look like money if we want.
Hollywood. And we want to attain to that. Then that's what we're gonna look like, or whatever it is in this world. We want power. We're gonna look like that. We want Christ, we're gonna look like that.
A man is formed, a woman is formed, Boy and girl is formed by the object of their hearts.
And that's what he's saying. This is my object and if it even means death.
And so much the more like Christ.
There were two, there were two things that, uh, Paul learned on these two things on the road to Damascus. One was what we've been talking about, the fact of what he saw the Excellency of the glory, and he wanted to know that more fully.
The other thing that was revealed to him in, uh, Damascus was what the Lord Jesus was going to communicate to him, what great things he must suffer for my sake. And I believe that that ties in with the thoughts of what Paul wanted to do is to, uh, win Christ, to have that relationship with them. In Hebrews 13, we know the Lord has said, I will never leave thee or forsake thee. And he told Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee.
There was the Lord Jesus is looking for with us is of course a relationship, a friendship with each one of us individually.
And I believe that what we've had brought before us to commend itself to me in connection with verse 11, remember that one of Paul's hopes as expressed in First Thessalonians 4, would be to be, uh, taken alive to meet the Lord in the air. And I believe what, uh, this verse is expressing is that his part of his willingness would be to, uh, face death. So that as it's expressed here, you can see it in more clearly in the, uh, Darby translation. It's a resurrection.
From among the dead. It's not just the resurrection of dead people all at once, but it's those like Christ raised from among the dead. And that's exactly what's gonna happen to those who are asleep in Jesus, as is described in First Thessalonians 4. That there's a resurrection from among the dead. The rest of the dead live not until 1000 years was finished. So Paul is willing to take his part in this resurrection from among the dead.
If part of the suffering that the Lord Jesus has for him bleep to death, which of course it did.
He was willing to go there to be like Christ.
There's an account in, uh, Second Kings that.
I feel, as an illustration of these few verses, that it's.
To me, every time I read it, it just seems to uh.
Grow and it's and it's preciousness, but it's second Kings chapter 2 where we have the account of Elijah and Elijah walking together and the Lord was going to take Elijah up to glory and as he goes along, the sons of the prophets come in and they say to him, thus do you know that your master's head is going to be taken from you today? You're going to lose your master. He says I know hold your peace. Get out of the way. I got my eyes fixed on Elijah and you're just getting in the way. Don't let anything come between us.
That's all. I don't want anything coming between us.
And so they went on together.
Instructional to see the different cities they pass through and the thoughts connected with them. But they come to Jordan and cross and uh.
Verse 8 Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided, hit her and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground.
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elijah, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me not.
00:45:06
The thought isn't twice as much, but that it would be the portion of the first born. First born had the double portion, he says, as it were to Elijah. If I'm going to have to walk in this path, I'm going to need twice as much as all the rest are going to get. You know, the first born got twice as much as the rest of the sons. Not saying twice as much as Elijah, he says. I'm going to need twice as much as anybody else is going to get.
And so it was a hard thing. And Elijah said, if you see me be taken up, then you'll know it's come to pass. And they say are walking along and talking. Verse 11.
Behold, there peered a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven, and Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel.
And the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.
And so it's a little picture to us, just like we have with Paul and his vision is up.
It's a man ascended to glory that's occupying him.
And in a little picture here, the relationship that we have in the New Testament of Sons and he says my father, my father, you know, in the beginning of his pathway, when Elijah cashed that mantle on him, he said he let me go back to my father and mother.
But he's traded everything that might come between him and the one who's occupying his gaze. And he says now my Father, my father, he's given everything up. His relationships are only with glory, with heaven. Nothing else matters.
He sees them caught up.
And the mantle falls down and he takes it up. It just kind of enjoyed reading these verses kind of intertwined between Philippians three and 2nd Kings two. And I'll just try and if I can read them that way, maybe you'll get the the thought.
And Elijah saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.
And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.
Philippians 2.
But what things were gained to me, those I countered lost for Christ.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
And he took up the mantle also, the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank.
Of Jordan.
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters.
And said.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
Can be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. He takes that mantle up.
Verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and he takes that mantle and justice like Elijah, He wraps it together and he smites the water.
And he passes through that river that speaks to us of death.
The death of the believer with Christ.
And he went over, and Elijah went over. And so in that way, here he is looking up, gazing on that man in glory. He tears his own clothes apart, he leaves them aside, everything that he might have of himself. He takes the mantle of Elijah now for his garment, and then he takes that in. The very power that Elijah had walked through Jordan, he and that same power now walks through that river.
And so the apostle wanted to win Christ, to know the power of his resurrection, to walk in that power day by day as he went through this scene with his eyes fixed on a man in glory.
And Elijah goes on in his ministry as a ministry of blessing and grace, this whole pathway through.
And so that was the Apostle Paul's ministry as he had his eyes fixed on that man in glory. It was a ministry of grace.
00:50:12
OK, I'm saying.
Oh OK oh MOV down.
1575910 You are always Oh my God, Oh my God, it's beautiful and it's being crowned.
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