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156.
Praise God.
Look to the Lord gracious God our Father, we thank Thee for giving us such an object to have before our souls, Lord Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, and to think of the wonderful testimony we have of Him in Thy Word, our God, and every single one of them.
Speaks well.
A witness to the perfection that there was.
Even those who crucified him.
Said this man hath done nothing amiss.
And Latvia, our God and Father also has found thy delight in him. We have this recorded to we pray, Lord, that a sense of these things may get a hold of our souls and that as we continue our meditation this afternoon, that that would direct and help us, Lord, to have Christ before us. And then this wonderful book of Philippians for our Pilgrim, our wilderness pathway. Lord, we need this.
To be able to rejoice in something when all around is contrary. We thank you for giving Him, and we look up and ask in His worthy name. Amen.
We're going to suggest we start at verse 7.
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 dumb, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
00:05:31
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 am 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 in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto 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 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 even to subdue all things unto Himself.
MMM. Well, the things that were gained to Paul are the things that are listed in the previous verses, those things that he once placed great value and importance on. But it wasn't that it was difficult in a sense for Paul to give those things up. And you say, why wasn't it difficult for Paul to give those things up and to count them as lost because he found something better? This may seem like a very oversimplified and mundane illustration.
But if a child, if one of our children, when they're very little, is holding on to something that we don't want them to have and that we feel down the the road will be a detriment to them, what do you do to get to get them to lose their grip on that thing? Why you offer them something better. If a child's holding onto a knife, you might struggle with that child to get it out of its hand and you or the child may get cut with the knife. But if you offer the child an ice cream cone or some candy.
Why they immediately drop the knife? They don't place any importance on holding onto the knife anymore.
Because what you've offered and what they found in their hand now is something that's far better. And that was the way it was with the apostle Paul. What he found in Christ with so much better than the things he once put stock in the once he, the things that he once thought were merits in his favor. Why, he could cast them off as nothing. They had been important to him, but now he had found something far, far superior in Christ. And brethren, I believe the more our hearts get to know him.
The more we walk in His company, the more we're occupied with himself, the more we go over in our souls His glories and His beauties. Why the things that we think or thought were important at one time?
Those things are just going to drop off and it's not going to be a difficult thing. We're going to say we have something far better now.
It's important to see, I believe, that what Paul counted but done here was not the natural God-given ability that he had. It was not the mind, the body, the particular abilities in certain lines that God has given each one of us that Paul counted, but dung, No God wants us to use those, but to use them for him and to use them for the right motive rather than the wrong one.
But what Paul counted lost for Christ was everything that he had in this world that at least in some measure, accredited him and gave him stature before the world. And I do agree wholeheartedly with what Jim has brought out, that when God presents something better to us, it isn't difficult to let go.
00:10:12
Of that which by comparison has no value.
But I would point out then, why don't we let go more easily? Why is it such a problem? Why did Paul have to write this chapter in this way?
I just suggest that there's a key to it. Toward the end of the chapter where he talks about those that are enemies not of Christ, he says enemies of the cross of Christ.
It's referring ultimately to an unbeliever because he says whose end is destruction.
But sometimes God uses, shall we say, an illustration concerning an unbeliever, because it has a voice to you and me as believers.
And to follow a rejected Christ, to follow a man who's rejected and cast out in this world, to follow one who was hung on a cross and counted nothing more than a common criminal, which is what the world's estimate of him was, was not an easy thing in Paul's day, and it's not an easy thing today. And so Paul suffered the loss of all things. And while that is not hard for the new man.
Very hard.
On what we are as creatures by nature, isn't it? And so we need to remember that that when Paul gave these things up, he could count them but dumb because he said I want to win Christ, but the cross of Christ is a difficult thing to bear. I believe ultimately that was the reason Paul had to say in second Timothy, all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. What was the problem?
They hadn't turned away in that sense from Christianity, but they didn't want, shall we say, the cross that Paul was willing to bear. And I just suggest we don't need to elaborate too much on it, but it's a voice.
To all of us in this day and age. Because ultimately, that I believe is at the root of why we don't let things go the way we should and why Christ isn't more of an object before us we all want.
Did someone mention this morning to have all that there is in Christ? But there's a Christ to be paid for it, isn't there?
Also important to realize here that he doesn't refer to it as sacrifice. Hmm, it's not the thought.
Sometimes you talk to a person and they say, well, I wanna be a Christian, but and then the body is what am I gonna have to give up?
And they look upon it as sacrificing something that is presently in their life that they want. And, and they balance what they're going to have to give up against what they're going to gain. What what Paul is saying here is, I used to think those things were gained. Now I realize they were really a loss. MMM. What they were was something that was keeping me from God and from his Son.
And so he had a the things didn't change, but his evaluation of them was totally different. After he was illuminated and met the Lord on the road to Damascus. Then he looked back and he said that wasn't any good at all. I remember one of my family members one time of a different generation saying to me looking back on his days in college, he said, I look back on them now as the years that the locust.
In other words, when he went through them, he thought they were fun years and they were gain years and blessing, uh, as far as the natural sense of it. But his perspective of the same events of his life, looking back on them later from a different perspective, he said that was lost. Those years were lost to me. And it's nice to notice as well that in verse seven, it's past tense. I counted.
And so there is that point in our lives when we may get saved and we may look backwards and we may say, oh, how have I spent my life so far? It's all been a loss. And then but Paul goes on and puts it in the present tense in verse 8. And I think that's particularly what Bill is just brought before us. Why don't we want to give up? It's sometimes because we haven't presently come to a proper evaluation of what is gained and what is lost for our souls. And so we find it hard to give up something because.
00:15:12
For example, the, uh, the matter of a crucified, rejected Christ.
We don't want to identify. Our natural man doesn't want to identify with the dishonor of being rejected, and so we would like to present him. But at the same time we don't want anybody to think less of us, and so it's hard to count it as dumb.
I I would take it that this is not necessarily, as we might define a bad thing that are necessarily being set aside.
Just things that are.
He was.
We said this morning, God doesn't like mixtures, and sometimes mixtures aren't always the bad. But with Paul, there was a pattern established for us. He's the pattern believer. He's the pattern Christian. He is the heavenly man and he is the New Testament.
Pattern to our lives. And he's telling us God is telling us through Him that I want Jesus Christ to be everything.
To your soul, and it isn't just bad things, but it's I want him to be number one, number two, number three and all the rest.
Brother made a comment, Bruce, in our written ministry that searched my own heart quite a few years ago. He said it is not so much for the believer the bad things that are a snare, although they certainly can be. But he said the better something is, the more it is is likely to be a snare because I don't realize how subtle the snare really is.
We have those things listed in versus, uh.
Five and six, don't we? And there's nothing to be despised. The fact that he was touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless was certainly something to be desired in a natural way.
Uh, he does say in Romans that one of the commandments got him, though. Thou shalt not covet, but as to anything outwardly.
He could say I'm blameless. That's pretty good qualifying, uh, record he had there. But the point is when he got a glimpse of the fact in verse nine, he says to be found in him not having my own righteousness. That's what he had in verse six, but which is by the of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness.
Which is of God by faith.
There's nothing to compare with that. And so it was not only lost, it was done. What do you do with dumb? You keep it around, you get rid of it. You get it out of your sight. You get it as far as you can from you. You don't want to have any more to do with it. It's not lost. It's something that you like, uh, done says it's not sacrificed to give it up. There's something so much more supremely better.
Before he speaks about that righteousness which is so beautiful, he speaks about something that is even more precious. Brethren, in verse 8, the Excellency isn't that beautiful the way he talks about it, the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
My Lord.
O brethren, nothing can compare with knowing him.
Life is not about having a bunch of things, and I think it's so important for young people to get a hold of. I must say it's been a lesson to me since the first time I went into Latin America, to some of the poorer countries to see that people in general are happier than Americans that have so many things. I think that makes them happy. A lie, an outright lie.
God has made us for relationship and that's why even we have families, family structure, we're made to relate to one another. God made us in his own image and God is 3 in one. And when it came down to the creation of mankind, he said let us make man in our image. There was communication amongst the different.
00:20:25
Persons of the Godhead in connection with the creation of man.
And so we're creatures of relationship, and this is the ultimate relationship, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son, and nothing makes sense until you get it straight with him, young people.
You don't have it straight with him. Nothing makes sense. And it's getting evident in the world we live because we have lived in such a humanistic Society of being centered on man, of our desires, our wants.
People are lost in this country. They're lost because they've lost sight of what life is really about, knowing God in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful expression. I'd like to hear more about it. The Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
All traded the Excellency in verse five and six, the Excellency of all that the flesh could boast in for the Excellency that was in Christ and the Lord Jesus himself, uh, spoke in, umm, uh, I think it's, uh, Luke chapter 14. I'd just like to refer to it because, umm, sometimes, uh, we think that we can keep a part of what the flesh would glory in and maybe get away with it and hold back just a little bit. But he says in, uh, Luke 14.
In verse 33, so likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple. And so it was all that the flesh would glory in, in this world. The Lord said you have to give it up all, all of it, otherwise there won't be that enjoyment of the excellencies of Christ. How wonderful it is. What a position of blessing we have. We're giving up the worst that this scene has for the best that God has.
I think thank you Lord Jesus, uh, he spoke about loss and gain and this is one.
Referenced over in Matthew chapter 16.
We have another reference I believe would tie in with what we're speaking about here in verse.
24 Matthews 16 and 24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake shall find it.
But when he refers to.
Savings.
One's life.
Set not in connection with.
Slipping herself.
And for this world.
And the end result is we're gonna lose everything.
However, whosoever will lose his life if we're willing to give up.
It tells us here for my sake he's going to find life. Well, this is the true meaning of life, to enjoy Christ in our souls.
Because he is the life.
Now in Psalm 17, I believe it tells us that.
The men of this world, they have their portion in this world.
But not the next slide.
And who's out, you know? And Lord goes on here. For what is the man profited? She'll gain the whole world and lose his own soul. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
I think the Lord speaks in these terms about six different places, doesn't He?
Uses a term in John's Gospel that same.
Verse that he says whosoever shall hate his life in this world. That's a pretty strong word. But I really think if we get a glimpse of what is set before us, let's say what in the world do I have that around for any longer? He's get out of here just hindering me from what is real.
00:25:12
An excellent.
I think what Robert said is very helpful too, because the things that were gained to him were things that he felt in a natural and fleshly way merited him favor and gave him a position amongst men.
Those things he, he really thought that keeping the law and what those things that he did, uh, before he was saved, those things were going to merit him favor before God even persecuting the church.
He thought verily, within himself, that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Christ. He did it even with a good conscience, I suppose, And then those things that he felt, it gave him a position amongst men. We know what the Pharisees were like in the days of the Lord Jesus. They wanted the praise of men, and they made long speeches in the marketplace, and so on. It gave them a position and exalted the flesh in that way.
But when Paul got into the presence of the Lord, and as he learned more and more of the glories of Christ.
What happened? Why Paul just faded away? Paul just faded away. It wasn't that he tried to disappear. It wasn't that he tried to become humble. It wasn't that he tried to fade into the background. It was just the natural result of getting into the presence of the Lord. It was the natural result of getting to know the excellencies and the glories of this person. And brethren, that's the way it's going to be in your life and mine too.
The more you and I are occupied with Christ and his glories.
The more the things that we thought were going to merit us favor the things that we thought were good in the flesh, those things are just gonna, we're gonna forget about them. They're gonna pale.
They're just going to be behind us. We're not even going to think about them.
But Christ is what is going to be seen in your life and mine and brethren thought S really the key is occupation with Christ then is what we need so that Christ will will be seen by others in our lives. Maybe we see something in that, in that word. No there that I may know him. Uh, if you're going to be a serious student of the word, you're going to find out that there's two words that are translated No.
And, and our King James Version and this word here is the one word no actually means something you can gain by information, something academically that you can learn. The other no is something that brings in the emotion and the experience of the individual soul. So this word here that I may know him is the word that brings in the fact that it's, it's an experimental.
Emotional knowing I know a lot about George Bush. I have a number of books and I know a little bit about him, but I think it's, Barbara knows him better. And I think that, uh, his, his wife probably even knows him better than that. And his doctor knows him pretty good. But I don't have never met him personally, See, but I can have an academic, I can have an informational of information all about George Bush. But you see, the, The thing is that I must know him if I'm gonna know him this way, I must know him personally.
And a very, uh, a one to one basis. And that's really the key, I think that we're talking about this occupation with Christ results and talking with him on a daily, not a daily basis, but even an hourly basis. The more you talk to the Lord, the more you wanna know the Lord, the more you pray to him. And that's the key of knowing more about Christ, relating, uh, you know, uh, presenting back to God.
Come to God, we present to him that beloved one, the one who made it all possible for us to have a relationship, to be reconciled, to be brought into an intimate, uh, relationship with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:30:06
That connection, just one more comment about following a rejected Christ. It's noteworthy that the reference to the cross of Christ and being an enemy of the cross, the reference to giving up all of these things that naturally would have accredited Paul in the eyes of the world, is not found in the second chapter. It's found in this chapter.
I'd suggest one reason for that is the order of things that.
No, I've gone back to John's Gospel here for a minute, but it's the order of things. I think it's in that 8th, 9th verse.
It says the 10th verse that I may know him. Our brothers just referred to that. What comes first? The power of his resurrection, then the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul could say in uh, First Corinthians 15.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
If we, if I say it reverently, if all we're doing is following one who hung on Calvary's cross and then was put into a grave, we are of all men most miserable because the world says, well, what's what's the value in that? What? What have you got to hope for? He's not in the grave. He's risen. He's glorified. We have an object not to look back only on one who suffered and died on Calvary's cross.
Blessed be his name, He did so in order that you and I might be saved. But now he's risen and glorified.
And I must have that object before me up there in order to be able to take up the cross down here. And that's why this chapter is so needed. If I don't have that object, I will find the cross very difficult. But Faith says the one that hung on Calvary's cross is seated far above all things, far above all principality and might and dominion and every name that is named, and so on and one day.
He's going to be displayed as head over all things to us. He already is, but He's going to be displayed in the coming day. If that really lays hold of me, then, then I can share the fellowship of His sufferings. Then I can bear the cross that we've been talking about. Then I can give up what naturally credits me in the eyes of the world, if it'll give me to learn more of Christ.
When we talk about knowing somebody.
I know you. You know me.
My wife knows me better than anybody else in this room.
You really know a person.
You could ask, somebody could ask you, well, how do they, what do they think about this? How do they feel about that? And you'd be able to tell them if you don't know a person, you don't know how they think, you don't know how they're going to act in a given situation. You can't really say, well, I know what's in their heart.
But the apostle Paul and his relationship with the Lord Jesus was getting to know him in such a way that he did know his heart, he did know his thoughts, he did know his feelings. And he said that's an excellent see that you can't compare it to anything else. And it was not all learned all at once. We don't learn it all instantly. We don't learn to know each other instantly, but we get to know each other gradually and here.
He was passing on, if you will, to us. He's saying get to know him. It's an excellent thing. It satisfies your heart in the way that nothing else will as you get to know him. And here he speaks of himself and he's really saying, you know.
If I actually died and passed through death and was raised from the dead, that's an experience that the Lord Jesus went through that I haven't. But if it would allow me, if it would enable me to know Him better because we had shared a common experience, I think I would like to die and be raised from the dead so that it will enable me to know Him one way more better than I do now. And just one more comment about it.
We know him no more after the flesh.
That is.
00:35:02
He is on the other side of death.
And he lives in the power of a new life, as far as we're concerned. New, not to him new, but.
The relationship which we are to have with the Lord Jesus is the other side of death, and if we try to get to know Him in nature and in the flesh, we won't know him because he's not in that relationship to us anymore. And so Paul recognized that everything connected with the flesh and man in the flesh was useless.
And Price wasn't there. He was the man of that God had raised from the dead. And so God says, yes, I want you to know him. So I'll give you a life that you can. And he gives us a life that has the capacity to know God. Man in the flesh cannot know God.
Doesn't know what he thinks, doesn't know what he feels, doesn't have any true knowledge of God because the flesh is dead. As far as God is concerned. Man in the flesh has no life, God word, so he has no relationship. You have to share the nature if you're to understand one another. If you put an Ant on one of these chairs and I said you do you know the Ant? You have to say no, I don't know the Ant. I know about him, but I don't know the aunt.
I, I don't know what's in its heart. I don't share a common nature with it and consequently I don't have a capacity to enter into what it thinks or what it feels, uh, except in a solely sense a little bit.
But not fully. But God says to us, my purpose for you is that we enjoy one another. So the only way you can fully know me and enjoy me is if I make you one of my children and give you the life of my family. And so we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now that we're part of God's family, then we can grow just like your children, my children and their little kids, they have the capacity to know us. They don't really know us very well, but we hope as they grow and mature and develop, they become in a sense.
I know my father and my father knows me.
And we know them long before you might say they know us. We'll accept that they're in relationship to us as children, but as an adult they don't fully enter into it. God says, well, you're my children and I want you to grow and I want to develop your knowledge, true knowledge of myself and my son, so that we can spend eternity enjoying it together. Hmm. That's why I think, Don that the Lord said to Mary Magdalene.
Uh, in his resurrection he was the 1St.
She was the 1St to see him touch me not, for I have not yet ascended into my Father, your Father, and to my God and to your God. She wanted him back as she had known him in the flesh down here and he basically was saying no Mary, you're going to know me in a completely new and much better relationship in resurrection than you had ever known me in this life. I think that helps to understand why he says that to her because they actually touched him in resurrection.
But she wanted him back, as she had known him in the flesh.
When we think someone should know us and we find out they misunderstood this, it kind of hurts, doesn't it? They, they don't follow along with our thinking pattern or, and there was somebody that is close to us that we feel that when we think they really should have known us better than that. I wonder, somehow I have that feeling that I do that to my God. I just don't know him very well. Uh.
Paul here wanted to get to know him very well, so he wouldn't do that well, not just for that reason, but for the Excellency of knowing him. This is not salvation. This is, uh, this is intimate relationship to know and have common thoughts together. And it seems to me like these verses here too, like that I may win Christ and, and, and so on.
It, it, it isn't just the thought that we live our life now in the following a rejected Christ. And then at the end of our life, the Lord is going to take us home and we're going to be with him happy and everything is going to be well asked from that point on. That's not that's true, but that's not what he's talking about here, is it? He's talking about getting to know him right now in this life and that present enjoyment of it right now.
00:40:17
And that's what enabled him to count all those things that lost, even the good things that were gained to him naturally as a man. And so it's a great secret to we as Christians now. We're not talking about what's going to be in glory. We're talking about what Paul enjoyed in this present life. And that gave him that energy to pursue on with the same enthusiasm or the same zeal.
That he had before he was saved.
In persecuting the believers, he was doing it now for Christ and that his own soul might lay hold of that purpose that God had laid hold of him and made him one of his children and, uh, given him that, that minisphere service that he had. And we can be thankful that Paul was.
Quite faithful in what was committed to him and.
God didn't need to raise up very many other apostles or prophets to give us the New Testament because he did a good job of what God called him to. Hmm.
This is an ongoing thing, isn't it, in our lives, getting to know the Lord. I say that because we might say, well, didn't the Apostle Paul, a Saul of Tarsus, get to know the Lord on the Damascus Rd. Well, it's true. He said, who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And so he got to know the Lord there. And we can look back in our lives, some here over many years, others over a few years.
To that time when we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
And what a wonderful time it was in our lives. But Paul wasn't content with that, was he?
He wasn't just content to know that his sins were forgiven and that he had met the Lord on the Damascus Road and turned to him by the grace of God as his Savior. Know, the whole desire of Paul's life was to deepen that acquaintance with the Lord. He wanted every day to walk in company with the Lord and to get to know Him better. Just go to a verse in Hosea. I'm going to take it a little bit out of its context because I know it has a prophetic character here.
In its context in Hosea chapter 6. But I just want to I think there's something very practical to consider in relationship to what has been said.
Hosea chapter 6 and verse 3. Then shall we know?
If we follow on to know the Lord, how are we going to get to know the Lord better? How is our acquaintance with himself going to deepen? It's to follow on. It's to walk with him. Don spoke about how his wife is the one that knows him the best in this room. But you know, when I married my wife 24 years ago, she perhaps thought she knew something about me. But she's learned a lot more about me in 24 years.
Of our being together than she knew back then, What she knew back then and what she knows now is a lot different and a lot more. And that's the way it is, isn't it? In our Christian lives, what we know about the Lord Jesus, what we've enjoyed of Him is a lot different. It ought to be a lot deeper than when we came to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But how is that going to happen? It's to follow Him. It's to walk in His company.
I'd like to just repeat a little illustration that's been often used, but it perhaps might be helpful. Again, you know, I grew up in Canada and we, in those days at least, learned in school a great deal about the British royal family.
And I could even to this day, rattle off a lot of facts about Queen Elizabeth the Second, who sits on the throne of England. I know a lot about the Queen of England, but I don't know the Queen of England personally. I can tell you a lot about her. But we'll suppose for the sake of illustration that I get an invitation in the mail and everything provided to come to London and enter the gates of Buckingham Palace.
And to sit down with the Queen of England every day for a month Now when I leave Buckingham Palace, I don't just know about the Queen of England. I can honestly say that I know the Queen of England. We've communed together, we've sat together, we've walked in the royal garden together. I say I know the Queen of England. I thought I knew a lot about her. But I know her now. I know what makes her tick. I know what how she thinks.
00:45:23
But let's suppose, for the sake of the illustration, that from that point on, every year I get an invitation to come and spend a month at Buckingham Palace. Now after I've done that several years, I say, well, I thought after the first visit I knew the Queen of England pretty well, but I sure know her a lot better than I knew her back after that first visit. Now, brethren, that's the way it ought to be in our Christian life. And that, I say, was Paul's.
Whole, bent and desire.
In his life was to get to know the Lord Jesus better.
Is that really your desire? Do we get up in the morning rather with a real desire to say today I want to follow the Lord, I want to walk with the Lord so I get to know him better, so that I get a fresh glimpse of his glories, that I have a fresh appreciation of the Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ? You'll only get that, yes, from reading the Word, but you'll only get it, brethren, from walking side by side.
In the company of this glorious person.
Disciples didn't.
No, the power of it.
Well, when the Lord Jesus was faced with death.
They could say as from truly from their hearts and sincerity, we go with thee. When he was going down to meet Lazarus, uh, who had been put to death and there was, uh, a matter of maybe they were going to suffer before Jesus went. He might be put to death. Their hearts were with him in it. They hadn't learned their own flesh. They had not at that point learned the power of the spirit in them to work and so on.
But they had been with him.
And we see a, a progression in them. We see that development in that souls of those that at least in desire at that point, Well, if the Lord's gonna die, I'm gonna go with them. Uh, I wanna be there. Peter had it in the same sense. He said, Lord, I'll go with you, I'll die with you. And yes, he had a lesson to learn, but he did learn the lesson and he did get later the privilege.
Of suffering with them and through going through death. And so it is with us that it doesn't start day one. It requires that walk with the Lord that then draws out the heart and develops in us the true knowledge of God that He puts there, and then we can act in fellowship with Him and even suffering.
So it's after the knowledge of death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus that.
Really we are as Saints able to follow that pathway. There was a call to do that before the versus have been read about the Gospels taking up the cross and following him and so on. But nobody ever could do that or follow the Lord in that way. But now that the Lord Jesus has died and risen, then that we and we have this new life now the power to walk in that path.
And then now it's possible for for us to go to follow the Lord in that you get a little picture of that just in the Old Testament when they.
Took the, uh, arc and they across the river Jordan, uh, they first of all, it was necessary that the priest stepped down into those waters that were overflowing with the ark and that caused the waters to recede and then the children of Israel could follow on after. And so that's a picture of the Lord Jesus going down into death and, and rising again and we follow him in that path then.
If you pardon the illustration, the, uh, the difference between the two words of no, uh, to pardon the illustration now, uh, I was talking with a brother and then trying to point out to him, there's a big difference between knowing something, uh, informationally wise and knowing it experimentally, experimentally. And I've been saying, well, I said, brother, I said, uh, have you been baptized? Oh, yeah, I said, do you remember it?
00:50:07
No, you'll remember I said, well, you know, if somebody told you, I said I know it because I was there when it happened. So I say, pardon the illustration, but that's the difference between the these two words that are used in the New Testament. And I've got great blessing out of making the scene. That distinction, in fact in John 17, three, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
That's the same basic, uh, word that we have here, you say. And so I say, pardon the illustration, but there is a, a way that you can know all about something informationally without making a, a vital part of yourself now. And I, I just use that illustration. So you can, uh, and I would just say this, if you're gonna be a good student of the word of God, you should, you should take, uh, knowledge of, uh, the difference, uh, between these two words. There's a number of words in the New Testament.
That actually have two different meanings that come from two different basic words and they, they reflect two different meanings. So, uh, I would just say it's very profitable to know these. I mean, uh, there's another word, uh, that we have a little word, but, and one of them is a very weak, is adversative and one, one is a very strong. So I have gotten great, uh, help and, and pleasure out of making the distinction and looking up which word is used when you see the word, but in the, in the New Testament.
The Apostle Paul had this energy of faith.
Because he had seen Christ and he had a view of that man and the glory. And so it was by faith that he had the energy to pursue Christ in the knowledge of Christ. It wasn't by the energy of the flesh and he gloried in the flesh. And it says just refer to John's Gospel chapter one, verse 13. It says which were born of which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.
But of God and so God had in his grace, umm in the person of Christ appeared to Paul and he'd seen a light that was above the brightness of the sun. And now he had an object before his soul and it wasn't going to be pursued in the energy of the flesh. It was going to be pursued in the energy of faith. And so This is why he says here in verse 12 I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
And so there was progress in his life. There was diligence in pursuing Christ.
And it's not just going to happen, umm, just, uh, going to happen. We're not going to wake up in a few years and say, wow, I, I was pursuing Christ and I didn't even know it. It needs to be a conscious decision. And Paul had made a conscious decision by faith.
To set aside what the flesh gloried in and by faith, he could forsake Egypt in all that it had. You know, Moses, it says that he first took Egypt and it means that he abandoned every prospect that Egypt could, uh, give him and could provide him and abandoned everything that Egypt could possibly provide him. And he laid hold on Christ himself. And so that's how you and I need to pursue Christ by faith and we need to recognize, and I'm thankful that the Lord Jesus said it. He said the flesh profiteth nothing.
Met the grace of God to allow his Son to say that.
The flesh profiteth nothing, and so it's the energy of faith that sees Christ as the object and then pursues those things with energy.
I was thinking how? Excuse me?
I say everything will be evaluated according to if it helps us to win that object or not. I there's so many things in life that are pressed upon us and they're not wrong in themselves, but they don't help you win.
When we lived in Bolivia, the Lord brought me into contact with some race car drivers. One was a mechanic that I took my vehicle to and I remember after he got saved.
He, uh, said to me and he, I never told him he shouldn't be racing, but he's in the sense that I wasn't in agreement with him. And one day he says, well, what in the world is wrong with racing? It's a good clean sport.
00:55:05
I said, uh, well, I don't see anything wrong with it either personally, but let me ask you a question. I said, supposing I get into a race car and I'm racing from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba.
Because they race over the highways down there and, uh, I say, would it be all right for me to stop and take some pictures along the way? Oh, no, no, no, you don't do that. I said what, what, what's wrong with taking pictures? Is there something wrong with it?
Oh, no, no, there's nothing wrong with it. But you don't do that when you're in a race. You got it, I said. And there's so many things in life you really come down to evaluate. Is this really helping me get down to the goal? And that's the picture we have of the apostle here. It's he's in a race. He's pursuing that goal that's before him of supreme value.
Brethren, why don't we run better as Christians? I really believe it's because we haven't got a glimpse of the value of the goal that's before us. Christ in glory, you get a glimpse of it. Everything here will fade in relation to that supreme goal.
It will you will evaluate things. Is this really helping me? And that's the way it was with the apostle Paul.
In fact, I remember, uh, I think it was Mr. Chapter Brown.
Used to give an alternate translation to verse 14. He says I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He says it's a picture of a man in a race getting down towards the goal and putting every ounce of energy into winning the prize.
Down to the goal I press, nothing else interested him because that was the thing that was before his soul.
So it's illustrated in another place where the apostle says that we're to lay aside every weight, not just sin, that's true, but every weight. And let's use another illustration. Suppose an Olympic athlete goes out to run in a race, and he shows up on the race track with the other 10 or 15 racers, and he's got a backpack with something in it on his back. And the they hold the race for a few moments and the official goes out and talks to this runner.
And he says, you shouldn't be running a race with a backpack full of stuff on your back. And the runner might turn to the official and say, well, I've searched the rule books, and there's nothing in the rule books, in the guide books that forbids me to run this race with this backpack full of stuff on my back. What would the official say to him? Why? He said, well, that's true, but don't you realize that this is going to hinder you in your progress in running or winning this race?
You're not going to be able to run properly. You're not going to be able to make the goal properly. Even though there might be nothing in the official rules or guidebook that says you can't do this, well, we see the folly of that very quickly.
But brethren, isn't it true in our Christian lives has been brought before us, there are many encumbrances, many things that we get involved in and take on, and they hinder us in running the race. And how often have you heard it said when something's brought before somebody? Well, what's wrong with this, or what's wrong with that, or that's just legality or whatever. But perhaps it would be better instead of questioning it like that to say.
Is this hindering me in running the race for Christ? Is this holding me back in my Christian pathway? Is this a detriment in my winning or gaining Christ? And if it is, brethren, then we're exhorted to lay it aside, to put it down. And so the athlete, he sees the folly of having that backpack. What does he do? Why he takes the backpack off and he throws it on the on the turf at the side, and he gets ready to run the race.
Without that weight, without that encumbrance, brethren, are you and I in running the race, seeking to lay aside those things that are going to hinder us from gaining Christ?
01:00:06
Paul was obsessed, wasn't he? As an unbeliever, he was obsessed with persecuting the church and obliterating the name of Christ, But then when he was saved by the marvelous grace and divine intervention of the Lord Jesus.
Why he was obsessed with gaining the goal and nothing could turn him back. And so he says here in verse 15 that if anything, let's let us therefore as many as be perfect for mature, be thus minded. And if anything in anything you be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you and that the love of our Savior, he's going to reveal it to us. If we're carrying the backpack and we don't even know it. Sometimes we just, uh, have those things that are being a hindrance to us.
And we can just, by the grace of God, he will point them out in faithfulness. And we need to have the ear heard. I just want to, umm, relay a little illustration that I don't want to take up the time of stories, but, uh, I went to visit my, uh, stepfather several times before he recently went home to be with the Lord. And, umm, you know, he, uh, said that there was, uh, an older gentleman, uh, by the name of Harold St. John that he met, uh, when he was a young man. And he told him that, uh.
He said, umm, if you want to really study the Scriptures, you really want to get serious about studying a portion of scripture. He says read it 20 times and then begin to read perhaps some ministry on it and so on. But he says you won't know what God's trying to say if you don't read it and you don't understand it yourself, what he's saying. And I thought that was very good advice. The next time I went to see him, he asked me if I'd read anything 20 times, and I had to confess that I hadn't read a portion of Scripture 20 times.
But it's good for us to realize and to appreciate the fact that God values diligence and He will reward diligence. Paul was rewarded abundantly, and he could say with a clear conscience that he had fought the good fight and he was ready to depart to be with Christ. And he was ended his pathway with joy. And you and I, if we take our Christianity seriously, why we're going to be rewarded in that path of faith, The Lord will see to it.
13th verse because I count. We've already noticed before. In verse 70, I counted past tense.
And then umm, shortly after that I count in verse 8. Now he says in verse 13, I count not myself.
Nice to see that Paul recognized that progress had been made. But he said, I'm where I am now and what I do is I forget everything is behind. I don't look back and I don't say, wow, it come quite a nice little distance here. And knowing Christ compared to you or somebody else, he doesn't have that attitude. This is a race for all of us. There's no winners. Uh, no one is restricted. They're no loo. There doesn't have to be any losers, let's put it that way.
We are all.
Uh, can be in the same. So in that sense, it's not a competitive race, but there is that sense in which we have to recognize we haven't arrived until we've arrived. And Paul realized that he would not arrive until he was with Christ physically, spiritually, that at the end of his life was the end of the road for him. And so he stops here and he says, I, I, I don't claim that I arrived, if you will, that there's no more progress. In fact, it only made him that much more diligent in saying.
As it where I see the goal ahead and that's where I want to go. And the verses which follow carry on in that same sense. Umm, we've all made some progress and there are things we bear with each other because none of us know it all. None of us have learned it all. And there may be something in this in which you and I have enjoyed together and we walk together and the fullness of it is having learned it from God.
But there may be something else in which you've learned it and I haven't. And as a consequence, as it were, the the spirit here is you're to be patient with me because God is if I'm not.
Umm, working against His will. There is one truth and uh, be patient with me. The Lord will work with me if I don't resist Him, so that there will come a time when we can together enjoy that truth and walk in it.
01:05:04
But it's always in the sense that none of us can say we know it all, or that we've experienced it all, and that we're now some standard for the rest. We're all still growing, we're all still learning, and the process won't stop until we're in glory.
Like to mention here in the end of verse 12 as well.
The beautiful thought I follow after, if that I may apprehend or lay hold of that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus, and to think that in every believer has been laid hold of.
By Christ Jesus.
Why did he lay hold of you?
Not for some earthly objective. And in our day of humanism, everybody is encouraged to form their goals.
Oh, how important it is to realize that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, he laid hold of you. Why? So that you might lay hold of this object before us, uh, Christ in glory. That's the real reason of our being believers in the Lord Jesus, that we might be why we might seek. And that's the pursuing that you speak of, Robert is.
Take follow on and in verse 13, he says this one thing I do, brethren, it's not too hard to forget. It's not too easy, uh, to forget one thing. It's easy to forget a whole bunch of things. But we get our lives so cluttered and we need to think of in single hearted simplicity this is.
One thing is one thing I do. You had that before His soul. May the Lord help us to be that way.
We don't want to forget in going over these verses, and I know we're moving quickly and we need to, that there was suffering involved for the Apostle Paul as well, and it wasn't easy, was it? We've spoken of the joy of following the Lord and how when we have Christ before us, it's not hard to give up the things that we once counted, gain and so on.
But we don't want to give the impression that it's easy either. And Paul speaks of suffering here in these verses. He suffered the loss of all things, and he speaks of the fellowship of his sufferings. It's interesting that when you go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11, at the end of that chapter, he gives a list forced by inspiration because of the treatment he was receiving from the Corinthians and the questions they had in his mind, their minds as to his apostleship and ministry.
He's forced by inspiration to give a list of the things that he suffered from day-to-day and year to year in the path of faith and service for Christ. And it's a tremendous list. It's a list of things that I, and I suppose most in this room, have never been called on to suffer in the path of faith and service. But you, you come to the end of the list and you say, how could he do it?
One who had had originally the world at his feet, one who was revered in religious circles, so to speak, one who had everything going for him. And you say, how could he do it? He felt those things. You know, brethren, Paul wasn't callous or indifferent to the things he he suffered. He felt them and he felt them very keenly. But the very next chapter tells us, and we've already alluded to it, he didn't just have a vision of the coming glory. He'd been up there.
He'd seen what was the head, and with that, before his soul, he could suffer and give up things down here. Not that he didn't feel them, He did feel them and he felt them keenly. But he had something better. Before his soul, he had the glory. He'd seen Christ in glory. He'd heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to water. And so I just say that because we don't want to give the impression.
That if we follow the Lord and we seek to be occupied with Himself and know him better, that it's all going to be a path of sunshine and roses, that it's all going to be smooth sailing. No, there's the fellowship of his sufferings. In fact, Paul, it was given to Paul to fill up the sufferings of Christ. And who suffered more as a servant of God than the apostle Paul? But brethren, we are given two to have fellowship in his sufferings, in the sufferings of Christ as well.
01:10:27
And we will in the measure in which we follow Christ. And there is a reflection of Christ in your life and mine.
It's interesting that in Acts 9, when Paul was converted, and the 16th verse, uh, speaking through Ananias says to Paul, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
The Lord specifically, of course, told him this, but of course it was in reference to what he had, the suffering he had caused the Saints. He had been persecuting them and Christ felt it. He had persecuted Christ. And now the Lord is gonna say, now I'm gonna turn around and give you the favor of learning what I went through and that's learning to know Christ. It's beautiful. We've been speaking about knowing I knowing him. Here you have the Lord saying now, Paul, I want to tell you how you're gonna.
I'm gonna tell you how you can learn to know me by suffering for my name's sake. Now in our chapter, Paul's saying, now I wanna learn to know by suffering my savior. Isn't that beautiful? But this is these two. These two are one mind. The Lord is saying it and Paul is wanting it too. Uh, the same mind that is to know one another. That's beautiful for us.
It's so easy us for us to pray that the Lord would keep us from those kind of things. And it's not that we go out and seek suffering.
There used to be, it's not so common today, but I was reading in the history of the, uh, nearly 1000 years ago in the, the Saints of God and how they, would, they would cause affliction on their bodies, uh, do penitence and, uh, torture themselves and, and, and flog their body because of the sinfulness they saw in it, as if those kind of things would make them more holy. That's useless.
And some of them learned that it was useless, but we're not talking about that. We're talking here about what the Lord would put in a pathway, uh, up in the way of suffering. And it's, uh, it's, uh, to learn to know the Lord Jesus.
I would. I'm just gonna relate a little story that that that helps me understand knowing one another.
When, uh, after being married and raising a family.
A number of our young people got together and put on a supper of appreciation for their parents to come together. And the, the children wanted to do something to show their appreciation. And this is one of this is a very happy evening that we enjoyed together when a group of young people in our assembly, uh, did this. But during the course of the evening, they did something that wasn't exactly easy to, to go through and that is.
They took the husbands and the wives apart and asked them the same question, one of the other.
What's your favorite food and what's this? And then they asked the spouse the same question. And of course, the couple who thought most alike won the prize. Well, that's a that's a it's a little bit scary to go through that kind of an experience, but it illustrates to me learning to know one another. How much does my spouse, my wife know me and how much do I know her?
Actually, I think I don't know very much about her.
Uh, and I, the more, the more you realize of these things in life, they're really, we don't know each other very well. At least that's the way I feel. And I feel that way about the Lord too.
What percent do we know about our savior? What percent? I could ask the same thing about husbands and wives. I'm not gonna ask any, any questions. Some, uh, some of us didn't score very high that night.
Others did, umm, how well you know each other. It showed it up. And this shows to me what the Lord Paul is talking about here, about knowing one another.
01:15:15
What would you say, Doug? And this is maybe a tough question, but it's a practical one. If there isn't the desire in a believer, as there should be, to know Christ if there isn't.
That energy that Paul had here to press down toward the mark. And let's be honest, we see that sometimes in ourselves. What, what is the problem? Why, why isn't there more of that energy to know Christ and to, uh, lay aside those things that are hindrance that we've been talking about. We mentioned a few things earlier, but, uh, you've kind of brought it to a head. What?
What? What is the antidote to what we might call?
Spiritual laziness or a lack of wanting to pursue in the way that, as you say, you've read about those in the past, and I've read about them too. Who knew, in terms of doctrine, very little compared to what most in this room would know. And yet the heart, the love, the appreciation of Christ was there in a way that I at least covered what? What's the problem?
Oh no.
Would you say the bottom line is the love?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all my mind. God loves us with an eternal love. He wants us to love him. Now you know in numbers I think it's six or the the Israel is instructed the love of the Lord thy God with all my heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. What was the basis that they had to love him. They didn't have a cross to look back to. They didn't have the fullness of God's love and grace demonstrated.
Uh, they experienced the fact that, uh, he was mighty for them, that he did great wondrous works for them.
He did miracles for them, but I think they had in their soul, not only, uh, they had in their souls an appreciation of who God was. Uh, the Old Testament Saints did not have the basis that we have to respond to God, but they, they saw God as a great creator, a moral governor of the universe who blesses those who walk with him and punishes those who disobey him and walk away from him.
But now that in this particular, uh, era that we live in, we look back and we see the fullness of God's wondrous love. They could not look to a cross on Gospel Hill. They could not see that blessed man who hung up on that cross. Oh, and they had to love God. Yes, they did. But you know, we mentioned Apostle Paul now the Apostle Paul once he heard.
That heavenly voice from heaven, he was gung ho vehemently dedicated to exterminate and wipe out the name of that Nazarene. And when Paul realized, and this is a blessed to my soul, that that man who was crucified on that cross was the Lord of glory.
It changed his life and let me tell you, it should change our lives too. But I think the more we know him.
But the more we should love him. God wants us to love him and he tells us that I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And you know, we each have different capacities. Everybody in this room, uh, has different levels of understanding and different levels of temperament, different levels of education. But one thing for certain is that we can all put everything we have into the fact that God is worthy of all of our love, our attention.
And the more we know him, the more we will love him. And my prayer, and I believe what our prayer should be. Lord, give me greater capacity.
A lovely orphanage.
Where did you in the answer to your question, Bill? Excuse me. I, I, I.
Said I didn't have an answer and then I'm answering, but my answer is the opposite. Uh, it's the faithfulness of God, It seems to me it's when it's his governmental dealings with this, that's where God introduces his governmental dealings with us to produce in us that appetite and desire to learn to know and appreciate him and to love him and read his word and pray and, and so on. And it's.
01:20:25
Comforting to know that we have a faithful God even when we are unfaithful and that his governmental dealings with us will work with us to produce that in US. Not that God enjoys governmental, uh, dealing with this, but it's necessary to remove certain things to get us to the point where we want to love him or want to follow him. And that's my, uh, that's the way I look at the.
My part in the this well, I think that's very good and.
I don't know, somebody was trying to see something right next to me here. OK, well, just just if I can follow up on that. I've wondered, and again, I don't mean to answer my own question, but I've wondered if, especially in the Western world, the sense of entitlement that has pervaded our society has spilled over into spiritual things. And it's an awful thing to think about, but sometimes we need to face it, that it.
Comes right down to the fact that I take for granted what Christ has done for me and I take for granted the fact that He suffered on Calvary's cross, and I take for granted all that God has done in His purposes in Christ and associating me with Him.
This chapter, while it is definitely about your enjoyment in mind of Christ, yet ultimately He is the object. It's to learn more of Him. Why? So that I will have a good life and a warm feeling in my soul and all that. That'll all be produced. But ultimately it's He that needs to be the object because He is worthy and as Dawn was mentioning a while ago.
If I really get to that point, it takes me right out of myself. I don't have to be concerned about, well, what am I going to get out of it, or is it going to produce this for me? If I see Christ's interest and seek to know Him, He'll take care of my happiness and He'll take care of everything else, won't he? Sorry, Wally, go ahead.
I was just thinking that, uh, David could say the Lord restoreth my soul and when we get away from the Lord.
We know that there is a way back, and we often sing that little hymn. Though I forget him and wander away, Still He loves me back to his dear loving arms. Would I flee when I remember that Jesus loves me and there's nothing that can warm the heart as much as the love of the Lord Jesus for you and for me, in spite of ourselves and perhaps how far we've gone from Him.
Give us that I believe, sweet sense of His love in our souls, and we wanna get back to Him. And to know Him as our brother points out is really to love Him. The word of joke is acquaint. Now thyself with Him, and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee.
Wonderful thing about the Lord is.
The more we get to know him.
The more we find out just how lovely he really is. So all together lovely.
Sometimes we meet somebody and.
Because this is quite an impressive person, but maybe after we get to know them, we find out that there are faults and we're not quite as impressed as we might be. And I'm sure that's so in folks oneself. But, you know, when it comes to the Lord, the more we examine him, the more beautiful he is, and there's no fault in him. It's a wonderful thing, you know, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.
And with respect to suffering, I believe the Lord always gives us.
As has been pointed out that I wanna labor the point but.
Of your glory and the recompense for this suffering. And if we suffer with him, we're gonna reign with him.
We're speaking about the disciples, you know they're called to.
Denied himself and take up the cross and to follow the Lord and it seemed like a very bleak outlook for them. But you know, the Lord presented himself to those disciples on that mountain of transfiguration and his face that shone like the sun is raiment was white. There's no fooler on earth to make it and what a sight they had of the Lord. It's a little I believe uh.
01:25:23
Preview, you know, of the Lord and His coming glory when He would reign. And so they had that to think about. And we've had Paul too, on the road to Damascus. Well, here's this light that shines down upon him. It's above the new, the brightness of the noonday sun. Well, I'm sure Paul didn't forget about that, you know, as he was experiencing the difficulties of the weight suffering and of course he was caught up to the 3rd heaven too.
And he saw things that it wasn't lawful for him to speak. I mean, there's no words in that human language to describe the beauty of what he saw.
But all of this, I believe, was in the mind of the pastor, you know, as he went through his suffering, of which we've been speaking. It's just, uh, wonderful to realize that you and I, we have a.
Savior is glory. He's a man with flesh and bone. He sits there, He intercedes on our behalf and he's coming again. I believe he's about ready to step out of heaven and come back. No, we hear about these men in the International Space Station and it's a quite a feat to be there in that space station and great importance placed upon this, upon these men and so on. But we have somebody in the 3rd heaven.
The Prince in the stadium is an extended man flashing phone. There he is in the glory. And as we are here in this world, we suffer. As we have been pointing out, we think about him and our association with him and he's coming back. He could be today. So we have so much to rejoice. Our hearts as we, you know, go through this world and experiences issues. Any measures that we suffer is.
Not too much in this part of the world, but I don't know. I reading the stories about our brethren over in China and in Muslim countries that suffer and over in India perhaps.
There is a fellowship.
With the Lord in that, that I don't think can be replaced with anything. And if you had asked them, I've heard that the brethren in China will say, don't pray that our persecution cease. It only makes our testimony the brighter they recognize it. And I've been thought of Daniel's three friends when they were thrown into the fiery furnace.
There they.
Walked in company with the Son of God. I've often wondered if they knew about Isaiah's prophecy. When thou passes through the fire, I will be with thee. There they were in the presence of the Son of God. You had asked coming day, what was special about your life? You, they would say. I'm sure one of the highlights of their life was the fiery furnace.
Because there we walked with the Son of God.
I'd like to just say this before we pass on to in connection with Bill's question and some of the comments that Doug made, and that is has been alluded to. It is a matter of the heart, but I think it's illustrated, brethren, so very beautifully. In the awakening of the bride in the Song of Solomon, she was asleep and indifferent as to the love.
And the attentions of her bridegroom. But as she is awakened, what is it that awakens her and stirs her affections? Its occupation with himself. It's not occupation with herself and her poor feeble response and the condition that she had been in. But as she goes over the and enumerates the qualities and glories of the bridegroom as she realizes that he's right there.
Seeking to have her walk with him and reaching out to her and so on, why her affections are awakened, she eventually says he's altogether lovely. She wants more and desires more of his company.
And someone has said that purpose of heart is really a desire where the affections are motivated by an object. We've been talking about an object. And why is it sometimes, brethren, there is that lack of energy of faith in our Christian pathway? Well, it's because there might be a desire, but there aren't the affection stirred to put that desire into operation. There must be energy of faith.
01:30:30
Just go to a verse in Psalm 27 that sums up David's desire.
Psalm 27.
And verse four, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.
And to inquire in his temple. Well, we see a number of things here. And it begins with a desire, you know, we say about a certain, perhaps young person. Well, that young person has a nice desire. And I love to see a desire. And I like when I hear a commendation about another believer, that they have a nice desire to follow the Lord. But brethren, that is not enough. You know, after this meeting concludes, we might all have a desire.
To go over to the dining room and have dinner. But if we don't do something about it, we'll sit on these seats till gospel meeting and go pretty hungry. You say what? We all had a desire to go over and eat, but there wasn't the energy put forth to get up off those these seats, leave this building, cross the road, and go up to the dining room. No, it began begins with a desire. But the sluggard desireth and hath nothing. And so David speaks of this desire, but he doesn't stop there.
He says that will I seek after brethren, That's energy of faith. And what is it that's going to give us that energy of faith to follow our desire? It's a heart that's attracted to himself. It's that purpose of heart. Barnabas went down and exhorted the early believers in his day that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Not just purpose, but purpose of heart.
And so if there's going to be that energy of faith in following the Lord.
There must be that purpose of heart, because where the heart is, then the feet will follow. And it's not going to be a difficult thing if the heart is engaged, the if a man loved me, he will keep my commandments. Where there's love involved and a heart goes attracted to the object, then the feet are going to follow very quickly and very directly. And I believe that so often the reason we don't see in our own lives that energy that there ought to be.
Is because our hearts have become cold and indifferent and there isn't that purpose of heart to follow the Lord.
Couple of additional comments. It's subject in itself, but just a couple of points on what's before us. The 1St and 1St John chapters, John's first epistle in chapter 2.
And verse 5.
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him.
God himself is the one that puts his own love in us. We don't generate it in ourselves.
Umm, it's not possible for us to really love God more than we do by any effort with that is within us. But God himself is the one that puts Christ and himself before our hearts and is the actually it's the work of God to put his own love in US to and the enjoyment of it.
But here is something that hinders it and it's disobedience. And if there's disobedience in my life, then I'm not going to enjoy.
Uh, fellowship with the Lord Jesus and that disobedience, and consequently he ceases practically at that point to be an enjoyable object to my soul through my disobedience. And so it's important for us to recognize there are serious hindrances.
To really enjoying Christ as an object for the soul, I'd like to point out another one in John's Gospel, chapter 6.
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John's Gospel chapter 6 and verse 33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst the food of Egypt.
That is, that which the world presents to us as food for our souls spoils our appetite for the Lord Jesus.
And so when we don't recognize that we are dead and risen with Christ, but our hearts are still attached to Egypt, we spoil the appetite and we may say, well, what's in it? I don't enjoy thinking of the Lord Jesus as an object of my life.
Because we have spoiled ourselves by on Egypt's food. But the contrast to that, another important side of it is this.
We all expect when we leave this room, or at least most of us expect when we leave this room, to go to the dining room and eat because we recognize even if we're not particularly hungry, and some of us will be and some of us not so much, but we all recognize that food is important to our bodies and that we need it, and we need it on a regular basis. And so whether we're particularly hungry or not, most of us will go and eat.
It's important to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is the food of the new man.
The life that we have in Christ, He is the food of that life and we need to feed on Him.
And we'll do so for eternity. When we get to heaven, we're not gonna have a different diet. We will have more of the same. It will be the Lord Jesus Christ is actually that which feeds the soul.
And we need to take the food whether or not we feel at that moment an appetite for it.
It's a medical. I don't know. I'm not gonna call on doctors here to confirm it, but.
It's a well known fact that people who are starving after a while often cease to have any appetite for food.
And if there is no appetite for an extended period of time in your life because of disobedience, because of feeding on the world and so or whatever other hindrance as it has in our chapter, there's three more reasons given, uh, why we don't feed on Christ because we have the things that are the our belly is our God and so on, as it says in a couple of verses later.
And, uh, we feed on or we occupy ourselves with.
Something other than Christ. But rather it's important to realize that even if you're you may be starving and you're not aware of it.
You can starve and not know it and have no appetite for Christ at all. But listen if the Lord speaks to you or someone speaks to you on the Lord's behalf for that lack of sense or desire for this, for the food. And Christ is an object because it's an unhealthy state and it can be a state that is brought on by starvation.
If I could take the analogy one step farther, dawn in connection with appetite and eating is what gives us a good appetite is a little exercise or or more exercise a lot and I believe in I believe that's a principle in this chapter two. That is not only do we have our a crisis, an object and feed on him, but we put it into practice. We walk in it. Paul is speaking about this here a lot in the chapter.
Uh, in the previous chapter sales, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Put it into practice, is what he's saying. Make your Christianity a practical daily part of your life. You know, that really makes you a happy Christian when you put into practice, not just know it in your head or not just enjoy it in your heart, but enjoying it in your daily life. That is what really makes it real to you and you don't forget it.
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And it becomes a part of you when you live it that way. And I believe that's what Paul is infi emphasizing here in these verses about, uh, his, uh, knowing Christ and and so on. It's, it's, it's not just in the head, but it's through the daily experience.
More of Jesus would I know more of his grace to others show. That's the bottom line.
Can we sing 46 in the appendix please? 46 in the appendix.
So we look to the Lord.
Our God and Father, we look up to the the end of.
This reading.
And surely we are humbled as we consider what thou hast brought before us, when you think of that one thine own beloved son, that one whom thou hast set before thee.
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His head over all things, The one who in the fullness of times thou wilt give to be head over all things, whether in heaven or in earth.
And we thank our God that those picked us up.
Not merely associated us with Him to look forward to that coming glory, blessed though it is, but that Thou hast given us, as we have had before us, the capacity to know Him.
Or a God to think that there could even be a thought in our hearts.
That we did not care.
That all of this meant little or nothing to us, and that somehow the pursuit of interest down here.
To have something in this world could displace the desire to know more of the Lord Jesus and along with it, the fellowship of Daiso.
We have sung together.
Prayer.
Fidelity object, bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart.
And we may undistracted be to follow, serve, and wait for thee.
We pray that it may be more so in whatever time may be left to us here, and that what we have had before us may not simply be.
Rhetoric and talk within the confines of all the comforts that we have sitting down here together, but that it may be a present living reality in our lives, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I am.