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Also gravely ill to be.
They can't ask me to read the chapter for him.
Where should we start?
Or 7 Philippians 3:00 and 7:00.
But what things were getting to me? Those I counted Loss for Christ, Yay, doubtless. And I count all things from lost 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 done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. For that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God my faith, that I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either. We're already perfect, But I follow after, if that I'm 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 for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the cries of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
And if in anything we'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing rather, and be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example for many walk, of whom I have pulled you off, And then 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 well, 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?
Just a word for the younger ones. Just notice this brother was reading that there are words, there are envies that are very suited for us all today, that we hear it constantly in the world in verse seven, game loss.
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Power.
Win a chain.
This is what the world is filling the heart of your dear young ones.
But these are the true winnings and games and power and joy and peace only to be found in Christ.
I'd like to ask a question, brother.
To skip down to that verse.
It says that I may win Christ in the verse 8.
Could we say that we have one Christ when we are saved? Or is this something that is developing in the in the in the soul that while I'm still here?
How, how would you put that from learn? The Lord Jesus could say learn of me is that along that thought that we are learning of him, we are winning more?
Of the treasure that we have already, well, I believe there are two sides to that. Just like sanctification, that one one way we have it totally through the work of Christ. That's the sovereignty of God and that is that the two lines like a railroad track that runs through scriptures. But on the other side is the responsibility.
You know these things out there if you do them.
We have all the power.
God gives before he expects.
And he has given all these things to us.
Joshua one and three, Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon that have I given you. They had to put their foot down on it. But when they did, and when we do, then he says, I've already gave it to you. So there are the 2 running parallel, I believe, side by side what we have, and then our responsibility to walk in it, to make our own.
There's actually a contrast here, and that is that in which men places a great deal.
Of value and price, The Apostle has just announced by the Spirit that there were many things that were his that were prized possession of a natural Jew.
But he says these things when I saw them, glorified man paled into insignificance. Now I want Christ as my price. And so, giving these things up, we have the prize of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a little footnoted in Mr. Darby's translation. Have Christ for my game. In other words, it's what we place value upon, as you were saying.
What do we want? Are we seeking gain in this world, or is our gains know him? Or, as we might say, to know him better and to make him the all absorbing object for our hearts? That was the desire of the Apostle, I believe.
No, we get here too, in person. 7:00 and 8:00 we get past and present. You know, Paul could look back and say in verse 7 for what gay things were gained to me. I counted law. I counted loss for Christ. He did that. And many times we as we look back and we see some little thing that we've given up for the Lord. But there's a pathway before us.
And so do we continue with that same spirit.
Same attitude. Notice that in verse eight I believe that is the is a brain before. It's a present thing, doesn't it? First he looks back and he says.
Those things that were gained to me, I counted loss for Christ. Now in verse eight he says he ate Douglas, and I count all things for the loss of the Excellency and knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, But done that I may wing Christ. So it's good for us to remember that if we begin the many times we see those who begin very lovely in a in the path of faith.
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And because of trial or difficulty or something comes along and we find them fading out.
Well, I believe I see in this Paul's thought here that he not only counted them in the past as he of nothing, but he still counted them as nothing along the pathway too. And we have to remember that, don't we? Because we're waiting for the Lord to come. Sometimes we we wait very impatiently.
It's hard to become engaged with a person having that he had the prize in view, which was Christ. And I say this because I may try to give up certain things.
But unless my heart is engaged, it's going to be a very difficult thing. I may give up something and I may really miss that thing that I have given up. But Paul didn't miss those things that he had in that sense given up because he found something better in the person of Christ.
I often think of the Thessalonians 2. It says they turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Now if I've been writing that, I probably would have reversed the order and said they turned from idols to God. But that's not what it says. They found something better and then those idols that they had. Why they didn't want those things anymore because they found something better in having turned to God. They turned to God first and then the idols didn't have.
The attraction that they once had, Well, Paul found his heart attracted to the person of Christ, and then those things that once he counted here, and he did count them dear. He There was a time in his life when these things that in the preceding verses were very important to the apostle Paul. But those things didn't matter anymore. And so for those of us who are younger again, if our hearts are attracted to the person of Christ, then the things that the world places importance on.
And they do place importance on many temporal things. But if our hearts are attracted to Christ, then those things that the world places importance upon and that the world dangles in front of us all, the glitter and tinsel of this world. It's not that we're going to give them up and feel like we've lost something. Those things aren't going to have the appeal when they're offered. And so let's have hearts attracted to Christ. Let's have the prize in view, as Paul said, that I may know him.
Not just about him. Once, before I married my wife, I knew a lot about her, or I thought I knew a lot about her. But as we've gone on together in our married life now I've come to know her not just about her brother. And we need not to know. Not just about Christ. Wonderful to have the truth before us and to know more about him. But as we walk in communion with himself, then we can know the person of Christ himself.
Christianity is objective primarily, rather than I think it's extremely important. This chapter really brings Christ our object before us, and it is looking at a goal to be attained. He's running towards it. He says later on, Not that I have attained, but that I pursue this goal. It's knowing Christ. We could have said, Paul, don't you know Christ? Yes.
He knew him, but his earnest pursuit in his life was in that direction. To know him more and more, and that is Christianity. It's not the negative first. It's putting an object of supreme value before our souls, and our souls are drawn after that. And the, as I said, the things of this world that before attracted our hearts so much.
Are just pale into insignificance if you see me occupied with things of this world unduly.
You'll say that brother needs his heart occupied with Christ. Sometimes we attack outward things that are not in order and younger brother and sometimes an older brethren too, when perhaps what they need is a fresh glimpse of the Lord Jesus so that they can run after the hymn. And when their hearts get occupied with him, there will be the progression that there was in the apostle Paul too, like brother Little brought out verse 7.
He counted it all but lost. But there's a progression in verse eight. He not only counts it lie, but he counts it dumb. Anything that would get in the way of knowing Christ better was something that was put on the level of dumb. Oh brethren, is there that progression in my heart in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus?
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There ought to be.
I'd like to have a word.
In Second Corinthians chapter four, I think it is we have mentioned, I think in one of the readings the other day that if we knew Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth no, we have no more.
The Lord Jesus marvelously and miraculously came into our circumstances as God, manifest in the flesh, and there we see a pattern of every desirable human trait perfectly exhibited, And it's wonderful for our hearts to be occupied with Him in that way.
But the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are seeking now to bring before our hearts is in the power of His resurrection. He is no longer in the circumstances in which He was as a man in this world. He's a man exalted to the right hand and thought.
Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and there is where we know Him. We know Him in the power of His resurrection, because we have His resurrection life communicated to us in the new creation. And so it is in that way that we know Him as a man exalted at God's right hand. And there is the object that raises us above this poor creation that offers all this pencil to take our hearts away from Him. We know Him in the power of His resurrection.
If we look back.
On his life, we learn humility.
There are only 7 words that the Lord Jesus spoke as a autobiographical sketch of himself. 7 words I am meek and lowly in the heart. So when we look back we are taught humility to walk as he walked. But when we look forward, as we have in the third chapter in the 18th verse of Corinthians, when we look forward and up, we see Him in the glory and this fills our hearts with.
That present position that he has, and this gives us the energy to press on.
The value of seeing him there is that it shows us the end of faith. We read of him in Hebrews that he is the author and finisher of faith. He came into this scene and and was the author of faith. But the end of it is the glory and that's the value of being occupied with him at God's right hand. Like the contrast Paul with Solomon in the Old Testament in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon.
Had every single thing that his heart could desire. He did not deny any desire that he had. If he wanted it, he got it. He had everything you could possibly want. But that book again and again uses the words vanity, vexation of spirit.
Dear young brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
Pursuit of the things of this world is going to leave you with emptiness.
Here's a man that says I lost everything, the loss of all things I've suffered here. He is in a prison.
We don't know how long he may have lived after this spread.
Being with all his energies a supreme prize.
Owed a contrast between the two. Where do I fit into the picture?
It's a position that he wanted to have to in the religious world, because there can be a desire to have the things of this world. There could be also a desire to have a position in the religious world. We see much of that. But isn't it beautiful to see that when he got occupied with Christ, instead of thinking of himself as a great person, even in the religious world, we might say he lost sight of himself, counted everything that he might have desired before?
To be absolute, lost and felt, Just to be occupied with that one and longing as the chapter goes on, to the time when he be fully like him, and until then Brandon with our hearts be fully satisfied. But we can each ask our own hearts whether it's in the things of the world, or whether it's in possession even among the people of God. What is our object? Is it to have Christ before us, and to exalt him, or to seek something for himself?
00:20:30
His whole desire was to be like Christ, who was meek and lowly in heart. He is the one who was in this world who could say, show me a penny, the one who could say I do always those things which please him, That was the one that filled his heart. Under the law man was put under test, and everything was given to test whether there would be anything good in the flesh, even in religious flesh. But when he met the Lord Jesus there on the road to Damascus, his whole sense of values changed.
And I believe that's important for us, because it's just as much that we might go after things of the world as we might seek a position in this among the religious, in the religious world. But just to be content, to be gathered in simplicity to the name of the Lord Jesus, to be like him in our walking ways, That's everything. That was the desire of the heart of the apostle.
I'd like to have a little bit of light on the difference between these remarks that we read here and the 21St verse of the first chapter wherein he says for me to live is Christ. Is that the summary of it all?
I believe so. I believe that's what he is saying. And he was drawing the contrast of what he had been before and what grace had made him since he had met the Lord.
The law, he answered. Here. We've spoken about the world, Brother Tahoe, before us, the religious man. But if this was from God, the law was from God until Christ. Now Christ replaces the law. And the principle of the law was that it worked with the first man. So Paul began our chapter with.
Two expressions, one was circumcision and the other concision.
Those may not mean anything to us, but it's in circumcision is very important. The thought of that is to have done with the first man in any form, as to a law keeper, or as has been brought up worldly fame, or whatever the first man God has done with him. But the expression concision may not mean anything to us.
Both of these expressions pertain to the male.
Circumcision, I'm speaking in a spiritual application, is necessary. That reproduction might be clean, there might be clean. So with Goliath he was everything that man could admire in the flesh, a giant, a champion, he is called, but today that he was an uncircumcised, this time hindering the people of God from possessing that which was their deportation.
But confusion is a destruction or a mutilation.
In making it not possible for reproduction at all. And I would like us to think of the admissible to the Philippians as given to us as believers, that Christ himself in glory might be reproduced and his children God's children here on earth. And that's the labor of Paul the Apostle. He says Christ can't be reproduced by law keeping.
It's impossible. The law was for the first man. Christ is for the Newman Christ is what I want to see reproduced in your lives as believers and so.
For Him to live was Christ, and He gave 3 examples of first four Christ himself in the prior chapter, and then He, Pappaditis and Timothy, and himself.
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And he says in this chapter to follow those who left them, that kind of example. So when we looked and someone mentioned the young people, I think that's good because.
That's where, naturally speaking, reproduction takes place amongst the young.
And the replenishing of our ranks should normally come from the young, but we who are older have to be careful that we don't take up the young inconsistent.
That is, we discourage there in almost render and impossible for them to reproduce Christ in their lives. And so we want to minister grace Perfection in Philippians is seeing Christ in glory in that new position, and following after him as the object of our faith? Yes, but also as the life that we live. And so we don't want concision, but we do want circumcision.
Because that puts the law out of our life, and it puts that which the law attached to out of our life, the flesh.
And that's what we get in the 6th of Romans, that we are raised up just as we are planted together.
In the likeness of His death, we are raised up in the resurrection to walk and do this of life in fellowship with His sufferings.
And I mean in the power of his resurrection, of the fellowship of His suffering exhibiting the life of Christ is going to inflict upon us the same suffering that the Lord Jesus Christ went through. What he was here to live, Christ is going to be the suffer in the world that rejected Him.
Paul went so far that he actually desired. I conclude from the end of verse 10.
That he would desire to go through the experience of death like the Lord, and that he might come to.
By any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead so.
I believe that it implied here, isn't it? That's how far his desire was to be like the Lord Jesus. And of course it couldn't be atoning Suffolk, you know, But go through the experience of death like Lord dated, and then be raised like the Lord was from among the dead. We're very close to that these days too, aren't we? Because we could say, well, we want to be with him. Well, some may die.
Or may the Lord may come this afternoon and fall could see him. Doesn't matter which whichever, I just want to be with him and like him.
But his death was in fellowship with sufferings with Christ, you know that is the difference we might.
As young people, older ones, 'cause our premature death by driving foolishly, you know well Paul, in connection with following the Lord Jesus and suffering with him and for him the desire that he might go through the experience.
And then also take part in the resurrection from among the dead. You know that should be the way it is here. It shouldn't be just the resurrection of the dead. In Christianity we have more than the resurrection of the dead. In the Old Testament, that's all they knew. They didn't know that there would be a resurrection. Like even Job said. In this flesh I shall see God. But in Christianity we had the resurrection from among the dead. The Lord Jesus is the first born.
And then those that are his at his coming.
Will be raised in the same way. And then those who died for the testimony of God, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, will be raised in the same way from among the dead, and then of course, the resurrection of the dead spiritually dead, at the great white throne judgment.
Is there a further thought though here in verse 10 when it mentions?
Being made conformable unto his death, that that that's the principle that is to be applied as we pursue this goal.
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I was thinking in verse 10 it mentions His resurrection first of all, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, and then being made conformable unto His death. I agree that it it has that in view the full extent of it. But if there's going to be the power of His resurrection, if we're going to know the power of His resurrection practically in our lives.
You don't know resurrection without death being in place first takes place in death and it's so it's it's brought together here. And I think how it's brought together in Second Corinthians chapter 4, where the apostle says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies and so.
What is desirable is to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps this is the thought in being made conformable unto his death. There's things that I naturally would like my flesh desires, but I say no, I'm dead to that. It's a denial. It's a self denial, so that the life of Jesus would be manifest. Every true believer has the life of Jesus.
As that new resurrection light, but it's not manifested, if I do not fear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus. First of all is that thought here. I believe that's the thought we have it in a little hymn that we sing or teach us. So the power to know of risen life with thee not we may live while here below, but Christ our life may be. And Paul's great desire was that they wouldn't see old Paul that they would see in looking at him the life of Jesus.
Shining out in his life, that would be resurrection associated with the risen Savior. And if that path of obedience, and it did for him, lead to martyrdom, then he would be just that much more like Christ, because Christ went through death and came forth in resurrection life, and he wanted to be like that in his path. And if the cost man murdered him, why, he just rejoiced. I'd be that much more like him. I thought of it, rather than in connection with those ones that rose when Christ arose.
We're not given their names, and it tells us they appeared in the holy city.
If someone met one of those people and said, well, who are you? He always could say, well, I'm alive because Christ is risen and they were seeing people who were alive living in Jerusalem in resurrection life. And now you say, well, did they die again? Well, that wasn't the point. Some of us may not die, but if we do die, we'll experience in a literal, physical way that resurrection.
But we should display it in a spiritual way, even while we're still alive.
And I say again, if that pathway of obedience and pleasing the Lord led to death, he rejoiced. He'd be just that much more like the one who was the object of his heart, Christ the Father told his oldest son in Luke 15. When he found fault with the father, killing the cat and making marriage, said it was me.
That we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead.
Dead. He wasn't really physically dead, was he? But he's alive again and was lost and is found. So there you have resurrection power, and that is so important that this is to be displayed in us now.
You know, and in Romans it says live in newness of life.
You know, it all fits in and we have it, and we have the power of the resurrection displayed in us. If we really walk with the Lord, this new life can be displayed.
I think there's a real secret we can get a hold of it, especially the young of power in our Christian lives to live. If we can capture the thought here in verse 10 that death and resurrection go together, we live in a world, and especially this country Brethren, is pleasure mad. They're they're seeking pleasure seeking to please ourselves.
00:35:15
Everything. The whole advertising businesses build on it.
You owe it to yourself. It's your pleasure that is sighed, and we fall into the stream of it. We're affected by it. I have to confess I'm affected by it. But in the measure that I go along with that stream of things, the power of his resurrection is not going to be manifest in my life.
It's denying yourself, the Lord Jesus said. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, deny yourself.
What need of denying yourself everything that are right in our hands here? Why did you not yourself? Oh brethren, dear young people especially, here's a great secret to deny yourself to say no to your own natural desires. Sometimes not bad in themselves. But to say no so that Christ would be glorified is a tremendous secret. The Lord help us.
To sacrifice ourselves. I often think of these sacrifices that are mentioned in the New Testament. Brother Bob was speaking in the open meeting on Saturday of the sacrifice of praise. Do we take time? It may be something that costs something.
Praise the Lord to take time not only to listen to nice Christian music, but to praise Him with our own lips and our own hearts. We're going to have to say no to some areas of our own pleasure to give Him the praise and their sacrifice in other ways too, to lay down our lives for our brethren. There are many that are in terrible circumstances. Do we know what it means to say no to our own natural pleasure?
For the Lord's sake that is opening up an area of what real Christian life is and oh that we could know it better. Brethren just feel that often times our life and testimony is Hanford because we live in a world that is so self-centered and self pleasing.
Brethren of the power of resurrection Light.
Is only manifested in the measure that we bear about in our body.
The dying of the Lord Jesus.
Loves his life shall lose it. You're telling us about the life that you could lose. And the Lord says he that loses his life will have it until life eternal. But I get to tell a story, you know, So you'll pardon sometimes. I'll bring it down to the story of what we do. They all want to win the lottery. They all want to win the lottery. And they say to me, you know.
Did you? Anyway, in our town there was a man that won the lottery. It was a great story. I'm not going to tell you that story, but I want to tell you another story. There was a brother, he was in the in the market there, and he was standing in line to go through the check counter. And the lady that was at the head of the line, she was. She was.
By the clerk, the clerk says. Wouldn't you like to buy a lottery ticket?
You might win. And she says, Oh yes, yes, I forgot. So she gives the dollar, you know, whatever it is, a dollar, $2.00. And here's about six people standing in line and his brother's right behind this lady. And then as she's wrapping up the stuff, she's wouldn't you like to buy another lottery ticket? Well, this takes time. And everybody's standing in the line in the grocery. You never did that. Did you stand in the line of the grocery? Of course you did.
In the meantime, somebody that's holding up the line, you get impatient. You say, what's the hold up, What's the hold up? You know, so everybody was at attention. What's this lady doing? She's buying another lottery ticket.
And then the clerk says, wouldn't you like to get another one? You know, like you she was feeding the, you know, the the interest, another one, oh, maybe you'll win the lottery. And then this brother. Anyway, Finally the line starts moving. The lady goes on with her groceries and a couple of three or four lottery tickets. And the brother right behind the lady says to him, wouldn't you like to get a lottery ticket? And the brother, he says, I won already.
00:40:08
She's. You mean you won the lottery? He said. No, I won. Christ.
And everybody in the line behind the look at the floor, yeah, But see, there was the real winner.
You know you and I should be on the winning side and here this wonderful verse he says that I may win Christ.
You know, if you and I have one Christ who want to tell other people about it, may it be so in our hearts. But that's the Newman speaking. I won Christ. The old man would say, well, maybe I should take a chance to win the lottery. I could do a lot of good with it, you know, they watch out. That's where you could lose the life, he says, the Lord said he that loves his life. Which life are you going to use for the Lord's glory?
Not only uses the word loses life that it says that any man hate his life in this world, That's a pretty strong word.
I think we can say that whatever practical measure there is an expression of conformity to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be the answer in practical expression to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ lived out.
I suppose one of the biggest snares to our young people is the fact is sports. And I've had a young person say to me, well, if the Lord has given us talents.
How are we to use them? Are we not supposed to use them? Are you giving us abilities in sports? And so they use this as an excuse to go into it headlong? Well, perhaps that's one of those things you're mentioning, Bob, that that we deny ourselves. The Lord has given us certain amount of of abilities.
But are we going to use them for that which furthers the situation, our situation in the world, or are we going to use it to pursue popularity or riches or whatever it might be? Perhaps those are some of those things that we can lay down for the Lord Jesus. You know, at the time, at this time here, sometimes the only way some of these Christians reach the arena was to lay down their lives for Christ. And so if you, if our young people would say, well.
You know, I've got these abilities. I would like to use them for the Lord. And so we find this in religious circles. You know why there's athletes for Christ and things like this. I'm not trying to knock these things because many of these people, I God, is their judge. But let us not think that these are not some of those things that we can lay down for Christ, that we may win him and have him as our object rather than things for this world. What is a big hindrance to many of the young people is the poor example that they see in after our older.
And that's a good point, brother. And the next verse would say to all of our younger brethren, there's not one of us who would say that we had a thing. You're not that I have already obtained. We are on the way with them. We may be a little farther along the pathway, but none of us would say to you, dear young people, we have arrived. I just trust that the young ones are getting these things.
And for a word to us, we who are older, we often talk about the glory and being conformed to his image there. But in the Darby translation it's very important. I believe in verse 10 it says being conformed to his death. This is what it's going to cost us. And I just trust that we who are older are displaying this.
Not talking about it, but displaying.
These things also being conformed to his death. This is how we come to know Christ better.
Take materialism. You know we have spoken of worldly things even in the religious world, but at the end of this chapter, Paul speaks of earthly mindedness minding earthly things and.
These are in themselves legitimate thing which we make our life.
You know, and isn't that the problem in our part of the world? You know we have.
So much more an opportunity to accumulate things, you know, And then we spend so much effort to get these things and we lose out spiritually. And the young people see this example.
00:45:06
And it is such a hindrance to them, you know there's nothing wrong.
In having a nice home and having a car and so on. But it will become very manifest with our hearts are attached to these things. You know, whether these things become idols to us or we use these things for the Lord, you know? Have you not heard people say, well, I've been buying this house, I want to be able to entertain the sayings, but then they are working two jobs in order to pay for the house and to have no opportunity to.
And contain the same These are the things, the snares and pitfalls that we tend to fall into. And we have to be careful, You know, are we spending so much energy to reach out for these things? And we don't have time to get to know more about the Lord Jesus, to get to know him better and to be in his company. You know, we get home so tired that we can hardly read or pray. You know, we fall asleep on our needs. That happens.
Died. But we have to have our priorities straight and have to be an example. You know, maybe we have to suffer loss in an earthly way in a world we stand in order to live our Christian life for Speeder 5 says that they Peter said to those who are older, be thou an example.
To the flock for all of us here today who are older.
But Paul in First Timothy four, I think it's 13. He is speaking to Timothy, and he says, be thou an example, all the believers, the message for both of us this afternoon.
This morning just like to say this, that every believer possesses this resurrection life. It isn't something that we have to attain for as believers we possess that life. You may have a very fine car full of gas and all tuned up sitting in the garage.
There it is. It's your car. You've got the title deeds to it, but the only time that you're going to get any good out of it is to use it. And every believer, brethren, has that new life. Christ himself is our life. We have the Holy Spirit of God within, and the purpose of these meetings, I trust, is this given object for our lives. What is the object of our life? Are we living for the things that pass away?
And there can be an occupation too, with our attainments. And there are books written called The Victorious Life. And the book usually begins by getting you to measure yourself. Are you living the victorious life rather than That is not the point. The point is to have our eyes upon that glorious Savior. Think of what He has done for us. Think of what He means to us. Think of what awaits us at the end of the journey.
And we'll always feel how very feeble is our response. We'll always feel that we're not giving their response of love and devotedness that we should. But the more we're occupied with Him, the more that will take place in our lives. Perhaps I could say unconsciously, Moses didn't know that his face was shining, but it was shining because he had spent 40 days in the presence of the Lord, learning about His grace to the failing people of God.
And he came back, and he didn't know his face was shining, but it was because it was occupied with him. And so I just want to say for the encouragement of all, especially those who are young, you have all the capability. You've got that fine car sitting in the garage with all the capabilities of everything that you could desire. You have that new life. You have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in. And I trust these meetings, and I think in measure they are occupying us with the glorious object that we have for our souls and as we are occupied with him.
And then we want to enjoy that which he has given us and display it. It may mean setting aside certain things, but we say what is really worthwhile. Why should we be fooling around with some old car that will hardly go when you've got that nice car sitting around in the garage all ready for you? And that's the point. Well, may the spirit of God occupy us with more with that one. That's what I believe Paul is seeking to bring before us.
00:50:02
The altogether lovely one, and so filled his heart and transformed his life, he said It's worthwhile no matter what. I may have to give up. I think Mr. Darby made the comment the Christian life is worth worthwhile if it were 1000 times harder than it is.
Told in Hebrews chapter 12 to lay aside every weight and the sandwich, does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking after Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And so these weights we've been talking about, someone mentioned already about what we get in the book of Ecclesiastes and the Song, and Solomon found that these things became perhaps waste to him. They were.
They were things that vexed his spirit and dragged him down and gave him.
Satisfaction. And so how How much? How many times we we are made to feel that these things are what we need to strive after for our happiness. And when we get them, we find there are ways that drag this down. Now some some of these weights are not necessarily sin, but they're just unnecessary baggage that we care, that we take on as we go through this life, thinking that they are necessary for our happiness, but they may become a sin.
And so we are to lay aside these things and run with patience. As many we hear many times you would never find even carrying a bag of gold while we're running a race. Why, you say, I can't let go of that goal, but it's a week and it would drag us down. So these are the things that we have our eye on, on the object, who is Christ, who has run the race before us, and who despise the shame and suffered the the affliction of the cross.
Why can we not do the same thing, brother?
A runner in a race needs to have the goal distinctly before him. Extremely important. If a runner starts a race and doesn't know where the goal is, he might run our ways in a certain direction and think maybe the goal's off in another direction, run a different direction. He'll never win the race that way. Sometimes I like to ask young people, what is your objective, your overall objective?
And it's interesting the different responses. But I say for a Christian, the only objective that is worthy of a Christian is out of this world. It's Christ in glory that must be the overall objective before the Christian. There may be other.
Objectives that are lesser objectives.
But they should relate. They should all be compared with that over all objective. And I challenge the dear young people to think about their lives that are before them. What is your overall objective? Some upset love to get a good education and then get a good job and and deliver the Lord. That sounds pretty good, but I say that's not an overall objective. You need to place your sights on Christ and glory.
And then there may be.
Getting an education that may fit into the picture, but it has to relate to that overall objective. So I say let's get distinctly before our souls that over all objective that Paul had before him here, and then run the race with patience like it mentions in Hebrews 12 and relate everything to that overall objective whether Brinkman was talking about.
Priorities.
And I think it's important that we stop once in a while.
And evaluate our lives and establish priorities. Our lives get cluttered with things, things that in themselves are not wrong, but that do not help run the race properly.
Told the story of.
Man, I got to know in Bolivia.
Who used to run in the car races of Bolivia. They used to visit him. He made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus and I believe it's real, but I never said anything to him about racing in the car races. One day I was visiting him and he said what's wrong with racing? He kind of felt that I wasn't quite in agreement with him. It's a good, clean sport. I said yeah, that's probably true. What's wrong with it?
00:55:05
I said I'd like to ask you a question. If I'm running a race like they do in Bolivia between two of the cities, between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, would it be all right for me to stop beside the road and take some pictures? Oh no, no, no, you don't do that. I say. Is there something morally wrong with taking pictures? No, no, no, no, no, nothing morally wrong. But when you're in a race, you don't do that. I said There's exactly the point.
Once you start a race, you have the object before you. You're pursuing it with all your energies. There's a lot of things that in themselves are not morally wrong, but you just don't do them because it doesn't help you to get down to the goal. And I still remember Brother Willis. He used to.
Use quote that verse 14 in a little different way, in a literal way I suppose, where Paul says I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Used to quote it down to the goal. I press the figure of speeches an athlete.
All his energies, he's going toward the last stretch.
And he's putting everything he has into it to get cynical. Oh brother. And if we get a glimpse of the prize, the tremendous prize that's there at the end of the goal for us, nothing could hinder you or me. Nothing would attract if somebody might step up to us and say, here's a bag of gold. We would throw a bag of gold to one side just as soon as we throw a bag of garbage to one side, if we wanted above all to reach that price.
Brethren, let's get our eyes fixed on the tremendous prize that there is waiting for us at the end of the journey. Let's going to form our lives like to tell a little story that happened to myself. It was a real object lesson in this. In this regard, I think I've told some of the young people once and but it was a real lesson for me to see how easily we can lose our eyesight, you know, and I was killing my garden and.
On with the tractor and I was looking at the ground beside me had to see how I was going and and I had to go underneath one of my fruit trees and it caught my hat and flipped it off and and so I just saw where it landed and I thought well I'll pick that up a little later and I just kept on going and I killed for another half an hour and after a while I got up to I got off the tractor to go to the house and something was wrong and and I went like this and my glasses were gone.
I hadn't noticed it for 1/2 an hour. But you see, as long as I was looking at the earth, I didn't realize it. But when I looked up then I saw that I didn't have the right vision. And you know, that was an object lesson to me that that sometimes, you know, as we're looking at earthly things, we don't really get the gradual thing sometimes. And we don't realize that we lose our vision, we lose our eyesight, so to speak. Like Samson lost his eyesight. And it's not until we lift our eyes up that we realize that brother. And so it was a real lesson to me, that an object lesson and and.
Worthwhile considering.
But above, you were talking about going to school, getting a job.
You would agree what you're not that we can go to school and go to work for the glory of God.
So, and the idea is, what's my attitude? You know, how do I look at school? How do I look at my job? That makes all the difference with my object, Yes. And so boys and girls, you can be in school for the glory of God. You can be a good student because you're a Christian. And if you do your work in school, well, you're a testimony for the law. You don't want to excel because you want to show off with your intellect.
But you want to do your job because you're a Christian, you know, and it expected that you do the best you can. And if you don't learn to do that in school or in connection with the jobs and duties that you get at all, it will have an effect on the rest of your life. And the same with work. And the scripture says whatever you do in Word or in deed, do it all for the Lord Jesus so I can go to work and do that job for him.
And justice, like being in school. But my job is not my object. It's a means to an end. You see, that makes all the difference. And like this man was asked, he was a Shoemaker. You might have heard the story. What's your occupation? He said. I'm looking for the Lord to come, and in the meantime, I repair shoes, you see? And so we all have to.
01:00:26
Do something to provide for things honestly. And what a shameful thing that is if a man would have to be judged by that scripture, he that provides not for his own. You know he has denied the faith, but we can do these things for the Lord and what a pleasure that brings into whatever we do, you know, what about the woman that has to wash the diapers and clean the house and cook and so on.
And when she realizes.
I'm doing that for the Lord. She does it with joy.
Great deal has been said and properly comparing the Christian pathway with the race and the athlete.
The Apostle Paul uses that same figure on several occasions, but there is one word that is particularly applicable to how we run the race. He says to Timothy, if any strive for the mastery, that is, if one participates in the race. Yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully?
If we are going to pursue the expression of risen life in Christ, we have to get the rules of the race from the word of God. And striving lawfully is living the resurrection life in accordance with what we find in obedience to the word of God. So if that man is not crowned except.
Described lawfully. And this is the rule that we love, that instructs us how to run this reason, how to pursue this goal.
The word of God every day. I'd like to just back up for a moment, if you'll allow me, because Brother Ken and Brother Bob have alluded to that verse in Hebrews chapter 12, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And I think it's most important to see the the context of that verse, because in the chapter that goes before we find a list of men and women who live by faith for God's glory in the Old Testament. And it's a tremendous list of those who live against all kinds of odds and difficulties.
And it shows us that it's never been popular to live for the for the truth and for God. And if we're going to live for God's glory and reflect something of Christ in our lives, we're not going to be popular down here. The Lord Jesus said if they hated me, they will hate you Also. He said the servant is not greater than his Lord. And if we in the measure in which we reflect Christ in our lives, young people, we're going to suffer a reproach.
It's true, we may not suffer physical persecution in Canada and the United States, like many of our brethren, even today in other parts of the world are suffering. There's brethren even in 1996 who are going through physical suffering and persecution for the testimony of Jesus. But I believe there will be a reproach in the measure in which you and I walk in communion with himself and reflect Christ in our lives. But it says, if ye are reproached for the name of Christ.
Happy are ye but we will suffer that reproach. All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not they might, but they shall suffer persecution. But my particular thought in bringing up the 11Th chapter of Hebrews is that at the end of that chapter then he immediately turns our gaze away from that great list of men and women. In other words, he says, I'm giving you this list as an encouragement.
And we're thankful, too, for those that we've known in the past that have gone on. And it does say whose face follows. But I believe the spirit of God is very careful, lest we ever think that our brethren are given to us as the object for faith. They're not. They're given to us as an encouragement, And even in our day we're encouraged by those we know that go on in the path of faith, but rather they're not the object for us. If we're looking to them, the Lord may have to teach us the lesson of Psalm 119, where it says, I've seen an end of all perfection. We're thankful for our dear brethren, but there's only one object, one perfect object.
01:05:09
And he's the author and finisher not of our faith, but it should read of faith. He's the one and the only one that hasted through this world in the path of faith and obedience, and never for a moment digress from it, even in his his greatest trial as Calvary approached.
And all that it meant to his holy soul, as he anticipated being made sin for us.
It's true, he prayed and said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But he immediately says nevertheless not my will but thine be done. Even Christ pleased not himself. He never, I say, digressed from the path of faith and obedience, And having hastened through this world in that way, now God has set him at his own right hand as the beginner and finisher of faith and the object for you and for me, as we haste through this world in the path of faith.
And if we're going to be preserved in the path of faith and faithfulness, rather, it's only in the measure in which we have the perfect object before us. And I'd like to just say this too, for those of us who are younger, we cannot look at our brethren and use their failures to excuse failure and compromise in our lives. It's true, we may see failure in our brethren if we're looking for that, but, brethren, we cannot use that as an excuse.
And I think sometimes the tendency, and I believe this is the whole spirit of the age, to look at somebody else and blame some failure today on somebody in our past and some circumstance in our past brethren, that's not according to the word of God. If we're looking for failure in our brethren, we're going to find plenty of it, but we won't see it in the Lord Jesus. And so I just said that as a safeguard, Timothy was Paul wrote to Timothy, and Timothy saw much failure by the 2nd Epistle amongst the people of God.
Maybe even those that had been an encouragement to Timothy earlier on, they had forsaken the truth and were turned aside. But what did Paul tell Timothy? To be discouraged because of the faults of his brother, Because some were turned aside? No, he said, Continue thou in the things that thou hast learned and been assured of.
He said, Timothy, don't look at your brother. Look to the perfect one and open the word of God and continue as someone was saying. We have everything that we need in this book to go on for God's glory, even in 1996. And as long as we're left here in this world, this book is sufficient to guide us and direct us. And so, brethren, as we've had in these meetings, let's have Christ before our souls. We sometimes sing this, that little prayer in our hymn book. I trust it's the earnest prayer of your heart and mind.
Oh, fix our earnest gaze so holy Lord on thee, that with thy beauty, thy beauty occupied we elsewhere.
None may say, for our conversation is in heaven.
From what's also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change in our mild body, that it may be fashion likened to His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to even subdue all things unto himself. This is jumping a few verses, perhaps, but the thought here in the end of the chapter, I didn't want to miss it. That time is just about gone.
But.
The fact of our citizenship being not in the world, our citizenship is there in the glory, so we should seek by all means to live as strangers in the world, pilgrims down here.
Only passing through a waste, howling wilderness, home to the glory to himself, where he sits in and waits for us, waits for the moment to come and take us to himself.
I did want to get that verse in before the hour is finished, I almost thought.
You want us to be active citizens and to have any citizenship. Is that what you're telling us?
I wanted to point out this verse, Brethren, follow us together, me and mark them which walk so as he have us for an example, you know, in connection with what Brother Jim has been saying just shortly before. They're not an object, they're an encouragement. And I believe we still have those today that aren't encouragement to others.
01:10:13
They're not an object, but they are an encouragement. And we find even in Hebrews, you know, we have to remember dual.
That have gone before those who have taught us the word of God, and that we should imitate their faith, not imitate them in what they were doing, but to imitate their faith. And so, in spite of the fact that there are many times are things that tend to discourage us, when we look around, there are still those who are an example, and we can be thankful for them, and we don't make them an object.
But we are thankful for whatever faith and faithfulness is manifested in any of God's people. Shall we sing hymn #24 in the back of the hymn book?
24 in the appendix.
Nothing but Christ and.
Long as the pride and God.
Breathing bread blessed. I wish, I wish.