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Most probably. But what things were gained to many, those like current law for Christ in Dallas? I count all things, but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them. By doing that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
That I may know him, 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, 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 there's 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 you 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.
Brethren, 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 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. For once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:05:12
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.
Well, no, That's the thing that Paul gave up.
Were things that were gained for him. As far as this world is concerned, It was not that he gave up things that were harmful anyway. We might think of somebody getting saved and giving up smoking and drinking, which are only harmful to the body anyway, and that's good. They should do that because the body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. But what Paul was giving up were things that were gained to him, not what was all that were lost. It was a gain to him.
And then it has been pointed out that the word dung really is filth.
It's of absolutely no value.
Not even as fertilizer. So he really.
Gave up something valuable, set it aside for Christ.
He goes further and he says, I count all things but laws. That goes further than what he had counted to be against as a Jew. And that includes those things that we might glory in. You know, he counts all things but laws. But I believe, beloved, we have to see that unless we learn to count like the apostle Paul.
It is a hindrance in our spiritual gain.
You know it will hinder us to lay hold of that which we have in the Lord Jesus.
If we do not count these things, worthless that once we're so desirable for us and still go after them.
We lose out spiritually.
It seems there's a progression here, too, in that in verse seven, he says. But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost. As he looked back, he counted them lost.
But then when you come to the next verse, ye doubtless, and I count them. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And so it goes on, doesn't it? He goes on. Now he does. You know, we sometimes we'll we'll say, well, we we counted this thing lost we gave it up. But we don't continue to go along in the same strain. We don't follow through. And I think that Paul. I think I see that here in Paul's what he says, what he said, I counted.
He looked back.
But when he and he goes on, the present thing was that he was. He continued to count them, but done so. It was a continual thing, wasn't it? Not just something to start. You've known, and I have too many who make a good start, but later on when you visit them, you find that they pick it up. A lot of the things that they once gave up.
In Ecclesiastes is a verse that says the time to get since 3:00 and verse 6.
Ecclesiastes a time again, a time to get in, a time to lose.
How? How we should be in the frame of mind that we're ready to leave this world.
Very shortly isn't the time to get. It's a time to lose, isn't it? But there's some things that we keep a time to keep and a time to castaway.
Well, there's some things that we keep that we'll never lose, and I think we're gaining some of them at these meetings.
These were all things that Paul could have boasted in as a religious Jew, they weren't wrong in themselves. Many of them, That is, it was according to the Jewish law. He should have been circumcised the 8th day Benjamin was. The faithful tribe wasn't carried away. In the time when the 10 tribes separated, all these things could have been considered a real advantage. But he writes them all off, as it were. Just like the Lord said that new wine has to be put into new bottles.
So there was number mixing of Judaism and Christianity, if we can put it in that way. He saw himself outside of the whole order of things because Judaism was something, a religion for man in the flesh. God, so to speak, was testing man as to whether all those religious things that were given to him would draw him near to God. So he gave him the grandest religious building that has ever been built, the Temple.
00:10:18
Gave them robes, he gave them music he gave them and many singers.
There was everything as though God were saying, well, if anything good then can be produced from the first man, I'll use the very vast means for it. That's the point. I believe in Isaiah where it says what more could have been done in my vineyard that I have not done in it. Wherefore when I looked at it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. And so he sees he takes a position, so to speak, outside the camp, the many Christians that carry over a lot of Judaism into Christianity.
But Paul saw that it was the end of all that sort of thing, and he had righteousness alone. In Christ. There was an entirely new order of things brought into his life, and not only, as you were saying at the moment of his conversion that he counted them, but as time went went on, Christ became more precious to him, and so he could say, I count all things, the present tense. And so with us sometimes you might give something up to get cold in our souls and go back to it.
But as Paul saw more and more of the infinite beauty in the Lord Jesus, he didn't want all those things. He even spoke of them first. They were but lost. And then, as our brother was saying, he counted them. But dung he saw that what he had in Christ was so much, infinitely better.
And I believe, brethren, as I say, that this also applies to what we might find attractive in what goes on in Christendom, a great deal of mixture of Judaism and Christianity, but we have an altar where they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle were called outside. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. There's a tendency often to go back, introduce those things that we have given up, and try and think that they're going to.
Help and improve in the things of God. There's an entirely new object, an entirely new order of things in Christianity.
I build again the things I destroyed. I make myself a transgressor. And that's a sad thing, isn't it? To think that you're going to you, you have a testimony as to the truth of God, and you go backwards. You give it up. Well, there's a sad note there.
You become a transgressor.
Isn't it possible further?
Charles, that we might give up things in order to please our brethren.
And certainly.
It would not be a commendable character trait if somebody would do things despite fully, you know, or to really irk the brethren. And that's possible that we might do that, you know, But and we might, in order to comply and be acceptable to our brethren, we might do things.
But is it really based on personal conviction gained from the word of God and that we do this for Christ sake and in order that we personally are in line with the truth of God and then go on in communion with the Lord in these exercises? I think that is what we would desire and I think we can pray that that.
Children are young. People will not only be saved, but.
Gain personal convictions in these things based on the word of God, and then in personal obedience to Christ. They do what they do, and I think many might have done that in the past, might even have agreed to the truth of gathering doctrine relief. But when the test comes, they throw it all overboard.
You know, did they really possess it? I know that the scripture says that if the light that is within, they become darkness.
How great is that darkness? That suggests that we actually have something and then give it up. But I believe many times we want to please our brethren. But it's nice to have an exercise that we don't want to offend our brethren. But it's much better to want to do things because we want to please the Lord and receive personally from the word of God. This is His will and mind for me, and therefore I want to do it. Christ is the object there, isn't it? I just, if you notice, verse 7.
00:15:16
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted Loss for Christ. Then in verse 8, ye doubtless. And I count all things but lost, for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and to count them. But done that I may win Christ. That's the point. That's the focal if we can speak respectfully, the focal point is the person of Christ. And that's what Paul was occupied with, wasn't he, as you say, he as he went on. His whole desire was that he might.
Continue to count all these things lost for the person of the Christ. That's why I feel it's so important that we have Christ as the object, because.
Any of us here have been brought up in the truth. We've been brought up in homes where these things were brought before us. We attended the meetings.
And we saw a order of things carried on upon the word of God. But then we're tested, aren't we, as to whether we have truly bought the truth ourselves?
Whether Christ is the object, and if I'm only doing things to please my parents or to please my brethren.
Sooner or later I'm going to be tested. Am I there? Am I gathered to the Lord's name? And am I doing what I do to please the Lord? I believe the Lord has allowed this kind of a test among us, and He wants us to buy the truth We He wants us to have Christ himself as the object and see what the true Christian position is, to be gathered to Christ alone outside the camp.
Is that the test in First Corinthians? It must needs be be divisions among you, but they that are approved may be made one.
Manifest.
So that's one of the tests, isn't it, Would you say? Yes, I think there is, particularly in the context of judging ourselves.
Because if we haven't judged ourselves, then sooner or later it comes out they that are approved might be made manifest. That's why he goes on to speak so much about when we partake of the Lord's Supper, have we judged ourselves that a man examined himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. It isn't looking for any worthiness in ourselves, but the allowance of anything in our lives that is a hindrance to communion, and has robbed us of the real appreciation of what the Lord's Supper brings before us.
We need to judge, and if we don't judge it, why? Either the Lord will have to deal with us, or it may come to the point, as we have, where the assembly might have to deal.
Is it in the proverbs where it says because?
Sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. The heart of man is fully set to do evil if I don't judge the evil quickly and give sentence against it in my own soul. This is where the danger is, isn't it? And so I need to keep short accounts.
Being able to see the difference between and the progress that has already been mentioned in verse seven, he speaks there.
Those things I counted loss for Christ, but notice the burst of.
An enlargement of his heart and his thoughts, yes, and then doubtless without a shadow of a doubt. And I count not those things, but all things.
That lost for Christ, no for the Excellency.
Of the knowledge.
Of Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus. That implies the person of the law of Christ, but now become a man.
Came from the heights of glory, and he took that lowly name of Jesus. God become flesh. And then he says, not our Lord, my Lord was pointed out this morning. One thing to know the Lord or Savior, but our but my Lord, the authority of my life.
And there he says, my Lord, and he mentions, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. You count them but dumb. But I may win Christ what an object was before that man.
00:20:07
No, Brother Gordon, you mentioned Christendom today is a mixture of Judaism and Christianity.
Add another thing idolatry.
All we have to think of the days that are ahead of us in December.
Of Easter and these things have we become so insensitive, beloved, that we do not recognize that that which is most hateful to God we associate with the most blessed event that ever occurred, and that is the incarnation of the Son of God. That's what it is. Beloved, happy, become so insensitive that we do not realize that we don't want any part.
In this idolatry.
Which has its origin long before Christ was born. And then the fathers considered it was better they would get drunk in honor to the birth of Christ than in honor to some hidden gods. And they brought the birth of Christ, and you can read it in any good encyclopedia. Have we become so insensitive to love it that we don't realize that there is dishonouring our blessed Lord? Do we love him?
Connection with what you said about examining yourself and self judgment and and also in connection with that thought we sometimes hear the division is not of God, but if we turn to the very first chapter of the Bible.
We see the very first principles of God's character. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, that it was good, and God divided the light from darkness.
But notice there that it says you saw the light was good, but then he divided the light in the darkness. And God is love and God is light, but we make him judged by our sin and it's a necessary thing because of it. Whether it's self judgment or whatever character that separation takes, it's a necessary thing and it is of God we should never see. Division is not of God because it's to imply that light and darkness are to go on together. And if there wasn't a division between the light and the darkness, we would never see the stars and the majesty of God in the dark and night.
There'd just be dust. And as I believe that's important because at the time too, when the 10 tribes separated, three of them was going to fight to bring them back. And the Lord said to him, don't fight. This thing is from me. God again divided the light from the darkness. And it isn't that God didn't love the 10 tribes, and he loves to recall to us an account to us in the book of Ezekiel how they're going to be brought back under one king.
And one Lord and one nation in the land. And we love to look on to the time when all God's people will be together. But I believe it's important to see that because it sometimes God himself does that if.
Light and darkness attempt to go on together. Then God sometimes has to come in in His way.
And make that manifest.
Next with what we have here that.
Do we not have in Jonathan of?
First Samuel speaks of how that you know his soul was knit.
With the soul of David, and David was the one who captivated.
Jonathan I believe because of his victory over the enemy and there was that faith in David that Jonathan appreciated and it says as a result that he stripped himself and I believe he gave to David his role and and sword.
His girdle, his bow, and so on. I believe those were things that.
Would have.
Me, Jonathan. Important, you might say. The eyes of the world, you know, the sword and the bull. These were things that he could use to attract attention to himself.
00:25:03
But he was willing to sacrifice those things for the exaltation of David. So that's beautiful to see and speak to of how he delighted much in David.
And he was willing to confess David in Saul's court at the expense of his own life.
And he also spoke to David how he would be willing to do whatever he said. So there was that subjection to David. But the sad thing is.
As we read further in the account, we find that.
There wasn't a willingness on the part of Jonathan to share in David's rejection and so they would meet in the woods, but.
Then it tells us that Jonathan he would go to his own house.
Where he went to the city, while David abode in the wood, so was there not that which was lacking.
In Jonathan's.
Light. And he wasn't willing to share that outside place of rejection with David. He wasn't found in The Cave of a dollar.
And I believe the end of Jonathan's life is very sad, because if I'm not mistaken, he was killed at the Battle Mount Capoe and his bodies on the hanging on a wall. But.
David, in contrast, of course, was exalted to the throne and.
Just seemed as though Jonathan. He lost his his reward.
And I just was thinking in connection with what was brought out here that, you know, Paul.
Was willing to strip himself of those things that were gained to him.
And he made a good start, and I believe a good finish, but that was complete lacking in the life of Jonathan. So I believe it's a word for each one of us that the Lord's desire is that we might go all the way with him and seek his company.
Even if it be in a place that would be despised by the world.
An outside place.
Because David's love was in a baby's first Jonathan. And so in the lamented Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan's death, he said that his love for Jonathan was above the love of women.
And the world is spoken of that in a very perverted way, but it's a spiritual love. And that's what Peter tells us, for the love to add to love divine law. And there was real divine love on David March for Jonathan, and it caused him to have hurt him and wounded him deeply to Go and Jonathan.
It was above the national law.
Because it's right and proper in its place.
And David went much further than Jonathan ever expected in connection with the covenant that he made concerning his sea. You know, to take Mephibosheth as one of his sons to be at David's table. He went much more. He abided faithful. It's a wonderful illustration of that that here by the faithful.
Now this is lovely about the righteousness which is of God by faith. Christ himself is the believer's righteousness before God. We stand before God in Christ and God looks at his Son and he sees us accepted in him. What a wonderful place we're brought into. And I believe that was so wonderful to Paul because in all his attempts before he was trying to obtain a righteousness of his own.
Because the law said they still and thou shalt live so he was striving to obtain that, and he all kinds of things even sealed to persecuting the church, trying to establish his own righteousness. But then when he met the Lord was an all absorbing object for his soul. But I believe it's blessed for us, brethren, Christ himself is our righteousness. We're not only forgiven, wonderful though that is, but we stand before God in Christ.
00:30:02
Paul probably went further than anyone else in keeping the law, don't you think? He says in First Corinthians 4. I know nothing by myself, but, he adds, I'm not justified by that and in our chapter in verse 6.
He says, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
I don't believe anybody could have pointed a finger at Paul and said, but there is where you slipped up you you broke down. But he admits in Romans 7 that it was covetousness that slew him, and that that'd be a hidden thing, wouldn't it? You can't see that necessarily. It may come out, but Paul, if anybody before the world could have been justified by the law, it would have looked like he had achieved it. But he set it aside. It was his own righteousness.
He wanted that righteousness which is of God by faith.
Wonderful to know that we have our righteousness sits at God's right hand right now.
You find that enjoy I was thinking about in John 16. Doesn't it say of righteousness? Because I go to the Father and you see me no more. So the Lord Jesus is my righteousness and he's there at God's right hand. Can I lose that? Well, I may lose the enjoyment of it, but Christ is my righteousness.
Given up God, of course.
I think we could apply this tenth verse in two different ways that I may know him, 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, perhaps in the path of devotedness, and it was solved, he would be put to death, But that wouldn't make him the loser. That would make him the gainer, because he would experience the power of his resurrection in a practical way.
But even if we don't go through death, there can be that in our souls. There can be the power of his resurrection. I think a little hymn expresses it nicely, 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 I wondered sometimes if those who appeared after the Lord's resurrection are a little picture of our position here in this world.
As those people appeared in Jerusalem and someone said, who are you? Well, their only answer would be we're alive because Christ rose.
The Bible hasn't been pleased to record their names or anything about them, but they appeared in Jerusalem as those were the proof, as those who were the proof that Christ was risen and they were displaying resurrection life. And that's the way we should go in this world. If it means that in loyalty to Christ, death comes as it did for the Apostle Paul, well that doesn't rob us of anything. He still is our life, our righteousness before God.
And we'll have part in the physical resurrection that is coming. And so Paul thought of that when he was speaks in Philippians chapter one. Here he says to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So it didn't matter to him when the perhaps being put to death in his testimony for Christ when that came. Well it'll just make me that much more like Christ if I go through physical death. But he was already living in the power of resurrection life.
And so I believe this is a practical thing for us. People ought to see us as those who are dead and risen with Christ, appearing before this world as those who display the life of a risen Christ.
In Deuteronomy 6, I'll just read the last two verses.
And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God.
For our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day.
And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us now. That's what all those tried to achieve who were under the law, they tried to keep it, and Paul did that. Saul of Tarsus did that. He probably came as close to any he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law. He was blameless.
00:35:01
But now he says rather than have that even if I could achieve it, which he couldn't, but even if I could, I'd give that up to have what I have now in Christ to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law. Even if he could have achieved it, he said, I found a far better righteousness than that which would have just been my righteousness. He says now I have the righteousness which is of God in Christ to be found in him.
Before God in that righteousness, Christ has now completely replaced himself in all his thoughts, and he finds his full satisfaction in him.
That's a good verse. I was looking for that verse. Brother Charles, if we go on in that, we have our own righteousness, but what good is that before God?
Isn't it, Paul? It says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, and that's a good word to keep in mind. In other words, God does not accept any more this kind of an approach, you know, by my doing.
I'm going to gain God's favor. The Lord Jesus is the end of this and.
How wonderful the righteousness of God was manifested when He dealt righteously with the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross. Now the righteousness of God is manifest that He is just and the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus.
And how wonderful that is. God does not take up his own righteousness or of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus and puts it upon us. But when he sees one having faith in the Lord Jesus, and he says there's a righteous person, he declares that person righteous. Just like with Abraham, he believed God and it was accounted unto him. For righteousness we should believe, is different than what was.
Told to Abraham.
But the principle is the same. He was declared righteous because he had faith in what God told him, and he declares you and me righteous. If we accept what he has said about anyone that accepts his son by faith, God cannot but in righteousness declare that person righteous. He would deny himself if he would not do so. We should make a distinction between what Romans speaks of as the righteousness of God, what Paul speaks of in Romans, the righteousness of God, which is what you've just described.
But what it says here at the end of verse nine, it says the righteousness which is of God.
By faith. And that's the righteousness which he himself.
Provides us and that's Christ. Christ is our righteousness. The righteousness which is of God is Christ replacing anything that we could get by our own efforts. It's it's the righteousness of God is his perfect consistency with himself in justifying us through the gospel. But the righteousness which is of God is Christ himself who is our righteousness. As Charles said, the the little key there to the at the end of that verse.
Verse. You're looking at verse nine. Yeah, Notice what it says. The righteousness just at the end of the verse.
The righteousness which is of God. By what? By faith I accept that. I believe it. I accept it. So I know my righteousness is is it God? Is it God's right hand? I haven't seen it yet, but I believe it. That's faith, isn't it? Taking God at His word there.
Will not have a better righteousness even when we get home to glory. So John says in his epistle. As he is, so are we in this world.
There's not marvelous we will not have a better standing when we stand before him around that throne in the 5th chapter of Revelation, singing thou art worthy than we have right now. Because Christ himself is my righteousness, the righteousness of every believer. And how can we have anything better than that? We already have it. Now in this world, many people think that something is put to our account, just like somebody put $1000 in your account.
You got something to go on. It's not that we ourselves are seen in Christ before God.
And as our brother has brought out, God is perfectly righteous in doing this, because the whole claim of his righteousness in regard to sin.
Was settled when the Lord Jesus for our sins in his own body on the tree, so his whole claim as to.
00:40:02
The Guild of our sins and how a payment was to be made, that's all been settled at the cross. That's lovely to know that, but it's more blessed to know that a person, the very person who did it, is our righteousness. And that's why the proper translation in Romans is reckoned righteous. And it isn't something put to our account. It's a position that God has put us in. We are quote the last verse of 2nd Corinthians 5. He has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's our position before God.
And here in that verse when it says through the faith of Christ had nothing to do with the faith that he as a man manifested on earth.
It has to do with the one we have faith in.
That is the important thing. We have faith in Christ, not that his faith is put to our account. That expression, the faith of Christ, means the faith which has Christ as its object.
I want to read a verse in Romans 517. It says for if by one man's offense death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace.
And of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. I think that's the only time it's spoken of as a gift. It's a gift of righteousness.
Christ is the gift of God and we have righteousness in him. He is our righteousness, but it's spoken of there as a gift. So the word of God speaks of this in various ways. You mentioned that one in Romans 10. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
That is the end of that principle of striving to get righteousness by keeping the law. He is the end of that because now.
We have it in Him. He is our righteousness.
So Paul, if I understand him right, actually desired to go through the experience of death so that he liked the Lord Jesus would be raised from among the dead. The correct rendering says from among the dead. And I don't think that you and I should necessarily have that desire, but if we do go through death, we know.
We will, like the Lord Jesus, be raised from among the dead. That's Christian truth.
The resurrection of the dead was already in the Old Testament, but the resurrection from among the dead is Christian truth.
I remember there was a conference years back when Junior Gill was present and the question was put if you knew Christ was coming tomorrow and he said I'd want to die today, I couldn't figure that out. And I think it's for this very reason he wanted to go through death and then experience the resurrection even as the Lord Jesus did. I don't know whether that's the right sentiment, but anyway, that's evidently what he meant when he said that.
I think it's probably explained in the first chapter. He was on trial, as we know.
And he was asking the prayers of his brethren and in the first chapter of Philippians, he said.
The 20th verse, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall shall be ashamed.
Bought that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ should be, shall be magnified in my body.
Whether it be by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want not.
For I am in a straight betwixt, 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful. For you having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your further and joy of faith. Perhaps some of us, if death stared us in the face, we might think, well, I just can't think of going to.
Like Paul did, and have his head cut off. And we'd say, oh, it'd be wonderful if the Lord came before that event took place.
But he said he didn't know what he would choose. His great desire was to be with Christ.
00:45:05
Whether it was through the article of death or whether it was by his coming. And so if the means was going through death, then he would attain to the resurrection of the dead. But it seems from the first chapter he he said it doesn't matter which way it is, whether it's through death or whether I live. Christ is my object. I'm going to be like him. If I go through death, I'll be like him and experience the resurrection. But if I live, I can be a blessing to God's people.
So he said he just left it all with the Lord and told the brethren to pray. But there was, shall I say, No Fear in his heart, only joy in his heart, that he would be like Christ either way, living for Christ if he was here going through the experience of death and resurrection, if that took place, well, that's a lovely attitude in the presence of death. And I think that's really what he's bringing out here, that there was nothing lost. And I like to think of it too. Some of our loved ones have gone to be with the Lord.
And we think I know my father always hoped for the Lord's coming in his lifetime because he lost something by going through death. No, the dead in Christ shall rise first, so that he he loses nothing if he does go through death, although it was his present hope that the Lord would come. But in a sense he's a gainer by going through it, since that was the will of God for him. Isn't it nice to know either one is blessed for us and also secure.
All was so confident in this that someone has said in those verses that you're munching Brother Gordon in verses 25 and 26 of the first chapter that Paul decides his own case. He was so confident in this, that's assurance that he had. But whether he lived or whether he died, he was with Christ was the object. Well, he puts it in First Corinthians 1551 like this. Behold, I show you a mystery.
Grown, being burdened, while yet we do not wish to be unclothed.
But clothes, that what is mortal, may be swallowed up by life. So unclothed means to go through the article of death. That's not the desire, you know generally for the believer, but to be closed upon. You know, that change from which Brother Tom was reading from First Corinthians 15, that is what we will all experience, because flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. We have to go through that change.
To be brought into full conformity with our Blessed Lord.
Have that resurrection body. Although we might not go through death, perhaps it wouldn't be out of place to tell little instances. My father had a man said to him, You Christians are very inconsistent. You all talk of how wonderful it'll be to be with the Lord, but when you get sick, you all go to the doctor and you hope you'll be able to give you a remedy so you can still live on. And this my father said to him, well, but you haven't read the Bible very carefully.
The Bible never teaches me to look for death. The Bible always teaches me to look for the Lord's coming. Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. And he said, if it's God's will, I'd like to be alive when the Lord comes. But if death comes, I'm perfectly confident I know what it is. We're always confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So we're not inconsistent when we go to the doctor because.
It's perfectly right and proper that we as Christians should always have this blessed hope before us. And indeed, whether it was in the days of the apostles or in this day, we should have that hope that we would be alive when the Lord comes. But we're confident in the presence of death and willing.
One doctor once said, you know, the Christians are the most difficult patients. When they get cured, they say, praise the Lord.
And if they don't get well, they blame the doctor.
But it's true, isn't it? Threaten. That's how we oftentimes are.
Very little is said of death really. I don't. I wouldn't be able to refer to the verses but I think perhaps the list is 1. But most of all the references are to the coming of the Lord in in the in the New Testament and and be a death before them was it was just a few times. I don't remember how many. Perhaps some brother knows but it wasn't very many times. It was the Lord's coming that was before them. You don't find it in Ephesians.
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Because we're already in glory and we don't find it in Galatians because they were they were turning away.
So we find it in every other book in the New Testament, either the coming for His Saints or with His Saints.
Is there?
What a contrast with the Old Testament, isn't it? You don't go very far in Genesis before you have the death of a man in the 4th chapter.
And the 5th chapter, how many times does it say And he died and this was remarkable. How many books of the Old Testament end?
For the funeral, I can't remember which book now, but it has three funerals. 3 people died at the end.
Maybe it was the book of Joshua, I can't remember. But And then the the Old Testament itself ends with Genesis, ends with the words they coffin in Egypt.
And the Old Testament ends with a curse. But the New Testament begins with Jesus Christ and ends with the grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference Christ has made.
That 11 verse it's already been commented on, but it's a very strong expression in the original. It says, if by any means I might attain unto the out resurrection from among the dead, it's the strongest expression of the rapture that there is in the New Testament, the out resurrection from among the dead.
Very strong. This just says the resurrection of the dead. It's not it's not that that's a general resurrection that they thought of, but this is the.
The resurrection from among the dead. It's the out resurrection from among the dead. The rest of the dead will remain in the ground.
And some will be raised, and those are the Saints.
Now in the 12Th verse, when he speaks of not as though I had already attained, but that is, he hadn't gone through the experience of death and resurrection. So while still living here, he desired to lay hold in his soul of the purpose that God had in laying hold of him. The word apprehend, I believe is the thought of lay hold of. I might read it like this if I follow after this that I might lay hold of.
That for which?
I am apprehended or laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Why did the Lord pick me up and save me? To give me a long life in this world, prosperous life. Now he's laid hold of me that I might be in that coming day fully like Christ. I already have him as my righteousness, but he's going on now that pressing on through life with the thought of full conformity. Now what he's seeking to produce in US is moral conformity at the coming of the Lord, it'll be full conformity. And that's brought out in the end of the chapter.
But you and I desire to be like Christ while we're still here, so that people might see the life of Jesus manifested in our body. Paul hadn't yet attained that glorious time when he would have a body of glory, but while he was still here, he wanted to lay hold of the purpose that God had. And He's one of us can ask ourselves, did the Lord lay hold of us to make us big people in this world, to give us successful on things here?
He lay hold of us. He laid hold of us that he might have a people around himself.
Just like his God's beloved Son, as we sang. And is it so? I shall be like thy Son.
What a lovely thing. And that was Pauls desire in the meantime, until he had a body of glory, that he would be morally like Christ in his life here.
And inconsistency with what you just said, First Timothy 610 says. For the love of money.
Is the root of every evil. Is a root of every evil which while some coveted after they have heard from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. So it's the love of money, the pursuit of it, that has been a big snare to so many, hasn't it?
But that love does not begin with $1000.
You know it begins with a penny.
The love of money is not only a problem with people who have it.
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It's those who desire to be rich so better, and that's a danger for all of us.
And where's our heart, you know? And if which is increases this promise says, do not set your heart upon it. Keep it in mind. In our society we have an overabundance of things, and the danger definitely exists that we set our hearts on these things. But your heart can be honored when you don't have nothing. But one could be poor and be guilty of the love of money. That's right. And one could be grich and not be guilty of it.
So we mustn't make money equivalent to the love of it.
What you set your heart on.
That's what the Lord is talking about in the 16th of Luke. I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it should be it fail. He may be received into the everlasting habitations that as many have used, what God has given them for his glory and for blessing. And the result of that will remain. We have Bibles in our hands. There were people that had means that were spent hours and hours.
Translating the scripture, arranging for it to be bombed so that we could sit here with Bibles in our hands.
And so they made a proper use of money. They used their money in view of eternity, and I think that's well to remember. So as it was said, it isn't the money that's the harm, it's the use that we put to it that often is the harm. And so we can use what God has given to us, not for present things, which we tend to do, but for eternal things. The money is going to fail, but.
The privilege that we have had of sitting here, each with an open Bible because somebody had the means and the time.
To spend bringing it, translating the Bible, preparing it so we could have it in our hands. We can be thankful, and God will reward them for the sacrifices they made.
The scripture keeps everything in its balance, doesn't it?
There's four goals of the natural man power.
Riches, pleasure and fame. And it's said in this world.
Money is power, and if that's the motive.
Of the heart, then that's evil to pursue it for that reason.
Bunny is a status symbol, if that's the motive of the heart to be up to your neighbor or maybe a cut above.
That's that's just vanity.
So those are the four natural things for men. Power, riches, pleasure and fame. Solomon had them all, and he said it was all vanity and vexation of spirit. Isn't it true, though, that when we get older?
That thought of securing our future.
Is more in the mind of middle-aged and older people. It's not that much in the mind of young people. They might have other ambitions. And so we see that several decades back there was a tendency away from that materialism and back to nature. But you know, now there are a lot of young people, what do they call them, the yuppie generation, You know, they have switched the other way again.
But I think it's true that we who are getting older, these kind of things help and financial security are the things that are on our mind more than on the minds of the young. If you've ever gone through a nursing home and seen the condition of the patients there or the residents there, you you always go away saying, I hope I never end up in such a place.
Pretty miserable, Pretty miserable. Naturally, that's going to be.
Something that one thinks about as he gets towards the end that's natural, but does not set our heart upon these things. Trust in the Lord.
Mr. Kelly gave a definition of wealth, which I copied out.
It's much more than we need for ourselves, for the poor.
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It's an interesting thing. Yes, it is for show indulgence.
Or hoarding. What's hoarding? Having so much I don't feel my dependence.
Quite an interesting definition, but it includes the poor.
Having enough for yourself and the poor More than that as well.
Purpose of it is for shell, for indulgence or for hoarding.
This chapter lays the, shall I say, the very stress on what is our motive. And so he said that I may apprehend, I may lay hold of what was the purpose the Lord had in laying hold of me, He said. I haven't fully laid hold of it, but I'm pressing toward this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Now that is, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of rules and instructions that we might like to have. Or how much should a person think of for his old age and that sort of thing. If we have Christ as the object and we're seeking to live for Him, I believe he'll guide us in all these things and give us the wisdom that we need.
But it's the motive that's brought before us here, and I believe that's important for myself and for all of us. What is our motivation in life? Are we thinking of what you say, security, or are we just thinking of living for Christ? He may give us a great deal. If he does, then we're responsible.
But in any case, our motivation, our purpose in life is to live for him.
And how lovely that is. The Word of God delivers us from having material things as our object.
God does provide that often. Look at these nice comfortable chairs, these nice meals, this building that we've been able to use for the meeting.
That's the goodness of God. He has the key of David. He can open up things for us and provide for us. But what is our object, brethren? That is the thing that speaks to my heart. Is Christ my object, or is the possession of these things my object? That is the great thing in Christianity.
There the beautiful thing there is that Gordon in that verse is.
Verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
I think of the We think of many things and we can be confused. There's confusion there. But Paul says one thing. I do the the blind man said one thing. I know you know, he he could see only one. He says Now I know I didn't. I couldn't see before. Now I can see and we we can be troubled and careful and troubled about many things and that's confusing. But I think of the dear apostle here he says one thing.
This one thing I do. So it's good to know that while thinking of the in Ephesians 4 where you get the oneness, you get, I think you get sevenfold oneness there. One God, one Lord, one faith and so on and does. Is that confusing? No, not confusing. But we don't want to. We don't follow it because we're not close enough to the Lord in order to that that may be our object. And this was Paul's object, wasn't it? One thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind and he was some.
It wasn't all the evils, it was some of his good things that he had to leave all behind and he said then, he says.
But we're getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before the person of Christ reaching forth to follow that which is the of the person. It isn't. Well, let's put it this way, it's not God hasn't set before us.
Well, I guess it's it's an impossible object. But it's not all that difficult. If we have a desire to please God, there's the point. The spirit of God would direct our thoughts that way, wouldn't it, Guy? Isn't it lovely? The Bible isn't written just for one civilization. It isn't just for one period of the history of man on earth. But just think, we have a Bible, a book in our hands, brethren, the last page of it written.
Will say about 1800 years ago, and it's perfectly suited to the civilization in which we live.
You take it out to Africa, It's suited to them there. If you take it to China, it's suited. There's no other man could write anything like this. But God has written a book Suited to the whole Christian dispensation given that long period of time ago. Suited to those who live in America, suited to those who live in China, Suited to those in every civilization that they can glean a way that they can live for Christ, honor Christ, Use what they have for Christ.
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Oh, how wonderful. We should be so thankful that we have in our hands.
A book given of God suited for us in our time. The present truth, Esther was told by King Haziris talking about the different nations, and in Ezra 725 as King A Hazira said to to Ezra the wisdom of God, which thou hast in thy hand.
Thank you.
The word perfect in the 15th verse is a little different from the thought in the 12Th verse. I believe the thought in the 12Th verse is.
Perfect that is in glory, we'll have bodies of glory fashioned like Christ.
But here in the 15th verse, let us therefore as many as be perfect. He says he isn't already perfect, but as many as be perfect. Here it's used in the sense of maturity. What is maturity in the things of God. It's having Christ before us as the object and pressing toward the goal. And so a young Christian can be mature in the things of God. An old Christian can be mature in the things of God. If that young person has Christ for his object, he's mature.
If an old person doesn't have Christ, it's not. He's not mature, so it's not really here a question of age. It's not a question of our glorified bodies either.
What is the perfection in Christianity? It's to have Christ as our object and be pressing on in life with Him as our object and living to please Him.
Thing #35.
#35
I.
Oh yes, baby, my heart is in my heart.
All right, very tremendous. Forever when I am following your behavior.
I'll be crazy, God.
Wait a minute.
And it is great. It is really good.
They have they finished around the country and I have the president that I'm not saying.