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Philippians, chapter 3, verse 8. J doubtless might 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 in Duke Compton. But done that I may win Christ, and be found in him not having my 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 in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
If by any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead.
Not as 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.
Rather not counting up myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching present to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That of therefore as many as be perfect to be thus minded.
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless.
You have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing, brethren. We follow it together of me and mark that much walks towards you have us for an example for many walk of whom I've told you often, and I'll tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Who's ended destruction, Whose God is our belly, and whose glory is in their shame? Who mind earthly things?
For our conversation is in heaven, for whence also we look for the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those were changed our vile bodies, that it may be fashioned like unto its glorious body, according to their working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself. To me important to notice that the things that all counted lost are what men would speak of as good things. When you read verses 5 and six, which we had this morning and.
It's a standing amongst men which is rated.
Highly and even pertain to a God-given religion.
Another thing that seems to me interesting to notice, the Bible is so interesting that Saul of the Old Testament and Soul of the New Testament.
Some similar things about them.
They were both of the tribe of Benjamin in one way or another. Both were head and shoulders above the rest.
So the Old Testament was that way physically. Saul of the New Testament in his religious character, head and shoulders, they were chosen. Men saw of the Old Testament was the People's Choice, a choice man in the flesh.
But how did Saul of the Old Testament turn out?
Could he produce for God?
Well, his end was just dreadful.
But Saul of the New Testament with all that?
Marvelous standing in the religion of that day, he met Christ and it just changed everything. It even changed his name. So I understand means ask, perhaps even ask of God like Samuel, that is Saul of the Old Testament was asked by the people. So the New Testament seems to me was asked by God himself.
But he had to learn that that high standing was for nothing and he had to have his name changed to Paul, which means little.
What a lesson it is for us that all men think of as good, even in a religious way. Cannot produce for God. It's Christ and Christ alone.
Progressing this too, because in the seventh verse he says.
Those I counted lost for Christ, but then in the eighth verse when he speaks of the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, then he says I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but done wasn't something worthwhile that he counted that he had given up, but things that were actually abhorrent to him now.
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To think that he would want to value those things which ministered to his pride.
And the very first thing in the list of what God hates is the proud look. So here we find him now, as you said, little. He's become little in his own eyes because he has found the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus is Lord. He knows nothing else to run for in his Christian life but to win Christ to be not only.
Like him down here, but to be with him at the end, well then that's looking forward to the end.
Whether it be righteousness or or what resurrection brings or.
Whatever the subject here may be is looking on to the end, is he not of the road? And so perfection is used in two ways. Then it's there won't be any perfection until we get there. But in another sense, the apostle sees this path with one object before him as perfection in his experience down here. Does he know?
Because there won't be any actual perfection in the life of the believer until we get home.
But there is such a thing as having a pure object before us, and in that sense Paul was walking in that perfect path down here. It's really maturity, isn't it? That is, a mature person is one who has learned this wonderful truth that Christ is all that has him as the sole object before his soul when we are first saved.
There isn't that maturity. There's a great deal of self occupation very often.
This is in the Song of Solomon you find the bride says first of all I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Then she turns around and says it the other no first time she says my beloved is mine and I am his. Then she turns it around and says I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Then she goes a step further and says I am my beloved and.
Desire is toward me first, the wonderful thought that Christ belonged to her.
Then the thought that there was more wonderful that as she belonged to Christ, if I can apply the figure. And then last of all, to enjoy this and his desire toward her was really to lose sight of herself. And that is really what is brought out before us here, I believe with the apostle, and I believe it's progress, it's maturity.
In the Christian life.
When we're not occupied with self except to judge self, but to be occupied with Christ.
About progress in whole, I think it's just nice to look at his conversion, how he was smitten down there by that light from heaven. It's called in the ninth of Acts. And then he recounts about that twice over. Wants to the Jew and wants to the Gentile.
And there's progress there in the intensity of that light.
In the 22nd chapter where he's talking to his own brethren, the Jews in the sixth verse at the end that says suddenly they're shown from heaven a great light round about me. In Pauls own thoughts, the the glory of that light increases. That's that's progress in his soul. But now notice what he says in the 26th chapter.
Where he relates it before.
King Agrippa in the 13th verse of 26 Acts 26 at midday, old king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above, the brightness of the sun shining around about me, and then which journeyed with me, so that in the apostle there was this progress in growth in, I believe, even the apprehension that he prayed for.
To know Christ, he learned more of Christ as he went on and his his race down here in the wilderness. And he was just as we often say, a homesick man wanting to be right where Christ is Christ, but here he says to be found in him. And so it's really the the experience and enjoyment of the pathway.
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As he anticipates the glory, is it not? And then the same thing about righteousness.
Not having mine own righteousness is the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. He's looking on to the time when all this will be true and it's full of sense when He'll be at home and in the reality of it and the enjoying full enjoyment of it without any hindrances here.
Yes, he says that that I may win Christ. He already had Christ as his Savior.
That He might be found in him that was already His possession, not having mine own righteousness, while He already was the righteousness of God in Christ. And then in the 10th verse, that I may know him, all these things actually positionally were his, but He desired that He might solely hold of them, that they would be real in His soul, in the sense that He had the glory before him.
And in glory all these things.
Will be fully realized, that is now we already have Christ, but at the end of the journey we're going to know him in the much more blessed and wonderful way than down here. Now we know in part and we prophecy in part. So as we think of a man running the race, he had the prize at the end. He already possessed Christ, but the prize was having him in the fullest possible way.
At the end of the journey, and this ought to be the desire of our hearts too, and the more we get to know of Him, the more we desire that time when we shall know even as also we are known.
Resurrection or the power of His resurrection in verse 10.
It's this, It seems to me that at some point in Paul's life he learned that he was going to die.
Did he expect that here?
In the early chapter he said that having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, he was Speaking of to die as gain. In speaking to the Thessalonians he said we which are alive and remain. He was classing himself as living when the Lord came there. But apparently toward the end he he could say, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
He was looking. Evidently it was revealed to him that he should die. Now the question about this.
That I may know Him and the power of his resurrection. Was he applying that to himself?
As expecting to die and to be raised.
I don't think so. I have taken that in two different ways, that that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, something that could be in a practical way experienced while we still live.
We sing in a little hymn, Oh, teach us saw the power to know of risen life with thee not we may live while here below, but Christ our life may be.
And so there is that sense that there ought to be the power of resurrection life manifested in us in a practical way, and it's only going to be solved in the measure in which we are conformable to his death. And it takes Second Corinthians chapter four. I think this expresses that. Second Corinthians chapter 4.
And verses 10 and 11.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, for we would deliver all we delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Well, that is what God is seeking to produce in US, is the manifestation of the risen life in US. And I thought of those.
Who came out of the graves after the Lord's resurrection as being a little illustration of this, or as they appeared in the city of Jerusalem and anyone were to ask, well, who are these people? We could say, they could say, well, we rose because Christ rose. So that what was seen in them was resurrection life. I'm Speaking of it now in a type.
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Well, I believe that's the well that was the great desire of Paul's heart.
It ought to be the desire of our hearts. But he presses the point a little farther when he comes to the 11Th verse.
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
It was as though the enemy said, Oh, but Paul, if you live that way.
You will have to suffer martyrdom. You will die. You will physically go through death. Well, he said that would be all right. I would experience it then in a practical way. That is, he would actually go through death and experience in a physical sense the power of his resurrection. For the dead in Christ will rise first saw that he desired that it should be so in a spiritual sense in his life.
If the path of pursuing this.
Meant physical death. By then it would be realized even in the practical way.
Saw that it was all precious to him, and so whether it was, as he says in the first chapter, that Christ might be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.
Could be that he desired to be conformed to his master even in this, but it not.
Even to pass through death just like his master, so you might be conformed to him in every way. Well, he was willing for it. He sat in 2nd Corinthians 5. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. I believe that the proper hope before every Christian is the Lord's coming, it says.
There in 2nd Corinthians 5, not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.
That mortality might be swallowed up of life, and so even when you visit one on a sick bed.
It's lovely to be able to present to that one the hope of the Lord's return. He may not have to pass through death. However, if it does come, he's confident in the presence of death and in a sense it's gained. To die is gain. But the proper hope of the Christian should always be, I believe the Lord's coming. It wouldn't be a proper Christian hope for any of us to say, well, I hope I go through death.
This. But if we do, it will be a wonderful experience to be that much more like our Blessed Master and to experience in that way.
The The resurrection from among the dead.
Comfort about that power we read of in Ephesians 1.
And it's, I believe, the greatest act that God has ever performed.
They might just read in Ephesians 1 verses 1819 and 20.
For it associates the believer with Christ in this most mighty act.
Ephesians one, the eyes of verse 18. The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened.
That you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the St. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power. Now notice to Oswald, who believed according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and so on.
That great act of resurrection, the greatest act of God.
And raising price, the believer is associated with it. To us word who believe, well, it's a comfort just to know that.
I didn't hear you. You mentioned that it's not quite a proper hole.
Something you said about to die. The proper hope is the Lords coming. I think that's normal, but I'll just mention what I remember. Perhaps Pauls evident can corroborate this about arms to Barry's father. I heard once as he got toward the end that he said he wanted to pass through death so he would experience just a little of what his savior did for him on the cross.
Now to me, that was a tremendous statement. I don't I've never heard of that about anybody else. I believe he was near the end of the course. Do you remember that, Paul?
Will change though, and there will be. At the time of the resurrection, we'll all be caught up.
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But there will be those, of course, who pass through death and resurrection, but all will be changed and all be caught up.
Will not that be the power of the transaction too? It changes, I believe so. It's it's the time of it and the power of it and it's our brother. Read it first chapter of Ephesians. It's it's the mighty power of God.
That same power that raised Christ from the dead, that will raise those who are dead of the believers. But it's, it's that same power that takes us into the glory, isn't it?
In Romans chapter 8, the thought of resurrection and the thought of our bodies being changed are brought together in this 11Th verse of Romans 8.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, notice this expression shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
He speaks of resurrection and he speaks of how these bodies that we have even as living people here on earth.
Our mortal bodies. So at that blessed moment of resurrection at the Lord's coming, there will be the calling forth of those from their graves. There will be the quickening of our mortal bodies by His Spirit who dwells in us. The thought is kind of brought together here, as though it were also an act of power, like the resurrection, although not exactly the same.
It's nice the way they're it's brought in there, I think.
On account of his Spirit that dwelleth in us, I think is the right rendering. That's one of the sure the things we can rest on as to our salvation. The Spirit of God dwells in US and they'll never leave us forever. So the apostle then is is looking on in the 12Th verse.
He hasn't, He hasn't reached that perfection yet in the glory, but He follows after. I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus.
So he is taking possession of by Christ.
And now his thought is to take possession of Christ practically in his soul, in connection with all that he knows had been taught from the words. Still he wants to make good in his soul without the thought.
Yes, I like to read it sort of like this, but I may lay hold of that for which the Lord laid hold of me.
What did He lay hold of me for? Well, to make me fully like Himself, to have not only a body of glory like Him, but here and now, that the life of Jesus might be seen full conformity to Christ. That was His purpose in laying hold of us.
Well, Paul desired that this might lay hold of him, so that his whole life but be molded by that fact. But God is seeking to produce in us now his likeness to Christ morally. When the Lord comes, both will be true, will be like him morally and physically. So he desired even before he got there, that this would sole a hold of him, that his whole life would be affected or molded by it.
He couldn't say in the next verse that it was fully solved, but it was his desire. And none of us here would boastfully say that this was our whole desire. It should be. We desire that it should be solved. But I'm sure we all, we're all conscious of how often other things come in, rob us of the enjoyment of this.
Natural desires control our lives in some matters.
And we could ask ourselves, however, is this our really our desire that it should be so pressing on with this before us? Because in addition to that head all this behind him in a religious way that he forgets, Is that not so? He forgets.
All the glory that was connected with the path he was pursuing as a Jew, because he was probably among the highest in his land, among his people at least, and everything has to go.
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He forgets it all, rather than I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
I think there are five one things that are used that are ready to go together in scripture. This is one of them. This one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind in reaching forth unto those things which are before everything down here is expendable, isn't the thing here that we're going to take with us to the glory except souls?
Abraham took soul, didn't he? So when he went out of Haran, that's the place of death. Does he have souls with him? Well, we can take our children with us.
We take souls with us and we can't think of anything else, can we?
I think it's important what you were saying about forgetting those things with Char behind.
Sometimes you hear this first used as though we should forget all past failures, but that isn't the point in the verse at all. We find in the Ephesians chapter 2 Paul saying to those believers at Ephesus, wherefore remember that she being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
He also says to the Corinthians, Don't forget, such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. In writing the Titus, he says we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. He never himself forgot that he persecuted the Church of God and wasted it. Remembering past failures helps to keep us humble.
And while, through wondrous grace, they're no longer on the divine record.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We ought to be humble as we think of past failures so that we might walk in loneliness, but we should forget anything that had been done for the Lord. When Paul found it necessary to mention things that he had done to the Lord, he said, I am become a fool in glorying.
And so it wasn't only forgetting those things that he could have gloried in as a man in the flesh.
But even since grace had saved him, for him to boast about his own loyalty to Christ, it was wrong he could leave that have often said we don't need to remember. We don't need to remember things we've done for the Lord because he has a record and it says God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.
He says you can forget them because I'll remember them.
But about our sins, he says, I have forgotten your sins, but I want you to remember them.
It'll help to keep you humble, and I feel that it is good for us to remember this. And I'm sure that all of us, as we think of the grace and patience that God has had with us, it does help us to keep humble. But if there's anything to be done for the Lord, leave it for the divine record. Don't talk about it because we might get ****** ** down here. We won't at the judgment seat of Christ.
Turn to Hebrews Chapter 11 and 12.
Mentioned there where we see the word perfect used in the sense you speak of Hebrews Chapter 11.
And the.
40th verse God having provided some better thing for us, that they that's the Old Testament Saints without us, should not be made perfect. And then in the 12Th chapter, this is made perhaps more clear in the 23rd verse to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just man made perfect.
There is the thought of resurrection. That's the time when the redeemed will be there with and like Christ. But there is a sense of full growth and maturity down here. That's what Paul desired for the Saints.
And if they were full grown, the proof of it would be that they had Christ as the object before their souls. They wouldn't be talking about what progress that they had made. The proof of maturity would be that they were occupied with Christ. When a person starts to talk about how much progress he's made, then you know he's not spiritually mature. But when he talks about Christ and the loveliness of Christ, you say, oh, I believe that person.
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Coming the spiritual maturity because that's what it is that Christ is all and in all. It seems to me that at the same time that we speak of maturity, we can speak of it in this way that.
One may be even occupied with service for Christ.
And.
He's so taken up with service that he's not in the enjoyment of the one object that the impossible. Speaking of here.
So it may not only be in the sense of maturity, but it may be in the sense of the practical exercise day by day, because it's so easy for our attention to be drawn to something else, is it not? And the apostle didn't want anything, whether it was his past or whether it was the things around him, he didn't want anything to disturb this.
Position that he was in in the enjoyment of this one object.
So he says.
In our chapter, I pressed toward the mark, I press. Seems to me it's a continual exercise with the apostle here, and this we have is normal Christianity in Philippians. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, or some have translated the calling of God on high. I suppose it's just as good.
The high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So the apostle wants this exercise to be a continuous one in his circumstances.
Not simply to say, well, I'm, I'm mature Christian now I'm in a new position, although that's true that it's maturity, but still it's a it's an exercise continually at the same time. Is this thought that not in the calling calling on high of God in Christ Jesus is really where the path ends, isn't it? The Lord Jesus walked that path down here, the perfect obedient one ever having his Father.
Him and that ended in him being called on high and this was what Paul was looking forward to at the end of his life.
Turn to First Timothy three. I think this thought is similar in First Timothy 3.
And verse 16.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit seed of angels, preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory or in glory. What is the secret of godliness for our pathway? Well, it's the path of the Lord Jesus.
And that path ended in the glory.
We don't have the atonement brought before us in this, in this 16th verse, because it's the secret of godliness and you and I cannot imitate the Lord Jesus in that, but we can imitate his blessed pathway. He that saith, he abideth in him on himself also, so to walk even as he walked. And so it's very precious here, the pathway of the Lord Jesus.
God was manifest in the flesh.
And so in us, the life of Jesus is to be seen. In us. That's true godliness.
Not that self would be asserted or that I would think I'm somebody in the world who set myself forward, but rather that the life of Jesus would be seen in US. And then when it says justified in the Spirit, are we satisfied to have the Lords approval? That's what the Lord Jesus had all through his pathway. He was often misunderstood.
Even Peter would have kept him from going to the cross.
But he was justified in the Spirit, and at his baptism the Father's voice said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And again the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter would have put him on the.
On the same plane with the others in the father's voice again.
Marks him out. He was justified in the spirit, and then he was seen of angels. They looked down and saw for the first time a man here upon earth walking perfectly to please God, and then it says, preached under the Gentiles. I like that little expression because he came to his own, and his own received him not. But if one could speak in this way.
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The grace of his heart could not be limited.
And when he was rejected by the nation, the branch goes over the wall and reaches to the Gentile. How do you and I act when someone gives us a rebuff or sets us back a little? Does Gray still go on or do we say I give up? People don't appreciate what I am trying to do.
Well, with the Lord Jesus, how lovely to see that branch going over the wall.
And then believed on in the world, we might say, where is the fruit of that blessed pathway? At the end, His disciples forsaken and fled. He didn't receive the Kingdom, and the nation rejected Him. As far as outward things were concerned, it seemed that there were no results from that perfect life. But there were.
There were results. They were sort of hidden, but there were.
And so you and I need to be content to leave the results till the coming day of manifestation.
And so his very precious brethren, this verse, the secret of godliness in your life and mine is the pathway of the Lord Jesus, and so is Paul Preston in his pathway, someone remarked all those in Asia turned away from him. We found that the Jews hated him and he was in prison. But what was it that sustained him?
I was just looking for that home call.
When he be received and be in the presence of the one whom he desired to be with and like. Well, this is the secret for you and I in our pathway. This was what maintained the apostle. I believe in his pathway of service to his Lord and Master.
This 16th verse would suggest the same thought as we have in the fourth of the seasons, unity of the Spirit. Does it not walk together in the measure that we can in a different ones have different light? Perhaps, but.
We're to walk together in that measure of light that we have same room. You get this expression same or like in this Thistle over and over again.
Have the same combat, same mind, and so on. Here we have the same rule that this mind, the same thing, all have not come to the same point in their Christian pathway. So here's a race and they're starting at different intervals, but they're all heading toward the same goal. Some are farther along than others, but you meet one that's just starting out in the race.
One that's right near the end and say what are you pressing on to? They both are pressing on to the same thing.
So in this room this afternoon, there are babes, there are young men, and there are fathers.
We haven't all come to the same point of maturity in the things of God, but I trust we have the same object before us. And if we have that object before us, there may be differences, but the closer we get to Him, the closer we get to the end.
The more I believe we learn in our Christian life that Christ is all and very often things that we didn't see as we go on in our Christian life, the Lord reveals them to us if we have himself before us. I never liked the expression that some people use well.
You know, there's been a lot of very fine Christian men and they didn't think alike in these things.
So who are we to think that we could know the Lord's mind? That's as though the Lord were not willing to reveal His mind to us. Certainly we ought to be very humble in those things that we speak of where we don't have perhaps a definite verse of Scripture. But I do believe that God is willing on His part to reveal His mind to us. And if there's any failure in the apprehension of it.
On our part, not on His. He does want to reveal it to us. Any man will do his will. He shall know of the doctrine. Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. So if there are differences, we ought to be humble.
The Lord didn't teach one person one thing and one another. Willingness on our part would lead, as our brother said, to that oneness of mind in the Lord, that unity of the Spirit.
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Was given an offer.
Of one of the highest positions in England in education.
And.
He refused it, and you know whom I'm speaking.
And they said, well, don't you know that you would have a very high position in the world? His only answer was which world? So that it's a question of the world or Christ.
Now in this next verse that we're considering.
In Timothy first chapter, Paul says.
In the 16th verse.
I'll be it for this, 'cause I attained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.
That is, the apostle here in the 16th verse of our chapter says, Nevertheless we're unto. We have already attained.
Let us walk for the same rule, Let us mind the same thing, brethren, the followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have aspirin example.
That is the apostate Paul was set apart as a vessel to to leave a pattern for those who afterwards should believe on Christ Jesus. It was grace, a pathway that grace had wrought in the apostles life that left a pattern for the Saints in another place. He said follow me as I follow Christ.
So here we have him following Christ, I believe should say be followers together of me, because he had seen Christ in glory. He knew he had had that experience. He had been caught up to the 3rd heaven.
He never forgot it. It wasn't possible for him to describe it, but it was the goal before his soul. He, as it as it were, was just living in view of that, that goal before him. So he says the followers together of me in here, and I suppose that he's not speaking just of this assembly.
Or perhaps not of this assembly at all.
When he speaks of those who were the enemies of the cross of Christ.
There might have been some in that assembly who weren't real, but.
Perhaps he is Speaking of the testimony in general of those who made a profession of Christ, that among them there were those who had turned back and they had manifested it by making this world their object instead of Christ. It's just that simple, isn't it? It's either Christ or the present thing. So the object of the heart, one of the two.
Still at the point in the verses is they where the path ends.
Rather than whether the people were actually the Lords or not, So he says in Ephesians.
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall shine upon me, or give thee light. So you see some people lying down, some are sleeping, some are dead. The only way you can tell is to give a shout, and the sleeping ones will awaken. So I believe in the Scripture. God often sets before us the end of the path.
For instance, a verse like this, And through thy knowledge shall a weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. There is no possibility of me ever sending a person into a lost eternity by some action of mine. He's talking of a real believer. Thy through thy neighbor shall a weak brother perish. But I may set him on a path, and that's where the path ends, if God didn't intervene.
And the path that he's describing here ends in destruction.
A Christian might get involved in those kinds of things, and very often.
A person will get so involved in worldly things that you hardly know whether he's saved or not.
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All you know is that the path that he's treading ends in a lost eternity. If he is truly the Lords, he'll never be allowed to go to the end. The Lord will intervene. The Lord will come in and stop him. But the Scripture often speaks somewhere the path ends again, another verse. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back.
Is fit for the Kingdom of God, which he might be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which he also suffered.
There are many practical exhortations showing where the path ends, but we mustn't confuse these with verses that speak of the security of the believer. A believer can never be lost, but he certainly can walk hand in hand with the world. And the path of the world ends in destruction and judgment. And what a sound thing it is here.
It doesn't say they were the enemies of Christ.
Enemies of the cross of Christ, and I believe we realized that in the Scripture.
The cross of Christ brings before us the rejection side, the shame side. What did this world give to our blessed Savior? They nailed Him to a cross. And sometimes we don't like the reproach of the cross. We don't like the offense of the cross.
We would like to have something a little more popular and accepted and so.
It's it's very easy for us, perhaps even a real Christian, to be an enemy of the path of following a rejected Christ is a very good expression for our conscience as though, is it not?
Glory was in view for the apostles, but here are the glories in their shame remind earthly things. This is the path of the world. Christian may be found in it, but it's the path of the world. The glory is in their shame. How we see it in every hand today and what a what a word for the conscience who mind earthly things Now we're all exposed to these things but.
The apostle here is Speaking of the mind. What is associated with.
The object before the mind or the heart is really the thought, but the mind is unearthly things. So the heart is too this be the case. But what a contrast we have with what we've just had before. And that's taken up again at the end of the chapter. See there is these things where it's Christ.
Or the normal Christian pathway and if one pursues this pathway of worldly things.
That very strong evidence that he doesn't know the Lord at all. Picture takes up the subject of those who mind earthly things. In the Book of Revelation find a certain class of people are called in the 6th chapter. They're called them to dwell on the earth.
8th chapter.
It's the inhabiters of the earth and it's wool, wool, wool. Woe to them. Well, it's the end of the pathway. If one living now, for instance, is living for the earth, he is earth minded. He could very well go right into that Book of Revelation and be one of those people at that time. And So what a contrast to the end of the pathway.
To those who are.
Are followers of Christ who press down toward this goal? Well, it's one or the other, isn't it? The end of the pathway.
For us to practically now exercise us as to our course, and it's certainly very solemn and very lovely in that way that the Christian who really has that goal before him, and I've enjoyed the way Paul puts it down to the goal. I pressed just as though it's right there. He's just ready to reach out and get it.
Well, if he looked that way, certainly we can be even more in the anticipation of reaching that goal, which is Christ and glory. Another thing one has enjoyed is that the end of the course is just as sure for the true believer as it is for Christ. He's there, but just as sure as he is there, we shall be there.
So different with some of us marks about, we're entering the course at different times, we're in different stages of the.
Race, but the end of it is held out before us as certain and secure as an object forest for every one of us. In that race he uses the word, the rule in Galatians he speaks as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy and upon the Israel of God. And then here in the 16th verse is going back.
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Nevertheless, where two we have already attained that it's walked by the same rule.
Let us mind the same thing. Person is going to run in a race. He wants to know what's the what are the rules? Because if he breaks those rules, he's going to be disqualified. Well, there's just one rule to remember, and that is to have Christ and his approval before us. And here is someone just starting out. He wants to know what are the rules of the Christian life? Isn't this lovely? They're all reduced to one. He doesn't say rules, but the rule.
And he walk according to this rule.
Let us walk by the same rule. What a blessed and simple thing the Christian path is, if we only have this person before us and had but one desire to do his will. But the contrast, as we've seen with others, is things, earthly things and their belly, and all those things that are going to pass away.
In contrast with the great prize, which is Christ himself.
At the end we have it in Peter again that we follow in his steps. I believe that's the same here. It really reads steps, this word rule. So we're the following his steps. That's the only path that's been pioneered for us, isn't it? Same rule or same steps? What would you say as to the meaning of destruction? Is there any thought of annihilation here, people say?
Well, destruction in the Bible never means.
Annihilation. Or does it mean it in common English? That is, if you took an axe and destroyed this table with just as much material when it's lying useless on the floor as when it's sitting there as a table. But once it's destroyed, it's no longer useful as a table. That's all. And man was created for the glory of God to praise Him.
But when destruction takes place, why then he is not any longer in that position that he was created for?
Is banished from the presence of God, unable to enjoy all those good things that God prepared for man when he made this earth for him. So it's spoken of his everlasting destruction. It can never be regained to break the table. You might rebuild it, but everlasting destruction is that man can never, never regain again what he's lost. There is a great golf fix.
But destruction, even as we use it in English, doesn't mean annihilation.
But just The thing is no longer useful for the purpose that it was made this expression conversation then is is a Commonwealth is it not citizenship? That's that's the place of the believer heaven. We're really seated in heavenly places in Ephesians, but here are our manner of life.
Our Commonwealth, our citizenship, even though we're here in this world.
In heaven, and so it's from thence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, all of our hopes, everything that's before us. We've had that word before going on things which are before all this. And we look to heaven for there's nothing here. Our conversation, our manner of life, our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we look. That's the whole.
Four of the Savior, the Lord.
Jesus Christ, it's nice to see the title here with his name isn't it? They have the expression Savior used in the First Thessalonians, the 1St chapter at the end. It's really the delivers it not wait for his son first chapter in the last verse First Thessalonians. Wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus.
Our deliverer from the coming wrath. That leaves the thought.
Coming wrath there, the judgments of the tribulation period, more of that than hell itself. So it brings in the distinction of the end of the pathway. The earth dweller steps up, tries to go on on the earth and really can't. But he might go right into that terrible tribulation. He might go right into it.
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Oh what I thought, well, what's our end? The pathway for the for the heavenly minded man, it's Christ and Lord.