Address—C. Hendricks
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When we survey the wondrous cross.
On which the Lord of glory died.
Our richest gain. We counted loss.
And poor contempt on all our pride 283.
When we survey.
Ed.
We come.
On and.
Oh.
Those first two stanzas.
I want to talk this afternoon about a man that these words were true of.
They're not true of the speaker.
When we survey the wondrous cross on which the Lord of glory died, our richest gain we count but loss.
And poor contempt on all our pride. Think of those words, so easy to sing them.
But to feel the the weight of them.
Poor contempt.
On all our pride, do we do that?
Our richest gain?
We count that loss.
Do we do that?
2nd stanza. All the vain things.
That charm us most.
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We'd sacrifice them to his blood.
Would we?
Do we?
Well, I'm going to talk about a man.
That did that.
His name was Saul of Tarsus.
We know him better as the Apostle Paul.
In my experience, and I didn't know Paul personally nor did I know the 2nd man that I might mention, but I knew them both by testimony.
By witness from his friends. From their friends and enemies both.
That was another man that I think I could cite.
That this hymn would be true of.
His name was John Nelson Darby.
His greatest enemy said of him once, he said.
He bows like a fool to the word of God.
Another said that.
Is the only one that he'd ever seen live Christianity. Really live it.
I can't say that being conscious of my own shortcomings.
All the vain things that charm me most, I had sacrificed them to his blood.
True of Paul, though.
Let's look a little at the history of this man before we get into the chapter I want to talk about. Turn to the book of Acts in Chapter 7.
Acts Chapter 7.
In this chapter we have Stephen.
A wonderful testimony, a man full of the Holy Ghost. Verse 55. But he Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.
This was Jerusalem's last chance.
They had rejected the Father's witness, they had rejected the Son's witness, and now they are rejecting the witness of the Holy Spirit in Stephen.
They cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. I think that's the first mention of Saul.
In the New Testament here, there's a Saul in the Old Testament. Don't confound him with this Saul. This Saul turned out to be the apostle Paul. The Saul in the Old Testament was the first king of Israel, and he was not a godly man.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus.
Receive my spirit. Now Saul was there. Whether he heard him say these words were not told, but he was there and he refers to the incident when he's speaking later, and we can look that up in a moment, refers to the incident. And he was there and he was in agreement with what they were doing to Steven.
And he heard him.
Lord Jesus, possibly he did receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this into their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And Saul was consenting unto his death.
One thing you could say of this man Saul who became Paul, that whether he was a Saul or whether he was a Paul, whatever he did, he did it with all his might.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. He did it when he persecuted the Christians, and he did it when he defended the faith.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
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As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house.
And hailing men and women committed them to prison.
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
And then you have a break in the action. We have Philip mentioned.
And the end of chapter 8 it says Philip was founded as Otis. And then Chapter 9 we have Saul again. And Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went under the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way.
Any of the way, Remember the Lord said I am the way, the truth and the life. And and so those Christians were called men of the way.
If he found any of the way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
This is the first recording. This is when it happened. And then the 22nd chapter he recites it, and in the 26th chapter again, and when he recites it, he says a great light from heaven, Acts 22. And then in Acts 26 he says a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun.
It's as though the light gets brighter as he goes on in his pathway as a Christian here, it's a light from heaven.
And this is what characterizes Paul. Paul's ministry. Heavenly light.
A light from heaven.
And he's the one that brought that ministry to us. And this is what characterizes Pauls ministry. And those who tend to be earthly minded and gravitate down here in this scene, they don't like Pauls ministry.
Because it's a light from heaven. It's a great light from heaven. It's a light from heaven brighter than the noonday sun.
As we heard in in the open meeting yesterday.
Christ in glory I think it was that meeting Christ in glory is the.
Characteristic feature of Christianity.
We're united to the man and the glory. We're not united to him as He was here in the in the flesh. He had to die first, as we heard, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die to bite it alone. But if it died bringeth forth much fruit. We're associated with that Blessed One in resurrection life. And when he entered the glory, he sent down the Holy Spirit to unite us to Himself.
In the glory.
So it's a light from heaven, and all the ministry of Paul has that character to it.
Suddenly there shined round about to him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul.
Why persecutest thou me now if you read Matthew 25.
There were those that were favorable to his brethren. In as much as you have done it unto me, you have done it unto them. You have done it unto me.
And there were those that persecuted his brethren.
But that's not the same expression that's used here. He doesn't say why do you persecute my brethren? No, he doesn't say that. He says why do you persecute me?
And that little sentence, that little statement contains the truth of the Assembly, that we are part of him, we are himself.
We are called the Christ. 1St Corinthians 12 Even so is the Christ.
As the body is one and half many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.
Talking about the members on earth, you and me, but given the name of the head in heaven, united to that man in the glory. So to persecute Christians is to persecute Christ.
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Why persecutest thou me? That very first statement that the Lord Jesus spoke to Saul of Tarsus embodied in it the truth that Paul was going to bring out at such a cost to himself.
There was number truth that was more hated by the earthly minded Jewish oriented people who had a Jewish religion and a earthly religion.
The heavenly truth of the assembly which brings in Jew and Gentile on the same level and unites them to Christ in the glory where there's no advantage to the Jew anymore, was not palatable to the Jewish year.
And so they persecuted Paul.
Peter even says in his second epistle, Paul had in his writings things hard to be understood. It was hard for a Jewish mind to lay hold of that he had been taught, drummed into him from child on, that the Jews were superior to the Gentiles.
They had a distinct advantage. What advantage then hath the Jew? Paul says much every way, and then he lists their advantages.
But in Christianity he doesn't have any.
Has no advantage at all.
One body composed of Jew and Gentiles.
United to the head in heaven.
Why persecute us? Thou me and he said, Who art thou, Lord?
He knew it. He knew he was the Lord, but he didn't. He didn't have him identified it would seem. And the Lord said I am Jesus.
Whom thou persecutest?
He hated that name up to this point.
I verily thought with myself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.
The Lord Jesus says in John 16, the time cometh when he that killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And such was Saul of Tarsus. He thought he was doing God's service. He could say to the Jewish leaders, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day when he was persecuting the church. He thought he was doing the will of God. He thought Jesus was not the Messiah, that he was of an imposter.
That he was a false Christ.
He thought that the people of Israel, the leaders that crucified him, did the right thing. Had he been a false Christ, they would have done the right thing.
Because anyone that blasphemed as would have been what the Lord Jesus said blasphemy. They accused him of that. You know, we've heard the blasphemy. We don't need any more witnesses. They they asked him, art thou then the Son of God? And he says thou sayest yes, I am.
Well, we've heard the blasphemy. That was blasphemy.
In John 19.
Pilate tries to release him. I find no fault in this man.
We have a law.
And according to our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Well, he never made himself the Son of God, He always was. But they meant he claimed to be, and that's what he claimed to be, and that's why they crucified him, and that's why Saul of Tarsus persecuted him.
In the person of his.
Members.
His members.
There are those that teach ultra dispensationalists that the church as the body of Christ according to Pauls teaching didn't begin until Paul was converted. Well when the Lord says why persecute is thou me, that proves that's a false. That's a false theory.
Every believer was one with Christ from the Day of Pentecost onward.
Why persecute is now me? Who art thou Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the ******. He had witnessed Stevens testimony. He had heard it.
He had.
Kept the clothes of those that stoned him to death.
And he made havoc of the church.
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The men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. He was blind.
But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and he was three days without sight. Neither did he nor drink.
Three days.
Shut in, in darkness to God.
All his religious energies had been spent persecuting.
Christ.
And his followers.
Those who are members of his body.
Three days. What a revolution took place in that man's soul.
During that time.
He was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.
There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him as said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street, which is called straight.
And that's something.
Saul of Tarsus was now on Straight St.
That's where he was sent.
Inquire in the House of Judas for one call Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. I don't think he ever prayed like that before.
He was in the presence of God.
He was in the presence of Jesus.
This is the most remarkable.
Stupendous conversion. Ever.
Completely changed him every conversion.
Should have the same effect.
With all of us. But it doesn't, sad to say.
Completely change this man.
The Lord said to him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight. Inquire in the House of Judas for one call Saul of Tarsus. Behold, he prayeth. And yet seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done unto thy Saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way.
For he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles.
And kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer.
For my namesake.
I don't think there was any of the apostles that suffered like Paul did.
Catalog of his sufferings is.
You might say beyond human endurance to bear.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him, said brother Saul.
Brother Saul.
How that must have sent a thrill through his soul.
He who had been so wrong.
In his religious convictions.
There's nothing more.
Awful than religious persecution.
Many of our brethren are suffering that kind of persecution in other lands today.
Religious persecution. Bigoted. Intolerant.
And that this is what Paul was doing.
He was going to now experience it first hand.
He put his hands on him and he said, Brother Saul.
Lord Jesus.
Even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scaled, And he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized, and many had received meat. He was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And notice verse 20. And straightway he preached Christ, or I think it should be rendered.
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He preached Jesus in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. That's the first time in the book of Acts that anyone preached Jesus as the Son of God. Peter an Acts 2 That he preached him as God made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified Lord in Christ. But it was Paul.
That preached him as the Son of God. Turn to Galatians 1.
For his account of his conversion.
Galatians 1.
Verse 13 He says to these Saints that.
Galatia, For you have heard of my conversion in time past, in my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it.
And profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
Neither when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus, when he pleased God to reveal his Son in me.
Tremendous statement. And so he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God, the very the very truth that was the basis for them crucifying him.
Very truth that Saul of Tarsus would not have.
Would not have.
Well, the Lord said, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my sake.
The catalog of his sufferings is overwhelming as you read it. I don't know though, we have time for that.
Turn to Philippians 3 in order to appreciate some of the things that Paul says in this chapter.
We have to get a little bit of his history as we've looked at it briefly.
To see where he came from.
Philippians 3 finding my brethren we've had this chapter so many times, but I.
I make no apologies for going over it again because it's.
Christianity.
So what we get here?
Rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me, is not grievous. For you it is safe. We don't have to apologize for repeating these truths over and over again. We need that.
And then he warns them, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. I think all of those three things describe the Jews in their persecution of Paul.
Persecution of the Christian testimony.
The Gentiles, too, did it.
But the Jews were like a snarling dog that tears its opponent apart.
Evil workers, those that.
Said they were apostles and were not false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and so on.
And then the concision clearly in contrast with the circumcision, we are the circumcision.
The concision. You see a picture of the concision at the time of Lent every year when people will give up a certain vice that they have. They'll give up smoking, they'll give up swearing, they'll give up drinking, they'll go on a diet or whatever it might be to lose weight. They'll give up something that they like. And that's like the concision just cutting off parts of the flesh here and there, but not really addressing the flesh as such.
And that's what the circumcision is, a complete cutting off of all that we are.
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In Adam and in the flesh circumcision of Christ, we are the circumcision. Verse 3.
Which worship God in the Spirit. Contrast musical instruments and choirs and all kinds of things that characterize the Old Testament worship ritual.
Ritualistic system was the Jewish system. We worship God by the Spirit or in the Spirit, or we worship by the Spirit of God.
And Christendom has picked up Judaistic tendencies and practices and they worship is with musical instruments.
You don't have to be saved to play a musical instrument and make it sound beautiful. In fact, many of those that are not safe can play it better than some of those that are.
But it has no heart, it has no soul, it has no spirit, this instrument of wood.
And strings, whatever it might be.
Christian worship is by the Spirit of God.
Playing on the hearts of Christians, producing worship from renewed souls like we had this morning when we were gathered around the blessed Lord at His table.
We worship by the Spirit of God. We rejoice in Christ Jesus.
We have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in the flesh. That's Christianity. That's a clear statement of what it what it is in the in, in its basic principles.
No confidence in the flesh.
And then he goes on to say, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
He had so many things that naturally, speaking as Saul of Tarsus, he could boast in.
And he lists them. He says, If any man, any other man, think that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
I've got more going for me than others do, and now he lists them.
Circumcise the 8th day.
Of the stock of Israel.
Of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. Notice everything that he mentioned here is Jewish oriented.
He's bringing out those things which in the Jewish religion were to his credit and gave him a stature and a status that others didn't have, certain that the gentiles didn't have it. They couldn't claim any of these things.
And then he says concerning Zeal, he's listing those things which were in his favor as a Jew, the things that as a Jew he could boast in. And one of his crowning, one of his crowning glories as a Jew, was concerning Zeal persecuting the Church.
He was their champion, he was the one that they put forward to get rid of that new religion.
The religion of the despised Nazarene.
So he's not listing his sins here, he's listing his excellent qualities as a man, a religious man in the flesh.
What he could boast in in the flesh.
All the vain things that charmed me most, I had sacrificed them to His blood. Well, these were the things that he wants gloried in as a man in the flesh.
He is a touching the law. He was a Pharisee.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless. He kept the ceremonial law. He kept the precepts of the law, as well as any man ever kept them.
Outside of the Lord Jesus, of course.
Kept all of them. He never ate unclean food. He never ate that which was prohibited.
The garments that he wore didn't have woolen and linen mixed, didn't sow his seed with his field with diverse seeds and all the things of the law that were prescribed and prohibited and so on. He kept those things touching the righteousness of the law. He was blameless.
He could glory in it.
I know you're some of you are thinking of Romans 7 where he brings out the 10th commandment and says that thou shalt not lust slew him. Yes, that addressed the inner man.
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That address the inner man. All the other commandments you can judge of outwardly if the person is guilty of them are not. You can't look at a person and see whether he's lusting.
Only God can do that.
But outwardly, he kept the law perfectly blameless, he says.
And then he says, what things were gained to me? These were all gained to him, these were all to his credit.
This, all the all of these things gave him up a position in the eyes of men, he was way up there.
And they eulogize the man.
He's the one they chose to stamp out the new religion.
He was educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
He knew Greek, he knew Hebrew, he knew different languages.
Very educated men. All the other apostles were just Galilee and fishermen and so on. Tax gatherers. They didn't have the stature that Saul of Tarsus had.
He was as equipped from the world standpoint as any man could be, and these were the things he gloried in as a man in the flesh.
I'm going back to verse 4 now, having made these comments, and read it again. Therefore I might also have, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh eye more. Circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
Now. Now he speaks as Paul the Christian.
But what things were gained to me?
Those I counted loss for Christ.
We sang all the vain things that charmed me most, sacrificed them to his blood.
He did that, he did it, he carried it out. There was a man that lived Christianity.
What things were gained to me? These I counted lost for Christ. That's a past decision. I counted them laws.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss.
It's not enough to have done it in the past. He counted them right now, present tense. I count them, but lost. I have not changed my perspective with respect to those things because of all the persecution that's come upon me.
You know, persecution can make us change our stand for Christ, and many have done that and compromised the Lord's testimony because of persecution.
Paul didn't.
Yeah, doubtless I count all things, but loss for what? For the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
He had found not a system of rules and regulations and dos and don'ts and ordinances and all of these things. He had found a person that captivated his soul.
And made all the rest worthless to him.
You see a little picture of that in those early Christians in the book of Acts, I think it's 19, where they took their, their relics and their superstitions and all their, the things that connected them with their idol worship and that and they burned it off.
They wouldn't have any of that hanging over into their life.
How many of us have burned it all?
How many of us did it in the past and then we brought it in again in the present?
We didn't continue.
Said I counted it wrong but somehow it's back.
That wasn't Paul, was it?
I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I don't think any of us can say that. I certainly can't.
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Suffered the loss of all things family.
Intimate friends.
The loss of all things.
When one apostatized from Judaism and embraced another religion like Saul of Tarsus did.
They wrote the they read the death sentence over them had nothing more to do with them.
He experienced that for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
And I'm so grieved about it. No he doesn't say that and I do count them, but dumb.
That I may win Christ or that I like Mr. Darby's marginal rendering here, that I may have Christ for my game. That's in, that's in. That's the opposite to verse seven. What things were gained to me? Now he says that I might have Christ as my gain.
Everything that was gained to me is worthless, and I counted but dross and loss in order that I might have Christ for my gain.
He had found.
Something, someone that was infinitely better.
Than all that he had lost.
And I may win Christ, have Christ for my gain, and be found in Him.
Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, he had just said that touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless.
But now he says.
To be found in him not having thine own righteousness which is of the law.
Which once as a man in the flesh he could glory in, but now he was no longer a man in the flesh, he was a man in Christ.
A man in the spirit.
That which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That which God confers upon us, not something that we earn, not something that we can glory in, not something that we have won by our own efforts, but what He has made us in Christ.
His righteousness.
By faith. We get it by faith.
And then he says that I may know him. Oh, he knew him very well, but he yearned to become more and more and more acquainted with his blessed Lord.
That I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection, the power of his resurrection, is that which lifts us from earthly things to heavenly things.
Brings us into a new world, a different world, a world of which Christ is the head in heaven.
That I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. He certainly knew the fellowship of his sufferings.
I will show him how great things he must suffer for my sake.
Being made conformable unto his death.
He wanted to be so like his master as to even.
Being conformed to him in death.
If by any means, no matter what God chose, I might attain unto thee, it should read the out resurrection from among the dead. It's not the resurrection of the dead, but it's the it's the Christian resurrection. It's the resurrection of believers out from among the dead. The rest of the dead stay in the grave. That's our resurrection. If by any means I might attain unto that.
Not as though I had already attained. He wasn't claiming perfection. He wasn't claiming spiritual sinlessness, as some so foolishly have done, No.
He hadn't attained yet. He was still pressing forward, pressing on to the mark. He hasn't arrived yet, he says, either. We're already perfect. He hadn't reached that state of perfection. That was moral perfection, sinless perfection.
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He was still in the body. As long as we're in the body, we haven't arrived at that point yet.
But I follow after, I pursue, I press toward the market that I may apprehend, lay hold upon that for which I have been laid hold of apprehended of Christ Jesus. He's laid hold of me, He said. He said He's laid of hold of me for the glory, and I want to lay hold of that.
I want to lay hold of that for which he's laid hold of me.
To bring me there.
We were living in the good of it.
All our toys down here that we speak so highly of, our expensive toys. I noticed the kids, they have a lot of toys. They're cheap ones, inexpensive. We've got expensive one, but they're still toys down here that we glory in.
And I've got a bigger car now, but it doesn't get me to where I have to go any faster than the other one. A little more comfortable.
Just a camel to get through the wilderness.
Brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended I haven't arrived at spiritual perfection yet.
But this one thing I do.
He was pressing on, constantly pressing on. He would not allow any setbacks and he had them. We all have them. He had them too. He was not perfect.
There's only one perfect man that's ever been in this scene, and that's our blessed Lord Jesus.
The best example we can come up with of a man which is Sapol himself still failed.
I think it was chapter Brown's comment. It's gone through my mind so many times. His comment was many of you have heard it. Thank God he gave the failures of the Saints and not just their successes, he said. If he hadn't done that, I would have given up a long time ago.
Because this choices servants failed.
So don't become discouraged if you fail. Just press on. Press on. Keep Christ before you.
Press on. Satan would try to get us to give up and and stop trying. Stop pressing on because we failed.
I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind forgetting you, forgetting your successes as well as your failures, whatever they are, press on. Keep Christ before you.
And reaching forth unto those things which are before, that's what He's laid hold of us for, the things that are before us.
I confess I cannot even begin to imagine what the glory is going to be like.
I just can't.
I just can't do it.
I know it's going to be supreme happiness and joy, unspeakable, full of glory, but just what it's going to be like?
I don't know. Well Paul was caught up to the 3rd heaven and when he came back he said I can't tell you.
There aren't words that I can tell you. I can't tell you what I saw there and heard there. I I can't tell you.
And.
One thing I can say, it's going to be wonderful beyond anything we've ever dreamed of.
That always brings something to my mind.
Got a letter from my son David once after he'd lost his family.
And he said I'll not ever have them again, as my wife and sons and daughters will I.
He was reading that passage of Scripture that says in in heaven, there's the angels, they neither marry nor are given in marriage and so on.
And.
He said. I've come to the conclusion that I'll never have them back.
As I had them here and that's right, you won't.
So he said, closing the letter, he said I have said my final.
Goodbye.
To Susie.
Becky Gracie Invention.
You'll see them again.
But not as he saw them down here.
00:50:01
Well, no. It brought a flood of tears to my eyes.
But God has something infinitely better for all of us than the best thing we've ever experienced on earth.
Oh, we could just get a hold of that.
Anything we lose down here, no matter how precious it is to us, is nothing compared with the glory.
That lies ahead, and that's what Paul is Speaking of here, isn't it?
Wanting to get ahold of that.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore.
As many as be perfect, as many as have come to that maturity in the Christian life, to lay hold upon these things in some measure be thus mighty.
And if in anything you'd be otherwise minded, that is. We haven't really matured to that point.
We see that with our families. We there's some things you can't talk to your children about because they're just not mature enough.
I remember this story and I think it's worth repeating.
Father was walking through an airport with his little daughter. He was carrying this heavy suitcase and she asked him a question and it had to do with something she had heard with other children in that and it was a sexually oriented question. The father stopped and he set the suitcase down and he said, darling, would you pick it up and carry it for me?
And she tried and she said, daddy, it's too heavy for me.
And he said, yes, darling, the question you've asked is too heavy for you right now.
You'll understand it later.
You guys thought that was a good illustration?
Some things are too heavy for the little ones.
Don't burden them with these things. Well, that just came to mind that some in some ways that we haven't all arrived at this maturity. So if you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal these things to you. In the measure in which we have apprehended His mind, we can walk together and happy fellowship.
And then count upon God to reveal these other things to those that haven't.
Taken that haven't grown that to that point yet rather than be followers together of me and mark them which walk I be followers of me. That's really I don't like that translation. He says be my imitators. The only one we're really to follow is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not to follow any man, but he said you imitate me as I follow Christ.
The followers together with me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example the imitators have made.
And then he talks about those that were walking in a way which is, sad to say, not Christian at all. 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. You remember the light that Paul saw was a heavenly light.
A great light.
Above the brightness of the sun.
That's where Christ is, and that's where our blessings are. That's where our portion is, and to mind earthly things is.
The opposite of that.
Conversation. Now that word there doesn't mean manner of life like it does in many places here. It means it's literally our politics, our associations of life. Like you say, I am born an Englishman, and so all the things that pertain to Englishmen were pertaining to the one that was so born.
Are some would say our citizenship. So it's similar to that thought is in heaven.
Is in heaven. Our associations of life are there.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, That's where he's coming from, going to come and fetch us there. Who shall change our body of humiliation? So that's a, there's a bad translation. This is not a vile body. Spirit of God dwells in this body. It's a lowly body, It's a frail body. It's a body of humiliation. And what are we going to have? We're going to have a body of glory.
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This body is subject to suffering, to pain, to sorrow, to disease, even to death. It's a body of humiliation. It's not a vile body. Sorry that they translated it that way, but that's really not a correct thought.
I've changed it in my Bible to a frail body. That's what it is. He's going to change this body of humiliation, that it may be fashion night like unto His glorious body or His body of glory.
According to the working whereby he is able, the working of the power, new translation, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself, how is he going to do it? Sometimes we get asked the question.
How is he going to do it?
He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He said let there be, and it was.
By faith, we understand that the world's were framed by the word of God, and someone is going to wonder how he's going to resurrect us. There's no problem for him.
That's no problem for God.
We limit God by our puny thoughts, thinking that you can't do that. There's a person that's went overboard and the fish ate them up, and where's his body? That's no problem for God.
No problem whatsoever, according to the working of the power which he has, even to subdue all things unto himself.
And when he says come forth, we will come forth.
And meet Him in the glory.
Has prayer.