Address—C. Hendricks
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Philippians 3 verse one.
Finally, my brethren.
Rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Beware of dogs.
Beware of evil workers.
Beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit.
And rejoice in Christ Jesus.
And have no confidence in the flesh.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinks that he hath, whereof he might trust in the flesh.
I more.
Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel.
And Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee.
Concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law, nameless.
But what things were gained to me?
Those I counted loss for Christ.
Yeah, 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 do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
And he found in him.
Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings.
Being made conformable unto his death, if by any means.
I might attain unto the resurrection.
Of the dead are out from among 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 I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I cannot add myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind.
And reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark.
For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained.
Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as 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.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile or frail 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.
In order to.
Really appreciate.
To the fullest this chapter.
We have to know a little bit about.
Paul's history.
Paul's history.
In first Timothy one if you'll turn there for a moment.
He refers to himself many times in his epistles.
In first Timothy one verse.
12, he says.
Well, I'll read verse 11 according to the glorious gospel, or the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
He speaks of two aspects of the gospel that he preached. The one in Acts 20 I believe it is. He speaks of the gospel of the grace of God.
Gospel of the Grace of God.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that he through might be rich.
The gospel of the grace of God is that God was manifest in the flesh. He came down to where we were.
He left that gory scene above.
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As God and became a man.
He entered his own creation, the blessed Son of God.
Born into this world.
Of a human mother.
Derived his humanity through Mary.
His contact with this race of ours?
Is.
When he came here into this scene.
Born of a virgin.
Emmanuel, God with us.
Wonderful truth. God was manifest in the flesh. God came to where we were.
It had to be so in order to reach us, in order to bring us into blessing.
He had to become one of us.
And the only difference between his humanity and ours is that his was in the state of holiness.
Ours, as born of our earthly parents, state of sin.
Adam was created in a state of innocency, without sin, but capable of sinning.
The Lord's humanity was without sin, incapable of sinning the Holy One. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God.
Well, the Gospel of the glory.
That verse in First Timothy 3.
16 It says without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, that God came down.
Justified in the spirit scene of angels preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and it ends with received up into glory. How so received as a man?
God came down and became a man, and then man went up into the glory of God.
And that's what he refers to is in verse 11, according to the it's not just glorious gospel, it is a glorious gospel, but it's the gospel of the glory. There's a man in the glory of God. His position there defines our place.
I say that again, it's so important to get a hold of his position there defines the Christian's place as he is, so are we in this world.
We are in Christ before God. In Christ is an example as the risen glorified man, Peter says, God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
And there he is, a man in the glory of God. Wonderful gospel.
Two aspects of it. God comes down in grace and goes up as into the glory of God.
And then he says, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me.
For that, he counted me faithful.
Putting me in the ministry.
Tremendous thing to think of when we think of who he was and what he was and and what he was about when he got converted, got saved.
Who was before?
Before if he was a blasphemer.
And a persecutor.
And injurious.
Mr. Darby's translation reads that an insolent, overbearing man.
But I obtained mercy.
Because I did it ignorantly.
In unbelief.
I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.
You remember.
The Lord's Prayer on the cross. Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the Christians.
Even to strange cities.
He did not know he was doing.
The Lord said to the disciples in John 16, The hour cometh when.
He that persecuteth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And that was Saul of Tarsus.
He says I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.
Sin of ignorance for which there was forgiveness.
And he is the greatest trophy.
In this present day of grace of the grace of God and the mercy of God to pick up such a one and.
As he says earlier, he judged me. He counted faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Who did he put into the ministry to be the exponent of the highest truth ever given by God in both testaments?
A man who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious.
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That magnifies the grace of God.
Does it not?
And the grace of the Lord, verse 14 was exceeding abundant with faith and love.
Which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, he says, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
Albeit for this 'cause I obtained mercy.
That in me first.
Jesus Christ might show forth the whole long-suffering.
For the pattern of them that should hereafter believe on Him to life.
Everlasting life eternal.
Paul was the worst. Saul was the worst. He was, he considered himself, because of what he did, the greatest Sinner.
The greatest Sinner.
And so there's mercy available to.
To you this afternoon, if you're here, not saved, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've fallen, you can't get outside of the reach of the grace of God.
I say that to Sinner, I say that to Saint.
For the restoring grace of God is every bit as wonderful as His saving grace.
I reminded of David Livingstone. He was back in England, he was the missionary to Africa. And I've told this story. You may have heard it.
I don't apologize for repeating it because it's it thrills me every time I do.
And he was being interviewed in England and said what's the greatest experience you had when you were in Africa?
And he was looking for some story that would he would tell about his deliverance from the lions or some such thing. And he said the greatest experience I had when I was in Africa is he restoreth my soul.
Did he need to be restored? Oh yes.
We need it.
On a daily basis.
We need to have.
Our souls restored.
That happens many times in the life of the Christian. It is wonderful.
Just remember this, you can never get outside, get beyond the reach of the grace of God.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
Turn back to Galatians chapter one for a few verses.
Verse 13 Paul again recites his life and he was Saul. He says, for ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion. Chapter 113. 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.
He wasn't what the world would call a bad man. He wasn't. He wasn't a Skid Row bum. Not at all.
He saw the upper crust. He was a very religious man, a very self-righteous man, a good man, as some would say, righteous.
And zealous.
He was so zealous that for the traditions of his fathers, seatingly zealous more than his contemporaries.
You probably wouldn't have been able to find a man that was as full of energy for what he believed to be the truth.
And he believed that this new religion that had sprung up in his days, Christianity, was not of God, and that Jesus of Nazareth is a false Messiah. He believed that.
And so he persecuted.
Those that were Christians.
But when it pleased God.
Who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace? I don't think there's a man.
That was then or till he ever has lived, that has gotten a hold of the grace.
That reached him.
That enveloped him.
That turned him inside out, if you will, and save that man.
God revealed his son in him. He says that I might kill among the heathen.
Immediately I conferred not with chin blood. He tells us in the first verse of this Galatians one, that he was an apostle not of men, neither by man.
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But by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, he did not derive the authority that he had as an apostle from the Apostolic college at Jerusalem.
He got it right from the head in heaven.
From the Lord Jesus, from God the Father.
He was called an elect vessel.
To bear my name, the Lord said to him before the Gentiles.
The Jews and the Gentiles.
Therefore, let's turn to Acts 22.
Where we have him describing again.
Before the Council at Jerusalem.
Acts 22 He says, Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense, which I make unto you.
And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept them more silence.
And he saith, I am verily a man, which am a Jew born in Tarsus.
A city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel.
And taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the Fathers. And was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
And I persecuted this way unto the death.
Binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the out, From whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them, which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
And then he describes his conversion.
As he was approaching Damascus with these letters from chief priests.
He.
Saw a light heaven.
It says in Acts 9A light from heaven. Here in Acts 22 when he describes it, he says a great light from heaven and then he 6 when he describes it again.
A life from heaven brighter than the noonday sun.
A light that eclipses the central orb in the skies that illuminates planet Earth. A light brighter than that.
Something that closed his eyes forever to earthly things.
And to that which would promote the first man.
He was a man that.
Was very proud.
He was the job of the Old Testament in the New Testament.
Thoughtless.
Blameless.
And yet when he got into the presence of that light.
That one that.
Is the light.
It put him in his true place, as it does each one of us.
And then we feel.
Are nothingness our unworthiness?
Our sinfulness.
We always feel that when we're in His presence, and when we get out of His presence, that's when we're in danger of pride, thinking something of ourselves. He that thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing.
Is proud.
And lift it up.
Does not see things clearly at all.
That's the whole lesson of Job, is it not?
That the best man that God could find perfect in an upright man, one that feared God and astute evil and yet had confidence in himself, was proud of his.
Waves.
Goodness, his self, goodness.
He hadn't really gotten into the presence of God.
Well, let's turn back to Philippians.
Chapter 3.
A little bit about the history of this man.
What he was.
And then God revealed his son in him.
And what a transformation took place in that man's soul.
Philippians 31 Now finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
That's repeated over and over again in this epistle.
It presents to us normal Christianity, and what I want to look at here this afternoon is what is Christianity, because so much that passes for it in the umbrella of Christendom is not true Christianity at all.
To write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. I don't. I hope you don't hear anything this afternoon.
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From this speaker that is new and different.
Don't apologize for telling you the same things that you've heard over and over again. I remember after a conference like this, a brother asked another brother. Well, I asked a brother and said, how was it?
And he said the same old thing.
And I said thank God.
Thank God.
Because that which was from the beginning.
Is the person of Christ down here?
And that's what we need. The one who's gone on high, who becomes the object of our souls and aspires us to run after him, separates us from this scene.
We have a heavenly object. This is Christianity.
So he says to write the same things is not grievous for you. It is safe. You need to hear it over and over and over again.
And then he launches into awning. Beware of dogs.
Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. If you read through Paul's epistles, you will you will note over and over again a reference to those that were opposing the gospel.
Though we're opposing the truth of Christianity, let's just look at a few Second Corinthians Chapter 11.
He said verse 12. He says, but what I do?
He was not taking from the Saints at Corinth.
Because there were those there that were seeking to find a handle by which they could criticize the Apostle Paul. They were his enemies.
And they were setting themselves up to be defenders of the truth, ministers of righteousness. And they were.
Down grading, Paul.
He says what I do that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them, which desire occasion.
And wherein they glory, they may be found even to be.
Paul glory in the cross, which sets man aside together and is the judgment of man in the flesh.
And they were glorying in the flesh, and they were trying to find something that they could criticize Paul for. They were saying, he's just out for your money. He's just out for what he can get from you. So he refused to accept help from the Corinthians.
And then he tells the character of these men, verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing of his ministers also be transformed.
As the ministers of righteousness.
Whose end shall be according to their works.
False religion comes across.
With a very nice veneer, it looks good, it sounds good. It's promoting family values.
Being better husbands, better fathers, better wives.
More subject children. That's all good. Sounds so good, ministers of righteousness, but the doctrine of those that espouse this today is.
Poison.
Poison. Therefore it is no great thing of His ministers also be transformed, as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
I see again that no man think me a fool, if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me that I may boast myself a little while. I don't want to get taken up with all of these. These details in verse 22 Says, Are they Hebrews?
So am I.
Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I? So these that were opposing them at Corinth so strongly were Jews.
Where those that were just like Saul of Tarsus.
Opposing Christianity.
Some of them under the guise of being Christians.
Some of them may even have been real, I don't know.
But Paul exposes them for what they were doing, how they were acting.
Remember in Acts 15 there were those that came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they said, except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, he cannot be saved. And they had quite a discussion that finally Paul and Barnabas went to and Titus went to Jerusalem to have the matter resolved.
And it was decided that the Gentiles were not to be put under law.
This legalism, this law thing that we are so prone to. I had a brother say to me today, why is this particular group he was talking about so legal? I said, well, it's just natural to us. We tend to gratitude to that kind of thing. Mr. Darby said that grace is the hardest thing for us to understand and get a hold of.
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I read a book. It said the doctrine according to Rome was the name of the book. It was written by one who had been a staunch Roman Catholic, just like Saul of Tarsus here had been a staunch Jew, and he'd gotten thoroughly delivered from Judaism and from the principle of legality. And he was the greatest exponent of grace that we have.
Grace. All of his epistles start with grace, and they end with grace, and they're filled with grace.
And grace does not mean winking at evil. Not a bit of it.
In fact, grace is really the power of holiness, not the law. Law is the strength of sin, we're told in First Corinthians 15.
Grace is the power to live a life pleasing to God.
Well, these.
In this book, he points out this book the doctrine according to Rome, he points out that they have 5 different kinds of grace. Each one of these in the Romish system. Each of these you have to work for. It's like brownie points that are put to your account. It's not grace at all. They have no idea what grace means. They use the very words young people when you're talking to different ones out there in Christian, you have no idea. We lead such a sheltered life, the gathered Saints, you have no idea.
What's happening out there in the umbrella of Christendom?
The evil is is.
Unmistakably evil. Terrible.
And we have to be on our guard against these things. They've learned these, these enemies of the truth. They've learned to use the very language that we use so as to disarm us. So we do not know that they're really enemies. They'll talk about grace, but what's wrong with that? I believe in grace, but they don't mean by neglect. We understand by grace is the unmerited, undeserved favor of God. It's God's attitude towards us, blessing us.
Because of his own heart of love, we deserve nothing.
But the in that system, grace is earned. You earn grace. It's not grace at all. It's works.
And in Romans 11 it says if it be of works it is no longer grace, if it be of grace it is no longer of works. The two do not mix.
And Christianity is.
The grace of God come down in the person of the Son.
To bring us out of ******* and into liberty.
Well, here's an example of some of the enemies that that he dealt with. He calls them false muscles, deceitful workers in Galatians chapter 1. I'll just refer you to the the verses verse 7. He talks about a different gospel which is not another, but there will be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
And then he pronounces A woe upon even an Angel that would come. There's a very.
Very large religion in country that had its origin from a man, a false prophet, having an encounter with the Angel Moroni. My name was or is, and he received the communication from him, says here, though we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached. Let him be accursed. At the Council of Trent, a Roman Catholic council, they pronounce curse upon those.
Those that taught the pure sovereign grace of God.
And they said anyone that says that works are not meritorious towards one's salvation, let him be.
Well, Paul curses that doctrine of Rome.
There's more in this epistle.
Chapter Let's look at chapter 5.
Paul says verse 12. He says I would this is Galatians 512. I would there were even cut off.
Which trouble you?
Cut off, They were pressing the cutting off of the flesh in circumcision. It's sort of a play on words, he says. I would They were cut off or they would cut themselves off.
Which throw you into confusion.
Verse 12 of chapter 6 As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
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Now these men that are ministers of righteousness outward and have such a fair appearance there, the emissaries of the devil himself, going back to Philippians 3, he says beware of dogs.
You get an example of what a dog is in Galatians chapter 5. He says in verse 15 this is what dogs do. But if he bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Dogs that terror.
And bite and devour one another. Beware of them.
Beware of evil workers. Evil workers. We read of some of them in Second Corinthians. There deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and their ministers do the same. These are all legalizers. These are all Judaizers. That was the greatest evil that beset the early church. It's the greatest evil that besets it today.
What characterizes every false religion is legalism.
The principle of doing something in order to gain God's acceptance. It's the total opposite of grace.
And then he says, beware of the concision. Who was that? Well, that's those that said, except you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, she cannot be saved. They were promoting circumcision. It's not called circumcision here. It's called the concision because the true circumcision is the Christian.
We are the circumcision, we the Christians, we are the true circumcision. They were promoting this cutting off in the flesh something they could glory of in the flesh.
They wanted these Gentiles to be brought up to their level. They were on a higher plane. These Jews that had subjected been subject to circumcision. They were on a higher plane than their Gentile brethren.
And so they were trying to bring them up into that same plane, something that they could do.
To contribute to their acceptance.
They're being pleasing to God, That's the concision.
We are the circumcision. What is circumcision really mean? It's the cutting off of the flesh and that's where what happened at the cross.
At the cross, the flesh was judged cut off.
And so when he says we are the circumcision, he's referring to the spiritual meaning of it.
Not the literal thing that's referred to in the concision and the dogs. I think all three of these descriptions have to do with these Judaizers.
Trying to.
Destroy the very basis of Christianity.
By bringing in something of the flesh, something that we can glory in in the flesh.
We saw that in Galatians 6 they compelled you to be circumcised, that they can glory in your flesh.
Have something that distinguishes them from other people.
He says. And I'll turn back so I don't misquote it. Galatians.
I'm in the wrong Thistle won't find it in Ephesians.
Galatians 5 and verse 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love.
That sums up the whole.
Exposing of those that were seeking to promote circumcision in the flesh said it doesn't matter whether your flesh has been circumcised or not.
We Christians are the circumcision, the true circumcision, those who have accepted the total judgment of the flesh at the cross, no good in man.
As we were singing that hymn.
Thou, Lord, are all must be nothing. That's good. Have we nothing, apparently, Jesus our Lord.
We were talking just comes to mind, so I'll give it to you In Leviticus. I think it's Leviticus 13 where you have the leprechaun. I used to puzzle at this.
There's a passage there which says when the man is totally covered with leprosy healing, and I couldn't understand that for a long time.
Well, the thought there is a spiritual thought.
It's a picture of a man that has judged himself totally leprous.
Totally sinful.
There's a man that comes in and he's all covered with leprosy, but he looks at his arm and he sees some sound flesh, just a little bit.
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He says I'm not a complete leper yet.
I've got some good flesh.
I can glory in that.
And it's amazing what we glory in. It may be just a little bit, but here's a man that's totally covered with leprosy and he sees what he is. There's no good in him. My mother used to say to me, you mean Chucky? She said, you mean there's no good in us at all. And I said, that's what I mean.
That's hard for man to take, isn't it?
Nothing that's good have we? Nothing apart from Thee, Jesus our Lord?
True Christianity is the cutting off of the flesh. We are the search engine which worship God in the spirit. We don't worship musical instruments. We don't worship by the organ. It may sound also beautiful.
Much nicer than our singing might be. I enjoyed the comment a brother made in the Allendale conference this year. He said. It's wonderful to hear all these voices together. People that really don't know how to sing and how beautiful it sounds when they sing together.
And I enjoyed that.
Because we're not professional singers.
Far from it. And yet, when you put it all together, it's sweet music to God's ear.
Well, an organ, musical instrument, no matter what it is. They've even got big orchestras now going on in the church world, as though that's part of Christian worship. Nothing could be far from the truth. That organ has no soul. It has no spirit.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And so he goes on to say here, who worship by God in the spirit?
The other translation reads Who worship by the Spirit of God, rejoice Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. We rejoice in Christ. We found one in whom we can put all of our trust, all of our confidence, all of our joy. We derive it all from Him, and we have no confidence in the flesh.
Oh, we know that verse. We have so many times I have said it so a time right away and walk away from the verse and then something comes up.
And I put confidence in the flesh.
But that's not Christianity when we do that.
Put confidence in the flesh.
That's Christianity. Verse 3 is Christianity. We are the circumcision. We've accepted that judgment of God upon our state.
All that.
No good flesh, nothing that is pleasing to him.
I know that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Bad from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet. Nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
The state of man.
No good in man.
That's the first thing we come to, and then we worship, not by some mechanical contrivance.
You can have an unsaved man sitting at the organ can play it beautifully, far better than any of us.
And it sounds so sweet. The organ doesn't have a spirit, neither does he have one that is converted to God.
And yet it sounds sweet. God's not looking for that in this day.
We've been studying the 11TH of Hebrews and it's it's faith. It's faith.
If a man doesn't have faith, he cannot please God. That man that's at the organ, if he doesn't have faith, he can't please God.
No matter how beautiful it may sound to human ears.
We worship by the Spirit of God.
Rejoice in Christ. We don't rejoice in the flesh. We don't rejoice in any of our accomplishments, in any of our attainments, of anything that we are or have done or can do.
And have no confidence in the flesh.
Now here was a man that had much. He had a lot that he could boast of in the flesh, though I might all have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
He could really give you a list of things that he could glory in in the flesh, and he did. As Saul of Tarsus, He gloried in these things. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel.
They said of the blessed Lord, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned.
He didn't go to, he didn't go to some theological seminary, he didn't go to school, he didn't go to college, he didn't go to the universities.
How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Why have he not brought him? Never man, never man spake like this man.
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What power in his words? They said He doesn't teach like the Pharisees, but he teaches with authority.
His words had authority.
What a difference.
Paul says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might try in the flesh eye more. I was circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. That was the one tribe that stayed with Judah at the divine center. You'll remember when all the other 10 astray, and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law.
Pharisee.
Concerning Zeal, he's listing all his positive points as a Jew.
These are all things that he could glory in in the flesh. He's not listing his sins here. He's not giving us a catalog of his sins. And when he the next one, he says as touching zeal concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Was something that, as Saul of Tarsus was to his credit, he was stamping out this heretical religion, so he thought.
When he learned the truth.
That he did made him say he was the chief of sinners.
Because he persecuted.
The Church of God, he persecuted Christ.
And that's what he wanted to do.
His followers.
The very first words the Lord spoke to him. Why persecutest thou me?
He learned the fundamental truth of the assembly that he was going to be the.
The teacher of.
Christ in his body. Christ the head, his body. 11 Newman.
That's what he preached and taught.
So all these things that he lists circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin in Hebrew, the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. These were all his righteousnesses.
Which Isaiah says are as filthy rags. And that's what he has to learn.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He kept the law very fastidious. He kept the ceremonial law. He didn't eat unclean meat. He didn't violate the Sabbath. He kept the law as well as any Jew had ever done. Apparently he was blameless as far as outward keeping of it is concerned. And then he says, now that my eyes are open.
He says what things were gained to me, that which I boasted of, that which gave me such a prominent position, eyes of my contemporaries and those that looked up to me, they chose the Jewish leaders, they chose Saul of Tarsus to be their Goliath champion, to snuff out the hated, despised religion of the Nazarene.
And it was Saul that they chose to do that.
And all these things were gained to him. They were all to his credit, something he could boast of.
He says, what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ? Have we done that?
I can't say I have.
I doubt that there's anyone here that can say it. Maybe you can.
Paul lost everything.
What things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, I counted them, loss, I counted them. I remember the story of a military man who had gained many awards, medals of honor for bravery beyond the Call of Duty and.
He kept all these awards that he had gotten from the.
Top brass in the military in A room.
And then he gave.
He got saved, someone said to him.
What are you going to do with all your?
Awards now.
He said.
I think I'll burn them.
I don't know if we'd do that.
But he says, what things were gained to me?
Those I counted loss for Christ.
Yeah, doubt I count off, but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered.
The loss of all things.
He lost his family.
He lost his friends.
He lost his status in the Jewish community.
It is not fit for such a one that he should live, they said when he went back to Jerusalem.
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Don't go, they will not listen to thy testimony concerning me. And he argues with the Lord, and he says, Lord, they know what I did. They they know how I I hailed men and women. They know what my life had been and how I persecuted this way unto death. They will listen.
They didn't.
They didn't listen. He had suffered the loss of all things. I don't think that's true any of us.
I still have a whole too, so do you.
And many other things he suffered.
The loss of all things.
And he says and I count them but dumb.
That I may win Christ, that I may have Christ for my gain, contrasting Christ as his gain now with what things were gain to me, the things that had been gained to him as a man after the flesh that.
Very.
Faithful Jew.
And he was to the Jewish cause.
Those are the things that were gained. He counts them all done, lost. And now he says that Christ might be my gain.
That I might have nothing but Christ.
Nothing but Christ.
For living.
He's my everything.
You can't take him from me.
You can take my life from me. You can take away my possessions. You can take away my friends. You can take away my family. You can take away everything that I once gloried in.
You can't take him from me.
He's mine forever, he is my gain and I'm looking to be found in him.
Not having mine own righteousness.
Which is a law.
Now I'm going too fast.
Again, verse 7, what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ? Yeah, doubtless.
And I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may have Christ for my gain.
And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law.
That he could glory, and he says to touching the righteousness, which law he was blameless. And now he found something infinitely better. He's setting aside what he had in Christ now against the backdrop of all the things that he wants gloried in as a man in the flesh, a religious man.
Religious man.
It's not the backdrop, it's not his sin so much, even though he does mention personal concluding the church. But in the context here, it was to his credit that he did that because he was, he did it as a Jew.
That hated Christ.
He said I'm looking.
What I'm joining in is to be found in Him, to be in Christ before God.
To be found in him.
Not having my righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, a new object, now a new object. Before faith came, we were guarded, kept under the law, children.
Under Guardians and tutors and so on.
Now the object for faith has come through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
We've been looking at the faith chapter. Here's the righteousness which God provides. It's gotten by faith.
Works not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us.
Paul had found.
In Christ, the answer to everything gloried in in the religious world.
That I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection.
The fellowship of his sufferings.
Let's just turn back to Ephesians 1.
For the power of his resurrection, the power of his resurrection, is a power that takes us out of this scene.
And brings us into heavenly places.
In Ephesians chapter 1, he prays that they might know, verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places?
The power that he talks about here is not the power that.
God used in creating the universe as we had before us in Hebrews 11. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. Tremendous power. But here power it took that man that lay dead in the grave, and quickened him, and raised him, and exalted him to his own right hand in heaven, and made him the head over all things, things which are in heaven and in earth.
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Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. And sentiment his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and Penmite in dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church. Here he's not presented as the head of the Church, but he's head of all things to the Church.
The church is united to.
To him who was the head over all things, She who is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all tremendous truth.
Christian position, Christian truth. That's a prayer in Ephesians. One he's praying that the Saints might, might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe that same power that set that man in the glory of God. There's a man in the glory of God. It has now associated you and me with that man.
So at the end of this chapter, I'm going to have to pass over something. Time is up.
He says in verse 18 of Philippians 3 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.
Those who mind earthly things, and there's so much that passes today as Christian that is minding earthly things. It's not heavenly.
It's not real, a real witness to what Christianity is.
For our conversation, our citizenship, our associations of life are in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a hope He's coming back.
He is our righteousness. We are in him before God.
He is the new object for our hearts to absorb us.
The object before our soul. You set your, you set your object. You have an object. Anything other than Christ. Not Christian.
And then the hope that is before us.
Well, time slipped through. Who shall change it shouldn't say vile body. I've changed it to frail body or body of humiliation.
This is a frail body subject to sickness, it's subject to suffering, a subject to death. It's going to change this body of humiliation and make it like to his body of glory.
That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, or his body of glory, the one that He has now in the glory.
According to the working of the power, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
This is the power of this resurrection that I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, that which will lift me from this scene, from earthly objects and earthly hopes and earthly aspirations, into my proper place in the heavenlies.
The power of his resurrection. And then he says the fellowship of his sufferings. I want to have fellowship.
I want to go through everything he went through. I want to be so intimately connected with him.
That I feel everything that he felt when he was here as a man. Well, the time has passed. We don't have any more time.