Philippians (Lesson 33)

I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

And I welcome you one more time to the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

We hope and pray that God will use our time together today to be a help and a blessing to you, to encourage you in the things of God, to strengthen you in your Christian life, and if and if by some chance you are listening today and you have not come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, perhaps today.

The Holy Spirit of God will touch your heart, draw you to Himself, and you might come to know Jesus, whom to know is life eternal.

We are studying together the Bible book of Philippians, the Bible book of Philippians, and we are in the third chapter.

We have been discussing the objective of the Holy Spirit as he indwells the believer, and that is to bring us onward to the place where we are like Jesus Christ.

Like Jesus Christ.

I'm going to read again the context of our passage for today.

Starting at verse number eight, the Bible says, Yea, doubtless, no doubt in his mind.

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 win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Chr of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after.

If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but 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.

Alright, as we've said on the last program, the man writing this passage is saved.

He is born again.

His sins are all forgiven because he has trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

Jesus died to pay for all his sins.

Jesus rose from the dead that he might be in a position to give eternal life to them that trust him.

And Paul trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

All his sins are forgiven.

Heaven is his eternal destination.

That's settled.

But he said, There is something I am still trying to attain.

There's something I'm still reaching for.

That's a big Bible word, that matter of apprehension.

In Acts chapter twelve, some soldiers came to arrest Peter for preaching.

And the Bible says they apprehended him.

They put him in prison for preaching.

Now what does this mean?

That means they laid hold upon him, they grasped him, they seized him, they took control of him.

So Paul says here, the Holy Spirit directing, there's something I can't quite get my hand on.

There's something out there that I'm after.

I can't quite grasp it, but I want to.

Now the Bible says as far as Jesus is concerned, he has apprehended Paul.

Jesus already laid hold on the apostle Paul, but Paul looking back at Jesus says, I don't really think I've got the same grip on him that he's got on me.

He knows me perfectly, but I can't say that I know him perfectly.

He said, What I'm really after, verse eight, is the knowledge of Christ.

What I'm really after, verse nine, the faith of Christ.

What I'm really after, verse ten, the fellowship of Christ.

I believe this listening audience has been blessed by God with a great deal of Bible knowledge.

That's why you enjoy listening to Bible preaching and Bible teaching instead of the moronic drivel you could be listening to right now.

I believe the Lord has blessed us with a great measure of zeal.

To impart that knowledge to others, be they saved or lost, that's great.

But Paul said that's not the mark.

Not just knowledge, not just zeal.

That's not the mark toward which I'm pressing.

He didn't say I want to know about Christ.

He said, I want to know Christ.

He didn't say that he wanted to put his puny little faith in Jesus.

He wanted Jesus' great faith to be working in him.

He didn't say, I want to get to the place where uh I'm uh where I'm in love with God while everything's going great, and then I'm whimpering to God when things are going wrong.

He said, I want to get to the place where I am maintaining joyful fellowship with Christ even when I'm suffering.

Now, why did he say that?

Because the ultimate proof that I am not walking in the flesh but in the spirit is that I am Christ-like at all times.

Come on, anybody can be seemingly spiritual as long as their flesh is comfortable.

But when my flesh is distressed, when my flesh is oppressed, it's pretty hard for me to be spiritual.

How about you?

How about you?

I see in these verses of scripture a man who so desires to be like Christ that if he has to partake of the sufferings of Christ and the persecution of Christ and the rejection of Christ and the contradiction of Christ, he'll take all of that if it will draw him closer to Jesus.

That's what he wants, that's what he longs for.

If you've got to be well to serve God, if you've got to be happy to serve God, if everything's got to be going your way to serve God, you are a carnal fleshy baby, probably packing a megachurch.

But if you can take the whip on the back, if you can take the trip to the jailhouse, if you can take the shipwreck in the slave ship, if you can suffer the loss of all things and say no big deal, because I'm so much closer to what God wants me to be than I was before, now you're on the right track.

Now you've begun to get beyond the realm of fleshy service of God and into the realm of operating in and through God's power, God's love, God's might while you are living in a body of flesh.

That's what that's what the true Christian is reaching for, though he or she may not yet be able to hold on to it.

Now the key word is found in verse number twelve.

Not as though I had already attained.

So as we said last time, this can't be salvation.

He's already saved.

This can't be a home in heaven or eternal life, he already has that.

He said there's something that I have not attained, something that is keeping me short of perfection.

Perfect in your Bible never means sinless.

Perfect in your Bible means complete, entire, wanting nothing.

Now, people say, Well, I I don't know if I'm going to heaven or not, I'm not perfect.

And other people laugh, well, I'm not perfect, I'm just forgiven.

That just shows such a lack of scriptural understanding.

You don't go to heaven because you're perfect.

You are perfected once you are going to heaven.

If you're going to heaven, it's because Jesus Christ is your Savior and your sins forgiven.

Now, having been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ, having been given eternal life, God then begins the process not of making you saved, but of perfecting you so you can be like Christ.

Perfect in the Bible always carries the meaning of a finished product.

I'm not a finished product.

You are not a finished product.

But, but we need to be pressing toward that finish line and allowing God to work his work in our life every single day.

Now let me say this.

Perfection can't mean sinless, because Jesus Christ, when he walked this earth, was not perfect.

How about that?

How about that?

Jesus Christ was sinless, but we came to this earth in a body of human flesh.

He had to be perfected.

That is, the Bible says he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.

There were some things that were finished in him when he came down here.

We can't study that today.

But let's run some Bible verses.

Verse number nine.

He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Now look at it.

Here is God's strength.

Paul has a measure of God's strength.

We know that.

He's been on three missionary journeys.

He's written epistles, he's founded churches, he's discipled and trained believers.

God has strengthened that man.

But he said there is a perfecting of that strength that will only come about through your physical weakness and through the further breaking of your self-confidence.

So God uses the word in this verse.

He says, You have my strength, but I'm going to perfect that strength.

Complete it, finish it, bring it in your work it out in your life in a greater measure.

Now look at Galatians 3.

Galatians 3, and let's start at verse number one.

Galatians 3 1.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?

So they've had their eyes on the crucified Christ.

Verse 2, this only when I learn of you receive ye the Spirit by the works of the Lord, by the hearing of faith, obviously by faith.

Verse three, are ye so foolish?

Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Look what he says.

You put your eyes on Christ, you trusted him not the law.

You got the Holy Spirit when you were saved, but then you forgot that salvation did not perfect you.

It gets you to heaven, praise God, and gets you out of hell, praise God.

But that's not all God wanted to do in your life.

He didn't just want to save us, he wanted to perfect us.

He didn't want to just forgive our sins, he wanted to empower us to live above them.

Look now at the context.

Verse 4 of Galatians 3.

Have you suffered so many things in vain?

If it be yet in vain, look what he said.

You guys are doing, we're doing good till you started suffering, and when you started suffering, then you forgot about God.

And so now all that suffering was wasted.

Why?

God wanted perfection.

He could only bring about perfection through suffering.

But when you suffered, you forgot about God.

So the suffering was in vain.

It was wasted.

You know, in every one of these passages dealing with perfection, the idea is the same.

I'm saved, but I've still got a lot of self-confidence.

I'm saved, but I still have a real love for the things of the world.

I'm saved, but I'm still double minded.

So God is going to put me through the ringer so that salvation will be perfected.

And I won't just be a Christian going to heaven.

I'll be a Christ like man or woman on the way.

Now my friend, never mind what these humanists who call themselves preachers are telling you, you are going to suffer.

We're all going to suffer.

But if in that suffering we forget that God is at work, then all we're doing is suffering.

It's in vain.

But if in that suffering we fellowship with Jesus Christ and allow him to work in our heart and work in our mind and work in our life, then that suffering brings us another hundred meters down the track closer to the finish line.

That's what we're talking about.

In First Thessalonians three, verse nine, watch what the minister is doing among the congregation.

For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God, night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.

Now it's not a criticism.

How do you know that?

Chapter one, verse three, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in the Lord Jesus.

Verse five, our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.

Verse six, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, verse seven, so that ye were in samples to all that believe.

Verse eight, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord.

Hey, these are great Christians.

But Paul said, I'm going to come, we're going to hold some special meetings, we're going to get together, because there's some things about your faith that aren't perfect.

He's not saying they're no good.

He's not saying they're not living for the Lord.

Why, he said in chapter one they were the best example he had of what Jesus Christ can do in a life, but they weren't complete.

They weren't everything God could make them.

And that's the desire of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I said something earlier that bothered some of you.

In fact, it bothered some people so much they're not even listening anymore.

But in Hebrews 2, the Bible says in verse 9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels.

Now Jesus has always been, but until he was born in that manger in Bethlehem, we didn't see Jesus.

But on that day he was manifest in the flesh.

He was made a little lower than the angels.

For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.

Now look, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man, not the elect, every man.

Verse 10, for it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Did you see that?

Jesus came and was made perfect.

How was he made perfect?

The same way everyone else is made perfect through sufferings.

How about that?

God himself came to this earth in a body of human flesh, and they called his name Jesus.

And the man Christ Jesus, God in a body of human flesh, became our captain, our leader, our guide, our example, the one in whose steps we walk, and he was not perfect when he got here.

He was made perfect.

Complete through suffering.

Now he was not made sinless, he never sinned.

He was not made pure and righteous, he was always pure and righteous.

But he was made perfect, that is, our God was completed when he came to this earth.

Until Jesus Christ came to this earth, God did not know what it was like to be thirsty, he does now.

God did not know what it was like to be hungry, he does now.

God did not know what it was like to have a best friend betray you, he does now.

God did not know what it was like to know somebody that he loved, that you love and cared about, lied about you, he does now.

God did not know what it was like to feel and experience physical pain, he does now.

You know what the Bible says in Philippians 3?

Jesus Christ got a hold on this thing.

Jesus Christ apprehended suffering as a man while trusting fully in the power of God the Father.

He laid hold on that.

And Paul said, If I'm going to get that knowledge, if I'm going to get that faith, if I'm going to enter into that fellowship, it will have to be the fellowship of his sufferings.

Do you know what happens when suffering comes our way?

We quit fellowshipping with God and get occupied with our suffering.

Somebody does you wrong in the church and you quit the church.

Something goes wrong in your family and you quit your family.

Something goes wrong physically or financially, and you get mad at God and quit on God.

How about that?

Paul said, I have suffered like no man's ever suffered for Christ.

But I'm still on the track.

I'm still looking at the finish line.

I'm still in the race because I want to get hold of that thing.

Hebrews chapter 5.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

Come to Hebrews 5, verse 7.

Hebrews 5:7

Speaking of Jesus Christ, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.

You see that?

That's the high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

God came down here and felt loss, felt sorrow, felt rejection, felt pain, felt hunger.

He'd never done that before.

The verse says, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard.

In that he feared.

You ever had things that scared you?

Look what the Bible says.

Verse 8, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, and being made perfect.

So he wasn't, but he is now.

He was sinless, but it wasn't perfect.

How did Jesus Christ attain perfection as a man through suffering?

While staying obedient to his father.

Hebrews 7.

Verse 19 for the law made nothing perfect.

Got that?

Not only could it not save you, Hebrews 10, it couldn't finish you once you were saved.

Verse 5 of Hebrews 11, 4, by faith, Abel.

5 by faith Genach.

7 by faith Noah.

8 by faith Abraham.

Verse 39.

And these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.

God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect.

You see, without the sufferings of Jesus Christ, they could not be perfected.

God could forgive them, but he couldn't finish them, he couldn't complete them.

Only through the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ could a man, can a man be perfected.

Hebrews twelve, verse twenty two speaks of the saints of God in heaven.

But ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, that's where I'm going, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, that's salvation, made perfect, that's completion.

Now look what he said in Philippians three.

I am trying to attain the resurrection of the dead.

He's not hoping to get to heaven someday.

He's saved.

He's not hoping to get resurrected someday.

He's saved.

He is a just man.

But when he gets to heaven, he will be a just man made perfect.

What does he want right now?

He wants to be a just man made perfect.

How about that?

All this debate, all this debate about James two.

Abraham had faith that saved him.

But by works his faith was made perfect.

James one verse four, let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

In Ephesians four, spiritual gifts are given to the church for the perfecting of the saints.

My friend, my Christian friend.

If you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saved, you are going to heaven, and when you get there, God will make you everything He can possibly make you.

He will conform you completely to the image of His Son.

What a glorious thought.

But do you not see, do you not understand that the Holy Spirit in you began the moment you were saved to work that process in you this side of heaven?

And the Christian who is going to walk with God, talk with God, commune with God, fellowship with God is the Christian who is allowing the difficulties, the hardships, the sufferings of this life to make them like Christ now, rather than waiting for a complete and drastic overhaul on the other side of death's door.

God wants you to be like Jesus Christ now, not later.

Is that what you want?

I hope so.

I surely hope so.

You've been listening to the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

This entire study on Philippians is available on a disc that plays in an MP3 format.

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Until then, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you.

And every week.