Philippians (Lesson 34)

All right, thank you so very much for that kind word of introduction.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today.

I'm Brother James, and 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.

We hope you can stay with us for half an hour.

We are studying together the Bible book of Philippians.

We are in the third chapter.

We are discussing the matter of apprehension, which is a large word, but it's a word that's not uncommon in the world, and it's not uncommon in the scripture.

In Philippians three, we have read at verse number twelve, 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.

Now this word we have told you on the last two broadcasts, is used of capturing a criminal.

Not necessarily a criminal, sometimes the person arrested has not committed a crime.

For example, in Acts chapter number twelve, the Bible says in verse number three, and because it he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also, than were the days of unleavened bread.

And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers.

So to apprehend, when he wanted to take Peter, he sent soldiers, and they laid hold upon him and bound him up.

So we see from this Bible definition that Jesus Christ has a hold on me as a saved man.

He's apprehended me, he's taken me, he's brought me under his power and under his control.

That's a really grand and glorious truth.

The Bible says in John ten and verse number twenty six, but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Now watch carefully, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands.

What does that mean?

That means the Lord has apprehended me, he has laid hold upon me, he has taken me in hand, and having done so he is not going to turn me loose.

Do you remember what we read back in Philippians 1?

How that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

We could say now from chapter 3, he who has laid hold upon you and taken you in his hand will hold you there until the day of Jesus Christ.

Now I want to show you what we already have as saved people in Jesus Christ.

It's pretty amazing when you start looking through the Word of God and realize what Jesus Christ considers when he considers his own.

Now, if you've not been born again, you can be baptized, you can be a church member, you can be a moral person, but if you've not been born again, you're going to hell, and none of this is true of you.

You're not a child of God.

God is angry with you because you're wicked every day.

You're not wicked because you smoke or drink or cuss or cheat on your husband.

You're wicked because you put your own self-righteousness ahead of faith in God's Son.

That's the Bible.

So I don't want you to think today, having never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, wow, look at all God's done for me.

The things we're going to consider today, He hasn't done for you if you have not been saved.

However, if you have been saved, all of these things we are about to discuss are things that Jesus Christ has done for you.

Let's look first of all in Romans the eighth chapter.

Romans the eighth chapter.

Keep in mind the children of Israel left Egypt.

They got out of Egypt not because they were good people while they were there.

They got out of Egypt because they put their trust in God's word and applied the blood of the Lamb to their condition.

And on the basis of that faith in God and the blood of the Lamb, God redeemed them and God brought them out of Egypt.

On the way to the promised land, they griped, they murmured, they complained, they were divisive, they were bitter toward God, they made a golden calf and danced around it.

One day a crooked king hired a crooked creature to curse the people, and he stood on a mountain and opened his mouth, and God said through Balaam, I have not beheld iniquity in Israel.

In Jacob.

Numbers 23, 21.

He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.

That's incredible.

That's incredible because he had just written forty chapters about the iniquity of these people.

Yes, that's for you to see.

But God says, I haven't seen any of it.

God wants you to understand.

My sin, my failure, your sin, your shortcoming is something you've got to deal with in this life.

We talked about that on the last broadcast.

But today we're talking about what Jesus Christ sees when he looks on you, when he looks in his hands.

Romans 8, verse 9.

Romans 8:9

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Okay, so if I'm his and I am, if you are his and I hope you are, then we have the Holy Spirit.

That's clear enough.

Verse 10.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Now look at that.

I am in the Spirit, verse 9.

I am righteous, verse 10.

Here I am down here in this world, and as far as I can see, I'm fighting against the flesh.

I'm trying to enter into varying degrees of righteousness.

I'm dealing with that every day of my life.

But when Jesus looks at me safely in the palm of his hand, he says, All I see is that the Holy Spirit has made him righteous.

That's apprehension.

You know what Paul said?

Holy Spirit directing him.

It would change my entire life if I could come to terms with what Jesus Christ sees me to be, and then press toward the mark of becoming for all to see what I am in the sight of God.

Verse 11.

But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, does he?

Verse 9 says he does if you're saved.

He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you.

Now look what he's done.

He's put me in the Spirit, verse 9.

He's given me righteousness, verse 10, he's given me the promise of resurrection, verse eleven, and none of that is conditioned upon what I'm doing down here.

All of that is conditioned on where I am in relationship to Jesus Christ.

I'm in his hand.

Verse 12, therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

What the Holy Spirit just said in that passage, what he just said is that we owe him our life.

The Holy Spirit says, Look what I did for you, look where you are, look at what God sees when he looks at you.

How could you how could you live your life?

How could you labor for anyone or anything else when Jesus Christ has been so good to you?

How could I devote myself to Republicans or Democrats or Yankees or rebels or freemen or bondmen or slaves?

I'm a debtor to Jesus Christ.

I owe him my heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Verse 13, for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.

That's the way it goes.

But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Now watch.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage, again the fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

I was already apprehended by sin.

I was in bondage.

Sin had taken hold on me.

One day the Lord Jesus Christ stepped on the scene, showed me through his word he had come to redeem me, to buy me.

The devil said it'll cost you your blood.

And Jesus said, Alright, good enough.

And he went to Mount Calvary and redeemed me with his own precious blood.

One day, one day, I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior.

He walked over and took me out of the bondage of sin, snatched me from the power of the devil.

He said, I'll take him, thank you.

And I was apprehended again.

But now when I turn and look, I don't see my destroyer clinging to me and dragging me to hell.

I see my Redeemer, my Savior, my deliverer, and he says, Don't worry.

I'm not going to let you go.

Don't be afraid.

He won't get his hands on you again.

I bought you and I'm hanging on to you.

Look, I'm apprehended.

I've been captured.

I've been rescued.

And so verse 16 says, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Sometimes you don't feel saved.

Sometimes you have some doubts.

Sometimes the way situations and circumstances run in your life you wonder.

But the Bible says the God who laid hold upon you will continue to hold you, will never let you go.

Glory to his name.

Verse 17, and if children, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Now I'm not only a child, God's child by the new birth, but because I am a child I am an heir.

I'm not only an heir, I am a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

All that he inherits I stand to inherit because He has taken me and made me his own, made me a part, a member of His own body.

Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah.

Now look with me in Colossians chapter number one.

Colossians chapter one.

Here the Bible says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

In Romans eight he said, You are a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

And I read that and I'll say, I don't deserve that.

I don't have that coming to me.

And then God says in Colossians chapter one, No, that's right.

You don't deserve it, but I made you deserving, and you qualify for the inheritance because of what I have done for you, not because of what you have done for me.

The Colossians passage goes on to say this, verse thirteen, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

It's already done, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

I'm not reading the misreading the Bible.

I am a joint heir with Christ.

I am meet to be a partaker of his inheritance.

Do you know what his inheritance is?

We just read it.

Dominion over visible things, dominion over invisible things, dominion over thrones, principalities, and powers.

In fact, verse 17 says all things.

Do you you know it's it's strange to me why people like those made up fairy tale stories?

Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Super Bowl, all that all that sort of thing, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy.

Why why would you, how could you possibly get excited about those things when you have God's holy word, the Bible, that makes you the outcast, worthless slave to sin, to the devil, bound for hell with no way to rescue yourself, and then the Lord, God of the universe, sends his own son to shed his blood, not only to pay for your sins and wash them away, but to elevate you to the place where you are, the joint heir, the co-inheritor of the creation with the Creator.

How could you get excited about any other story when you have that one?

I'm in his hands.

Not part-time, not sometimes, not in then out, out then in.

I am my beloved's and he is mine.

Gloria God.

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter number one.

Ephesians chapter one.

Let's read some more about this.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath.

Look at that past tense, it's already done.

Blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Now I may not receive them all yet because I'm still down here in this body of flesh.

But in those heavenly palaces where God reckons that which is eternal, not that which is temporal, I have already received everything God has to give.

Verse 4, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Now, I'm not I'm not proud of this, but I'm not always holy before you.

I want to be, I try to be.

I wish it wasn't so, but I'm not always without blame before you.

That's the thing we talked about just a few programs ago.

Holiness, blamelessness.

I am not always what I should be in the eyes of men.

But the Bible says in Ephesians 1 4, I am always what I should be in the eyes of God the Father, not by my virtue, but by virtue of the merits of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

And there's more.

Verse 5 says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, there's Romans eight, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Never mind this modern talk about you accepting Jesus.

You better be sure Jesus has accepted you.

Verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.

Your religious men are teaching if you work hard enough long enough and do good enough to enough people enough times, you might get an inheritance.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've already got it.

I've already obtained it, and I didn't earn it, I didn't work for it.

It belongs to my bridegroom, and I get it solely on his merit.

It belongs to the head of the church, and I get it solely because I'm a member of his body.

I have obtained an inheritance that's already mine.

Verse eleven goes on, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things up for the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Now here's what you gotta do.

Here's what you gotta do.

To get everything God the Father gave to God the Son to be a joint heir with your Savior Jesus Christ, what do you have to do?

Who first trusted in Christ?

That's the key to the whole thing.

You've got to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

What does that mean?

You have stopped trusting yourself.

You have stopped believing in yourself, you have stopped trying to impress God with your works, and you have decided to be impressed with God's works.

He gets all the glory.

I didn't earn it, I'm not worthy, I don't deserve it.

Therefore, the one that gave it to me gets all the praise, and that's the Lord.

Second Corinthians 5, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, are you right now?

Are you in Christ?

Therefore, if any man And be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

What an amazing truth.

The Holy Spirit of God, by the power of God, because of the love of God, through the grace and mercy of God, not only, not only, gave me a brand new life in Jesus Christ.

Verse 17, but the eighteenth verse says this and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.

We pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God.

Now watch this exchange that took place.

Verse 21, for he, God the Father, hath made him God the Son, to be sin for us, that's us.

The Father made the Son sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

You see, when I look at me, I see that sinner running the race and pressing toward the mark.

The Holy Spirit, through Paul said in Philippians 3, how do I not get discouraged?

How do I not give up?

How do I keep going on running the race?

Because the whole time I'm trying to get to where God wants me to be, I keep in mind that as far as God's concerned, I've already crossed the finish line and won first place.

So I'm not running this race to get there.

I'm running this race because I am there, and I want to get to the point where I can embrace and thank the one who gave me the victory.

He's not running to righteousness, he's running to God.

He's not running to goodness, he's running to God.

He's not running to forgiveness, he's running to God.

He's not running to blessing, he's running to God.

He's saying, God's already given me everything.

I just want to get to Him.

It's Him that I want.

It's Christ that I want.

That's a hard thing to get a hold on.

Because our mindset is if I run the race, God will give me the good thing.

But the Bible says God has already given me the good thing, that's why I run the race.

Colossians 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

As ye therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, how was that?

Entirely by faith.

By grace through faith.

That's how you receive the Lord.

Okay, so walk ye in him.

Entirely, entirely, trusting in the grace and merit of God.

Verse 7, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy in vain deceit after the tradition of man after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.

The rudiments of the world, the traditions of men, that which is contrary to Christ.

What would these men be trying to do?

Spoil me verse eight.

Deceive me verse eight.

From what?

Verse nine.

For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him.

What is that perfection that was desired for us by the Holy Spirit?

What is that completion that is available to us by the Holy Spirit?

It is Christ likeness in thought, word, deed, and action this side of the resurrection.

What is my sure hope, but my only hope of attaining such a measure of Christianity?

To stop trusting my works and start working for God, not to get something from God, not to impress God, not to avoid the wrath and punishment of God, but to work from the frame of mind and the condition of heart that believes because God so loved me he has already written me into the fullest possible measure of his eternal will, and knowing, knowing that he will never leave me nor forsake me, knowing that I will never be taken from his hand, I live and labor for him, not to get, but to realize what I've already gotten.

Praise his holy name.

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I don't even have time to invite you to write or call or come by and visit or any of that.

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I can't even do that.

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Until that time, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you.

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