Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord, part 1

Alrighty, well today we're going to start into a couple of section of neat verses starting with verse 7 and actually it's kind of a two-part series and actually Andrew is going to come down and do part 2. He's coming down for the 4th of July. He's going to stay over and so we have Andrew in person here next week and he's going to teach part 2 of this.

So I've called this Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord. But we're going to go back and review a little bit before we start here. Let's see here. First of all, it's going to work. So far, I can't advance the slides. What's that? Yeah, I saw that. Usually this works. Let's see, if I was a male, probably this. There we go. Okay. So I'm going to go ahead and just kind of review this again.

This is Macaulay's outline for this section in verses 1 through 11. And he calls this shunning all legalism. And we kind of started out in verses 1 through 6 in the last couple of weeks to talk about the safeguards of reputation. Then beware and put on no confidence in the flesh.

And then we saw the example last week of Paul's human righteousness, what he attained. But today we're going to kind of switch to God's marvelous grace when we come to know him as our Savior. So we're going to talk about, actually McCulley labels it his past, but he's going to talk about his present too. He's going to talk about his past and his present. renunciation of all personal merit and he's going to talk about that in the past aspect and he's going to bring a little bit of that in the present tense and then the following week he's going to talk about his total dedication to the knowledge of Christ.

Okay, so and what we're going to find here is that actually verse 3 I think in this section is kind of pivotal because verse 3 kind of sets the stage for the remainder of Paul's discussion. All right, so this is from last week. This is the outline from Macaulay. Now, as I mentioned, verse 3 is really critical, so we're going to review verse 3.

So verse 3 says, For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Okay, so I'm going to use my little pictorial here. For we are the circumcision, and the verb there Ami is a state of being verb. It says that we are the circumcision.

And that's kind of a hard thing to get your head around, but this verse in Colossians is just super helpful. It talks about, he's talking about a spiritual circumcision, not the, like the Israelites had, they had a physical circumcision. This is talking about a spiritual circumcision. And it's made without hands by the Holy Spirit. And what's interesting is, I don't think it's actually the best translation.

It says, in the removal of the body of flesh. And that's actually, after talking about it last week a little bit, I looked it up again. And it's actually the idea of putting off. So it's the idea that we put off the flesh. And boy, does that fit well with our Romans passage. It's about, we've been separated from our fleshly nature. We've been separated from our sin nature. So, removal I don't think is the best. It's really put off is better. And actually, We used to have it really good. We used to have putting off and away from yourselves a body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ. So this talks about our being free from our sin nature.

So when that happens, then the Holy Spirit is in control and can be in control. It says, for we are the circumcision, the ones worshiping by the Spirit. I pointed out that the Spirit is involved with every aspect of the believer's life. We worship by the Spirit, we live by the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit.

So that's a central concept of those who have been separated from their sin nature. And glorifying in Christ Jesus. The verse I kind of chose here was, but may it never be that we should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we worship by the Spirit, we're glorifying in Christ Jesus. Those are all positives because we've been separated from our sin nature.

But here's kind of a negative in a sense. Not having confidence in the flesh. We're not to have any confidence. And like I said before, this sets the stage for what Paul's going to talk about. He's going to talk about absolutely renouncing every single bit of confidence in his flesh. There can't be one particle, one tiny bit of, because that would say that you're depending upon that. And he's going to spend the next verses here, 7 through 11, talking about putting no confidence in the flesh and putting all our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what makes this verse so key in the last part. Not having confidence in the flesh. Okay, any comments about that? That's going to review. And we're also going to review the next part here. I'll take that as a no. Okay.

So here's Paul's list of things he could put confidence in. This is sort of like if you're applying for a job, here's all the things that I accomplished in my life as a human apart from Christ. So he cites seven advantages. So the first three talk about what he inherited as a Jew. And then the next three, the first four talk about that. The next three are things he chose by conviction. He was convinced he wanted to be the best of the best in what he did as a Jew.

So let's start off. There's seven of these guys. Circumcised the eighth day. So that was in accordance with the law. Circumcised the eighth day of the race or offspring of Israel. That was a race that God chose. He chose a nation of Israel, a special relationship with that race of people. The tribe of Benjamin, I think was pointed out last week, and I had missed that, that Saul, the first king of Israel, was a Benjamite, Benjamite.

I pronounced that right. And then the fourth thing, a Hebrew of Hebrews. So he spoke in the Hebrew dialect, which is not true of all Hebrews. He was studied in the best of the best universities by the best of the best teachers. So that's the things he inherited from being a Jew.

But then we kind of move into the area where it says, but Paul was a Pharisee according to, and you can say according to the Norman standards of something, according to the Norman standard of the law. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was That's the strictest sect of the Jewish nation, if you will. Paul was the persecutor of the church, according to Zeon.

And we talked about this last week. He was zealous. He was totally overboard. In today's world we see, unfortunately, people being hunted down by our government. It seems unjustly, from what I can tell sometimes. So Paul, if you were hunted down by Paul as a Christian, you were in deep trouble. He was going to find you. He was going to be there to condemn you and execute you. And he was going to, as he read last week in those verses, he was going to go and search you out. If you left town, he'd go after you. So he was just incredibly zealous for that. To his mind, he was doing exactly what God wanted him to do.

And then the third point, having become blameless according to the norm and standard of the righteousness and the law. So as far as human conduct, as far as human righteousness, Paul was at the top of the ladder. We would say in our vernacular, he was a poster child. He obeyed everything. If you said, I want an example of somebody who obeys the law, Paul will be your guy. He did everything. totally, as far as human possible, he was totally sold out to following the law in every single aspect. So what's going to be incredible is, here's Paul's resume. He's going to say, you know, that was worth nothing. It was garbage, dumb, or whatever. He's going to tell us that, which is pretty incredible. Go ahead.

It's interesting that that Paul had a certain attitude in his life. He was all out against God. And I think one of the reasons God chose Paul, because here's a man who once he's convicted of something, he's going to be all in for it. So that same personality where he went after Christians, that same personality is used for Christianity.

No, it is pretty amazing. Only one little caveat, I would just say, we have to be a little bit careful, and this is just when we evaluate people that have been saved, you know, we say, you know, so-and-so has been saved, a notable person, let's say a celebrity gets saved. Paul was a celebrity, right? He was a celebrity Jew.

Well, I think we just have to be careful that we don't say, that they can bring anything, and I'm sure you agree, anything of that is a benefit to knowing Christ. I mean, I agree, and maybe God understood his personality, and that part I'm kind of with you on, but the idea that he can't bring anything, not one particle from his human flesh that will give him some little leg up with God.

It's impossible. It has to be totally Christ. But the Holy Spirit does use man. Even in the writing of Scripture, the Holy Spirit used the way men wrote. They were all different. Right. Even though every man agreed with each other. Right. He does seem to bring along our person. He does maintain, and it's interesting how we're all different. We're up with, each are individuals and God uses that for His glory. Good, okay, excellent. Okay, so now, let's go on.

Today's verses. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

So this is just incredible. And actually doing this in one lesson probably will not do it total justice, but we'll give it a cracker. Hopefully you'll be excited at the end. It's really just amazing. So let's start off. This is one of these cases where this bud is Allah, which is the one of strong contrast. Strong contrast, whatever things, and from the context, it seems like he's talking about what we just covered. Had that list on the previous chart, all those lists of his resume. Those things that were, that's what was gained. We're here, is another Amy Berg.

He was continually in that, basically. These things were realities in his life. He was totally involved in Judaism. That was his total life. Actually, it's plural. It's whatever things were gains. It's hard to say that. It's a plural. Gains to me, meaning gainful assets according to Wiest. Those things, the same things as whatever things from 5 and 6, So we're going to see, he's going to say all this has been gained and now he's going to take those things and he's going to compare them with knowing Christ. All these merits I had in the flesh versus knowing Christ. That's going to be the comparison. Okay. I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. The inner linear has it a slight bit differently. I have considered these things loss for the sake of Christ. I have considered is the idea to, you can say I'm counting. You can deem them, thank them, count them. It's perfect tense.

It means he did that in the past. He did that in the past, I would say, when he came to Christ as his Savior. And it continues on into the present. And you can say that, you can put that in words by saying, I've considered in the past those things and continue to consider those things into the present.

So he was convinced that those things are a loss for the sake of Christ. And so, Weiss kind of paraphrases it. He's kind of paraphrasing this perfect tense, if you will. After mature consideration, Paul came to a settled conviction with regards to the matter.

The matter of these being a loss for Christ. Loss or detriment? So, here's what's interesting. If you look at the way things kind of play out here in this verse, And Vincent points this out, and this is Weiss quoting Vincent, Paul's gains are plural, they're gains plural, but they're counted as one combined loss, singular. So he's basically lumping all these gains, and he says, that's all completely lost. That's it. I can't count any of that. Okay? Okay, so that's verse 7. Any thoughts or comments on 7? He's going to keep going. He's going to keep going on the same theme, but he's going to bring in more about the Lord Jesus here.

You know, if you take that out of context, it's so easy to turn that into a law. Okay. And yet it was the law that he's talking about. It was a loss to him keeping that law. Right. But I see so many people think about whatever I have gained. Well, I shouldn't gain anything. And see how they turn that around and take that right out of context. Okay, that's a good point. I kind of hear what you're saying. I think I can. Interesting. Okay, that's good. That's good.

Well, actually, I have along that line, I was trying to think, this is a story when I tell this tell the story. But anyway, about things being lost. Actually, I have a story I want to tell, but I'm going to hold it until we get to the rubbish part. It isn't the rubbish part. Oh, is that bad? You'll probably laugh. Once you hear what it is, you're going to laugh. My kids thought, after they found out what it was, my kids said, Dad, why did you do that? Anyway, we'll see. Okay, let's go ahead here. Roger?

Yes. reading through here, it seems like he's talking about an accountant, somebody that deals with numbers. You have a debit and a credit side. Yeah. The words count, loss, value, gain. Exactly. So he was an accountant, Paul was an accountant, right? And if you look in If you do, like in Romans, reckon yourself dead to sin. It shows up in a bunch of places. He was an accountant.

So this really shows the doctrine of reckoning. Right, exactly. Perfect. I like this section so much. It does connect so well with that, that your accounting, you're saying, this is of no value. I can put it down in black and white and the bottom line is zero. And over here, I get a plus. I get a plus account.

I'm in the black we say, not in the red. Good, excellent. Okay, so here we go. Verse 8. So now it's like he's going to double down on this. He says, more than that, I count all things to be lost. So here's where we're going. This verse, start with this verse.

So if you look in your Bibles, look carefully in your Bibles. Most Bibles I think should have more starts at the beginning of the sentence And at the end of verse 11 is a period. So from 8 through 11 is one long sentence in English. It goes all the way from the beginning of 8, a bunch of commas in there, but you don't have a period until you get to 11.

I think most numerical standard has that, most I've seen have that. That's one long sentence. So, and that's actually helpful. It's helpful in understanding, I think, this verse. Okay, then the next cool thing is that This first phrase, AA, contains the main verb for this long section. So we have this long sentence, and the main verb occurs right at the beginning. And I have this in the interlinear. So in the interlinear, there's a few more words in the interlinear than the numerical standard. It says, but even more so, I consider all things to be loss.

I consider is the verb. And just as a remembrance, The Greek is kind of interesting. Many times the subject comes along with a verb. So the subject, I, is included. When you translate it, you put I in there, but it's just one word in the Greek. I consider it as one word called a verb, but it has that included subject in it. Sometimes there'll be a separate subject, but in this case, it's included.

But even more so, I consider all things to be lost. Seems kind of wordy at the beginning. And that's going to be really interesting here. And this is one of these things, this is what I think makes Bible study so exciting. So Paul's going to, here's the case where he's going to use a lot of words to reinforce this point. So Paul reinforces this point by saying, but even more so.

So in English you get four words, in the Greek we have five words, five particles. I looked up particles, that's a verbal adjective. I'm not real There are different classes of particles. This seems to be, I would say, an exclamatory particle. So actually, word for word in the Greek, it would be, yes, indeed, therefore, at least, even.

Isn't that amazing? He uses five words before he says, I consider it all laws. He just really, he wants to make a point. So he says, shows a force and passion of Paul's conviction. Yes, indeed, therefore, at least, even I consider all things to be lost." That reminds me of another one in Hebrews that does a very similar thing. I quote this all the time when I'm discouraged, other people discourage you. The Lord says, I will never leave you or forsake you. There are five negatives there. I will never, never, no, not never leave you or forsake you.

So, I mean, the Greek allows for these cool things where you get just a bunch of words that put together to have a force that just makes it really wonderful. So he's really convinced about this, and I consider them to be lost. Yes, indeed, therefore, at least, even. Okay, I think I've probably hammered that into the ground, but I consider, and I consider, same as before, to count, to deem, to think. But this time, what's interesting is before we have the perfect tense. Now this time, He moves into the present.

So it seems like what he's saying is, he came to a point, I would say, with salvation where he said, it's all lost. And he was convinced of that. It's all lost for the sake of Christ. But now, day by day, moment by moment, he's counting all things to be lost.

Which I think is just beautiful. That's exactly what it's about. We come to know Christ initially, but that's not the end of it. We continue on in our Christian life, and we continually reckoning ourselves there. We continue counting all things to be lost.

So I thought this is just beautiful. Those two, I consider one being perfect, and then the second one being present, just really fit in so well with so much other parts of Scripture. Say, Roger? Yes. I noticed in verse 7, he says, those things I have counted lost. And I think he was talking about what he had just described as a Jew, but then in verse 8, he changes that to all things. Not only those things, but all things. Here's my next slide. That's great. That's great when your audience is... Anyway, fantastic. We're going to cover that. Okay. Did I actually cover that? I thought I... Okay, somehow I just looked back and there wasn't anything. You're exactly right. I thought I made that point, but I'm getting confused now.

Anyway, so here's what's interesting. We have this, more than that, I count all things to be lost. That's our main beginning of this long sentence. And I count as a verb. So what we're going to find is that the remainder of the sentence will amplify on that point.

And actually what happens is, if you look at how people have, and I can't do it from the Greek, Others can, and I like to use them. If you look at someone's sentence diagrams, they will connect the rest of that sentence, all of that verb. Everything else will modify that verb, I consider. So everything else in this sentence will modify I consider.

This is going to tell us how he considers it, either as loss or gain. So we're going to start off. First point. First point is to be lost on account of the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I chose the linear here. I'll show you in a second. Okay. On account of, in view of the fact, for the sake of, the excellency is translated in ours for the surpassing value. Amplified has it overwhelmingly precious, surpassing in worth. So he says, I'm going to count this as lost.

But look, look at this incredible thing I have this knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord so so here's the Weiss translation the last part of my knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord which I have gained through experience and the reason Weiss has done that he's really good at putting in the meaning of the original words like this know here is the word Gnosko is the know of experience so Weiss is trying to amplify that passage by saying, of my knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, which I have gained through experience.

You know, we just don't know how Jesus Christ is theoretical. In fact, that's one of the hardest things to explain to an unbeliever, how we know God personally. I mean, I don't know about you guys, I try to explain that to people that don't know the Lord Jesus, and I say it's more than just reading those words.

There's another level. You have to come to know Him. and you know him by reading his word, by being born again. But it doesn't, you know, to explain that, so actually we kind of empathize a little more. Paul came to know his, Christ's heart, Christ's will, as one comes to know another through intimate fellowship and close association with that person. And we know, as we do it as much as we can, we associate with our Savior, by reading His Word, by interacting with His Word. That's how we come to know Him. That's how we come to know His heart, what He thinks, and that's what knowing Christ is about. So, I mean, this section is just incredible. That's why I said we could go on a lot more here. Okay, so I better get going here. Alright, so.

For whom? Second point, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish. So he keeps talking about the loss of all things. Yeah, and like it was pointed out, I'm going to hit on all things. Here comes Bob's point, Bob W.'s point here. The count on account of, for the sake of. The whom is Christ here, of course. I have suffered the loss. Same word, meaning to suffer loss, receive detriment, passive.

Some people receive all things. So, this is a point that was made before. So Paul goes beyond whatever gained to him personally to all things. He moves from what he gained to saying everything I could ever possibly have. He went from the things he gained as a Hebrew, as a Jew, to all things. Count, regard, here's our counting word, count them rubbish. And this is the first person I've seen. Over the years, I've always thought this Greek word has a kind of a cool word. Sky... Skoubalon. Skoubalon. Skoubalon, okay. Thank you. I've always heard it as dung or feces. But McCulloch says it can also be thought of as garbage or spoiled food.

Okay, now time for my story. Before I was a believer, I was into popular music. And I was single, wealthy. wealthy engineer with money to burn. I would buy an album, you know, the old 33 to 30 albums. One a week maybe. So I amassed all the popular songs, this is the 60s, you know, it just went. So I had just a lot of those.

So they got stored away for a while and I became Christian. And I came back and I opened that box up and I looked at those and I said, You know? That's not me anymore. So I threw them all away. I told my kids about that. They said, Dad, you threw away so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so? Those are worth a fortune! I said. They were all garbage.

So anyway, that's my story. That's just a tiny bit. I'm sure that you all can relate to that. If you came to the Lord Jesus later in your life, It changed you so much that it was worth nothing. That sounds sort of nothing. So I can identify with Paul saying his name. Yes, go ahead. You know, this is the only time this Greek word is used. You're right. Actually, I looked it up. I'll find another passage.

Skubala. Yes, Skubala. Skubala is the throat. Scoobala. This word is only used one time in my understanding. I thought that's what it was. In Bounce's Greek dictionary he has a number and an X signifying the number of times that word, that Greek word, is used in the New Testament. Right. Here it's one X. Yeah, no, it's only one time. This particular word is only one time.

Okay, we better go on here. I'll get sick at this point and never finish. Okay, let's go. And here's the part. So that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him. So that's what it's all about. That I may gain Christ and be found in Him. So that it says this is a purpose. This is a purpose that all these things are lost or garbage or rubbish.

I may gain is the idea, metaphorically the idea to be gained or win someone. And so mine has it here. appropriating Christ to oneself that he becomes the dominating power in and over the whole being and circumstances. Then Wiest has a comment. This expression, which I thought was good, does not refer to Paul's acquisition of Christ as his Savior, but to Paul's appropriating into his life as a Christian the perfections, graces, and fragrance of the person of Christ.

This is to know him, to walk with him, to be associated with him. And so what I did here, I combined, if you look in your translation, you'll find out that the and may be found in him is actually in verse 9, so I moved it up just for talking purposes here. It seems like it fits better. And may be found in him. Found here is to turn out actually to be, and it's passive.

And Paul uses this expression in Galatians 2.17, we have been found out We have found to be sinners. So he said, I have found, I may be found to be in him. The idea is that of revelation of character.

Paul wants his life to demonstrate that he is in Christ. And then secondly, he says, he wants to be found by observing men, fellow believers to be in Christ. So I, boy, you know, that may, I may gain Christ and be found in him. This is all I have on that, but maybe Andrew will amplify more on that next week. That's just such a sweet message. He's going to go on from this, but I may gain Christ and be found in him. That's what the Christian life is about.

And now he's going to put in that it's not going to be one particle of righteousness from the law. Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. not having my own righteousness. So this is Weiss again here. Assumes that he might have, if he took it that way, it might lead you to believe he has some righteousness to bring to Christ. He didn't, which is not the case. So Weiss would have you translate it, not having any righteousness which can be called my own.

And this is the point I was making maybe earlier about the fact that Paul was very vehement about the fact that not one particle of anything he gained in his human condition could count in righteousness before God. Paul did not desire to be seen to have any righteousness that would be the result of law keeping. He was done with that. I like that. He was over with that. And he says that so many ways, so many times. And this passage is kind of the flagship of that message. We're almost to the end here. Okay.

Fifth point, but that righteousness, which is through faith, another Allah, strong contract, it's through faith, not derived from the law. True righteousness is through or by means of faith in Christ Jesus. And then the sixth point, true righteousness, which comes back out of God on the basis of faith. upon faith. And the verse we've studied in the past year, in Romans 4-3, well what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So it is by belief, by faith, that we receive righteousness.

No other means, no other, and we can't have, we cannot bring anything across in our life that will account for our righteousness before God. It's impossible. Roger, maybe another way to put this is none of us are made righteous. We are declared righteous. OK, that's good. I like that. I like that. And that's exactly right. Imputed righteousness. What's that? Imputed righteousness. OK, good. I like that. That's great. That's great.

So what's going to happen next week is we're going to finish this up. Just some more beautiful words here. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, be conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

And you see why I separated this out? I started looking at this and saying, wow, there's just a lot in here. A lot of interesting points. Actually, I'll go a little bit faster than I thought I was going to. Roger, what I noticed here, and this is for next week, for those of us who study ahead, versus 9, 10, and 11, depict the three stages of salvation. Okay, okay, good. You're okay. Verse 9 is stage 1. Okay. Verse 10 is stage 2. Good. And then verse 3, or the last verse, 11, is stage 3. Good. Andrew, you taking notes here, Andrew? That's good. No, that's excellent. No, that's one of the things.

And that's why if you spend time with God's Word, all these jewels, All these things are there, waiting to be mined, to be looked at, to examine. They're there for the binding. But it takes, as Miles says, a hungry heart. It takes someone who wants to get involved in God's Word. That's our desire, that everyone can be that way. But sometimes it's not that way. That's really good. Excellent. Excellent.

I just thought it seems like he's just so it's such a contrast I don't know if most of us feel that way but he was so so proud of the Pharisee that he was so proud of who he was I don't know if all of us quite feel that way you know before we I was just saying it just seems like It just seemed so dramatic and such a change for him that maybe it isn't so much for us when we become Christians, but he was just so super proud of being a Pharisee and a Jew and from the tribe of Benjamin. I mean, he just was up there so high that you can just see the contrast when he became a Christian.

That's all I was just thinking. I often thought that's why, and the way he persecuted the church, that's why he saw himself as the chief of sinners. Once he understood, he said, how could I have done that? How could I have done that? And he saw himself, what he actually did in his life before Christ. And he saw the magnitude of that and how detrimental that was to God's purposes. But he did it sincerely. He sincerely believed that was right. In some ways, that's what you want from a person.

You don't want them to be, they're kind of in between, they're kind of wishy-washy. But if they're hard over, of course, hard to talk with those people. Usually they don't want to talk with you. Or they want to out-talk you or over-talk you or punch you in the face. So it's interesting. That's great. Okay. All right. So let's just close.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord, and thank you for the blessings we have in the Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for your words here in Philippians, Lord, about the life of Paul and how he How he realized that all he gained in his fleshly life, all he gained before knowing you, counted for nothing, was not worthy of anything. And he realized that that was how he still lived his life, constantly counting upon the fact that all he gained in his flesh will count for nothing, only what he does in the Savior will count. In Christ's name, Amen.