Philippians Chapter 3 Review
Philippians 3 · Roger Henderson · Aug 5, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492632313917

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Does someone like to read a lot? A half of chapter 3 and someone else the other half? Ingrid and Bonnie? I know you guys really well. Okay, I'll read down through the first part. Okay. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the Church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit, I now consider lost for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

And how far? To the end, yes. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

For many walk of whom I often told you, and now tell you even we do, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

Okay. All right. So what I've done is, like I've done in the past, I kind of, each of the sections that we covered, I kind of just built a chart and I put some questions underneath. And I tried, in some ways, I didn't try to repeat necessarily what was covered by whoever taught in that class. I just tried to go through and look at it maybe fresh and see what occurred to me. So if you think I am missing a point, please speak up that really, you know, that we covered earlier, that'd be great. Okay, so this one is the first part.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same thing again is no trouble for me, trouble to me, as a safeguard for you. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of false circumcision, be false circumcision, for we are the true circumcision who worship the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So why is it a safeguard for you, for Paul to do this? Jeremy taught this, I think. So why do you think it's a safeguard? Or is this like a general thing that we see throughout scripture? Paul kind of, it seems to me, he kind of says this in various ways throughout scripture, not exactly in the same language.

It may be helpful that the word safeguard is the idea of being solid, safe, secure, certain. So it seems like what he's saying here is that by repetition, by repetition of the truth, that's going to be a safety for you. be reminded, and you know, Scripture constantly does that, reminds us, reminds us, reminds us, and he says that's going to be a safeguard for you by reminding you of what's out there. The dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision. So I think that's, if you see something else, you know, you're welcome to chime in. And actually, for example, in Hebrews 6, 19, it says, talking about the surety that this word safeguard has. Hebrews 19, it talks about this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both, this would be the word for safeguard, sure and steadfast. So the safeguard is that the repetition of the truth of God's word will impact your life and keep you on the right path. Okay, the next question is, what does Paul mean by the following?

So I kind of just broke it down into, okay, I broke it down and I lumped them all together. It was kind of clever of me in my PowerPoint presentation. I said, no, no, right? So it's about 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, but you know, anyway, I failed the PowerPoint presentation.

Okay, beware of dogs. So who are the dogs? Who are they? Is that your nice little pet? Is that Fido at home? What's your dog? Zeke? Is that what he's talking about? He's talking about a family pet? And if you were here, Jeremy covered this. He told you all about those dogs. Jeremy? I don't want Jeremy. This is supposed to be reminding us. You can jump in. I like that. I like that.

Basically, dogs in the New Testament, or actually in scripture, many times refer to the concept of packs of dogs, roaming packs of dogs. If you look, we traveled a little bit in South America. And you see all these dogs out in the street just wandering all over the place. I mean, they're just homeless and nobody takes care of them. And actually in the mountains sometimes, dogs can be fearful.

So that's kind of an illusion by saying the dogs. And it seems like the reference here is to the Judaizers. And dogs, many times, are not used in a good way. It says, like, a dog returns to his own vomit. Kind of gross pictures of dogs. So it's not a pleasant picture.

So he says, beware of these people. I'm referring to the Judaizers. They're not bringing God's truth to you. They're bringing error. So how about the evil workers? This one didn't seem to be, and I didn't actually totally all that Jeremy did here, but evil workers didn't, you know, it seems like this is basically not presenting the truth of the gospel. You know, Paul came to bring the gospel to places he went, and these people are not concerned about the gospel, they're concerned about other things, it seems like. Okay, and the next one, and I notice that different translations pick up the word, beware of the false circumcision. So Ingrid, what did your version have for that word?

Mutilators of the flesh. Okay, well that kind of gives you a clue. This is not the normal word for circumcision. So you might remember there's kind of a picture here that kind of is happening. So it's not what he's referring to here is that, remember the priest would They cut themselves. They said, well, if we, you know, God's going to listen to us. If we really show that we're serious, we're going to inflict ourselves. We're going to mutilate our flesh.

So what he's kind of alluding to here is that people will take circumcision as being something that will provide, you know, a favor with God or even salvation. And that's not, you know, that's a false circumcision. and he's going to come back and he's going to counter that with the next phrase. So beware of those ones that would place circumcision, this mutilation of the flesh, just saying, you know circumcision literally is a cutting around, the word preoptima, it's a cutting around. Well if you just cut yourself that doesn't give you favor with God, that's not going to, you know. And that's what he's referring to, don't put any stock in just the act of cutting yourself, that's not, mutilate, they're just mutilating themselves.

Why do that if there's no value in that? So then the next one is, how are we the true circumcision? Can you think of a verse that talks about circumcision in the believer? I have one for you here, I'll see if you can think of my verse or other ones. I won't carry on too long here. If you look in Colossians, let's turn to Colossians chapter 2 and consider verse 11.

Colossians 2.11.

So I would say this is a spiritual circumcision. The true circumcision comes from God. And it's a work that He does. He calls it circumcision without hands. It talks about basically being freed from the body of flesh, kind of talks about the sin nature. It's kind of being freed from that. We've been severed from that body of flesh, that sin nature. The circumcision we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the true circumcision.

Number four. Why is it important to put no confidence in the flesh? And he's going to answer this next section. What's that? Okay. Okay. All right. Good. All right. So we're actually going to he's going to show you basically. from here on, starting the next section of verses, why he's going to talk about that he could put confidence in the flesh.

He had a tremendous record in his earthly achievements, by earthly standards, especially the Jewish community. He was, I know, out of sight. He was at the top of the ladder. But his point was, that's not going to help you. That's not going to be of any merit. In fact, in terms of your relation with God, it's dumb. It's rubbish. All right. Anything else, Jeremy? Anything else you remember that you wanted to...

Well, I find it interesting that you have the contrast really between law and grace. earthly distinction, and that's what circumcision was. It was earthly identification. But now under grace, we have this spiritual, heavenly identification. So the true circumcision is our identification with Christ. We have been, you know, yes, we've been, we're now dead to the flesh, we're dead to the law, but more than that, we have become identified with Christ. Now it's our heavenly.

And because of our heavenly identification, and because of our death to the flesh, there's no reason why we should put... It's that deposed dictum. There's no reason that we have to confidence. Not only is it ineffectual, but also because of our death to it and our identification with Christ. Good. Excellent.

Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else has the mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal of persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me, those I have counted loss for the sake of Christ."

So really, we've kind of almost probably answered the significance of Paul's resume. Paul presents this spectacular resume, but then we find he says, you know, that didn't help me one bit. So I mean, the significance is in the fact that it's an inverse of what Paul has. And then in here he talks about loss here. So why is it important to see our achievements as loss? It's not going to count. It's not going to be something that is of value that you can put on your heavenly resume, right? Your heavenly resume is a pretty short resume. Christ, right? It's a long resume in the flesh, and here's my resume.

It's Christ, which is pretty incredible. I'm thinking not only that, but then if you're spending all your time in the flesh, then you're not spending your time in the Lord, so that is going to be lost. Right, right. That's excellent. And we're going to see that later on, when it talks about forgetting what lies behind. Spending time in what you did in Adam, or in your fleshly nature, in your sinful nature, is not going to benefit you in Christian life. It's going to have the opposite effect. You spend all your time there either feeling sorry for it or feeling good about it. It's interesting. Both the positive and negative outside of Christ are loss. They're of no value. What does it mean that I've counted all things as loss for the sake of Christ? And it kind of helps.

That word counted is the idea to consider, to deem. It's like an accounting term. So when he does the book, so to speak, that's all in the lost column. Now I didn't really spend, just one observation here, and I didn't spend a lot of time on his resume, but the resume, like the first four talk about Paul himself, his lineage, you'd say.

He was circumcised the eighth day, the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews. And then it kind of, at that point, it kind of goes into his achievements, if you will. He was a Pharisee as far as the law was concerned. He was zealous. He persecuted the church. As to righteousness, which is found in the law, he was blameless. By the measure of the law, he accounted himself really quite good. So there's kind of like two parts to his resume there.

Something that kind of occurred to me. Could he be saying, you know, persecuting a church, absolutely wrong. So he's looking at that as He's not going to keep drumming up the old sin and the old things like that. It's just kind of this loss that's overdone with. Right. But in the Jewish economy, that was a positive, right? I mean, these are the bad guys.

Actually, as the Pharisees thought, it's kind of incredible. They didn't want Christ to to put them out of business, so to speak. They saw that all men would follow Him. In fact, they said that when they crucified. They said, well, what's going to happen here? They're all going to go after Him. We've got to do something about this. We just can't let this go on. It was very self-centered. I'm not looking for God's solution. I'm looking for what's going to keep me in business. Any other thoughts on this section?

Okay, so this section we had it's actually there are four verses we had I kind of I think I think It was covered this way the eight nine first and then we did ten eleven it says more than that I Count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I suffered the loss of all things and counted them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ I and may be found in him, not having the righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ Jesus, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

So he talks about this surpassing, so why is it of surpassing value to know Christ? Some of these are pretty obvious. What's interesting as you're going through this is that being taught the identification truths and being taught grace, I sometimes think looking back before I knew that information, reading through this and not really understanding what he was saying. You don't understand this without the identification as to what God did to us when he placed us in Christ.

Right, right. And that's what came out very clear in that, in this section. That's true. That's very, very true. That's good. It's very good. And also, he does kind of like, he tries to use accounting terms, if you will. This is loss, this is gain, and this is surpassing value beyond all measure. Surpassing is to excel all, to have over, over and above. It's way beyond. I think something interesting here, this is actually one of the things that I've been But just in getting a running start into it, the last verses, it's really interesting because you brought up the idea of the old, the past, and you think of testimonies and bringing up the old stuff for value, but a lot of times that mentality bringing up the old as somewhat romanticized, and it's like, look where I've come from.

And Paul didn't have that view. He says, this is what it is, and it's appropriate for you, because you're dealing with people that are saying these same types of things that I used to say and do. So it's appropriate, and it's applicable. It's not just pulled out of the blue for the sake of a testimony for testimony's sake. It's applicable.

But then he says that not only that, but these things are vastly incomparable to where I am in Christ. And so he not only brings it up for the sake of putting it in its place, but he also says that this is so far from where I was, and it just reminds me a little bit about having the proper view of our past, and maybe the things that we went through, and how there's appropriateness for it, but it's so surpassing to know Christ, and if the testimony doesn't lead to that extreme chasm of change, not change, but difference, then there's really no value in bringing up the old anyway. That kind of occurred to me too. I thought that there are many good things.

Telling how we were saved is a value. But in comparison to walking with the Lord and knowing Him and knowing who He is and who we are in Him, I mean, it's just like the difference between, wow, I mean, you say, well, I came into this family, and it was really a neat thing, and I was saved at this age or whatever, but if that's just the end of it, it seems like maybe you're saved and that's wonderful, but boy, to know someone on a personal basis and to be involved with our Savior personally, that's what the Christian life is about.

And this thing keeps showing up in the accounting side. He's the only one in this side. There's a whole bunch of stuff on the other side. Price is always over on this side. And that's all coming out zero. And this is coming out off the scale. So it is pretty incredible. It almost seems like there's also... I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value.

So it's almost like it's not necessarily a comparison. But it's like, now that I know Christ, and I see that, everything else just kind of melts away. So there is, I guess, the comparison to, but there's also the, as we behold Christ, and we learn about Him, and we know Him more, everything else becomes so insignificant, because now we have Christ. So, obviously, we have in many areas, focus for the Christian ought to be heavenly things, ought to be beholding Christ, ought to be setting our attention, our affection on things above, because when we do, everything else just kind of fades into the background. And so, I don't know, that's what I'm seeing here. It's not just, look what I've done here, look what I've done here. No, I know Christ and there's no point in looking at anything else, because we have that surpassing value in Christ. So I have another couple of little things. What does it mean to gain Christ? I'm not sure. I didn't exactly go back and look at all that Jim did. I just kind of went through and tried to look at it.

So if there's something you want to add in there, please feel free. Plus, it's still the accounting thing, right? This is where the game means that the side of the ledger that is now value is all the place. So the loss is real. It's there. But. It's nothing in comparison to what is now on the positive, knowing Christ side. Well, I kind of thought that the fact that the game is that we're in Christ. I mean, if you want to put a metric on it is, we were outside of Christ, now we're in Christ. We're in union with him. And actually the next one kind of actually just you know and to be found in him that's kind of speaking that to found in him and here's where identification comes in very you know without that understanding to be found in him you're going to say well you know you could struggle with that for a while you're found in union with him you know that's your position that's who you are that describes your very nature. describes today's game. And that's good. Right. It is complete identification. Right.

It's also kind of cool is that he said, you know, he counted it lost all the things that were gained. He counted lost the things that were gained to me. He said back in verse seven, it's off the page. Look back on your Bible to verse seven. He said, he counted the things that were gained to me.

So he had a set of things that were gained to me personally. Then he does kind of does a one-upsmanship. He says, you know, those, I'll take those and then all things. I mean, he goes beyond just the things. He says, you know, if I look out there at all the things, there's nothing out there in terms that can surpass Christ. So it's interesting how he goes from just the things that he gained to all things. I thought that was kind of cool. OK. All right. The next two should be easy. I'll just put them here together just for the sake of it. So the last section talks about righteousness. What is the source of righteousness for the believer? For Paul, he went through his righteousness, came from the law. He said, hey, the law is my righteousness. I'm going to check off every one of those. It's incredible that he would say that, as brilliant as he was. I mean, just knowing the magnitude of the law is just so encompassing. But anyway.

So for the believer, it has to be that we're in Christ. Otherwise, we have no righteousness of our own. It's His righteousness that we have. And it's obtained basically by faith, and actually the verse says that. This righteousness is obtained by faith. So the source of righteousness is that we're in Christ, and we have His righteousness, not our righteousness. I think so many people think, well, it's things he helps me do. Yeah, I know. I know. Right.

It was funny, I was praying this morning, and for me, these are tough. Well, I struggled yesterday so much. There was just so much here, and I'm going, oh, this is... So every hour, I go by and say, hi to Bonnie, and she's... I'm off my room, and she's doing something else. So this morning, I'm thinking, I almost said, thank you Lord for helping me. I said, no, no, no, that's a wrong prayer. I said, no, Roger, thank you Lord that I have any insight into this.

So anyway, it's very humbling. All right, we're going to go on the next two. Actually, I feel like I just, you know, this is just, you know, Jim went through it and we go through it. There's just a lot here. That's what was kind of so hard. Where do I stop? There's just a tremendous amount here. Okay, well let's just go on. Okay, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death in order that I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Some of these are... So what does it mean to know Him? And obviously, you know, if I was speaking to a bunch of folks, I'd say, well, this doesn't mean that you know about Him. I mean, okay, Jesus Christ, I've heard of Him somewhere. Yeah, I know. I mean, this is intimacy. To know Him. Know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. You know, this is the intimacy that I think he's speaking of here. Okay. We know someone by hanging out with them. Exactly.

And you know him by understanding who he is and understand your relationship. And isn't it marvelous that we can understand the God of the universe and our relationship to him? I mean, that is just mind-blowing. You tell somebody, yeah, I understand God. I understand what he thinks about me and what I think about him. That's how I think. Who are you? How can you do that? Well, scripture tells you that's exactly where he wants you to be.

Exactly in this personal relationship that you understand what he's thinking about and what he thinks about you. And you don't think about him as being some kind of, you know, vengeful God that's going to put the hammer down on you, you think of it just totally differently. You think of a person that cares for you and loves you. I mean, it's just so different to know him.

Each of these actually, and the way it's structured in the Greek, it's actually to know is in front of each of these things here. To know the power of his resurrection. I actually forgot exactly what Jim covered here, but what it seemed like, and you can go a couple different ways here.

One thing that occurred to me, and maybe Jim covered this, I was thinking about that we died with Christ, we were buried with Christ, we were raised with Christ, we were co-raised, co-buried. So I thought about the power of resurrection as being co-resurrected with Christ. that we were resurrected so that we would be free from this sinful nature we have. That implementation of us being buried, died buried and raised with him and seen in heavenly places is all part of his freeing us from our sinful nature. So that's what kind of occurred to me in terms of... But there's other things you could put in there too.

Well, the next one, I have a special request. I'm a very important person. Bonnie said, Roger, tell us about the fellowship of his suffering. It is significant. Thanks, Bonnie. So that's plural. All right, so I looked a little bit at this. So there's actually a kind of a verse that we'll cover later on. Look at Philippians chapter 4. Is someone reading Philippians 4, 13? No, is that the right one, Roger? No, that's not the right one. How did I do that? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. That's terrible. Well, let me read what I have.

It's Philippians 4 something, but to the degree that you share with the sufferings of Christ and so on. Where is it at? 14 I think. Oh, is it 14? Share with me my affliction. How did I do that? Okay, well, I'm sorry. I'm sure it's Philippians. It may not be, too. But this is a verse that talks about to the degree that we share the sufferings of Christ. Okay, that's not actually... I was trying to use a parallel verse.

Okay, so let's just go on. What occurred to me here is that, and I kind of did a little looking at this, is that first of all, you've got to say, what were the sufferings of Christ? Let's look at some verses that talk about the sufferings of Christ, and then you ask the question, Can I enter into fellowship with that suffering? Was it lacking Christ?

No, it's not that one. That's a good one too. That's another one. So I have three verses here that I want to look at. Let's look at John 15. So this is just looking at Christ's sufferings and we could ask the question, can we fellowship with Him in that suffering? John 15. Now, some of them are historical, obviously. We obviously can't go back in time. I mean, that's not what it's saying. But, um... John 15... Could someone read, um... John 15, uh... 18 through 25? It's a little bit long, but... If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hated me hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not known sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. But this cometh the path that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.

So I was looking at this section as Christ describing his sufferings, men hating him. He came to save them, but they hated him. And he says plainly that, you know, he's talking here that we're going to be hated. He says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So, and he goes through, that they hated me, they persecuted me without a cause.

So it seems like, you know, we do, by the very nature of being believers, we enter into that suffering. So I was trying to get a hold of it, that we're fellowshipping with him, suffering. So as Christ suffered, we suffer in that sense, it seemed like to me. So this is kind of where I'm headed.

I'm trying to find verses that I can say, oh look, Christ said that he suffered, and hey, we are in Christ, we're going to suffer the same way. Now there's some, let's look at one more, another one here. John 8, back to chapter 8. John 8, I'll just read this one. John 8, verse 40.

But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God, This Abraham did not do. So this is kind of in the midst of a longer section, but basically they're seeking to kill him. So that's the suffering. People are seeking to kill you. But he told them the truth, which I heard from God.

So we obviously can't relive this section with Christ, but in the sense that people have it in for us, have it in for Christians, because we are Christians, because we do walk with the Lord. I mean, we could share, or you know, have fellowship in that suffering.

Okay, the last one is in Isaiah, and then we'll move on here. Isaiah 53, this is a pretty familiar one. Isaiah 53 and verse 10, it says, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, to put him to grief. if he would render himself as a guilt offering. He will see his offering, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in the land. Okay, there might be more.

But anyway, basically, this is, you know, in a sense, it was part of God's plan that Christ would suffer. And he agreed to that. we talk about that in the eternal covenant, he agreed that he would lay down his life. So that was part of God's plan. So in this sense, I didn't see us, we can identify that with that, but Christ had to pay for the sins of the world. So I guess I was trying to make a distinction there. So that's about as far as I got. There's more to do there, I think. There's more work to be done. So is that any more help or not? Well, and I was thinking, Does this sound right to you?

He enters into our sufferings in a sense because remember on the road to Damascus, he goes, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Even though he's persecuting Christians. So I don't know. It's just because. Well, he says he shares. So I guess we're in him and he's in us. Well, that duality of being in him and he in us. That's true. So, okay, all that to just talk about the, to know the fellowship and the suffering.

Hopefully that's a little bit. I even thought about, you know, at the end of the class, we're going to have about a couple of months that we're going to go back and do kind of special topics. I kind of thought about maybe expanding this a little bit and working more on this. We'll see. I have some proposed topics in there. And people have expressed interest in this. It's interesting, this fellowship.

And the other one that's kind of amazing, we're filling up the sufferings of Christ. There's another one that is kind of pretty mind-boggling. And obviously, once again, we cannot pay for the sins of the world. Only the sinless one can do that. But we can certainly, since we are identified with him, We certainly share it in that sense. Roger. Yeah, go ahead.

I don't know if you talked about this when we studied it, but the thing that came to mind, kind of, what you said was Hebrews 4, 15 and 16, we do not have a high priest who cannot be, cannot say offense without getting kisses. The one who has been tempted in all things is we are yet without sin.

So, there's the fact that whatever we're going through, not trust God and to become overwhelmed by those. So, you know, there's the, you know, I can't think of the old saying now about, you know, if you're suffering, what's that phrase again? I can't think of it now. Anyway, there's the fact that we know that whatever we're going through, God understands what it's like to suffer and to be tempted.

And so there's an intimacy there. Because we're going down the road, we know Christ has gone down a very similar road. Much more extreme, of course, because we can never have the ultimate temptation of His will versus God's there in the Garden. We can never come close to understanding that. So there's fellowship in knowing that whatever we're going through, Christ has had more extreme sufferings.

And he understands. And there's also the whole identification about that, too. That sharing in common, it goes both ways. And I think that's really good. But of course, it always says, he did it without sin. I can't hear the verse, but it basically says, without sin. Hey, Roger? Yes.

Is there a sense in that of suffering for the lost? in there too? There's a bunch of verses, I gave you three pages of verses, but I don't know. You're thinking of caring for the lost, suffering, Christ says that he talks about Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and he identifies with his people, he weeps for them.

I don't know, I think in verse 11 there, that helps us give a context to the verse 10 in that he's thinking about the ongoing process being conformed as a present continual process. So he's thinking about what's going on in his life as he identifies with that death. And then he thinks about getting out of here. I think it's pretty personal in his own, because he's been talking about his personal loss and knowing Christ and the intimacy of his So, not to say that that could not be included, but I think here he's really driving home this intimacy with Christ, and specifically in his death. I mean, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live. And so he goes on to think along those lines in many different instances about how I identify with death. And then not only that, but my death is going to be ultimately seen in the resurrection. that out from the dead is different there.

I know you're going there, I just helped you move on. Thank you, because actually we're going to run out of time here real quick. Next one is being conformed to the dead. We just kind of went there basically talking about when Christ died, I died, the co-death with him. The things that we share, we were died, we buried, and so on. So this speaks of his being conformed to his death. And then as Jim said, the last part is what is meant by to attain from the resurrection from the dead.

And that's a kind of unique word there, it means out-resurrection. And it's not just focusing, looking forward to the Lord, the rapture, taking us out of here. He's looking forward to that. He says, you know, all this is wonderful. To know Him, to know the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, to be conformed to His death. In order that, with a purpose that, in order that I may attain, the ultimate thing is to go to be with Him. I mean, I have all this wonderful relationship with Him now. I want to go, just like with your family member, I want to go and be with Him. I don't want to be over here Skyping, so to speak, to use an earthly term. I want to be there with Him. Skyping's great, but there's nothing that beats face to face. I know, I know, that's pretty bad. No, that's funny. I was trying to gain... Actually, I hadn't thought of the implications. I may want to rethink that a little bit. Don't worry about it. Okay, yeah.

Roger says at Skype, oh no, what's happening here at Holly Hill? I'm not going to sign up for that one. Skyping is an earthly invention. Prayer is God's communication. It's a lot better. It doesn't change. Technology doesn't change tomorrow. It will be called something else. It will always be prayer. Amen.

Okay, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Okay, so I guess what I'm trying to focus on here, what What's the subject here?

What does Paul say he has not obtained completely? It's an ongoing process, is what I'm trying to say. He says, not that I've already obtained it. He says, well, I'm already there. I haven't completed it. So what is that he's talking about? And it has been talked about earlier. And I have to drag this out. I think it basically is to know him, that I might know him. He wants to know him completely.

And that only happens. And on this earthly life, it's not going to happen. He says he's not there. He's stating the case that he wants to know him, and he hasn't arrived at totally knowing him. And he talks about becoming perfect. And that's the idea to bring to completion. Maturity, it's talked about sometimes. So he's not there yet in knowing him.

And he talks about laying hold of, to possess, to appropriate. And this is this wonderful picture. There's a lot of pictures here about the Olympic Games. And this is to take down as a prize. He hasn't gotten to the gold medal stand yet. The gold medal stand is when the Lord takes him to be home to glory. But he hasn't got there yet. He's looking forward to that. He's looking forward to that. He's pressing on.

And there's a bunch of verses that, in fact, there's one verse that talks about to win in place of lay hold. And this is the one that, you know, why is it important to forget what lies behind? I think we've covered this quite a bit. That's not to be our focus. That's the wrong focus. If we're focused on that, whether good or bad, that's going to detract us from Christ. It's going to get in the way.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by the same standard to which we have obtained." So the goal here I think of the verse, Hebrews 12, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The goal is the Lord himself, right? I press on toward the goal. And you could argue possibly the goal could be knowing him too.

What is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus? says believers are partakers of a heavenly calling and we have the hope of his calling in Ephesians So this next on the last one here on this page. What is our attitude or mindset? And this is this word for Nao I think And it said in Philippians we covered this earlier in Philippians 2 5 and having this attitude in yourself, which is also in Christ Jesus. So our attitude is to be Christ's attitude.

And there's a lot more here. The last two verses are kind of tough to read through those. So now let's just go on quickly here. So now here's another set of warnings that Paul's going to have. He says, Brethren, join in following my example and observing those who walk According to the pattern you have in us for many walk of Whom I have told you and now I tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross whose end is their destruction whose God is their appetite and whose glory is their shame and Their who set their minds on earthly things So Basically I said, why does Paul say follow my example?

Well, basically in Corinthians he talks about, Paul says, be imitators of me just as I am also of Christ. So if Christ is following the Lord, then that makes sense. But if he's not following the Lord, obviously it does not make sense. We're imitators of him because he's just as I am of Christ. Then he has this long list of characteristics of enemies of the cross.

They're basically, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, whose glory is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. One note, the word destruction, I wasn't here when that was covered. Destruction is not annihilation, obviously. It talks about loss of well-being or ruin, basically.

And then lastly, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. So, why is our citizenship in heaven?

Ephesians 2 6 Because we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's where we that's our hope. That's that's who we are. That's our position in him And this one's me a little bit tricky one. Why are we not waiting for the Savior from earth? You know if it says here that we're that It says that we're waiting from heaven. We're waiting from our position in Christ, who we are, our identity. That's what we're waiting from. We're not waiting from our conditional address. This is only our temporary address. And then lastly, why do our bodies need to be transformed? They're not suited for heaven. We don't have the right gear.

Poacher says the gear in the pocket. You know I'm just playing with you. I know, I know. I had to carry it all. I didn't want to make this go out of the air. You're the one that started thinking, you're like, I'll remember it won't be. OK, all right. Well, it's been great. Chapter 3, we can start over again next month and keep going to Chapter 3 again. Anyway, we're going to Chapter 4. And actually, once again, no class next week. If you show up here at 9, you're going to be lonely. Because the folks are going camping, and we're not going to start until 10.15. So next week, don't be here, be home, rest up. Come prepared for 1015.

Dear Father, we thank you so much for your marvelous word, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have just knowing our Savior. We know so much about ourselves and you, Lord, and you've been so gracious in showing us the marvelous things that we have in the Lord Jesus. We ask it in His name. Amen.