Philippians 3:1-11 Count All Things Loss

The speaker is discussing the book of Philippians and the context in which it was written. The Apostle Paul wrote the book while he was in house arrest in Rome. The speaker highlights how Paul used his time in house arrest to spread the gospel, even reaching the household of Caesar. The speaker then moves on to discuss the main topics in Chapter 3 of Philippians, which include the issue of Judaizers in the early churches and Paul's own personal testimony of being apprehended by Christ on the road to Damascus. The speaker emphasizes the role of faith in the Christian life and concludes by encouraging the listeners to continue having faith in God. Good morning. How are you all doing today? Good. Good. Good, good, good. If you have your copy of the scripture, I'd like you to turn to Chapter 3. We are moving on. I will do Chapter 3 today and next Sunday. And then Dr. Draper will pick up Chapter 4 for the next couple of Sundays. And then we're through with Philippians. And then we go to Colossians, which is just right down the corner, right around the corner from Philippians. And we'll look at Colossians. And then we'll end up eventually with the one chapter called Philemon. And Brother Jimmy and I will probably co-teach that one together on Philemon. So it's just one chapter. So we're doing the prison epistles, the epistles that Paul wrote while he was in house arrest for about two years in the city of Rome. Where, as you remember from the book of Philippians, he had Roman soldiers from the Praetorium, from the house of from the Praetorium of Caesar, who were the elite guard of the emperor. And every day he had these soldiers who were on rotation 24-7, chained to him. And, of course, Paul's wonderful personality when they were there was to bring them to Christ, which he did to such an extent that he could say later on that the gospel has gone all the way into the household of Caesar. And the gospel was being spread. And as I said a couple of weeks ago, how ingenious could you become as God became to use an emperor who was a despot to spread the gospel all over Rome? Isn't that wonderful? I mean, to use this guy in such a way that he was able to force these young men who were wonderful Roman soldiers to come and stay with the Apostle Paul 24-7, chained to him. And they were his elite guards. And he was bringing them into the presence of the Apostle Paul. And Paul was bringing them into the presence of Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? And to such an extent that Paul said, well, the gospel has gone all the way into the house of Caesar. And that's wonderful. Well, today we are going to have a word that begins in chapter 3, verse 1, finally. Now, anytime you hear a pastor or a preacher or a teacher say finally, don't start getting your purse. That simply means there's more to come. And in this particular sense, in verse 1 of chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul says, finally, my brethren, he's not saying in a sense of time. In other words, he's not saying there's time attached to this. And don't worry about it. I've got some more yet to say. But finally, I have finished telling you what Brother Jimmy gave us just a couple of weeks ago. And that is the heart of the book of Philippians in chapter 2. And the heart of the book of Philippians is these words that at the name of Jesus, every day should vow things of heaven and things on earth and things under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. And in the center of chapter 2, as Brother Jimmy said, you have the center of the book of Philippians. And now the Apostle Paul is saying, finally, that's over. OK, so put that in your background. And now we're getting ready. That finally means we are doing a segway from what I was talking about, which is the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God, the Father. Now I'm talking about something else. Now, in chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is going to talk with us about four basic things. The first thing he's going to talk with us about is about heresy. And there was a great heresy going on in all of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ that had been established by the Apostle Paul and others of the apostles. And that heresy was called Judaizers. And we're going to spend a little time on the Judaizers here in a few moments, because you need to be aware of the fact that this was a strong heresy, almost as strong as many other things that we oftentimes say should not be in the church. And that is true. This Judaizing should not have been in the church. And we'll talk about it in a few moments. He's going to talk, first of all, about Judaizing. Then he's going to do something, beginning in verse 3, that's very, very interesting, that he has not done in any of his other epistles. In fact, you read all 13 of the Apostle Paul's epistles. Oh, and by the way, an epistle is not the wife of an apostle, okay? An epistle is a letter, okay? So, anyway, in all of his other letters, he has not done what he's getting ready to do here, and he's doing it for a purpose. And that is, beginning in verse 3, the Apostle Paul is going to go into his Hebraic pedigree. And he's going to tell these people in Philippi where it is that he came from, and how he came to be what he is, and how Christ captured him to be what he should be, and how Christ was using him to do what he wanted him to have done, according to his will and the angels of glory. And so the Apostle Paul is going to use several verses to talk to them about pedigree. And he's going to talk about boasting and bragging, and he's going to end up by saying, if you have anything to boast about, boast in Christ. That's what you need to boast about. And we'll talk about that. So the second part of this chapter is talking about pedigree. The third part of this chapter talks about what Paul said happened to him when Christ incarcerated him, captured him, actually apprehended him on the road to Damascus. And he's going to tell you what that meant in his life to be apprehended by Christ. Now pause just a moment. Be aware of the fact that one day you and I were lost as a goose. We had no hope, no help, no way out, only looking at hell, no redemption, nothing at all. We were simply lost, undone, and on our way to a devil's hell. All of us were there. Every one of you. And not by your own merit, because the great gospel song says, not by works of righteousness which I have done. The Apostle Paul says, not by works of righteousness. But according to his grace. Not of anything of any of us at all. You and I had nothing to do with our redemption. God, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus Christ had everything in the world to do with your redemption. And one day he captured you. He apprehended you. You didn't go to him. You weren't asking him. He was after you. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. And this word apprehend is a criminal justice term, which means to arrest. You put it right down on the bottom line. These people were apprehended. They were caught. They were grasped. Actually, the word really means to grasp something. And the Apostle Paul is going to tell these people in Philippi, after he gives them his pedigree, he's going to tell them how Jesus Christ grabbed him. How Jesus Christ apprehended him. How Jesus Christ arrested him. And then, toward the end of where I'm going to stop today, if I can get there, and I'm not hurrying, because, Jimmy, I only have 21 verses. And I can do 10 today and 10 next week. If I can't do 10, I ought to go back to school. But we'll see. You may say you need to go back to school when this is over. Okay. So, anyway, we only have 21 verses. But Paul's going to talk about how he was apprehended by Christ. But he is going to tell these Philippian Christians that they, too, and I'm telling you, that we, too, were apprehended. We, too, were captured by Christ. We, too, were amazed at his amazing grace. And we were taken in. We were incarcerated. We were locked up in his kingdom. I can't find any other kinds of criminal justice terms that I'm using. I'm just running out of criminal justice terms. So take every criminal justice term that you know. Caught, apprehended, incarcerated, arrested. Take any of them you want, put it all together, and Jesus Christ did that to you to get you into the kingdom. You had nothing to do with it. He just simply said, I want you to exercise one thing. I want you to have faith. I want you to exhibit faith. And we know from the book of Hebrews, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So the world looks at you, and the world looks at me, and the world says, do you all realize that you're idiots? Do you realize that you have absolutely lost your mind? Do you realize that you have absolutely put what you call faith into something that you have never seen? You have never touched? You have never been a part of or into? Do you realize that you're putting yourself into something that you have never, ever, ever, ever been a part of? And yet you're doing it by faith? Well, ladies and gentlemen, every time you set yourself in that automobile out there, you're putting yourself there by faith. You are trusting that automobile to start. That's the first thing. Oftentimes that doesn't happen either. But you're trusting that automobile to start. You're putting faith in that automobile to start. Then you're putting faith in it that the gears, when you engage them, are going to work and it's going to move forward. And you're putting faith in the fact that as you move forward, you're going to be aware enough and careful enough that you're going to put yourself in a position where you can get wherever you're going safely or picking up whoever you're picking up. You're going to do everything by faith. You ladies put a beautiful thing in the oven. You call it a cake. You mix it together. You've done it before. And you put it in the oven. And you say, by faith, I'm going to get a cake out of that thing. You see, when you put it in there, you are not assured that it won't burn. You're not assured that it's going to rise. All you've done is done what you have done before and you know what it did before. And so you're going to put faith. See, we do faithing a lot. Have faith in God. He's on his throne. Have faith in God. He watches over his own. He'll never fail. He must prevail. Have faith in God. And so what the Apostle Paul is going to be talking about is his incarceration on the road to Damascus. And he's going to tell you why God incarcerated him. And what he, in return for that incarceration, is trying to do for the kingdom of God. Now, I'm going to pause here and put a thing in your brain. I want you to hold it until next week. Because I'm going to talk about it next week. Here's what I want you to hold in your brain. Have you apprehended everything God has apprehended you for? Have you grasped everything God has for you out there? For which Christ grasped you. Keep that in your head. Because next week, when we get to that part, which will be next week probably, and I'll get there today, Paul's going to talk about being apprehended. So, he's saying, finally, we're through talking about, with every tongue shall confess, the heart of this epistle. Now I want to talk to you about a couple of things. I want you, brethren, to start rejoicing. Now, someone said this book has two parts. Chapter 2 is one part, chapter 4 is the other part. I get to teach chapter 1 and 2. How did that happen, Jimbo? Chapter 2 and chapter 4 are the big, big parts. But in chapter 4, he's going to do the second part of this particular epistle. And that is, in the first part, every knee shall bow. In the second part, every tongue shall confess, and every tongue shall rejoice. Rejoice. And again, I say rejoice. Okay? So, when Brother Jimmy picks it up again, he's going to go to the real second part of this lesson, and that is rejoice. And so the Apostle Paul is kind of giving them a little bit of a heads up here. When he says in chapter 3, verse 1, Finally, now that you understand how Jesus Christ will be honored with every knee bowing, now that you understand that, what do you do? Say the word. Rejoice. Now that you know all that's happening, rejoice. And again, I say, rejoice. Okay, so he's saying that. He said, because in the Lord, for to me the right to say the same things to you is not tedious. In other words, he's saying, how many times have I told you to rejoice? How many times have I asked you to join me in my imprisonment? And he's saying, I am rejoicing in this imprisonment. Do you realize that I have the entirety of the Roman army to share the gospel with? How can you not rejoice about that? The Apostle Paul says, don't get down in the mouth. Get up. Rejoice. So he says, rejoice. And he says, rejoice, because I write these same things to you. I've told you this before. And who is that like? Barbers always say to me, Jack, I just buy you books and buy you books, and you just tear the pages out. So, you know, I don't want you to tear the pages out now. I want you to leave the pages in. So rejoice. And whatever situation you find yourself in, a Christian should rejoice. So there are no situations in which a Christian finds himself in which that person who is a believer in the kingdom of God will not rejoice. So he says, OK, even in the fact that there is an enemy out there called the Judaizers. Now, you remember early on in chapter one, the Apostle Paul told them about the Judaizers. These Judaizers had evidently gotten themselves involved in every church that the Apostle Paul and the kingdom of God had established. Now, let me share with you a very simple understanding of what Judaizers believed. Number one, they could be either Jew or Gentile. That's kind of interesting. Many Judaizers became, who were Gentiles, many Gentiles who became proselyte Jews became Judaizers. Let me say that again so you understand it. Many Gentiles who professed Judaism, who became a proselyte to Judaism, many Gentiles who became proselyte to Judaism later on because of their hearing of the gospel and its relationship to Judaism later on with a number of the Jewish brothers had become Judaizers. Now, the Judaizers had something they were preaching which was heresy. Now, it's heresy because of Ephesians 2.8.9 and 10. Can you remember Ephesians 2.8.9 and 10? I'll start it for you. For by grace you are saved through, and that not of your, it is not of works, lest any man. Now, that particular verse and Judaizer will not run on the same wheel. A Judaizer was a person who basically was either born a Jew or had proselyted Judaism. In either case, they were Jewish, basically Jewish. And they had incorporated into their system everything that was Judaism, including circumcision, including dietary laws, including studying the Torah, the book of law, including knowing the 613 laws, both positive and negative, also practicing all of the things of Judaism, practicing all of what a Jew would practice, Sabbath worship, going on Sabbath, washing your hands, washing your face, washing your ears. They were doing everything. These Gentiles were doing everything that a Jew would do with one exception. They had also said in their mouth that they were Christian. Now, they had not said it in their heart, but they had claimed that they were Jewish Christian. They claimed that they were basically a Christian with a Jewish background, just like Paul. Paul said, I'm a Jew. And in a few moments, that's why he's going to tell these people in Philippi his pedigree. And he's going to say to them, these Judaizers like to brag in the fact that they have become Jewish, but at the same time, they have become circumcised, and circumcision is the key to Judaism. Now, Paul calls what these people are doing mutilation. He said basically what they were doing, they were convincing people that they could be saved if they got circumcised. They could become a Christian and a Jew at the same time as they were, if you were mutilated, if you had part of your body mutilated. And so he was telling them, you can do both of these, you can become a Jew and a Christian at the same time, but you have to be mutilated, you have to be circumcised, and the Apostle Paul has already written in Ephesians, not by works of righteousness, he's already written, for by grace you are saved through faith, he's already written, you cannot be saved outside of faith and redemption. No works will save anybody. You got the picture? Okay, now watch what he says here in verse 2. Beware of the dogs. That's interesting. Now, the Jewish male had an unusual affinity, as did the rest of the known world at this particular time, for dogs. As I've read historical background in these days, there were massive packs of dogs that ran wild all the time, attacking people, attacking each other, snarling, barking, snapping, always trying to bite, that there were packs and packs and packs of dogs, and the dog was the most hated thing in the entire world. They hated the dogs. The Jews hated the dogs. In fact, you recall that there was a prayer that a Jewish man prayed when he got up every morning, I thank thee God I am not a woman, I thank thee I am not a slave, I thank thee I am not a Gentile dog. And they prayed that every morning. Now, the dogs, the Apostle Paul is saying here, are what these Judaizers are becoming. They are like these dogs. They are not worth anything. These Judaizers snarl, they snap, they bite, they try to injure, they try to remove, they try to hurt you. They are everything that a dog... Oh, by the way, just in passing, would you like to know what the Greek word for dog is? Kenos. K-E-N-O-S. Kenos. Where do you put a dog? Hello. That's where you got the word for kennel. The Greek word for dog is kenos. And he's talking about the kenos here. Beware of these dogs, these Judaizers, who are the following. Evil workers. They are not telling you the truth. They are sharing evil with you, and not only are they not telling you the truth, but they want to get you mutilated. They want you to be circumcised. And so, beware of this heresy. Don't let it come into the church. Don't be fooled by the fact that these people are saying that they are better than you because they are two. They are Jew and Christian. No, the Apostle Paul said they're really not two. They're not even one. They're just evildoers, and they're mutilators. And when they come into your church, you be sure that you take good heed of them, and like a pack of dogs, that dogs stay away from them. You got the picture? That's why he's calling them dogs. He's saying they're just like, they'll grab you, they'll bite you, they'll eat you, they'll kill you. Watch these Judaizers, and watch them as closely as you would watch one of these vicious packs of dogs running out here. Don't have anything to do with these kenos. They're vicious. They're vile. They're evil. They will destroy your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he stops there, and he says, because, the reason I'm telling you this is, because we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, the Apostle Paul is saying a couple of things here that you need to understand. He is saying that the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ has had a magnificent act of circumcision. And he identifies himself here, says we are the circumcision. Now, is the Apostle Paul saying to these Christians at Philippi that we are the circumcision in the flesh? No. What he's talking about is, he's talking about the circumcision of the heart. And he's talking about how the Holy Spirit has circumcised the heart, and how the Holy Spirit has given you spiritual circumcision of the heart. He has made in your heart the circumcision of God. As it was a picture for the outward performance of a Jew, it is now a picture of the inward life of the Christian. Our hearts have been circumcised. And so, since our hearts have been circumcised, he once again says the word that's going to come up in chapter 4, since your hearts have been circumcised, rejoice, and rejoice, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, Brother Jimmy and Carol Ann know Johnny Beard, and you all may have met Brother Johnny. He was pastor of First Baptist Church, Lake Jackson. And he was the one that married Jimmy and Carol Ann, by the way. Carol Ann grew up in Lake Jackson, First Baptist. Barbara and I had the privilege of serving there about five years as educational minister and music director, and we knew the people at Lake Jackson. Brother Johnny's most interesting and most used verse was this verse. Every Monday when we had a staff meeting, and all of the staff of First Baptist Church was about 40 people at one time, as we concluded our staff meeting, Brother Johnny would say, Therefore, my beloved staff members, do not put any confidence in the flesh. Now, there's a great gospel song that says the arm of flesh shall fail you. You dare not trust your own. But all the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer, look at 6 of Ephesians, and looking forth to Jesus, don't ever be without it there. And so, put no confidence in the flesh. Don't ever think that anything you do in the flesh will get you good marks in the kingdom of God. Don't put any confidence. There is nothing we can do in the flesh that pleases God. The flesh cannot please God. Only the Spirit can please God. And if we want to be pleasing to Him, then we need to be sure that we are working in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Pause. Why would the Apostle, not only because of the Judaizers, and not only because Paul was a true Hebrew, not only because Paul needed to say something here, but why would Paul want to share his pedigree with all of these people in Philippi? I've read all of his epistles, all 13 of them. You probably have too. And in the event that we get to heaven and accidentally find out that he wrote Hebrews, then he will have written 14 of the books in the New Testament. 27, 14 of 27. In the event we find out. But why, in all of his writing of the 13, has he not said this to anybody else? Not a word of what you're getting ready to hear is any of the other epistles. It's kind of interesting. I wish I had had you in my Philippians class at Hardin-Simmons. I would have loved to have had you in my Philippians class at Hardin-Simmons when I taught what we call the Prison Epistles at Hardin-Simmons University. Because in that class, we were together looking at Ephesians and Philippians for 18 weeks. Three days a week. Eighteen weeks. Three days a week. You can really look at a book 18 days, three days a week. For 18 weeks, three days a week. And we were studying the book of Philippians. And I had a wonderful time with these students in the book of Philippians because we could go outside of where the pages were here to see what was happening. Now, you remember, this church was planted in 52. This book was written in 64. This church is 12 years old. This church has come a long way since the Apostle Paul and Silas and Timothy and Dr. Luke made their way to the European continent in Macedonia and found themselves in Philippi and Lydia and the first convert in Europe was there in Philippi. This church is 12 years old. If you recall in chapter 1, this church had a magnificent organization. They had done everything the Apostle Paul told them to do about getting the church organized. They had Episcopals. They had Bishops. They had Prisciopians. They had Presbyterians. They had Presbylopians. They had Presbytery. They had Deacons. They had the whole organization. Over the 12 year period, this church had really come into a magnificent organizational structure of a church working. And because of that, they were able to send the Apostle Paul, although the Scripture says they were poor, they were able to send the Apostle Paul many, many gifts. And Epaphroditus was the person who was the deliverer of the gifts. You remember Brother Jimmy talking about Epaphroditus and how he had been ill and how he was better. Another thing you need to remember is the majority of these people had been high ranking military officers in the Roman army and fought on the plains of Philippi and won on the plains of Philippi for Octavia, who later became Augustus. And when Augustus became Caesar, Augustus gave all of his high military officers this particular city in Philippi and made it a Roman city. And it was full of Romans. That's why when the Apostle Paul got there with Silas and Timothy and Dr. Luke, there was no synagogue in Philippi. It was a Roman city. It was just like the city of Rome. No synagogue there. The closest synagogue was down at Thessalonica, about 35, 38 kilometers away. So this city was a Roman military city. And isn't it interesting how many wonderful stories retired military people have? Have you ever talked with retired military folks? I love to talk with that guy right there. I love to talk with Ed Fairchild. And I'll get him talking and I'll start feeding him because I want him to tell me how he flipped that little plane over in Vietnam and turned it upside down and picked up where all these people were so he could give forward advancement to what was going on so his other planes could come in and bomb the place. You get with a military person and it won't be ten minutes if you feed them in the right direction. You'll get all kinds of wonderful stories. And it's interesting, where are you, Brother Chubb? Brother Eddie, can you tell me why when you tell them that you caught a fish this big that the next time you tell the story it's that big? That's right. Because what happened is you threw it back and now it's grown to be this big, right? All right. Isn't it interesting that stories get more interesting the more you tell them? Okay. Now watch what Paul's getting ready to do here. He's getting ready to say if you all think you can boast about your former background, if you think that you have all it takes to tell real stories about what you did during the period of time when Augustus was Caesar, if you think that you can tell those kinds of stories, let me tell you a real background. Let me tell you a real pedigree. All right. I want you to look at Paul's pedigree. He says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more than anybody. Now, he just got through telling you you have no confidence in what? The flesh. And now he comes to say if you could have confidence in the flesh, if that were possible, which it is not, none of us can brag about this meat we carry around with us. We can't brag about the flesh. And Paul said, if it were possible to brag about my military career, to brag about what all I've done, to brag about my academic achievements, to brag about my money in the bank, to brag about who I am, brag about the big cars I drive. If you think you can brag about something, then let me tell you something. I can brag more than you can brag. And I want to tell you something. If anybody could boast in the flesh, I, Paul said, could have boasted in the flesh. Now watch what he says. Because he said, I more so, number one, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. Now, what does that mean to you? Nothing. Except the fact that you know that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. Remember? What you don't know is what Paul knows back in the Torah. What he knows back in the book of law. You see, anybody who was circumcised on the eighth day was a true Hebrew child. If you were not circumcised on the eighth day, you were not a true Hebrew child. Now, it's kind of interesting. I did a little bit of grag ground, and someone asked the question one time, well, what if the eighth day is on the Sabbath? Smart aleck. What if the eighth day is on the Sabbath? Can you circumcise on the Sabbath? That's not a word. No. But in the Torah, if you go back and look at it, it says in the event that it falls on a Sabbath, you may do it on the ninth or the tenth day as well and still be a child of Israel. Okay. Paul said, number one, I am not a proselyte Jew. I was not made a Jew later on. I wasn't even circumcised when I went to Jerusalem when I was 14. I was circumcised on the eighth day. Now, you see, what you must remember is Paul grew up in a Grecian city. Paul grew up in the city of Tarsus. It was a Grecian city. Paul was basically Greek. But Paul always said, I am Hebrew. Paul never said that I was anything but Hebrew. And most everybody that grew up in a Grecian city were called Hellenist. They were Grecian. Paul never called himself a Hellenist. He always called himself a Hebrew. He said, I am a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the flesh. If anyone thinks he may be constantly in the flesh, I more so circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. Whoa! Does that mean anything to you? Can you tell me who the first king of Israel was? Saul. Where is Saul from? Benjamin. Paul is saying, I am from the same tribe that the first king of Israel is from. I'm a Benjamite. Not only was I circumcised on the eighth day, not only am I a Hebrew, and not only am I circumcised at the right time, but I came out of the most religious tribe of all, the greatest tribe of all, Benjamin. Now everybody would say, no, no, Judah's the greatest. No, no. To the Hebrew people, where Saul came from, the greatest tribe was Benjamin. I'm a Benjamite. Not only that, he said, but I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews concerning the law. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. There's nothing outside of me that's not Hebrew. And concerning the law, I'm a Pharisee. Wow! That even makes it worse. Do you understand what a Pharisee had to do? During the time of the Lord Jesus Christ, there were about 6,000 Pharisees. We know about that number. We're pretty sure about that number. Which meant that .05% of the males of Israel were Pharisees. .05. Not even 1%. Half percent of the males of Israel were Pharisees. And the reason that so few were Pharisees is what the Pharisees had to do. The Pharisees had to learn the entire law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Had to learn the entire law by heart. And they were able, at any given point, if you said to them, Exodus 27. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Deuteronomy 4. Yep, yep, yep, yep. All you had to mention the passage and they'd tell you what the passage was. They had to keep perfectly, every day, 613 laws. Now folks, I don't know about you, but I have a tough time with 10. They had to keep 613. Of which, 365 were negative, thou shalt not. And 248 were positive, thou shalt. And they had to keep 613 laws perfectly, every day, if they were going to be a Pharisee. And a lot of people didn't want to do that. A lot of men, a lot of Jewish men, didn't want to be a Pharisee. Paul called himself Pharisee of Pharisees. Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm top drawer. Top gun. Follow me. Then he said also, if you want to talk about zeal, if you want to talk about, now, you know this word zeal means hot passion? If you go to where they tell the story about it, His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Remember Isaiah? The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David, to organize it and to establish it from henceforth forever. And the zeal of the Lord shall perform it. The hot passion of God saw to it that Jesus Christ came to this world. That's what the word zeal means. It means hot passion. And Paul said, you want to talk about zeal? I persecuted the church. I killed some of the church. I stood at the death of a young man stolen. I held their clothes. I was on my way to Damascus to put them in jail and to kill them. I persecuted the church. Don't talk about zeal. I'll talk to you about zeal. Don't talk about your accomplishments. I'll talk to you about accomplishments. Isaiah persecuting the church. Concerning righteousness, in the eyes of all of those who were around me, all of the other Pharisees who were there, all of the other Jewish men, all of the other 95.5% of the men of Israel when they were around me, they looked at me and they said, you know what, Paul? You are blameless. You keep the law every day. You do it right. And then he kind of takes a breath. He says, now, compare your accomplishments with me. You want to boast? You want to brag? Go back and pick up your pedigree. See how your pedigree relates to the kingdom of God. And so Paul says, but, verse 7, but, what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss. Now, at this point, the Apostle Paul is through telling you, telling these people about his background. He's getting ready now to start talking about two accounting terms. He's getting ready to talk about gain and loss. Now, it's kind of interesting. In the accounting world, what you don't want to do is you don't want to be on the side that says loss. What you want to do is be sure that you're on the side of the side that says gain. And in the accounting world, there are two sides. There is the side of gain and there's the side of loss. And Paul begins talking about loss and gain. And he's saying, and by the way, it's at this point that he takes the S off of gains and starts talking about gain. That which I gain. The whole shamanic at one time. Here's what was gain to me. And he says, but indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. I have lost everything of who I was. I have lost everything of what I've done. I could care less about anything. That's in my background. In fact, when I look at the Apostle Paul saying this, I look at 2 Corinthians 5.17. It says, and do you remember what 5.17 says? 2 Corinthians 5.17. Can somebody say it for me? Start talking about you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. And what else? All things have passed away. Behold, all things are new. Paul is talking about all of what he was is gone. All that he had gained. All of the years of study. All of the hours of remembering and rehearsing and learning the Torah. All of the days when he worked with the Pharisees and persecuted the church and all of those things for which they patted him on the back and said, you're a good guy, Paul. Go get them. He said all of that. All of it. And I'm losing it more than I might gain. And what I'm wanting to gain is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. My Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them as dung. Trash. In fact, this is the stuff that he's counting loss. This is the stuff that his dogs fed on. This is the stuff that the pack of dogs fed on. Rubbish. Rubbish. Refuse. Dung. Junk. Trash. I count them all like the stuff that the wild packs of dogs eat on. In order that I might be found in him. Now remember, Ephesians, the book, I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And the life I live by the flesh, I live by the power of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I am in Christ. He is in me. And Paul is saying here, I want you to know, I gave all of this away. All of my gain was lost in order that I might gain Christ. Because I found in him not a righteousness of mine own which is from the law, but which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Now, I'm going to finish with this verse. It's 10 and 11. Look, I'm on number 10. Isn't that something? Watch this. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made in the likeness of his dying. Two words. Three words. That I may know him. This word is kinomai. In the Greek language there are all kinds of words about know. Two of them in particular. One means to know from the head. The other means to know from experience. We know a lot of things in our head, but we learn what we learn in experience. If you want to be sure that electricity will shock you, just grab the two poles when they're hooked up and you'll find it out in a hurry. You'll find out that it'll really shock you. Now, you can hear that and you can read it in a book. And if you grab these two poles and there are two wires hooked to it, you're going to get shocked. You can read that in a book all you want to, but you'll never really know it until you do what? You experience it. Okay. This word that Paul uses here, kinomai, means I have experienced him. I don't just know him. It's not a head knowledge. It's here. It's a heart knowledge. I have experienced him. Not only have I experienced him in kinomai, but it is the dunamai, the dunamis, it is the power of God that I've experienced. The power, and I found in the power of God, the power of his resurrection. The word dunamis is dynamite. We get the English word dynamite from it. And Paul says that I may know him and that I may know his dynamite and of his resurrection and I may come to understand that my suffering is his suffering. At this point, we're going to pick up next week and we're going to start talking about apprehension. We're going to start talking about being captured. And the Apostle Paul, believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, is going to say, I have not captured yet everything for which he has captured me. Let that ruminate from now till next Sunday. He has captured you. He has apprehended me. But, in deference to that apprehension, have I captured all of him that I need to capture? Or is there more out there for which I need to apprehend? And we begin there next week because that's the perfect place to end up with the next 11 verses. And the Apostle Paul now has given his pedigree. You know who he is. You know what he believes. You know where his power comes from. You know that he has suffered all loss. You know that he has gained all gain. You know that he has gained Christ in the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord. There is nothing better than him. Amen? And we pray. Sovereign God, we have been captured. And over these years, we have tried to find out what it is that you've captured us for. And many of us have found all kinds of wonderful professions and jobs and works and families and homes and husbands and wives and we've had a wonderful time and that's all part of what we were captured for. But, have we really captured from you what you really intended for us to capture when you saved us? Is there more? So much more. And Father, we thank you for the life of the Apostle Paul, for his great ministry, for the fact that he found in you the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, his Lord. And we too find the excellency of the knowledge. And at the same time, we too have been apprehended. And it's time now to be sure we have apprehended everything for which he has apprehended us. It's a great question, Father. There's a lot out there yet to be done. There's a world out there to be won. And all we can do is say rejoice in the Lord and again, I say rejoice. Don't worry about anything but in everything through prayer, supplication, and with thanksgiving, let this request be made known unto God. And the peace of God that passes understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. May we be kept in our incarceration in Jesus Christ. It's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.