PHILIPPIANS 3:7

January 29, 2012FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHJACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

On Monday, April 23rd, as a project of this SS class, we will host a banquet to honor waiters and waitresses at The South, 627 East Silas Brown, Jackson, MS 39201

Hezekiah 2:30If you are suffering from Truth decay, brush up on your Bible.

Commentary consulted:The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Copyright © Moody Press and John MacArthur, Jr., 1983-2007.

The Heart of the Gospel by Robert E. Coleman

Even though Saul had been very zealous & sincere, he had been sincerely wrong about God.

People without supernatural help have no means of discovering the redemptive plan of God.

*God wants to reveal Himself to man.

* That’s Good News!

*Father = the Revealer

*Son = the Revelation (Heb)

*Spirit = the Revealedness

*Father = the Giver

*Son = the Gift

*Spirit = the Unpacker

*Father = the SenderSource of the mission*Son – the SentEmbodiment of the mission*Spirit = the EnablerPower of the mission

God was beyond us as the Father,He was among us as the Son andHe is in us as the Spirit!

Because God wanted to reveal Himself, He communicated His Word to and through the writers of the Bible.

*That is a mixture of the Divine and the human as is the Incarnation.

*Both are miraculous!

God worked in the memory, imagination and perception of choice servants so that they were enabled to grasp and express His divine Truth.

That He would do that through 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years without violating their own personalities (they remained themselves) is evidence that

God intended His Word to be recorded from the standpoint of varied human circumstances and without error!

In fact the Holy Spirit even used their own peculiar temperament and education level to great advantage in giving color and pungency to His Word.

*We hear God’s message when we are receptive to His voice.*We receive illumination to the degree that we seek the Truth.

6  “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”Heb11

*We will receive that illumination when we are willing to do His will.*John 14:21

John 14:2121 “ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,

and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21

Philippians 3:7-8

7)“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8) 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 have suffered the loss of all

things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” Philippians 3:7-8

The statement “but whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss” sums up the dramatic change that took place in Paul’s

perspective when he met Christ. *All of the cherished treasures in his gain column suddenly became deficits. *But by God's marvelous

grace, those things that he wrongly imagined would give him eternal life were replaced by matchless benefits that were his in Christ.

Philippians 3:8a

8) “More than that, I count all things to be loss…”

More than that emphasizes the contrast between the Religious Credits That Do Not Impress God column and the column: Incalculable Benefits of Knowing Christ.

In verse 7, Paul counted the religious credits in verses 5 and 6 as loss; here he expands that conviction and declares all things to be loss in view of the surpassing

value of knowing Christ Jesus. *Paul abandoned his past religious achievements in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.

The participle “huperchon” in verse 8 (the surpassing value of knowing Christ) refers to something of incomparable worth. Phil 3:8

The word “knowing Christ” in the Greek text is not a verb, but a form of the noun “gnosis”, which means: to know experientially or by personal involvement.

The surpassing knowledge of Christ that Paul describes here is far more than mere intellectual knowledge of the facts about Him.

The New Testament frequently describes Christians as those who know Christ.

In John 10:14 Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me."

In his first epistle John declared, "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him Who is true”.

*Salvation involves a personal, relational knowledge “of” the Lord Jesus Christ.*Not just a knowledge “about” Him.

To the Greeks, “gnosis” could describe secret, cultic, mystical communion with a deity.

Those who were initiated into the mystery claimed to have ascended beyond the mundane knowledge possessed by the masses.

They imagined that they alone enjoyed some personal experience of their deity.

The Greeks often sought such an elevated state through drunken revelry.

In the second century, the dangerous heresy of Gnosticism attempted to syncretize the Greek concept of gnosis and Christian truth. (cherry pick)

Like their pagan counterparts, the Gnostics claimed a higher, truer knowledge of God than the average Christian experienced.

There is also an OT context for gnosis.

*The verb form was used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word “yada”.

*”Yada” often denoted an intimate knowledge, even a union or bond of love. *It was sometimes used in Scripture as a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

It was also used to described God's intimate love bond with Israel: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2 NKJV).

Thus, the word can have the connotation both of a transcendent knowledge and an intimate love bond.

Adding personal warmth to the rich theological concept of knowing Christ Jesus, Paul describes Him as my Lord.

“the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” Philippians 3:8a

That threefold description (Christ Jesus my Lord) encompasses Christ's three offices of: Prophet, Priest, and King.

* “Christ” views Him as the Messiah, the messenger orProphet of God. * “Jesus” views Him as Savior, emphasizing His role as believers' great High Priest.

* “Lord” views Him assovereign King over all creation.

So anytime you see the three words: Christ Jesus my Lord it is also speaking of Him as:Prophet, Priest, and King.

Salvation comes only through the deep knowledge of and intimate love bond with our Lord Jesus Christ that God gives by grace through faith.

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25), we see evidence of this idea of knowing Christ intimately.

Parable of Ten Virgins (Matt 25) 1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the Bridegroom. 

2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 

 4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. 5 Now while the Bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.

6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

 8 The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

9 But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’  

 10 And while they were going away to make the purchase, the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding feast;

and the door was shut. 11 Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open up for us.’ 

12 But He answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’  (intimately)13 Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25: 1-13

Contrast Him knowing us intimately in Matthew 25:1-13 (The Parable of the Ten Virgins) with Him declaring, “I never knew you” in Matthew 7:21-23.

Matthew 7:21-23 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 

22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23

There is a huge difference between Matthew 25:12 where Jesus says, “I do not know you” (intimately) and in Matthew 7:23 where He says, “I never knew you”.

Commenting on the believer's knowledge of Christ, F. B. Meyer wrote: “We may know Him personally, intimately face to face. Christ does not live

back in the centuries, nor amid the clouds of heaven: He is near us, with us, compassing our path in our lying down, and acquainted with all our ways.

But we cannot know Him in this mortal life except through the illumination and teaching of the Holy Spirit. . . .

And we must surely know Christ, not as a stranger Who turns in to visit for the night, or as the exalted king of men — there must be the inner knowledge as of those

whom He counts His own familiar friends, whom He trusts with His secrets, who eat with Him of His own bread.

To know Christ in the storm of battle; to know Him in the valley of shadow; to know Him when the solar light irradiates our faces, or when they are darkened

with disappointment and sorrow; to know the sweetness of His dealing with bruised reeds and smoking flax; to know the tenderness of His sympathy

and the strength of His right hand — all this involves many varieties of experience on our part, but each of them like the facets of a diamond will reflect the

prismatic beauty of His glory from a new angle.”F. B. Meyer (The Epistle to the Philippians [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952], 162-63)

Paul said:“I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” Philippians 3:8

For the inestimable privilege of knowing Jesus Christ, Paul gladly suffered the loss of all things by which he might have sought to earn salvation apart from Christ.

The apostle went so far as to count them but rubbish so that he might gain (know Him intimately) Christ.

All efforts to obtain salvation through human achievement are as much rubbish as the worst vice.

Skubalon(rubbish) is a very strong word that could also be rendered "waste," "dung," "manure," or even "excrement." *Paul expresses in the

strongest possible language his utter disdain for all the religious credits with which he had sought to impress man and God. In view of the surpassing value of knowing

Christ, they are worthless. *Paul would have heartily endorsed Isaiah's declaration that "all of us have become like one who is unclean and all our

righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (soiled medical dressing); and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (Isa 64:6).

Philippians 3:88 “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 have

suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” Philippians 3:8

Philippians 3:99 “and may 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,”

Philippians 3:9

Philippians 3:9a

“and may be found in Him,”

The phrase “in Him” expresses the familiar Pauline truth that believers are “in Christ”, a concept found more than seventy-five times in his epistles.

Believers are inextricably intertwined with Christ in an intimate life and love bond.

Isaiah 40:3131 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31

“Yet those who wait for the LORD” Isaiah 40:31a

*Strong’s Hebrew dictionary says that “wait” means: 1)to tarry expectantly,

2)to entwine your life around His life

*We are inseparably intertwined with Christ in an intimate life and love bond.

"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who

loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal 2:20).

“and may be found in Him,” Philippians 3:9a

Philippians 3:9b “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” Philippians 3:9 b

Paul had spent his adult life futilely trying to obtain a righteousness of his own derived from keeping the Law.

That righteousness — one of self-effort, external morality, religious ritual, and moral works, all produced by the flesh — had been an unbearable burden.

I Peter 2:24 (good little boy)“He Himself bore our sins (burdens) in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;”

1 Peter 2:24Contemporary English Version (CEV)24 “Christ carried the burden of our sins.   

   He was nailed to the cross,so that we would stop sinning and start living right.   By his cuts and bruisesyou are healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (CEV)

Although Paul did his best, he fell far short of God's standard (Rom 3:23), which no one can meet.

Paul gladly exchanged the burden of legalistic self-righteousness for the righteousness which is “through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes

from God on the basis of faith.” Philippians 3:9b

Faith is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter God's kingdom.

Speaking of the “necessary requirements to enter God's kingdom”, who was able to complete your recent assignment: “In your opinion…”