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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/god-centered-mind-living-self-lessly/
I would like to take time to ask God's help again, if you will, please. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have just heard. O God, we thank you for every truth that exalts the Lord Jesus, that humbles us, that causes us to realize what claims are against us and what claims are for us.
Lord, we thank you for thy word. We thank you for the truth of it, for the power of it, for the liberty that it gives. We thank you for the joy we have in our Lord Jesus. O God, that he may be honored still in this further session as the word of God is read and Christ is spoken of.
God grant that our hearts might be reached by thy word for our blessing, for even restoration if this is necessary in any of us. And now let us know we often need it. So we confess our need and ask for thy blessing as we bow in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. Now we're going to read in Philippians chapter 3. And we'll begin with verse 1. We are going to read down as far, perhaps even as verse 16. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same thing to you, to me, is indeed not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision in which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Even I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man think that he hath love, he might trust in the flesh. I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless. And I count all things but loss. And this to me is one of the greatest statements that Paul ever wrote. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them but dung, that I may win Christ to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him.
And this is a wondrous statement. Verse 10 of Philippians chapter 3 is one of the great verses of our New Testament. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.
Being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, no, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of a high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Maybe we'll stop the reading there. We have been speaking about Paul's desire to live Christ and Paul's doctrine to exalt Christ, that's very obvious in these verses, and Paul's devotion to know Christ, that's what I have before me this afternoon, if the Lord will, and Paul's dependence on the power of Christ.
Living selfishly in a selfish world is not easy. I would point out to you that every virtue that a believer should portray is the opposite of what this world considers to be good and great and wonderful, just the opposite.
So it isn't easy to go against the stream, is it? It isn't easy to go opposite to the trends all around us? No, it is not. Nevertheless, that is what we are called to. A life of submission to Christ in a rebel world is not easy.
Ayn Rand, many of you will know that name, she said that her philosophy was that I will never live my life for another and never allow another person to live their life for me. That's the world. Christians are called to the very opposite.
We are called to live our life for another. We are called actually to remove self from the throne of our heart and allow the Lord Jesus to occupy that throne. That's great truth. And so the me generation that is all around us serves self.
I don't think I need to emphasize that because you know it all too well. Gain for self, pleasure for self, means for self, and the Christian has the very opposite desire not to exalt self, but to exalt the Lord Jesus.
So the natural heart has a throne. I think you know that. The natural heart has a throne. Before we were saved, self was on that throne. And this is what we see all around us in this godless world, selfishness, serving self, exalting self, promoting self.
That was our life before we got to the cross. But when we got to Calvary, self was slain. Self was put to death. Self was removed from the throne. And Christ is to occupy the throne of our hearts. Now, I know this is a constant exercise for believers because we find again and again selfishness arising in us, self-serving arising in our hearts.
We find that again and again. It has to be constantly judged. It must be judged in the presence of God because every natural heart is naturally willing to serve self. But when we are won by the love of the Savior, that love overwhelms every self-love.
And that love becomes the power of our actions, of our life, of our motives. I enjoyed a verse that perhaps isn't really part of the subject this afternoon, but it's in these verses that we've read. I want you to look at it with me.
It's verse 3. For we are the circumcision who worship. Can I read it for you in a slightly revised text? We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Maybe the first thing I want you to notice in that statement is the way the Lord Jesus is spoken of. I know if you read Peter's epistles, you'll read about Jesus Christ. Why? Well, that's how Peter knew him.
Peter knew him as Jesus of Nazareth. He knew him as the man walking here on earth. Oh, a sinless walk, a holy walk, a walk of infinite love and tender mercy. Yet he knew him as a man walking in this world.
And to Peter, he is Jesus Christ. Do you know that in Paul's epistles, 48 times Paul refers to him as Christ Jesus? Now why is that different? Because that's how Paul knew him. Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road met the exalted living Christ.
And so to Saul of Tarsus, he is Christ Jesus. Christ first, Jesus then, where it was the very opposite with Peter. So Paul knew him as the Christ, the Christ from heaven, the Christ who came down in wondrous grace.
And again and again, and you'll notice in verse 8, that very important verse in our chapter, it's the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, that Paul longs for. So he is Christ Jesus to Paul, the exalted one who humbled himself even to the death of Calvary's cross.
Christ Jesus, my Lord. Now let me look at this thought of worship, if I can, please. We of the circumcision who worship, and I think this is one of the greatest statements in the New Testament about what worship is.
We worship by the Spirit of God and have no confidence in the flesh. Now there are three things here. We worship by the Spirit of God. Now I believe that you understand what worship is. If you are saved, if you are truly born again, you will know what it means to worship.
Forgive me for this, but the night I was saved, I was walking home after the meeting. It was dark, of course, and I walked through a large dark park. When I got into the middle of that park with no lights, I looked up at the sky.
It was studded with stars. And this is the thought that came to me, and it overwhelmed me. The God who made all that gave his only Son to die for me. I became a worshiper at that moment. I couldn't help it.
My heart went up in gratitude and thankfulness and adoration to the God who gave so much for such a poor sinful wretch as I. So worship is truly an activity of the Holy Spirit working on our spirit. That's what this verse says.
The Holy Spirit of God moves on the spirit of saints to produce worship. It is not a natural thing. It does not come from nature. It comes from the Holy Spirit moving upon our redeemed spirits. And you notice what happens when the Spirit of God does that.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now Paul knew what he was writing. That's how he had come to know him. The exalted Christ who had come down in wondrous grace and love to Calvary. Paul says we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Do we? Do we truly rejoice in Christ Jesus? Oh, he is worthy of all our rejoicing. He is worthy of all our worship. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, dear young Christian, can I say a word or two to you?
I have talked to many people who may even be Christians. They even be truly saved. But the place where they go knows nothing about worship in a collective sense. I've talked to them. I've asked them to explain to me what it means.
They couldn't. Hadn't a clue about it. Now listen. In an assembly gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have one of the greatest privileges we'll ever have on earth. And that is to sit down around a table with bread and a cup of wine with a number of the Lord's people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ gathered to his blessed person.
And we have come for one purpose, to worship. And the Spirit of God is present to move on our spirits to produce worship to God. That's the closest place to heaven we'll ever be on earth. Because when we get to God, to his throne, we are going to be there as worshipers.
And we are allowed to have a foretaste of it here on earth. I don't think there's anything on earth more dear to me than to remember the Lord Jesus with his own on the first day of the week. To sit down at that table with fellow believers with one purpose, to worship God for his Son.
Because that's what this verse says. We are the circumcision which worship by the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus. He's the very object of our worship and the source of it. We worship him. We worship God for him.
That's a great privilege, dear Christian. That's a great privilege. There isn't really any place on earth that I can compare to it. And thank God for being in an assembly. If you're in an assembly, thank God for the privilege.
Thank God for the opportunity. I know that you're there when you can be. I hope you don't ever have to miss, because it's a terrible miss, not to be present when the believers gather together to worship God for the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Now that's wondrous truth. We worship God for the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. That's not human. That's not a human arrangement. It's not a human organization. It's a living reality to be able to worship God by the Spirit.
Now, let me, if I can, give you a little bit of what this self-serving world is like. This is the opposite of what I've just been saying. Self-serving is self-exaltation. I think you know that. It's self-indulgence.
It's greed. It comes from arrogance. It comes from pride. And it often comes from covetousness. So, this world is self-serving. Hardly need to say that, do I? You know it too well. Self, sinful self, is self-serving.
Sinful self exalts self. Sinful self promotes self. Sinful self tries to satisfy self. It's all empty. It's sham. It's meaningless. But, not one of these things that are so evident in our natural being, in our nature, by sin, not one of those things ever appeared in the Lord Jesus.
I was going over this the other day and it thrilled my heart. When you think of the Lord Jesus, let me give you a description of His person. I think of His faithfulness. That's one of the very first characteristics of Christ that is spoken of in the Gospels.
What was He doing? Pleasing the Father in heaven. That was His great purpose. And faithfulness to God's will, faithfulness to God's purpose, faithfulness to God's word, that was the Lord Jesus. He was truth personified.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. Wonderful to think that truth is a person, isn't it? He is the truth. The truth, absolutely. And that there was a blessed person who walked in this world, and that person is actually the truth.
Eternal truth. The truth of God in a blessed man. He's the personification of true love. Love that has no measure. Love that is beyond language, beyond words, beyond thought. He proved that love. Nailed upon Golgotha's tree.
Bruised and bleeding. Suffering and dying. Why is He there? Love. Love that no tongue can teach. Love that no thought can reach. No love like His. So in Him was the perfect, the perfect presentation of love.
The revealing, the revelation of the love of God in a blessed person. Grace. What is grace? I've asked Christians this question, and I've been interested in the answers, and some of them very insightful and very thoughtful.
But what actually is grace? Can you tell me what grace is? Well, grace is something I don't deserve. Well, no, that's not a very good description of grace. You know what grace is? It's the opposite of what I deserve.
The very opposite. Grace means that instead of judgment, God is pouring out blessing. Instead of wrath, God is pouring out His mercy and kindness. What a wonderful thing it is to be an object of God's grace.
Dear believer, the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared. And that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
So the grace of God is not just in name. It should be a reality in our lives. It affects how we live, how we behave, how we behave toward others. So the grace of God is displayed in believers. Think of the gentleness of Christ.
I think of that gentle person, the little child lifted in His arms, touching the coffin with the young man. What gentleness in that blessed Savior. And so often He displayed that gentleness. I wonder how much we're like Him or how little we are like Him.
Think of His tenderness. Think of His meekness. Think of His lowliness. Think of His humility. Think of His selflessness, His forbearance, His compassion. What a Savior. What a blessed Lord. He thrills our hearts.
And I'm doing this because of Paul's statement. I've moved down the chapter a little bit, but I'm moving to this blessed statement. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.
I wonder, is that personal to me? The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Can you really claim that He's your Lord? It's a wonderful thing to know Him. I can tell you something about it.
You may know lots of people in this world and never, never be tempted to be like them. I know people like that and I wouldn't want to be like them, although maybe sometimes I'm more like them than I think I am.
But it's impossible to know the Lord Jesus and not long to be like Him. It seems the more I know Him, as I quoted before today, and all His ways explore, it only sets me longing to know Him more and more.
The excellency. Do you get that word? The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Let's go in for it. Let's make it the goal and purpose of our life. Day by day, night by night, week by week, Lord's day by Lord's day.
The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. I have thought of these five things. I want to pass them on to you. What you have here is the praise of a devoted spirit. That's back where we read in verse three, the praise of a devoted spirit.
Worship God by the spirit. So Paul actually has a spirit of devotion. From that spirit of devotion rises praise. Now what we have is the portrait of a devoted heart. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.
And this is the pattern for a devoted life. I suffer all things but loss. Self-pleasing, self-serving, selfish motives. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.
The pattern of a devoted life. What you have following this is the pursuit of a devoted servant. One who longs to please the Lord as he serves him. In the gospel, yes, because that's a great part of the Philippian letter.
Paul is serving Christ in the gospel. And he longs that the devotion that he knows to the Lord Jesus might be manifest as he seeks to reach lost sinners for the Savior. So there is here the pursuit of a devoted servant.
And then what we have following this is the prospect of a devoted saint. There's some verses that we read at the close of our section today, and I'm going to go back. I'm not done with this yet, but I want you to notice this because there have been many questions asked about the meaning of these words.
Look with me, please, in verse 10. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Not as though I had already attained ye that were already perfect, but I follow after. If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended by Christ Jesus. Now I've heard some very strange interpretations of these verses, that Paul wasn't sure that he was going to take part in the resurrection of life, and that depended on how obedient he was or how devoted he was, whether he would take part in that first resurrection.
No, no, that's not what he's saying. This resurrection is spiritual. This is living in the power of resurrection life. This is resurrection seen in Paul's daily life, in his activities, in his work, in his labors, in his preaching, in his devotion to the Lord Jesus.
He longs that he might live in the power of the resurrected Christ, to know him, to know the living one, and to have life in us like unto him. I don't think you'll have any difficulty with this. If you saw the Apostle Paul's life and watched his labors, what would you see?
You would see Christ. That's what these verses really mean. If you looked at this servant, you would see his master, you would see his Lord, because he's living his life not for self, not for others, but for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus.
Now, we are called to be like the Lord Jesus in this world of sin. Not easy. It's contrary to all that is around us. It's the opposite of all the motivations of this poor world. So we are called to be like him in a world where he was hated and despised, in a world where he is still rejected.
Well, if you don't think so, just go out on the street corner and preach Christ. I would say the world has not changed in its attitude toward the Lord Jesus. It is much the same, but there is more boldness.
There is less of a holding back from mocking him and heaping scorn on his blessed person. So we are called to be like him in a world where he is hated and despised, called to live a life of moral purity in a world of uncleanness.
Dear believer, we are called to live a life of purity, a life of holiness, not stooping to the immorality that is so rampant in our world on every side. And we are called to lay down our lives in a world of selfishness.
In a world of selfishness, yes. We are called to be the opposite, to be willing to give all, to hold nothing back, to lay down our lives in devotion to the blessed Lord who gave his all for us. So the Lord Jesus is our pattern, and likeness to him is the work of the Holy Spirit of God in us.
We thank God that the Spirit of God enables us to do what we could not do on our own. Now go back with me, if you will, please, to Paul's description of what he was before he was saved. I know this isn't the order of the chapter, but this is the way I want to look at it.
If any might have confidence in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath or of him might trust in the flesh, I more. So he had every cause to trust in himself, and he describes his life as a Pharisee.
And I think one of the statements that impresses me the most is, he says, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
It's interesting. You mean Paul never broke a Sabbath day? He never once broke the commandments? I don't think he's saying he never once broke the commandments. He's saying that his life, the very tenor, the very scope of his life, was devotion to the law of Moses, to the Ten Commandments, to keeping them, to living by them.
And he did it. But it was nothing. It was nothing. I think this is a most powerful statement. Howbeit what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
The theme of Paul's life, what is it? Christ Jesus my Lord. The training of his life, I count all things but loss for him. The triumph of his life, Christ glorified in me. So his heart had been won and his life had been changed.
I enjoyed something in this chapter that I never saw before. You get to a certain place in your study of the word of God where something comes new to you, you prize it very highly. And I find when I read the scriptures and I get some thoughts that I never had before on a particular passage, that I put a great price on that.
Now here's what I've noticed. Chapter 3 and verse 3, if you look at it, what is it? Verse 3 of chapter 3, it says, What's he doing? He's looking inward. It's a look inward. And as he looks inward, what does he say?
I have no trust in the flesh. I have no confidence in the flesh. Have we learned that? Have I learned it? Because I have found that when I trust the flesh, it fails. And I hope I've learned better. I hope so.
To have no confidence in the flesh. So it's a look inward. No confidence in the flesh. Verse 8 is actually Paul saying, What is that? That's a look backward. In all that he counted as great in his pharisaical life, it's nothing.
It's absolutely nothing. He counts it all but loss. And that look backward. And then you have Paul actually looking forward. This is verse 13, toward the end of our reading today. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth.
That spoke to me. Reaching forth. I wonder today, in this meeting this afternoon, how many believers' hearts are reaching forward. For what? Well, look at it. I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth.
Unto those things which are before me I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, verse 14, actually, I press toward the mark for the prize. It's not a look backward, but it's a look upward.
So you have Paul looking inward. You have Paul looking backward. You have Paul looking forward. And then you have him looking upward. And the privilege of service is so great that he longs for the day when he'll see the Lord he has served and will be able to bow at his feet and worship him in spirit and in truth.
I have enjoyed very much the truths that I'm going to try to close with now. I think what you have in these verses is the ledger of a life laid down. Now, a ledger is something where you add up what is, perhaps values, good things.
So what did he do? He added up all that he was apart from Christ, and he laid it all down as nothing. I count all things but loss for the excellency and the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. A ledger of a life laid down.
That's what it takes to be willing to give all to hold back nothing. The ledger of a life laid down. And then I've enjoyed this. We have the longings of a heart laid bare. Isn't that interesting? If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
And what he's saying is I want to live a resurrected life. I want to live as one who has been raised in Christ to walk with him in newness of life. That's the meaning of these words. So you actually have the longings of a heart laid bare and you have the lessons of a past laid aside.
He's not going to trust in the past. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. He's not even taking credit as a believer. This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth into those things which are before, I press.
So that's the lessons from a past laid aside. And now you have the legacy of a hope laid up. I press. What does that mean, I press? It means this whole purpose, his whole being, his whole desire, his whole longing.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus again, the lofty one who came down, who is now ascended to the highest glory. And Paul's great longing is that he will be there with him in the glory to share glory with Christ, to have such a sense of his presence that it will not have to be by faith, but by sight.
Now, faith is a wonderful thing. Don't let me confuse you. To actually have faith in the word of God, to have faith in the Lord Jesus, to have faith in God is a wonderful thing. But because of our frailty, it's failing.
But the contrast is when faith gives way to sight. We will understand that all we had trusted in, all we had longed for, all we had prayed for, all we had hoped for is wondrous reality. That's what Paul is saying here.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And he's looking forward to that day when all this will be left behind, and he'll be in the presence of the Lord he has served so faithfully for so long.
Now, what we have actually been trying to teach from Philippians 3, and this isn't the first time we have touched on some of these verses, but what we are trying to teach is that we should live selflessly in a selfish world.
To live selflessly, not serving self, in a selfish world. That makes us quite different than the world around us, doesn't it? Instead of seeking something for self, to have the great desire for God's glory, for the honor of the Lord Jesus, for his blessing and honor above all else.
So, I trust God will bless his word to our hearts. Paul's desire was to live Christ. Paul's doctrine was to exalt Christ. Paul's devotion was to know Christ. And Paul's dependence was on the power of Christ.
And we can learn from that. So we ask God's blessing. Our Father, we look up to thee. Bless thy holy word. O God, help us to appreciate the Lord Jesus more. Help us to learn of him, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
O God, that we might understand more of what he suffered in our stead, and that we might love him more and serve him better and serve self less. Lord, help us to learn to put self in the place of death, to actually live in the power of the new life, and for Christ to live in us and manifest in us that which is for his glory and for the blessing of others.
We know if this is our personal experience, then we'll be used as blessing to others, even to the salvation of precious, priceless souls. God bless. Bless, we pray of thee, thy word that has been spoken.
Bless each believer here. Bless each assembly represented. Lord, we thank thee for these assemblies in Wisconsin. We thank thee for how they respond when there are days like these days here at Ontario.
And Lord, we ask thy blessing upon each assembly, that will keep them and preserve them and give them fruit for their labors and joy in seeing souls saved for eternity, as we give our thanks now in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.