Philippians 3:4-9

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An Exposition.

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So as a community, we come together for prayer for each other, and to be there for each other.
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So let's continue tonight in Philippians. We are continuing in Philippians chapter 3, and tonight we're going to look at Philippians chapter 4 -9.
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Last video we looked at Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 -3, and tonight we're going to look at verses 4 -9.
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Let me read that to us. If you have your Bible, I'd love for you to join me in the word.
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You can look, well, if you're watching the video on your phone, you can't really look it up on your phone, but you can use your
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Bible app on your phone and look in your Bible. I'd love for you to join me in the word, but we're in Philippians chapter 3.
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We're going to read verses 4 -9 and then discuss what's going on here in these verses.
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So chapter 3 verse 4, although I myself might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh,
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I far more. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
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But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ.
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More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my
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Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them, but rubbish in order that I may gain
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Christ. Verse 9 and maybe 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.
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So if you'll remember, looking back on chapter two, the huge theme at the beginning of chapter two, which drove us through chapter two, was the fact that Paul was exhorting us to exercise humility and the way to do that was to follow
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Christ's example, which was to empty ourselves. And so that theme of humility and practicing humility by emptying ourselves is going to continue.
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I see that continuing even through chapter three. And what Paul was addressing in chapter two,
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I see this theme transition and it continues on through chapter three, but in a kind of in a different area.
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And what I mean by that is it seems like what Paul is addressing in chapter two is the inner man, the spiritual nature of who we are and in our faith and our theology and our thinking and who we are on the inside.
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He's speaking to the to the inner man. And so that humility, that emptying of yourself is something that he is addressing that we do on the inside, where we have our emotions, where we have our thinking, where we have our beliefs, our theology, you know, all that stuff that happens on the inside in our heart or mind.
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Paul is saying in those areas, be humble, practice humility.
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And you do that by following Christ's example in emptying yourself.
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And you know, we've read these verses over and over where Paul says, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, the inside, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.
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Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So you know, they're in chapter two, the theme of humility, but speaking to the inner man, our spiritual nature.
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But then as we progress on to chapter three, that that theme of humility is being carried.
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I see it being carried over, but what's happening in chapter three is that Paul moves from speaking to the inward man, the spiritual nature of who we are, he begins to speak to them about what's going on on the outside, the material things, and he's making warnings about what's going on the outside.
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And their behavior, their activity, what they do, and also things coming at them, he's making warnings about.
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And we looked at those warnings in verses one through three that we did the video on last week.
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Let me look at this verse, verse 30 of chapter two, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient.
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Okay, I'm doing two Bible studies, and I'm getting them crossed up.
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So the verse that I'm thinking about is actually in the other Bible study. So you remember, in the last video, if you watched it, and if you join me in that video, we talked about, you know, these outside things coming at them, and he referred to them, he spoke up with boldness about these, and it was actual people, individuals, a group of people, and he used really, really tough language when he talked about these people.
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And in verse two, he says, beware of the dogs, and I'm not going to go back through the intent of these words in their original language, but if you'll go back and listen to that video, and see how incredibly rough and hard these words are, beware of dogs, be aware of the evil workers, and beware of the false circumcision.
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So these were really, not put -downs,
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I don't want to use the word put -downs, but really, it was just really strong language that he used to speak of these people who were coming against and trying to influence the church at Philippi.
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And maybe they were trying to be a part of the church at Philippi, but they were definitely trying to come at them and to influence them, be an influence to these people at the church of Philippi.
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And who were these people? Well, we learn that these people that he's talking about, and I think I mentioned it in the video before, they call them the
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Judaizers. These were the folks that he was talking about, that he was describing here in verse three, it's the
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Judaizers that were coming in and wanting to influence these
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Christians in the church at Philippi. And what was the problem with them?
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Well, these Judaizers, they had some form of belief in Jesus, but they also held to circumcision and keeping the law.
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So they taught, and Paul was saying, this is false teaching. They are false teachers.
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They are evil workers because they're mutilating the gospel because they were adding to Jesus when they wanted to hang on to circumcision and keeping the whole law perfectly.
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And he was warning against these false teachers, this false teaching using this strong language.
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So you may ask yourself the question, when I said chapter two was speaking of the inner man, and then chapter three is speaking more about the outside.
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And then now I'm saying that what he's actually warning them against is this doctrine, this teaching from the
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Judaizers. And doctrine and teaching is something that we meditate on and think of and believe in our hearts.
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And that is true. However, this doctrine, this theology that the Judaizers held on to and wanted to influence because they held on to this doctrine, they felt it true, and they wanted the church at Philippi to hang on to it too.
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They wanted to influence them to believe this way. But this theology, this doctrine that they were holding on to and trying to influence the church with is a doctrine and teaching that influences the outside.
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Because it's a theology, it's a doctrine based on works, works of the flesh.
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And so that drives Paul here into his next few verses speaking of himself.
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And just to note also, verses four through, let's see, four through six, right in there, we learn of what
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Paul loses. And then we kind of learn the same thing with that theme of emptying yourself in chapter two.
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It's more about, you know, through chapter two and then chapter three, it's more about what we're losing, what we're giving up when he talks about emptying yourself.
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And he uses that language because whatever's there is taken out.
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Therefore, if it's out, it's gone and it's empty. There's nothing there. And so, you know, in verse two, we're in chapter two, we're emptying ourselves to think of others more important than ourselves.
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We're just getting rid of ourselves and our pride and our self -righteousness and not thinking of ourselves, but thinking of our neighbor.
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I heard a pastor that I heard Sunday, he called it neighbor love. And I just like the way that that sounded and how that come across.
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That word order really sounds good to me and appropriate and is put in such a way that it helps us to think about what those words mean.
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And so he called it neighbor love. And so when we empty ourselves, you know, it's first and foremost about glorifying
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God, but he commands us. One of the commandments of Christ there is to love our neighbor as ourself being the second greatest commandment.
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So we empty ourselves to glorify God and for neighbor love. And then in chapter three, we empty ourselves of.
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Of these material, these things on the outside that we that we try to gain in the flesh, this doctrine, this theology that that leads us to to work righteousness, to gain things, to gain merit, to earn things, and it's an emptying ourselves of that.
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That we that we see here, so so inside we're empty.
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Chapter two inside we're empty, we're getting rid of the everything on the inside.
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And then in chapter three, we're getting rid of everything on the outside. And so we are completely empty and bankrupt.
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And then from starting in chapter eight through around verse eleven, we get to learn about what we gain.
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So we're going to stop in verse nine, but chapter verses eight through eleven, we get we begin to learn about what we gain.
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And then I kind of brought this up when I was speaking maybe in another video and also when
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I was speaking with Brother Pastor Jeff and we were talking about the fruits of the spirit and then the
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Philippians came up. And I and I talked about how when
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Paul empties himself, the way he he could make it through all the circumstances that he went through is because when he emptied himself, it made room to be filled with Christ.
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And of course, that's what happens in verses eight to eleven. And that's what it's all about.
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And he says it's all worth it. So let's let's look through let's look through these verses and see what
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Paul has to say to us through these verses. And like I said, if you have any questions, please shoot me a question.
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If you want to chat, talk about something dealing with with church or current circumstances, we can talk about what's going on in the church, any you know, any situation with the church.
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I'm open to to any question. I may not be able to answer it, but I'm open to any question. And and if you if you would like prayer.
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I and our brothers and sisters would love to be able to pray for you. So all you have to do is type me and we'll see that and we'll pray for you.
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So let's let's start in verse. Verse four, the end of verse three there, he kind of leads us into verse four.
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Well, let's just read verse three, for we have we we are the true circumcision. You know, you have these
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Judaizers that wanted to hang on the circumcision. But it's false. It's a false circumcision. And it this this theology and doctrine mutilates the gospel.
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And he says, for we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and in glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
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So he he doesn't call them out here by name. But Paul is when he's writing to the church at Philippi, he's indirectly speaking to them about the
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Judaizers because he's he's calling out their theology that he that they wanted to influence the church with.
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So he's indirectly calling them out by by calling out their theology. And you see how he makes those two things separate.
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Those are two separate issues. The Judaizers wanted to keep them together. They had some form of belief in Jesus and they wanted to hang on to circumcision and the law.
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But Paul makes them two separate issues. And they're like the north and south magnet. They don't go together.
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He says, we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.
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That's that's one thing. That's the good thing. We glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
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And that's the second thing. Confidence in the flesh, works, righteousness, trying to keep the law, circumcision, all these this works based religion, merit, trying to earn it.
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All this is false and wrong. And not only is it wrong, you can't even you can't even add it to Christ.
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It doesn't go together. You just have Christ, you glory in Christ Jesus alone.
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And so indirectly, he's speaking to these Judaizers. And and what they would teach the church there at Philippi, what what they wanted to influence them with is this doctrine and teaching.
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And say, you've got to you've got to do this and you've got to do that.
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Look at us as an example. Look at all the benefits and how great it is. Look at how great we are and the benefits that that we have by keeping the law.
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They they were drawing attention to themselves. So now that we've we know that Paul is pointing to to this group of people and and their their works based salvation.
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They're wanting to hold on to this, to the law and circumcision. Paul Paul begins to to direct their attention away from them to himself.
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He says, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.
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So these folks want to declare to you their righteousness.
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They want to declare to you how good they are, how holy they are, how wonderful they are.
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But they think that they're good. You think that they're good.
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You think that they're righteous. You think that they're holy. They think that they're holy. Paul is saying, let me tell you something.
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Listen up. I might have confidence even in the flesh if anyone else has a mind or some versions say thinketh and that word mind or thinketh there is a it means to judge.
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But it means to judge yourself, not other people. So so what he's doing, he's judging himself.
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And he says, I have, although I myself might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the in the flesh,
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I far more. I far more than any of these Judaizers, anyone over there in that group, all of them put together.
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Anybody that has any room to put confidence in the flesh, Paul is saying that it's me.
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So you want to look at it as an if you want to look at an example.
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Of someone who meets these requirements that the
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Judaizers want you want you to have. Look at me, Paul says.
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He says, and then he gives kind of like his his resume or credentials. He says, first of all, circumcised the eighth day.
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What was that a big deal? Well, the law told them the law told the Jewish folks that they were to be they those who had the
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Jews, the Israelites who had children, they were to circumcise them on the eighth day. What does that mean?
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Why is it a big deal? Well, because there were two other folks who would who would get circumcised.
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The other child of Abraham, the Ishmael and the Ishmaelites. Ishmael didn't get circumcised until he was 13.
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So the Ishmaelites, that's when they would get circumcised when they were age 13.
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And then if you were a proselyte, if you come from another nation of another religion, and you wanted to join the
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Jewish religion, you would you would come in and you would have to be circumcised as an adult to be able to join this religion being obedient to the law.
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And Paul is saying, I am of the true line of Abraham. I am a pure Jew who was circumcised on the eighth day.
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I'm not an Ishmaelite who had to wait till he was 13. I am not a proselyte, someone who is outside of the
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Jewish religion, Jewish nation, Jewish people who had to come in as an adult, convert and then become circumcised.
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He said, no, I am a pure Jew who was circumcised on the eighth day.
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And that was that was a sign that he was a, you know, pure Jew come from a pure Jewish heritage that they follow that custom when he was circumcised on the eighth day.
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So he's right up there at the top from the very beginning of the nation of Israel, whose name originally was
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Jacob of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
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So, you know, he wasn't he wasn't Ishmaelite. He was he was from Jacob.
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He was from Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. The pure line,
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God's line, God's promised line. And then he says, not only that, not only is he from the tribe of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel, he is from the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin of the 12 tribes have the greatest honor.
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And and and so him coming from the tribe of Benjamin would have elevated him in his status and his honor way up there because of the tribe that he came from.
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And in fact, when when the land was divvied out to the to the to the sons of Jacob, Benjamin, within his land, came
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Jerusalem, the holy city. And so his his lineage draws him up to a place of high honor and respect in the
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Jewish nation, in the in the nation of Israel, a
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Hebrew of Hebrews as as a law, a pharisee. Um, you couldn't get, you know, get any higher of a in status than a pharisee, someone who who was adamant about keeping
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God's law. And then as to zeal, and, you know, we kind of know that zeal means, you know, passion.
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And an active passion and another biblical term or another way that they would call this person would be a zealot.
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Someone who had great zeal, so much so and and they would the
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Hebrews here, the Israelites here, these these Judaizers, you know, the
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Jews at his time, they would have saw this as a good thing that he was a zealot, he had so much zeal, that he was a persecutor of the church, this this new religion that they hated.
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He was once on their side, and he persecuted the church. So they would have held him in in highest regard, because he was active in his pursuit against the church.
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And as to righteousness, which is in the law, found blameless.
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So in the eyes of man, his keeping his keeping the law was perfect in the eyes of man.
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We need to make that clear that in the eyes of man. But he says, in keeping the law, he was found blameless, blameless in the in the eyes of man.
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So you think these folks are good? You think these folks are holy? You need to pause and look at my credentials.
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And he he shows them who he is, and all that he is in in the eyes of a
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Jewish person. And then we get to verse seven. We'll see,
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I want to make sure that I covered everything. Okay, yeah.
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Now in verse seven, but whatever things were gain here, it's interesting that starting in verse seven,
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Paul begins to use like business language, and he's going to use the word gain, counted, or and loss, and he's going to use it in verses to come as well.
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So I just find it interesting that Paul begins to use business type language. And I'm not sure why it's going to take further study to look at why he begins to use that that type of language.
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Maybe it's something that they would have been in their culture familiar with in in in the marketplace.
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Maybe that's what they were known for. I'm not sure. I need deeper study into that why he would use business type language.
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But just so that you are aware, when you see that, for some reason, Paul begins here to use business type language.
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But whatever things were were gain to me, and he says, those things
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I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. So, so all these things, he this list of things that he just went through, that that were, you know, if you were a
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Jew at that time, and you had a list of if you were to think yourself as a
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Jew at that time, if I was to be the most well honored, well respected person in my society, in my culture, at this time, here, here's my list of number ones, these are the things
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I need to accomplish, these are the things I need to do. And Paul was that person. And he and it was just merit after merit after merit.
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I mean, one thing right after the other, he has, you know, this list here, not just one thing, but this this list here of things that he earned and became, and was by birth, that would have been the most positive thing that would have been seen in the eyes of a
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Jew at that time. So all these things that were that were gained to me, and notice that word were, were gain, this was my mindset before, when
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I was unsaved, when I was not a believer, when I was this zealot, a persecutor of the church at that time, these were gain to me past tense.
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Those things, he says, I have counted, and the word counter there is in the present tense.
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So there was there was a were there was a way he was in the past. And then there was a certain time in the past.
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Because in the present tense, it just simply means that it's something that was accomplished in the past, but continues to have effect or mostly present results, continue to have present results.
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It's ongoing, something that accomplished in the past with ongoing present results.
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So there was a past, there was a time, there was a line drawn in the sand, that he began to count all those things as loss.
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And that counting started and continues. He still has that same mindset, that all this that he he thought was gain, and he did count as gain in the past.
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He counts as loss. And it's interesting.
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And some people may ask, why, why do you look at the grammar and the tenses of the words, because it brings out so much more beauty into the text.
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And it helps us to understand what God, through the author, wanted the audience to understand and mean.
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We can look at these words and try to decipher them and, and make them mean and say, whatever we want them to say, it happens every day.
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You know, in your in your individual life, in maybe the type of church that you go to, with many of the pastors, or, or teachers on TV, it's it's reading out of the text, what you want it to say.
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And that's completely false. And it's completely wrong. And we cannot approach
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God's word that way. So by looking at the grammar, looking at the tense of the word, looking at the context, we begin to understand what
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God through the author was saying to the audience, and then therefore what God is saying to us.
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And it's not only not only is it beautiful, but more importantly, we're hearing
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God speak, and what he has to say, and not making it up on our own wisdom.
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But the word loss here is in the singular. So all these things that at one time, were gained to him, he begins to pile them up.
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If you were, if you were at a grocery store, and you put all your products on the conveyor belt, and they begin to come through.
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And the cashier takes them out one by one scans them, it adds the value, scan another one, it adds the value, scan another one, and as the value and then at the end, you get this total, this is how much you owe for your groceries.
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Well, that's that's what we can do here. And that's the picture that I that I think is being painted here, you have this accomplishment, you have this status, and this and this and this, it's scanned, you see the value, then it's totaled, then you have all this put together, and you and the grand total is this.
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And it's, it's all together, that word is in the singular, so all of it is put together.
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And we have one, one value, because of all the values added together, we have one great, tremendous value because of all these things put together.
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And now that it's together, he counts it as loss for the sake of Christ.
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Because even if you add all these things together and get a grand total, they are no where near the value of Christ.
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And that's what Paul saw saw when his eyes were opened, the value of Christ.
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And when he saw the value of Christ, he began to see that everything that he had accomplished, every status that he had within the
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Jewish community, all put together, all totaled, you've got the value, and there is no comparison to the value of Christ.
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That's why he says, I counted, and I continue to count all of these things put together as loss, complete loss for the sake, for the sake of Christ.
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Now, verse eight, more than that, I count, and so you have that, that present tense again, there was a time when it happened, and then it's continuing to happen.
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I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my
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Lord. So I count all things as loss, it happened, it's continuing. So if he would, if Paul would have held on to all these things that he had in his list, his accomplishments, his status, his resume, he would have lost the opportunity to appropriate
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Christ, to receive Christ, to appropriate Christ. And so that's why he counted and continues to count all things as loss.
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And what we need to understand even deeper, and also take this and apply it to our lives.
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This is, this part right here is, is so valuable to us in our, in our growing as a
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Christian, in our battle against the flesh, our battle against sin. And this is something that I need to learn that I need to take heart, is that, listen to the words, and it will, it will reveal to you what he's talking about.
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And it will, it will help us to understand what we need to do in our lives to be in the battle against sin and flesh.
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I count all things. I count, and this is something that we decided at one point in time, and has continuing rippling effect in our lives.
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I count, I counted and continue to count what?
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All things, all things, all things, everything.
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I cannot overemphasize that phrase. I count all things to be lost.
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So that if there's anything that might creep up as a temptation, where he may want to, to hold on to, to one of these things on his list, this, this status that he had as a
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Jew, this status has he, that he had as a Pharisee, as a zealot, as a, as a person who was blameless with the law, his status within his, his lineage, that his lineage gave him.
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If he wanted to, if he was tempted to, to go back and to, to hold onto any of those things, he comes back to this, this moment in time.
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I count and continue to count all things. So this is his sword and his shield against temptation that, and, and it, and it's got to be our sword and it's got to be our shield in, in our fight and battle against our sin and our flesh and the temptations that, that come at us.
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You have a, you have a sin that you're dealing with, a specific sin that you're dealing with, that, that I'm dealing with, that I need to address that, that keeps coming back up, that, that rears its ugly face.
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And, and we want to take hold of it. We, we need to block it.
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We need to handle it with our sword, with this knowledge, with this wisdom.
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As Paul did, I count you, you, you temptation to do this sin, you sin itself, whatever it is that the way you, you're thinking about someone else, that the, how you're, how you deal with relationships, whatever it may be that, that you deal with in your life, that you battle with in your life, it needs to be addressed and say,
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I count you because I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing
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Christ Jesus, my Lord. That is our weapon.
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That is our weapon to battle sin in the flesh is to view
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Christ as more valuable than having that particular thing in our lives.
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What an amazing picture, what an amazing example, and what an amazing word from God to teach us.
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And then the, the knowing Christ Jesus is Paul is speaking of an experiential, intimate companionship, yet communion and intimate companionship and communion with Christ.
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So he's, you know, this is a relational knowing, and this is the knowing that we can have because we,
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Christ abides in us and with us and he never leaves us and, and we can draw close to him through his word and through prayer and through, you know, defeating sin, whatever it may be.
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This, this relationship, this intimate companionship and communion with Christ is far greater than anything that we could grab back onto from our former life, from the sin that so easily entangles us.
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Christ is way more valuable in that relationship that we have with him. He says, for whom
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I suffered the loss of all things. And he's using that word all again, for whom
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I have suffered the loss of all things. So what does he mean there?
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Um, he, uh, he counts, he goes through this list of, you know, accomplishments of status that he has, that he counts as loss.
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But here he speaks of things that, that he lost.
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He, he suffered loss and, and this is another business term. You know, if you, um, you, you earn money in the, in the stock market and then it crashes and you suffer loss in the stock market, he, this is something that, you know, that he had, that he had to suffer, suffer the loss of it because of his turning towards Christ.
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The, the turning towards Christ caused the losing, caused the suffering of this loss.
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And, and, and what are those things? What are some of those things that, that he lost, that he suffered the loss of?
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Well, we can look at who he is. Um, Paul was from Tarsus.
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He was from, um, and this, this Tarsus was, was a wealthy community.
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It was, um, uh, it was the most progressive
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Oriental city, uh, one of the great cities at that time.
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And, and the families there, there were families there were, that were really wealthy and had really good reputations.
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And, and it was only those, those families that were, that were wealthy and had, um, these, these good reputations that could, um, retain their, their
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Tartian citizenship. And so because he retained that citizenship, that means he came from a, a wealthy, a well -to -do family.
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So he had a, he had a good family. He had, he come from money and his parents, we know that he, he come from good parents because they, they sent him, he's, they sent him and he went to the
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Jewish school of theology at Jerusalem under the teacher Gamaliel.
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And then he also trained in the Greek culture at the university of Tarsus.
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So he had this money, the means to be able to go to these places, the family that, that won't, that wanted him to succeed and, and be all that he could be.
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And he, and he became that, and he was that, and he had, he had all this status and, and wealth and, and good family.
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But because he turned to Christ, his family would disown him because he had joined this hated church that opposed this merit -based
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Jewish religion. He would, he would lose the, the, the access to, to the wealth, the, the respect from his, from his teacher, from, from the
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Jewish school. He would, he would lose the, the, the respect and honor from, from the
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Greek society, seeing as how, you know, they worship many gods, but here we worship,
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Paul worships one God, the Triune God, but the one
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God, the one true God. And so Paul, all these, all this material things, all these material things that he had and, and wealthy family and, and schooling and knowledge and, and respect in society,
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Paul says, I have suffered the loss of all things, of all, of all this that I had.
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I have suffered loss of all things. And he says, I count them but rubbish.
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That's what my translation says. I count them but rubbish. All this, all these things that, that went away because he turned to Christ, but in, in the eyes of the world, they were the greatest things that you could have.
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Money, being rich, coming from a great town, a great society, the best schools.
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He had everything. And yet he says, I count them as rubbish.
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And some translations say manure. And manure is, to me, when
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I look at it, when I, when I think about it in this context, it's, it's a good translation and it's, and it's a not so good translation.
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And I'll tell you why. The reason why it's, it's fitting is because it's, it's so not colorful, but, but, but so there's the imagery that comes along with, with using that word, the, the disgust that comes along with using that word manure.
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I mean, we wouldn't serve manure for dinner. We, you know, manure is one of the most disgusting things, you know, that we, that we could think of.
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And yet, so, so that would be kind of an appropriate word. And, and the word can mean that it can mean manure.
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So, so all these things that are, are wonderful and valuable to the world,
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Paul considered it manure compared to the value of knowing and being in a relationship with Christ.
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But here's why I think that's why I'm using the word manure is so good. But here's why it's not so good.
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Because manure can still have some value.
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Manure is used as fertilizer to grow gardens with.
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So there was, there is still some value to manure. So the harshest word that Paul could use here would not be manure in my simple minded opinion is because manure, as graphic as that is, it still has value because it can be used.
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The word that he's using here is a word that comes with that graphic imagery.
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And there's no part of it that can be salvaged or is useful.
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So all this that he gained, that he counts as loss, and all this that he had, that was of such high status to the world.
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He counts them, but something as graphic as manure, as disgusting as manure, but yet with zero redeemable value.
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The worst thing that you could ever imagine that has no use at all.
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That's what he considers all these things that he had in order that I may gain
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Christ. And there's that phrase right there is, is where I get and what
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I was talking about before. When, when we were speaking of in chapter two, emptying ourselves completely to others before ourselves, and then all these material things, this, this works based religion, and all this material wealth and value, emptying yourselves of that so that you are inside and out completely empty.
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He, Paul does this in order that I may gain, feel that which was empty with Christ.
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And so can we soak with this, this is for us. We don't need all these things.
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We don't even, we don't need to put ourselves first or think of ourselves. We need Christ in us and we need to be filled with Christ, completely filled with Christ and nothing of this other stuff, completely filled with Christ.
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And some translations use the word when that I may win
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Christ. And, and the book that I was studying suggested that this, this gaining
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Christ or winning Christ was not in a salvific sense, but more in a, when
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I'm, when I'm filled with Christ, all this is gone, everything is empty. And I'm filled with Christ.
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What I gain is his, his grace, his perfection, his mercy, his kindness.
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I gain all that Christ has to offer. It is now mine and it's in me and it's working through me.
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And that's the sense in which the book that I was studying suggests that Paul is going here.
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And then in verse nine, and I, and I'll try to wrap it up. I've been, I've been going a while.
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But verse nine, it says, 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.
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So what Paul want, what he wants his life to be and what he wants to reveal to the world about his life.
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When, when, when folks would see him, he doesn't want them to see a man who has gained righteousness through the law, but through faith in Christ, he lives this way.
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He, he lives righteously. And that's the man that he, that he wants the world to see.
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It is a man who is living by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
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That's what's going on here. And the righteousness, which comes from God on the basis of faith and, and the, the book that I'm studying wanted to remind us and suggest that the, the use of the word faith here is that, that faith that Christ kindles in us and that God works in us.
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And, you know, it makes sense because that, that's what Paul speaks of. In, in chapter two, verse 13, he says, for it is
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God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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So, so those things that, that happen within us that are, that are good and, and manifest themselves in us and out of us and that, that changes, that faith comes from God.
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It's a kindling and it's a working, it comes from God. And that's what's suggested here by this word.
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And there's one more application that I wanted to make at the end of our verses here, looking at chapter nine.
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And, and this application I think is so important. And I'd like for you to consider, consider this application and use it as we reflect on ourselves, me included.
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Paul wanted, Paul did not want to, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but my own, but that which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness through faith in Christ, not through the law, but through faith in Christ.
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So I think that we, we struggle with this.
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I think Paul struggled with this and he, he had to battle it and, and, you know, and look it in the face and say,
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I count all things. I count you as lost for the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
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And that's what we must do. But it's a battle for every single one of us deriving our own righteousness because of pride, because of self -righteousness.
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We, we want glory. We won't pat on the back. We want folks to, to, to look at us and say, look at what they've done.
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Look at how good they are. Look at what they've accomplished. So we, we lean towards naturally works of the law, merit -based religion because of all those things instead of righteousness through faith in Christ.
01:01:43
So what, how does that manifest itself? Because it can, it can be camouflaged and it can be difficult to see, which is, that's what
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I think camouflage means. So I apologize for it, for being repetitive, but it can be hard to see.
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It can be camouflaged and hard to discern where, where I'm coming from.
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If I'm, if I'm being introspective, if I'm looking at myself, it can be hard to see where I'm coming from, or it can be hard for others to see where you're coming from.
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Are you coming from righteousness by works of the law or righteousness through faith in Christ?
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By this behavior, which direction are you coming from?
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And I think if we can examine our behavior, how that, see, this, this is a, this is something that happens on the inside and then it manifests itself.
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So we, we look at our behavior and we can tell what's going on on the inside.
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Is it, is it righteousness through works of the law or is it righteousness through faith in Christ? And, and so what behavior do we need to look for?
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And I thought about this. We, as believers, true believers, we followers of Christ, we have a, we have certain beliefs.
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Some of them, some of them are, we, we get not from the
01:03:22
Bible, but we get from tradition. This is, this is the way it's always been.
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This is the way our families have always done it. This is the way our church has always done it. This is, you know, this is just something that, that I believe and it doesn't need to change because, you know, it's, it's right.
01:03:45
And so we, we share that truth. It could, it could be that, that was an example, but also it could be, um, and like I said, this, this belief that we hold on to could be from outside of the
01:04:02
Bible, could come from tradition. Um, but for some reason we, we hold on to it tightly, but then also, and the same thing would be true of a doctrine or teaching that comes from the
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Bible that is accurate and true. Um, here, here's a, an easy example.
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Um, the Bible says, which is, which is true in the Old Testament and New Testament, the Bible says, um, do not, um, do not steal.
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We use that one as an example that it, that is true from scripture. It is, is a true doctrine teaching and, and it's a belief that we hold as Christians do not steal.
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And, and there's, and we're right in holding that doctrine, that teaching. And then we have, you know, some, sometimes we have beliefs that, that come from tradition.
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Either way, both happen in our lives. And so we want to, um, discuss those truths.
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We want to share those truths or those truths are, um, um, tested by someone else.
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Someone comes into our church and the, and they test this belief, um, uh, concerning this tradition that we had, or they, they challenge this belief from scripture that we have.
01:05:32
Sometimes it's right. Sometimes it's wrong. What we're, what we're concerned with right now is, is the testing of that belief that we have.
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After we're tested by this person, we then have a response.
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If our response is harsh, negative, if our response is, is anger, um, if, uh, if our response is, you know, is any way negative toward that person.
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And, and then also another response we have towards, um, maybe not a person who is testing us.
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And I know this is a long example, but I, but I think it's worth it to think through it. Um, not just a person who was testing us, but you want to share this, this truth, whether it be a tradition or whether it be a doctrine from scripture, you want to share this truth with someone else.
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And at that point, they just don't get it, or maybe they believe something else.
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Look at how you respond to that person that you want to, to shape and to form in the image of that belief.
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Think about how you respond to that person who is testing your belief, your doctrine.
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Are we harsh? Are we coming at them because we want them to, to form to our image, our ideals?
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If that's our attitude toward other people, to want them to conform to our ideals, to our image, if our doctrines, if our traditions are tested, and we are harsh and aggressive and abrasive toward those people, then
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I believe that we are looking at a hard attitude in us that is coming from trying to have righteousness derived from the law.
01:08:06
And you say no, no, no, no way, no, no way I have faith in Christ. But that attitude, that behavior is showing what your attitude is in your heart.
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And that type of attitude is an attitude of trying to have righteousness derived from the law.
01:08:24
You can't get around it. Then on the other hand, if you have someone who's testing your beliefs, you have, you have someone that you approach that you want to share your beliefs with.
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And you show grace. And you show kindness. And you show patience with them.
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Number one, because you remember the gospel, you remember who you were before Christ. You remember what what
01:08:58
Christ forgave you of. And second, you show them grace, and mercy, and kindness, and patience, because you know that it's not going to be you that changes their heart.
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It's going to be the Holy Spirit, who was the only one who was able to change my heart and your heart.
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And if you have that attitude in you, then you can be sure that you have the attitude of righteousness through faith in Christ.
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You're trusting in righteousness of Christ, and letting his Holy Spirit work through you.
01:09:46
I hope that was understandable. And I hope I hope you could see the difference. Because that is, this is truly, truly an important thing in in our arsenal.
01:10:00
In battling sin and the flesh is recognizing these behaviors, and knowing what is going on on the inside.
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I hope that was helpful. I hope that was encouraging. If there's anyone out there that doesn't know
01:10:20
Christ, has not yet seen the value of knowing Christ and being his is worth more than anything this world has to offer.
01:10:31
I pray that God would open your eyes. I pray that you would see your sin and its sinfulness, and that you would turn from your sin.
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Repent and turn from your sin, and turn towards Christ. Trust in him. Trust in his righteousness to make you right before God.
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And receive him as your Savior. Trust him as your Savior, and receive him as your
01:10:58
Lord. He is our King. And one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord. And let's do that now, while he is calling us, while today is the day of salvation.
01:11:14
Let's rest in him today. So repent of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If I can pray for you, just let me know.
01:11:23
I'd love to be able to do that. If you're, if you're so willing, would you like this video?
01:11:31
Would you share this video? I'm not a very good teacher, but the the words of God here are so important.
01:11:46
I would love to be able to share these words from God with as many folks as possible.
01:11:54
Christians and especially Christians, but Christians and unbelievers, everyone just want to reach our community with the word of God and the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
01:12:07
So would you partner with me in doing that? Would you help me do that? So let me go ahead and close this in prayer.
01:12:14
Father, we thank you for allowing us to spend this time together. This is a wonderful thing that you've given us.
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You were so kind and gracious and blessed us in so many ways. Father, help us to look at our behavior.
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Help us to be able to judge ourselves and see where our heart is.
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See where we need to repent. Father, will you grant us repentance and work faith in our hearts that we may have
01:12:52
Christ and that Christ may, that we may be able to appropriate Christ and all that he has and all that he has to offer so that the world may see righteousness through faith in Christ and glorify you the
01:13:10
Father through the Son and honor the Son through our lives that you're working through.
01:13:21
Father, would you use us to grow your kingdom, to build your kingdom for your glory? Father, thank you for your word.
01:13:29
Father, I continue to ask and pray for our first responders and emergency workers that you would keep them safe as they go out and as they work to save lives, to protect, to save property.
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Father, we thank you for giving us, giving them to us and using them and giving the courage to do what they do.
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We thank you for them. Father, we pray all these things in Jesus name.
01:14:01
Amen. All right. Thank you for watching. Really appreciate it. Remember that Jesus is king.
01:14:08
Go live in that victory and let's continue to get out there and preach the gospel. Hope to see you soon.