Will you please turn to the letter to the Philippians, chapter 3? We will read from verse 7 to verse 16.
But what things were gain to me, these I counted, on account of Christ, loss.
But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; on account of Whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which would be on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ—the righteousness that is of God through faith—
to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
if anyway I arrive at the out-resurrection from among the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing: forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.
But whereunto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps.
May we commit His Word back to Him.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy precious promise: “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” By faith, we know that Thou art here with us, and we do praise and thank Thee that Thou art One who delights to reveal Thyself, to speak Thy Word to us.
So, Lord, we are all here, waiting to hear from Thee what Thou hast to say to us. We do look to Thy Holy Spirit to bring Thy Word into our hearts and make Thy words life and spirit to us, that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The burden that the Lord has put upon my heart is in verse 15 and verse 16—actually, only two phrases.
In verse 15: “As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded. And if ye are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.” I want to underline just two words: thus minded.
And then verse 16: “But whereunto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps.” Just underline: walk in the same steps.
Brothers and sisters, here you find two things: mind and walk. These two things are joined together. You cannot, and you should not, separate these two things. Mind determines walk, and walk expresses mind.
In our Christian life—in Christian growth—these two things are very vital. What is in our mind? What is our mind set upon? And how about our walk? Do we walk according to what we mind?
You remember in Romans 8:5-8, it is said:
They that walk according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh;
and they that walk according to the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit.
The minding of the flesh is death,
and the minding of the Spirit is life and peace.
So you find here: what we set our mind on will decide how we walk. It is very important to have the right mind, because that will determine how we walk and where we walk towards.
This morning we will focus our attention on “thus minded.” The apostle Paul says, anyone who is perfect—or anyone who aims to be perfect—must be thus minded.
Now, the word perfect in the Scripture, I believe we all know, does not mean sinless perfection, because there is no one except our Lord Jesus who is sinlessly perfect. But the word perfect in the Bible means mature, full-grown, growing up.
Now, if anyone desires to grow up spiritually—if you are contented to be just babes in Christ throughout your life, then these words are not for you. But if you really desire to grow up spiritually, then this is for you.
I wonder if there is any baby who does not want to grow up. I remember many years ago when my little sister and a little cousin—they were maybe four or five at that time—sat on the steps of the stairway. I overheard them talking to each other, and they felt sorry for themselves because they found that their grown-up brothers and sisters could do many things that they could not do.
So I believe every young child wants to grow up. Maybe the grown-up wants to be young, but all the young children want to grow up. And spiritually speaking, this is the right aspiration: we want to grow up, to be perfect.
If anyone desires to be perfect, the apostle Paul says he needs to be thus minded. That is to say, he must have the same mind that the apostle Paul is describing in Philippians 3. Now, if you are otherwise minded, then the Lord will remind you: this is the kind of mind that you must have.
So, brothers and sisters, our mind is very, very important.
Now, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, do you realize what happens? According to Ezekiel 36:26, the Lord said:
I will put a new heart into you,
and I will put a new spirit within you;
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you a heart of flesh.
In other words, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He gives us a new heart. Formerly, our heart was a stony heart. That means that our heart was hard, insensitive towards God and towards spiritual things. But now He replaces it with a heart of flesh—tender, sensitive to the touch of the Holy Spirit.
Now, in the Old Testament, you do not find the word conscience, but you find the word heart. So in the Old Testament, the heart actually is what we would call, in New Testament terms, conscience.
You remember once David cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, and the Bible says his heart smote him. In other words, his conscience was so sensitive because of his communion with God that, even when he was doing that thing, his conscience bothered him. He felt uneasy. He should not do that.
So in the Old Testament, the heart really speaks of our conscience. Now, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He gives us a new heart—a heart that is tender, soft, sensitive to the touch of God; a heart that begins to love God and love the things that God loves. This is what happens when we believe in the Lord Jesus.
Now, how about our mind? As a matter of fact, the very word repentance means a change of mind.
Formerly, your mind was set upon the world, earthly things, unseen things. You went for the pleasures of things. But now, being convicted by the Holy Spirit, you begin to change your mind. You begin to see the sinfulness of sin, the ugliness of sin. You hate sin. You do not want to sin anymore.
And you begin to turn towards things spiritual and eternal. You repent of what you did before, and you turn your heart towards God, towards the Lord. You ask for forgiveness of your sin. You receive the Lord Jesus by faith as your Saviour. A change of mind has happened.
Now, that is repentance, and no one can believe in the Lord Jesus without repentance. We repent. We see the need of a Saviour, and thus we believe in Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of the world. Without repentance, without a change of mind, you will not be able to be saved.
But the thing is, even though repentance is a change of mind, unfortunately that change is often superficial and transitional. It is not drastic, thorough, and permanent.
In the beginning days of your Christian life, you seem to live by your heart and not by your mind. In other words, when you first believe in the Lord Jesus, you have such a love relationship with the Lord that you live your first days in love, by your heart. You do not go by your mind.
Formerly, you lived by your mind. You thought, you considered, you weighed things, you reasoned, and you decided what to do. But during the first days of your Christian life, it seems as if you have forgotten your mind. You do not reason anymore. You do not calculate. You just live by your heart.
You love the Lord, and you want to do everything to please Him. Your mind seems to take a back seat, and your heart is driving you onward. Now, if this would continue forever, how blessed that would be.
You know, this is the reason why the Lord says that you have to be converted and become like a child, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. A child lives by his heart. But a grown-up, unfortunately, lives by his mind, his reasoning.
But before very long, you find that your old mind begins to assert its power over your life again. You discover that gradually, probably pretty soon. You begin to reason again. You begin to consider, to calculate whether it is beneficial to you or whether it will cost too much.
And you find that your old mind has reasserted its power over your life. Old habit is very hard to break.
So, brothers and sisters, in order to really live a Christian life and to grow spiritually, you need the renewing of your mind. Because when you are first saved, you have a new heart, but you still carry an old mind.
So what you need is a new mind—the renewing of your mind. In other words, you need to see things differently, to weigh things differently. What you considered precious before, you will look at as loss. What things you did not value much before, you will begin to value very much, so that you really desire them.
A renewing of your mind is an absolute necessity to Christian growth.
Now, brothers and sisters, the question is: has your mind been renewed? Are you still thinking the old way, the way that you used to think before you were saved? Or do you now think very differently? What is your mind set upon?
Our mindset is very, very important. If you set your mind on the things of the flesh, then you walk according to the flesh, and that is death—spiritual death. But if you set your mind on the things of the Spirit, then you are spiritually alive.
Now, brothers and sisters, under the light of God, examine yourselves. See whether, after you have believed in the Lord Jesus, your mind has been renewed. Are you still thinking in a way that worldly people think, that you used to think? Or do you see things now very differently? What is your present situation?
Now, how can our mind be renewed? You cannot change it yourself. Somebody else has to do it for you. But there is one condition.
The condition is this: unless you present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is holy, acceptable to God, and is your reasonable service—your spiritual worship—the Holy Spirit does not have the liberty to change your mind, to renew your mind.
So what the Lord is waiting for you today is your consecration.
Now, brothers and sisters, you must have heard of consecration before, many times probably. But you need to understand that consecration is our first Christian experience.
A saved person who has never presented his body a living sacrifice has not begun his Christian walk at all. He is a Christian, but he has not walked a step. Consecration is the first Christian experience.
That is why you find in Romans 12, after Romans 1 through 11, the mercies of God are presented—all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful salvation, wonderful work, complete work, finished work He has done for us.
Not only the forgiveness of our sins and justification, but sanctification and glorification. Everything that God has purposed for us in Christ Jesus has been done by our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross—the manifold mercies of God.
And then, from Romans 12: “Therefore.” Let us be moved by the mercies of God, and voluntarily—this is the first thing that we do in response to everything God has done in Christ Jesus for us—present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Now, brothers and sisters, have you done that? Have you put your all on the altar and said, “Lord, this is all Yours. I give up my right to myself. I give up my right to live for myself. I give myself completely.”
The body represents the whole being—spirit, soul, and body. “I present my whole being to You as a living sacrifice.” That is, it is a sacrifice. When you sacrifice something, it gets out of your hand. You no longer hold on to it. You lose your right, your possession of it.
It belongs to Somebody else now. You sacrifice it to God, to the Lord who so loved you and redeemed you. You sacrifice yourself; you give yourself to the Lord and say, “Now, Lord, it is Yours. It is all Yours. I have no right over myself. I do not possess myself anymore. You possess me. You only have every right over me. You can do anything You like with me.”
A living sacrifice: daily, you live under that condition. Now, that is consecration. Have you done that?
If you have never done it before, may the love of Christ constrain you, that you cannot delay your consecration anymore.
Now, if you have done it, are you still on the altar? Have you climbed down? Are you a living sacrifice? That is to say, are you still living as a sacrifice? Or have you gone back and lived for yourself, possessed yourself, and exerted your own right over your own life?
Now, brothers and sisters, consecration is the first Christian experience, and it is the last Christian experience. In other words, it is a daily experience.
Now, if this is true with you, then the Holy Spirit will renew your mind. You do not need to worry about how to change your mind; you cannot.
Just as you cannot lift yourself up, you cannot do it. But one thing you can do, and you must do: daily, live as a sacrifice. That is the way you live—not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today.
And if this is the case, then today your mind is renewed, and it will be renewed day by day, progressively. According to your renewed mind, you will begin to see very differently.
Look at the apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He tells us how, in the past, he set his mind on the things of the flesh.
He was proud of his Jewish origin, of his degree, of his achievement in Judaism. He set his mind, probably, to be the great rabbi of Israel.
You know, he sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and Gamaliel at that time was a great rabbi. He was the grandson of Hillel. Among the Jewish rabbis there were two schools, and Hillel was one of those schools. Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, and Saul sat at his feet and learned from him.
He was more advanced than his contemporaries because he set his mind to be a great rabbi. So he walked after it, and he achieved a very high place. He was almost there, and he took pride in it. That was everything he wanted. That was gain to him.
In order to gain that, he was willing to sacrifice all the other things. Other young people might be playing, but there he was, studying at the feet of Gamaliel. That was his mind, his mindset.
And he set his mind on the goal. He persecuted the believers of Jesus Christ because he considered Jesus an impostor of Judaism who should be wiped out. He was so serious that he even went to Gentile cities to seize those disciples of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem to be condemned.
When Stephen was stoned to death, he was the ringleader of these murderers. That also was his mindset. He was almost inhuman.
He was such a moral person. He kept all the letters of the law, and yet he was so inhuman. He went into houses, took women and children, put them in prison, sentenced them, and he was happy when Stephen was stoned to death. Think of that mindset.
But the Lord touched him. Evidently, at the martyrdom of Stephen, his conscience was touched. He saw something that was heavenly and real. A person could die in such a way. Stephen saw the heavens opened, the Son of Man standing there waiting to welcome him home.
And before he died, he asked, “Lord, forgive them.” That must have touched Saul very deeply. His conscience was bothered. But in order to silence his conscience, he doubled his effort to persecute believers. He hardened his heart against it, because his mindset was to be on the top of Judaism.
But thank God, the Lord allowed him to go only so far—to the limit. He almost arrived at Damascus, and the light from above smote him.
He heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
“I have a purpose for your life. You are to serve My purpose. It is hard to kick against the goads. You only hurt yourself. You cannot overcome Me. I am mightier than you are.”
And Saul said, “Lord, You are Lord. I was lord before, but now You are Lord. Who are You?” And the voice said, “I am Jesus, Whom thou persecutest.”
The next question he asked was, “Lord, what shall I do?” I knew what to do before. I had set my goal, and I walked towards my goal. I almost reached there. But now I am lost. I do not know what to do now. Tell me. You are the Lord. I give up my right to myself. My future is Yours. I cannot decide what to do. Lord, what do You want me to do?
Brothers and sisters, at the very time he was converted, he presented his body a living sacrifice.
And because of this, there was the renewing of his mind. So, from what we hear in his testimony in Philippians 3, he says, “What things were gain to me, these I counted on account of Christ loss.”
Suddenly his inner eyes were opened. He saw that all the things he considered as gain were actually loss. And the reason was on account of Christ.
When he saw Christ, the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ made everything in this world not only loss, but filth. They were filthy. These were no longer gain to him; they were loss to him. Why loss? Because they hindered him from gaining the real thing: Christ.
Do you regret that you believed in the Lord too late? I have never heard a person regret that he believed in the Lord too early, wishing that he had believed only at the moment of death. I have never heard it.
But I have heard many people say how they regretted that they did not believe in the Lord earlier. Why? Because all these things that they considered as gain were actually loss.
How much better if you let these things go earlier, that you may gain Him more. There is nothing that can be compared with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, what a change of mind! And it was permanent to the apostle Paul. It was drastic, and that changed the course of his walk completely. He was willing to suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ.
What was his mind set on? He was set to gain Christ.
You remember in Colossians 3:1-5, Paul says:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
For ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Christ is your life.
Brothers and sisters, are you still seeking the things below, or are you seeking the things above? Are you still minding the things of the flesh—the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the world?
Are you still setting your mind on these things? “How can I be successful in this world? How much can I gain in this world? What glory can I have in the eyes of the world?”
Are these earthly things still attractive to you? Do they still seem as gain? Or do you look at these things as loss? You spend your time, your energy, your life on these things—is it worth it?
And all the time, you are not seeking Christ, the unsearchable Christ.
Seek the things that are above. Now, what are the things above? It says, “where Christ is.” Where is Christ? Christ is now at the right hand of His Father.
The things above are the things that concern Christ. Anything that is not related to Christ, anything that is not of Christ, is not a thing above.
Or, to put it another way: seek Christ. Seek all that is of Christ. Anything that is of Christ is a thing above, a thing spiritual. Anything that is not Christ, not of Christ, is earthly—a thing of the flesh.
Now, what are you seeking? Where do you set your mind? Is your mind set on Christ?
I need to ask myself: where do I set my mind? What do I really seek for? Is it self—me? “What about me? What happened to me? What can I gain for myself?”
Or is it Christ? “What can Christ gain in me? What place do I give to Him? Is it He who lives in me, or I who live in me? Is He magnified in my life, or is it I who is manifested in my living and even in my death?”
Now, brothers and sisters, it is not a matter of things. It is a matter of a person. Whom is your mind set on: the person of yourself, or the person of Christ?
If you read carefully, you will find that the apostle’s “to know Him” is different. In the past, he wanted to know all about Judaism, all about rabbinical teachings, all about the traditions of the fathers, all about the Old Testament law.
All the letters of the law—he tried to keep every one of them. According to the righteousness of the law, he was blameless. Such a person, but he never met God.
Now, he was not looking for just some teaching, some doctrine of Christianity. He wanted to know a Person—Christ Himself. It is experiential knowledge.
How much of Christ do you really know and really experience? Is He the One upon whom you set your mind?
Brothers and sisters, are you thus minded? If you want to be perfect, that is the only way. And if you are otherwise minded, God will remind you. This is the mind that ought to be ours. Are we thus minded?
Formerly, Paul sought for righteousness according to law—his own righteousness. But now he said, “That is a loss.” He had the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. “Christ is my righteousness. I have no righteousness of my own, but Christ is my righteousness.” And he experienced it.
Brothers and sisters, I believe this is true with all of us. But is that all? Is that all you know about Christ—justification by faith?
Now, thank God for that. That is great. So far as the world is concerned, there is nothing greater than that. But so far as God is concerned, it is just the beginning.
To know Him—because He has justified me, because He has clothed me with His righteousness, because He enables me to go to God the Father—therefore, I want to know Him more.
To know the power of His resurrection. Brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by death. Not only surrounded by death, but death is even in us. We are facing death every moment of our life. The wages of sin is death.
We are tempted to sin, and death may come into our life. The world, the things of the flesh, self—these are death, unclean. We are literally living among death and with death even within us.
Do you feel the deadening power over your daily life? The outside forces are pulling you to death, and even inside, the fifth columnist is there trying to work.
That is why we need to know the power of His resurrection. Christ is your life, and His life is resurrection life.
You will find that the things you cannot overcome, He overcomes in you. Because resurrection is life out of death. He goes into death, robs death of its power, and comes out in glory. Brothers and sisters, that should be our daily experience.
We daily experience the power of His resurrection, and that is knowing Christ. It is not teaching, it is not doctrine, it is not Christianity—it is life. It is a Person living daily in you. If you allow Him to live out from you, that is resurrection. But if you live by yourself, there is death.
So Romans 8 says that if we live according to the flesh, then we die. But if we live by the resurrection power of Christ, we live, because it is Christ who lives in us. This is a daily experience of knowing Christ.
Then he says, “Being conformed to His death.” Now, when I read this, I think it should be the reverse: conformed to His death first, and then the power of His resurrection. How can you not experience death before you experience resurrection? That is our human logic.
But the spiritual logic is: knowing the power of His resurrection, then being conformed to His death. Because if you do not know the power of His resurrection, when you go to death, you are finished. Nothing comes out on the other side.
When nothing comes out on the other side, well, experiencing one death is enough. You dare not be conformed to His death.
Now, what is conformity? In Romans 12:2, it says, “Do not be conformed to this age.” Formerly, we were conformed to this age—the current, the fashion, the present way of life. We conformed to it. We wanted to be what they were.
Formerly, we were conformed to this age, but now we are to be conformed to His death. What a difference.
His death—what is His death? His death is death to everything, anything that is not of God. It is an all-inclusive death.
When Christ died, He not only died to sin and to the power of sin, but to the world, to the flesh, to the enemy, to anything that is not of God. He died to all these things. So what remains is God alone, Christ alone.
Now, that is being conformed to His death. You dare to be conformed to His death if you know the power of His resurrection.
To Paul, this was gain. This was everything. And with this, he might arrive at the out-resurrection from among the dead. In other words, he would have a part in the first resurrection, which means that one day he would reign with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is the mind of Paul. He says, “They who are perfect are thus minded.”
Now, does it mean that, because of this, Paul had arrived? He said, “No. I have not arrived yet.” Why? “Because I want to possess all that I have been possessed of by Christ.”
In other words, our Lord Jesus has a purpose in each of our lives. He wants to possess us fully according to His purpose. And Paul said, “I want to possess it. I do not want to possess a little less than what I have been possessed of by Christ Jesus.”
That was his mindset. Not because I have possessed a little bit of what He has possessed me for am I satisfied. He said, “No. The Lord of glory has such a glorious purpose for me. I want to possess it all.”
Therefore, I do not consider myself as having arrived already. I am pursuing. I am running. I am walking for it—for the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, we have a high calling, and that calling on high is the whole goal. What is that high calling? The calling on high is to be like Him.
You know, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him.” That is God’s purpose for all of us: that we may be like Christ, just like Him. His character becomes our character. It is He living in us, expressed through us.
That is the body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. It is a glorious church, to be an eternal bride of the Lamb upon the throne. Brothers and sisters, this is the goal.
You know, there is a hymn:
My goal is God Himself,
not joy, nor peace, nor even blessing,
but Himself, my God.
’Tis His to lead me there,
not mine, but His—
at any cost, dear Lord,
by any road.
And that is the right mindset.
What is the prize? Christ is the goal, and the prize is gaining Christ. That is the prize. You gain Him by losing yourself. You gain Him by allowing Him to be your all. That is the prize you get, and it is a priceless prize.
Do you think it is worth paying any cost, by any road? The apostle Paul thought it was worth it. How about you? How about me? May the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we thank Thee for Thy servant Paul. Thou hast so attracted him. Thou hast so revealed Thyself to him that he counted all things as filth, as loss, and he minded only to gain Thee. How much Thou hast rewarded him with Thyself.
Lord, we feel ashamed. We come to Thee this morning, exposing ourselves to Thy light. Oh, search our hearts. See if there is any evil within us.
We pray that Thou wilt turn our minds completely to Thee. There is nothing more precious than Thyself. All things will pass away, but, Lord, Thou art eternal. Thou art the only real, living God.
Oh, how we praise Thee that Thou dost want to give Thyself to us. And yet, Lord, we are seeking the things. Forgive us.
We pray that Thy Holy Spirit will touch our hearts. We pray that there will be a drastic, a permanent change of our minds—a renewing of the spirit of our minds—that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.
Lord, we trust Thee to do this work in each one of us. Do not let us go away. Lord, clear our minds that we may really see Thy value, that we may devalue all the things that we valued before.
And to Thee be all the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.