But what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, our hearts bow in worship. We praise and thank Thee for Thy amazing love toward us.
Lord, we do desire to be so constrained by Thy love that we will not live again for ourselves, but only for Thee, the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we ask that Thou wilt, by Thy Holy Spirit, once again open our eyes, that we may see the value of Thyself. Lord, Thou art more valuable, much more incomparable, than anything in this world.
Lord, give us the desire to gain Christ, even to the loss of all things. We commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thy Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Yesterday morning, we read that verse in Matthew 16, where our Lord Jesus Himself teaches us about this matter of spiritual value.
For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?
In other words, in the eyes of our Lord, a soul is worth much more than the whole world. I think it is very difficult for us to accept that. How can a soul be more valuable than the whole world?
But this is how the Lord looks at things. This is the way that God values. His valuation is very different from ours.
We mentioned yesterday morning that the One who determines value is not ourselves, but God. You know, strangely, from our own experience, value varies with different people.
One may look at one thing as very valuable and be willing to pay a high price for it. But the very same thing, to another person, may not be that valuable, or even of no value. It is as if value is determined by the beholder.
And because of this, you find that things on this earth, so far as value is concerned, are all relative. There is no absolute thing in this world. With human beings, with our eyes, everything is relative.
But we know that the One who determines value is not in us; it is in God. God Himself is the supreme value.
In the things that He created, He invests certain values in His creation. As a matter of fact, value is that measure of God in a thing or in a person.
If there is more of God, more manifestation of God—manifestation of His glory, of His wisdom, of His character—then that thing or that person has more value.
But if a thing does not manifest God—His glory, wisdom, power, or character—then, no matter what that thing or person may be, spiritually speaking, there is no value there.
Brothers and sisters, when God created things, He put value in everything because it came out of His hand. The created things show us the divinity and the power of God, and that is their value.
And we human beings were created in the image of God. Therefore, human beings are more valuable than other created things.
But today, because sin has entered into this world, this whole matter of value, so far as we are concerned, is distorted and turned upside down.
The Bible says that the natural man does not receive the things of God, because they are foolishness to him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So, brothers and sisters, we find that, so far as human beings are concerned, so far as our natural man is concerned, we are not really able to see clearly what value really is. Where is value? What is more valuable? Sin has blinded our eyes.
You remember in John 9, our Lord Jesus healed a man born blind.
And because He did it on the Sabbath, the Pharisees were angry about it. They even cast that blind man, who was healed, out of the synagogue. They excommunicated him because he was healed by the Lord on the Sabbath.
The Bible says that the Lord found him. The Lord knew that he was excommunicated, so the Lord went to find him and asked him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” And he said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe on Him?” The Lord said, “Thou hast both seen Him, and He it is that speaketh with thee.” And he bowed down and worshipped the Lord.
Then you remember the Lord said something. He said that those who think they see continue in sin, but the blind are healed. And when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “Are we blind also?” The Lord said, “If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see; your sin remaineth.”
Brothers and sisters, if we think we see, if we think we know what spiritual value really is, we continue in sin.
But if we come to the point of realizing that we are blind, that we have been blinded by the god of this world, then we have the chance to really see, to know what real value is.
Yesterday we mentioned that our Lord Jesus came into this world not only to teach us what real value is; He also demonstrated it in His own life. Throughout His life, His sense of valuation was totally different from that of the world. That is the reason why people simply could not understand Him—not even His disciples could understand Him—because His way of valuing things was so different from everybody else.
But God not only came to teach and demonstrate true value; He also came to restore us to true value. It is by the cross that He restored us, and through the cross He brings us into spiritual value.
Now, that is what we shared together yesterday morning. This morning, we would like to use a person’s life to illustrate that principle. Yesterday morning, we spoke about spiritual value in principle, but this morning we would like to share together on spiritual value in practice.
We see how, in a person’s life, this matter of spiritual value is solved. And, of course, immediately you know we are talking about Paul.
This man, Saul—formerly his name was Saul—was named after the first king in Israel. Saul was born in Tarsus. It was a Gentile city, but he was born a Roman. He was a free man.
You know, during his days it was the Roman Empire. The Romans conquered the world, and they had more slaves than freemen. Those who were conquered by the Romans were slaves, and only the Romans were freemen.
But there were certain cities and certain people who were given the privilege of Roman citizenship. Saul was born free. He was born a Roman, with the privileges of a Roman citizen. In that time, this was a tremendous thing. In other words, he was politically correct.
Saul was born in Tarsus, and during that time, even politically it belonged to Rome; but culturally, it belonged to Greece. You know, Greek culture was the culture of those days.
So when he grew up, he received Greek culture. He knew Greek philosophy. He was brought up in that kind of environment, and it was a thing to boast of. So we may say he was culturally correct, not a barbarian.
And probably, when he was twelve, because he said he was of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and circumcised on the eighth day—in other words, he was a typical Jew.
He was not like Ishmael. You know, Ishmael was circumcised at sixteen. But God’s ordained time for circumcision to the children of Abraham was the eighth day. On the eighth day, a male child had to be circumcised. Saul was circumcised on the eighth day.
And he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Probably it is because, when Israel was divided into two parts, the northern ten tribes became the nation of Israel, and the southern tribe of Judah, together with the tribe of Benjamin, became the nation of Judah. So, in other words, he belonged to that nation which had never been divided out from the original one.
And he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Now, what does that mean? We are told that a Hebrew of Hebrews means that he was not only born in a Hebrew family, but in that family their spoken language was Hebrew.
Many were born in Hebrew families living outside the promised land, and because they were surrounded by Greek culture, they did not speak Hebrew in the family. They spoke Greek or other dialects. But Saul belonged to a family that spoke Hebrew in the family. So it was very kosher, very, very correct. You would find that he was racially correct.
And probably at the age of twelve, because during those days a boy would go through a ceremony, a bar mitzvah, and that boy became a son of the law. In other words, he was considered grown up, responsible for his actions, and became a member of the synagogue. He had the right to ask questions and also to answer questions.
And probably it was because he went to Jerusalem to receive religious education. So maybe when he was twelve, he was brought to Jerusalem, and there he learned the law under a famous rabbi, Gamaliel.
He sat at the feet of Gamaliel and learned all about the law, about Judaism. He received all the traditions of the fathers, all the teachings of the rabbis through the centuries. He was well educated. So he was religiously correct.
Everything with that person was correct. And even though he was rather young, he sought after what he considered to be things of more value.
No young man, you know, with that kind of background would probably seek after earthly, worldly things, because he had every opportunity before him. But this young man was different.
Somehow he felt that spiritual things—well, to him, he thought they were spiritual things, that is, religious things—were more valuable than earthly things. And that was most unusual.
While other young people were seeking after position, fame, wealth, and all these worldly things, this young man sought after religious things because he considered this matter of the soul more important than physical, material things.
He really pursued it with determination. He was a young man of strong will, and he was determined that he would become someone in Judaism.
Now, this is something we do not know. Some people said that even at that young age he had already become a member of the Sanhedrin, because he said that when the believers in the Lord Jesus were sentenced, he gave his vote.
But some other people said it could not be, because he was too young for that and he was not married. To be a member of the Sanhedrin, you had to be married. So there are different opinions about it.
But anyway, we find that he himself told us he was more advanced in Judaism than his contemporaries. He was seeking for the top place in Judaism. He could very well have become the rabbi of his time.
And he thought these things were important. These things were valuable.
And he was very moral, because he said, “I am a Pharisee of the Pharisees,” a true Pharisee. You remember when our Lord was on earth, the one class of persons upon whom He pronounced His woe were the Pharisees and scribes.
Why? Because they were hypocrites. Outwardly, they kept all the minute things of the law, and yet inwardly they violated every bit of it. They were hypocrites.
When they prayed, they would stand at the corner of the street and pray long prayers, so everybody would say, “How godly that person must be.” Hypocrites.
But not this young man. He was a true Pharisee. Why? Because he could even boast and say, “According to the law, I am righteous.” In other words, he tried to keep every letter of the law with sincerity.
We would say this young man was unusual. He must have found the secret of that.
And because of that, he persecuted the followers of Jesus. Because to him, according to the traditions of the fathers, they considered Jesus an impostor of Judaism. Jesus did not conform to the traditions of the fathers. They considered Jesus a rebel who must be rooted out.
So you find this young man was so zealous for Judaism, so zealous for the traditions of the fathers. As a matter of fact, the traditions of the fathers in Judaism at that time were, we may say, the best tradition in the world.
So he persecuted the followers of the Lord Jesus with zeal. He would enter into houses and seize men and women and children, and condemn them.
When Stephen, the first martyr, was martyred, Saul was there, watching the clothes of those who stoned Stephen to death.
That zeal blinded him so much that, usually, a moral person probably would not do anything to women or children. Yet you find that he would go into houses and seize not only men, but women and children.
Then he even received documents from the high priest, going to Gentile cities outside Palestine proper, trying to seize believers in Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem in order to condemn them. He persecuted them even to Gentile cities.
Now, why did he do all these things? It is because value determines your life. What you value, you will seek after.
Because this young man’s sense of value was such, he valued very highly his pedigree. He valued very much that he was a Jew, an orthodox Jew. He valued that.
He valued his upbringing. He valued his knowledge of the law. He valued his own moral achievements. And he valued religious success. He wanted to be someone in Judaism because he thought that was valuable.
And, brothers and sisters, whatever you value will determine what kind of life you will live. It will also decide how much you are willing to pay for it.
This young man paid, and paid a lot, for what he valued. Probably while other young men were seeking the pleasures of this world, he was diligently studying the law and the intricacies of the law, and so forth.
He paid a great cost for the things that he valued, and he was nearly successful in what he was seeking.
So far as the world is concerned, I think the whole world would admire such a person. The whole world would say, “Now this young man is right.”
But thank God, one day on the way to Damascus, he had documents from the high priest. He was going to Damascus, a Gentile city in Syria, to seize the people of the Way, those who believed in the Lord Jesus, and bring them to Jerusalem to sentence them.
But as he was approaching the city of Damascus, it was at noontime. The Bible tells us—and his experience is recorded three times in the book of Acts—that as he was approaching Damascus at noonday, suddenly a light brighter than the sun shone upon him and his companions.
They all fell to the ground. That light was so powerful, it shook them to the ground. Then Saul heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
It was in Hebrew: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
Now, brothers and sisters, we think that we are free persons. We can do anything that we want to do. We are not born slaves; we are born freemen. We can live our own life. We can seek what we think is valuable for us.
But according to the Word of God, this is not the case. God has a purpose for each one of us.
Even before the foundation of the world, He has chosen us in Christ Jesus. When we were in our mother’s womb, He had already separated us for that purpose. We do not know it.
Saul did not know it. But the Lord said, “It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
Now we know what the goad is. During the old days, when they did farming, they would have an ox under the yoke. The farmer would put his hand on the plow and plow the field with the ox.
But the ox sometimes has its own will and will not follow the will of its master. Sometimes during the plowing, perhaps the ox sees something nice to eat, and the ox begins to turn. If that is the case, then the furrow will not be straight.
So what the farmer would do is this: in his other hand he had a sharp instrument called a goad. He would use that stick, with a sharp end, just to touch the leg of the ox.
Of course, the farmer had no intention of hurting the ox, because he wanted to use it. So he just touched it lightly, just to remind the ox, “You have a master. Do not forget that.”
But the ox is so stubborn. When that goad touches it, it kicks back. And when it kicks back, it hurts. Because it is hurt, it learns that it has to listen to its master; otherwise, it will suffer more.
Now, brothers and sisters, the Lord was saying to this young man, Saul, “You are not free. Even before the foundation of the world, I have chosen you. In your mother’s womb, I have separated you, but you do not know it.”
“You are created with a purpose. You are to do My will, to plow My field, to do My work—not your work, My work. You have a Master, but you forgot.”
“You thought that you could do anything you liked. You thought that you could determine what value was. I will let you go just so far, but I have touched you with the goads. But you do not understand.”
Brothers and sisters, I believe this young man, while he was persecuting the followers of Jesus, while he was seizing these people, must have begun, being a moral person, a good man so far as the world was concerned, from time to time to see the way these believers reacted.
It must have touched his conscience, especially in the case of Stephen.
You know, when Stephen gave his testimony, people looked at him and saw his face shining like an angel, and Saul was there. He heard what Stephen said, and he was with the people who pushed Stephen out of the city.
And when Stephen was stoned, he said, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing there, waiting, welcoming me.” When he was dying, he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”
Now, being a Pharisee, a true Pharisee, a moral person, Saul could not help being deeply touched. The death of Stephen was like a goad touching his leg. His conscience must have been bothered.
But he kicked back. According to the book of Acts, after the death of Stephen, you find Saul became mad. He was furious. He persecuted the followers of the Lord even more than before.
Why was it? He tried to silence his conscience.
So the Lord reminded him, “It is hard for thee to kick against the goads. How long are you going to kick against the goads? You only hurt yourself.”
For the first time, Saul realized that he was not his own master, that he had a Master, that there was One stronger than he. For the first time, his inner eyes were opened.
He said, “Lord, who art Thou? I do not know Thee, but I acknowledge Thee as Lord because Thou art my Lord. I cannot fight against Thee. Now, who art Thou?”
And the voice said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”
At that moment, brothers and sisters, his evaluation of Jesus completely changed.
Before he saw the Lord, before the Lord spoke to him, he thought he could see. He thought he saw clearly—his way, his future. He thought he knew what value was.
He looked at Jesus the Nazarene as one to be despised, one to be rejected, one to be crucified, wiped out, annihilated, destroyed. He looked down upon Jesus. He stumbled over Jesus. That was his evaluation of Jesus.
But at that moment, his whole evaluation of Jesus changed. He saw that Jesus is Lord. He is his Master. He is God.
He saw that Jesus had chosen him even before the foundation of the world, that He knew him even when he was in his mother’s womb, that He was so patient, waiting for him and working on him until one day his inner eyes were opened and he began to see the risen Lord.
What a change in his estimation of the person of Jesus.
That vision transformed his sense of value.
So here you find that he himself testified in Philippians 3. In the past, he boasted of his birth, his privileges, his achievements, his moral standing, and his zeal. In other words, he boasted of himself, of his flesh. He thought highly of himself. He thought he was a man above others.
He thought he was on the right track, that he had seized the true value of life. But when he met Jesus—or when Jesus met him—his whole sense of value changed upside down.
He said, “What I considered as gain, now, on account of Christ Jesus, I look at these as loss.”
“My pedigree, my education, my achievement, my zeal—all these things were gain to me in the past. But now I see clearly: they are actually loss.”
Why? Because they blinded his eyes to see real value. “I wasted my energy, my pursuit, my time, my life on something that is not worth a thing. All the time I thought these were gain, but they were actually loss.”
Then he went a step further. He said, “Not only do I count these former things that I had as loss; now I count all things as loss.” Why? “For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.”
Brothers and sisters, once he saw the Lord Jesus, once he saw the glory of the Lord Jesus, it changed his whole mentality.
The whole world, to him, was refuse. It was like dung. Now, who wants dung? The quicker you get rid of it, the better.
But the knowledge of Jesus Christ—to know Jesus Christ—that is the most valuable thing in the whole world.
Dear brothers and sisters, has our sense of value changed?
You know, when we are saved, our sense of value should change. I believe there must be some change. It may not be as drastic, but there ought to be some change, because if there is no change in your sense of value, I wonder whether you are really saved.
But unfortunately, even when we are saved, though there may be some change in our sense of value, the change is not drastic enough. Because of that, you find the things of old continue to cling to us, continue to have their influence upon us, and unfortunately may even overwhelm that new sense of value and lead us to walk in the old way of life.
We do not see the value of our Lord Jesus as we should.
So you find, in the case of Paul, because he saw the glory of the Lord, that glory made everything dim. He would rather lose everything if he could gain Christ.
Brothers and sisters, he began to see how God sees. He began to value the way that God values. God values His Son more than anything else.
And when you begin to value Christ more than anything else, you want to know Him. In order to know Him, you are willing to pay any price. You are willing to look at everything as dross.
Brothers and sisters, you are on the right track. You have the true value.
So here he said, “I want to know Him.”
In the past, he was building up his own righteousness. According to the righteousness of the law, he said, “I am perfect. I am blameless.”
But our righteousnesses before God are as filthy rags. No one can be justified by keeping the law, and Saul was included. He was blinded. He thought that he could build up his own righteousness to face God.
But there on the road to Damascus, his own righteousness appeared as filthy rags. And thank God, God took off his filthy rags and put upon him the garment of salvation.
So he said, “Now it is the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus by faith.”
Paul realized that he had no righteousness of his own. He was naked before God, and Christ was his robe. He was clothed with Christ. That gave him standing before the righteous God.
And, brothers and sisters, thank God, this is what the cross of our Lord Jesus has done for us.
He His own self bare our sins in His body upon the tree.
Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf;
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Thank God, we are justified. The blood has cleansed us, and we can stand before God.
But Paul said, it is not just this work of our Lord Jesus on the cross, which gives me righteousness and a righteous standing before God, that I treasure. He said, “I want to know Him.”
“I want to know the Person who did so much for me.”
Brothers and sisters, we know some of the works of our Lord Jesus. We know His finished work on the cross. Because we know the finished work of Christ on the cross, we know our sins are forgiven. We know that we now have the righteousness of God upon us. We know that we now have a standing before God.
Thank God, we know this. We know the work of our Lord Jesus. We treasure His work; we should. But more than His work, we treasure the Person.
Paul said, “Because I have received His work in my life, I want to know the Person who gave me such grace. I want to know Him.”
Brother, sister, do we have such a desire in us to know Him? Not just to know His work—of course, we must know His work—but we need to know His Person, know His character, know His mind, know His will, know what He really loves, what He wants, in order to please Him.
You know, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 said, “I have an ambition, and my ambition is that in all things I may be well-pleasing to Him.” Or, to put it another way, “I may please Him.” That is my ambition. I want to know Him.
Do we have such a strong desire to know Him? Of course, to know Him, you have to be close to Him, to have a living, daily relationship with Him, in order that you may know Him.
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death.
Brothers and sisters, when we begin to know Him, we know that He is not only our Saviour; we know He is our life.
He is more than the One who comes to save us out of sin, out of death, into eternal life. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is your life.
When you begin to know Him, you begin to know His life, His life in you. But His life is His resurrection life.
Unless you are willing to accept your death on the cross with Him, you cannot know that resurrection life. When Christ was crucified, He took the old man with Him, and in Him the old man was crucified.
In other words, unless we are willing to see that there is no good in our flesh, unless we have no confidence in our old life, unless we will not again live by our own life, but by the Holy Spirit deliver it unto death on the cross, we will not really know Christ as our life.
In other words, we will not live by His life. We are still living our own life.
How many believers are still living by their old life? The reason why they are not able to live by the Christ-life in them is because they are not willing to let go of their own life.
They still have confidence in their flesh. They still feel that they can live the Christian life by themselves.
Not until you come to the point that you realize that in you, that is, in your flesh, there is no good, and you let go, and you accept the sentence of death from the Lord—not until then do you begin to experience Christ as your life.
The life is there, and you give opportunity for Christ to live in you. And when He lives, it is resurrection life. It is the power of His resurrection. You are altogether living on a different realm.
And then, fellowship with His sufferings, being conformed unto His death.
You know, the sufferings of our Lord on the cross are of two kinds. One kind we call vicarious, or atoning, suffering. That kind of suffering, He suffered alone.
In other words, He alone bore our sins in His body and trod the winepress. He atoned for our sins. In that suffering, you and I cannot participate. We only receive the benefit of that suffering.
But there is another kind of suffering of our Lord Jesus in which we are called to have fellowship with His sufferings. In other words, to share with Him in that kind of suffering.
It is to suffer for righteousness’ sake. It is to suffer for the will of God. It is to suffer for following the Lord.
It is to suffer for lost souls, to suffer for the house of God, the church. Like Paul said, he travailed in suffering in order to complete that which is lacking of the tribulations and afflictions of Christ for His body.
Brothers and sisters, in that area we are called to share with Him. But it is only when we begin to know the power of His resurrection that we are able to fellowship with His sufferings.
Otherwise, we will not be able to fellowship with His sufferings.
And then, conformed to His death. That goes deeper, because we know the death of our Lord Jesus is all-inclusive—dead to everything that is of the old creation, everything that is not of God.
And we are to be conformed today. Whatever in our life is not of God, no matter how good it may look, we are to be conformed to death, so that Christ may be all and in all to us.
And this is something that the Apostle Paul was pursuing after. He considered this as the supreme value.
He said, “I do not say that I have already attained. No, I am still pressing on, forgetting the things behind and pursuing the goal. I want to apprehend all that Christ has apprehended me for.”
He wanted to pay that price, and that prize is Christ—to gain Him in His fullness.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find a person whose whole sense of value was corrected, and then it changed his whole course of life.
To the very end, he could say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day;
and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
Brothers and sisters, is this what we are seeking today? Has our sense of value been completely changed?
How we need continually to see the glory of the Lord. If we have His glory before us, that will enable us to forget everything and just follow, seeking after Him.
Brothers and sisters, this is true value. All things will pass away, but Jesus forever. So may the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that Thou hast shown us it is possible, and Thou hast made it possible, to change the sense of value in a person so completely that he may see exactly the way that Thou seest.
Lord, because of this we are encouraged. We are here. We do acknowledge that once we were blind, but now we see.
Lord, sometimes we see dimly. We need a further touch of Thy hand, that we may see clearly the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
That we may count all things but refuse. We want to gain Thee. Thou art the only One worthy to seek after.
O Lord, have mercy upon us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.