Good morning, brothers and sisters. It is just great to be here with the brothers and sisters.
As we study and share the apostolic writings at the fellowship meetings, we realize that there is so much against gathering together. So I think we should be very thankful that we can come together to worship the Lord and fellowship in the Lord together.
Today is my first time. It is kind of scary standing up here, but I am sure it is the Lord’s pleasure.
Let us turn to John 6, verse 60.
Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
And then verses 66 through 68:
Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.
Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away?
Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Let us also turn to 2 Timothy 4. Verse 11 says:
Only Luke is with me.
And the first part of verse 16:
At my first defense no one took my part, but all forsook me.
Then verses 7 and 8:
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.
Then we will go back to Philippians 3, verses 7 and 8:
Howbeit 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.
Lord, we do want to give thanks to You. Lord, it is only by Your grace that we can gather together and fellowship in You. We thank You for Your presence with us.
Lord, our heart’s cry is that we want to see Jesus. Lord, in our time together, in our time of fellowship, help us to behold Your glory. May Your word be active in our hearts as we come together to share Your word.
Oh Lord, we ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, nothing can be accomplished. Lord, open our eyes and open our ears. We want to see Jesus. We love You. Thank You, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The background of John 6 begins with Jesus feeding the five thousand. Then He left, and the next day the multitude gathered around Him again. The Lord said, in effect, “You come because you saw Me last time. You come for the food.”
The Lord gave them a discourse that was very difficult for them to hear. He said, “You need to eat My flesh. You need to drink My blood.” That was very hard for the people.
Within their context, the multitude was looking at things on the earth. “How can that be? How can that happen?” But the Lord was talking about something deeper. He was asking, “Come here with Me. Union with Me. That is what I am after.”
The Bible says that many of the Lord’s disciples left. Then He turned to the twelve disciples and asked, “Do you also want to leave?”
Peter said, “You have the words of eternal life. Where can we go?”
Life on this earth, from an earthly perspective, is sometimes crisis after crisis after crisis. We go through life with a lot of surprises and a lot of suffering. There are times when we sit down and really ask the question: “Is it worthwhile to follow the Lord? Is it truly worthwhile?”
I think the answer is the same as Peter’s: He has the words of eternal life. Where can we go?
We also read from 2 Timothy. It is Paul’s last writing recorded in the Bible. He wrote it in a Roman prison cell, and he was about to be executed. He was writing to Timothy.
Paul had served the Lord for over thirty years. As recorded in the Bible, there were three missionary journeys. He traveled over Europe and brought many believers to Christ. Yet, at the end, as we read in Timothy, he said, “All forsook me.” Everyone. Only Luke was with him.
As I sit down and meditate on these things, if anyone should have been disappointed, it should have been Paul. After all those years, after working for the Lord so hard for thirty-some years, there was no position, no crown in an earthly sense. He was in a Roman cell, so lonely.
But yet he said:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
He was looking forward to something better. He was looking for the crown of righteousness that was laid up for him in heaven. He also said that it was not only for him, but for everyone who loves His appearing.
I think that is encouragement. We can go through life with all kinds of unpleasant things, all kinds of troubles, and all kinds of suffering. But there is something for the Lord’s children.
That is what I want to share today. The topic is mainly from the Book of Philippians. When you read Philippians, what jumps out is that Paul has a heart for the Lord. Paul is running a race.
In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says:
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I am often interested in simple words. Here, what catches me is the word one: “One thing I do.”
If you add something to one, it is no longer one. If you take something away, then it becomes zero. So, to me, it means Paul is aiming at one thing. There are no distractions. He is aiming at the end, at what the Lord wants to gain from him.
We can say that Paul is truly single-minded and single-hearted in going after what the Lord has prepared for him.
Sometimes we learn by contrast. Why do we not look at those who are not single-minded? Even in the same chapter, Paul talks about those who are not single-minded. From that, perhaps we can learn how to be single-minded.
In Philippians 3:18-19, Paul says:
For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
We can say that this is not single-minded. It is not heading in the direction we ought to be heading. Paul says they are enemies of the cross of Christ. That is a horrible condition.
You may say, “Perhaps Paul is talking about unbelievers.” But we cannot get around the fact that this letter is written to believers, to the saints in Philippi. So Paul is speaking to believers.
Sometimes we understand that the Lord died for us. He paid the penalty, and He satisfied God. But there is another side: the Lord died as us. In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul wrote:
One died for all, therefore all died.
As we walk with the Lord, that is truly good news. We no longer have to live our own life. Our old life was crucified together with the Lord.
Sometimes we say, “Yes, I accept that as truth. I have heard that before.” But when the truth is not operational in our lives, that becomes a problem.
We have recently heard fellowship about laying aside the old life, so I do not need to elaborate much on that point. But if we do not let the cross operate in our lives, what might happen? What horrible thing can it lead to?
One translation of Philippians 3:19 says that the appetite becomes our god. Instead of worshiping God, we worship our appetite. We seek to satisfy the lusts of the body.
In 1 John 2:15, we are told that if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.
When we are unwilling to let the cross work in our lives, we begin trying to satisfy the lusts of the body. That is not God’s way. God’s order is clearly for the spirit to be supreme, the soul to be subject to the spirit, and the body to serve.
We may also pursue vain glory—all that we can achieve in this world. If we pursue those things, we will be pursuing earthly things: things we can see, things we can feel, things that may make us happy for a moment.
That becomes our focus. That was the focus of some of the saints in Philippi. Then, indeed, we lose our focus on the Lord, and we lose our focus toward the end.
Paul warns us that if we go down that path, the end is destruction.
What should we do? We should turn around and say, “We do not really want to be that way.” Then we look at Paul’s life, as demonstrated in Philippians 3.
Paul says in Philippians 3:4-8:
Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
Before Paul was saved, he was quite a successful young man. He was a real Jew, in a sense—a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee, studying under the best teacher of his time. He knew the law.
As far as the law was concerned, he was found blameless. What else could you say about this young man? He was so accomplished.
But he says that all he had achieved at that time, he was willing to count as loss.
What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
For one reason: for the sake of Christ. That is living a crucified life. It is not a light matter.
Again, I want to point out a little word. In verse 8, Paul says:
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
He uses the small word all. If you say, “Well, this one thing does not count,” then it is no longer all. All means everything. All means it is all-inclusive.
Paul is saying that, compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, he wants to lay down everything. Here is someone who is running the race.
You may say, “Paul is Paul. He is not me. Paul was a great man.” But I do not think Paul saw himself as a great man, because Paul really means “small.”
Do we have any hope of being like that? I think there is truly good news in Philippians 3.
First of all, Philippians 3:12 says:
I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
“I was laid hold on by Christ.” Sometimes we think that we are trying to run after the Lord Himself, but actually it is not that way. It is the Lord who is holding our hand.
I have grown-up children now. I still remember taking them to the market, the supermarket, or the mall. I would say, “Hold onto my hand. You are going to get lost here.” Of course, they would want to run around. It is the nature of young children.
But it is also the heart of parents to keep their eyes on them and know where they are. I think it is even more so with the Lord Himself.
The Lord knows where we are. The Lord is more concerned about us than we are concerned about ourselves.
I am often impressed by the parable in Luke 15, especially the parable of the lost son. The father was waiting by the door for the son to come back. That is the love of God.
Also, in Luke 22, we all know Peter. When the Lord said that all would forsake Him, Peter said, “Not me, not me, not me.” But the Lord said in Luke 22:31-32:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.
The Lord prayed for Simon beforehand. So, are we trying to take hold of the Lord, or is the Lord taking hold of us? Really, the Lord is preserving us.
In 2 Timothy 2:13, it says:
If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
We are truly in a safe place. At least I can say how often I am unfaithful, but yet He remains faithful. So it is truly not because of us; it is because of the Lord Himself. That is the first piece of good news.
Second, Philippians 3:5 speaks of Paul’s own history:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.
The tribe of Benjamin has a significant history. If we go back to Genesis 35, Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, and then she died.
Rachel wanted to call the boy Ben-oni, which means “the son of my sorrow.” But Jacob called him Benjamin, which means “son of the right hand.”
Benjamin came out from death. Rachel died, and there was Benjamin. I think there is a lesson there.
If we look at Paul’s own spiritual history, Acts 7 records the stoning of Stephen. In Acts 7:58-60, we read:
And they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” I would say that Saul was included in that prayer. Saul was there.
So, in the beginning, we may say that Stephen’s death helped bring along Paul. The death of Stephen had an effect upon Paul’s life.
Before I shared today, a brother came up and said, “Hey, we pray for you.” I think that really comforts my heart. Oftentimes, when I am weak, I receive a phone call or a text: “We prayed for you last night.”
Our focus on the Lord has a lot to do with the care of our brothers and sisters. It has a lot to do with the prayers of the saints.
In Philippians 3:18, Paul speaks of those believers who were walking in the way of the world and becoming enemies of the cross. But Paul writes:
And now tell you even weeping.
Even weeping. That is Paul’s heart. That is the heart of a father. That is the heart of one who is running the race.
What I am trying to say is that it has a lot to do with others. It has a lot to do with the brothers and sisters, not merely with you individually. That is good news.
The third point is from John 17:3. The Lord says:
And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
That is very interesting. Here the Lord equates knowing Him with eternal life. It cannot be interpreted any other way.
As children of God, as believers, we have that life in us. It is that nature in us that craves to know the Lord Himself.
Some of you may know that recently we have a puppy. A puppy chews on everything. We always ask, “How come he chews on everything? How can he chew on that?” Well, it is just the nature of a puppy, the nature of a dog’s life.
In the same way, God’s life is in us. That nature, that desire to know Him and to come to the full knowledge of the Lord Himself, is already in us. There is no escape, actually. That is good news.
Think about Paul’s beginnings. Paul was an enemy of God. He persecuted the church. Yet God sought him out. God met him on the road to Damascus. This great light appeared to him.
It really demonstrates the love of God working in the heart of Paul.
Paul himself confessed in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord who loves us—that is the motivation inside Paul. That is the driving force that allowed him to aim at the end and to finish the race.
Again, it is good news. It is something already in you.
Babies are wonderful. When a baby grows up and begins to crawl around and walk around, they can get into all kinds of trouble. But they like to explore. Everything seems so new to them—the whole environment and all the things around them.
Paul was like that. For thirty-some years, he pursued after the Lord, wanting to know the Lord Himself. Paul experienced the Lord on the road to Damascus. He went to Arabia to meditate upon the Scriptures, and God revealed His heart to him. In 2 Corinthians, Paul mentions being caught up to the third heaven. How wonderful that was.
But still, when we come to Philippians 3:12-14, he says, “Not that I have already obtained.” He says:
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on.
“I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.”
It is really walking with the Lord and discovering Him every day, moment by moment. There should never be a dull moment in our lives. Praise the Lord for that.
I was quite touched by Paul’s prayers. I remember the first time I came to the Richmond conference in 1995. A brother shared Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:16-17:
I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
A spirit of wisdom and revelation. To know the Lord and to press toward the goal should not be boring. It should not be dull. The Lord is willing to reveal Himself to us.
What we need to do is ask—ask for spiritual wisdom and revelation.
I have two more practical encouragements. Recently, I had not gone to the eye doctor for a while, so my wife said, “Go see the eye doctor.” I said, “All right. Give me an appointment, and I will go.”
It is kind of interesting. You sit down in the chair, they put lenses in front of you, and they adjust the lenses. You say, “Oh, that is really good. Now I see clearly.” Then they ask, “Is it better or worse?”
We learn by looking at comparisons, by looking at the difference.
I am sure we have all read Hebrews. We may get many things out of it, but one thing that stands out to me is this: the Lord is far superior to everything else.
Hebrews 3:1 says:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.
Hebrews 7:4 says:
Now consider how great this man was, unto whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the chief spoils.
The first passage refers to Moses, the faithful servant of God. Moses was a great man. Abraham was the father of faith. What else can you say?
But when we come to look at the Lord, there is no comparison. What I am trying to say is: focus your eyes on the Lord. He is far superior to any man we know. He is far superior to any circumstance that we know.
In Philippians 3:20, Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven.
I do not know whether you drive as much as I do, but sometimes coming here can feel like a long way, especially on Friday nights. The last three or four times, we have always been stuck in traffic.
We sit in the car and say, “Well, show me a different road.” But you do not know how far the traffic is backed up or what the problem is. If you are sitting in your car, that is all you can see—cars around you. You get stuck in the middle, and you cannot really go anywhere.
But if you are in a helicopter, you can look far ahead. Then you say, “Ah, here is the problem. I can take this road and go around it.”
Even though that is a physical illustration, the lesson to me is that sometimes, when I look at circumstances as they are, they seem horrible. There seems to be no way out.
But Paul encourages us: our citizenship is in heaven. We are not earthly people; we are heavenly people.
A lot of the time, it is a matter of perspective. It is a matter of viewpoint. Are we looking from an earthly viewpoint or from a heavenly viewpoint?
When Paul mentions the believers who are enemies of the cross, they are taking the earthly view. They are thinking about what is around them and what satisfies them.
But Paul is not that way. To press toward the goal, we need to take the heavenly viewpoint.
We often share that Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of faith. But if we continue in Hebrews 12:2-3, it says:
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.
That brings us to the matter of suffering. Physically, sometimes we suffer. There is just no way out of it.
The Lord Himself suffered. He suffered on the cross. He endured the shame. But He had something to look forward to: the joy that was set before Him.
Suffering by itself, a lot of times, overwhelms us. But if you look beyond it, look beyond the suffering, look beyond the circumstances, there is joy that is set before us.
You may think I never finish. The last point is really Philippians 3:7-8:
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.
Again, it is worth it. This is not something where we say, “Okay, I hear that,” but do not really make it true in our own lives.
Paul says, “All things.” There is no escape. It is all-inclusive. It is everything.
There are two things here. Sometimes we learn from comparison. If we look at the excellency of the knowledge of Christ and compare it to the things we might lay down, there is no comparison.
For Paul, there was no comparison. For us, there ought to be no comparison.
Let me summarize. This is truly good news. It is not something that should get us down.
Paul was looking forward to a crown of righteousness waiting for him. He also said that it was for everyone who loves the appearing of the Lord Himself. It is true for us too.
The Lord holds our hands. We have our brothers and sisters, their care, and their prayers. We have the nature of eternal life in us, so there is no escape. The love of God constrains us to follow Him.
As we know the Lord, there should not be dull moments or boring times. Always consider Jesus. I think that is the key: always consider Jesus. Otherwise, we lose our focus.
I once heard a story—well, I should not say it is merely a story; I think it is an experience too. When we were young and learning to ride bicycles, our parents would say, “Do not look at the ground. Look in front of you.” When you look at the ground, you can fall. It is true: you look at the ground, and you fall.
Consider Jesus. Look at Him. Then your way is straight.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do want to thank You. Lord, these are Your words. We pray that the Holy Spirit would make them active in all our lives.
Lord, Your word is sharp and powerful, able to divide soul and spirit. Oh Lord, may Your word do its work in us so that, at the end, when we come before the judgment seat, there would indeed be a crown of righteousness waiting for every one of us.
Lord, hold our hands. Let us know it is not what we can do, but it is by Your grace and Your mercy. Grant us grace to pursue You, grace to follow You, and grace that enables us to lay down all things for the knowledge of the Lord Himself.
Oh Lord, we know we cannot do it, but Lord, You can. You are the One who started the work, and You will finish the work. You will finish the good work.
We love You. Thank You, Lord, and we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.