I would like to have you turn to Philippians 3. No, it is not Colossians. I suspect you are surprised, but Philippians 3. We will read a few verses, Philippians 3:8-11.
This is Paul speaking:
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 that I may 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 which is of God through faith.
And then this verse in particular, Philippians 3:10:
To know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death.
And then Philippians 3:11:
If anyway I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.
Now, Jack, I just want to warn you: if I get too loud, which I am prone to do, Jerry has put in his hearing aids. The last time I did that, I caused him a hearing problem. So, if I get too loud, y’all can give the thumbs, and Jack will take care of it.
But let us come to the Lord and pray about these few verses we have read.
Lord, Your words are precious. Your words endure forever. Lord, without Your Word, we cannot live. Your Word quickens us and brings us into life. Your words are spirit and life.
We say to You, just again humbling ourselves in Your presence, like Peter said on that day when so many walked away, “To Whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.”
Speak, Lord. We wait upon You. Those are the words we want to hear. We ask that the Holy Spirit would help us to communicate what is on Your heart for the day, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken us to hear what is in Your heart for today.
Unless those two things are done, we do not believe our time will be beneficial. This we ask today in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I would like to continue in a theme we have already been dealing with today, from the beginning opening that Josh opened with, through the table and through the day.
The title Jack asked me for is the beginning of a small series: Paul’s Secret. That is the overall title.
Today, we want to deal with a broad introduction and the first thing, which is the supreme knowledge. We need to know, I believe, what Paul’s secret was, because it is our secret as well. It is God’s secret. It was not just for the church in Philippi; it is for us today.
I think we really need to know what the supreme knowledge is. There is much learning in our generation. I do not know if any of you are as astounded as I am. Maybe I am a bit slow, but the growth of knowledge in our generation is utterly phenomenal.
If you do even a small Rip Van Winkle and check out for ten years, you are lost. The growth of knowledge is incredible—beyond what you can even imagine.
The Word talks about those days of more knowledge, of gaining knowledge, of growth in knowledge, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. That is the knowledge we would like to deal with today: the supreme knowledge.
I have a feeling you already know what that supreme knowledge is, and it is not a what, by the way. If you thought the supreme knowledge was a what, then you need to be readjusted at the beginning of this message.
The supreme knowledge—Paul’s secret—was Christ alone. It was nothing else. It was not Christ plus this, and it was not Christ plus that, and it was not somehow all these things that He gives us. It was Christ alone, and with Christ alone, all that He is—not just what He gives us.
So that is the title. Jack, did I make it clear? Got it.
Sometimes I do not even understand some of the titles that are on my messages when I see them later, and I figure it is just because I am not very clear. So, if I have the opportunity, I will make it very clear in the beginning.
Today we want to deal with this matter brought forth to us in Philippians 3:10. Even though we read Philippians 3:8-11, our focus today—and any other times I have the opportunity to share—will be Philippians 3:10, and maybe some of Philippians 3:11.
So I will read it again:
To know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death.
That will be the burden that we will be sharing on.
Now, I think this verse is so full. In fact, this verse is a universe of understanding. This is one of those verses in the Bible that you could take and meditate on for months and months and never get to the end of it.
You could make spiritual discoveries in this verse, and in all that it means and represents, that would bring you into the depths of our Lord Jesus in a way that you have hardly imagined. That was the depth of this secret of the apostle Paul.
Now, I hope I do not bore you with so much background that I put you to sleep. If I put you to sleep, enjoy your rest, okay? For the rest of you who are still paying attention at the end, I hope you get something out of today.
But there is some background that I think is important, because it will set the stage for today—that one thing we want to deal with—and it will set the stage for those future things I will share.
I think most of you know that Philippians is one of the four prison letters of Paul, written from Rome. There is a lot of discussion—and, by the way, quite a bit of disagreement—about the order in which the four prison letters were written.
If you do not know what the prison letters are, they are Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and finally Philippians. Some people, very studied people, much more intelligent than I will ever be, have declared that Philippians might be one of the first written.
But there are others, and it seems the majority have concluded that it seems to be the end of the prison letters. As I have read more from Handley Moule, Graham Scroggie, and different ones, it has settled in my heart to believe what they are saying: that it is the last seems appropriate.
I believe that, in being the last of the prison letters, God shares with His people for all time what His secret is through the apostle Paul. It was the final letter to a church.
Now, I think you all know that there are other letters written by the apostle Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament—thirteen books. There are other letters written by the apostle Paul that followed this letter. They are the pastoral letters: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus.
These letters were to individuals. They were nevertheless about the church. They were about the order in the church. They were about what God was looking for in His church. But they were not directly to a church; they were to responsible individuals. Do you understand?
This letter, on the other hand, was the last letter of the apostle Paul to a church. For that reason, I believe, you see its importance.
Handley Moule said, “A majority of opinions favor a date toward the end of imprisonment.” That would be about AD 63, for those of you that like dates. So Philippians would follow Colossians and Ephesians.
Graham Scroggie said—and, by the way, I love one part of this quote, and I will make an emphasis of it—“The chronological order of the epistles is a matter of dispute and a matter of little importance.”
I think that is pretty good. We do not need to get so hung up on where and when. I think what we need to get hung up on—if we are going to get hung up on—or let me put it in a better word that will appeal to you spiritually: captured by—is what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the churches in that letter.
Whether you believe in the early writing or you believe in the late writing, I do not think it matters. You already know where I have been convinced, so we will just leave it at that.
He went on to say that Paul was anticipating his release from captivity. “We place this last, though many critics put it first.”
There is something else about this letter of Philippians. This letter is different from the other prison letters. It is quite different.
One wrote this: “Philemon and Philippians differ much from Colossians and Ephesians, and also from one another.”
Philemon is the only example of Paul’s private correspondence that we have. I think that makes it a special letter. It is the only existing example of Paul’s private communication. You know it was to dear Philemon about the slave Onesimus, Paul appealing to him about that dear brother who had come to the Lord.
Philippians, though personal in character, was written not to an individual, but to the church. I think that is important.
The Lord Jesus, at the end of the Bible—at least in order, in Revelation—was found walking among the churches. He was concerned with the churches. He was concerned about the testimony of His expression.
There, that great High Priest walking among the candlesticks, was looking for nothing other than Himself. That was the thing He was looking for.
If He found some order, He praised it. If He found some error, He condemned it. But those were not the things He was looking for: error and order. What He was looking for in the end was Himself.
That is the secret. That is the testimony.
We often talk about the testimony here, and I think brothers and sisters sometimes have their eyes sort of glass over, like, “What on earth are they talking about?” They look like alligators with all those extra sets of eyelids.
But the testimony of Jesus is about Jesus—nothing else. Paul knew that. It was Paul’s secret.
It was the one thing he wanted to bring in this last letter to the church and say, “Folks, what God has left for us and what God is concerned about is Himself in your midst.”
So that is the different character of this letter.
This Philippian letter has been described in various ways, and I think in very precious ways. Remember, we are dealing with background. I always tell people, when I speak, that I do not mind if you get bored and check out; just do not snore so loud that you disturb me.
This letter has been described in various ways. It is called the most letter-like of all the letters. It is a very personal letter. It is a very touching letter. It is the most letter-like.
It has been called the most beautiful of the Pauline Epistles. That is quite a statement. These are not my statements, by the way.
It has been called the noblest reflection of St. Paul—or the apostle Paul, for those of you who are not Catholic. That was a joke. I am sorry; I should not do that, Judah.
The apostle Paul: the noblest reflection of the apostle Paul’s personal character and his spiritual illumination. The noblest. Think of that.
Not only is the book different; think about the nature of this letter. J. B. Phillips—I think some of you probably know that name, the Phillips translation—said, “Except possibly the letter of Philemon, this is the most personal example of Paul’s correspondence.”
He obviously was very fond of that little church at Philippi. Indeed, he was. And indeed, he shared his secret.
Brother Kong, when he went through those messages that so formed us and helped us in our early years, Seeing Christ in the New Testament, said in that one message on Philippians, “Of all the letters written by the apostle Paul to the church, this is the most intimate letter written by him.”
He went on to say, “Above all, this is a love letter.” It is indeed a love letter. It may not be the longest love letter, but it certainly is the deepest love letter.
I remember years ago reading a story of some French aristocrat. As a matter of fact, Ripley recorded this. He wrote the longest love letter known to man.
This painter—of course it would be a painter, an artsy kind—his name was Marcel de Leclure. He wrote to his aristocratic love, Magdalene de Villelore—and I am sure I have slaughtered those names.
He wrote to her, and in his love letter he wrote “I love you” 1,875,000 times. Can you imagine? I do not think you would want to write an email that long.
Not only did he write it 1,875,000 times; he hired a scribe, because he was an aristocrat and he did not have to write it. Now, I would have to write it.
And so the scribe made him repeat exactly what he said before he wrote it: “I love you,” 1,875,000 times. Can you imagine?
Then he wrote it 1,875,000 times. Then I imagine his dearly beloved read it. I hope she did not put it in the wastebasket after all that time. But I imagine she read it, and she must have read it at least once: 1,875,000 times.
Engineers just love numbers. That is the only reason I am telling you this illustration. That is 6,500,000 times. Think of it: “I love you.” Is that the greatest expression of love you have ever heard?
It is not.
The greatest expression of love was when the Lord Jesus gave Himself on the cross for you and for me. He so loved the church, He gave Himself for the church, that He might cleanse it of every spot and wrinkle, and that He might make her into that ultimate spotless bride.
That is the greatest expression of love. This long letter pales in comparison to it.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians, although incredibly short, is full of longing and love—deep longing, deep love for the church. Here is a true expression of love.
Paul’s relationship with Philippi was special. I do not know if you know this, but it was the first church in Europe.
We often talk about the churches of Asia. We often talk about, in Revelation, the letters to the seven churches of Asia. But I do not know if any of you realize—it was the first church in Europe.
If you read Acts 16, beginning in Acts 16:9, you get an idea. We are not going to read all of that, but we see the beginnings of that church.
You remember Paul was headed on a different course, and a Macedonian man appeared to him in a vision, in a night vision, in a dream, and said, “Come over here and help us.”
As a result, he ended up in that Roman colony of Philippi. There he developed a special relationship with a newly born church that lasted all of his life, even when other relationships failed.
You remember Lydia, the seller of purple, the businesswoman. I suspect she was quite a businesswoman. Lydia heard the words of the apostle Paul, believed in the Lord Jesus, and became the first European convert.
She was the beginning of the expression of the testimony of Jesus in Philippi. I imagine that was a special relationship—a very special relationship.
You know the one about the maid, the little servant girl who had the spirit of Python, who said, “These are men of the Most High,” and went behind them. She actually had a demon. Do not think everything that is said spiritual is Christian.
Sometimes we have this mistaken deception that, somehow, if something has a verse attached to it, or if it is from a brother or sister, everything they say is good for us. She was saying good things, but it was a demon. Good grief.
She became a member of the body of Christ. You remember the story of Paul and Silas. Because they delivered this little slave girl of the spirit of Python, Paul and Silas were cast into the Philippian prison.
It says this unbelievable thing: at midnight they were praying and praising God in the middle of that dark jail. Then God did the great thing—again, structural engineers love this—He made an earthquake happen.
It was a great deliverance for Paul, but not before the jailer and his whole household were saved and became members of that testimony of Jesus, that expression.
This was a special relationship. This was a bond that lasted to the end.
I think of the contrast in 2 Timothy 1:15, when Paul was writing his very last letter. He says to Timothy that all who are in Asia, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes, had turned away from him.
Can you imagine the pain in the apostle’s heart? Those words could not have been uttered lightly. It must have been with deep grief that he said, “All Asia has turned.”
But thankfully, this bond with Philippi was so strong that it lasted unbroken to the very end.
When Paul was in prison in Rome, chained to the guard twenty-four hours a day, it was Philippi who came to his aid, brought him relief, and ministered to him. They sent a brother, even one who was sick—very sick—to minister to Paul.
Paul sent back this letter of love in response to them. But let me read you some of the words. I have told you this is going to be quite an introduction, because I want us to have a sense of the heart behind this letter.
If you just read the words and begin to treat it just like doctrine, and you miss the heart behind the words, I think you miss what is in the Word.
I would like to read to you from Philippians 1:3 and think a little about the spirit in which Paul wrote:
I thank my God for my whole remembrance of you,
constantly in my every supplication making the supplication for you all with joy,
because of your fellowship with the gospel from the first day until now.
That bond stayed intact. He was rejoicing over it, and he was sending back this letter of love to say, “I am praying for you constantly. Our fellowship has endured to the end.”
Then I think of Philippians 1:8:
For God is my witness,
how I long for you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
Now, I suppose you will not use words like that too much, but Paul did: “How I long for you in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
Then I think of Philippians 4:1, to give you a sense of the nature of the writing:
So then, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown,
thus stand fast in the Lord.
“My joy and crown, beloved and longed for.” That is the spirit of this book.
I believe if we do not understand this background—the nature of love, the pouring out of love, the unveiling of his deepest secrets to those he loved and who stayed in fellowship with him—we will not understand the impact of Philippians 3:10.
Paul’s secret was to be consumed with Christ. That was Paul’s secret: consumed with Christ.
Roy Laurin said that in this book, Where Life Advances, Paul is dealing with four things in Philippians 3. I think this is very helpful.
All that Roy Laurin said Paul was dealing with, he was in fact consumed with Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the simple question. You knew I was setting you up for this, because I say it to myself. I pray it often and say, “Lord, am I consumed with Christ?”
This was Paul’s secret.
Billy Graham thought so much of Roy Laurin. Billy Graham—one of the greatest American preachers of all time—said, “I have read every one of his books, and many of my messages are from what are in his books.” That was the respect.
But are we, in my words, consumed with Christ? I think that was Paul’s secret. I think it is the absolute secret.
Others have said, “Here is the true Christian philosophy of life.” Another has said, “Here is the doctrine in its purest form.”
Another said, “This is the summum bonum.” Latin. Certainly, I do not know Latin. It means the good from which all others proceed. This is it.
This is the importance of this letter of Philippians. This is the ultimate expression of God’s secret. It all has to do with the person of the Lord Jesus.
It is not Christ plus something else. It is not that He gives us Christ and then He will give us more things as we need them, just as our brother Josh said in the beginning. It is altogether caught up with Christ.
My burden is in Philippians 3:10. There are four things, just like Roy Laurin said there are four things in that whole chapter. There are four things in Philippians 3:10. One we will touch on today.
First is to know Him. That is the supreme knowledge. You have that knowledge; you do not need any other knowledge.
Then, the power of His resurrection. Think of this: that is the all-sufficient power. How often we go to God and say, “Lord, give me power.” We do that.
But here, the apostle Paul, unveiling his greatest secret, said that the power He gives to you is the power of His own resurrection. There is no greater power. Is that not incredible?
Then he talks about the fellowship of His sufferings. I know some of you are going to get mad at me when we get to this third point. “Hey, do not talk about suffering.” I get it. I get it.
I actually heard brothers and sisters say one day, “A Christian is not meant to suffer.” I thought, “Good grief, what Bible are they reading? Have they ever read Peter’s letters? Have they ever read, ‘Those who suffer with Him shall reign with Him’? Have they ever read about taking up the cross and following Him?”
This apostle Paul, in sharing his greatest secret, said, “I want to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.”
Brothers and sisters, had I been writing that for you—and you would not have wanted me to have done that—I would have written, “The fellowship of His glory.” It would seem so much more appropriate.
But here is one who understood deep fellowship, deep connection, being joined with One and being like that One. He discovered, in the middle of his great sufferings, something deeper and unimaginable of a Christ that others could hardly take in.
You remember when the apostle Paul was called. I often think this is unfair of God. I know He does not want to hear me say that, but I often think it is unfair.
When He said to Ananias, “Go tell the apostle Paul, when you restore his sight, go tell the apostle Paul he is an elect vessel for Me to suffer for Me.” I think, what an introduction. I believe I would have checked out right away.
But he discovered something. Brothers and sisters, there is much we are going to go through in this life. Unless you know the Lord in the fellowship of His sufferings, you will not get through.
Your knees will buckle like an old boxer, and you will fall and be done with. This is the secret the apostle Paul discovered.
Then we will share, God willing—no telling when—on being conformed to His death. I wish the apostle Paul had not been so negative. A little cheer would have done me well.
But he knew a secret. He knew a secret, and he said in 2 Corinthians, “Dying, we live.” He knew something.
He knew that it was not just pain, but entering into something deep of the Lord Jesus that was real and lasting, and ended up being conformed to His very image—being conformed to His death.
Well, that is the outline, Jack. Your name is Jack—Jack. I told you it would be rather long.
I want us today to look just briefly at this supreme knowledge. This was Paul’s first secret he shared.
Paul gives testimony in Philippians 3:5-7 of his spiritual pedigree. I think you are familiar with that.
He says in those few short verses a multitude of things. He says that on the eighth day he was circumcised, of the tribe of Benjamin—Jacob’s favorite. That is quite a pedigree.
He said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. That is quite a pedigree. He did not just say, “I was a Hebrew.”
The only thing I can relate that to is the Lord Jesus when it says He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Here is a guy who was the Hebrew of Hebrews.
If you were a Hebrew, to be a little light, he was the cat’s meow. You see? That is not lightly spoken. What a pedigree.
It goes on to say, as to the law, a Pharisee. He was of the strictest sect—S-E-C-T; I cannot spell either. I have to pause and concentrate.
He was of the strictest sect of Judaism. What a pedigree.
Zeal—he had zeal. He was not lacking in zeal. How many preachers have stood up before congregations down through the ages and said, “You lack zeal”?
How we hear that word: “The zeal of the Lord of hosts has consumed me.” He did not lack in zeal. There was no one like him.
Then he met the incomparable Christ, and everything was undone.
He came into that moment when the light shone as noonday on that road to Damascus, and the Lord Himself revealed Himself to this Hebrew of Hebrews, this one of a kind.
He even said in Galatians 1:13, I believe, that he was far exceeding among many of his contemporaries in Judaism. Yet what changed him was a meeting with the incomparable Christ. That changed his entire life.
Brothers and sisters, there is a book I like. It is one of my favorite books. I am not selling books, so you do not have to buy it. I doubt it is still here.
But I have latched on to that description of Christ and hold it dear in my heart: The Incomparable Christ, by J. Oswald Sanders. Its secondary title is The Person and Work of the Lord Jesus.
It altogether has to do with this one secret: Christ alone.
He met the incomparable Christ. His whole philosophy changed. His religion was shattered. He became a man blinded by the light and overcome by the living Christ. Surely we can say, on that day, this man was changed in an incredible way.
But he said this in Philippians 3:7. He had all this pedigree, all this extreme pedigree:
But what things were gain to me,
these I counted, on account of Christ, loss.
He had seen the incomparable Christ.
You know where I am going. You know what the question is before I even utter it: Have we seen the incomparable Christ?
I think that is the secret—the secret of Christianity, the secret that Paul experienced, the secret of the church. Nothing else matters. That is the supreme knowledge.
He said:
But surely I count all things 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.
The excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters—that is the superior knowledge. That is what we need. That is what we ought to pray for: that God would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
We need the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, that we would count all other things as loss on account of it. That was Paul’s secret.
He was even stronger than that. His estimation was:
And count them to be filth,
that I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him.
I know the Darby version uses the word filth, and I know the New American Standard uses the word rubbish, and I sort of think those words are a little sanitized.
Here I am standing one hundred percent with my brother Jerry in the King James Version, when it says, “I count it to be dung.”
Do you understand what dung is? I do not need to be so graphic. But I suppose if you stepped in some rubbish that came out of your kitchen in a nice plastic bag, you would just say, “Oh my goodness.”
But I suppose if you stepped in dung, there would be quite another expression. If you were wearing open-toed sandals, like they were wearing, it would be quite a different expression.
Everything else did not matter. He did not just take a neutral attitude and say, “Oh yeah, it is all right to have this and that, and Christ plus this.”
He did not say, “Of course, I had all this excellent training, and that is good for me to have all that excellent training. I was outstanding as a Hebrew, and all of that is good. All of that will just bring into Christ.”
Well, a big hug, a big embrace, right up here at the lectern. You understand? He said all of it was dung.
That is how much he had seen of Christ. To me, I think that very much reveals what was in his heart.
Brother Kong recently shared with us some of his personal testimony. I am only repeating it. I hate to talk about him when he is here. I would rather talk about him behind his back. No, I did not say that right. I would rather talk about him when he is not here.
But he shared his own personal testimony of a transformation from good things, religious things, things related to service, and things that he had given his life to being faithful to.
How all of that changed when he saw the immense Christ.
I believe that is the spirit of what the apostle Paul is writing to the Philippian church.
You know what I am going to say before I ask the question. You know what the question is going to be before I ask you: Have we seen the immense Christ?
It will change your perspective about everything else, and it will bring you into God’s secret. This is the superior knowledge of the book of Philippians.
You know, we have started studying Colossians. There is a method to our madness. We heard different recommendations, and brothers and sisters, they were all good for Friday night.
I actually tried to stand the ground for one different book. I will not tell you what it is. I was not very successful, by the way.
But we thought, why not look at this book of Colossians? This was the whole subject and secret of the apostle Paul. All he wanted to bring to the Colossian believers, and the believers in Laodicea—the letter was read to them—all he wanted to bring to them was this Christ who was everything.
He encountered the error not so much by dealing with the error, but by dealing with the error of Gnostic thought that said Christ was not enough, and the error of ceremonial service, which was a Judaized Christianity.
He dealt with it through this single secret, and that single secret has already been shared this morning:
In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete in Him.
That was his secret. That is the reason we have been taken up with this book of Colossians.
Brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord Jesus, we do not have this superior knowledge. It is an experiential knowledge. It is as we grow in the Lord Jesus.
Brother Govett—Robert Govett—said something I think was astoundingly wise. I cannot imagine men with such light, like this, as I live by my candlelight.
Describing Philippians 3, he said there is a difference between the first knowledge of Christ—that saving knowledge, that initial knowledge when we believe in the Lord Jesus—and then what he called the after-knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is that after-knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is what Paul entered into by experience in knowing Him.
It was not merely the Damascus road. This became that burning vision of knowing Christ alone, and that became his secret to the end.
You know what the question is before I ask it. You know what I am going to say: Is it your secret? Is it my secret? It is the secret.
This is the difference between the first knowledge. Many of us have first knowledge. We are the Lord’s. Thank God, we are the Lord’s. Thank God, we have met the Lord. Thank God, we know the Lord.
But are we able to say, like the apostle Paul with his yearning passion, “To know Him”? That is a whole different banana. That is a whole different realm.
That is the ongoing, experiential, living knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what Paul knew.
His secret was that he saw full Christ. That full Christ dominated his vision.
That Christ became his focus and his goal. He said:
I press on to the goal,
to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,
that I might apprehend that for which I have been apprehended in Christ Jesus.
I am not already perfect, but I press on.
Not only was it his secret, but it was his goal. Now he shared that secret in a couple ways.
He shared it first by knowing Christ as our life. John shared about that last week. He read from Colossians. You remember? He read from Colossians 3 about when Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory.
This was one of the discoveries Paul made: Christ was his very life. It was the secret of Christian living.
I do not know about you, but so many of us are saved in good, sound, fundamental Christianity—evangelical Christianity. As soon as you are saved, you are told, if you are like me at least, that you need to now live for Christ.
You remember that? How many times were you told that you need to now live for Christ? In a sense, that is true, and I do not want to take away from it.
But I want to tell you, if your experience is anything like mine and anything like the apostle Paul as he wrote Romans 7, you will soon discover that it is impossible for you to live for Christ.
That is it.
I often tell people, they come to me and say, “Brother Kenny, brother Kenny”—they do not always repeat like that, but I repeat like that—“Brother Kenny, the Christian life is difficult.”
I always say to them, “The Christian life is not difficult. It is impossible.”
They look at me like I am some madman from a different planet. That may be true.
But this is the secret: Christ our life.
The secret to living the Christian life is not you living. The secret to living the Christian life is Christ living in you.
Brothers and sisters, if we are going to go anywhere in the Lord Jesus, we must discover this secret, or your life will be fraught with trying and failure and grief until you come to a rest:
For me to live is Christ.
That is what he said in Philippians 1:21. Or, as my version puts it, “For me to live is Christ.”
I think I told you this story. I think so much of that verse. I remember when I was a young believer going through some of those phases of struggling and trying and failing and weeping and asking and inquiring.
That verse in Philippians 1:21 came alive to me. One day, when I was reading it—“For me to live is Christ”—I began to say, “Lord, that is the secret. That is the secret.”
“You did not intend for me to live. You died so I would not have to die. You live so I would not have to live.” You see? That is the gospel.
For so many people, the gospel is, “I died that you do not have to die,” and then the gospel is waiting on the bus with our ticket to be punched, to go to heaven hopefully one day after we get through all this.
I realize I am out of camera range. Forgive me, Jack.
Hopefully one day our ticket will be punched as we live for Christ. But it is different:
For me to live
is Christ.
I remember one day I was reading the Word. I had a lot of catching up to do. I never grew up in a Christian household, and I did not know the Word.
I remember the first Bible study I went to. Somebody said to me, “Turn to Genesis 1:1,” and I thought, “What on earth are they talking about? What does that mean?”
So I began to read and read. I will never forget the day I discovered what John the Baptist said:
I must decrease.
He must increase.
Brothers and sisters, that was light. That was Fourth of July. That was cannons. That was firecrackers. That was amazing to me, because I discovered that was the secret.
I must decrease. He must increase.
I remember a similar feeling when I went to Galatians 2:20 and saw:
Not I, but Christ liveth in me.
How tremendous a secret that is. I no longer live. I am crucified. I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me.
That was the secret, the supreme knowledge that he shared. It is Christ Who is our life.
He is the One. He makes the impossible possible. I think that is Dora’s favorite phrase.
He takes what is literally impossible for you—to live for Him—and He does it as we grow in this experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus and rest in Him. We discover that He is the very capacity to live that life.
I have often read biographies, and they have helped me. Stephen recommends reading biographies, by the way.
Sometimes I have been intimidated by these big names. We all think, “Gee whiz, they are nothing like I am. I do not want to read about these super-spiritual heroes.”
But if you read about some of these super-spiritual ones, you discover they are just like you. Yet somehow, in all their weaknesses, with all their faults, with all that was wrong with them, they discovered a secret.
When they discovered that secret of Christ, they began to live in victory. They began to live in peace. They began to live in joy—all because they had discovered this secret.
That is the reason we sang that hymn, by the way. Madame Guyon—I said, “Oh, I am not going to read anything about Madame Guyon. She is way too mystical and deep for me.”
But if you have ever read her little book, Experiencing the Depths of the Lord Jesus, she appeals to the basic. She says, “It is for you.” She says, “The unlearned, especially the unlearned.”
I think of Corinthians: “Not many wise are called, not many noble are called.” She said God especially loves the unlearned and the simple.
He wants to share the simple secrets with you. You can enter into it. You can enter into it. I believe that is the case.
Then the apostle Paul talked about his discovery made, I believe, in his circumstances.
Brothers and sisters, unless you discover Christ in your circumstances, you will not discover this supreme knowledge.
Paul was chained to a Roman guard. It could not have been a very pleasant experience. He was in jail, his liberties completely restricted, except that he was allowed, by the grace of God, to receive those who came.
Yet in this deepest and darkest prison experience, he was able—he was able—to discover the secret of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus.
If you read Philippians, the key word is rejoice. Can you imagine? His circumstances were anything but something to rejoice about.
Yet, brothers and sisters, we are to discover this Lord Jesus in our circumstances.
Most of the time, what I say to people is, “You do not understand my circumstances.” That is what I say. That is my excuse for the condition I am in.
“You do not understand. If you understood, you would not be so hard on me.” Have I said that to more than a few of you? Forgive me.
But it is in those circumstances so against you, so contrary to you—wind in your face, uphill treading, daily walking—that we experience in a living way the secret of the Lord Jesus.
There is one last point I want to make about this knowledge, this supreme knowledge. Paul discovered Christ as everything.
Now you know where I am going. Before I say it, you know what I am going to say. You know what the question is going to be: Do we know Christ as everything?
We read that verse at the Lord’s table. It was not a mistake.
The apostle Paul discovered something about the Lord Jesus that was all-sufficient—everything made available—to the degree that he could utter those words in Colossians 3:11:
Christ is everything,
and in all.
Our brother read from 1 Corinthians 1:30 how He has been made unto us wisdom and all the above. It is Christ.
We are often looking for little spiritual packages, and we get so frustrated. The Holy Spirit is saying, “Look at My Son. He is the answer.”
We think we get spiritual care packages. It is kind of like at my house: the FedEx truck comes every other day. Linda has discovered the internet.
Look nowhere else. Look to no one else. Consider nothing else. If you discover Christ as everything—
—that was the superior knowledge.
We often say, “You need this experience. You need to follow that rule.” That is what it said in Colossians. “You need to obey this commandment. You need to do that.”
You do not need anything else when you have everything.
The secret of God and Paul’s secret forever stands: Christ is enough.
Christ is everything. Christ is all in all.
The argument the apostle Paul advanced to Colossae was that repeated phrase over and over: all things. Christ is all things.
He is before all things. By Him all things were made. For Him all things were made, that He might have the preeminence in all things.
He is the answer.
Well, I want to close with this, because this made such a difference in our early years. The divine secret is none other than Himself.
A. B. Simpson talked about his wonderful secret. That was the way A. B. Simpson put it. He said, “This is my wonderful secret.”
If you do not have the book, maybe Mac will order a few for us: The Best of A. B. Simpson. It is a great little book.
We think of these spiritual giants, just as I said a little while ago, as people who are unattainable to me. It was a great relief to me to read A. B. Simpson’s description of himself.
He was overworked. He was worn out. He had several breakdowns, near breakdowns. He was exhausted. He was overcome. He was weak and in fear, and many things, until he made the discovery of what he called his wonderful secret.
That wonderful secret transformed his life. He wrote the tract himself.
He was searching for healing. He was searching for this. He was searching for that. He was searching high and low because he had been told this.
But exhausted, he made a greater discovery. That greater discovery was Christ in you, the hope of glory.
That, he said, is my wonderful secret.
These were the words that so changed us in the early years, when we were gathered by the Lord Himself to be a testimony of Jesus in this city.
These words changed our perspective and became our focus. I hope the day returns that these words again will be our perspective and be our focus.
Once it was the blessing,
now it is the Lord.Once it was the feeling,
now it is His Word.Once His gifts I wanted,
now the Giver own.Once I sought for healing,
now Himself alone.Once ’twas painful trying,
now ’tis perfect trust.Once a half salvation,
now the uttermost.Once ’twas ceaseless holding,
now He holds me fast.Once ’twas constant drifting,
now my anchor is cast.Once ’twas busy planning,
now ’tis trustful prayer.Once ’twas anxious caring,
now He holds the care.Once ’twas what I wanted,
now what Jesus says.Once ’twas constant asking,
now ’tis ceaseless praise.Once it was my working,
His at hand shall be.Once I tried to use Him,
now He uses me.Once ’twas power I wanted,
now the Mighty One.Once for self I labored,
now for Him alone.
This was his wonderful secret.
You know what I am going to say. You know what the question is before I ask it. I am saying this to myself: Is this my wonderful secret?
This is the immense Christ. May God open to us this great secret: to know Him.
This is the supreme knowledge. This is Paul’s secret. This is the ongoing experiential knowledge of Christ. This is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
When we discover this secret, we will discover Christ our life. When we discover this secret, we will discover Christ is everything.
This is the immense Christ. This is Paul’s secret. This is the supreme knowledge.
Lord, we come back to You as Your own. We are so grateful we had that first knowledge of You, that You saved us from a pit of destruction and brought us into Christ Jesus.
Now, Lord, we do not want to stay where we are, laboring and struggling and striving and never entering into that full knowledge—the full knowledge of the Lord Jesus, that epignosis.
That prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the Colossian church: the full knowledge of His will, the full knowledge of God.
Lord, bring us into it. We lay these words at Your feet. Where they did not hit the mark, forgive us.
Cause us, in the days that lie ahead of us—however many we have left on the earth, however few—that we discover this secret, this wonderful secret.
Oh God, only You can do it. We are thankful it is not just for the great. We are thankful it is for the simple. We are the simple.
We want to say like the apostle Paul:
That I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed unto His death.
Do that, we pray. Lord, we look to You. You are able, and we are dependent. Therefore, we ask You to do it for Your name’s sake, for Your glory. Amen.