Sermon
Giving Up To Gain
January 1, 2006
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to Bibles today. We'll not be using our notes. We're going to just take a portion of the Scripture and go over it verse by verse, so it's Philippians chapter 3, and in your pew Bible it's page 631. I'd like for all of you to have a Bible there, the text before you because we'll be going verse by verse, and learning what Paul has to say to us today.

Of course the writer is Paul, and Paul, in his ministry and in his writing, as you know, has written much of the New Testament. I was studying in recent days the life of Paul. I have a video documentary that was done some years ago, which I have absolutely thoroughly enjoyed on the life of Paul. Whoever did that documentary did a tremendous research into his words and his life and his character, but the writer says Paul was a citizen of Tarsus.

At the time he lived there, only families of wealth and reputation were allowed to retain their Tarsian citizenship. Now this throws a flood of light upon Paul's early life. He was born into a home of wealth and culture. His family were wealthy Jews living in one of the most progressive of Oriental cities, and all this Paul left to become a poor itinerant missionary. But not only did he forfeit all this when he was saved, but his parents would have nothing to do with a son who had in their estimation dishonored them by becoming one of those hated, despised Christians.

They had reared him in the lap of luxury, had sent him to the Jewish School of Theology in Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Gamaliel, and had given him an excellent training in Greek culture at the University of Tarsus, a Greek school learning. But they had also cast him off, because for him, he was ashamed of the family.

Paul says I set that all aside because I have one goal, and that is that I may win Christ. Now in our letter that we have today, Paul begins: "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul's personal testimony. Paul had his critics. Paul had gone to minister to the Gentiles, and as a result, his Jewish friends of the church in Jerusalem highly criticized him. In fact, after he would preach in a Gentile city, those from Jerusalem would come along and say Paul didn't tell you the whole truth. If you're going to become a Christian you've got to join together your Jewish rituals with your Christian faith, and thus you are a true Christian.

Paul said, not so; that's not true. Thus, Paul is responding here to his critics with a personal testimony. Thus he begins this chapter by suggesting to all of us, rejoice. He realizes that's one of the great secrets of living. It's not negative people who enjoy life; it's people who are rejoicing even through their tears.

He says for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe. In other words, I'm going to write some things that I've written to you before about and it's not tedious. I want you to know I'm doing this...it's for your good. In other words, there are some truths, Paul is saying, that bear repeating over and over again because they are life-changing truths, and they are things that are very, very important so what I'm going to say it's not tedious. I'm just not trying to waste time. I'm saying things that are going to be helpful for you.

Number one, he said, you beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, so he starts his comments with a warning. When he says beware of dogs, he is thinking in terms of a phrase that was very degrading and used frequently as Jewish people defined Gentiles.

Now when we think of dogs, they were different in Paul's days. They were the scavengers of the street. They ran the streets at night. They were vicious. They would attack people. And so when he uses that turns dogs, he's using a very derogatory term and if you wanted to say something very derogatory about another person, you would just say, he's just a dog. What Paul is saying is you my critics, you run around disturbing people that I have preached to in city after city.

He changes now their definition to being a dog. They are vicious. They're hurting the cause of Jesus Christ, and they're not telling the truth. And he includes them also with a defining word of evil doers, evil workers. And then he said beware of the mutilation.

You see his critics were taking this position - Paul now is ministering to the Gentiles and he is not requiring of them all of the rituals and the ceremonies of the Jewish faith, and thus, he's not preaching the total truth. And to them, one of the issues was circumcision. Now I know that it's a very strange subject in our day, but to the Jewish people of ancient past and even to this day, it's a very important thing.

Go with me clear back to the front pages of your Bible so we can find out exactly when this matter, this issue came about. Go with me to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis 17 and beginning to read at verse 7, and here is the history on this issue that Paul's critics are really hounding him about. The Bible says, "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

And God said to Abraham: As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me..." Now remember God is speaking. "...and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant."

Now why God chose that very strange and unique marking, he did it. They were the only people in the world that bore that marking, physical marking, but it was a sign that God had made a covenant with His people and they were a part of that covenant people. Now because of that, those that were criticizing Paul they were relentless, saying Paul, you're not telling these folks all that they need to know about believing in God. They've got to be a part of this Jewish ritualism. And Paul said, no! In fact, he said, if they go around preaching that they are like mutilators. And he uses the mutilation...he uses a word that the pagans use to describe their mutilating of the body in order to appease their gods. I mean he really laced them on that one. He is saying, no, you are only a mutilator. You are like a pagan, because that ritual has nothing to do with salvation or being right with God.

Now he says if you really want to understand circumcision in its spiritual application, it means the cutting away of the sin from your life. It's taking the initiative to take your life and turn it completely over to God and handle those matters that are not godlike, but it has nothing to do with salvation.

Go with me to Romans chapter 2. And here's what Paul, here's his final word I think on the matter. Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."

So Paul gives the spiritual meaning to that, and his critics still maintain Paul's wrong and they are right. Now verse 4, they have always brag much about their spiritual achievements and their position with God, and so Paul writes: "though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:" In other words Paul said, you probably think that now that I ministering to Gentiles I've forgotten my Jewish heritage, but I haven't. If you want to brag about yours let me brag about mine. I'm not doing this to boast, he just simply says I want you to understand I do understand your position in Judaism.

First of all he said, verse 5, I was circumcised on the eighth day. In other words, my parents were obedient to that ancient command found in Genesis. On my eighth day they took me to the temple and I was circumcised. Then he goes on to say I am of the stock of Israel. Now what he meant was this, most Jewish families because of the moving about on the face of the earth at that time because they were constantly being shifted from nation to nation as conquerors would come in, many of them lost their tribal genealogy. They couldn't trace back to their forefathers.

Now Jacob was the man who, remember he was going to meet his brother Esau and one night he wrestles with an angel and to get out of that fight he hangs on and the angels strikes him on the hip, and then he says, what's your name? And he said my name is Jacob. He says your name now will be Israel. And so when you could trace your genealogy all the way back to Jacob, you could confirm the fact that you had true lineage in your Jewish family. So he is saying, I am of the stock of Israel. I can trace my lineage clear back to Jacob.

Then he goes on to say I am of the tribe of Benjamin. Now why was that important? Because Benjamin was the only patriarch that was born in the Promised Land and it was from his tribe that the first king, Saul was a Benjamite, that was selected. It was Mordecai who, in the book of Esther, saves the nation of Israel from calamity and he was a Benjamite, and so when you said I am from the tribe of Benjamin, you were saying I am of the highest aristocracy that can be attained in my nation. I'm a Benjamite. The first king came from my tribe.

He goes on to say I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. What's that? Well when Hebrew people moved as they did around the Mediterranean Sea and they set up their businesses oft times they would become ingrained and engulfed in the cultures of the day and lose their identity, even their language. A true Hebrew family would not only keep all of their traditions and their rituals, but they would keep their language. They spoke Hebrew in the home. And so what Paul is saying is when my family moved to Tarsus we didn't forget that we were Jewish. We celebrated all of the festivals of Judaism and we spoke Hebrew in our home, and I still speak it today. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews and I've never lost my identity, even though we grew up in a Greek city. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

Then he goes on, concerning the law, I'm a Pharisee. Now Pharisees came into being right after the return from the Babylonian captivity and they were men that were dedicated to keeping every aspect of the law. They lived every moment; they spent all of their energies for one purpose, and that was to keep all the regulations of the law. And the common people looked on the Pharisees as being very, very, very religious. In fact they reminded you how religious they were. They had these little boxes called phylacteries. They carried them around and sometimes you see them today. It would be like me walking around all day (with the Bible on my head) saying I set my whole life to live this book, and they carried their reminder as people looked on. A Pharisee was one totally dedicated to keeping the law. He said I'm a Pharisee.

He goes on, concerning zeal, I persecuted the church. Now you're disturbing the church, but I persecuted it. In fact, Paul has said many times in his comments you would refer to those times when he did his very best to destroy the Christian church. He threatened them. He went into houses. He pulled parents and families apart. He put them in prison. He stood there and held their garments. Paul said if you want talk about zeal...and zeal was the supreme virtue as far as a Jewish person was concerned. One who was totally, totally committed to your faith and would do anything to enlarge that faith. So Paul says if you want to talk about zeal, I had it.

In other words he is saying to his critics, you say that now that I'm ministering to Gentiles I have forgotten all my Jewish heritage - things that you brag about. But I want you to know, look at what he says in verse 7, "what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."

Now it's interesting in Paul's writing he's using bookkeeping or accounting terminology. What he has in mind is he has got two columns, one is the gain column, profit, and one is the loss column. He said there was a time in my life when everything that you think is important I had in the gain column of life. If anybody qualified with God I did, but now I've come to Christ and I've shifted all the gains to the loss column. In fact when we get to verse 8, he said, they have no more value than a pile of dung.

Now can you imagine his critics listening? Because that's the very thing they were gloating over, and he said it's worthless. He said it has no value. It's the dregs of life. Not only all of those things that he's listed, but remember, to become a Christian he lost his fortune, he lost his family, he lost his identification with home. He said everything that you count important I count it as loss and worthless for one reason, I want to win Christ.

He had had that marvelous experience on the Damascus Road and the gain column shifted to the loss column. He said, verse 8: "indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Now that little word excellence in the Amplified reads like this...it's on page 6 of your notes if you'd like to, but I'll read it for you. He said, "But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [one combined] loss for Christ's sake. Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage)."

That one little word excellence, behind it are these meanings. I count them, everything, as a possession of the priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and the supreme advantage of knowing Christ. Paul said that day came when what you thought was important, and you still think it's important, that became as dregs because I've come to a new experience, a new relationship by placing my faith in Jesus Christ; and oh, what a priceless treasure I have in that relationship.

Look at, he goes on to say, I want to be found in Him, not having any righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God by faith. I don't want anything that I do to be so important to me that it in any way touches upon or takes from the importance of what Christ really means to me.

Now we come to verse 10, and ladies and gentlemen, here is a verse for 50 years I have sought to understand. Even this week I went through manuscript after manuscript and book after book, I wanted to see what commentators...how they would explain verse 10.

Look at what he says - He now has had that experience with Christ, but that experience has so given him a passion to grow spiritually, he says: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." And I have pondered those words for years because it has been my prayer too. Jesus, I want to know You; I want to know You in a way that's different. Paul says that I may know Him, and I'm saying that I may know You.

And then I read the next phrase, he says, "and the power of His resurrection." Paul tells us in Romans that when we became a Christian the Holy Spirit was placed within our hearts and lives. If we believe in Christ, His Spirit is within us. And Paul is saying that Spirit that Christ placed within us is the same power that brought Christ out of that grave, and you'll find that in his prayers he prays that I may understand that power at work within me, the power of His presents, the power of His Holy Spirit, that I might learn its greatest potential, that I may know Christ in that power that brought Him out of the grave, that it may be a power so active within my life that it's totally transforming me. What a prayer.

And then he went on to say this knowledge of Christ is not only understanding His power at work within me, but understanding the sufferings through which Christ went. You know when we come to life's hardships we often pray, God, get me out of this. Not Paul. I think when he was out there on that ship wondering if the next wave was going to take him, he was just rejoicing because he found joy in identifying with Christ even in His sufferings; and suffer he did, beat with a lash, stoned, put in prison. What's he doing in prison? Singing. He said I want to so identify with You, dear Jesus, that I can react to life's difficult moments just like You did.

When they turned against Him and they nailed His hands to that crossed, He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Paul is saying I want to know You so that in life's difficult, dark moments I radiate You dear Christ in my living. And then verse 11 he says, I have one goal, and that is when the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ are raised first, I want to be there with You in heaven. "...if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Now let's go to verse 12. You caught his passion. He's had his experience with Christ. What they thought were gains, he considers them dregs, but he said, Jesus, I just want to keep knowing You better. Now look at what he says in verse 12: "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected." I'm glad he put that in there, in other words, maybe he was being criticized or thought by some said he was, because of all these achievements he had reached, perfection, but he said I haven't. I've got problems living too.

Go with me to Romans chapter 7. That's why I like Paul. He's honest with us. He's the great apostle of all times, but he tells us he struggles just like we do. Look at what he writes in Romans 7:14. It begins at Romans 7:14, "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find."

Back to our text, Paul says, I'm not perfect and I still struggle. I find a little comfort in that because after being in the ministry, and being a Christian for 60 years, I can struggle and say just what Paul said. Paul said I'm not perfect; I want you all to know that. But I'll tell you this one thing, I press, that is I use every energy I've got to achieve the purpose for which I was called into this Christian family. And what was that? It's for all of us. Paul says in Romans 8:28, that we might be conformed unto the image of His Son. That's the goal for all of us. That's the reason, one of the reasons, that God has saved you, that you might grow spiritually to be more like Christ, that His image might be made your very lifestyle, that Christ becomes the very center of your living.

Paul said that's my goal, I want to achieve that for which I became a Christian and that is to be like Christ in all that I do. As a little boy we used to sing in church, To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask is to be like Him. All through life's journey from earth to heaven, all I ask is to be like Him. Paul said I want to achieve the reason for God's gracious gift of His love and mercy being poured out to me, and that is to relive.

One of the great translations in Galatians it reads, for me to live is for the life of Christ to be relived in my living. Isn't that a prayer? For me to live is for the life of Christ to be relived in my living, that is laying hold for that which Christ has already laid hold of me.

Verse 13, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended..." He's reminding us once again, I'm not perfect, I'm not there folks. "...but one thing " and the 'I do' is not the original text but it's there because it's implied, "but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Now Paul is going to give us the secret here of spiritual growth. When he writes, forgetting those things that are behind, you have to understand Paul has a brilliant mind. I am sure that as things took place within his life those images were indelibly stamped against his mind. They were always there, and to forget would be an extreme task. When Paul is out there on the seas and he's being shipwrecked, and he's being beaten, he's being stoned, he could have been back in Tarsus living in the lap of luxury, because he would have inherited his family inheritance; that he brushed aside, forgetting that.

I'm sure that Paul's memory was so vivid when it came to remembering those days when he brought great persecution on the church of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 9 tells us that he breathed out threatenings. That means he just belched forth anger against the Christians, and he would travel from city to city and he would take and go to these Christian homes and he would rip children away from their parents, and take their parents to prison and make sure they got killed. I mean to have that kind of event stamped against your memory; the weeping and the crying and the screaming of little children, and homes being torn apart. What a memory Paul must've had of his days before knowing Jesus Christ.

And Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind, I press towards the prize or the mark of the high calling, the upward calling of Christ, God in Christ Jesus.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give us a secret for successful spiritual growth and living in 2006, and I'm learning it from Paul - Forgetting what happened yesterday. Do you realize how many people live crippled lives, and how many Christians are crippled in their spiritual walk because they hang on to bitterness, they hang on to grudges, they hang on to experiences that were painful and so help them, they will not let it go! And it drags them down. And what Paul is saying if you're going to make any progress that direction, you've got to let go of what happened then.

Some of us sitting here, you've gone through experiences where your life was torn apart and tears drenched your pillow night after night because of some painful experience, and it still hangs on, and it cripples your spiritual growth for what God may have for you.

I had a man walk up to me after the first service, tears, he said pastor...and I knew the case, he said 20 years ago something happened in my life and he said that thing has drug me down. He said I know God has forgiven me, but I haven't forgiven myself. One of the beautiful things about God's forgiveness, the Bible says that when He forgives us He takes our sins from us as far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered against us anymore. And once we take a matter to God and we say, God, please forgive me and help me, and I place this under the blood of Jesus Christ, it's forgotten by God. And yet, somehow we go pull it out.

Some years ago I was in a conversation and in that conversation was a gentleman who in previous months had erred desperately, but we knew that he had prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him, and to cleanse him and to cover that matter with the blood, and somehow in the conversation someone else goes and digs out that problem of the past and pulls it out for conversation. And immediately the pastor said, listen, that we will not allow. That man has placed that matter in the hands of Jesus, and it's forgiven and it's forgotten, and it's not for us to pull it out under the blood.

And I think that what Paul had come to in his Christian life, he knew the pain that he had brought and he knew how much agony he had brought to the cause of Jesus Christ, but he knew that when he came to Jesus it was all forgiven. Marvel of marvels. And when you come to Christ and you ask Him to forgive you of your sins, they are far from you as the East is from the West and they'll never be remembered against you again. Forget it. Make sure that you've done your very best to heal anything that may have been in the past, you've sought forgiveness, but once you've done your part, forget it.

Last night I was thinking through my sermon because I want to live it right along with you. And I was thinking, God, bring to my remembrance any areas that I need to correct for this past year, because I want to start the New Year with the past under the blood. And God brought to things to my mind, and I sat down and I wrote letters seeking people's forgiveness. Now I'm not bragging; I'm just simply saying I want that to be a forgotten issue, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ because I want the year of 2006 to be a time when I press towards the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and I don't want any baggage hanging on behind.

Now this message applies differently to all of us. If we don't allow the past to be the past and let God forgive it, letting it go, we'll make no progress spiritually this year.

Believe it or not, when I was in high school I ran in track, but I ran the high hurdles. And you know one thing, when you run high hurdles you've got to keep your eye on that next hurdle, and if you look back to see who's your closest competitor, you'll stumble every time - Every time. People who run races, anybody who looks back, they impede their progress forward.

Jesus said if you begin, you've got your hand to the plow, and he that has his hand to the plow and turneth back, is not fit for the kingdom of God.

I'm suggesting this day - before it's over - seek to make sure the past is forgotten. There are couples sitting here that tension is in your home, if you went home today and said, listen, let's put the past under the blood of Jesus Christ, let's forget it, and let's start our new life in Christ. Some of you would seek forgiveness from people you've held grudges against for years. You're going to find a cathartic cleansing, and you're going to find a vibrancy to set the focus on heaven. You'll never do it if you hang on to the past.

Paul said you may criticize me, but what you think is important, isn't important. To me the most important thing is my relationship with Jesus, and my one reason for living is to so reflect Christ every day, on my way to heaven I'll remind everybody of Jesus. Isn't that a wonderful testimony that he leaves for us? Let's pray.

Jesus, may there be a passion to know You better in a more intimate glorious way than we've ever known You before. May Paul's prayer become our prayer this year that I may know You, that I may understand this marvelous power of the Holy Spirit working within my life, that I might find joy in identifying with every aspect of this Christian journey.

Jesus, there are some folks sitting here today who haven't made any spiritual progress for a long time because they hang on to the experiences, the failures, the heart breaks, maybe even the successes of yesterday. We need Your help to forgive and forget, and place it all in Your hands so that this year will be a glorious year of spiritual success.

May this be a glorious day, Lord Jesus, as we launch into this New Year where our spiritual life explodes in dimensions of Christ likeness like we've never experienced before. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen? God bless you, God bless you.