True riches are found not in earthly possessions or status, but in knowing Christ Jesus. The sermon contrasts the Apostle Paul's former confidence in his religious credentials and heritage with his later realization that these were worthless compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ. It emphasizes that a wholehearted commitment to Christ, involving surrendering all of oneself, is essential for experiencing His power and purpose. The core lesson is that genuine faith requires a radical re-evaluation of priorities, counting all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and a deep, experiential knowledge of Him in all life's circumstances.
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So I may need it. I wouldn't be able to hear you, not now, but I may need it later. It's certainly a great joy to be back again, to see what you're doing, to behold your joy, and to share in the things of the Lord. I brought a message from my wife to you. and she said she was looking forward to coming to be with you but then at the last moment things had to be changed and so she asked me to express her kindness and appreciation for inviting us and of course I heard I'm sure you know that I was supposed to be going to South Africa and then at the last moment the plans were changed so I will not be going to South Africa in I may be going in nineteen ninety or two thousand ninety as the Lord gives direction but we are going to leave that where it is and see how the Lord work it out I would like to ask you to turn with me to a very well known portion of God's word in
Philippians chapter three Philippians chapter three and we are going to begin reading from verse one finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord. And every time I read the epistle, and I read a verse like this, and the one in... Thank you. Can you hear any better now? And I read other verses like this. I really am amazed, because I have to ask myself, was Paul really writing from prison? Could you believe that? Now folks, you can't go to sleep on me.
I mean, Can you believe a man is writing from prison? And sixteen times, as Mr. Scruggie says, the word rejoice and its equivalent are in this epistle. Sixteen times from a prison, he's saying rejoice, be joyful. Can you really believe that? You're not sure. Neither am I. You're not sure. Rejoice in the Lord. And then he says in verse two, Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Though I might have also confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as catching the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, catching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ? doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but down, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of today, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And God, I am sure, would add a blessing to the reading of his precious word. This, I understand, is the believer's conscience. And we are here because we believe the word of God. I've been reading the passage again and again, and some things stood out to me, and needless to say, I've been convicted about them. As I read the passage again this morning, I had to ask myself the question, do you really accept some of these things that Paul was talking about? If you were to put yourself in Paul's shoes, would you say the same thing?
Can you really say the same thing? How do you feel about all of them? And I tell you, I really had some questions. I don't know if I got any answers. But before I leave, I trust some of you. may give me the answers to some of my questions. Are you going to do that? We don't understand that silence in the south. Are you going to... Okay, let's power the way to pray. Father, we do thank you for your word given to us to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. As we wait now, we pray that the Spirit of God may speak to us and may there be the proper response to your word as he probes deep into our consciousness for Jesus' sake.
Amen. Some years ago in Northern Ireland, so the story goes, D.L. Moody was visiting and he heard an evangelist by the name of Jim Folly say, the world has yet to see what God will do in and through and for a man who will yield himself to him, surrender himself to Jesus Christ. And Mr. Moody reasoned like this. He didn't say a rich man. He didn't say a poor man.
He didn't say an educated man. All he said was, a man. By the grace of God, he said, I will be that man. And the world now knows what God can do with a man who is utterly and totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. I read Mr. Pollock, who was the authorized biographer of Mr. Moody. And he said, Mr. Moody's English was so poor, you really couldn't do anything with it.
And yet, this man has left a monument of what God can do in the city of Chicago. Monthly, Moody Monthly sends out about a quarter of a million magazines. And circling the globe. They have some film, science film. They are shown at Ivy League colleges. They are now entering their second century of faithful ministry, all because a man believed that if he surrendered, if he committed himself to Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ can take him and do anything that he desires to do with him.
And today, this is my concern. As I survey the field where I'm laboring, as I look at our nation, and we talk as Christians about the crime rate, we talk about the spiraling divorce rate, we talk about the decline in church attendance, and all the rest of it. And I wonder if we are asking ourselves the right question. In spite of all these things, are we sure that our God can do something about it. I believe he can. But God has always worked through instruments. God has always worked through people.
And I believe if God can find someone here in St. Louis, he will do in that person, for that person, and through that person, things hitherto thought unknown. So the burden, the thrust of my ministry today would be, is our God able? Now I know as Christians we speak the language and we will say, sure, he is able. But that question would be then, is our God able? Are we willing to surrender, to commit ourselves to him unhesitatingly? And if we do, God will begin to work in a new way.
Paul was such a man. And Paul has left on record what he did because he was convinced as to who Jesus Christ is. On Damascus Road, you remember the encounter. He wanted to know who was the voice speaking. And Jesus Christ said to him, I am Jesus. And from that moment on, he had only one question. Lord, what will you have me to do? And this man has touched his generation. And he is touching our generation today.
Now look at me and ask me the question. Is our God able in Brethren, that's the question. You get answers, don't you, when you ask questions? Okay, let me wait for the answer. Do you think that our God is able to impact our city? Do you think our God is able to impact our world? And of course, I've talked it all with some men, and I said, where the followers, he says, there's nothing to do, just wait for the Lord. You know, I didn't have to cough up. Now, I believe the Lord is coming, so much so, that every time I end the broadcast, I say this.
And so, until the same time next week, P. Michael Flowers here, your good news broadcaster, reminding you that Jesus Christ is coming soon. Suppose, my friends, he came today. I believe he's coming. But I believe we have used that remote part as a corporal. And I want to ask you today, to look at a man and to see what he did and to find out if God has changed since AD one let's take a fleeting look at his profile that is before he was converted he tells us about it himself he hated the Christians he didn't believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God he thought the Lord Jesus Christ was an imposter and he sought to do something about it by endeavoring to stamp out everyone who would dare lift up this Jesus Christ.
But he had the encounter. And after that, we know that he was a changed man. Now in the passage, we have a profile of this man from his upbringing, the social side, his connection with his nation. And he said this in verses five and six. I was circumcised. the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, consigning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
What a man. As you look at this man, as you look at this pleasing profile of him, you will have to admit that he was an outstanding person. There was zeal. There was that conviction that what he was doing was right, and he threw himself into it wholeheartedly. But after the conviction, he was also, after the conversion, he was also convinced that Jesus Christ was Lord, and he surrendered himself to Jesus Christ, and he did the same thing with the same fervor for Jesus Christ as he did when he was against him.
And so our commitment today need to be a wholehearted commitment. We talk much about commitment today, but is it wholehearted? Are we loyal in our commitment? And someone said to me once, Brother Flowers, when you talk about commitment, what on earth are you talking about? Well, I said, when I talk about commitment, I am talking about a rational entrustment of your whole self to someone who is worthy of you. And that person is Jesus Christ. I am suggesting that you do it and do it now, just a few weeks ago. I stood in the church and two lovely people stood before me.
I'm always amazed at this. Here are two lovely people, and you know folks, don't you? I'm sure you know people because you're a person. And here's a young girl willing, unashamedly, to commit herself to a strange man, so to speak. And he was going to commit himself to her in public. saying, I will give you all my earthly goods and I will be with you for better or for worse. And my wife told me that it's going to use me for worse. Nevertheless, we commit ourselves to each other and we are not worthy of it. And here is Jesus Christ, the one who created all things.
The one who sustains the whole universe. All things are for him and by him and unto him. And yet, There seemed to be that hesitancy as if I should commit myself to one so worthy. I think, brethren, we need to heighten our commitment. We need to see Jesus Christ for what he is worth. We need to understand, again, the question, who are you? And when we get the answer by searching the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit working through us, we will... Say, truthfully, oh God, I give you myself.
I abandon my total person, emotion, will, and intellect. I give it all to you, and now you can have me, and you can direct me. You can do through me what you want, because you are worthy of it. And if we want to know why the Apostle Paul was so effective, was so dynamic in that which was entrusted to him, it is because he had no qualms as to who Jesus Christ is and why he should give himself wholeheartedly to him. Let me ask you the question again. My friends, my brothers and my sisters, have you really said honestly, take my life, take my intellect?
Take my all, every power as thou shalt choose. Or did you say it just because the preachers were nearby? Or you said it because you were in a group of folks, and they were saying, Lord Jesus, I surrender all. Did you really surrender your all to him? After all, the Apostle Paul says in Romans, that should be a reasonable service based on the mercies of God. I beg you, therefore, that you yield, that you hand over your body to Jesus Christ and make him a present. That's the man we want to keep before us. He is the man who gave us half of the New Testament, and God saved him and used him in the measure that he was willing to commit himself to him.
Something else about the Apostle Paul that really thrills me as I think of his life. He had a pursuit that I call a priceless pursuit. There was not anything, as far as he was concerned, that he wouldn't give to Jesus Christ. And so he says here in verse seven, listen what he says here, in eight, yea, but what things were gained to me? those I counted loss for Christ. Now, if you want to use it contextually, you'll have to go back to what he said just now, but he was the Jew and he was the Hebrew. But let's not deal with that now.
We're not dealing with the pastoral contextually. We're just taking a few things from it. And I want you to see again what this man was saying. You get the breadth. You get the depth. You get the height of what he was saying. Or, let me put it to you like this. Can we trust him? Do you think he really meant what he was saying? I count all things lost. Brother, do we do that? What are some of the things that you are holding on to and you're not willing to give to Jesus Christ? Now, if Jesus Christ died for us, and it's because of his mercy, we have been brought into God's family, we have been redeemed, we have been reconciled, we have been raised and seated with him, and the prospect of being with him and like him for eternity, if all this is because of who he is, is there any reason why we should behold our allegiance and our loyalty and our bodies from him?
Then remember this. If you're not giving it to him, you're going to give it to somebody else. And the Apostle Paul said it like this. To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are. And none of us have succeeded yet in serving two masters. What a desire. What a pursuit. I gave up everything. for him, for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. The story is told of C.
G. Stubbs. An Englishman who was a scholar, was a socialite, and he was a sportsman. He played what the Englishman would call good cricket. And when he received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, He gave up his wealth. He gave up everything. And then he went to Africa. And if you've read the book by his son-in-law, Siti Stud, he said this, if Jesus Christ be God and gave himself for me, then there is no sacrifice from me that can be considered too great for him.
Have you heard your expression lately? That's a sacrifice. That's too much of a sacrifice. Let me ask you a question. Have you considered what a sacrifice it was when the Lord of all came to earth, he gave himself as a sacrifice for us so that we could be redeemed, we can be his precious one, we can come back into adjustment and conformity with him, Is that a sacrifice? I count all things, Lord. Doubtless, I count all things for the knowledge of the excellence of God which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord.
Brethren, are we on the way? Have we started? Or where are we? Where are we in relation to our loyalty? Where are we in our commitment to Him who deserves to have our all? Now I know we've seen it some time at the breaking of bread. We've seen it some time at consecration meeting. But do we really mean it? Where the whole realm of nature mine. That's where an offering far too small. Isn't it true that Christians can sing lies too? Now you look at me now. You look at me now. He is so precious, you say, and yet he asks you to go with him to Mississippi. And what do you say?
Well, then he says, you won't go to Mississippi, but it's really something to go to India. Would you go? Would you go to Africa? Would you go next door? I mean, you don't have to learn any language now. Next door. And you say, Lord, Lord, what? Is He really Lord? Now when we talk about the Apostle Paul, we must have this firmly established in our mind. We are not thinking about somebody who is a nincompo. We are thinking about a man who can make it in almost any society academically and otherwise.
And yet, Jesus Christ was so precious, so important to him, that he said, I'll give up my Jewishness. I wonder if you people have ever learned of the word in the Bible called Amen. Okay, don't say it because he was frightened. All right. But here's what you say. I am willing to give up my Jewishness if they would only come to Christ. Are we in the ballpark? What team are we playing on? Are we ready to give up anything? After all, what do you have apart from your sin?
We are on the outside of everything, right? And through Jesus Christ we've been brought right into God's family. We have been raised and seated with him, and now with the Holy Spirit living in us, he is sending us forth into this world, and it's his world, and he is sending us forth to represent him. And brothers and sisters, I am convinced, unless we see Jesus. And unless we come to the place where we can honestly say, I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, I'll do what you want me to do, dear Lord, and I'll be what you want me to be, all our talk about being Christian is just that talk.
We have a giddy world outside. You understand that, don't you? We have a god-less world outside. You understand that, don't you? But do you think we're going to go and change it? No. They'll laugh us out of court and they should. I'm sure St. Louis is a baseball town, isn't it? Answer me. Yeah. And some of you would think nothing of spending all night trying to get a ticket to see a game. And then when the team didn't make it, you're going to the state of depression. The cure for that is to treat it as just a baseball game and put Jesus Christ above that.
Now, I'm not saying it must have gone to a baseball game, but I'm suggesting that if you give the priority and the preeminence that you give to baseball and give that to Jesus, there wouldn't be so many disappointed Christians at the Lord's table sometime. And Paul says, whatever it was, whatever it is, my Jewishness, my culture, whatever it is, I am willing to lay on the line for the one who is worthy. Are we? This man had an all-consuming passion. This man had a deep, personal longing.
and he expressed it like this in verse ten, that I may know him. You have that deep yearning, that insatiable craving to know him. I read recently of a young fellow in Africa who came to know the Lord Jesus and he spent hours and hours and hours reading the word. Now, if we're going to be honest, we'll have to admit that we do not spend much time reading the word.
And I believe that we do spend some time. Well, let me suggest something to you. When Paul made this statement, they are telling us it's about thirty years since he had his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is not longing to be saved. he's longing to know Jesus Christ intimately in the little irritating nitty-gritty things of life so that he will know how to respond to them and I find in my life and in the lives of others that Christians for the most part are living defeated lives because we don't know him now we know Philippians three tenths by quoting it we can tell us or tell someone all about the dispensation, what's going to happen when the church goes home, and all about the millennium, and you can argue intelligently what pro and con about whether the church will go through its tribulation.
But that doesn't mean, even remotely, that you know him. And that's the answer. Experientially, tell me, when the bottom seems to draw a line, what do you do? Do you panic? Or do you turn to him? Who is the last person we consult in times of trouble? The neighbors. Or another Christian. Call the elders. If I'm miserable, make him miserable too. That's what he's supposed to do. Well, we all do. So, but here's what the Bible says. And call upon me in that they have trouble. The implication is God says, I'm going to see to it that you have trouble.
And in the trouble I'm going to develop you. to be a sturdy weakness for me. We need to know him. Now, I don't want to go into the rest of the verse because we'll have some little fallout here. Because he says this, I want to know him in the what? Power of his resurrection. Just let me read something and ask you something about it. Let me turn to Ephesians one for a moment. Listen to these words. And Paul is praying. Paul is saying in verses eighteen through twenty. He's saying this. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
That he may think, that he may feel what is the hope of his calling. That you may speculate about it. And what is the riches of the glory of our inheritance in this day. If that's not a mouthful, tell me when you get a mouthful. But listen to what he's saying now. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to his working of his mighty power? And every time I read verse nineteen I hang my head in shame. Now I understand in the Bahamas we have an expression that goes like this. Open confession is good for the soul and body. Let me ask you a question. Do you know anything of what verse nineteen has to say?
Let me ask you this. Do you know anything about his power? Why our fuels are so soon exploded? Why is it that a husband and wife could sit together and for days thought he was there and all of you claim to have inside of you the Holy Spirit and that means we are united to the greatest power structure in the universe. Amen. And yet this power in us cannot get us even speaking to each other as normal human beings. So don't tell him you know anything about his power, do you?
Why is it, if someone comes here and preach the word, you get uptight and you think the person was talking to you or talking about you, the person would even know you're alive. Don't protect yourself in that place of premise. God has other things to do. Listen. Listen, folks. You be honest with you. I'm telling you the truth. I'm standing before you. And I'm telling you, I am so utterly amazed at the thing that humbled me. For instance, you drive a car, don't you? Oh, you went on. All right. You drive a car and someone cuts into you. And before you know it, you said, you idiot. Is that the way that king's servants behave?
Is that a good representation of Jesus Christ who was meek and lowly? And when he was reviled, he reviled not again. You must understand that the time we have left in our world is to be conformed to the image of his son. And the goal is that he is working in us, that in character we become like him. And the power to do it is there. The generating power is there. That I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Right? And Paul is saying here in verse nineteen that we might know the power of his, the power to us was.
But he says something else. We might know the greatness of that power. You understand that? You know what we do? We have been saved for so long. And the Lord has been so gracious to us. that some of the course of things we do in life, or we did before, we don't do now, and when we see people doing them, we're almost looking to, hmm, boy, that's gross. You know that expression? That's gross. And you did worse, perhaps. You got drunk, you beat up your wife, spent all your wages, and now God has cleaned you up. Put some perfume on you.
And you're walking in the light, praise God. You're really moving on but getting to know him. But you see, folks, somehow you don't know of the greatness of God's power to take the worst, the lost, the lowest, and the least and to lift them up and make them acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And if we did, we wouldn't turn people off just like that. Amen. We look at it all. He's drunk. I went to school, the Bible school in Scotland, and the president told us a story like this one. He said that a man got on the train and he was drunk, because they said he was drunk.
But he said he was drunk. And he started just doing that right. And a very refined English lady said to him, Mr. you're drunk. And the bus stop is like that. And she was totally disgusted. And she says, Mr. You are very strong. And the third time she couldn't take any longer. She just stood and she said, Mr. You are very, very strong. And he was getting ready to get out. And you look at her. Lady, you are ugly.
You are very ugly, but I'll be over tomorrow. Folks, folks, those people that we write off, listen, those people that we write off are very drunk. Oh, the grace of God. Are you excited about that? Oh, the marvelous, wonderful grace of God can take them and clean them up and give them an inheritance in the same... And God sends us forth with this power inside of us. And we are experiencing now what others never did in the Old Testament. We have the Holy Spirit living in us twenty-four hours a day.
And he is going to take our members, to flow through our members, and make us dynamic, vibrant, radiant Christians. When we look at them as the, well, since the Lord saved me, I was the last traveler on the brink of hope for you. Folks, there's hope for every sinner if they've only come to God. So what I want you to do, go away from this place, believing in the greatness of his power. And look at the last word. The exceeding. Now how do you intelligently define that? Exceeding greatness of his power. Do we know anything about that? And why he wanted to know him?
So that he could make him known. We're going to stop. But there were some things I want to touch on the single focus he had. But listen folks, he says in verse thirteen, I count not myself to be apprehended. Paul said in the first, look I've been arrested and I want to know why Jesus arrested me. You've been arrested haven't you? Do you know why he arrested you? Remember Job? Oh, that I might know where I could find him. Some brothers found him one day, and he says, we have found him.
We have found him, haven't we? Or has he found us? Remember the story in the front of Solomon? The girl said, I'm lost. I'm just looking for my beloved. The other girl said, your beloved. What's wrong with your beloved other than other beloved? He said, you don't know my beloved. My beloved is special. And she went on to relate all the things that her beloved is. And I've been singing that song, you know, oh, I'm my beloved. And my beloved is mine. Is that true? Has he captivated your fancy? Are you sure that he deserved to have your all than brothers and sisters? Why not let's get to know him in the power of his resurrection?
in the fellowship of his suffering and for some reason we have taught and practiced that suffering belong to the antediluvian age it belonged to our age of grace may god stir us that we will want to know him and we want to know him so that we can make him known by showing to others somewhat of his virtues