Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord

Very good to see all of you here today and a privilege to be here and also to listen to my fellow brethren and the excellent ministry that we have heard so far. So I would like to try to talk to you for a little while about the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and its different relationships and associations. And there's an extensive reference to such a topic as might be expected in the scriptures, but we're just going to limit ourselves to a few selected readings and hopefully we won't put everybody to sleep.

2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse number 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse number 6. This is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to salvation. So it says in this verse, and I love this description of what salvation, there's different other verses that give us a description of salvation, but I love this one. It says, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Every person that is saved is a person that has come, shall I put it this way, face to face with the Lord Jesus. We're not talking about a vision or anything like that or some imagined vision of him. We are simply talking about personally coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the destiny. That is the end of the odyssey. That's where actually salvation occurs at this intersection between the person that is in this quest, in this search for salvation and by the spirit of God.

And even as this verse points out, it is by the person of God, because the verse actually says for God starts out with the person of God. And then it speaks about the power of the word of God. It says he commanded the word to the light, to shine out of darkness, harking back of course, to creation, giving us a very apt illustration of what happens in salvation.

That just as there was darkness prior to that moment and prior to that message from God in creation, so before a person is saved, there is darkness. But then there comes a moment when by means of the person of God and the power of the word of God, that person who was in the dark is now in the light. And that person who was once in the darkness of confusion now has a clarity, something they understand that they didn't understand before.

And I know this is not a gospel meeting, but sometimes when we're talking to people about salvation and we ask them about how they got saved, that's one of the things that our curiosity sometimes gets the better of us. And we want to know what did this individual, what did you actually come to understand and discover in the moment of your salvation? And so here is a case in point. It's illustrated for us, it's metaphorical language, but it's helping us to understand that in the moment of salvation, there is actually a God-given perspective.

There is actually an enlightenment of a darkened mind. And so there is a moment of light and there is a moment of life, just like the Lord Jesus pointed out in his prayer in John 17, and that this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. And so I think that that's what we have here is salvation is an informed event in the experience of a person as they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

So it's God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So it is, I don't think this is used. So this is the, this is the person, this is the point that the work of God and the work of God and the word of God is going to bring this person to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I'm sure that dovetails nicely with what has been the theme so far in chapter three prior to this chapter, that basically the Lord Jesus is the heavenly Moses, that that Moses that came down from the mount. You remember that there was a glory with which his face shone, but in the firm person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not a borrowed glory and he doesn't come from the mount.

He comes from heaven. He is not coming now to introduce the first covenant. He is coming now to introduce the new covenant, a better covenant.

It is based on better promises. It is based on a superior sacrifice as the book of Hebrews will tell us. This is the great mediator between God and men.

And the person that is saved is brought to this particular moment, to this particular meeting of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the heavenly divine emissary, the new Moses of the new covenant. And there is a great blessing of salvation that occurs. It is not a borrowed glory.

Of course, in the case of the Lord Jesus, it is his own innate, his own intrinsic glory. It's not physical, but it's spiritual. It is not visible, but it is invisible.

It is not something that is passing, but it's something that is permanent and eternal. And it's the glory of God. And why is it the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Because he is God.

And the glory that radiates from his person is the express image of this one who comes to represent the father like none other could. Moses descends from the mount with the law of God in his hand. He was one that descended from heights, the heights of heaven.

And he has the law of God in the center of his heart. Yea, thy law is within. I delight to do thy will.

Yea, thy law is within, or as it says in another version, in the center of my heart. The knowledge of Christ and salvation. But I was wanting to also note that this word knowledge is quite frequently related to salvation.

Just as a sort of a sidebar, you will note that in 1 John chapter 5, and this is often quoted in the gospel, that our assurance and understanding and knowledge of salvation is based upon facts and not feelings. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God, that you may feel that you have everlasting, no, it's that you may know that you have everlasting life. And so if there's anybody here today and maybe you're having some doubts and you're having some worries, well maybe sometimes that's well founded.

You can't have assurance about a salvation you don't have, right? And sometimes people have come to that discovery, that the salvation they hoped that they had, and that they tried to live with for X amount of time, in the end analysis, they were no longer prepared to live with it, much less die with it. And what is interesting in those kinds of circumstances, is I don't know of hardly any case where that kind of an individual was left floundering. Because once they dispensed and disposed of whatever they concluded was a false hope, that when they then began to search in earnest for something that was real and reliable and that was trustworthy, they ended up finding it.

And they didn't have to look for a long time either afterwards. Because you know what, if you didn't get saved the first time and if you didn't get saved the second time, it's not like baseball, three strikes and you're out. But maybe there's someone here today and you are truly saved, but sometimes you tremble and you worry and you sometimes wonder.

Well here is the foundation for the assurance of it. I think it was Luther, you've heard his words, I kind of actually was wondering to myself how he could write such good English poetry. I thought he was writing in German, but maybe he was bilingual, I don't know.

I don't know I'm good enough to know, but maybe someone did a good translation. But here's what I found anyway, that feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing.

Though all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever, for though all things shall pass away, his word shall stand forever. So that's how I know that I'm saved, because of the facts of his word.

Others know that I'm saved, Matthew 7, because fruit by their fruit ye shall know them. Right? So that's how others know. And the foundation of God stands sure, saying that the Lord knoweth them that are his.

And the secondary inscription is not necessarily insignificant or less important, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So that's the obligation that is compelling, that is upon us, right? But that is also something that is the outcome of true salvation, is there is a departure from iniquity. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ brings about salvation.

But let's turn to Philippians chapter 3, and maybe if we keep, as we go through these verses, this is how I can keep you awake, and we can just go through, extend torture in Philippians chapter 3. And this is, I want to talk about the knowledge of Christ and his supremacy. Not only the knowledge of Christ and his salvation, but now the knowledge of Christ and his salvation. And in the first case, I suppose you could say it has to do with our destiny, has to do with our place in eternity.

But in this particular case, now it's going to have to do with salvation, but also moving on from salvation to sanctification. And in this case, it's going to have to do with our priorities, my priorities. And in this case, it's going to have something related, very much all related to my devotion to the person of Christ.

Listen to what it says, and I'm sure these are all familiar verses to all of us, but we'll read them notwithstanding. We'll skip the part where he talks about his pedigree, and all his past, and all the things in which he placed great value originally. Verse number seven, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss. And this is the expression I love, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's a beautiful word, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

There's nothing, absolutely nothing, anywhere, at any time, nor all things put together, could even begin to rival the surpassingness, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Perhaps if we could present to the unsaved world more of his excellencies, we might see more souls turn away from the trash, and the tinsel, and the toil, and all the toys, and all the trivial things around us, and attracted to the person of the Lord Jesus. This is what actually caused Paul to be able to turn his back on all that was there in his past, as he describes in the verses that we have not read, verses five and six.

Something that the Judaizers that were threatening these believers, and all that they would have taken great pride in, and yet he has has looked upon it all. And he says, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And he turned his back upon it when it came to salvation, and he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ.

He didn't make a bargain, so I'll give up this Lord if you'll save me. But it was because he took a spiritual accounting perspective of the whole thing. And he said, what shall it profit me if I should gain that whole world, because I pretty well gained it all.

All of the great, glorious notes and achievements within that Hebrew religious lifestyle, and lose my soul. There's nothing in it to save me. Won't even take me one inch closer to heaven.

And he turned his back, and tossed it, and turned aside from it all, because he was captured by the glimpse. And in this case, he saw as you know, on the road to Damascus, he literally saw the visible glory of the exalted Christ. It instantly blinded him.

It physically blinded him. If you like, it blotted out the vision of all earthly things around him. And at the moment that that blindness fell upon him, a spiritual blinding was lifted.

And here is what happened because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He says, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. He was then disinherited by the family.

He was rejected by his friends. He was tossed out by his nation. He was targeted for persecution by the Judaizers.

And he finds himself now a prisoner of Rome. In terms of this world, he's a loser. He's lost everything.

You made an insane choice, not a chance. Because there's nothing can trump. There's nothing can rival.

There's nothing that can surpass the excellency, the superiority, the supreme glory, the superlative glory. Forgive me for wasting words. But can you waste the words? There's not enough words.

We could never tell out his greatness and his glory within the confines of our language, right? So as a result, but it was not only something that started him on the path to heaven, but it was also something that became the secret of his spiritual sanctification and progress. And it is not as you know, and I don't need to tell you this. It is not just the secret for Paul's sanctification, but it's the secret for ours to know him.

And so he says, really in revising or just reviewing his salvation, he says, and verse nine, 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. But then he moves on into sanctification that I may know him. So this is learning of Christ and the power of his resurrection.

That's leaning on Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings. That's being prepared to lose with Christ and because of Christ being made conformable onto his death. That's likeness to Christ.

If by any means I might attain onto the resurrection of the dead, that's his longing for living on the resurrection side of the cross, living the reality of the resurrection, according to the teaching of baptism in Romans chapter six. This is Galatians chapter two. I'm crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. I made conformable onto his death. I'm crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. That's attaining to the resurrection out from among the dead ones. Now it might have its future fulfillment as we know, but it's the extrapolation of its moral and significant weight translated into the reality of his experience as a believer.

Death to the world, death to sin, death to Satan, death to self, death to the law. But he's on the resurrection side of the Red Sea. He's on the resurrection side of the Jordan.

He's living on Canaan Heights and he's saying, if by any means I might attain onto the resurrection of the dead. But he's also lowly minded, low minded. He said, not as though I'd already attained either already perfect or complete.

I'm not saying I've arrived. Someone has said, satisfaction is the grave of progress. He wasn't satisfied with his whatever degree of progress he had made.

Most of us, we feel like we haven't even begun and we had to be stacked up and compared to Paul. But here's a man and he's low minded, lowly minded. And he says, not as though I'd already, but I follow after.

And if that I may apprehend that's laying hold on that for which also I have been laid hold of by Christ. The grasp of the heavenly savior of my soul. I want to see that purpose fulfilled and corresponded as I also link and sync with that grand design and purpose of Christ in saving me, snatching me from the burnings.

He laid hold on me and that grand goal that he had in mind when he saved me, when he snagged me from the grasp of sin and Satan and my religious blindness. I want that to become my reality that I may apprehend that which for verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind. What are those? Well, that's all the stuff that he's talked about in verses five and six.

And that's the, all of the fleshly achievements, all of the flesh could boast in religiously or whatever. This is a man and he's going to leave all of that behind. He's leaving that behind and he is looking ahead.

There's one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth onto those things which are before. I press toward the finish line, the prize of the high calling, the laurel wreath to be given out at the Bema, at the judgment seat of Christ. That's what I've got in mind.

To hear his words as we've already heard today, well done though, good and faithful servant. And then he says, there's a lesson to it. Verse 15, let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.

Let's march in lockstep. Let's be marked by solidarity. Let's, let's be on the same page.

Let's be on the same frequency. Let's, let's get with the program. Let's move in team spirit here.

This is should bring solidarity and fellowship between us all as believers like, let us as many be perfect or mature, be thus minded. And if in anything you're less than that, well, God is waiting to reveal it to you. He'll turn the lights on if you want.

Nevertheless, we're too, we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. Let's behave the same way and let us mind the same things.

Let's believe the same things. So there is a similar conduct and there is a similar conviction. And then he says, look out, watch out.

This is way too good to be left alone. And so Satan's going to try to sabotage it. And how is he going to do it by false teachers, by the wrong voices, getting your attention and you giving audience to the wrong ones.

So he says, brethren, be followers together of me, be imitators of me. I painted this all out for you so that you'll have a standard of my example set before you to understand where this is headed and where it's going. Because these false teachers that are trying to sabotage this great ministry and work of Christ in your lives, I'm here to try to put a halt to that.

He says, look at me, look at my example. Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them. Don't be naive.

Don't be giving the nod to everybody that carries a Bible. Be discriminating, be discerning. Brethren, be followers for many walk of whom I've told you often and they'll tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction.

That's they're headed to hell, whose God is their belly, their headness, their hedonistic, whose glory is in their shame. They are hopelessly corrupt. What they're bragging and boastful about is their degree of depravity.

That's the world you and I are found in. They flaunt it. They brag about it.

It's on the permeating the social media. It's everywhere you turn. It's everywhere you look.

And the shameless promotion. And it's astonishing. It's unbelievable.

Hell bent on destruction. Hell born and hell bound. And you just look around at all the young little families, children, and there's nobody outside their target.

They want to make your children and they want to slay them and sacrifice them on the altars to the modern day God of Amalek. That's right. Unthinkable.

They're the enemies of the cross. They hate Christ and they mind earthly things. It's all about here and now.

But our conversation is there and then. The conversation, our manner of life is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we look for the Savior.

We're looking forward and onward and upward because there's coming a day when our bodies are going to have likeness to his in resurrection, glory, and splendor. At the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will do to us physically what he is wanting to do to you and me presently, morally, spiritually, constantly. Don't let anything interfere with that.

And what is at the very basis of all that, what is the springboard for all of that to happen is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That word excellency is actually found three times in Philippians. It's actually translated better in chapter two.

And there it has to do with, you know, the conditions in your assembly and how you consider other fellow believers. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. It's in chapter four and verse number seven where it's now not how you consider Christians but it's what will actually give you calm in the crisis and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

So whether it's my perspective for others, whether it's my peace in the storm, or whether centrally, chiefly, it's the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing that ought to compete because there is nothing that could possibly compare with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. What a precious statement that is.

The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. But then there is the knowledge of Christ. I just want to say this.

Listen to the words of John Wesley. Lord Jesus thy great love to me no thought can reach no tongue declare oh bend my wayward heart to thee and reign without a rival there thine holy thine alone I'd live myself to thee entirely give. So here is the great sanctification secret of success that I may know him as Paul says the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

But then chapter 2 of 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and verse number 14. 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and verse number 14.

Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. The knowledge of Christ and his sweetness. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish.

To the one we are the savour of death unto death to the other the savour of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things. So this has been the case as he's appealing to the Roman imagery of triumph after battle and a parade, a processional parade, victory parade if you like and there's men that are taken captive and it's all in honor of the great captain of the war that has just been won. Only in this case here is Paul as a captive paradoxically not against his will and he's happily taking part in the processional victory parade in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ and as he bears this and carries this wonderful message of the gospel to the world in which he was found.

This is what he says to God. To God he says we're a sweet savour of Christ. It's something that delights the heart of God.

The knowledge of Christ in salvation is my destiny. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. The knowledge of Christ in Philippians 3 is my sanctification. Correct? My sanctification and that is his the question of priorities but in this particular case the knowledge of Christ is it's related to his sweetness and the context is victory.

He always leads us in triumph in Christ and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. So while it's a delight to the heart of God it is also one that is going to determine and decide destiny and so to those that are not saved that which is sweet to God has a stench of death. So it's to the one we are the savour of death to death.

There is nothing appealing and they spurn it and they turn away from it and reject it to their eternal doom to their eternal death but to the other it's a savour of life and they respond for it and they reach for it and they receive it and that delightful perfume and fragrance of the person of Christ takes place in a moment of salvation and it's a savour of life onto life. What a wonderful thing it is for you and me to actually cause to pervade to actually cause to be diffused the perfume and the sweetness and fragrance of a savior in a sin-sick world. You and I can carry that aura that aroma that sweet odor and fragrance sweet smelling fragrance to God sweet to us because it's brought us life the sweetness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus the thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast but better for I face to see and in thy presence rest. This is the one in the little journey of time we have here so brief and short that we can actually carry that with us and we can be a testimony in the ministry of the gospel to those that are perishing around us. And verse number one I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.

Paul was quite a man never been to these assemblies and he says I have great conflict for you. I'm not I can't confess to have spent a lot of time in prayer over assemblies that I'm totally unacquainted with. Christians I'm totally unacquainted with.

Here's a man and he's deeply burdened for his faith and he's deeply burdened that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Here is the knowledge of Christ not in relation to salvation not in relation to sanctification not in relation to his sweetness and the savor of the victory but now it's in relation to his complete sufficiency his complete adequacy for every need in the Christian life. So he's what is what is the issue here? Well in second Corinthians four it's my destiny it's eternity.

In Philippians chapter three the knowledge of Christ is related to the priorities in my life. Have I got mixed up in my priorities? Do I need to do a shuffle? Do I need to do a remix? Do I need to do a reassortment? A realignment? A reorganization of my life? Take inventory spiritually has to do with my priority. Second Corinthians two it has to do with our victory in the gospel.

He always causes us to triumph in Christ but here what is it has to do it has to do with orthodoxy. These Christians here they were being put at risk because there was false doctrine. Was there any work of God that wasn't threatened by false doctrine in the days of the New Testament? All of these all of the New Testament practically seems to be the epistles are written to counter to try to correct to try to rescue believers and none of us are immune from that even today.

So what was threatening them? Well it was threatening them a heresy. It was it was a false teaching that seemed to be the beginning of what would later become or develop into gnosticism and it had certain characteristics. It was Jewish stressing the need for observing Old Testament laws and ceremonies.

It was philosophical laying an emphasis on a special or deeper knowledge. It was elitist if you like in that sense. It was exclusivistic.

It was stressing the special privilege and perfection of those select few who belonged to the philosophical elite and ironically it was Christological but this seminal gnosticism denied the deity of Christ. Thus calling forth one of the greatest declarations of Christ's deity found anywhere in scripture in Colossians chapter 1 and in Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 9 where it says in him dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So what is going to anchor these believers? What is going to anchor this assembly? What is going to bring them stability doctrinally? It's the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and that's a that's a that's an umbrella term that is going to cover all of the doctrine of the apostles.

All of the doctrines of the New Testament all summed up the mystery of God in our Lord Jesus Christ and so he wants to tell them about the treasure. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden not hid beyond discovery. They're found in the coffer in that treasure chest of our Lord Jesus Christ and as we are motivated to learn do you find reading the Bible a chore? A little more than a little a little harder than watching a video on online right? A little tougher than checking Facebook.

A little tougher than Instagram. Yeah it you got to engage the muscle the body. It's called a brain and you got to work got to read.

Yeah it can be work it's it's called work. Those labor to the point of exhaustion. It's tiresome.

It's heavy. It's hard slugging and many times you don't always come up with a handful or even a heartful or even a mindful. You come up empty.

Not the full of the Bible. We're slow learners but we've got a great and patient teacher. Don't you know what will help you want and drive you to become a deeper student of the Word of God is if you have a love for the person who is his chief and principal theme and topic the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's kind of what's driving me. Simple thing. The it'll drive us to this book.

That's what it'll do and it will bless us for eternity. It will help us with our priorities. It'll help us to have victory in the gospel.

It'll help us with orthodoxy. It's a very troubling thing when a brother goes south doctrinally and sometimes it's connected to the person going off rails off the rails morally but whichever of those two or both of them combined you know what has ultimately triggered the demise the departure you know it is they've lost something of their attraction of the attraction of the allure of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord and once you've lost that there's almost no telling how far you're going to slide and how far you're going to drift and how far you're going to fall. May God preserve us all.

There's a hymn. It's one of my favorite hymns in Spanish but this is the English version of it. It's written by a man the name of Oscar Eliason if I can pronounce his name right.

I've learned to know a name I highly treasure. Oh how it thrills my spirit through and through. Oh blessed name beyond degree or measure.

Oh wondrous name of him so kind and true. That name brings gladness to a soul in sorrow. It makes life's shadows and its clouds depart.

Brings strength and weakness for today tomorrow. That name brings healing to an aching heart. That name still lives and will live on forever while kings and kingdoms will forgotten be.

Though mist through mist and rain will be be clouded never. That name shall shine and shine eternally. My heart is stirred whenever I think of Jesus.

That blessed name that sets the captive free. The only name through which we find salvation. No name on earth has meant so much to me.

May God help us to treasure and value and not as I'm doing right now talking about it but actually enjoying it experiencing it as an increasing reality of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. May God bless his word.