Please open with me your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. If you're not sure where Philippians is, it's closer to the back than the front. If you open your Bible about in the middle, it's still closer in that middle to the back than the front. It's in the middle of several letters from Paul to various churches. 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. So if you get to any of those close, you know that you're almost there. We're taking a look at Philippians this month, kind of a bird's eye view in the morning and focusing in on some aspect of each chapter in the evening. This book is a thank you letter from Paul. It's a book that's full of encouragement, a call to rejoice in the Lord. And so in chapter one, a few weeks ago, we looked at the call to rejoice in growing confidence in the sure spread of the gospel. And then in the evening, zoomed in at the end of that chapter to live as citizens worthy of the gospel. Chapter 2, having been saved, rejoice to serve. And then we zoomed in on perhaps what seemed to be an odd selection, but fill up your pastor's joy from verse 2 and then 16 to 18. This morning we looked in chapter 3, rejoice in the righteousness from God through faith in Christ. And really, in many ways, This evening we're continuing that idea but focusing particularly in verses 7 through 11. Pursue Christ above all else. Pursue Christ above all else. Before we read, just a question for you to think about as you come to the word of God. What goals have you pursued or perhaps what goals are you pursuing right now? Many of us have goals or have had goals. We spend time thinking and planning and hoping. And sometimes those goals are realized, sometimes they're not. Maybe yours have been educational goals, or sports goals for some of you, or work goals, or lifestyle goals, this or that, home or neighborhood, or however you wanted to live. And it's not wrong to have goals, unless the goal itself is sinful, or the means by which you pursue that goal is sinful. Otherwise, it's certainly legitimate. But it's not, no matter what your goal has been or is, it's not the most important. The most important is that you gain Christ above all else. You gain Christ above all else. And so hear from God in his word, Philippians chapter three, verses seven through 11. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Having heard from God in his word, join me in your hearts as we seek him in prayer. Father in heaven, might we indeed come to know Christ better this evening as we consider your word together. Would you be the one who teaches us and teach us what it is and how to go about gaining Christ above all else? And so meet with us, we pray. Grant your spirit's help to me and to us each one that we would be taught by you, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. gain Christ above all else. The first point that I call us to in these verses is get Christ. Get Christ. He's better than anything else. Paul begins and saying, whatever I had, and he had given us his pedigree, we didn't read it this evening, we read it this morning there in verses four through six. Some of the things that he speaks about were things that he had inherited, where he was born and who his family line was. Some were things that he had worked for. And though he had at one point claimed those for a righteousness of his own, he now is at the point of rejecting those as having any value in him being in Christ. Christ is better than anything else. Do you believe that? Do I believe that? I think Nancy may have shared a little bit about this back when we shared our testimonies together a couple of months ago. She was dating Scott and thankfully she quit dating Scott so that I could come along. But as she was dating Scott, he professed Christ and her college graduation weekend, he had taken her up for graduation and they were talking and she said, what's most important to you? And he said, I know you want me to say God, but it's not true. I wasn't there. She just told me the story that they dropped hands and a wall came up between them. He knew that she wanted him to say God is the most important thing to me. But at least he had the honesty to say it's not true. What about you? What about you? Can you say with growing confidence, because for sure we get distracted, we get tugged on by all the cares of this world, but can you say Christ is better, that Jesus is better than anything else I could ever have or anything else I have had? You know, we sort of, hopefully none of you have actually been held up at gunpoint. We make jokes about it. Someone points a gun, your money or your life? Well, we're going to give up our money because our life is more important to us. You think of shipwrecks in the scripture of Jonah. And if Paul, when he was about to be shipwrecked, what did the sailors do? They threw everything overboard, things that were valuable, things that were necessary, but they weren't as valuable as their life, and so they jettisoned all that they could in hopes of keeping their ships afloat. And then Jonah said, you're going to have to throw me overboard. He said, no, no, we'll throw everything else overboard. No, I'm running from God, you're going to have to throw me overboard. And they did, and the ship was righted. Jesus is better than anything else, and Paul uses accounting terminology. Everything that was gain, everything that was credit is loss, it's debit, it's not what I used to think it was. Christ alone is in the credit balance, in the credit column of life. It's not just that Christ is better, Christ is all. Christ is all. Get Christ. He's better than anything else. Seek to know Christ Jesus as your Lord. As your Lord. Not just the Lord, but your Lord. And again, we've talked about testimonies and children's testimonies and the great joy it is that when you children grow up in the church, you might not ever remember a time that you didn't love the Lord Jesus. And what your parents look for and what we as elders in the church look for is that time when you can say, Jesus is my Lord. Jesus is my Savior. Seek to know Jesus Christ as your Lord. You know the sentiment and it's not an invalid sentiment. To know you is to love you. How do you come to love Jesus Christ? Get to know him. Get to know Him. Spend time with Him. Learn what you can about Him from the Bible in your private worship and your family worship and the corporate worship. And think about Him and think about what He has done. You've probably had the experience that I have. I wish I had it more. But at times when I'm reading the scripture, I'm overwhelmed with what Christ has done for me. Sometimes in the quiet of my study, I move to tears at what Christ has done for me as I get to know him and I come to love him. Think about best friends in your life. Hopefully all of us have had experience of a best friend at some point or another. And why is it that they're your best friends? Because you get to know them and you spend time with them and you interact with them and they get to know you and they spend time with you. Jesus isn't merely your best friend. He is Lord. And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, but he is not just Lord. He is your Lord. Or at least that's the call of God's word to us that he is my Lord. It's not merely that you think about him all of the time, but you order your life around him. You order your decisions around Christ, your Lord. And we experience that in relationships. In marriage, in parenting, in other friendships, you can often, and it's not illegitimate, order your life around others. And those of you who are parents of young children, it probably seems like your life, you've never had a life. It's gone. All it is is ordered around your children. And yet, I can tell you when they get older, it's a delight and a joy to see that having ordered your life around your children and ordered them around Christ, to see them reflecting that as we pray for all of our children. Get Christ, get Christ, he is worth it. In fact, Paul says all else is garbage. All else is garbage, it's rubbish, it's dung, it's refuse. Put no confidence in yourself, put no confidence in your flesh. Matthew Henry writes about Paul's confidence that Paul lists for us there in verses four through six. He had his birthright privileges. He was not a proselyte but he was a native Israelite. He was of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and he could boast of his relationships to the church and the covenant. He was circumcised on the eighth day, the day which God had prescribed for the sign of the covenant to be applied. For learning, he was a Pharisee was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, an eminent doctor of the law. He was a scholar learned in all the learnings of the Jews. And then he adds that he had a blameless life. Regards to the righteousness, which is of the law, he said he was blameless. As to the mere letter of the law, Henry says he could acquit himself from the breach of it and could not be accused by any. But it was not merely things he didn't inherit. He was active in his religion. He made a strict profession of it. Concerning zeal, he was persecuting the church. And he showed that he was in good earnest. He was zealous toward God, he says, about his life. And this was enough to make a proud Jew confident. And yet Paul had come to learn that it wasn't worth being confident in the flesh. Calvin puts it this way. He didn't find it necessary to disown connection with his own tribe. He didn't have to quit being of the race of Abraham and make himself an alien. But he had to say, none of that is worth my dependence anymore. None of that is worth my dependence. And we are tempted, even if we've grown up in the church, even if we love Christ, we're tempted at times to put confidence in ourselves. Maybe this is what it would look like for a covenant child, baptized on the eighth day. It's not required. Can trace my descendants on both sides directly back to the Scottish reformers. A reformed Presbyterian of Presbyterians. memorized the shorter catechism at five years old and the larger at 10 and made a public profession at 12. I don't know anybody that quite meets that, but you get the idea. Or maybe an adult professing Christian could be something like this. I went forward on the eighth day of a two week long evangelistic crusade. was baptized eight days later, I memorize eight verses of scripture a week, I attend church eight times a week, I don't smoke or drink or dance or go to movies or wear my hair long unless I'm a woman, and then I let it grow and pile it up on top. Well, of course it's silly, but putting confidence in the flesh is silly. Thinking that somehow what I've done or what my life has been is the reason that I can have confidence in Christ is absurd. It's rubbish. These things aren't all bad in themselves. Paul wasn't despising his birthright entirely, but he understood that it couldn't save him. And you and I must understand that it can't save us. And these fleshly actions or measurements of which a covenant child or an adult professing Christianity may boast are not to be boasted in. To be thankful to be sure. If you can trace your heritage back to the Covenanters, rejoice in the Lord. If you're brand new in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, rejoice in the Lord, but don't put confidence. Don't think, well, because I've been a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, as has my family for generations, that God is going to accept me. And don't think because I finally joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church, now God has accepted me. No, don't put confidence in yourself. Paul knew better than to put confidence in these things. Do you? Do I? Gladly give it all up for Christ. Gladly give it all up for Christ. It's one thing to acknowledge that Christ is better. Giving it up may be where you prove it. You think of the rich young ruler that Jesus met. He wanted to know what he had to do to be accepted. And Jesus told him to keep the commandments. And he said, huh, I've kept them all since I was a child. Jesus said, well, you just lack one thing. Sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. And you know the account. The man went away sad because he was very wealthy. Is there something you need to give up for Christ? Is there something that you're holding on to and putting more value in than the value you put in Christ your Lord? There are times in life that we're called to give things up for the sake of Christ. And it's in the giving of those things up that we find that Christ is worth it. Kids, sometimes your parents will restrict you about things that you want. They'll make you give up the desserts or the sweets or whatever it is that maybe you're allowed to have, maybe even more than would be ideal, and sometimes your parents, for your own good, take that away. I know, I was a kid once, I still remember, even though it was a long time ago, it never feels like it's better for them to take those things away. And your parents will do that imperfectly. But if God asks you to give something up for Christ, it will be for your good. And if there is something that you've given up for Christ and you're mourning over it, You need to understand Paul's understanding. It's done. It's rubbish. It really that thing which I was clinging to is offensive. In light of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. So gladly. give it all up for Christ. And understand, if you're wanting to trust anything else, that it's in him that I am righteous. In Christ, I am righteous. Paul talks about having lost and having found. He says, I suffer the loss of all things so that I might be found in Christ. What is it that you and I can say? I have no righteousness of my own. There's nothing that I can add to what Christ has done that makes me acceptable. All of those things, Paul says, that I used to be confident in. If you are going to be confident in yourself, if you are going to be confident in your own righteousness, there's only one qualification. Perfection. Perfection. Maybe some of you are brilliant. Maybe you've never gotten a grade lower than an A. That's not good enough. Perfection in your thoughts. Never thinking sinful thoughts. Perfection in your words. Never having spoken and wish you could clap your hand over your mouth a few minutes before you said what you just said. Never having acted in a way that you know you stand guilty before God because you have sinned against the Lord of the universe. If you want to trust in your own righteousness, perfection is all it takes. Not pretty good, not mostly good, perfection. Paul, before Christ, was striving for that perfection, and he was confident in it. Martin Luther, as some of you know his account, he was striving for that perfection, and yet everything that he did just convinced him more and more how guilty he was before God. And it wasn't until he came to understand that God was both just and demanded perfection and justifier and gave a righteousness that was alien to him and to us that he could come to find peace with God. Whether you're confident that you're good enough, Whether you know you aren't your only hope, my only hope, your only hope is a righteousness from God. Not a righteousness from your own, but a righteousness from God. What is it that God tells us in Romans 3? And just a little side note by the way, it's not by any means the focus of this. I don't think that Romans 3.23 is the best verse to use to talk about total depravity. because it's in a context and I think the context is not talking about everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let me read the context. Paul writes this, now apart from the law the righteousness from God has been revealed. A righteousness attested by the law and the prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe for there is no distinction for all and I believe it's legitimate to understand it in this sense for all of those who believe have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as the mercy seat by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness. God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. See, I believe the context of Romans 3.23 is all who are saved have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and have been justified freely by His grace. Now, do I think it's a general truth? Yes, I do, but I think there are other places it's better to find that general truth than Romans 3.23 because the context is those who have been saved All of them are saved by grace. All of them have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I don't have to say, how many of you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Because even if you don't raise your hand, I know that it's true of you and you know that it's true of me. And yet if you're in Christ, you have been justified freely by His grace. Even though you sinned and fall short of the glory of God, you have been justified freely by His grace and you have received that righteousness by faith and made it your own because Christ has granted it to you. A righteousness from God, an alien righteousness. It's not natural in us, it's supernatural. You've perhaps, like me, read of horrible crimes committed by individuals, and often, in the aftermath of that, though family members or neighbors are interviewed. And invariably, they say something like this. Let's say it's a man, women commit bad crimes, but let's say it's a man. Invariably, when they're interviewed, they say, he was such a nice man. He was such a nice boy. It's not really like him to do something like this. And that's a lie. And we know it's a lie. If it wasn't like him, he wouldn't have done it. But when someone says about me or you, he's righteous. That's really not like him. It's true. It's true. This righteousness from God that is by faith is really not like me in myself. It's only like me as I have been granted the faith to take hold of the righteousness of Christ. I want that, you want that. How do you get it? You get it as a righteousness from faith. A righteousness that is trusting in the righteousness of Christ. One writer put it this way, the righteousness that Paul possessed came from Christ's faithful obedience to the Father on the cross as He drank the cup of death to the full for our sins. That's the righteousness that's from faith. I believe that Christ did that for me. That's the profession of a Christian. Why are you going to go to heaven? Because Christ died for me. Why are you forgiven? Because Christ paid the penalty for my sins. And so in him I am righteous. Get Christ. All else is garbage. In him I am righteous and know Christ. Some of you have recognized that sometimes there's an acronym in the outline. Well, it's only there by sound this time. If you find it helpful to remember the points, remember it by sound. Know Christ with an N sound. And if you don't find it helpful, just remember, know Christ. Know Christ. Come to know him. I want to gain Christ, I want to know Christ. One pastor put it this way, the apostles love born desire was to know Christ fully, to know Christ in such a way that his life was so fully identified with that of his savior that it radiated him. I've never used that word in that context before, but it gripped me. It radiated him. In other words, he glowed like Christ. Think of Moses in the Old Testament. He spent time in the presence of God in a way that's a little bit mysterious what was actually taking place. But what happened after he met with God in that way? His face was so radiant that he had to cover it with a veil because for the people it was too much. The brightness was too much. And here the call is to know Christ, to gain Christ. Oh, dear Christian, that you would need to veil the glory of knowing Christ because the knowledge of him radiates you. Make this your prayer. May this be my prayer. I want to know you, Jesus, my Lord. I really want to know you. And what is it to know Christ? Paul spells it out here in these verses. Know his resurrection. Know his resurrection. Christ, the eternal son of God, died. He didn't merely faint. He didn't merely fall into a coma. He died. The Romans knew about putting prisoners to death. They had perfected the art of capital punishment and they declared him dead. And Jesus had told his disciples over and over and over. You read through the Gospels and you think Jesus told them for the next time that he was going to suffer many things and be taken by the chief priests and the scribes and he was going to be put to death and on the third day he would rise again. and his disciples didn't understand what he was telling them. And we think, hello, why don't you understand? Well, it's easy for us, we're on the other side. We wouldn't have understood it, I don't believe either. But he had made this promise and it took place. He died and he was taken down from the cross. And he was placed in a grave, dead. And he was hastily wrapped in his burial clothes. And then, on that Lord's Day morning, he opened his eyes. And he shed death as he shed his grave clothes. And he is alive. And because he is alive, I can be right with God. And the power that raised Christ from the dead, is it work in me? Is it work in you? I know what it is to feel weak and helpless as a Christian, but you're not. Oh, I want to know the power of his resurrection, the power of his resurrection that raised me from the dead, for I was dead in my transgressions and sins in which I used to live. But God, because of his great love toward us, made me alive, made you alive in Christ Jesus. It is by grace we have been saved. Oh, that I would know the power of his resurrection. That's what Paul wants to do. He wants to know Christ's resurrection. But there's more. He also wants to know his suffering. What? Wait a minute. I don't want to know his suffering. I'd rather pass on that. The resurrection, that's a big deal and it's hard for me to grasp, get my head around it. I don't really get it. but I want to know his suffering. Well, that's what Paul wanted, and I think Paul was a pretty good example, and he called you and me to imitate him. I don't want to suffer. You don't want to suffer. But it's worth it. It's worth it. Paul said, I had to suffer the loss of all things. He gave it up happily, but at a cost. And you too have to suffer the loss of counting anything else as more worthy than Christ. But you and I also may be called to suffer for knowing him. Why did Peter deny Christ three times? The last time with curses. I don't know what you're talking about. We read that and we think, you know, Peter, why are you such a coward? Well, I don't think that. I remember being asked as a young teenager by a neighbor girl if I was a Christian. And I think I was. But I said no. I don't even know why I said no. Did I think I wouldn't be one of the cool kids anymore? Well, I was never one of the cool kids, so that wasn't it. Was it was an embarrassment? I don't know. Remember not the sins of my youth, Lord. But we know why Peter denied Christ again and again and again. Because he didn't want to die. Even though he claimed, Lord, we'll go with you to death when faced with the reality, you know, this one who is just being put to death. No, I've never met him. I don't know what you're talking about. He didn't want to suffer, he didn't want to die, and yet to suffer for knowing Christ is not a hardship. It is a hardship, but because we're in Christ, it's not a hardship. I want to know his suffering and I want to suffer with him in this sin-filled world. I don't really want to, but I want to want to. I want to come to be willing to suffer for Christ and in Christ and with Christ knowing that Christ suffers with me. I shared in an email with the congregation this week a note from Jeff Stuyvesant about them finding the spread of of cancer in his wife, Tabitha. And sometime this week, Jeff wrote these words. He said, I may not know why God in his wisdom, goodness, and power has chosen this particular providence for me and my family. But there's one thing I know with absolute certainty. I know that he would have me to sit and be still so that I might know that he is God. I know that. I know that he is God. I know that full well. What is more, he writes, I know that he has revealed himself so beautifully and richly in the humiliated and exalted son. I know that the Lord went to the cross that he might take death's sting away. And maybe that is the lesson, or at least one of the lessons that I need to learn. I need to sit still. Because the son who came to take death's sting is now himself sitting at the father's right hand. And he is sitting not only because he experienced death's sting for me, but he experienced it for the very one for whom I want to do something. Yes, what is impossible for me, he achieved. So I think I will sit and be still. for a little while longer. You may not be called to suffer in that way, but Paul says, and can we say with him, I want to know the power of the resurrection, and I want to know the fellowship of suffering with Christ. And lastly, he says, I want to be resurrected with him. Somehow, he says, I want to achieve the resurrection from the dead. I don't think for a minute that Paul is wondering if he's going to achieve that, if he is going to have the resurrection from the dead. I think he is saying, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, I will do it and it will be worth it because I will be raised with Christ. Whatever I have to count as rubbish, I will count as rubbish. Whatever I have to suffer, I will suffer. Nancy's mother has been so good in reminding us over and over and over, many of her grandchildren will speak about her using this phrase, in the light of eternity, how does this work out? In the light of eternity, I will be resurrected with Jesus. And you, if you have this righteousness that is by faith, will be resurrected with Jesus. I will, I will, because I have a righteousness from God through faith, which he gave me in Jesus my Lord. Pray with me. Oh, Lord Jesus, having been gotten by you, may we get you above all else. May we come to know you better. May we be willing to suffer for you and with you. May we better learn to evaluate the things that we have at times and are even perhaps now being tempted to put confidence in. And instead of that, We would give it all up. We would give it all up for the blessing of knowing Jesus Christ and being able to say, Jesus Christ is my Lord. Lord, might we get you, Lord Jesus, above all else. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.