To Know Christ

Sermon Transcript

In this text of Scripture, we’re going to read Paul’s personal testimony. The great Apostle Paul shares with us in a very personal way these pronouns, “I” and “my.” This is his personal testimony of his conversion. One of the greatest statements about knowing Jesus Christ as Savior is found right here in this text. Follow with me, Philippians 3:8. Paul says, “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 9 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; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

This is Paul’s personal testimony that we’re reading. It’s all about throwing everything away—all of his religious efforts to attain salvation as a young Jewish man. He counted them as rubbish. He threw them all away. He, by his own human effort, tried to keep the law. Every time I read the epistles that comes through. What changed this man that was so proud and arrogant, this Saul, the Christian killer? It was his encounter on that Damascus Road with the living Lord. It was the grace of God that changed him forevermore, and it’s in these Scriptures that we realize something very important.

I want you to pay close attention to this. Paul makes it very clear that he’s making an exchange. Something is counted as loss in order to gain something else. It’s very important for you as a Christian to understand what Paul is saying here. It’s similar to what the Lord Jesus said. It’s Matthew 16. Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Notice carefully what Jesus says here, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”—or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you see what I mean about a transaction here? There’s an exchange that has to happen.

Each and every individual, God has made provision for salvation, but you must choose to exchange one thing for another. If you value this life and all the stuff more than the life God offers as a free gift, it’s going to cost you your eternal soul. You have to choose to exchange one thing for another because Jesus is really saying, “What good is it if you’ve gained everything the world has to offer, and yet you lose your eternal soul?” You’d be better off to exchange it, to leave behind everything in your life to gain Christ.

Notice again, the statement: There’s an exchange of all that I am for all that Christ is. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what Paul’s testimony is really all about. He makes an exchange of all that he was for all that Christ is. Notice in verse 7 he says, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 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.” You see the exchange that’s going on here in this text of Scripture. Paul really wants the believers in Philippi to understand this important point because what had happened was false teachers had entered the church. Judaizers had come into the church and said, “Hey, Christians, you really haven’t arrived yet. If you really want to know that you have eternal security, if you really want to have an assurance of your salvation, men, you need to be circumcised; ladies, you all need to follow these rites and rituals. You all need to work yourselves up through all of these rites and rituals of Judaism.” Paul was so concerned that some of the Christians there at Philippi would be confused.

Go back to verse 2. Paul says, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the”—I like what he says here in light of circumcision—“mutilation!” False teachers had confused the believers with their legalism. This is a really important point that I want you to understand because we have people in the church today that live under the deceptive illusion that they need to do something, “If I can just get baptized, I’ll have that assurance.” “If I’ll just give enough money, I’ll have that assurance,” or “If I take Communion at every service, or attend church enough, then I’ll have that assurance.” They believe that all of those works will assure them their entrance into heaven. That’s putting confidence in the flesh.

We, as Christians, are never to put our confidence in the flesh. Look at verse 3. Paul says, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” I’m sure you’ve heard John say it, I think I heard John say this over 35 years ago, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” It’s so important for us to understand that. We are made righteous in Christ alone, by faith alone, by the grace of God alone. There’s nothing that we have that we can offer the Lord. We’re called to do what Paul says here. We’re called to exchange everything that’s worldly and earthly and fleshly. We’re to give it all up to gain everything in Christ. That’s what he’s saying here.

Paul talks about his Jewishness. He gives us these credentials. Look at verse 5. He says, “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law,”—I was—“blameless”—I was perfect. I obeyed every Jewish law. I was of the righteous tribe. I had done everything. That was all his religious achievement, but now he’s saying, “None of that made any difference,” that he counted all of that as loss. In fact, at the end of verse 8, notice what he says, “ . . . and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

That word “rubbish” is skýbalon. It’s a derogatory Jewish word for cow manure, animal excrement. Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the English version of that. It’s much better to say skýbalon, I would say. Everything was doo-doo. He was trying to do stuff, but it was manure. That’s really what he’s saying there. Paul, he’s presenting salvation as a transaction just like Jesus did in Matthew 16, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

For you and me as Christians, it’s not our works, religious works—baptism, Communion, church attendance, your giving. Over the years as a pastor, I’ve always been surprised at how people think that they get checkmarks for those kinds of things. Pastors see. I’ve been at church.

I grew up in the Nazarene Church, and when I was a youth I went to this camp that was in Switzerland for all the Nazarene youth in the world. I had tried out and memorized Acts 1. I went before the board and ended up going to Switzerland. I met some people from Missouri. I met some Christians from the Bible Belt, some Nazarene youth from there. I was 17 years old, and I remember they had what looked like a Boy Scout vest, and the girls and boys were wearing this. There were all these little medals. It looked like they were generals, you know, colored stripes and all these things. I’d never seen such a thing before. I said, “What is that?” “Well, don’t you know? If you’d been a Nazarene,” “Yeah, I got saved in the Nazarene Church. I love the Lord. I had great leaders, and disciplers in the Nazarene Church. What is that?” “Well, this is all my church attendance. I was here.” In fact, this one girl never missed church. She was a baby. She was 17 years old and never missed church.

Let me tell you something, believer, none of that matters. None of your fleshly effort religiously will attain righteousness. You and I are made righteous because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and because of Him alone. Jesus says in Matthew 13, I love this, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Those two parables speak of a transaction. The man who found the treasure said, “This is worth everything, so I’m going to sell everything I have so I can own that one thing.” The man who found the pearl, the same way. He found the greatest possession, so he sold everything he had to get that one item. That’s essentially the same thing that Paul is talking about here. He found something more valuable, his salvation. He found something so, so rich in Christ that he was willing to exchange everything to give it all away to gain Christ. That’s Paul’s answer here to the parable that Jesus taught.

Look at verse 7 again, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” What a blessing that is to understand that. Our salvation is in Christ alone. Salvation is in what He has done for us. We can add nothing to our salvation. This is what it means to know Christ, as my title suggests. First, to know Him personally, look at verse 8, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” ginṓskō. The Greek word ginṓskō means to know personally, to have some personal involvement with. Paul is talking about this excellence in knowing Christ personally—not just knowing about Him theologically, intellectually—knowing Christ experientially.

I believe that even this tragedy today helps you and me to know that we know Christ experientially. We don’t just know about Christ. Jesus lives in us, and He works through us. That’s why a tragedy like today affects us so deeply and so profoundly. Being a Christian is ginṓskō, to know Christ personally.

In John 10, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Salvation is knowing Christ—I know Him and He knows me. It’s just not knowing Him intellectually, it’s having this experiential knowledge of Him and walking with Him day by day by day. Salvation is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you know Him personally? Have you put your faith in Christ? Are you trying to know Him through your works? Are you trying to impress God with your giving or your baptism or do you realize that the Lord loves you and you’re saved by His wonderful, amazing grace. That He found you and sought you and wooed you and drew you to Himself, and that day that you finally said, “Jesus, I surrender to You. I come to You by faith. I repent of my sins,” and at that moment, God did a work, notice regeneration. He made everything new in your life. He took away the old. He took away all those things that Paul talks about he counted as loss. You gave it all up to gain Christ, and you never looked back, by the way, right? You walk with Him, you talk with Him, you pray, you live to please the Lord. Do you know Him personally?

I love the fact that Jesus, in the Scriptures, is described as our Friend. Notice this verse, John 15, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” And, here’s the truth, anyone can be a friend of Jesus Christ, all you must do is believe in Him and trust Him as your personal Savior. When you’re born again, He gives you that new life in Christ.

This is very personal to Paul. I love what he says at the end of that verse there. He uses this personal pronoun again and says, “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul understands that Jesus is his personal Lord. He’s experiencing Christ moment by moment, day by day. I remember that day that I asked Jesus into my heart when I was 13 years old. What a blessing it is to know the Lord. What a blessing to have walked with the Lord. So, Paul knew him. He knew the living Lord, and he had a personal relationship with Jesus.

Again, at the end of verse 8, “ . . . that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him.” I love that, “in Him.” Are you found in Him tonight? Do you find your hope in Him? Do you find your dreams and your ambitions as all wrapped up and intertwined with Christ—to live for Him, to glory in Him, and to go through trials and suffering with Him, the fellowship of His suffering. How I love that. I pray that you have that same heart and mind that Paul has.

So, we’re to know Him personally. Secondly, the truth that Paul recognizes here in this text is to have His righteousness. Notice verse 9. Paul says, “ . . . 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.” Remember, Paul spent his whole life as a Jew trying to earn or gain God’s favor believing he was doing righteous deeds and obeying the law would bring righteousness to him. He was a Pharisee. All Pharisees believe that all they had to do is obey the law. It was all about the law. It was all legalism. They didn’t have a personal relationship with God, they just went through their day-to-day routine and tried to adhere to every one of the laws. I’ve always imagined the Pharisees, when they got together for fellowship, they talked about, “Did you see how I did that?” “Did you see how I obeyed that law?” The proud heart of men. Paul, he believed he could obtain salvation by his adherence to every law of God.

The Bible makes it very clear that no one who ever tries to keep the law will ever be justified. Notice Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in HIs sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” You will never ever be made righteous by what you do. Remember, it’s skýbalon. There’s nothing that you can do to promote yourself, to earn the favor of God. We’re made righteous by Christ alone.

Paul tried on his own. He tried to become righteous, but now he’s saying, “Listen, I’m going to take the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, not works.” This is what he’s saying here. He said the same thing in Ephesians 2:8-9, a verse that you probably have memorized, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast,” so faith. Faith is believing. It’s not just intellectual belief, it’s personal trust in God through Christ Jesus. We put our faith in Him, and we experience Him, as I’ve said, day by day by day. We put our confidence in Christ, and when you’re saved, your life is changed forever. God gives you His righteousness. No longer are you trying to earn it.

Paul was set free. You and I have been set free by the righteousness of Christ because I don’t know how much you read the Scripture, you’ll always discover that God is never impressed with anything that you do. He’s only impressed by what His Son has done for you. In fact, Isaiah makes it very clear in Isaiah 64:6. He says, “And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags,” that’s all our righteousness is. It’s worthless. The best you can do is, again, skýbalon, dung, manure. That’s all we can do. Having the righteousness of God is to be accepted by God—accepted by God because of the righteousness imputed or placed upon us by Christ.

At the end of verse 9, notice Paul says, “ . . . the righteousness which is from God by faith.” The only way to be accepted by God is by faith; and the only way to do that is to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord—not through religious effort, not through duty, not through rites or rituals, but by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. When you put your faith in Christ, you immediately have the righteousness of Christ.

So, four truths that give us a deeper understanding here of knowledge about our salvation: 1) to know Him personally; 2) to have His righteousness; 3) to have His power. Look at verse 10, “ . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection . . . .” The power that Paul is talking about is that power he receives because he knows Christ personally, that he has the righteousness of Christ, and now he says he has this spiritual energy or this dynamic power that God gives one to endure trials and temptings and testings that every one of us as believers will encounter in this life.

There are Christians that say, “When you come to Christ, everything is going to be perfect,” and “nothing will ever go wrong.” That is such a deception because if you’re a Christian, you understand that God will allow you to go through suffering, that’s why Paul calls it a fellowship of the suffering that you and I need to grow and mature day by day through the reading of God’s Word, through the study of God’s Word, through the teaching of the Word of God we’re able to grow and mature so that when—not if—when the trial comes, when the suffering comes, we can endure because of His power, that resurrection power. Again, Paul was talking about his religious accomplishment, verse 5, “ . . . circumcised the eighth day . . . of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” and on and on he goes, blameless in terms of the Jewish law. He obeyed every law. He had accomplished all of that.

But listen, there’s no power in that, and he knew that. There was no power to live a life for God. The only power that you and I have to live through temptations and difficulties and trials is the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that power comes to all that put their faith in Him. There’s no power in anything to overcome sin. There’s no power to overcome the law that condemns. There’s no power to give victory over the flesh, and Paul is saying, “I’ve lived my whole life powerless trying to do all these things that were rubbish. I want to trash it all. I want to throw all of it away to receive the power of Christ and His resurrection.”

Paul realized that there was power over sin in his life, over the temptation in his life because he says it over and over. Here, notice in Ephesians 3 where he says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” he’s talking about that resurrection power, the power that you and I have as believers. If you have put your faith in Christ, if you’ve repented of your sin, if you’re born again, you have that power—power to endure temptation, the power to endure hardship and difficulty, the power for service, and the power for witness.

Paul was saying, “ . . . I also count all things loss,” to gain that power to endure in this lifetime. The victorious Christian life can only be lived by the power of God. It’s not a power you work yourself up in. I’m not talking about the power of the health and wealth churches. I’m not talking about the power that you breathe fire and you save and God and you have faith-uh in yourself-uh. The power that Paul’s talking about, the power that I experienced, that we experience as Christians, is the power of God. It surpasses all understanding. It’s the power that our sister Erika needs tonight and I’m sure is standing upon. The power that you need to endure your trial and your suffering in this lifetime. God saved you from your sins when you first came to Him, and it was through the power of His resurrection, and that’s when the weight of your sins, and all of their burdens that were in your life, were lifted by the power of His resurrection, and you were given the righteousness of Christ. This is what Paul is talking about—exchanging all those things that he had tried to do religiously, he counts them as skýbalon, as loss, as refuse, and he trashes them all to gain what he can never lose in Christ. This is what it means to know Christ, to know Him personally, to have His righteousness, to have His power.

Fourthly, to have fellowship in suffering. Notice at the end of verse 10, “ . . . and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This is where Paul, again, gets very personal saying that one of the things he gains in Christ is someone to fellowship with when he is going through suffering.

Have you ever been in a trial? I went to the hospital today to visit a dear saint from our church that is dying, something we as pastors do. Her daughter is grieving because her mother had a stroke for the second time, 74-year-old Georgia. You can pray for Georgia and her family. But it’s during those times when there’s suffering in a family, suffering in a bed of affliction, that we have One closer than a brother, that our Lord Jesus suffers alongside. We have this fellowship in our suffering.

If anyone suffered, it would’ve been Paul. You remember all the different issues that he had as he went around Europe starting churches. In Corinthians he lists some of his suffering. Notice 2 Corinthians 11, “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren,” and while he was suffering all of those things for Christ, he had that deep fellowship with Jesus.

I don’t know where you’re at or what suffering you’re going through, but Jesus is with you. He goes through every bit of that suffering and sickness and trial with you. When you experientially know Christ, when you know Him personally, you fellowship in that deepest sense and way as you come to Christ and you put your trust in Him, as you pray to Him and cry out with your needs. He hears you, and He’s with you as you suffer just as Paul experienced that deep fellowship with Christ.

One of the things that I’ve learned in my pastoral ministry is that when Christians are suffering, it drives them to Christ. They call out to their pastor. In fact, today my phone wouldn’t stop ringing about 12:30, and I know you know why. I had people saying, “Aren’t you going to be at church tonight? A pastor needs to be with his flock on nights like this.” I agreed. I’m sure your pastor, I heard he called Aaron and said, “You need to pray for the congregation. You need to let them know, and I’m concerned about these very things.” But suffering, when we go through suffering, the Lord is with us. He’s with us in our weakness. He’s with us in our infirmities, and He experienced all the things that we suffer. All the things that Paul suffered, he knew that fellowship, that koinōnía, with the Lord, the fellowship of His sufferings.

Listen, we live in a broken world, and today it expressed itself in evil, murder, assassination—just pure evil. We all suffer. The question is, when your pain is going to come and what will you do in your suffering? Will you trust the Lord? Will you hold tightly to His Word and the many promises in the Bible? Will you look to Him? Will you be still and know that He is on the throne? God hasn’t left Erika. He hasn’t left you and me. He’s sovereign, and we’re to know His fellowship in our suffering when it comes.

Listen, here’s the truth. When the nonbeliever suffers, when they get a cancer diagnosis, when they fall and hurt themselves, when they suffer in some way in their lives, they go to the bar. They drown their suffering with alcohol or drug abuse. Some of the world, they run to psychiatrists to get a pill because they’re suffering. A lot of times Christians go to the mall or buy ice cream. Where do you go when you need comfort? Do you reach out to your brothers in Christ? Do you call the elders of the church? Do you look to Christ? It’s that experiential day by day walk with Jesus Christ that you and I need in times of suffering. That’s what it means to have fellowship in His suffering. That’s what it means to know Christ. That’s what Paul was talking about here, to know Christ personally, to have Christ’s righteousness, to have His power, and to know the fellowship of His suffering.

Again, Paul is presenting salvation as a transaction to exchange everything in this world to gain Christ, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 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.”

Jesus tonight offers you a personal relationship, not a religious one. The Bible says that He’s standing at the door of your heart and knocking, that He’s drawing. The Holy Spirit is doing that work to draw you, but you must receive Him, John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

Have you put your faith in Christ or is your faith built upon your works—the things you do, your duty, your church attendance, your giving—all of those things that are skýbalon. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Do you know Him?