Paul Apprehended and Apprehending

Paul Apprehended and Apprehending

(No. 2315)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 2, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 30,
1889.

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected;
but I press on, that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12.

OBSERVE the Apostle's condition when he wrote these words. I do not
think that either you or I will be found to be in a better one. If any
are, or think they are, I would suggest a question. I, for my part,
would be satisfied to be just as Paul was.

He was in a position of conscious safety. He was a saved man. He knew
that he was saved, for he rejoiced in Christ Jesus and had no
confidence in the flesh. He knew that he was justified by faith in
Christ Jesus and he counted all his own works, which formerly were his
ground of trust, to be as dross and dung, that he might win Christ. He
was a saved man and he knew it! I do not think that he often had doubts
about that point, but yet he was in a state of conscious
imperfection–"Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfected." He had not yet reached his own ideal of what a
Christian might be. He had not yet obtained from Christ all that he
expected to obtain. He was not sitting down to rest and be thankful,
but he was still hurrying on, reaching after something which was yet
beyond him. He could not say, "Soul, take your ease, you have much
goods laid up for many years," but he still felt his own spiritual
poverty, and he cried, "Not as though I had already attained, either
were already perfected."

But, Beloved, let not that thought be any kind of solace to you, for I
would remind you that though consciously imperfect, Paul was zealously
making progress. He says, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I know many who say that they are
imperfect and they seem to be quite satisfied to be so. That was never
the case with the Apostle–as long as any trace of a sinful nature or a
sinful tendency remained in him, it made him cry out, "O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It was
not because he was dead in sin that he cried in that way. It would be a
new thing in this world for a sinner dead in sin to cry so, but because
he was already largely delivered from sin and the reigning power of it
had been broken! Therefore he felt the burden of any sort of contact
with sin. A man who is in the sea, taking a plunge deep down under the
water, does not feel the weight of the water. But bring him out on the
shore, put a great tub of water on his head–and see what a weight that
is to him! So, while a man is in sin as his element, it is no burden to
him, but when he is out of it, and not under its power, then he feels
the weight of it, he grows weary under it and would gladly be rid of
every particle of it.

The Apostle, I say, was conscious of imperfection, but he was also
conscious that he was making progress, that he was running towards a
mark, that he was leaving much behind him, and was pressing toward that
which was before him. He was also in a state of anxious aspiration. He
desired that he might be found in Christ, that he might attain unto the
resurrection from among the dead, that he might, in a word, grasp that
for which Christ had grasped him. I am going to talk about that double
grasp, tonight–"That I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus,"

Notice that there are two forces here mentioned which are at work in
every gracious man. There is Christ's power by which He apprehends us
and then there is the new power, the new life of God-given faith, by
which we, in our turn, seek to apprehend that for which Christ has
apprehended us. Christ has apprehended us for a purpose–we wish to
realize that purpose even to the fullest. That is the intent of the
Apostle's words. Let us consider them in detail.

I. First, let us think of PAUL'S APPREHENSION BY CHRIST JESUS.

We do not often use the word, "apprehended," now, in the sense in which
it is here used. The only instance that I remember is when we speak of
a policeman apprehending a person, that is, laying hold upon him,
seizing him. At his conversion, Paul had been apprehended by his Lord.
Take the word, "apprehend," in the sense of arresting him, and it
stands true of Saul of Tarsus. I need not repeat the story–you all
know how that desperate rebel was going down to Damascus to persecute
the saints of God. Nothing was further from his mind than the thought
of becoming a Christian, but while he was riding the high horse and
Damascus lay below him, just like a sheep within reach of a wolf, the
Lord Jesus Christ stepped in and laid His hand on his shoulder–

"Thus the eternal counsel ran, 'Almighty Grace, arrest that man!'" And
almighty Grace arrested him! He fell to the earth at the first blow. He
was blinded with the second. No, not so much by a blow as by the
greatness of the Light of God that shone round about him! And there he
lay prostrate, broken in heart and blind in eyes–he had to be led into
the city–and one of those poor men whom he had determined to haul to
prison had to come and pray for him, that his eyes might be opened,
that he might be baptized, and that he might thus make his confession
of faith in Christ! He well says that he was "apprehended of Christ
Jesus." The King sent no sheriffs officer to arrest him, but He came,
Himself, and took him into Divine custody, laid him by the heels for
three days in the dark–and then let him out into glorious liberty, an
altogether changed man–to go forth to preach that faith which before
he had sought to destroy!

You may not all be able to remember any special day when you were
apprehended by Christ, but some of us do. We remember when we, who had
been formerly carried captive by the devil at his will, found ourselves
arrested by One stronger than Satan. We managed, by Divine Grace, to
escape from the clutches of the devil, but we could not escape from
that dear pierced hand when once it was laid upon us! We surrendered
ourselves prisoners. There was no resisting, any longer, when His
mighty Grace came in to arrest us. I say that some of us remember that
day. Other days, notable for great events, have been forgotten, but the
day when we were apprehended of Christ Jesus is stamped upon our
memory, and always must be, even throughout eternity!

Since then, dear Friends, we have always felt that grip, just as Paul
always felt himself in Christ's grasp. We have never got away from that
one arrest. It was not the work of a few minutes to be remembered and
to be then ended, and all over. No, at this moment we feel the same
Divine hand upon us! We are prisoners, this day, unto Christ, who alone
has set us free by capturing us! There was a legend among the heathen
of old times, that if persons saw certain spirits in the woods, they
became, from that moment, wonderfully changed–they became possessed by
the spirit which they saw! They had, as we say in our language, a
twist. I remember when–

"Isaw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood, Who fixed His
languid eyes on me, As near His Cross I stood"

and I have had a twist ever since! I never got over it and never expect
to. I hope that twist will get a more and more powerful hold over me.
It turned everything upside down. It changed the right into the left.
It made the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter–the light darkness, and
the darkness light. It was a wonderful twist and, as I say again, that
twist still continues! When it has once been experienced, there is no
escaping from it. We can say not only, "I was apprehended," but as the
text has it, "I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." He still binds us with
the fetters of His love. We still sit at His dear feet, enthralled by
His beauties. We are still under the Omnipotent fascination of His
altogether lovely face. We could not depart from Him if we would and we
could not if we could! If we went away from Christ, to whom would we
go? He has the Words of eternal life! His love holds and binds us
faster than fetters of brass. We must forever be apprehended by Christ
Jesus our Lord.

Now, Beloved, this arrest of Paul by Christ was the force and motive of
his whole later life. Because Paul had been apprehended by Christ, he
began to live differently from what he had ever lived before. He had an
apprehension that he had lived amiss. He had an apprehension that his
evil life would end in eternal destruction. He fled away from all his
apprehensions of the wrath to come, to the Christ who had apprehended
him in quite another sense! He had thus been apprehended, pressed into
the service of Christ and made, by that pressure, to become a
volunteer, for here there is a paradox–all Christ's soldiers are
pressed men and volunteers, too! There are two senses, the one in which
Grace constrains

them, and the other in which their will, being made truly free, runs
delightfully after Christ! But having once been apprehended, the
Apostle never shook off Christ's grasp–he began to live as an
apprehended man. He said to himself, "I cannot follow the world, for
Christ has apprehended me. I cannot go after false doctrine, for Christ
has apprehended me and crucified me with Himself. I cannot cease to
preach the Gospel. I cannot become a self-seeker. I cannot do anything
but live for Him who died for me, for the Master has apprehended me. He
has put me under parole to keep close to Him forever and I must not,
cannot, dare not, would not leave Him! I am His apprehended one
henceforth and even forever."

I want your hearts to talk over this first part of the sermon. Never
mind my faltering tongue–let your own hearts speak. If Christ has
never apprehended you, well then, you have nothing to do with this
matter, and you may leave it alone. But if He has arrested you,
acknowledge the soft impeachment, tonight. Say in your heart, "Yes, He
has, indeed, laid hold on me, and my heart's desire is that He would
bring every thought into captivity to Him. From henceforth I would be
led in triumph by Him, His captive all the days of my life, to show the
power of His illustrious love, the victories of His Grace!" Oh, that we
might, each one, say with Paul, "I am apprehended of Christ Jesus"!

Ah, dear Souls, you who have never been apprehended of Him, I hope that
you will be, tonight! I pray God that you may run away from your old
master, the devil, and not give him even five minutes' notice, but just
start off directly! And while you are a runaway slave, may my Divine
Master come and lay His hand upon you and say, "You are Mine. You never
did really belong to your old master and even though you promised and
swore that you would be his, thus says the Lord, 'Your Covenant with
death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not
stand.' I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are
Mine, and now I only take what I bought on the tree. I take by power,
by might, by main force, by Grace, what I purchased with the blood of
My hands and feet and heart. I will have you, for you are Mine." Lord,
will You thus arrest some sinner, tonight, to the praise of the glory
of Your Grace?

II. Now let us notice PAUL'S DESIRE TO APPREHEND THAT FOR WHICH THE
LORD HAD APPREHENDED HIM.

Well, why did Christ apprehend Paul? First, it was to convert him
completely–to make a new man of him, to turn him from all his old ways
and pursuits–and put him on quite a different road. Now, Brothers and
Sisters, that is why the Lord apprehended us–to make us new creatures
in Christ Jesus! Let us pray God to carry out that design to the
fullest, to make us altogether new creatures. Do not let us be
satisfied while there are any remains of the old nature–let us cry to
the Lord to drive the Canaanites out–and though they have chariots of
iron, let us, by Divine Grace, drive them all out! Pray, "Lord Jesus,
You have come to turn me from every sin–turn me and I shall be turned!
You have provided medicine for every disease–Lord, heal me and I shall
be healed!"

Do not be satisfied, any of you, with half a conversion! I am afraid
that there are a great many who have not much more than half a
conversion. I know a man–I hope he is converted, but I wish that the
Lord would convert his temper. He prays very nicely, but you should see
him when he is red in the face with anger at his wife! I know a man–I
hope he is a Christian, it is not for me to judge–but I wish that the
Lord would convert his pocket. It needs a button taken off, for it is
very difficult to get it open! It is very easy to put something in, but
hard to get anything out for any good purpose. I know a great many
professing Christians who do not seem to have had what we might call a
thorough conversion. We need the power which has arrested us to do its
work completely–till there is not any part of us but what has been
renewed by Grace and sanctified to the service and Glory of God.
Brethren, seek to apprehend that for which Christ has apprehended you,
namely, a thorough conversion, a turning of yourself from every evil
way!

But the Lord apprehended each one of His people, in the next place, to
make them like to Christ This is the great design of electing
love–"Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son." That is the great objective of the very first
act of Divine Love–and whatever the Holy Spirit does in us, He does it
with this aim to make us like unto the Firstborn among many brethren.
This will be our satisfaction in eternity–"I shall be satisfied when I
awake with Your likeness." Come, then, Beloved, if Christ has arrested
us to make us like Himself, let us not rest till we have become more
like He! Perhaps the Lord has made you like Christ in some respects,
but not in all. Or if you are like Christ in all respects, yet the
likeness is dim, shadowy, rather in outline than in filling-up. Though
we may be likenesses of Christ, there is not one of us who does not
need many touches before we shall be good likenesses! Some, I fear, are
caricaturesof Christ. May the Lord have pity upon us if that is the
case, and go on with His work, and take out

all the blotches and blemishes, and paint the true portrait till. at
last. everybody who sees us will say, "There is Christ in that man–he
is a likeness of Christ"!

We may not all be paintings on ivory. We may not all be taken on a
sheet of silver, but the Lord's portrait, even though it is on a piece
of clay, has still great beauties in it. And as He intends to make us
like Christ, O Beloved, let us aspire to this! Come, get it into your
voice and get it into your heart! You are to be like Christ and as you
are to be so, and this is the very reason why Christ has arrested you,
pine after it, thirst after it, labor after it! Trust God to work in
you to will and to do of His own good pleasure, and while He is doing
that, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling because it is
God that works in you!

If you turn to Paul's description of his own conversion, which he gave
to Agrippa, you will find that the Lord said to him that He had
appeared to him to make him a witness of that which he had seen, and of
that which He would afterwards reveal to him. So, in the third place,
we have been apprehended of Christ that we may be witnesses for Him,
first seeinga great deal and then tellingwhat we have seen, which is
the other sense of the word, "witness." A witness sees or hears and
then he tells in court what he has seen or heard and so he becomes a
witness to others as once he was a witness to himself. Now, the Lord
has apprehended every Christian, here, to see their Savior, to see His
Grace, to see His love, to see His power, to see all the wonders which
the Holy Spirit works among men–and then to go and talk of these
things to others, that they, also, hearing from the lips of a witness,
may be led to believe by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Beloved, if the Lord Jesus Christ has apprehended you that you may be a
witness, be on the lookout! Keep your eyes open! See all that you can
see. Every Prophet of olden times was called a Seer. You cannot
prophesy to others until you have been a seeryourself! Pray that you
may see all that is in the Word. Cry, "Open You my eyes, that I may
behold wondrous things out of Your Law." Pray that you may see the
movements of God in Providence, and may see the hand of God in your own
heart and your own experience. Pray God, first, to make you a witness,
an observer–and then tell out to others what you have tasted and
handled and felt of the Word of life–and be a faithful witness for
your Lord and Master all your days. Do not some professing Christians,
who are here, tonight, feel a little uncomfortable? You have not yet
seen all that you should see and have you not kept very much to
yourselves what you have seen? I would that you could apprehend that
for which also you are apprehended of Christ Jesus, seeing what He
means you to see and then, telling out what He means you to tell. May
the Lord instruct us more and more that we may fulfill all His good
pleasure!

But, next, we were converted in order to be the instruments of the
conversion of others. Paul, when he was speaking to Agrippa, expressly
mentioned how the Lord said, "Delivering you from the people, and from
the Gentiles, unto whom now I send you, to open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in Me." So, you see, there was a
certain number of souls for whom Paul was apprehended that he might be
the instrument of their salvation! Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed,
"Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may
glorify You: as You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should
give eternal life to as many as You have given Him."

Now, that power Christ distributes among His people. There is a certain
number of persons who will receive eternal life through my ministry.
There is a certain number who will receive eternal life through another
man's ministry. I wonder how many have, in this way, been appointed to
you, that you might be the means of their salvation? You were not saved
that you might only go to Heaven–you were saved that you might take
others there with you! In the olden days, when a man needed pigeons, he
used to take a dove of his own and smear its wings all over with
perfume, and then, when it was very sweet to smell, he threw it up into
the air and it went into other dovecots, and all the pigeons went after
it. And when it came back, it brought them home to its master. That was
a roguish trick, but it is a blessed method of bringing poor flying
doves to Christ! When your wings are sweet with Christ's love. When
every time that you move, you perfume the air with holiness and mercy
and Grace, others will flock around you and fly with you like doves to
their windows!

I like to think of the many that God has appointed me to bring to Him.
I cannot tell you how many I have met during the past week–they have
made my heart dance for joy. Last Tuesday, when we had a large company
of deacons of our Metropolitan Churches here, one would steal up to me,
as I sat there shaking hands, and say, "On such a day, I heard you
preach from such a text. I was a careless young man, but you brought me
to the Savior." Another would come and say, "God bless you, Sir! I
remember when you were the means of leading me to the Savior." One took
my hand with a

ferocious grip and could not say a word till he had shed many a tear.
These things make us very happy and my heart's desire is that I may get
all that Christ means me to get, that I may apprehend all that, or
them, for which He apprehended me!

I want every Christian Brother and Sister, here, to feel the same.
There is somebody in the world whom you have to bring to Christ. I do
not know where he is, or who he is, but you had better look out for
him. Come, seek now. Say, "I would not lose a single pearl, though it
lies deep under the waves of the sea, if my great Lord intends me to
dive for it, and bring it up into the Light." Get to your searching
after the hidden treasures and be intent, day and night, in the power
of the Spirit, that you may apprehend that measure of usefulness for
which you were apprehended of Christ Jesus! It will be a high honor to
appear, at last, as a winner of souls! Kings might doff their diadems
and forget that they ever wore them, in comparison with that crown
which God will give to those who turn many to righteousness, for they
shall shine "as the stars forever and ever!" Aspire to this, my dear
Friends, and lose none of those for which you have been apprehended of
Christ Jesus your Lord.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the Lord said to Ananias about
Paul, "I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's
sake." Well, now, some of you were apprehended on purpose that you
might suffer for Christ's sake. Did I see you wince at that word? Well,
but if usefulness by labor is an honor, usefulness by suffering is a
still greater honor! In Heaven, the brightest crown that any saint
wears is that which is set with the rubies of martyrdom. When I have
read the stories of those holy men and women who died in Roman
amphitheatres, or were burned to death over at Smithfield, yonder, I
must confess that I have envied them. To preach Christ seems so little
compared with having Grace enough to suffer for His name's sake! As one
reads of their intense suffering, one naturally shrinks from it and
says, "I thank God that I am not called to endure that trial." But yet,
if we were called to it, we would have Grace given to us to bear it
What an honor it was for them, for the sake of the Prince of martyrs,
the Leader of the sacramental hosts of God's elect, to be able and
willing to give themselves up to death!

Well, you may be called to suffer for Christ's sake, but, at any rate,
you are called to this–to lay your all upon His altar, to devote
yourself, your substance, all that you are and all that you have, to
His honor and Glory! You are apprehended of Christ Jesus for this
purpose–try to apprehend it. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, let us resolve
to live wholly unto Christ! Let us bid Him take our hands, feet, heart,
eyes, brain and every faculty of our being! May God get as much glory
as He can, out of us, or reflect as much of His Glory as is possible
through even our weakness and infirmities! But this is why we have been
apprehended of Christ Jesus, that we may be wholly and only the Lord's,
"For the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge, that if
one died for all, then all died, and that He died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him
which died for them, and rose again." Here is the prize of your high
calling–are you ready to run for it? God help you to do so, to
apprehend, in personal self-sacrifice, all that for which Christ has
apprehended you!

But that is not all. Paul said that he regarded himself as having been
arrested by Christ that he might attain unto the resurrection from
among the dead. Oh, when that trumpet peals out and the righteous
arise, shall I arise? Or shall I lie rotting in the tomb another
thousand years? And when He calls His saints together, when–

"EEast and west, and south and north, Speeds each glorious angel forth,
Gathering in with glittering wings Zion's saints to Zion's King,"

shall we be there? Shall we behold the splendor of Christ's appearing?
Shall we sit upon the Throne of God with Him, judging mankind? Shall we
be forever with the Lord? It is for this that we are apprehended. Are
you getting ready for this? Are you preparing, by His Grace, for that
eternal future? I believe that all the saints will get to Heaven, but
every saint ought to aspire not only to get there, but to carry, there,
with him, that which will make his Heaven more glorious to God than it
otherwise would be. Part of the joy of Heaven will be to remember what
the Lord did by us. We are not going there to go to bed forever–we are
going there to do some glorious work for Christ. How does He describe
it? He says that if His servants have been faithful and diligent, He
will say to one, "Have authority over ten cities," and another shall be
ruler over five cities. As we have proved our ability, such will be the
dominion that Christ shall give us throughout the ages to come! And a
little failing, today, as it were the loss of a penny, may mean the
loss of thousands of pennies

in the world to come. You shall be as full as the greatest vessel, but
you shall have smaller capacity. Look to that matter, now.

I believe that every action in this mortal life thrills through
eternity. Time and eternity are like one tremulous mass of jelly–if
you touch one particle of it here, it trembles right through, and right
throughout the ages. Not a word is spoken but the echo of it shall be
heard when time shall be no more. Not a deed is done that dies,
especially the deeds of quickened men and women! They know not what
they do–they will be astonished to find, at the Last Great Day–what
they have done, for the Lord will evidently surprise His people when He
says, "I was hungry, and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave
Me drink." They will say, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed
You? Or thirsty, and gave You drink?" And if you apprehend to the
fullest the great purpose of Christ in apprehending you, that it is not
of debt, but of Grace–not of works, but of faith, yet, in the ages to
come, you shall be surprised to find how the little that you did shall
bring you great reward! God gives His people good works and then
rewards them for them! He works in us to will and to do, and then we
will and do and He gives us a reward for willing and doing!

I wish, dear Friends, that in Heaven we might feel, "Well, I did as God
helped me. I apprehended that for which my Master apprehended me." You
have no idea what you are going to do in Glory. I expect, one day, to
preach to an assembled universe concerning my Lord and Master, to tell
to principalities and powers what Christ has done–not to sit with a
lot of you good people, some listening to me, and some, perhaps,
not–but to have angels, and principalities, and powers to be my
congregation! And I want to learn to preach well, here, that they may
be attentive to me. Each one of you who has served your Lord shall be a
monument of His love and His mercy–and the angels shall stop and read
what is inscribed on you! Oh, that there might be some good letters
written on you, that when Gabriel stops to read, he may clap his hands
and then fly with swifter flight, as he says, "Bless the Lord for what
He did for that poor man, for what He worked in that poor woman! His
Grace is conspicuous there." As you are to be seen throughout all
eternity, may you be fit to be seen! May the Lord, of His Grace, work
in you that which shall be to the praise of His Glory!

III. I have done when I just take a minute or two to show THE LESSONS
WHICH PAUL IS TEACHING US BY THIS TEXT.

The first is this, make sure of your apprehension by Christ Jesus, so
that you can talk like Paul about it, "That for which I am
apprehended." Pray the Lord that you may feel His hand on your
shoulder, that you may feel His Grace in your heart, His blessed
fetters on your feet, His Divine manacles upon your wrists. Pray that
you may have no doubt about it, but may know beyond all doubt that the
Lord has arrested you.

This being known, do not let it make you idle. Do not say, "Christ has
arrested me; I am saved; nothing more is needed." No. Why has He
arrested you? He has a purpose in it. That arrest was but the beginning
of a great lifework. Let it not make you idle, but let it be your
encouragement. If Christ has arrested you to be holy, He will make you
holy. If Christ has arrested you for usefulness, be confident in
seeking it. If Christ has arrested you to make you an eternal monument
of His Grace, believe that you will be, and press forward to the mark
for the prize of your high calling!

Finally, let this lead you to hope for the salvation of others. Go
forward hopefully in your service for others. Teach that Sunday school
class with a firm belief that you were apprehended on purpose that John
and Tom might be converted! Go and teach the girls and say, "I was
apprehended to bring Mary, and Jane, and Louisa to Christ–and do not
be at all doubtful about it." This is the purpose of God–expect it to
be worked out! Go to your street corner, my beloved Brother, and preach
away–even when the mob disturbs you! Go from door to door with your
tracts, even though they may be cast in your face. Go, city
missionaries and Bible-women, to your holy and righteous toil. Go, each
one of you, to the work for which God has apprehended you, for as the
Lord has apprehended you, it is for a purpose! And rest not until that
purpose is fully established.

May the Lord arrest some sinners, tonight! Pray, as you go down the
aisles, "Lord, arrest them! Bring them to Your dear feet and save them
this night, for Jesus' sake!" Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. PHILIPPIANS 3.

The Holy Spirit indited this Epistle by the pen of His servant, Paul.
May He also write it on our hearts!

Verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. When you get to,
"finally." When you are very near the end of your journey, still,
"rejoice in the Lord." "Finally," says Paul, as if this were the end of
his Epistle, the conclusion of all his teaching–"Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord." But never do it finally! Never come to an end of
it! Rejoice in the Lord and yet, again, rejoice, and yet, again,
rejoice–and as long as you live, rejoice in the Lord.

1. To write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous, but
for you it is safe. Some hearers are like the Athenian
academicians–they want continually to hear something new. The Apostle
says, "To have the same things written to you, is safe." So is it for
you, dear Friends, to have the same Gospel, the same Jesus, the same
Holy Spirit made known to you, is safe. New doctrine is dangerous
doctrine!

2. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. They are like dogs. If they
fawn upon you, they will dirty you, if they do not bite you.

2, 3. 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. There were some who had confidence in
circumcision, who greatly troubled Paul. The Apostle says that they
were, "the concision," the cutters off, of whom he would have the
Philippians beware.

4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man
thinks that he has of which he might trust in the flesh, I more. If any
man might have had confidence in the flesh, truly Paul might.

5, 6. Circumcised the eighth day, the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee;
concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness
which is in the Law, blameless. So that I do not know what more he
could have had. If a Jew had tried to select a man who had something to
glory in, he could not have picked any man to stand in the front of
Paul! He was truly a Jew. He had received the initiatory rite and on
the right day. He was born of Law of God to the extreme. He tithed his
mint and his cummin. Nobody could have anything to glory in which Paul
had not.

7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. So
that, when we come to Christ, whatever we have to trust to, we must put
away. We must write it on the other side of the ledger. We had entered
it as a gain–now we must set it down as a loss–it is of no value,
whatever! It is a loss if it shall tempt us to trust any less in
Christ.

8. Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Those are sweet words, "my
Lord." Remember how Thomas cried, in ecstasy, "My Lord and my God"?
Paul, by faith putting his finger into the prints of the nails, says,
"My Lord."

8, 9. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him. Oh, what a
precious place to be found in, "in Him," trusting in Him, hidden away
in Him, a member of His body, as it were, losing myself in Him!

9. Not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law. He does not
say, not trustingit, but not even havingit, not counting it, not
thinkingit worthwhile to put down among his possessions that which he
once prized so much.

9, 10. But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith: that I may know Him. Paul means, "That I may
know Him more than I now do," for he knew Him and delighted in Him, but
he felt as if he had not really begun to know Christ. He was like a
child at school who has learned to read and to write, and knows so much
that he begins to want to know more.

10, 11. 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 the dead. He knew that all the
dead would rise again, but he aspired to the frstresurrection–"The
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished."

12, 13. 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. He did count himself as saved–he knew that he was
Christ's–but he did not count himself as having realized all that
Christ meant to do for him and by him. He did not reckon that he had
reached as far as he could reach, or learned all that he could learn,
or done all that he could do.

13, 14. 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. You have seen a man running very fast. How he leans forward, as
though he would send his heart before him and go quicker than his legs
can carry him! So did the Apostle, "press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

15, 16. Let us, therefore, as many as are mature, be thus minded: and
if in anything you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk
by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Let us keep all the good
that we have received. Let us not give up the Truth of God that we have
learned. Let us not leave the way along which we have traveled so
far–and let us keep together–let perfect unanimity prove that the
work of Grace is going on in one as well as in another.

17. Brethren, be followers together of me. In these days, certain
people find fault with Paul and speak of him as if he were not
Inspired, and not to be followed as Christ was, But here he expressly
says what no man like Paul would ever say unless moved of the Holy
Spirit, for he was modest and, by no means, anxious to push himself
forward–"Brethren, be followers together of me."

17. And mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. Mark
them, but do not followthem. See how they walk, but do not imitate
them–"Have us for an example."

18. (For many walk, ofwhom Ihave toldyou often, andnow tellyou even
weeping, that they are the enemies ofthe Cross of Christ. I lay a
stress upon the article–"They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ."
Professors of religion who get into the Church and yet lead ungodly
lives, are the worst enemies that the Cross of Christ has! These are
the sort of men who bring tears into the minister's eyes! These are
they who break his heart! They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ.

19. Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory
is in their shame, who mind earthly things). "Who mind earthly
things"–even when they profess to be minding spiritual
things–pretending to be followers of Christ up to Heaven and yet
really making a gain of the things of God here below.

20. For our conversation is in Heaven. Can you say that, dear Friend?
Is your citizenship in Heaven? Is your conversation there? Do you often
commune with your Lord upon the Throne? Judge yourselves whether it is
so or not. It is a very poor thing to have a name to be in Heaven and
yet never to have any converse with Heaven! I wish that we could all
say that we talk more to God than we do to men, and have more business
upward than we have here below.

20. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is coming! He is coming! Are we looking for Him? This is the true
position of the Christian–looking for the appearing of his Lord!

21. Who shall change our vile body. "The body of our humiliation." We
have only part of the redemption while we are here. The soul is
regenerated, newly-born, but the bodyis not. "The body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The
redemption of the purchased possession will be perfect at the
resurrection. The resurrection will be, to the body, what regeneration
is to the soul! We sometimes wonder why we are sick when Christ could
make us well in a moment–but the reason is that, as yet, He has not
fully brought His Divine Power to bear upon the body.

21. That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to
the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself
May He show some part of that blessed power in us tonight! Amen.