Reading from verse 11, If by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead, notice the word attain, not as thou
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
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.
Now from 15 to the end, he is
dealing with the prospect.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect,
be thus minded, and if in anything ye
be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you.
Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us
walk by the same rule, let us mind
the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark
them which walk so as ye have us
as an ensemble.
For many walk of whom I have told
you often, and now tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross
of Christ.
Notice this, whose end is destruction, whose God
is their belly, whose glory is their shame,
who mind earthly things.
For our conversation, our behaviour, our citizenship, or
it can be translated our politics, is in
heaven.
From whence also we look for the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our
vile body, 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.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for,
my joy and crown, so stand fast in
the Lord.
We've looked at the cost, we've looked at
the content, knowing the power of his resurrection,
fellowship with him in suffering, being made conformable
unto his death, so that when he comes
again, when the Lord Jesus comes, we have
been fully developed in him.
Then he goes on to speak about comprehension.
Now this is the comprehension of the contents.
In other words, the way in which we
are going to arrive at that position.
Very interesting.
And you will notice now that he uses
three words.
He uses the word attain, he uses the
word apprehend, and then he uses the word
the prize or the goal.
And if you bear in mind it's a
race, and the idea of attaining simply means
when a man is going to run a
race, he's got the object before him.
Then when he's running, he's apprehending.
That means he is appropriating all the strength.
And then if he wins, he gets the
prize.
Now if you bear that in mind, that's
what the puzzle has before him.
Now the word comprehend that I have used
refers to knowledge and it refers to experience.
In the Greek, so that the scholars inform
me, it's a beautiful word, it's the idea
of a bird, flying, and it sees some
food, and it takes the food, and then
it goes into the crop, or some of
it does, and then it goes right into
the constitution of the bird.
Now it's the food that goes into the
constitution of the bird that this word means.
Now I don't want to worry you with
the offerings, but there's something very beautiful in
the bird's offering.
Do you remember the poor man that could
only offer a fowl?
The feathers were not offered, nor was the
crop.
What does the crop speak of?
Undigested food.
In other words, head knowledge, crop knowledge, it's
cast on the east side of the altar.
Now my dear friends, what he's talking about
now, is that word that gets right into
us, so that it becomes a part of
us.
Very interesting, in Colossians and Ephesians.
In Ephesians Paul speaks of being filled with
the spirit.
Now I want to take up that next
week, because that's life.
But in Colossians, he doesn't use that expression.
Do you know what he says?
Let the word of God dwell in you
richly.
In other words, not the crop knowledge, but
the knowledge that you have apprehended, that has
become a real part of you.
So really that's the meaning of the word
comprehend.
Now what about these three stages?
Attain means the object in view.
Therefore all of us should have the object
in view, and that is that Christ should
be formed in us.
You see that's Christianity.
It's not basically the externals.
The externals are good if we live them
out.
But it's the great thought of Christ being
formed in each one of us.
And you know there's nothing more beautiful, nothing
more lovely, than to see a group of
people full of the loveliness of the Lord
Jesus.
You will never see anything more beautiful than
that in society whilst you're living upon this
earth.
Then secondly, he uses the word apprehend.
And that means exactly what we said when
we were talking about the word comprehend.
It means to take hold of something so
that it becomes a part of you.
Now there's a wonderful illustration of this in
the Old Testament.
And it's concerning that man that we all
love because he's all like us.
That's Jacob.
I love Jacob.
Because he started off bad and he finished
good.
And it's wonderful to think that that old
shepherd walked in the presence of the great
old Pharaoh.
And he put his hands on his head
and blessed him.
And the one who blesses is greater than
the one that gives the blessing.
And that was Jacob.
There was a time when the Lord met
him and we all made that at Jabbok.
And we read that the man of God
wrestled with Jacob.
Now what does that mean?
Forgive me doing it.
He got hold of him.
And he held him.
And he said you're mine.
And thank God the Lord Jesus has got
hold of every one of us like that.
And there's no power in the world that
can take us out of that grip.
He has apprehended us.
So that we might apprehend him.
So Jacob said something beautiful.
He said let me go for the day
breakers.
That was a kind of a teasing.
And he said I will not let thee
go except thou bless me.
Can you see it?
A double apprehension.
One moment the man of God the Lord
Jesus lays hold on him.
And the next moment he lays hold upon
the man of God saying I will not
let thee go except thou bless me.
But then I know what some of you
are saying.
How do we lay hold on him?
By faith.
What is faith?
Now unfortunately I must go into this when
we are preaching the themes of the gospel.
It's not just sitting on a chair.
It's not just getting on a bus and
putting faith in the bus driver.
It's not even getting on a plane and
putting faith in the plane and the pilot.
And instead of the chair being the object
instead of the bus being the object instead
of the plane being the object it's the
Lord Jesus.
Do you know what that's called in the
realm of logic?
Mathematical probability.
You do that by instinct.
When you sat on that form you just
sat on it.
But what is faith?
Ah, now that's what we've got to learn.
It comes from the Greek word pistio that
means three things.
To know what you believe.
To trust what you believe.
Here it comes.
And to appropriate and make it your own
what you believe.
So you say it's man.
And what's the illustration used in scripture?
Abraham.
You know when he was nearly a hundred
God said to him he was going to
have a child.
And he looked at Sarah and all her
productive organs were dead.
As we say in London dead as a
dodo.
Absolutely dead.
And when he went and told his servants
and he had hundreds I'm going to have
a child.
They must have said his marbles are going.
You see it was impossible.
But this man did something that was wonderful.
He believed in God.
He apprehended him.
And he stood on the promise and said
it's done.
In other words the promise became a real
part of him.
Have you got it?
Now apprehending is that.
It's laying hold upon Christ so that he
becomes a part of you.
And it means standing on his promise and
saying it shall be done.
Now I know how you feel sometimes when
it comes to a point of Christ being
formed in you.
And you feel that you're so much unlike
Christ.
You begin to say how can this really
be done?
The spirit of God is in you.
And all he wants you is to take
that act of faith and apprehend.
What does that mean?
You take up your stand at the cross
and you say I cannot fully understand it.
But I believe that I have been crucified
with Christ and I stand upon it and
therefore I'm going to reckon myself to be
dead indeed unto sin.
That's the first thing.
Secondly, I look up and say the Lord
is risen and there's all power and I
look within me and I realise that the
Holy Spirit is there and I have the
faith to say I believe you can form
Christ in me.
And that's the way to run the race.
Reckoning yourself to be dead to sin and
here it comes alive unto God and the
Holy Spirit within you and all the time
you're reckoning you're apprehending and you're running well
and you're getting your second breath and you're
coming near the end of the tape and
quite frankly you're well in front.
So that is apprehending.
Now what is the goal?
The goal is when you stand before the
Beamer and as you stand before the Beamer
it will be a wonderful day.
You will stand there in grace with a
glorified body and then you will see what
you did in the body and all the
stresses, all the strain all the suffering, all
the reckoning all the apprehension of the death
of Christ and the resurrection of Christ all
that's been produced by faith in grace you'll
see Christ coming out of it and you'll
say Thank you Lord Thank you Some of
you who have been through deep sorrow some
of you who have been through deep water
some of you who know what it is
to have a spiritual bomb in your life
and everything has been blown to smithereens and
you've come through it you'll see it in
that day and worship the Lord It's Christ
being formed in you You see He's not
preparing us for earth He's preparing us for
the eternal day and what a wonderful moment
that will be Well that's the comprehension There's
many things I would like to say about
the up-calling but we haven't got time
Now we come to the prospect and the
prospect is the coming of the Lord Jesus
that should ever be before us and may
I say this I believe the Lord is
coming very, very soon You know if you
were in Europe and you could see the
whole of Europe coming together and if you
were in the country and many Christians were
praying that judgment would come on Britain because
only before I came they lowered the age
of homosexuality and it's come God's answering prayer
We are living right in the last seconds
of the last days and quite frankly I
don't think I shall ever be back in
Australia not because I don't want to but
I'm expecting the Lord to come very shortly
So that's the prospect we're going to finish
with Now you will notice in the prospect
there are three aspects There's an example of
the prospect and that's seen in verse 14
down to 18 and 19 and then there's
an explanation of the prospect that's seen in
verse 21 and then there's an exhortation of
the prospect and that's seen in verse 20
Now let's get through that and then we
will close Now as far as the examples
are concerned there are only two, good and
bad Let's look at the good first verse
15 Let us therefore as many as be
perfect be thus minded and if anything need
be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this
to you Now that word perfect worries many
people It comes from a strange Greek word
that means to fulfill and if you would
like to stretch it it means to fill
and the word fill means to be mature
It's like the idea if you're a gardener
and there's two beans one may be 14
inches long FULL and the other might be
all withered NOT FULL Now that's what the
word means perhaps a better illustration I was
once staying with a couple of boys in
Canada and they had a gym and one
was a weight lifter and he weighed 18
stone he was about 6 foot 3 and
he didn't have an ounce of fat on
him and I used to go down the
gym and see this fellow working and he
used to pick up these weights and it
was marvelous and then when he went one
day how stupid can an older man be
I thought I can do it and I
went got it there and then I got
it there and then I was straining my
knees were buckling then I got it there
and I got stuck and thank God he
came in and took it from me One
day I was down watching the boys and
I was watching his brother forgive me saying
this he was 12 and he was a
real weed he was like a skeleton and
I was eyeing them up and down you
know, you do it don't you and the
mother came in and she read my thoughts
and she said I know what you're thinking
of Peter how did they come from the
same stock and that's what I was thinking
and then she said this when he fills
out he'll be as big as him and
I said some hopes well would you believe
it she never forgot it about 5 or
6 years later they were at a wedding
and would you believe it she sent me
a photograph and there's that weed filled out
as big as his brother massive you see
beloved there are many Christians who have never
grown can I say it they're weeds but
this word matured means you apprehend so that
you're filled out and what with the beauty
and the loveliness of the Lord now that's
the meaning of the word matured and that's
the object that he has in view then
you will notice these examples are not only
perfect men matured men filled out men nevertheless
where unto we have already attained let us
walk by the same rule let us mind
the same thing now the word attained there
has to do with ambition it has to
do with achievement but achievement that's yet to
come in other words there they were appropriating
the power of his resurrection appropriating the fellowship
of his sufferings appropriating to being made conformable
to his death so in a sense they've
arrived but there's much more to come they're
the examples and then you will notice they're
model examples verse 17 brethren be followers together
of me and mark them which walk so
as you have us as examples may I
say this please to spiritual leaders you are
an example I am an example now if
I can share this with you please take
it to heart all the ministry I give
that's not practical will never bless the Lord's
people if I am not living out this
ministry in my own home life it's meaningless
we help people by example now may I
say this to elders you are an example
and what we must say is this if
they all followed me if they followed you
what kind of thing would they do now
when you come to your retirement don't pray
that God will give you an autumn because
in the autumn in my country the leaves
fall off the tree and it's all bare
when you get to the end of your
life pray for a spiritual springtime and this
what happened in my country people got to
a certain age they threw the sponge in
they went to the seaside and many of
them died don't do that be an example
right to the end and God will bless
you and remember this that people follow the
walk of a man far more than his
worth but then you have the bad example
notice what he says about them it's quite
awful really for many walk of whom I
have told you often and now tell you
even weeping that they are the enemies of
the cross of Christ whose end is destruction
whose God is their belly and whose glory
is their shame whose mind earthly things now
can you see this and this is very
important indeed he is talking about the coming
of the Lord Jesus he is talking about
these good examples and then he gives us
a description of the bad examples now why
just before the Lord Jesus comes iniquity is
going to abound and the love of many
shall wax cold so we must say if
we are living in the last seconds of
the last days I am either going forward
or I am going back now that's a
fact all of us should be saying that
as far as our local churches are concerned
it's revival or removal we are living in
the last times and then we must tell
ourselves there is going to be great deception
now I believe that these people were not
the Judaizers but they were the Gnostics who
mix philosophy with theology and they basically thought
that some of the things we called sin
were not sin and that we ought to
go in for the things of the world
and enjoy the world in other words they
were saying that the sin that we speak
of is not basically sin in fact it
was an encouragement to sin now my dear
friends we are beginning to see that today
we are beginning to see liberal ideas coming
among the assemblies we are beginning to see
people doubting inspiration verbal inspiration we are beginning
to see people who will spiritualize the miracles
but will not believe in the miracles we
are beginning to see people who don't believe
in preaching the blood and we are beginning
to see people now that tell us there
is a heaven but hell is an alienation
now all that is the deception of the
last days in other words these people didn't
lose life whose God is their belly can
you see it they were wanting to gain
life not losing life so you have two
examples you have a good example and a
bad example now could I speak to the
young people don't follow the bad examples they
will offer you the world and all the
gimmicks of the world but they will lead
you astray follow godly men and women and
God bless you then he goes on about
the explanation of his coming look at verse
21 who shall change our body that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body
now you will notice here it's the subjective
idea of the Lord's return and not the
objective now why in Thessalonians we have the
objective point of the Lord's coming and he
says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout what a moment we've seen
in our studies there in the early morning
to wonder that it's going to be a
resurrection shout it's going to be a gathering
shout and praise God all the labels will
fall off isn't that wonderful all fall off
even Marks and Spences and things like that
everything will fall off and then it's going
to be a great triumphant shout it will
be a shout of triumph when we shall
move right in the domain of the devil
now I believe this that when the Lord
Jesus said to Peter upon this rock I
will build my church and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it he was
speaking right in the presence of Satan and
when he completes his church he'll take it
right in the realm of the devil and
he will repeat it all over again the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it
and not one will be lost and Satan
and all his hosts will see the many
sided glory of the church of God and
then into God's presence we go now what
about the subjective idea well the subjective idea
is this the dead in Christ shall rise
first and who will raise them the Holy
Spirit and if the Lord Jesus Christ came
now he will change our body now note
this and we can almost close when the
Lord Jesus comes the same Holy Spirit that
has been forming Christ in you got it
year by year forming Christ bringing pressure upon
us to form Christ teaching us to crucify
that old nature called the flesh forming Christ
everything he brings upon us is to do
one thing to form Christ in us God
loves us so much that he wants us
to have the best prize ever and that's
why he brings all these pressures upon us
he wants us to be formed in Christ
now when the Holy Spirit hears the word
shout I think he will say Hallelujah in
fact I'm sure he will and the same
Holy Spirit that has been changing your personality
and transform it will immediately change your body
no evolution in that that's why you can't
be a theistic evolution when you believe that
because he is going to change even the
dead decompose dust if you like a more
scientific word they are atoms he will bring
them all together and with it he will
make a completely new body and then he
says by the working whereby he is able
to subdue all things unto himself now what
does that mean when the Lord Jesus comes
we shall have a glorified body and we
shall get a glorified state and we shall
be in a glorified sphere called the city
four square I wish we could talk about
it dear friends the city four square will
be a million times more beautiful than the
millennium the millennium will be wonderful but there
will be death millennium will be wonderful but
there will be drought sometimes if they do
not come up and worship oh yes it's
going to be a marvelous time but in
that city four square we know where the
church of God will be it will be
absolute perfection and some of us probably nearly
all of us will be able to come
and go according to the bidding of the
Lord we shall be able to come with
a body that can be seen and not
seen we shall have the power of levitation
it will be a glorious moment and we
shall see the millennium in the way in
which the people in the earth will never
see but really dear friends our final state
is the eternal state when there will be
a new heaven and a new earth and
everything that's out of gear with God the
Holy Spirit will subdue now do you see
the mighty power that's in you can you
grasp it this mighty power that's within you
so powerful that when the Lord comes this
body he will change immediately let's ask him
to so work on us that the beauty
of the Lord will be seen in each
one of us before he comes now the
exhortation now in the second chapter he wanted
us to be lights and that's what we
are to be lights in the world and
what kind of light it seems luminaries it
means stars now some stars burn out so
the astronomer tells me I think everyday about
2000 stars burn out but this is not
a star that burns out this is a
bright light that continues in a dark place
you know I was caught out terribly last
week but what a wonderful lesson I learnt
from it a brother was telling me a
story of a man that had a dream
that he went to heaven and he looked
upon the earth and it was so dark
he said to the angel why is it
so dark he said the coming of the
Lord is very near hmm and then he
said as he looked he saw beautiful light
so magnificent that it caused him to weep
he said what are those lights he said
they are the saints whose bodies are full
of Christ they are light he says when
I go back to earth would you give
me their name and addresses I would like
to write to them so he was given
their name and addresses and he wrote to
thousands of people who were lights and commended
them and then the brother said to me
you know what was in the letter don't
you I said no he said didn't you
receive one brother shook me now
have you got it beloved are we light
or let it be that we may be
a light for the Lord to all our
neighbours then he wants us to have life
now brothers I am so glad I am
not here just for teaching you know you
can teach and teach and teach and teach
and you will understand when I say this
it makes that much impact on the faith
I have seen it where we are we
have Saturday lectures all over the shire but
there are divisions there is coldness there is
unhappiness you see it just rolls off us
but when you preach the gospel what a
difference you know one night there at Toowoomba
we have been seeing a man coming every
night and I will never repeat this again
because I don't believe the Lord wants us
to talk about the blessing and here is
an assistant headmaster in a senior school and
first of all he was a little critical
then you could see conviction coming upon him
as he was coming every night and then
last Saturday I was speaking on the subject
what does it mean to believe we got
to the point where I said it's a
matter of stepping out in complete faith and
abandonment and trust Christ and then I said
don't wait to the end if God has
spoken to you switch off from me and
trust him now and I saw him do
it down went his head I could see
his lips moving and I saw something else
that I am not going to mention but
his eyes were very misty then I saw
his head coming up and he was full
of joy and on Thursday night as he
was going out he said this Mr. Brennan
I want to say that Jesus Christ is
my Saviour and Lord I said but when
Kevin he said Saturday night I said I
saw it happen now beloved we are going
to have some gospel meetings let's all join
in let's not be shall I say sectarian
all concerned about our own little group let's
join in let's bring the unsaved so that
before the Lord we can see life coming
to precious souls wouldn't it be lovely to
see in this building night after night souls
born again you see the coming of the
Lord is near these are the last seconds
and let's throw everything in it and then
lastly let's be looking for his coming now
what does this mean look it's the idea
so the scholars tell me and with this
I will close of waiting for a friend
and he is late you know what it
is when you cook a lovely dinner and
they are late and you are walking backwards
and forwards waiting for them and then you
are saying to the children clear up the
mess put that away keep the place tidy
they may be here any moment yes that
happens then all of a sudden the man
says I think they are lost and he
goes out and this would only apply to
an Easterner and he stands on his toes
he is on a little hill and he
stretches his neck and he is looking to
see if he is coming in the distance
now that's the meaning of the word get
on your toes stretch your neck be like
a giraffe and look for his coming beloved
are we doing that are we standing on
our toes looking for his coming one of
the stories I love is concerning old Shackleton
the explorer and he wanted to reach the
North Pole and he got there his men
came ashore with all the stuff and they
had forgotten implements that were absolutely essential so
he did something that was very risky he
says I am going back and I shall
be here in five days time but the
ice was closing in on them and unfortunately
the fifth day came and everything was frozen
there was Shackleton so near and yet there
was this ice pack Shackleton was a believer
in God and he prayed that there might
be good weather and an unusual thing happened
a Thor came but it only came within
an hour and he went in with his
boat and they were all ready quick he
says get on we have only got twenty
minutes and they were out and just as
they were getting out they could see the
ice closing on them and he said to
one man who was a sergeant and said
how is it you were all ready he
said the lieutenant told us everyday pack up
your sleeping bag boys he may be here
and everyday he said pack up your sleeping
bag boys he may be here brethren got
it pack up your sleeping bag he may
be here to die Amen