being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead ( Philippians 3:10-11 ). It is the same in Greek thought; the dog stands for everything that is shamelessly unclean. After being here near three weeks, one morning about three o'clock Mr. Wesley turned over, and, finding me awake, clapped me on the side, saying: 'Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer: I have one whole side yet, for the skin is off but on one side!'" But she went down to the dime store and picked out the best that she could afford, bought a simplicity pattern. But whatever might be their own proper joy, whatever might be their delight in that which God works in the church, they had full and simple-hearted fellowship with His good news. It can be a very dangerous thing.On the other hand, I can recognize that I have a problem with sin, with myself, with my flesh. For we can all understand joy in believing; we can readily feel how natural is joy to the Christian who dwells on his eternal portion. It is not our laying hold of Christ first, but his laying hold of us, which is our happiness and salvation. Abraham and those saints of the Old Testament, the scripture said, confessed that they were just strangers and pilgrims on this earth, that they were looking for the city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God. there is no small tendency whenever people know the gospel well, if this be all, to settle down, thinking they have nothing more to do with the matter. And one day when I am sitting, looking up in Jesus' face, just overwhelmed by His glory and love, I will turn to the fellow next to me, and I will say, "I finally have apprehended that for which I was apprehended. He will reach it only on the day when Christ returns and raises the righteous from death. ", And now there is the most lovely picture of Christ again; for it is always Christ here, and this again practically. However there is no other Scripture that teaches a difference in the resurrection of faithful and unfaithful believers. They were looking for the eternal kingdom of God. "I want to hang on to the flesh. But his spirit was as bright as ever, his joy perfectly fresh, deep, and flowing. No wonder Paul opted for the new righteousness, though he had done pretty good up until this point. Father, I would that those who You have given to me, to be with me here, would also share with me in the Kingdom. Therefore, do what you like with it; since it is evil anyhow it makes no difference what you do with it. And they were kind to her, they said, "Oh, that is nice," but they did notice the imperfections in it. He is just about to send Timothy from himself that he might know about them. But now the apostle was shut out from every labour apparently. Hence he says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Though he wist not to choose what between the two before, when the need of souls rises before him, he says that he shall live, and is not yet going to die. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, [and] let us mind the same thing ( Philippians 3:15-16 ). And, accordingly, why should one be a prey to care, if this be really so? Yet they were the witnesses of Christ whom God had put forth at the close; for it was manifestly of Him. He has regarded his life on earth, particularly his former life as a Pharisee, as garbage compared to the life he now attains to, the life of knowing Christ. The lad was condemned to death for his misdeeds; and the father's letter goes on: "His peace increased daily, till on Saturday, the day he was to die, he came out of the condemned-room, clothed in his shroud, and went into the cart. When, under Rehoboam, the kingdom had been split up, ten of the tribes went off with Jeroboam and Benjamin was the only tribe which remained faithful with Judah ( 1 Kings 12:21). Such is the sense of it here. Thus the difference between reconciliation and subjection is manifest. And so they go back to the past, and they pick up the failures of the past, and they are discouraged to try anything in the future. It was the natural cry of man, "Spare yourself from suffering." To me," may each say truly, "to live is Christ.". It is by faith in his blood,Romans 3:25. It is not a question of acceptance in Christ. It was not a decision made in a moment of impulse, but one by which I still stand fast.". Did he want more for himself? 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We do not speak of standing in Christ now, but of their allotted services. That which is holy must never be given to dogs ( Matthew 7:6). Because I may blow my horn and shake my fist, but the Spirit will say, "Hey, don't you remember you have got a fish emblem on the back of your car? Now, Paul said in his Roman epistle, "I know in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing." You see, past experience is only valid if it is translated into the present. In this passage the key-word is righteousness. It is not that you have failed, perhaps, or broken down in some particular. In every town and in every city and in every country there were Jews. But there he was soon to experience the faltering of brethren; there he was to see not one standing by him in the hour of his shame and need. Now we all know that when a man is carried on the top of the wave, when the winds fill the sails and all goes prosperously, when hearts are gladdened in sorrow, when one witnesses the joy of fresh deliverance from day to day, it is a comparatively easy thing. But this is not the character of Christian joy. They really mind the earthly things. And now she was in her senior year. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, part of the torture of Lazarus is that the street dogs annoy him by licking his sores ( Luke 16:21). The Lord Jesus not only comes down into the place of servant in love among men, but goes down into the last fortress of the enemy's power. He is encouraged to keep moving towards this goal by his knowledge that final victory over sin, suffering and death is certain (10-11).Paul knows that he will not reach perfection in this life. All here below was plunged under the sentence of death through Adam's sin; and God's word could but seal it till redemption. At any rate, such is the picture that the Holy Spirit gives of him there. He stresses the fact that he had been born into the Jewish faith and had known its privileges and observed its ceremonies since his birth. Paul has just attacked the Jewish teachers and insisted that it is the Christians, not the Jews, who are the truly circumcised and covenant people. It was in the body that Christ rose and it is this body which he sanctifies ( 1 Corinthians 6:13 ff.). He was so loyal a Jew that he had never lost the Hebrew speech; he was not only a religious Jew, he was a member of their strictest and the most self-disciplined sect; he had had in his heart a burning zeal for what he had thought was the cause of God; and he had a record in Judaism in which no man could mark a fault. Pauls yearning is for complete oneness with Christ. I like the power, but I don't like the suffering. a. We do not tire of the foods which are the essentials of life. And why should our Lord adopt a correct form to the Sadducees (Luke 20:1-47 repeated inActs 4:1-37; Acts 4:1-37), and Paul an incorrect one to the Philippians? "The prize" is "the crown of It was not that he wanted more. He says that they had happened rather for the furtherance of the gospel, "so that my bonds in Christ are manifest;" for this is the way in which he looks at it "my bonds in Christ." So what Paul says is, "If you have nothing to show but circumcision of the flesh, you are not really circumcised--you are only mutilated. Bengel hesitated; but Dr. Wells in this, as in many other instances, showed his sound judgment and quiet courage in rejecting the common text, and adopting that which has by far the best authorities. For there are many who behave in such a way--I have often spoken to you about them, and I do so now with tears--that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ. Of course, the enemy would have desired above all and at any cost to lower such an one as the apostle Paul in the loving esteem of God's saints, more particularly where all had been sweet and happy; but, notwithstanding every effort, grace hitherto had prevailed, and these saints at Philippi felt the more for the apostle when he was a prisoner. Click on the different category headings to find out more. What he means is: "Anyone who has come to be mature in the faith and knows what Christianity is must recognize the discipline and the effort and the agony of the Christian life." NIV I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. That was a common name by which the Jews referred to the Gentiles: the gentile dogs. "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ." Even he who knew them well marvelled that they were so soon shifting, not only from him, but from the gospel, after he left them. Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (2.) ( Psalms 69:9). Timothy shared the unselfishness of the apostle's heart. The apostle had his heart upon Christ as his righteousness. And at this point we also say, "Ya, ya, power, I want power. Jesus had to empty Himself to become a servant. The effect of their teaching was to take men further away from God instead of to bring them nearer to him. All who believe shall surely shine in His glory; and the universal creation, which, belonging to Him as His inheritance, He will share with His own, shall be reconciled and delivered in due time. (iii) It means to be so united with Christ that day by day we come more to share in his death, so that finally we share in his Resurrection. Nothing less would be in keeping with such a high position. Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself." No saints are outside the danger. i. Jesus was not merely resuscitated from the dead in the same body. By all means let them be made known unto God. i. I tried to find it by strict adherence to the Jewish Law; but I found the Law and all its ways worse than useless to achieve that end. "Hey, I tried it before. WHAT IT MEANS TO KNOW CHRIST ( Php_3:10-11 ). You know, oftentimes it is extremely difficult to rejoice in circumstances. It is our progress then that we are to forget. Their allotted services in keeping with such a high position was shut out from labour. A decision made in a moment of impulse, but his spirit was as bright ever. 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