musicians to stay just for a moment at the organ and the piano. Let me take just a moment to share with you something further about Don Yema, our Dominican mother. She's now, of course, in the story, well on in years. And even the little I've shared with you, you probably would think she has suffered enough for a whole lifetime. And during all of those years of trials, She maintains her confidence in God and was a blessing to her family, her extended family, and to many others. And yet in her life, sorrow was not over. She had a granddaughter, and the parents worked in a hotel, and they lived in the hotel, and it wasn't a suitable place to bring up a young child. So Don Yema took the grandchild into her home. and she brought her up as a daughter. She was married and had a lovely husband, and they were set for a life together of service for God and of Christian fellowship, following in the footsteps of Don Yama. And this young woman, at twenty-seven years of age, died suddenly and brought further sorrow into the heart of this woman. I sometimes thought of Don Yama and wondered just how much more she could stand. She was now well on in years and eventually she lost one of her legs. It was amputated because of pure circulation. So now she was confined to her home, unable to go to the church for the meetings which she loved so much. And the truth is that her bedroom became a sanctuary. where men and women met to pray with her. On one occasion, a lady who had heard the Gospel years before by a lady who lived with you here at Park of the Palms, Miss Marion Iverson, but this lady had never made a decision all the years that Marion went into her home with the Gospel. One day she came into Don Yema's home and into the room, and some of the friends who were gathered were reading different promises from God in the Bible. They were encouraging each other in the Lord, in spite of afflictions and problems. And as this woman stood and listened, the Spirit of God touched her heart, and she went over and knelt down by the bed, and that day committed her life to the Lord Jesus. Some people thought of that bedroom as a little home church where people came and listened to the Word of God, some were converted and many were blessed. But even in those days we would go and sit with her. There was never a complaint. She always spoke with great joy about the things of God. And every time she thought that she was the object of the love of God and of the grace of God, the tears would come to her eyes. We sometimes would dwell on those subjects. She would talk with great energy about other things, but when she thought again that I am the object of God's love, that Jesus loved me and died for my sins, she was always deeply moved. I don't think in my lifetime I have seen any other person go through such deep waters of affliction, of disappointment, of frustration, and yet at the same time go on singing the praises of God, and to find herself in a state of wonder that God loved her. The disappointments, the sufferings, never clouded over the great message of God's love to her individually, to her family, and to mankind in general. I have one more evening with you. I want to take you tomorrow into the last week of Don Yama's life and share with you some precious thoughts about this woman just before she entered into the presence of God. Now take your hymn book again, hymn number four hundred and ninety-nine, and we'll sing the third verse just before the message, singing, if my way is clear, praying if the path be drear, if in danger for him called, trusting Jesus, that is all. Third verse, uh, four hundred and ninety-nine. Saying, if my way is clear, pray, if the haughty clear, if in danger for him called. Trusting Jesus as his own. Trusting that the moment's life. Trusting that the day, O Lord. Trusting him whatever we call. God may make us stand his own. I'm not exactly sure just where Paul preached in the city of Philippi. He may have had different points where he would go and share the good news of salvation. But one thing we know from Luke the historian, he walked the streets of Philippi. And as he did that, there was a slave girl, possessed of an evil spirit, who said one day as he passed by with his companions, These are the servants of the Most High God, and they are proclaiming the way of salvation. Paul heard her. He passed on with his friends. But Luke says it happened many days. And Paul was annoyed. He knew where these words came from, not from the young woman, but from the spirit that dwelt in her. And so one day he stopped right in the middle of the street, and he looked at that young woman, and he commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus that the evil spirit come out of her. I would like to have been there. There must have been a radical change in that girl. Almost instantaneously. I don't know if her feature softened. I don't know if the tone of her voice was different. One thing we know, her owners immediately realized we've lost our source of income. And the result was a great outbreaking of protests against Paul and his companions. They dragged these men to the authorities and the marketplace. And the crowd gathered round, and they shouted against Paul and his companions, the authorities didn't know what to do. So they took the men, and they went to the magistrates. By that time, the crowd is larger. And there's such a great, great cry against these men that the magistrates tore their clothes, the sign of frustration and indignation. And they simply commanded, take them and beat them with rods. And Luke says they laid many stripes on them. That is, they did it with a vengeance. And then they were taken into the jail. And as you know, not into the ordinary part of the jail, which wouldn't be a very nice part, but they were taken into the inner dungeon. You don't even want to think about it. And there their feet were put in the stalks. And those men in the darkness sat in that uncomfortable position. I've drawn the picture because we're talking about a man who not many years before, about thirty years before, was right up at the very top of the religious and social levels of his nation. In Jerusalem all eyes were on Paul. The world was before him. And now you look at him in Philippi and you wonder how in all the world a man from such a pinnacle of glory would descend voluntarily into a position of suffering and shame in prison in a dungeon. Well, Paul tells us all about it in Philippians chapter three. We've been talking about it during this week, and tonight Paul's going to tell us once more. He's going to emphasize, he's going to draw some word pictures, and he wants us to understand what it was that drew him away from human glory and gave him the courage to suffer Even with a song, there was a reason. And this reason is mentioned three times, beginning in Philippians chapter eight, pardon me, chapter three, and the end of verse eight. Philippians chapter three, and the last few words of verse eight. Paul says, that I may gain Christ. Now he said in verse seven, for Christ, He said at the beginning of verse eight, for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, now he's going to take us deeper into this wonder. And he begins with these beautiful words that I may gain Christ. There's something about the verb to gain, which comes from the noun gains in verse seven. Again, we're back in the world of accountancy, of bookkeepers, of assets and liabilities, gain and loss. And now with that background, Paul talks about gaining Christ, and there's something about it that's a little troublesome. It has sort of a materialistic ring to it. You make investments to gain. You have a good house and you sell it for the profit. Now we're talking about gaining Christ, and it doesn't sound like a very spiritual thing. But I think we have to remember, first of all, that there's a very deep spiritual truth in this. Let me ask you tonight, how do you gain friendships? Let's imagine you came to the park three weeks ago. and you parked your trailer down in that parking lot, and as you were getting settled in, you met another gentleman, never met him before in your life, came from an entirely different part of the country, and you shook hands and exchanged a few words, but there was something there that drew your attention, and so the following day you saw him again, and you spent more time talking with him. And then one day you decided to go for a walk around the park and you shared and you listened. And this went on for a few days and all of a sudden you realized I've gained a new friend. I didn't even know him two weeks ago. I've met him. I've spent time with him. I've shared some of my thoughts with him. I've listened to him. I have a new friend. Now Paul talks about gaining Christ. It is very similar to the thought that I've shared with you. You gain Christ as you spend time in his presence, as you listen to him. We talk about the Bible as the Word of God. In Colossians three, Paul says, the Word of Christ. Let it dwell richly in you. This is the Word of our Savior, and as we read it, He shares with us His thoughts. And in the privacy and the intimacy of prayer, we share with Him our thoughts. And as days go by in months and years, we come to the place where we know we have no greater friend than the Lord Jesus. In that very spiritual way, we have gained his friendship, his companionship, his presence in our lives. You can go even farther in this very verse. Because as we saw last night, Paul uses that tender, beautiful phrase, the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. You gain him. when you submit to Him as Lord, and you live your life in union with Him. There are so many different ways in which we can say we are gaining more and more of Christ. But Paul has been a Christian for thirty years or more. And when he writes these words, there is a future element in the phrase, The phrase points to the future that I may gain him. And we would like to say to Paul, but have you not yet gained him? Of course, the answer is yes and no. Outside of Damascus, when he made that commitment to the Lord Jesus, a commitment that would govern all of his life, that very moment he gained Christ, Christ was on his side. Christ would never leave him. He would guide him and bless him and use him in a truly spectacular way in the world of two thousand years ago. He gained Christ that day. But Paul also knew he had not fully gained Christ. If you read carefully the New Testament, you'll find a phrase like this, that the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And Paul is talking about the wisdom and the knowledge of God. These treasures are hid in Christ. A lifetime is insufficient time even to begin to gain and understand the wonders and the glories of the Lord Jesus. So yes, Paul had gained Christ. but he knew in a coming day he would gain him fully. He presses on that I may gain him. Having emphasized then the spiritual sense of the phrase, there is another sense. The day you met the Lord Jesus and you committed your life to him, you probably didn't know. You maybe didn't know for many years. Possibly someone is here tonight who still doesn't know that that moment that you received Christ, you became unbelievably wealthy. There are a number of verses in the Bible, and I come to you from the third world, from a little country, I know by observation what real poverty is. I have been in Haiti just a very few times. I haven't been there more because I don't speak French, nor do I have any understanding of their dialect, the Creole. Just to go and look at it would break your heart. But there are godly Haitian men and women who know the Lord Jesus, and to talk about the fact that you become unbelievably wealthy. Someone could turn around and say to you, you must be kidding. I don't know where my next meal is coming from. Then we have these people, especially in North America, speaking on your television channels, and the message seems to be, believe in Jesus, and then you'll be healthy for the rest of your life, and you will prosper. And most of us know by experience that is not true. Some of the most godly people I have known, beginning with Don Yema and many others, have known very little of wealth in this world. They've known a great deal of suffering. But the message of the Bible is when you committed yourself to Christ, you were benefited personally by that tie with the Lord Jesus. Let me take you to two verses. They're very well known, first of all, in Ephesians chapter one and verse three. I'll read it to you. Ephesians chapter one and verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now you can't get around that word every. I marvel at that verse. I've read it for years as you have. You may have a son, and the son is growing up, and you want to help him in business, and you just wonder how he's going to do so. you have some resources you wouldn't for a moment give them all to him but you'll give him something so he can begin and you're going to watch him and if he moves along and prosperous well you might help him a little more god did not sit in heaven looking down on this world and thinking of those who would make a pledge of allegiance to the lord jesus and say Well, I will bless them with some blessings, and I'll wait and see what happens. But He opened His heart, and He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. That's the real, eternal world in Christ. I have a sense from the reading of that verse, God did not hold anything back. He has no additional blessing hidden away in some corner that He'll bring out someday and shower upon you already in Christ. He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Think of Romans chapter eight. That's where the other verse is. And it's also a well-known verse. I will read it to you. Paul says in Romans eight and verse thirty two, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? It boggles the imagination. It is in this context of Romans eight. where Paul speaks about the whole creation, groaning and waiting for the day of liberation, the day of the glorification of the sons of God. In that context, Paul says of the children of God, they are heirs of God. They are joint heirs with Christ. He's already written in Colossians. that the whole creation was brought into being for one basic reason, for Him. In Hebrews, He is the heir of all things. And one day you met Him, and you put your trust and confidence in the Lord Jesus. You didn't know anything about it then, but because you committed yourself to Him, You are now within Christ and what belongs to Him by right. In grace He's going to share with you forever and ever. And in Christ, God has freely given you all things. And not the difference between Ephesians and Romans. In Ephesians, every spiritual blessing in Romans, the whole universe is involved. And the word spiritual is missing. He will surely and freely shower on you in Christ all things. Paul talks about it in different ways. We pass on tonight, but to gain Christ is a tremendous benefit for the individual who loves him and commits his life to him. Then Paul goes on and in the next phrase, Ephesians, pardon me, Philippians chapter three and now verse nine, he gives us another insight what made him leave the world and its glory and commit himself wholeheartedly to the Lord Jesus. For verse nine says, and be found in him in Christ. The verb is used in the sense of to be found surprised by death. And I think Paul is thinking about that moment. That's the moment that lies before all of us seated here tonight, unless the Lord Jesus returns prior to that moment. Paul is thinking about that. After all, he's in jail. He knows he doesn't have many days, months, maybe a year or two, but he knows the time is close. And he thinks about that. He wonders when the moment will come. Will it be a surprise, unexpected, or will he know ahead of time? Our daughter was married, our oldest daughter, in the Dominican Republic in nineteen seventy-five. Her husband to be came from Victoria, Canada with his parents. We had a lovely bilingual wedding ceremony in Santo Domingo. And then away they went to the northern coast for their honeymoon. They came back a week later. They arrived in the morning and we sat around the table for lunch. It was a happy occasion and the phone rang. I was called to the phone and it was my brother phoning from Canada. Our father, just an hour before, had died, surprised by death. I know he was almost eighty-five, but he was sound in mind. As far as I knew, he was sound in body. He got up one morning and dressed as usual, went into the kitchen, and my mother said, What would you like for breakfast today? And he told her, And then he went back into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed to put on his tie, and he was gone, absent from the body, present with the Lord, surprised by death. Paul's thinking about that. Paul wonders at that moment when life is over and you pass beyond this scene, He has an absolute total horror of being found in His own righteousness. That righteousness which He created and which was His glory prior to meeting Christ. Paul really believed, when I enter heaven, the doors will be open and God will give me a royal welcome because look what I have done, what I have become. And then he saw the righteousness of God on the face of Jesus Christ, the glory of God. And as we mentioned a couple of nights ago, that was the moment when he looked behind quickly at his own righteousness and realized it was nothing but filth. He has a whore now of even thinking of entering into the presence of God. dressed in his own righteousness. Let's imagine you've got a grandson up in Minneapolis and his name is Johnny. You know he's engaged to be married. You think the wedding is planned for the fall, but you get a telephone call at the park and the news from Johnny is we put up the date and we're going to get married at the beginning of April. and he's your favorite grandson and you love him. And I'm sure the lady here who gets the message takes her husband to the mall in Gainesville or to the mall in Orange Park and to all the, you've got to get a special dress for the occasion. This is Johnny's wedding. And even we men who don't think that much about it on certain occasions, we look for a new suit. We dress for special occasions. If there's a friend with us tonight, have you ever thought of the moment when you leave all you know here and alone, you must stand in the presence of God. What dress, what suit will you put on on that occasion? Paul knows what he's going to put on. He talks about the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. When you're destitute, you're almost willing to receive anything. Paul is destitute, but it's not anything. It's the righteousness of God which is offered to human beings who turn to Christ. It is freely given, not some inferior righteousness, but the righteousness that springs right out of the character of God. He offers it to us. All He asks from us is one great yes. That's faith. When you respond affirmatively to God and you find yourself clothed in the righteousness of God. And Paul thinks of that moment. Now he knows, I'm going to enter into heaven like I'm going right into my own home. I'm going to have the right dress, the right appearance, the right glory as I move into the presence of God forever. There's no doubt here, but again the phrase points to the future, that I may be found in Him, thinking of that moment. But wasn't Paul already in Christ? Paul uses that term more than any other New Testament writer. in Christ in Christ in union with Christ the day outside of Damascus when he made that commitment to the Lord Jesus he was immediately placed within Christ but Paul knows there is a coming day when in a full and beautiful way not possible yet in this world we will be found completely in him no memory of sins, of those shadows, of those failures, of those things that we wish had never happened, but you'll stand there in Christ. In the righteousness of God, you enter into His presence forever. And then Paul takes us in his last thought to the ultimate goal of his life. It was for this reason, perhaps above all other reasons, that he turned his back on the glory of the world. And he tells us about it in verse ten, at the very opening of the verse, that I may know him. You ask Paul the question, Paul, but you know Christ. Paul knew him in a very special way. At the same time, he knows he does not perfectly know him. In the three phrases, you have the tension between that which is already attained and that which still lies ahead. He had gained Christ, but not fully gained Christ. He was in Christ, but not completely in Christ. And he knew Christ, but he did not know him perfectly. That happens in our relationships. Some of you have been married as long or longer than I have, and you really think that after fifty years, I knew Grace five years before we were married. This year we'll be married forty-five years. You would think that after fifty years you really know this person. And yet my wife, I don't think she's unique. She can startle me any day of the week. with some comment, some idea that I had never imagined would come to her mind. I was at conference last year at Greenwood Hills speaking each day at the conference, and there was a couple there from Russia serving God in St. Petersburg. And one day over the table, they were on the other side. We were on this side. The man leaned over. He said, Jim, couldn't you give us just six months in Russia? I'm a little bit slow sometimes in my thinking processes and I thought, I speak English, I speak Spanish. Imagine trying to teach in a language and you don't know one word of the language. So I'm about to make a little excuse, but before it got up, my wife says, we'll be glad to go. It was that same year that we met a colleague who's serving God in Hong Kong. In London, Ontario, we met him after a meeting. We've known him for years and we chatted together and he said to me, Jim, you ought to think of a trip across the Pacific to Hong Kong. We'd love to see you there. And I'm thinking the King Chinese is even worse than Russia for those of us who don't speak these languages. Before I got a word out, Grace, we'd be delighted to go. And we really think sometimes we know, but we are knowing. We are knowing more and more. of the person we love and those that surround us. Paul knows that he does not fully, perfectly know the Lord Jesus. He's not talking about academic, intellectual knowing. He's talking about actually knowing a person, walking in fellowship with that person, talking to that person. And he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Now, the little conjunction and usually joins together two thoughts. You can think of it like this, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Like we're dealing with two different concepts, but that's not the meaning behind this phrase and the original language. That second phrase flows out of the word, Him, that I may know Him. How? In the power of His resurrection. I'm reading a book that I picked up here in Florida. I've been looking for it. It's called The Creators. It's written by Daniel Burskin. It's a very interesting book. He also wrote the book, The Discoverers. This book, he deals with all the great personalities and histories who created concepts and ideas that have influenced millions. He talks about Confucius. He talks about Buddha. They were contemporaries. They didn't know each other. One in India, one in China. Confucius was the man who spent his whole life trying to take corruption out of the ruling circles. He never had many followers, and he died very frustrated. But his thoughts have come down, and they molded two thousand years of Chinese culture. His beautiful thoughts, and China, Chinamen, women from China today, they can quote those words, but no one can say, I know Confucius. And Buddha, who has touched millions of people through his religious concepts, no one can say, I know him. But the Christian is not dealing with a personality that lived two thousand years ago, so that you say, I remember and I know about. I have heard about this person. Paul says, no. I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection as a living reality in my life today. As one who is with me, leads me, guides me, instructs me. I want to know Him in that sense in my life right now. And then He adds to that another thought and the fellowship of His sufferings. And many friends take that in the physical sense. Paul at the end of his life, he knows he's going to be a martyr. And some are sure that's what he's talking about. Well, Paul certainly suffered in the cause of Christ. Can you imagine, you don't even want to think about it, when in Lister they took him out of the city and they stoned him. Now, if you're going to stone somebody to death, God forbid, you aim at the head to kill that person. When they thought they had succeeded, they dragged the body further out and they left it and they went back into the city. But Paul stood up and he went back and he joined the Christians. But you can imagine what his head was like. You can think of his back. You can think of the reason why he said, I carry the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body. He suffered physically for the cause of Christ. I respectfully suggest to you that is not the thought in this phrase. If you understand the phrase in the power of His resurrection in a spiritual sense, you must understand that following phrase in the same way. Both phrases are governed by one article. You can't take one spiritual and one physical. If you know the risen Christ the day, if you walk in fellowship with him if you had your quiet time and you talked with him this morning and you heard his voice as he talked to you in his word it is the resurrected Christ as a Christian you must face up to the meaning of his death and that's where the fellowship of his sufferings comes in because it is there that you ponder and understand the significance of that event. It is not enough to say, Christ died for my sins. That is gloriously true, but there is much more involved. When Jesus went to the cross, as far as God was concerned, the whole human race came to its end when Jesus died. He stood in our place, and He bore our judgment, and He died. And if that is not true, then He died in vain. If there's anything we can do to improve our situation, then why did He die? He died because there was no hope. There was no possibility of reform. Nothing could be done with our human situation, and in Christ it comes to an end. And he was buried. And then three days later he rose from the dead, and his resurrection is the inauguration of a new creation. In his death, one creation comes to an end. In the eyes of God, in his resurrection there is a new creation. Paul talks about it when he says, if anyone be in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things, what old things? The things that belong to this present order in which we still find ourselves, these old things are now past. All things, what all things? The all things of the new creation, all things have become new. You see, We have died with Christ. We have been buried with Christ. We have been made alive with Christ. In God's mind, we are right now already glorified in Christ. We are identified with His death. And the Christian who walks in the fellowship of the risen Christ must go back and wrestle with the meaning of His death. What I was, what governed my life has come to an end in the death of the Lord Jesus. What I am now belongs to a different creation. And then Paul makes the application in the last phrase of that verse, verse ten, being conformed to his death. Now, some of these phrases are technical, a little difficult to understand. What does it mean to be conformed to his death? Here is an illustration. Many years ago when our two girls were very young and our son had not yet been born, we were leaving the Dominican Republic for a visit to Vancouver, Canada. Now that is a long trip. It is a costly trip. And Grace and I had made all of our plans. Every penny was counted. The day came to go down and to make the reservation and to buy the tickets. And I went into the airline's office, and the man who attended me took the information. And then he said to me, sir, how old is your oldest girl? Oh, I said, she's now four years of age. She turned four about a month ago. He jotted that down. Then he said, and how old is the youngest one? I said, she just turned two last week. Now, in those days, children under two, they traveled free. And so he looked me in the eye, I said, we'll just say that she's not two years old yet. That was the real temptation when you were counting every penny. But I looked at that man and I thought, how would I ever speak to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ? How would I ever share with him the beautiful characteristics of the new creation, honesty, sincerity, integrity, if for a few dollars I'm willing to live a lie. To be conformed to his death, means that you no longer live under the principles that belong to the old world. You live under the principles of the new creation. And Paul is talking about that. He's not just kind of waiting till the end of his life. He's still pressing on the subject of tomorrow night. And he says that I may know him in the power of his resurrection. understand the meaning of His death and enter into the fellowship of that. And in every decision that I make, in every act of my life, be conformed to His death, live in the light of the new creation. You'll have to make a decision tomorrow. The next day could be in finance, might be about your family, could be a question of health. Every time you make a decision, you have two possibilities. You can act like a man of the world, or you can act like a man who belongs to the new creation. And in that sense, Paul wanted to grow in the knowledge, in that personal knowing of the Lord Jesus. As we take our hymn book now to conclude our service, we're going to sing hymn number eighty-seven. But as we look for the hymn, Let me ask you tonight as we summarize these thoughts, how much of this passion, of this joy, of this enthusiasm is in your life and is in my life today? Is this the passion of our lives to gain Christ, to be found in Him, to know Him more and more? Listen to the words of the hymn, eighty-seven. Jesus, the very thought of thee, with sweetness fills my breast, but better far thy face to see, and in thy presence rest. We're going to stand and sing the last three verses of hymn number, eighty-seven. Shall we stand? Verse three, O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all that be, to those who fall on Christ, Lord, how good you love to be. But what you love will find on it, Lord, on your faith, and Thank you, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, And 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.