You can make sure there's folks by both doors or at the end to give latecomers a sheet. I appreciate that. Philippians chapter three. Tonight, we're going to look again at more alleged discrepancies. But this time, not just from the Bible, but from one chapter in the Bible, we're going to share with you six from one chapter. I tell you, the Bible is full of them. Just six on one page. And the truth is, we could give you a few more from this chapter, but it's probably all the time we'll have to deal with it. Six from this one chapter, Philippians 3. So I want you to open your Bible and have it left open there. Does anyone here attend the Drake University InterVarsity Bible Study? Anybody at all? Okay, I'm going to be speaking over there tomorrow night and I'm going to share with you what I'm going to give to them. I'm glad there's no one here from that group because you'd be hearing it twice. Folks, all of us in this room would agree that the Bible is a great book. There's just no other book like it. Someone gave me an article out of The Wall Street Journal. Said 90 percent of Americans own at least one Bible. All of us in this room own a Bible. Nine out of 10 own a Bible in America, but only 10 percent of Americans daily crack it open to read it. You follow me? Nine out of 10 own one. Only one out of 10. Whoops. One out of 10. Only 1 out of 10 daily, on a regular basis, read it. And by the way, for people under the age of 25, it drops to only 1 out of 30. 3%, not 10%. Boy, that tells us something, doesn't it? In other words, those that are reading the Bible are your older people. Twenty five and under just are not reading their Bible. They're just they may own it. But they are not reading it. And so what happens, the Bible gathers dust. And because we're not nourished with the word of God, we're weakened, Christians are weakened, there's no way you're going to be going to be strong in the faith. Apart from God's word, it's impossible, it will not happen, are you listening in your believers? If you want to become a strong Christian, there's no shortcuts. There's no way to do it apart from God's Word. If you're relying upon what you get from church on Wednesdays and Sundays to see you grow in the Lord, it's not going to be enough. I can tell you right now, it's not going to do the trick. You've got to be in the Bible. And you need to be every day for yourselves. It's imperative. Biblically, we're a generation of illiterate people. We just don't know the Bible. The truth and proof. The questions I just asked a few moments ago. The truth, and I don't say this to embarrass anyone or to shame anyone. Some of you haven't been saved three weeks. You're not expected to know what others would know that have been saved for decades. But if you are one of these who have been saved for years, the questions I just asked you, I would guarantee you almost any child that's raised in church by the time they're seven, eight, nine years of age could answer those questions. I would guarantee it if they're in church on a weekly basis. I'm talking about a first grader. And so if you struggled with those questions. That right there is living proof of what I'm saying, we're just. We don't know Bible facts, much less Bible principles. That were to that were to base our life upon, say. Biblically, we're illiterate. George Gallup found that the majority of people in America believe the Bible is God's word. I would agree with that. I would say most people I witness to, you know, 60 percent, 50, 60 percent of those I witness to when I ask them, do you believe the Bible is the word of God? They'll say yes. But even though we believe the Bible is the word of God, the majority of us, we don't know the Bible. Gallup went on to say that only half of us that believe the Bible is the word of God can name the four gospels. I mean, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In other words, out of these folks that believe the Bible is the Word of God, only half of them can even name the first four books of the New Testament. And less than half of them can tell you who preached the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus Christ. Somebody said America is one generation away from atheism. What do you think about that? Isn't that true? Just one generation removed from atheism. Biblically, we're illiterate, we don't we don't know the Bible. Why don't we spend time with the Bible? Many reasons. For some of us, the problem is discipline. We can't we can't get up in the morning a little earlier. And by the time night time comes, we can't turn off the TV. It's always tomorrow. For many Christians, discipline is a problem. We just don't discipline ourselves. See, we take the time to eat. We take the time to work. We take the time to do what we've got to do. We don't have to read the Bible. So we don't. We'll do it tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes, does it? For many of us, the problem is discipline. For some of us, the problem is desire. We just don't desire to read it. I mean, if there's a Bible there in a magazine, we're going to pick the magazine every time. Spiritually, we've not grown to a point to where that desire is there. Some of us are intimidated by the Bible. I read the other day there's some 800,000 words in the Bible. Now, I didn't count them. I don't know if that's the case, all right? But sometimes we look at that big Bible and, boy, it just kind of scares us. We're intimidated by it. Some people don't read it because they don't understand it overwhelmingly here in Des Moines, overwhelmingly. And you put it in capital letters. People that I've led to the Lord tell me that they just don't understand it. And that's one reason I oftentimes recommend that they use a well-translated, newer version. In English, it's not several hundred years old. I prefer what I use. Someone just accepting Christ. They haven't been taught. They didn't grow up with it, say. Some just don't understand it. They read these words and they think, what in the world? I've never heard that word in my life. Many people, I think, don't spend time with the Bible, though, because they've lost confidence in the Bible. They've been told by so many people, they've had it reinforced that the Bible is not a reliable book, that it's only written by man, that it's full of contradictions. They've heard that so much. And as they have read it, they've had so many questions pop up in their mind that they can't get an answer to. That they've come to lose confidence in the Bible, they don't see it as being reliable. And so why spend my time with it? See, when I don't agree with that, with that conclusion, I don't agree that the Bible is unreliable. I believe the Bible is the word of God, the most trustworthy book. that's ever been written, the only book inspired by God, there is no other. I believe that. Tonight I want us to look at some of these so-called contradictions from just one chapter in the Bible, just one. Again, when someone says to you, the Bible is full of contradictions, my response to that would be, the Bible is full of seeming contradictions, hundreds, thousands. But the Bible is not full of contradictions. Tonight I want us to look at some of these, but first, a little bit different from what we've been doing for the last couple of months, I want us just to skim over the main points of this chapter. It's a beautiful chapter. Verse 10, by the way, is I think the key verse of this chapter. Paul is saying there, if you've got your Bible up in Philippians 3, verse 10, Paul is saying, I want to know Christ. saying, I want to have a closer walk with the Lord. So verse 10, I think, is what the chapter is all about. I really want to get to know Christ. I really want to be Christ-like and know Him in my life. Verse 1 is the introduction, and Paul calls all believers to rejoice. Do you see it? Rejoice in the Lord. He tells the believers and Philippians over a dozen times to rejoice in verse one. Paul says he keeps repeating this this instruction, but he makes no apology for having done so. I'm writing the same thing to you over and over again. Paul says, I've already told you to rejoice, but I'm going to tell you again. Obviously, these people needed to hear time and again to rejoice, to rejoice, to rejoice in the Lord. You know, somebody said repetition is the key to learning. I think that's true. The old preacher. So the way he preaches sermons was like this, he said, it's a I break my sermons down into three points, I tell the congregation, first of all, what I'm going to tell them. Then I tell them. Then I tell them what I told them. So that's the way I preach. As I've often said before, if you'll really analyze the sermons that you hear from this pulpit, especially on Sunday morning, that's oftentimes basically what we do. We tell you what we're going to tell you, then we tell you, then we tell you what we told you. See, repetition is the key to learning. And some one dozen times plus in the book of Philippians, Paul says, remember, rejoice, remember, rejoice, remember, rejoice. Now, look at verse two. He gives him a warning. He says, beware of dogs. I was reading this verse today and I thought to myself, I wonder if this verse is where the first beware of dogs sign came from. Have you ever thought about that? Who knows? Who knows? Maybe. Beware of dogs. Now, he's he's warning there about a group of people that we would call Judaizers. Jews who added works to faith for salvation, especially the Old Testament right of circumcision. If you look on a verse two and three, they insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation. If you look at your scripture sheet, Acts 15 one. Paul mentions there about or Luke mentions some men that came down from Judea Jerusalem, Jewish people who taught except to be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. There were a group that taught that they believed in putting your faith in Christ, but they believed you had to add works to it. You had to keep the Old Testament law. You had to be circumcised. You had to you had to keep the rules and the regulations. Now, these Jews who believe this often called the Gentiles. dogs, Gentiles who were not circumcised, Gentiles who were not participants in Judaism. Therefore, the Gentiles as dogs are unclean. A dog was an unclean animal to a Jew, like a pig. So to call a Gentile a dog, you're saying you're unclean. You've not been circumcised. You're not part of the covenant family of Israel. If you look at verse 2, what Paul is saying is, He's writing the Gentiles here, by the way. He's saying, hey, you're not the dogs. They're the real dogs. They're the unclean ones. These Judaizers who tell you you've got to be circumcised. They're the unclean ones because they think salvation comes from from external rights. They're the unclean ones. They've never been washed. All they've done is mutilate their bodies, but they've not been circumcised in the heart. See. Verse 3, he goes on to say, cutting your body doesn't make you a child of God. See, salvation is not an external thing. It's an internal thing. Do you really understand that? How many people do you know today that are confused here? They've got in their minds that baptism is the means of salvation. Do you know anybody like that? Oh, there's a lot of them, aren't there? See, they're looking at an external right. I've talked to many that have told me they've accepted Christ as their Savior. I said, when? And their answer, I do it every Sunday when I take Holy Communion. I receive Christ. I put a wafer in my mouth and I drink the cup. See? They're confusing an external rite, an external ceremony with an internal, verse 3, worship of the Spirit of God. Salvation is not external. It's not rules and regulations. It's not baptism. It's not communion. It's an internal thing. Paul says at the end of verse 3, I have no confidence in the flesh. There's my flesh. I can't save myself. We hear a lot today that we are our own Savior and you can pull yourself up. Hey, I can't save myself. Salvation is not by works. The Judaizers taught that it was by works, that if you were Jewish and you were circumcised and you did this and you did that, Paul said, hey, if you look at my life, I've got a higher pedigree than any of you folks. In fact, beginning in verse 4, he gives some autobiographical facts. And the gist of verses 4 through 6, if you want to read it there, the gist is if anybody could put their trust in their self, thinking that they'd be accepted by God because of their goodness, it's me. For instance, look at verse 5. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day. I'm a pure-blooded Jew. Jewish, pure-blooded Jews were circumcised on the eighth day. See, he goes on to say, verse 5, I'm of the stock of Israel. You can trace my family tree all the way back to Abraham. I mean, I'm as Jewish as you get. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, he said. Benjamin was a was an honored tribe. The first king of Israel came from Benjamin. Benjamin was the only tribe other than Judah that remained loyal to David, to the line of David. Benjamin was a warrior tribe. They were a fierce group of people. They once stood against the entire nation of Israel and almost whipped them. See? They were a strong, honored tribe. See? I mean to say that you're of the tribe of Benjamin. That was a real honor. the equivalent of saying, I'm from Georgia. Amen. I mean, just a real just a real. It hurts me when you laugh at comments like that. It was a real honor. He goes on to say, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews, I'm a Hebrew son of Hebrew parents. You can't get any more Hebrew than I am, Paul is saying. He says, I'm a Pharisee. I'm of the or I was I was of the strictest sect of Israel. He said, as far as zeal, You can't, you know, match my zeal. I persecuted the church. As for keeping the rules and regulations, he was blameless without fault as far as the external Jewish legalistic system was concerned. What's Paul saying? He's saying, if you think you can get to heaven because you're good or because you're something, top me. Look at me. I mean, you name what you've done, I can top it. But look back at verse 3, the end of verse 3, but I still have no confidence in my flesh. I still, with all my works, with all my pedigree, with all my background, it's not good enough to get me to heaven. He goes on to say in verse 7 and 8, all these things that I once thought caused God to accept me, I've come to realize it's just Trash. Rubbish. Dung. I no longer trust in these things. Look at verse 9. My faith is now in Christ. I understand salvation is by faith. Do you see it? Verse 9. I used to trust the fact that I was a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I'd been circumcised. I was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, zealous for the things of God. I thought all these works and all these things would get me to heaven. Now I realize it's all trash. My faith's in Christ. Christ alone. He's the one I'm trusting. He's the one I'm depending upon. You're a believer. Have you got that in your mind? It's not your works. It's not the fact you've started coming to church or reading your Bible or going to Bible studies or having been baptized. You're heaven bound because there was a time when you put your faith, your trust in Christ and Christ alone. And now you do all these other things because you have been saved, not in order to be saved. In verses 12-14, I'm speeding through this, Paul, though he was a spiritual giant and had been saved for some 30 years, he says, I've not yet arrived. I've not met the goal of being Christ-like yet. In verse 15 he says, if you are a mature believer though, your goal will be to be like Christ, to grow up and to grow on with Christ. That will be your goal. Look at verse 17. He says, follow my example. I'm a mature believer. Follow my example. Grow in the Lord. Have a goal to really know Christ. Verse 18 and 19, he reminds them there are many enemies of the believer out there, many false teachers. He describes these false teachers in verse 19, their God is their stomach. In other words, they live for physical desires. Do you get it? They live to fulfill their physical appetites. Their glory is in their shame, verse 19. That is, they glory in things that they ought to be ashamed of. In verse 19, their minds are set on earthly things. Their minds aren't focused on Christ and his kingdom and heavenly things. All that matters to them is down here, temporal, stuff that don't matter, stuff that's going to pass away. That consumes them. I know some of you business people really struggle with this right here. Your mind's got to be focused on your business literally 15, 16, 18 hours a day, and you struggle with this. Now, listen to me. There's nothing wrong with being focused on your business as long as the reason you're focused on your business is to glorify God and somehow through that business Through your example, through your prophets, through whatever, you're able to glorify God and further His work in His kingdom. Nothing wrong with being focused on your business, focused on earthly things, as long as the reason you're focused on that is to bring glory to God. See, here you've got just the opposite. These folks are focused on earthly things with with no consideration of God, no consideration of their testimony, no consideration of of why gods allow them the opportunity that he's allowed them in the first place. Their minds are set on earthly things. Just the exact opposite of us in verse 20. Our minds are set upon heaven. Our citizenship, we're conversation there. Old King James word means citizenship. We're citizens of heaven. See, this world's not our home. Verse 20, 21, we're waiting for Christ our Savior to return for us, to transform us, to change us. Verse 21, where our vile bodies, our lowly bodies will no longer be lowly, subject to sin and disease, but we'll be like Christ. I mean, we'll really be just like Him. We'll really come to know Him good. Look back at verse 10. Isn't that what Paul's after? Remember the key verse? Oh, I want to really know Christ. I want to be close. I want to be intimate. Verse 21, one day Christ is going to come back and rapture us, take us to heaven and change us. And we're going to be just like him. We're going to know him even as he knows us. We're going to be intimate. We're going to be that process of sanctification is going to be complete. We're going to be totally made like him say. Now, that's a brief. Rundown of Philippians three. But as we went through this chapter, as I read it, there are six different verses or passages that popped into my mind as a possible contradiction. Let's look at number one. How do you reconcile Philippians 3, 1, which says rejoice in the Lord? And Philippians 4, 4, which says rejoice in the Lord always, do you see it? How do you reconcile that with Ecclesiastes 3 verse 4, which is on your sheet? Let me read it. Solomon said there's a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. So on the one hand, Solomon said there is a time to weep and mourn. On the other hand, Paul says rejoice all the time. Your answer, jot it down. How do you reconcile it? How can it be both? Solomon says there is a definite specific time to weep and mourn. Paul says, whoa, rejoice all the time. Is that a contradiction? And if not, how do you reconcile it? I want you to get involved. Take your pencil in. Jot down a possible answer. What is the answer? Both statements are from God's word and both statements are true. This is another example of how two statements in the Bible can be different and yet not contradictory. Solomon's right. There are good times and bad times in life. There's days when you have tears of sorrow, and there's other days when you have tears of joy. A little baby is born. It's a time of joy. A little baby dies. It's a time of sorrow. Solomon's right. Joy and sorrow. Life is full of it. But Paul is also right. For the believer, look at verse 1. For the one who's in the Lord, Do you see it? That's the key for the one who's in the Lord. Look over chapter four, verse four, for the one who, again, is in the Lord. Though there will be periods of sorrow and pain, you can still rejoice and in fact should rejoice. If you are in Christ, if you're a believer, the phrase in Christ means you've been brought into His body. That's what happens when you get saved. You were baptized into the body of Christ. You became part of His body. So if you're in Christ, if you're a believer, though as a believer, you will have times of sorrow and pain and hurt. The fact that you are in Christ, there is still much to rejoice over even as you go through that sorrow. It's significant, folks, that Paul is a prisoner here, writing to freed people, telling them, encouraging them to rejoice. You'd think it'd be the other way around. You'd think the Philippians would write to Paul in prison and say, hey, keep your chin up. But Paul is in prison, and Paul is the one telling them to rejoice, always, even in prison. See, it's very it's it's the way it's supposed to be. We Christians, no matter how terrible the situation might be. The fact that we are in Christ, there's still much to rejoice over and we don't rejoice over the death of our loved ones. We don't rejoice when we get fired. We don't rejoice when we have a car accident or the house burns down, but we we still rejoice if we're a Christian in spite of those negative circumstances. Example. A couple of years ago, when my dad was going through open-heart surgery for a second time, Dad really thought he was going to die. He had his will caught up and had his obituary written. He had his grade plot picked out. He went ahead and bought about ten of them. He said, I've got you a place to bury, son. I said, Dad, it will cost more to ship me down there by a plot of dirt here. And he thought he was going to die. And his mom and myself and my brothers gathered around Dad just before they took him downstairs to operate there in Augusta, Georgia. He wasn't excited about the pain. He wasn't jumping up and down saying, oh, this is wonderful pain. Oh, I just rejoice in my pain. He wasn't doing that. He didn't want to have the pain. That's why he was having the surgery. But you know, there was a peace and there really was a joy. I mean, with all of us, it was almost like a... I hate to use the phrase, holy ground, but that's really what it was like in that little hospital room. There was a holiness there. Why? Dad's attitude was, hey, if I die, heaven's my home. Can you rejoice over that? I'm in God's hands. Can you rejoice over that? My sins are forgiven. Can you rejoice over that? I'm going to see you all in heaven. If I don't wake up from the surgery, I'm going to see you all when I get there later. You'll follow me on. Can you rejoice over that? So can a believer rejoice in the Lord? Sure he can. There's no contradiction here. Solomon's right. You're going to have rough days. You're going to have times when your heart's broken. But even when your heart's broken, Paul's right too. Because you're in Christ, because you're a believer, you've got so much to rejoice over. Your sins are forgiven. Heaven's your home. God's your Father. You're in His hands. You can always rejoice over that. No contradiction. I'm sorry, but it very easily reconciles, doesn't it? Number two, look at verse two, back to the dog verse. Why would God warn the Philippians to beware of dogs? Maybe somebody's reading through the Bible and they read this verse and they think, why in the world would God tell a group of people to be to beware of dogs? What's your answer? What would you say to that? Somebody might say this isn't so much a contradiction, but maybe just an objection that someone might have to the Bible. Why? Why would God say such a thing? Your answer, how would you explain that to someone that was not a believer? I've got to hurry, the language here is symbolic. Paul is not saying beware of beagles and basset hounds, that's not what he's saying, OK? He's saying beware of people, dog-like people or people that are like dogs. Anybody here ever known a person that was like a dog? People that bite and they bark and they snarl and they nip. And again, as we stated earlier, unclean people. See? Again, if you remember the introduction, Paul's referring to the Judaizers here who mixed works with faith. He says they're dogs, they think they've been cleansed, but they haven't been cleansed, they haven't been saved, they're still unclean, they're unclean dogs. It's symbolic language. Now listen, I'm bringing this up for a reason. Many of the so-called contradictions in the Bible are not contradictions, but rather symbolic language is used and people take the symbolism literally. The Bible uses lots of symbolic language and the common expressions of the people of the day, that though these statements are not technically correct, they are absolutely correct when you consider the symbolism that's being used. And did you catch that? Let me say it again. Lots of symbolism is used in the Bible in just common expressions of the people of that day that are not technically correct. But when you consider that it is symbolic language, the principle that's being taught by the symbolism or by the expression or by the illustration, it is absolutely 100% correct. Let me give you a couple of examples. Look on your Scripture sheet there, 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 4. This is an example from the New Testament. It's talking about the children of Israel in the wilderness, and it says that spiritual rock followed them, and that rock was Christ. Paul clearly says that rock was Christ. Is Paul saying Christ is a chunk of granite? No, no one would even suggest such a thing. No one would doubt that Paul is using symbolic language. Paul is not saying, go out in the parking lot and pick up a piece of gravel and that's Christ. That's not what he's saying. When he said, that rock is Christ, he is obviously using symbolic language. Why is Christ likened to a rock? Do you remember the Old Testament? The Jews were thirsting. to death? God said, Moses, take your rod and strike the rock. Remember Moses struck that rock? What came gushing out? Water. Do you know what Paul is saying here? Christ is the source of spiritual water. He's the source of cleansing, washing, and spiritual nourishment. The spiritual water of life comes from Christ. That rock in the Old Testament is a symbol. It's a symbol of Christ. See, symbolic language is used. Let me give you an Old Testament example. Look at, and this is the classic in all the Bible, look at Joshua 10, verses 12 through 14. Then spake Joshua to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agilon. And the sun stood still. And the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man. For the Lord fought for Israel." Now, what's the story? Quickly, Joshua and Israel were in battle in the land of Canaan. If you read the whole passage, it's about noon, and the sun's hot overhead, but Joshua's a mighty general, one of the greatest military minds that ever lived. Joshua realizes he's not going to get to battle won in just the next few hours. Darkness is going to come. The sun's going to set. Darkness is going to fall, and the Amorites will escape. He needs more time. He needs more daylight. So what does he do? He goes to God and he brings an unbelievable prayer request. He says, Lord, make the sun stand still. And God answered that prayer, the sun stood still, the day was lengthened, the battle was won. Now, this miracle is a typical example of what people bring up when they talk about the conflict between science and the scriptures. You talk to an intellectual and he'll tell you the Bible is so unscientific, and you say, oh no, no, no. He'll turn to this passage. He'll say, this is an example. Everybody knows that the sun does not move, that the sun does not rise, and that the sun does not set. Rather, what we call the setting of the sun is caused by the rotation of the earth around the sun. Everybody knows that. I mean, little kids in school know that the sun doesn't rise and set. The earth... rotates. Well, then, why did Joshua pray this way? And why does the Bible record it? Joshua was simply using the language of the people of that day. He was speaking from a human perspective. And by the way, we still do the same thing. Tonight, watch the 10 o'clock news. Listen to the meteorologist who's got all the credentials. What will he say? Sunrise will be it. Such and such a time. These guys are, you know, scientists. Sunrise will be at such and such time. Sunset. Take your Des Moines Register, I think, on the top left hand page 1A. It used to be at least it had sunrise, sunset. Almanacs and journals, scientific journals, talk about the time of the sunrise and sunset. And no one accuses these people of scientific error. It was simply a symbolic figure, an expression. We know the sun doesn't rise and we know the sun doesn't set, but we use that as just a terminology that they used then and that we use now. By the way, what did happen there just while we're there? There's a lot of possible explanations, but I think what happened was God just caused the rotation of the earth to slow down to where one full rotation took not 24 hours, but 48 hours. Somebody said, well, that happened, it would lead to all types of cataclysmic effects like tidal waves and all that. Not if God told the tidal waves not to move out. Amen. I mean, if God can slow down the rotation of the earth from 24 hours to 40 hours, he can sure handle the tidal waves, too. Would you agree with that? I think so. So the sun was slowed down, if we can use the words of Joshua here, and the battle was won. By the way, if you want to hear something else really neat, the people that the Jews were fighting, they worshipped the sun and the moon. Those were their deities. And so the deities that they worshipped. have got to submit themselves to the will of to the only true God. Isn't that wonderful? Don't you know, these people that worship the sun and the moon were terrified when, don't you know, as Israel was whipping them, they looked at the sun and said, sunset, sunset, almighty God said, but the sun just stood there for another 24 hours. Don't you know that must have terrified them? Not only did they die, but they died in terror. Because they came to realize, hey, the God of these people is much stronger, much more powerful than our God. Their God makes our God stay still in the sky for an extra 24 hours. Look back at Philippians 3, verse 12 and 15. Explain the contradiction here in verse 12. Paul says, let's see, verse 12, he says, I'm not perfect. But look at verse 15. He says, I am perfect. Do you see it? That's a real clear one. Verse 12, Paul says, I have not yet obtained. I'm not perfect. Verse 15 says, Paul says, I am perfect. Your answer. Tomorrow you're at work, some skeptic. Walks up to you, Philippians 12, 3, 12 through 15, they want you to explain it. They say, hey, the Bible's full of errors. I mean, right here in one breath, Paul totally contradicts himself. The one hand he says, I'm not perfect, turns right around and says, I am perfect. Well, which is he? Is he perfect or is he not perfect? This is a case where you'd have to do a little studying, I think, to figure it out. I got out my Strong's Concordance, I checked the Greek. Though our translators translated the word perfect. In both verses, it's not the exact same word in the Greek, one of them is a noun, for instance, one of them is a verb and they're related words, but they are different and they have a slightly different meaning. In verse 15, Paul has the perfect has the idea of mature. mature in the Christian faith. In verse 15, when Paul says, I'm perfect, he's saying I've matured in my Christian faith. The word perfect has that connotation there, that idea there. Whereas in verse 12, it has the idea of being the completed, finished product, the final and absolute, complete product. Paul is saying in verse 12, I am not absolutely and completely perfect. I've got a long ways to go. Whereas in verse 15, he's saying, but I have matured in the Christian faith. There is no contradiction there. There are people in this room that could stand up, if their humility did not keep them from it, and say, I'm still a sinner, I'm not perfect, but I have matured in the Christian faith. That's what Paul is saying. I'm not sinless, but I have grown, I have matured. Again, there is no contradiction. By the way, you won't be completely perfect until verse 20 again. Look at it again. Until Christ returns. changes our vile bodies to be like his body, till we're glorified. That's when perfection will actually come at the rapture. So-called contradiction number four. Look back at verse 10. Paul said that I might know Christ. Didn't Paul already know Christ? For instance, on your scripture sheet, 2 Timothy 1, verse 12, Paul said, I know whom I have believed. All through the New Testament, Paul says, I know Christ. But here he says, I want to know Christ. Now believe it or not, that one used to bother me when I was a kid. I didn't get it. I'd think, I thought he knew Christ already. Why is he praying to know Christ? Your answer, quickly. To know there means literally to know by experience. What happens when you spend time with somebody? You get to know them what? Better. See? Paul's not saying, I don't know who Christ is and I want to know Him. What Paul is saying is, I want to know Him better. I want to know Him intimately. I want to have a real close... by my experience with Him, walking with Him. That's what the word literally means. But through experience, I want to know Christ better. Now look, I first met my wife, Loretta, when I was 18 years old. Eighteen. I knew her when I was 18. I didn't get married to her until I was 23. Let's see. And we've been married now for almost 15 years. I have really gotten to know her since we got married. I knew her when I was 18. But, you know, years later, now I really know her. And vice versa. She really knows me. Last night we had spaghetti and a green salad. And my 10-year-old daughter, Charity, fixed the salad and she put carrots in it. And we were eating the salad. I ate my spaghetti first. And I ate my salad. And all of a sudden, I heard Loretta laughing. I looked up and said, what are you laughing at? And she said, I'd been taking the carrots out of my salad. And she said, I told Charity you'd do that. I told her you wouldn't eat those carrots. Maybe you fellows like me, I don't like carrots in my salad. Anybody else like that? I just don't know why. I just don't like them. I like this about anything else but not carrots. She knew. She told Charity she was fixing it. He's going to take those carrots out of his salad. How'd she know that? She didn't know that when I was 18. Through her experiences with me, she's come to realize how peculiar I am. Okay? She's gotten to know me better. Through experience. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, hey, by the way, is that your prayer? It ought to be that you really want to know Christ. How many of you know Christ, amen? How many of you really want to know him closely? Amen. There's no contradiction here. That's what Paul is saying. Fifth one, look at verse 11. Verse 11 seems to be saying that Paul had doubts about being resurrected. Do you see it? If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead, doesn't that sound like he wasn't sure if he was going to come up or not? How do you explain that in light of other passages, such as on your sheet, their first Thessalonians four, where Paul made it very clear that he was certain he was going to be resurrected, how do you how do you reconcile it? And Thessalonians, Paul was certain I'm going up. That trumpet blows, I'm going up. But here in Philippians 3, Paul seems to be uncertain, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection. Did he know or did he not know? Did he have doubts about the resurrection or not? Reconcile it in your mind. Just out of curiosity, has anybody ever questioned this verse? Not really understood anybody at all, Richard? I have. Maybe I just question too much. Many times I've read this verse and I've thought, Man, it didn't sound to me like he was real certain about the resurrection. What's the answer? Very quickly, the word resurrection, this is the only time in all the New Testament this particular word is used. It's different from the other words translated resurrection. It means literally the out resurrection or a resurrection out from among the dead ones. You say, what does that mean? Paul is saying here, I think, the exact same thing he's saying in 1 Thessalonians 4. What happens at the rapture? Only the dead in Christ are resurrected. The dead in Christ. You got a cemetery? Saved. Lost. Lost. Lost. Saved. Lost. Lost. Lost. Saved. What Paul is saying here is there's going to be a resurrection out from the dead ones. The dead in Christ are going to be resurrected alone, leaving behind the dead not in Christ. Do you see that? That's literally what Paul is talking about here. Paul is not implying he was uncertain about the resurrection. I think what he's saying is his only uncertainty is how he was going to be resurrected. Look at verse 11. If by any means, what means will I be resurrected? Will I be martyred and then raptured? Will I die a normal death and be raptured? Or will I be alive at the rapture? By what means? Will I be resurrected? I think that's what he's saying. The NIV translates, if by any means, this way. And so somehow. He goes and say, I'll attain the resurrection, I'm not sure how, I'm not sure whether it'll be by rapture or by alive or raptured when I'm dead. But by some means, Paul's not saying I doubt I'm going to be resurrected. He's saying I'm not certain by what means I will be resurrected dead or alive, but I will be resurrected. Very quickly, I got to hurry. Give me one more minute. Verse 19. Seems to say the lost die and have an end. Ever heard anyone say when you die, you're dead and gone and that's it? Ever heard anybody say that? They'll use a verse like this, talking about the lost people whose end is destruction. Well, do you die and just end or do you go into the lake of fire, as Revelation 20 says on your scripture sheet? Which is it? Is there a contradiction? Here's the answer quickly. End here does not mean annihilation. It doesn't mean termination of being. People die and are dead, but they don't cease to be. The word end could be translated destiny or future. Paul is saying their destiny is going to be one of destruction. Their future is going to be one of destruction. Paul is not saying when you die, you head for termination. Paul is saying you're in for condemnation. Their end is a destructive one. Their destiny is going to be a terrible, destructive destiny. What? Revelation 20, the lake of fire. Lost ones, when they die, they go to hell, the lake of fire. They don't cease to be. Their end, their destiny, their future is destructive. Folks, let me wrap it up. The Bible is reliable. But it's not just enough to believe God's Word. Look at your last verse. Not just enough to hear it. We've got to apply it to our lives. What do we start out with tonight? Nine out of ten of us believe the Bible is the Word of God. But only one out of ten of us read it daily. And I would guess if we're not reading it, we're probably not living it. Now, can I fuss at you? If I got up here tonight and said, this book is not the Word of God, every one of you would storm out of here. But how many of you that believe the Bible is the Word of God take the time to crack it open and look at it every once in a while? Come on. You'll get mad at the guy that says it's not God's Word, You're so convinced it's God's Word, you actually open it up once a month. Doesn't make sense, does it? You're not going to hear me say this book is not God's Word. I'm convinced it is. I'll go to my grave believing that. But my point is, it's not enough just to believe it's God's Word. We've got to get into this thing, crack it open, spend some time with it, and apply it to your life. Be doers of the word. Listen. Somebody called me on the phone. Hurting. Very recently, hurting, upset, terrible tragedy in their life. I hadn't seen him in church in years. I knew they weren't very close to the Lord, but I asked, I was really trying to help him, wasn't picking, but there was a spiritual problem. And I asked him, I said, how's your relationship with the Lord? Oh, I know he's there. No, no, no, that's not my question. Satan knows he's there. It's not enough to know he's there. How is your relationship with God? Do you talk to him daily? Do you just talk to you through his word? In other words, do you have a daily time with God in his word? She said, no. She said, in fact, I never have. She said, I never have gotten to the practice of daily being in God's Word. It's no wonder. She's as weak as she is in the faith. You will not be strong apart from this Word. Mark it down. No shortcuts, remember? Get in the Bible. It's true. It's reliable. It works. But it's not enough just to believe that. Get into it. Amen? Hey, thanks for coming out tonight. You're dismissed. Bye-bye. See you Sunday.