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Message One

Taking Christ as Our Living


Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:19-21a
1. The subject and the controlling concept of the book of Philippians
is the experience of Christ—3:7-10; 4:13:
1. The experience of Christ is the master key which opens the
book of Philippians to us.
2. The experience of Christ is a Body matter—1:19; 2:1-2; 4:2-
3, 10, 14-20:
1. Whatever is in the Body and of the Body involves
mutual fellowship; the experience of Christ requires
such mutuality—2:1-2; 1 Cor. 12:25.
2. The experience of Christ must be in the Body and for
the Body; only by experiencing Christ in the Body can
we experience Him to the fullest extent— Eph. 4:16;
Rom. 12:5.
3. The secret of experiencing Christ is to be one in soul, joined
in soul, like-souled, with others—Phil. 1:27; 2:2, 19-20:
1. If we would experience Christ to the fullest extent in
the Body, we need to be like-souled and we need to
risk our soul—vv. 20, 30; Rom. 16:3-4.
2. Because Timothy was like-souled with Paul, he was in
the position to experience Christ to the uttermost in
the Body, just as Paul was—Phil. 2:19-20; 1 Cor. 4:16-
17; 16:10.
2. Philippians is a book not only on the experience of Christ but also
on living Christ—1:19-21a:
1. The basic thought of the Bible is that the Triune God desires
to work Himself into us so that we may take Him as life and
live Him—Eph. 3:16-17a:
1. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into us and to
work Himself into us as our life and life supply in
order to live Him—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
2. God’s intention is to have a group of people who are
one with Him in His life and nature; those who are
one with God in the divine life and nature are able to
express Him—Eph. 3:19b, 21.
2. The Christian life is a life of living Christ for the constitution
and building up of the Body of Christ—4:1-3, 12, 16; Col.
1:24; 2:19:
1. The Christian life is to live Christ with His divine
attributes expressed in His human virtues as a part of
His organic Body—Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:14.
2. For the Body, we should live a life that is Christ
Himself, living as parts of His Body for the universal
consummation of the eternal economy of God— Eph.
3:8-11.
3. The Christian life is not a life of ethics, religion, culture, or
even morality; the Christian life is Christ— Col. 3:4:
1. As believers in Christ, we should live a life which is
actually Christ Himself—John 6:57.
2. The standard of the Christian life is Christ, and the
normal experience of Christ is to live Christ—Eph.
4:20; Col. 2:2-3, 8; Phil. 1:21a.
4. Paul’s life was to live Christ—v. 21a; Gal. 2:20:
1. Christ lived within Paul as his life, and Paul lived Christ
without as His living; they lived together as one
person with one life and one living.
2. When we live Christ, Christ and we live together: two
lives have one living, two natures are mingled into
one nature, and two spirits become one spirit— John
6:57; 1 Cor. 6:17.
5. If we would live Christ, we need to realize who Christ is and
what Christ is and also realize that He is subjective as well
as objective—Col. 2:9; 1:27; 3:1.
6. We live Christ in the organic union with Him—Rom. 12:5;
John 15:4a:
1. To believe in Christ is to have our being merged into
His that the two may be organically one—Phil. 1:29.
2. In the organic union we are intimate with Christ; we
are one spirit with Him that we may live Him— 1 Cor.
6:17.
7. In order to live Christ, we must take Him as our person and
as our life—Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:4.
8. To live Christ requires that we remain in the inward parts of
Christ—Phil. 1:8:
1. Paul experienced the inward parts of Christ; he was
one with Christ in His inward parts in longing after the
saints.
2. Paul did not live a life in his natural inner being; he
lived a life in the inward parts of Christ.
3. If we would be those who are in Christ, we must be in
His inward parts, in His tender and delicate feelings—
John 15:4a.
4. To live Christ is to abide in His inward parts and there
to enjoy Him as grace—Phil. 1:7; 4:23.
9. Christ is mysterious, and those who live Him also are
mysterious—Col. 1:27; 2:2; 1 John 3:1.
10. To live Christ means that, no matter what our
circumstances may be, Christ is magnified in us and that we
are not put to shame in anything—Phil. 1:20a; 1 John 2:28.
11. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ was for
Paul to live Christ—Phil. 1:19:
1. The bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit includes
divinity, humanity, crucifixion, resurrection,
ascension, the divine attributes, and the human
virtues—Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9.
2. In Philippians 1:19 Paul speaks of the supply of the
Body before speaking of the bountiful supply of the
Spirit because the Spirit is upon the Body:
1. As a member of the Body, Paul realized that he
needed the supply of the Body—1 Cor. 12:12,
14-22.
2. Paul had the clear sense within that he was in
the Body, that the members of the Body were
supporting him, and that the bountiful supply of
the Spirit would come to him through the Body.
3. Paul could be an overcomer because he experienced
and enjoyed the all-inclusive Spirit with His bountiful
supply dwelling in him to be everything to him—
Rom. 8:37.

Message Two
Taking Christ as Our Expression
Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:19-26; 4:22
1. All of Paul’s life and work were not for expressing himself or for
displaying his knowledge, his ability, or his other merits and
strong points; what he was and what he did were for expressing
Christ, even for magnifying Christ—Phil. 1:20; cf. 3:3-10; 4:22.
2. In the apostle’s suffering in his body, Christ was magnified; that
is, He was shown or declared to be great (without limitation),
exalted, and extolled— 1:20:
1. The apostle’s sufferings afforded him opportunity to
express Christ in His unlimited greatness—Acts 9:16; 2 Cor.
6:4; 11:23; Col. 1:24.
2. To magnify Christ under any circumstances is to experience
Him with the topmost enjoyment—Phil. 1:18; 4:23.
3. As Paul was held captive in a Roman prison, he magnified
Christ, making Him to appear great in the eyes of his
captors:
1. Regardless of the circumstances, Paul was full of joy
and rejoicing in the Lord—cf. Acts 16:23-25.
2. Since Philippians is concerned with the experience
and enjoyment of Christ, which issue in joy, it is a
book filled with joy and rejoicing—1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17-
18, 28-29; 3:1; 4:1, 4.
3. Paul’s shining forth and expressing Christ in his joy
were a declaration of the unlimited greatness of
Christ and a declaration that Christ is inexhaustible—
Eph. 3:8; cf. Isa. 9:6.
3. Salvation in Philippians 1:19 means to be sustained and
strengthened to live and magnify Christ; this requires the
bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ:
1. The salvation Paul speaks of in 1:19 is not eternal salvation;
it is a subjective, experiential, and constant salvation in our
daily life for magnifying Christ.
2. To live Christ for His magnification is to participate in
Christ’s salvation in life, in which we are saved from the
failure of not living Christ and from the defeat of not
magnifying Christ—Rom. 5:10.
3. The key to Paul’s experience of salvation was the bountiful
supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; when we enjoy the Spirit
and partake of Him, Christ is magnified and becomes our
expression—Heb. 1:9b; 3:14a; 6:4b; 1 Cor. 12:3b.
4. We need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly
service that builds up the Body so that we can enjoy the
bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, for
magnifying Christ—Psa. 133:2; Exo. 30:23-31; Phil. 1:19;
Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
4. The expression of Christ, signified by the priestly garments,
qualifies us to serve as priests and sanctifies us, separates us unto
God for His unique purpose— Exo. 28:2-4; 1 Pet. 2:9:
1. The expression of Christ as our “holy garments” is for glory
and for beauty—Exo. 28:2:
1. For glory means to express Christ’s divinity with the
divine attributes—John 1:14; Heb. 1:3; John 17:22; 2
Cor. 3:18.
2. For beauty means to express Christ’s humanity with
the human virtues—Luke 24:19; Acts 16:7; Psa. 27:4.
3. Whenever we express the divine glory blended with
the beauty of human virtues, we are built up together
as the priesthood—1 Pet. 2:5.
4. Whenever we are separated from the other saints
and become individualistic, we immediately express
the fallen, natural life instead of expressing Christ
with the divine glory and the human beauty.
2. As the believers’ pattern, Paul lived a life fully dignified,
with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the
most excellent divine attributes, a life that resembled the
one that the Lord Himself had lived on the earth years
before—1 Tim. 1:16; Gal. 6:17; cf. Acts 27:21-26.
5. If we magnify Christ by living Him, we will become strong factors,
channels of supply, to enable the saints to grow in life and enjoy
the Lord—Phil. 1:22-26:
1. In Paul’s chained body, Christ was exalted, extolled,
praised, and appreciated because Paul lived Christ— v. 21;
Eph. 6:20.
2. Christ’s being magnified is so that He may be seen by others
in the reality of His resurrection and ministered to others in
the reality of His Spirit.
3. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was living in prison
and not outwardly working; his speaking of “fruit for my
work” indicates that his work was actually his living—Phil.
1:22:
1. The fruit of this work was Christ lived out, magnified,
ministered, and transfused into others.
2. The fruit of this work was the issue, the result, of
Paul’s living in prison.
3. Paul’s living work was to minister Christ to others and
to transfuse the Christ he magnified into them.
4. Through Paul’s magnification of Christ, even some in
Caesar’s household were saved—4:22.
4. Because of Paul the churches could have the growth in life
and could be filled with the enjoyment of Christ; this should
also be true of us today—1:25:
1. Because Paul lived and magnified Christ to the
uttermost, he could transfuse Christ into the saints
and minister Christ to all the churches.
2. Paul’s consideration to either depart and be with
Christ or remain in the flesh was not selfish but was
for the saints’ sake; he was absolutely occupied by
the Lord and the church—vv. 23-24:
1. It should matter to the church whether we
remain or go to be with the Lord, but this
depends on our living Christ, magnifying Christ,
ministering Christ, and transfusing Christ from
the depths of our being into that of the saints—
cf. 2:25-30.
2. In the Body life there is the urgent need of
certain ones to function as channels of supply—
cf. Zech. 4:12-14; Judg. 9:9.

Message Three
Taking Christ as Our Pattern
Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:5-11
1. In order to experience Christ and live Christ, we must know Him
as our pattern and take Him as our pattern:
1. In 2:5-11 Paul presents Christ as the pattern; we need to
have this pattern infused into us.
2. The pattern of the Christian life is the God-man Savior who
emptied Himself and humbled Himself and who has been
exalted and glorified by God:
1. Although the Lord was equal with God, He did not
consider being equal with God a treasure to be
grasped and retained; He emptied Himself, laying
aside what He possessed—the form of God— vv. 6-
7a.
2. In His incarnation the Lord did not alter His divine
nature; He changed only His outward expression from
the form of God to the form of a slave.
3. The Lord became “in the likeness of men”— vv. 7b-
8a:
1. The form of God implies the inward reality of
Christ’s deity; the likeness of men denotes the
outward appearance of His humanity.
2. He appeared to men as a man outwardly, but as
God He had the reality of deity inwardly.
3. Christ entered into the condition of humanity,
and He was found in fashion as a man.
4. Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient even
unto death—the death of a cross—v. 8b:
1. Humbling Himself was a further step in
emptying Himself.
2. Christ’s self-humbling manifested His self-
emptying.
3. The death of a cross was the climax of Christ’s
humiliation.
5. The Lord humbled Himself to the uttermost, but God
exalted Him to the highest peak and bestowed on
Him “the name which is above every name”— v. 9:
1. God has exalted Jesus, a real man, to be the
Lord of all—Acts 2:32-33; 5:31.
2. This exaltation of Christ was the manifestation
of resurrection power.
3. The highest name in the universe, the greatest
name, is the name of Jesus:
1. 1) The name is the expression of the sum
total of what the Lord Jesus is in His
person and work.
2. 2) In the name of Jesus means in the
sphere and element of all that the Lord is
—Phil. 2:10.
4. The result of our confessing that Jesus is Lord is
that God the Father is glorified; this is the great
end of all that Christ is and has done in His
person and work—v. 11; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.
3. The principle of this pattern is that someone with the
highest life and position would be willing to live in a lowly
way.
2. Christ as our pattern is not only objective but also subjective and
experiential—Phil. 2:5, 12-13:
1. The One who set up the pattern and who Himself is the
pattern is now operating within us as the indwelling God—
v. 13.
2. The principle of Christ as the inward pattern for our living is
that even if we have the highest standard or the highest
position, we should not grasp it.
3. We need to be partners with Christ in His human living,
especially in His emptying and humbling Himself and in His
not grasping equality with God as a treasure—vv. 6-7.
4. The Christ who is our pattern is now the life within us—Col.
3:4:
1. We have a life in us that is a self-emptying and self-
humbling life; this life never grasps at something as a
treasure but is always willing to lay aside position and
title.
2. We have Christ crucified as our pattern, and this
pattern is the crucified life within us—Gal. 2:20:
1. The steps of Christ’s humiliation in Philippians
2:5-8 are all aspects of the crucified life lived
out in a full way.
2. When we live Christ, we live the One who is the
pattern of a crucified life—1:21a.
3. Taking the crucified life as our pattern opens the gate
of resurrection and brings us into the power of
resurrection—3:10:
1. By living a crucified life, we can experience the
power of resurrection which exalted Christ to
the highest peak in the universe—Eph. 1:19-22.
2. The highest life on earth is a crucified life;
whenever we live a crucified life, God will bring
us into resurrection.
4. Christ should be exalted not only objectively in the
universe but also subjectively in our daily life— Phil.
2:9:
1. Christ is exalted in us as we take Him as the
crucified life to be the pattern of our daily life.
2. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
is the power that exalts Christ—1:19.
3. If we would take Christ as our pattern, we need to take Christ’s
mind as our mind—2:5:
1. Paul not only took Christ as his living and expression
outwardly but also took the mind of Christ as his mind
inwardly.
2. For the mind of Christ to be in us means that this mind is
something living; actually, the mind of Christ is Christ
Himself, for the person of Christ is manifested in His mind.
3. We need to open ourselves and let “this mind” be in us—v.
5:
1. This refers to the considering in verse 3 and to the
regarding in verse 4.
2. This kind of thinking was in Christ when He emptied
Himself, taking the form of a slave, and humbled
Himself, being found in fashion as a man—vv. 7-8.
3. To have such a mind requires us to be one with Christ
in His inward parts—1:8.

Message Four
Taking Christ as Our Constant Salvation
Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:12-16
1. The salvation in Philippians 2:12 is not eternal salvation from
God’s condemnation and from the lake of fire but the daily and
constant salvation that is Christ as a living Person:
1. This practical, daily, moment-by-moment salvation results
from taking the very Christ whom we live, experience, and
enjoy as our inward as well as outward pattern:
1. The main elements of this salvation are Christ as the
crucified life (vv. 5-8) and Christ in His exaltation (vv.
9-11).
2. When this pattern becomes our inward life, the
pattern becomes our salvation.
3. To work out our salvation is to work out this pattern
and to become in experience a reprint of this pattern
—cf. 1 Pet. 2:21.
2. The constant salvation in Philippians 1:19 is one in which a
particular believer is saved from a specific encounter in a
particular situation; whereas the constant salvation in 2:12
is one in which any believer is saved from ordinary things in
common situations in his daily living.
2. To work out our own salvation is to carry it out, to bring it to the
ultimate conclusion—v. 12:
1. We have received God’s salvation, which has as its climax
our being exalted by God in glory as the Lord Jesus was—v.
9.
2. Now we need to carry out this salvation, to bring it to its
ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute
obedience with the inward motive of fear and the outward
attitude of trembling—v. 12, cf. v. 8; 1 Sam. 15:22.
3. The inner operating God Himself is our salvation, and
obedience to Him is the working out of our salvation—Phil.
2:12-13.
3. The reason we need to obey always is that God operates in us—v.
13:
1. It is not that we by ourselves carry out our salvation, but
that God operates in us to do it; the only thing we need to
do is to obey the inner operating, energizing God—cf. Col.
1:29.
2. The God who operates in us as our subjective salvation is
the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit— the
very God who is Christ in us (2 Cor. 13:3a, 5) and the Spirit
in us (Rom. 8:11).
4. God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good
pleasure:
1. The willing is within; the working is without.
2. The willing takes place in our will, indicating that God’s
operation begins from our spirit and spreads into our mind,
emotion, will, and eventually into our physical body—Rom.
8:4, 6, 11.
3. The good pleasure of God’s will (Eph. 1:5) is to operate in us
so that we may reach the climax of His supreme salvation—
cf. Rom. 5:10, 17.
5. Murmurings and reasonings frustrate us from carrying out our
salvation to the fullest extent and from experiencing and enjoying
Christ to the uttermost— Phil. 2:14:
1. Murmurings are of our emotion and come mainly from the
sisters; reasonings are of our mind and come mainly from
the brothers.
2. Murmurings and reasonings are due to disobedience to
God; obedience to God slays all murmurings and
reasonings.
3. We should do all things without murmurings and
reasonings in order that we may become blameless and
guileless, children of God without blemish—v. 15:
1. Blameless describes our outward behavior, and
guileless our inward character; to be guileless is to be
simple, artless (not political), or innocent—Matt.
10:16.
2. As children of God, we have God’s life and nature—
John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4.
6. In the midst of the dark and corrupt world, which is usurped by
Satan (1 John 5:19; 2:15-17), our function is to shine as
luminaries, holding forth the word of life—Phil. 2:15-16:
1. Christ is the sun, with the church as the moon and the
believers as the planets to reflect Him by holding forth the
word of life.
2. To hold forth the word of life is to apply it, to present it,
and to offer it to the world by living out Christ— Acts 5:20.
7. Philippians 2:12-16 is a definition of living Christ in 1:19-21:
1. The God who operates in us (2:13) is the supplying Spirit
(1:19).
2. To shine as luminaries (2:15) is to magnify Christ (1:20), and
to hold forth the word of life (2:16) is to live Christ (1:21a).
3. The only way to live Christ is to be saturated with the word
of life:
1. The word of life is the living breath of God (2 Tim.
3:16), the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63).
2. We need to pray-read the Word, receiving the word
of God by means of all prayer and petition—Eph.
6:17-18.
3. We need to sing-read the Word, letting the word of
Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom by singing— Col.
3:16.
4. If we are filled with the riches of the living word day
by day, spontaneously we shall hold forth the word of
life; this is to live Christ that He may be magnified in
us.
8. Philippians 2:5-16 reveals the divine and rich provision for our
constant salvation:
1. We have the Lord Jesus as our pattern—vv. 5-11.
2. We have God operating in us—v. 13.
3. We are God’s children, having God’s life and the divine
nature—v. 15.
4. We are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of
Christ—v. 15.
5. We have the word of life to hold forth, to present, to others
—v. 16.

Message Five
Taking Christ as Our Drink Offering
Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:17; Gen. 35:14; 2 Tim. 4:6
1. The drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as the
real wine before God for His satisfaction— Exo. 29:40-41:
1. The drink offering was in addition to the basic offerings,
and it was poured out on one of the basic offerings— Num.
15:1-10; 28:7-10.
2. The wine of the drink offering was poured out for God’s
satisfaction; it was poured out for God to drink—Exo.
29:40-41:
1. Christ poured out His being unto God—Isa. 53:12.
2. Christ is the heavenly, spiritual wine poured out to
God for His pleasure; He poured Himself out as wine
to make God happy.
3. The vine depicts the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who
sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of His sacrifice He
produced new wine to cheer God and man— Judg. 9:13:
1. Christ is the wine-producer, sacrificing Himself to
produce wine to cheer God and others.
2. If we contact this Christ and experience His sacrificing
life, He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice,
producing wine to make others and the Lord happy—
2 Cor. 1:24b.
2. The drink offering typifies not only Christ Himself but also the
Christ who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine until He
and we become one to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and
satisfaction and for God’s building—Matt. 9:17; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim.
4:6:
1. The drink offering is a type of Christ as the heavenly wine
who is enjoyed by the offerer, filling him and causing him to
become wine to God—Phil. 2:17:
1. By experiencing Christ as the offerings, we become
persons who are filled and saturated with Christ—
Eph. 3:17; Gal. 4:19.
2. The Christ whom we experience subjectively as the
offerings becomes wine in us, causing us to be
ecstatically happy and joyful—Matt. 9:17; 2 Cor.
5:13a.
3. Eventually, we are saturated with Christ as the
heavenly wine and are one with the wine and even
become wine; in this way we are qualified to be a
drink offering—Matt. 9:17; 2 Cor. 5:13a; Eph. 5:2;
Phil. 2:17:
1. The drink offering is our subjective experience
of being made one with the Lord to such an
extent that He becomes us.
2. The more we experience Christ as the offerings,
the more of a drink offering we become—Num.
15:1-10.
2. Jacob poured out a drink offering on the pillar at Bethel,
indicating that the drink offering is for God’s building—Gen.
35:14:
1. The wine poured out at Bethel is not the direct wine
from the winepress; it is the indirect wine from those
who enjoy Christ as wine and who are saturated with
Christ as wine.
2. In Bethel, in God’s house, the church, we need to be
poured out as a drink offering—2 Cor. 12:15a:
1. In order to have the drink offering poured out
on the pillar, we must have the genuine building
—Eph. 2:22.
2. Wherever there is the drink offering, there is
also the pillar set up as the house of God.
3. The apostle Paul became a drink offering that was poured out
upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith—Phil. 2:17; 2
Tim. 4:6:
1. The wine of the drink offering in Philippians 2:17 and 2
Timothy 4:6 is the Christ (wine) of Matthew 9:17 who had
saturated Paul and had made him wine.
2. Paul became a drink offering for the church; this indicates
that the drink offering is not only for the worship of God
but especially for God’s building.
3. Based upon the principle that the drink offering required a
basic offering, Paul regarded the sacrifice and service of the
believers’ faith as the basic offering upon which he could
pour out himself as a drink offering—Phil. 2:17:
1. Faith here includes all that the believers have
experienced and enjoyed of Christ; ultimately, it
includes what the believers themselves are:
1. The faith which can be offered to God as a
sacrifice is a constitution of our experience and
enjoyment of Christ.
2. When we experience and enjoy Christ as the
basic offerings, this experience and enjoyment
becomes our faith.
2. The basic offering upon which Paul could pour himself
out as a drink offering was the faith of the believers in
Philippi:
1. It is the believers’ faith, not the believers
themselves, which is a sacrifice.
2. Faith, the word, and the Spirit are one—Rom.
10:17; 8:9:
1. 1) Faith is both the issue of the word and
the function of the Spirit.
2. 2) Whenever there is genuine faith in us,
the word is implied, and the Spirit is
realized.
3. 3) Faith is the result of the word and the
Spirit mingled with our appreciation of
Christ.
3. With genuine faith, there are both the
enjoyment of faith and the sacrifice of faith.
4. Faith in Philippians 2:17 is the sum total of our
experience, enjoyment, and gain of Christ:
1. 1) Our experience, enjoyment, and gain of
Christ become a sweet sacrifice offered to
God.
2. 2) Through the enjoyment of Christ, we
experience Christ, gain Christ, and possess
Christ, and our being is constituted of
Christ; in this way our faith becomes a
sacrifice which can be offered to God and
upon which the drink offering can be
poured.
Message Six
Taking Christ as Our Lived-out Righteousness
Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:9; Luke 15:22-23; Psa. 45:13-14a
1. In experiencing Christ, Paul was found by others to be a man in
Christ:
1. Paul had been altogether in the Jewish religion under the
law and had always been found by others in the law, but at
his conversion he was transferred from the law and his
former religion into Christ and became “a man in Christ”—2
Cor. 12:2.
2. Now he expected to be found in Christ by all who observed
him—the Jews, the angels, and the demons; this indicates
that he aspired to have his whole being immersed in and
saturated with Christ that all who observed him might find
him fully in Christ.
3. Only when we are found in Christ, will Christ be expressed
and magnified—Phil. 1:20.
2. Paul wanted to be found in Christ in the condition of the
righteousness of God, taking Christ as his subjective, lived-out
righteousness—3:9:
1. There are two aspects of Christ being righteousness to the
believers:
1. The first aspect—to be the believers’ righteousness
for them to be justified before God objectively at the
time of their repenting unto God and believing into
Christ—Rom. 3:24-26; Acts 13:39; Gal. 3:24b, 27.
2. The second aspect—to be the believers’
righteousness lived out of them as the manifestation
of God, who is the righteousness in Christ given to the
believers for them to be justified by God subjectively
—Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 2:24a; James 2:24; Matt. 5:20;
Rev. 19:8.
2. These two aspects are typified by the best robe and the
fattened calf in Luke 15:22-23:
1. The best robe typifies Christ as God’s righteousness
given to the believers to cover them outwardly before
God as their objective righteousness.
2. The fattened calf typifies Christ as God’s
righteousness given to the believers as their life
supply for them to live out God in Christ as their
subjective righteousness.
3. These two aspects are also typified by the two garments of
the queen in Psalm 45:13-14a:
1. One garment corresponds with the objective
righteousness, which is for our salvation—“Her
garment is a woven work inwrought with gold”—v.
13b:
1. This signifies that the Christ who has been dealt
with through death and resurrection is the
righteousness of the church to meet the
righteous requirement of God for her to be
justified by God—1 Cor. 1:30; Luke 15:22; Jer.
23:6.
2. Her being covered with gold signifies the
church’s appearing in the divine nature—Psa.
45:9b; 2 Pet. 1:4.
2. The other garment corresponds with the subjective
righteousnesses, which are for our victory—“She will
be led to the King in embroidered clothing”— Psa.
45:14a; cf. Rev. 19:8; Matt. 22:11-12:
1. The overcoming believers are Christ’s corporate
queen, taking Christ as their royal abode for
them to be found in Christ and for Him to
become their subjective righteousness—Psa.
45:13a; John 15:4a.
2. This embroidered clothing, another garment,
the second layer of her covering, signifies that
the church will be led to Christ at their marriage
clothed with the righteousnesses of the saints
to meet the requirement of Christ for her
marriage—Rev. 19:8.
3. The raiment of embroidered work is the
subjective Christ woven into our character,
embroidered into our being, to be our lived-out
righteousness.
4. This embroidery signifies the transforming work
of the Holy Spirit, who is working day by day to
embroider Christ into us stitch by stitch to be
our wedding garment.
5. The degraded recovered church needs to pay
the price to live Christ as her subjective
righteousness that she may be clothed with
Christ as her God-approved conduct—3:18.
4. The subjective righteousness of God in Philippians 3:9 is
actually God Himself becoming our daily living, a living
which is right with God and man:
1. Paul did not want to live in his own righteousness, the
righteousness which comes from man’s own effort to
keep the law—vv. 6, 9.
2. Our own righteousness is the expression of ourselves,
the living out of ourselves.
3. Paul desired to live in the righteousness of God and to
be found in such a transcendent condition, expressing
God by living Christ, not by keeping the law—cf. Matt.
5:20.
4. The living which is right with both God and man must
be God as our expression in our daily living, God
Himself lived out through us.
5. If we are to be found in Christ, we must be in such a
condition that God is expressed through us and
becomes our daily living.
3. Faith is the basis, the condition, on which we receive and possess
the righteousness that is out of God, the highest righteousness,
which is Christ— Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30:
1. Christ Himself, who is infused into us through our
appreciation of Him, becomes our faith—the faith in Him—
Heb. 12:2a; 2 Pet. 1:1; Gal. 2:20.
2. When we experientially have the supply of the Spirit (Phil.
1:19) through the word of life (2:16) issuing in the faith of
Christ (3:9), we are infused with God Himself—Rom. 10:17:
1. Then the very God who has been infused into us
becomes our daily living, the living which Paul
describes as the righteousness of God.
2. This is to be found in Christ under the condition of
enjoying God’s infusion that we may live Him out
through the supply of the Spirit, the word of life, and
the righteousness of God through faith.
Message Seven
Taking Christ as Our Goal
(1)
Counting All Things to Be Loss on account of
the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ
Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:4-14
1. Chapter three of Philippians shows us that Christ must be our
goal and our aim—vv. 12-14:
1. For Christ to be the goal means that He is the highest
enjoyment.
2. Our goal is the all-inclusive Christ as the prize to be
awarded to us; when we reach the goal, the goal will
immediately become the prize—v. 14.
3. Paul’s pursuit was toward one goal, one aim—Christ; he
took Christ as his goal, pursuing to obtain the prize to which
God in Christ Jesus had called him upward.
4. Since our goal is to gain Christ, we should forsake all other
things and pursue nothing but Christ—vv. 7-8, 12-14.
2. Saul of Tarsus had a vision of the Lord Jesus; this vision gave him
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ—Acts 9:1-5; 22:6-11;
26:13-16; Gal. 1:15a, 16a; Phil. 3:8:
1. It is important for us to realize that in Philippians 3:8 Paul
does not speak directly of the excellency of Christ but
speaks of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ:
1. This knowledge is not the knowledge that belongs to
Christ, the knowledge that Christ Himself has; it is our
subjective knowing of Christ.
2. In verse 8 knowledge actually means a revelation, a
vision, concerning Christ and His excellence.
2. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ is derived from
the excellency of His person—Matt. 17:5; Col. 1:13:
1. The entire Bible is a revelation of the wonderful
person of Christ; how excellent and inexhaustible He
is!
2. When Christ was revealed to Paul, he saw that the
excellency, the super-eminence, the supreme
preciousness, the surpassing worth, of Christ far
exceeded the excellency of the law—Gal. 1:15a, 16a.
3. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ is the
excellency of Christ realized by us.
4. If we lack the knowledge of Christ’s excellency, His
excellency will not mean anything to us.
5. Christ is unlimited; we need to have the excellency of
the knowledge of the unlimited Christ—Col. 1:12, 15-
19; 2:2-3, 9, 16-17; 3:10.
6. We need to have a vision of the preciousness of Christ
—1 Pet. 2:4, 7.
3. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ comes by
revelation—Matt. 16:17:
1. Without the revelation concerning Christ, we would
not know Christ; revelation is for knowing—11:27;
Gal. 1:15a, 16a.
2. We need to see a vision and receive a revelation of
the excellency of Christ; if we have a revelation of
Christ’s excellency, we shall automatically have the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
4. In order to experience Christ, we first need to have the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ—Phil. 3:7-10:
1. To know Christ is crucial to our experience of Him; we
cannot experience Him without knowing Him— Gal.
1:15a, 16a; 2:20; 4:19.
2. Our experience of Christ cannot surpass the
excellency of our knowledge of Christ—Eph. 1:17-21;
3:14-19:
1. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ
always exceeds our experience of Christ.
2. There has never been a believer whose
experience of Christ surpassed his knowledge of
Christ.
3. If we do not have a higher knowledge of Christ,
we cannot have a higher experience of Christ.
3. On account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Paul
counted all things to be loss, and he suffered the loss of all things,
counting them as refuse that he might gain Christ—Phil. 3:7-8:
1. Paul’s eyes were opened to see the excellency of the
knowledge of the wonderful, all-inclusive Christ; on account
of this excellency, he counted as loss all things, whether
they related to religious gain or natural gain:
1. All things which were once gains to Paul hindered him
and held him back from participating in Christ and
enjoying Him:
1. In verse 7 what things refers to the religious
things, the things in Judaism; Paul dropped all
those religious things for Christ—vv. 4-6.
2. In verse 8 all things indicates that Paul dropped
not only religious things but all things on
account of the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus; thus, to Paul, the loss of all things
was the loss not only of his Jewish status but of
everything.
2. Paul placed great value upon the excellency of the
knowledge of his dear Lord Jesus Christ—vv. 7-8.
3. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which
he treasured, Paul counted everything as refuse,
dregs, rubbish, filth, that which is thrown to the dogs
—v. 8.
2. The way for us to experience Christ and enjoy Christ is to
deny everything we have and are—vv. 4-6, 13b:
1. The greatest obstacle to enjoying Christ is our natural
heritage:
1. Nothing natural should be allowed to replace
Christ.
2. Any naturally good thing will frustrate us from
the enjoyment of Christ—1 Cor. 2:14.
2. The way to enjoy Christ is to reject everything that we
are by nature; everything must go, and only Christ
must remain—1:26-30; 2:1-2.
3. If we have more of the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ, we will drop everything religious and
everything natural on account of Him and on account
of the excellency of the knowledge of Him—Phil. 3:7-
8.

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Message Eight
Taking Christ as Our Goal
(2)
Knowing Christ, the Power of His Resurrection,
and the Fellowship of His Sufferings
Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:10
1. Paul aspired to know Christ—Phil. 3:10:
1. To have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ in
Philippians 3:8 is by revelation, but to know Him in verse 10
is by experience.
2. Paul first received the revelation of Christ, then sought the
experience of Christ—to know and enjoy Christ in an
experiential way.
3. The one thing in the book of Philippians is the subjective
knowledge and experience of Christ—2:2; cf. 1:20-21; 2:5;
3:7-9; 4:12-13.
4. To know Christ is not merely to have the knowledge
concerning Him but to gain His very person—2 Cor. 2:10; cf.
Col. 2:9, 16-17:
1. To gain something requires the paying of a price; to
gain Christ is to experience, enjoy, and take
possession of all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8) by
paying a price.
2. Christ has gained us, taken possession of us, that we
might gain Him, take possession of Him—Phil. 3:12.
3. The Christian life is a life of gaining Christ in His full
ministry in His three divine and mystical stages—
incarnation, inclusion, and intensification—John 1:14;
1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6:
1. Even though Paul had experienced and gained
Christ tremendously, he did not consider that
he had experienced Him in full or gained Him to
the uttermost; for this reason he was still
advancing toward the goal—the gaining of
Christ to the fullest extent—Phil. 3:12-14.
2. In order to gain Christ to the fullest extent, Paul
not only forsook his experiences in Judaism but
also would not linger in his past experiences of
Christ and be limited by them; he forgot the
past—v. 13.
3. Not to forget but to linger in our past
experiences, however genuine they were,
frustrates our further pursuing of Christ—v. 13;
Heb. 6:1a.
4. Christ is unsearchably rich, and there is a vast
territory of His riches to be possessed; Paul was
stretching out to reach the farthest extent of
this territory—Phil. 3:13.
2. Paul aspired to know the power of Christ’s resurrection—v. 10:
1. The power of Christ’s resurrection is His resurrection life,
which raised Him from the dead—Eph. 1:19-20.
2. The Spirit is the reality of Christ’s resurrection and its power
—Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 John 5:6.
3. The Spirit compounded with Christ’s resurrection and its
power (Phil. 1:19; Exo. 30:23-25) indwells our spirit (Rom.
8:10-11) to dispense Christ’s resurrection and its power not
only to our spirit and soul (vv. 6b, 10) but also to our mortal
body (vv. 11, 13b; 2 Cor. 4:11).
4. We should cooperate with the resurrecting Spirit to
recognize that we have been resurrected with Christ (Col.
2:12; Eph. 2:6a) and to pursue the power of the
resurrection of Christ:
1. It is by this power of Christ’s resurrection that we, the
lovers of Christ, determine to take the cross by
denying our self—Matt. 16:24; cf. S. S. 2:8-9.
2. It is also by this power of resurrection that we, the
lovers of Christ, are enabled to be conformed to His
death, to be one with His cross—Phil. 3:10; cf. S. S.
2:14-15.
3. In order to experience the life-giving Spirit as the
reality of the flourishing riches of the resurrection of
Christ, we have to discern our spirit from our soul—
Heb. 4:12; cf. S. S. 2:14-15.
5. Christ’s resurrection with its power in the life-giving Spirit is
the sufficient grace of the processed and consummated
Triune God—2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:10, 45b, 58; cf.
Exo. 3:2-6, 14-15.
3. Paul aspired to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings—Phil.
3:10:
1. With Christ, the sufferings and death came first, followed
by the resurrection; with us, the power of His resurrection
comes first, followed by the participation in His sufferings
and conformity to His death.
2. We first receive the power of His resurrection; then by this
power we are enabled to participate in His sufferings and
live a crucified life in conformity to His death.
3. Christ’s sufferings are of two categories: those for
accomplishing redemption, which were completed by Christ
Himself, and those for producing and building the church,
which need to be filled up by the apostles and the believers
—Col. 1:24:
1. We cannot participate in Christ’s sufferings for
redemption, but we must take part in the sufferings
of Christ for the producing and building up of the
Body—cf. Rev. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:10; 2 Cor. 1:5-6; 4:12; 6:8-
11.
2. Christ as the Lamb of God suffered for redemption
(John 1:29); Christ as the grain of wheat suffered for
reproducing and building (12:24):
1. The Lord, as a grain of wheat that fell into the
ground, lost His soul-life through death that He
might release His eternal life in resurrection to
the many grains—10:10-11.
2. The one grain did not complete all the
sufferings that are needed for the building up of
the Body; as the many grains, we must suffer in
the same way the one grain suffered—12:24-
26:
1. 1) As the many grains, we also must lose
our soul-life through death that we may
enjoy eternal life in resurrection—v. 25.
2. 2) This is to follow Him that we may serve
Him and walk with Him on this way, the
way of losing our soul-life and living in His
resurrection—v. 26.
3. 3) The way for the church to come into
being and to increase is not by human
glory; it is by the death of the cross—vv.
20-24.
Message Nine
Taking Christ as Our Goal
(3)
Being Conformed to Christ’s Death and
Attaining to the Out-resurrection
Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:10-11
1. In Philippians 3:10 Paul spoke of “being conformed to His death”;
this expression indicates that Paul desired to take Christ’s death
as the mold of his life:
1. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ, counting all
things as loss, gaining Christ, being found in Him, knowing
Him, knowing the power of His resurrection, and knowing
the fellowship of His sufferings all issue in one thing—being
conformed to Christ’s death— vv. 7-10.
2. Being conformed to Christ’s death is the base of the
experience of Christ—1:20-21a; 3:9-10.
3. The mold of Christ’s death refers to the continual putting to
death of His natural, human life that He might live by the
life of God—John 6:57a:
1. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a
crucified life; by living a crucified life He was alive to
God and lived Him.
2. He always put His human life to death so that the
divine life within Him could flow out—10:10b-11, 17.
3. As He was living, He was also dying—dying to the old
creation in order to live a life in the new creation; this
is the meaning of “His death” in Philippians 3:10.
4. Christ’s death is a mold to which we are conformed in much
the same way that dough is put into a cake mold and
conformed to it:
1. God has put us into the mold of Christ’s death, and
day by day God is molding us to conform us to this
death—Rom. 6:3-4.
2. Our life should be conformed to such a mold—dying
to our human life in order to live the divine life— Gal.
2:20; 2 Cor. 4:10-11.
3. If we put to death our natural life, we shall have the
consciousness that we have another life, the divine
life, within us; this life will be released, and then in
our experience we shall be conformed to Christ’s
death—John 10:10b; 1 John 5:11-12.
4. In the mold of Christ’s death the natural man is killed,
the old man is crucified, and the self is nullified—2
Cor. 4:16; Rom. 6:6; Matt. 16:24.
5. If we allow our circumstances to press us into this
mold, our daily life will be molded into the form of
Christ’s death—Rom. 8:28-29.
6. We are conformed to the mold of Christ’s death by
the power of Christ’s resurrection—Phil. 3:10; John
11:25; Eph. 1:19-20; S. S. 2:8-13.
5. As we are conformed to Christ’s death, we experience His
all-accomplishing death:
1. By being conformed to His death, we experience
Christ in His death for the release, impartation, and
multiplication of life—John 12:24-26; 2 Cor. 4:12.
2. The only way to glorify God is to be conformed to
Christ’s death; the more we are conformed to Christ’s
death, the more we glorify the Father—John 12:28;
13:31.
3. When we die the death of Christ and are conformed
to His death, we shall be a magnet drawing others to
Christ—12:32.
4. The more we die with Christ, the more we save our
soul—v. 25.
5. If we are willing to be conformed to Christ’s death,
we shall overcome the world and defeat Satan— v.
31; Heb. 2:14.
2. The result of being conformed to Christ’s death is that we may
attain to, or arrive at, the out-resurrection from the dead—Phil.
3:11:
1. The out-resurrection is the outstanding resurrection, the
extra-resurrection, which will be a prize to the overcoming
saints—Rev. 20:4, 6:
1. All believers who are dead in Christ will participate in
the resurrection from the dead at the Lord’s coming
back—1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52.
2. The Lord’s overcomers will enjoy an extra,
outstanding portion of that resurrection, a
resurrection in which they will receive the reward of
the kingdom; this is what the apostle Paul sought
after—Heb. 11:35, 26.
3. The out-resurrection should be the goal and
destination of our Christian life—Phil. 3:11-15a.
2. To attain to the out-resurrection means that our entire
being is gradually and continually resurrected—1 Thes.
5:23:
1. God first resurrected our deadened spirit; He
proceeds to resurrect our soul and our mortal body
until our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—is fully
resurrected out of our old being by His life and with
His life—Eph. 2:5-6; Rom. 8:6, 11.
2. If we are conformed to Christ’s death, every part of
our being will be gradually resurrected; thus, the
Christian life is a process of resurrection.
3. The out-resurrection is a resurrection out of the old
creation into the new creation—Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17:
1. To be in the out-resurrection means to leave
everything of the old creation and to be brought into
God.
2. In the out-resurrection there is no element of the old
creation; instead, everything is full of the divine
element—Rev. 21:5a.
4. For Paul to live was Christ as the out-resurrection— Phil.
1:21a; 3:11:
1. The out-resurrection is actually the dear, precious,
excellent person of Christ, the One who, through
crucifixion and resurrection, has passed out of the old
creation and has entered into God—John 14:3, 20;
Heb. 6:19-20.
2. The Christ whom we should live is Himself the out-
resurrection—Phil. 1:21a; 3:11; John 11:25.
5. We need to be conformed to Christ’s death so that by any
means we may attain to the out-resurrection from the
dead; this is the only way for the Lord to go on in His
recovery, the only way for the Lord to build up His church,
the only way to prepare the bride, and the only way to
bring the Lord back—Phil. 3:10-11; Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7-
9a; 22:14, 20.

Message Ten
Taking Christ as Our Virtues
Scripture Reading: Phil. 4:5-9
1. The virtues of Christ for our experience in Philippians 4:5-9 are
the expression of a life that lives Christ—1:19-21a; 2:5-13; 3:8-10:
1. Paul considers forbearance and the lack of anxiety as the
first two aspects of the expression of a life that lives Christ.
2. Anxiety, coming from Satan, is the sum total of human life
and disturbs the believers’ life of living Christ; forbearance,
coming from God, is the sum total of a life that lives Christ;
the two are opposites.
2. “Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near”—
4:5:
1. Forbearance is reasonableness, considerateness, and
consideration in dealing with others, without being strict in
claiming one’s legal rights; forbearance means that we are
easily satisfied, even with less than our due:
1. According to Christian experience, forbearance is all-
inclusive, for it includes all Christian virtues:
1. Forbearance includes love, patience, kindness,
humility, compassion, considerateness, and
submissiveness, a willingness to yield; if we
have such an all-inclusive virtue, we shall also
have righteousness and holiness.
2. Forbearance also includes self-control,
moderation, gentleness, understanding,
sympathy, wisdom, mercy, peacefulness,
looking to the Lord, and even the virtue of
admitting that the Lord is sovereign in all things.
2. A forbearing person is one who always fits in, whose
behavior is always suitable—cf. 2 Cor. 6:1a; 10:1; Phil.
1:19; Isa. 11:2:
1. If we are forbearing, we shall have the wisdom
and the ability to supply others with what they
need; we shall also have the full knowledge of
what to say to them and when to say it—50:4-5;
Col. 1:28.
2. To be forbearing is to consider how others will
be affected by what we do or say—2 Chron.
1:10.
3. As an all-inclusive virtue, forbearance is Christ
Himself; since Christ is forbearance, for Paul to live
was forbearance—Phil. 1:21a:
1. To let our forbearance be known to all men is to
let the Christ whom we live and magnify, whom
we take as our pattern and pursue as our goal,
be known to all men.
2. Only the Lord Jesus lived a life full of
forbearance, and only Christ can be our perfect
forbearance today.
3. To make known our forbearance is to live a life
which expresses Christ as the totality of all
human virtues.
2. Immediately after speaking about forbearance, Paul said
that the Lord is near:
1. With respect to space, the Lord is near us, ready to
help; with regard to time, the Lord is at hand, coming
soon—cf. Rom. 10:8-13.
2. The Lord’s being near refers primarily to His presence
with us—Matt. 1:23.
3. “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and
the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding,
will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus”— Phil.
4:6-7:
1. The words in everything refer to the many different things
which happen to us day by day.
2. Prayer is general, having worship and fellowship as its
essence; petition is special, being for particular needs; both
our prayer and our petition should be accompanied by our
giving thanks to the Lord.
3. To God denotes motion toward, in the sense of a living
union and communion, implying fellowship; hence, the
sense of to God here is in the fellowship with God.
4. The result of practicing fellowship with God in prayer is that
we enjoy the peace of God; the peace of God is actually
God as peace (v. 9) infused into us through our fellowship
with Him by prayer, as the counterpoise to troubles and the
antidote to anxiety (John 16:33).
5. The God of peace patrols before our hearts and thoughts in
Christ, keeping us calm and tranquil.
6. If we would have a life free of anxiety, we need to realize
that all our circumstances, good or bad, have been assigned
to us by God in order to serve us in fulfilling our destiny to
gain Christ, live Christ, and magnify Christ—Rom. 8:28-30;
Matt. 10:29-30; 2 Cor. 4:15-18.
4. “Finally, brothers, what things are true, what things are dignified,
what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are
lovely, what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if
any praise, take account of these things”—Phil. 4:8:
1. These virtues are the expressions of God’s attributes lived
out from within the pursuers of Christ, who is the
embodiment of God.
2. These virtues are six governing aspects of a life that lives
Christ:
1. A life that lives Christ is true—ethically truthful,
without any pretense or falsehood.
2. A life that lives Christ is dignified—honorable, noble,
grave, solid, weighty, and worthy of reverence—1
Tim. 3:8, 11; Titus 2:2; cf. Rom. 9:21.
3. A life that lives Christ is righteous—right before God
and man.
4. A life that lives Christ is pure—single in intention and
action, without any mixture—Matt. 5:8.
5. A life that lives Christ is lovely—lovable, agreeable,
and endearing.
6. A life that lives Christ is well spoken of—renowned, of
good repute, attractive, winning, and gracious.
3. Virtue and praise are a summing up of the six foregoing
items, in all of which are some virtue or excellence and
something worthy of praise—v. 16.
4. To be a proper human being is to express God through His
divine attributes in our human virtues, to have a human life
filled with Christ as the reality of the attributes of God—cf.
Gen. 1:26.

Message Eleven
Taking Christ as Our Secret and as Our Power
Scripture Reading: Phil. 4:11-13
1. The subject of the book of Philippians is the experience of Christ
in every kind of circumstance— 1:19-21a; 2:5; 3:9-10; 4:11-13.
2. In Philippians 4 Christ is the secret and the power for us to enjoy;
we know the secret, and we have the power—vv. 12-13.
3. Paul had learned the secret of sufficiency, of satisfaction, of
contentment; this secret is actually Christ Himself—vv. 11-12:
1. In any environment and in any matter, Paul, who
experienced Christ richly and abundantly, learned the
secret to be content and to rejoice always—v. 4.
2. According to the book of Philippians as a whole, the secret
Paul learned was simply Christ; Paul took Christ as the
secret to experience Christ, being content and rejoicing in
any situation and in any matter because of Christ.
3. Paul had not only learned a secret; he had been initiated
and had learned certain basic principles—v. 12:
1. Paul had been initiated both into the proper Christian
life and into the proper church life.
2. After Paul was converted to Christ, he was initiated
into Christ and into the Body of Christ—Acts 9:3-19,
25-28; 22:6-21; 13:1-4:
1. He was initiated into the basic principles of
Christ and the church.
2. He learned the secret of how to take Christ as
life (Col. 3:4), how to live Christ (Phil. 1:21a),
how to magnify Christ (v. 20), how to gain Christ
(3:8, 12), and how to have the church life (1:8,
19; 2:1-4, 19-20; 4:1-3).
4. When we are saved and come into the church, the Body of
Christ, we need to be initiated by learning certain basic
principles—1 Tim. 3:15-16:
1. We are initiated in Christ, with Christ, and by Christ;
because Christ is our secret, we know how to face any
kind of situation.
2. Because the church has a mysterious aspect, we need
to be initiated by learning certain basic principles—
Eph. 3:3, 9; 5:32.
3. The secret of the Body is to take Christ as our life, to
live Christ, to pursue Christ, to gain Christ, to magnify
Christ, and to express Christ; these are the basic
principles of the church, the Body of Christ— Rom.
12:4-5.
5. In everything refers to a particular time when we
experience a certain thing of the Lord; in all things refers to
a broad range of experiences over time—Phil. 4:12:
1. Paul could say that both on a particular occasion and
on all occasions, both at a certain time and
throughout the course of his life, he had learned the
secret.
2. Paul experienced Christ moment by moment:
1. He experienced Christ in particular things at
particular times.
2. He experienced Christ in all things and at all
times.
4. In verse 13 we have a basic principle related to Paul’s secret of
sufficiency in Christ: “I am able to do all things in Him who
empowers me”:
1. The secret in Philippians 4 is to do all things in Christ—John
15:4a, 5:
1. Whatever we do should be done in Christ, not in
ourselves; this is the secret Paul learned and the
secret we need to learn today.
2. It is sufficient for us to be in Christ, for He is all-
inclusive.
3. The way to experience Christ is to do everything in
Him.
4. If we do all things in Christ, we shall experience Christ,
enjoy Christ, and accumulate Christ; this is the way to
become rich in Christ and to have many rich
experiences of Christ—Eph. 3:8.
5. The issue of practicing the secret of being in Christ is
that for us to live is Christ; because we do all things in
Christ, we live Christ—Phil. 1:21a.
2. Paul’s word in 4:13 is an all-inclusive and concluding word
on his experience of Christ:
1. Paul was a person in Christ, and he desired to be
found by others in Christ—2 Cor. 12:2a; Phil. 3:9.
2. In 4:13 he declared that, being in Christ, he could do
all things in Him, the very Christ who empowered
him; this was his secret.
3. As a person in Christ, Paul experienced Christ and
applied Him in all circumstances—vv. 11-12:
1. Paul applied the Christ in whom he could be
found—3:9.
2. This Christ is real, living, near, available, and
prevailing—4:5b.
3. To be empowered is to be made dynamic inwardly— v. 13:
1. Christ dwells in us, and He empowers us, makes us
dynamic, from within, not from without—Col. 1:27.
2. By such an inward empowering Paul could do all
things in Christ.
4. Paul’s word about Christ as the empowering One
specifically applies to Christ’s empowering us to live Him as
our human virtues and thereby to magnify Him in His
unlimited greatness—Phil. 4:8-13:
1. The application of verse 13 is limited by the context of
verses 8 through 13.
2. By the empowering of Christ we can live a contented
life and be true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and
well spoken of—vv. 11-12, 8.
3. To live a life of these virtues is much more difficult
than doing a Christian work.
4. We are persons in Christ, who empowers us to live
out every kind of virtue; this is to live Christ and to
magnify Him in His virtues—1:20-21a.
5. If we would experience Christ as the empowering One, we
need to let Him live in us (Gal. 2:20), be formed in us (4:19),
make His home in us (Eph. 3:17a), and be magnified in us
(Phil. 1:20):
1. If we fail to do these things, Christ will not have the
way to empower us.
2. When Christ lives in us, is formed in us, makes His
home in us, and is magnified in us, the way is
prepared for Him to empower us; then, empowered
by the indwelling Christ, we shall be able to do all the
things spoken of in 4:8-12.

Message Twelve
Taking Christ as Our Expectation
Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:20-21
1. The life which Paul lived in the experience of Christ was one that
awaited the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would transfigure
his body of humiliation, conforming it to the body of His glory;
thus, he took the Christ whom he experienced as his expectation
—3:20-21.
2. “For our commonwealth exists in the heavens, from which also
we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”—v. 20:
1. Our national life is not in any earthly country; our real
citizenship, our true commonwealth, is in the heavens—
Eph. 2:6, 19.
2. Because our citizenship is in the heavens, we should not be
occupied with earthly things, the physical things needed for
our existence—1 Tim. 6:6-10.
3. In dealing with our body, we should take care of our
physical need but should not indulge in excessive physical
enjoyment—Phil. 3:17-19; 1 Cor. 9:27.
4. As we await and love the Lord’s glorious appearing, we
should live a God-expressing and flesh-restricting life—Titus
2:12-13; Luke 21:34-36; 2 Tim. 4:8.
3. Christ “will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be
conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by
which He is able even to subject all things to Himself”—Phil. 3:21:
1. We are waiting for Christ to come back so that we may be
brought into the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation
—the transfiguration of our body:
1. In His salvation God first regenerated our spirit (John
3:6), now is transforming our soul (Rom. 12:2), and
consummately will transfigure our body for our
glorification, making us the same as Christ in all three
parts of our being (1 John 3:2).
2. The body of our humiliation is our natural body, made
of worthless dust (Gen. 2:7) and damaged by sin,
weakness, sickness, and death (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8:11).
3. The body of His glory is Christ’s resurrected body,
saturated with God’s glory (Luke 24:26) and
transcendent over corruption and death (Rom. 6:9).
4. The transfiguring of our body is accomplished by the
Lord’s great power, which subjects all things to
Himself (Eph. 1:19-22); this is the almighty power in
the universe.
2. The transfiguration of our body is the redemption of our
body for the full sonship of God—Rom. 8:23:
1. Although we have the divine Spirit as the firstfruits in
our spirit, our body has not yet been saturated with
the divine life; our body is still the flesh, linked to the
old creation, and it is still a body of sin and death that
is impotent in the things of God—6:6; 7:24; cf. 2 Cor.
5:4.
2. Hence, we groan together with the creation and
eagerly await the glorious day when we will obtain
the full sonship, the redemption and transfiguration
of our body—Rom. 8:19-23.
3. The redemption of our body is through the saturation
of the divine element by the sealing Spirit of God—
Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 1 Cor. 1:30; Luke 21:28.
3. The transfiguration of our body will be the glorification of
our entire being—Rom. 8:30, 17; 1 Pet. 5:10a; 2 Tim. 2:10:
1. Objectively, glorification is that the redeemed
believers will be brought into the glory of God to
participate in the glory of God—Heb. 2:10a; 1 Pet.
5:10a.
2. Subjectively, glorification is that the matured
believers will manifest from within them, by their
maturity in life, the glory of God as the element of
their maturity in life—Rom. 8:17-18, 21; 2 Cor. 4:17:
1. The Lord is in us as the hope of glory to bring us
into glory—Col. 1:27; Heb. 2:10a.
2. At His coming back, on the one hand, He will
come from the heavens with glory (Rev. 10:1;
Matt. 25:31), and on the other hand, He will be
glorified in His saints—2 Thes. 1:10:
1. 1) His glory will be manifested from within
His members, causing their body of
humiliation to be transfigured into His
glory, conforming it to the body of His
glory—Phil. 3:21.
2. 2) Thus, the unbelievers will marvel at
Him, admire Him, wonder at Him, in us,
the believers.
3. We are on the way of being brought into glory by the
sanctifying work of the Spirit; sanctification is the
gradual process of glorification—Heb. 2:10-11; 1
Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26-27.
4. The reality of the believers’ glorification is their
gaining of God Himself—the glory of God is God
Himself (Jer. 2:11; Eph. 1:17; 1 Cor. 2:8; 1 Pet. 4:14),
and the manifestation of God is the glory of God (Acts
7:2):
1. The believers’ entering into the glory of God to
participate in the glory of God is their entering
into God Himself to enjoy God Himself.
2. The believers’ being transformed in the divine
life today is God’s being expressed in the
believers as glory; hence, this daily
transformation is from glory to glory—2 Cor.
3:18; 4:17.
3. The consummation of glory into which the
believers will enter by transformation in life is
that they will be glorified—their body will be
redeemed, and they will thereby enter into the
glory of God to fully enjoy God as glory—Rom.
8:21, 23, 30.
5. The believers’ arriving at glorification is the climax of
their maturity in the life of God and the climax of
God’s salvation in life—Heb. 6:1a; Rom. 5:10a.
6. The believers’ glorification is the accomplishment of
God’s economy for the satisfaction of God’s desire:
1. The full expression of the believers’ glorification
is the New Jerusalem, which will be manifested
in glory—Rev. 21:10-11.
2. This is the full expression in eternity of God’s
becoming a man in humanity and of man’s
being conformed to God in divinity.
3. This is what God desires and is His heart’s
delight, and this is also what God is waiting for
in His good pleasure—Eph. 1:5.

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