And I have a very singular and
distinct message this morning from these two verses 11 and
12 It's a very simple message Everything I say will all point
to And emphasize one thing It's the
title of the message this morning laying hold of Christ Laying
hold of him Let's read 11 and 12 again if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead
He just talked about Christ being raised And you remember how the
scripture speaks of him as the firstfruits from the dead That's
because we follow him Even those who died before him will follow
him in the resurrection of our bodies Because he lives, we live. Because he overcame sin, death,
hell, the grave, so will we. And so here, that's what he's
talking about, that I might attain. I don't want just, and this was
a point of great controversy in Paul's day, the doctrine of
the resurrection. People scoffed at it. When you're
dead, you're dead, you know, and how are you go? How are the
you know, they even laughed about the fact that how are you gonna
be raised from the dead? You're all rotted and you know,
you'll be a walking zombie and all this and the the Apostle
dealt with all of that in in his letters But not only is he
saying here that Do I want a knowledge of I want a knowledge of Christ
in his in the power of his resurrection? But I also want to get in on
it. You see verse 11. I want in on it. I don't want
to just agree with the doctrine. I want in on it. I want to be
raised with him. And verse 12, not as though I
had already attained. Either we're already perfect,
but I follow after, I pursue, I run toward, if that I may apprehend
that or lay hold of that for which also I am laid hold of
by Christ Jesus. All of the knowledge mentioned
in verse 10, This verses 11 and 12 tell us that all the knowledge
that Paul talked about, that I may know him. That's the epitome
of human knowledge, to know the Savior. As we've talked about
and shown from the scripture before, if you don't know Christ,
you don't know anything right. You literally don't know anything
right. You say, well, I'm an expert on this or that. If you're
not honoring God in it, you don't know anything about it. Because
the whole point of it is to honor the Lord. The point of everything
is to honor the Lord. You don't know what you're doing. So that I may know Him, the power
of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable or Receiving the same image as his
death that we talked about when he saves us It's the same thing
isn't it we own our sins before God as he owned our sins on Calvary
We believe God as he did as he cried The Lord won't leave my
soul in hell my God won't leave my soul in hell but also here
That knowledge we see not to just be head knowledge. This
is saving knowledge because it results in the attainment of
life To be saved and live and be sin free before God That's
the end result of this knowledge not just be being smarter than
other people and being able to debate and argue with people
and win No, no, that's not that's not good enough for the believer.
I This is saving knowledge because it results in life. To know Christ
in his death and resurrection is spiritual life that Paul already
had. To know him, he already had spiritual
life. He's saying I want in on experiential, actual life. that is found in Christ alone
because of his resurrection, to get in on it, to be part of
it, to know Christ. But as he expressed in Romans
7, where he said, who's gonna save me from the body of this
death? You remember that in Romans 7? Who's gonna save me? I wanna do things I can't do,
and the things I don't wanna do, those are the things that
I do. Who's gonna save me? I need to be saved from the body
of this death. All along here in the same way
to attain the ultimate result of knowing Christ That wasn't
just the endgame just to be real knowledgeable in religion Just
being a doctor of divinity or something The ultimate result
of knowing Christ is to be made like him and to be with him and
That's what he said. I want in on that Won't you know
I don't want to just be just know about it. I Don't want to
just be able to refute those who scoff at the doctrine of
the resurrection of the dead from Scripture and this is the
difference between common religion Which there's so much of and
being saved by God's grace This is the difference now It's a
laying hold of Christ laying hold of him, not just knowing
more and being happy with that. People get involved in religion
and they find a sense of belonging in religion. We understand that,
you know, people want to fit in somewhere and they find a
group of people that believe the same things they do. They
get involved, they find a sense of belonging and they're bragged
on. Look, I was in it for long enough to be able to say these
things, trust me. They're bragged on and they're
told that God's trying his very best to get them. You know ultimately
he wants them to be successful in life and all that thing. Tell
that to Jeremiah. Tell that to Paul. Nothing bad's gonna happen, you
know. Tell that to the apostles. God and ultimately God what God
is trying to do and this sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous
what he's trying to do ultimately God is doing everything to try
to get you to walk down an aisle and Repeat a prayer that somebody
else made up So we can pronounce you saved You need to make a decision That's
what getting saved is to them. And pretty soon, they muster
up the courage to go down to the front, all of them do eventually,
and they make a decision for Jesus. Then they're indoctrinated
regarding living the Christian life. And you know what living
the Christian life is? Don't cuss, don't drink, don't
hang out with people that do, and give money to us. That's
the essential part of it, give money to it. Give us your money,
your discipleship, your attendance, your talents, give everything.
And here's the thing, God's trying to get you to do all of that.
Getting more people to come. And look, part of living the
Christian life, what did the Lord say? You circle land and
sea to make one proselyte. That's somebody that you convert
to your religion. He told this to the Pharisees,
the most religious people of his day. Who would that be in
our day? Catholic Church, Methodist Church,
all of them, all of them put together. He said to them, you
travel land and sea, and they do, oh, gifts for our outreach
program. And he said, when you make them
a proselyte of your religion, you make them twofold more the
child of hell than you are. That's what we're witnessing
in our day. Now, that's the word of God. That's not my opinion.
And all of the preaching that they hear in the meanwhile is
geared toward them Toward the one that they're the
one in charge and God needs them They have songs about it. Jesus
needs a few good men when the scripture says God don't need
anybody He needs your attendance he needs your giving he needs
your discipleship of others he needs your talents and Everything's
up to you God's trying to get you to do all these things Paul's
language in our chapter in this chapter 3 of Philippians is Exactly
the opposite Well Paul's experience was the opposite What Paul found
out when he met the son of God was that he's in charge, and
I need him And our text this morning shows
that Paul Paul didn't so much express a need for going to heaven
when he died I He didn't express a need for a mansion in glory
and golden gate streets and pearly gates He expresses a need in
this chapter for righteousness He expresses a need in this chapter
for knowledge And he expresses a need for getting somewhere
for attaining something but look at the reality of all of those
things in the language of this chapter the need for righteousness
and We need righteousness before God. We need atonement. We need atonement with God. Our
sins have separated between us and our God. And we're not gonna
make all that up by doing more good than bad. First of all,
you don't have any good. All of your righteousnesses are
full of sin. And if they weren't, that still
wouldn't cut it. One sin is gonna put you in hell.
One. And you've never done anything
but sin. But listen, we need righteousness with God. That
doesn't get made up by walking an aisle. Salvation's not down
here, even if we had an old time altar down here. It wouldn't
have any saving efficacy. But listen to what he said in
verse nine again. And be found in him not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law. In other words,
people's righteousness, the righteousness that people, that religious people
especially trust is their keeping of the law. I didn't murder anybody
today. I didn't commit adultery today.
The problem is the Lord Jesus said you did all of that in your
heart. You're guilty of it before God
Paul said I don't want anything to
do with my righteousness, which is according to the law But that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ The character of one
that can be relied upon you look that word faith faith of crack
the character of one that could be reliable Christ is my righteousness
the righteousness which is of God And we're united to Christ
by faith in Him, and that's how He's my righteousness, and not
just the righteousness of sinners in general. He's my righteousness
when God, by grace, gives me faith in Him. What is the reality
of having the righteousness that I need in order to come before
God? To be found in Him. I need knowledge, according to
Paul. Of what does this knowledge consist?
That I may know Him. That I may know Him. In all of
these things that He is and has done. There's an attainment here. He's
talking about attaining. He's talking about arriving to
a certain place. Am I striving for achievements
like religion? You're on the whatever levels
they are. I know clear is the last one.
You get to be blue or pink or whatever and then you're clear.
Is that what I'm trying to attain? Some status of holiness in myself? Am I striving for achievements
or the praise of men? Paul said in verse 14, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. Where's
that, Paul? In Christ Jesus. Everything necessary. Christ
is all I need. It's a person. It's a person. Paul sums up this comparison
that I'm talking about now. I'm not just picking on religion
this morning when I'm talking about all of the fleshly things
that they do. This is our text look at verse
18 in Philippians 3 Philippians 3 18 For many walk He says, I'm telling you these
things now. I'm telling you what's vital. I'm telling you about
him. I'm pointing you to him because there are many who walk
of whom I have told you often, they're religious. He said in
Romans chapter 10, they're religious as they can be, but they're walking. And I've told you about them
a lot of times now. And I tell you even weeping, it mattered
to Paul. He said, if my countrymen, if
the Jews according to the flesh, he cried out, oh, that they might
be saved. They don't need to just agree
with me. They need the mercy of God. They need God to save
them by his grace. That's what they need. He said,
I've told you often about them, that they're the enemies of the
cross of Christ. They're enemies now. Well, they're
religious. They talk about God and stuff
in heaven. They're the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly. The belly in scriptures represents
the desires, passions, lusts of the flesh. In other words,
they're their own God. That's what happened in the Garden
of Eden. Satan said, you shall be his gods, determining good
and evil. Sounded pretty good to Adam and
Eve and so they fell and we in them Whose God is their belly
whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things you see
that earthly things That's what we were talking about Let's put
up a big cross. Let's have statues of the saints.
Let's have a statue of Mary. Let's put a statue of the Savior
on the cross, though he's not on the cross anymore. He's on
the throne. Why would we represent him that
way? God never told anybody to make a cross and worship it.
Let's do all of that. Let's do all this earthly stuff
because there's no substance underneath. There's no desire
to know a person. Those things don't lead you to
the knowledge of a person. They lead you to religious rituals
that make you feel better about yourself. But our conversation, verse 20,
our citizenship, if you look at that word conversation, our
citizenship is in heaven. And what do we do? They mind
earthly things. Their God is their belly, but
what about us? We're looking for the Savior. We're looking for the Son of
God. We're looking for God's Lamb. We're looking to close
with Christ. We're looking for Him in every
way that you can look for Him. The Lord, we're looking for the
Lord, Jesus Christ. We're looking for the Lord. You
look that word up. That word means he owns us and
he'll do what he wants to with us. That's why we bow. That's why
we beg for mercy. That's why Bartimaeus fell at
his feet and begged him for mercy. That's why that centurion said,
Lord, I know, look, I'm under, I have a boss and I am a boss.
I have people under me and I know this. When I tell those under
me what to do, they do it. If I tell them to come, they
come. If I tell them to go, they go. And I know this about you.
All you have to do is say the word only and my servant will
be healed. That's why he said that because
We're looking for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ We look
for the Savior remember what the Lord Jesus said turn to Luke
21 with me Luke chapter 21 verse 25 Describes when everything's falling
apart everything's gonna fall apart now this world is not long This world is not long To be
here Verse 25 Luke 21 25 and there shall be signs in the Sun
and in the moon and in the stars upon the earth distress of nations
with perplexity confusion The sea and the waves roaring. Now
that's not just the, that's not the ocean. In the scriptures,
the sea and waves is always talking about masses of people. Masses
of people roaring. Men's hearts failing them for
fear. It hadn't quite come to that
yet, has it? It looks that way a little bit though, doesn't
it? It looks like, it smells a little bit like that already.
Men's hearts failing them for fear and looking after those
things which are coming on earth for the powers of heaven shall
be shaken and Then shall they see the son of man coming in
a cloud with power and great glory. He's the one that's doing
all this this isn't some kind of a Disaster that he's gonna
save us from he's the one doing it and then shall they see. And when these things begin to
come to pass," he's talking to his people now, he's talking
to the Lord's people, the believers. What are you gonna do? People's
hearts are failing them for fear. People are dying of fear. The
nations are in an uproar. There's confusion and nobody
knows what's going on. Everything's falling apart. Everything
that people have relied on for centuries is no more. And when
these things begin to come to pass, you look up and lift up your heads for your
redemption draweth nigh. What does redemption look like?
The son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. That's my redemption, the son
of God who gave himself for me. Your redemption draweth nigh.
Look up. We're gonna look for the Savior
even then. If we're alive when that happens, we're gonna look
for Him now. It's not too early, you know, right now to look up.
It's already a good time to look up, I think. As we look for the
Savior. That's what Paul's doing in our
text. He was focused on one thing, forget all my religion, forget
all my religious heritage, forget all my so-called good works,
those things that were gained to me before, those things that
were valuable to me before, those things that I thought recommended
me to God, they're done, that I may win Christ. You see how
singular that is? That's called the simplicity
that is in Christ, the all-inclusiveness that is in Christ. All of the rituals, religious
symbols, and traditions of religion are repulsive to those who look
for the Savior. That's not the Savior. When we bought this church, they
left something behind. Y'all remember that? It was a
big old plastic cross with a repulsive figure on it that they called
Jesus, I guess. And I held that thing up and
I said, this is not my Savior. This is not my savior, and it
doesn't help me in any way to look to my savior. What did you come here for this
morning? There's no palatial cathedral here. There's no bragging
on the flesh. There's no entertainment. There's
no cantatas. We don't even have a band. We
could probably put one together if we wanted to. We don't have
a... because we're looking for the
Savior. I wish the reality of that could
sink in. We're looking for the Savior.
This is where He said that He would meet with us where two
or three are gathered in His name. By His grace, we worship Him
in our hearts. We attribute worthiness unto
Him. Paul counted not himself to have
attained until he was actually in the presence of the Savior,
until he was actually risen with the Savior, and met him in the
air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord is the language
of Scripture. All of our religion is a pursuit of Christ. True
religion. It's a pursuit of Christ. It's
to cast off everything else, our filthy rags like Barnabas
did. And to pursue Christ, we labor
to enter into his rest. We look for the prince of peace
because we need that peace which passeth all understanding. In
discouragement, we look for that strength by which Christ strengthens
so that we may do all things through him. apprehend, to lay
hold of. There's a mutual lay hold of
in verse 12. Did you notice that? There's
a mutual lay hold of. I'm gonna lay hold of him for
the same reason he laid hold of me. That, redemption, salvation,
communion with God. I'm gonna lay hold of him for
the same exact reason he laid hold of me. There's an embrace
between a sinner and the Son of God. Can you imagine that?
How is that possible? who is holier than to even lay
eyes upon the Son of Man. How can that even be? Because
of verse 10. He laid down His life for me.
He died for me. And my sins are all gone. Past
ones, present ones, and future ones. He's washed them all away
in His precious blood. And that's why Paul said, I've
got to have him. I'm gonna lay hold of him and
I won't let go. Like Jacob said to the Lord in
Genesis 32, 26, I will not let you go. The Lord said, let me
go. The Lord said, let me go. And
he said, I will not let you go except thou bless me. Because He gave Himself for me,
because He first loved me, I love Him, and I've got to have Him.
That's so simple, isn't it? I can't let go. I'm gonna lay
hold of the one who laid hold of me. Herein is love, it's 1
John 4, 10, not that we love God. You wanna know what love
is? It's not your love for God. Our love for God is fickle and
pitiful, and here today and gone tomorrow. You may go after this morning
is over, you may go two weeks without giving God a thought.
And I may too. But here's what love is, that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin
offering for our sins. 1 John 4, 19. We love him because
he first loved us. That's what Paul's talking about
now. I love him He loved me first who apprehended who first in
our text in verse 12 who apprehended who? Not as though I had already
attained Either were already perfect, but I follow after if
that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended Ed
past tense of Jesus Christ. Isn't this thing so simple? It's
so simple, isn't it? The literal translation of apprehended
is to lay hold of so as to make one one's own. The Son of God said, you're mine.
And he embraced me, just like the good Samaritan who took that
dying, broken, bleeding out, sure for dead as he could be
laying in the ditch. Good Samaritan comes by, what
does he do? He lifted him up in his arms,
took him to the inn and paid his way and said, whatever he
owes, it's on me. Because he did That for me now. I'm in the business of pursuing
him And laying hold on him That's
what this is That's all this is Amen let's pray