This morning's message comes
from Philippians chapter 3. Let me begin reading at verse
12. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been
made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which
Christ Jesus took hold of me. Now the life of faith involves
looking backward and looking forward. By faith, we look back
to the work of God's grace in our behalf. We look and see the
things that he did in eternity, in election, and in making a
covenant. We look at the things that he
did in time, in sending his son into the world, and in coming
to us by the Holy Spirit to give us eternal life and faith. We also look back to our former
life of unbelief and self-righteousness. Now we don't do this so that
we can put on some show of humility, but rather we do it so that we
can see how far God has brought us. David wrote this in Psalm
40, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined his ear,
and he heard my cry, and he lifted me out of the miry pit, and he
set my feet upon a rock. David would look back to his
condition down there in the pit and then rejoice at how far God
had brought him in bringing him out of that pit. And we also
look back so that we can praise God for his works of grace. You know, the goodness of a benefactor
is most felt when one's previous poverty is most clearly remembered. That is, if someone does something
good for us, say we were very poor and they lifted us out of
our poverty, they gave us wealth. and we were no longer impoverished.
Well, right away we're going to appreciate it, but as time
goes by, we may grow a little bit complacent about this wonderful
blessing because we forget what it was like to be poor. When
we can remember our poverty, we are more likely to praise
Him who lifted us out of our poverty. Imagine a prodigal son. I'll bet that the remembrance
of the good things in his father's house made the prodigal go home. And doubtless, the remembrance
of the misery of his wandering days kept him in his father's
house. Being told of God's grace and
goodness causes the sinner to come to Christ, and the remembrance
of how bad it was without Christ keeps him with Christ. Now by
faith, we also look forward. God-given faith turns our hearts
upward and forward, no longer living like a brute beast with
our head to the ground. That's the difference between
four-footed animals and us two-footed ones. Four-footed animals, they
always live with their eyes down, like dogs. And Paul spoke of
dogs in chapter 3, verse 2. Watch out for those dogs. And
he was talking about legalists there. He's talking about those
who think they have eternal life because of the good things they've
done. Well, they're like dogs, and one of the ways they're like
dogs is they sniff around for vile things and eat up that which
is dead and disgusting. And that's the way it is with
natural brute beasts. That's the way it is with natural
man. But by the grace of God, all of his people are called
to look upward and forward to the things which yet come. While
we live our lives on earth, we are ever straining toward heaven. Later on in chapter 3 Paul says
our citizenship is in heaven. The old song says this world
is not my home I'm just passing through. That's the way it is
for every believer. We live looking forward to what
comes ahead. Now Paul says Christ took hold
of me. This is his look back. Now salvation begins with an
arrest. Christ took hold of me. Before
we were born Christ took hold of us in the covenant of the
gospel. Realize that everything that happens on earth was first
purposed by God, and nothing happens outside of His sovereign
purpose. And that includes the salvation
of sinners. Before God ever made stars, before
God ever created the heavens and the earth, He chose out a
people for the glory of His name, and He determined that they would
be with Him and that they would behold His beauty, behold His
glory, and love Him and enjoy Him forever. So before we were
born, Christ took hold of us. He agreed with the Father, covenanted
with the Father to save God's chosen people. And then Christ
took hold of us in this world. He took hold of us in the fulfillment
of that gospel covenant. That is, when Christ came here
to this world, He came certainly as Jesus Christ, yet He came
as the substitute of God's people. And everything that He did, He
did as them. That is, they are credited with
doing it. They are credited with His perfect
righteousness. You know, the Scriptures teach
us that Christ did no sin, in Him is no sin, He thought no
sin, desired no sin. Now, you and I are full of sin,
aren't we? But if we are in Christ Jesus,
then when Christ came to this earth, he took hold of us. as it were, and everything that
he did is credited to our account. The scriptures say the books
will be opened and men will be judged out of the book, the record
of what they've done. Well, do you want to be judged
on even the very best thing you did? Do you think you've ever
done anything, one single item, with which God could be pleased
and give you everlasting life? Certainly you don't believe that.
Therefore, how is it you're going to have a record in the books
that you may be judged by and still have God's favor. It's
simply this. The record of the Lord Jesus
Christ is written under the name of every one of God's elect.
Whatever He did is written down as though we did it. And then
He died. As our Lord left Jerusalem and head for the cross, He swept
with His mighty arm and drew all His people to Him and hid
them within His bosom. Just like God put Noah in the
ark, so were God's people put in Christ, they were laid hold
of by Christ, and He went to the cross bearing them, bearing
their sins, and when they died, He died. Just as we died in Adam,
we die in Christ and are made alive in Christ. So Christ took
hold of his people in the fulfillment of the covenant of grace. But
Paul has something else in mind when he says Christ laid hold
of me, Christ arrested me. He's talking about when Christ
arrested him on the road to Damascus. Now this entire chapter, even
the entire book of Philippians is about the experience of the
life of faith. It was never intended that we
should merely be believers in abstract points of doctrine.
rather that we should experience the grace of God and live out
the doctrine we believe. Now Paul had a way, he had a
truth, he had a life. We find out about that beginning
in verses 4. This was Paul's way, truth, and
life. He says, �If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put
confidence in the flesh, I have more, circumcised on the eighth
day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal,
persecuting the church, as for the righteousness of the law,
faultless.� Now Paul had a way, and his way was his own righteousness. That was his way to God. He had
a truth, and his version of the truth was this, that a man obtains
the favor of God by the works of his own righteousness. He
had a life. He had the life of a man given
over. to religious and legalistic righteousness
or the righteousness of the law. He had these things, a way, truth
and the life. But God stopped him, Christ arrested him, Christ
laid hold of him because Christ would be his way, Christ would
be his truth, Christ would be his life. On the road to Damascus
Christ arrested him sometime in the life of every one of God's
elect. He stops them on their way and
turns them around. Note how dramatic. this change
is. People talk about a dramatic
change in the life of someone whom God saves. There he is,
but it's not the change that most religionists think it is.
It may not have a great big effect on his outward life right away.
We hope over time he would become more gracious, a believer will
become more gracious, more loving. But that may or may not occur
right away. But here's an instantaneous change in every one of God's
people. In verse 7 Paul said, �But whatever
was to my prophet I now consider loss.� for the sake of Christ. That is, what he once considered
to be a help to him in the weight of God, now is to him hindrance. Now is to him, he sees it for
what it really was, it was holding him back from God. What he thought
would bring him life was bringing him death. What he thought would
get him to heaven was taking him to hell. He says everything
that I used to put in the assets column I have now put in the
liabilities column. Now that's a dramatic change.
You know it's not hard to get a person to repent of their sins,
what is hard to get them to repent of is their righteousness. Everybody
listening to me has a righteousness. Now your righteousness may be
that God-given righteousness, the righteousness of the gospel.
With the Old Testament prophets you may say, ìIn the Lord alone
have our righteousness and strength.î But everybody else has something
they have done that they consider to be their righteousness. In
fact, their righteousness might simply be that they haven't done
some of the worst things. Well, at least I've never killed
anybody. I've never committed adultery. I've never stolen.
That's their righteousness. I can tell you what your righteousness
is. I can tell you how to figure out what it is. What is it that
if it were taken away from you, it would make you think that
you were lost? It would make you fear for your eternal salvation. Is it your infant sprinkling?
Is it your church? Is it a profession you made on
a certain day? Is it religious feelings? Is it how many Bible
verses you've remembered? Is it the fact you're a preacher
or a Sunday school teacher or you play the piano at church?
If these things were taken away from you, would you feel that
you were lost? What about the fact that you've
not committed a sin? It may be you never did commit
adultery, at least outwardly. Well, what if you did? Would
that make you think that you were lost? Then, my friend, Your
self-righteousness has become your righteousness before God,
and you are without God and without hope in the world. Paul says,
what I used to count gain, I now count loss. What I used to consider
a help and good, I now consider a hindrance and evil. That's
the dramatic change in a believer. Now the outward circumstances
of this arrest may differ from one person to another, but some
things are the same for all. Let me list for you seven things
that are the same for everyone whom Christ arrests. Number one,
it is Christ that lays hold of them. They're not laid hold of
by their parents or the priest or the pastor or the church.
They're not laid hold of by doctrine. It's Christ lays hold of them.
You see, this is something only Christ can do. Only Christ has
the power to stop a self-righteous sinner. Secondly, each one is
laid hold of individually. God doesn't save groups. He may
save a whole lot of individuals at the same time, but He saves
each one of them individually. You can't get into heaven in
a group. You can't sneak in with a crowd.
It's going to come down to you and Christ. It's going to come
down to a confrontation between the Savior and you. And if he
does not, by his sovereign grace, defeat you and arrest you, then
you are lost forever. Thirdly, each one arrested by
Christ are confronted with a rebellion, especially as it is expressed
against Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ said, �Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?� You see, our sin is not just
against the law. Our sin is not just against our
moms and dads or against the neighbor or whatever. Our sin
is against God. The psalmist said, against you and you alone
have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Everyone sees
his sin as against Christ. Fourthly, each one arrested by
Christ is rendered powerless by Christ. Now, I cannot render
you powerless. I don't have the power to make
you bend. Christ does. He can lay a hold
of your shoulder and you can stop, and if you don't stop,
He can grasp it, He can squeeze, He can make you buckle. Every
one of God's people are rendered powerless by the Lord Jesus Christ,
powerless to resist. Fifthly, each one hears the gospel.
There's no salvation apart from hearing the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. of hearing about his righteous
life and his substitutionary death on the cross. If your salvation
is not the result of hearing the word of truth, then you have
no salvation. Sixthly, everyone arrested by
Christ prays. When Paul was arrested by Christ,
afterward he went on to Damascus and there the Lord Jesus Christ
shut him up in a room, so to speak, and he prayed. The scriptures
say everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Not just everyone that cries, not everyone that feels
bad about their sin, everyone that calls. Don't let anybody
deprive you of that blessed promise. Salvation comes through calling
on the name of the Lord. And seventh, each person arrested
by Christ bows to him as Lord. It is nonsense and it's spiritual
murder when preachers say. that a man may receive Christ
as Savior on one day and then later on receive Him as Lord. He is to be bowed to His Lord
and received as Savior. Paul said, Lord, who art thou? Whoever it was arrested him,
that was Lord. And if you're ever arrested by
Christ, you'll own Him as Lord. May God give you grace to do
just that.