Now we'll stay right there in
Philippians chapter 3. As Brother Jim just said, the
title of this message is The High Calling of God. It's taken from verse 14 of Philippians
3. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. One of the things that I learned
quickly on when the Lord revealed his gospel to me, his truth,
is that Christianity is not what I thought it was. It's not what
I grew up under. But in the truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ and salvation by God's grace, Christianity, true
Christianity, is what I call advanced citizenship. You know,
when I was in school, they used to teach citizenship. I don't
know if they do that now or not. They need to. But the idea behind
citizenship is where you have a lot of freedom, where you have
a lot of liberty, you have more responsibility. And that's a
good idea. And that applies to salvation
by God's grace. In verse 20 of this chapter,
Philippians 3. Paul writes this by inspiration
of the Spirit. He says, for our conversation
is in heaven. That word conversation is citizenship. And what he's talking about is
as believers, as sinners saved by grace, that's what we are,
our true citizenship is with God in Christ and not on this
earth. Often in the scripture, it portrays
believers as being aliens, not the UFO kind or anything like
that. But we're aliens, we're sojourners
in this world, we're pilgrims. This is just a journey we're
passing through on the way to eternity. But our true citizenship
is in heaven, is in God with Christ. And with that in mind,
I want us to look at this issue of the high calling of God. It
is a high calling. And from the freedom and liberty
that Christ has achieved, notice I say Christ has achieved, for
us in His obedience unto death as our surety, our substitute,
our redeemer, He's made us free. The truth has set us free. We're
free not to disobey, but free to serve. Free to serve God in
a godly way that's honoring to Him. And it's a high calling. It's so high it's above and beyond
us, apart from the grace and the spirit of God. Man by nature
cannot achieve or attain this high calling. Man stays upon
a low plane by nature. And if God leaves us to ourselves,
that's where we'll live our lives and end up. One of the telltale
signs of a spiritually dead person an unregenerate, not born again,
unregenerate person, one who is totally depraved in their
minds and hearts, is the inability to see how salvation by God's
grace, all conditioned on Christ, all based upon His work, not
ours, His righteousness imputed, charged to us, how that can motivate
a believer to strive for godliness and good works. to be like Christ. The unregenerate person harbors
the view that saved by grace means no motivation for godliness,
no motivation for good works. In fact, what it does, they see
no motivation but legal threats of punishment and loss of reward
or mercenary promises of greater rewards. It's like dangling the
religious carrot out in front of somebody. If you don't do
this, God's going to punish you. If you do this, he'll give you
something good. I've told you the story about
one of our brethren up in Ashland, Kentucky, who was talking to
a local preacher. And the local preacher was purporting
rewards based upon our obedience, which the Bible does not teach.
I'm not going to go into that this morning. Because our reward
is Christ. It's a reward of grace. And the
preacher told him, he said, well the only reason I preach is because
I want better rewards. Now that's an example of the
low calling of a sinner who doesn't know the truth. That's the opposite
of the high calling of God. But they don't see any other
motivation. That's why in Romans chapter six, you know, Paul anticipates
the question when he's talking about how all of our salvation
from its inception to its glorification, is all by grace, not conditioned
upon us, but conditioned upon Christ, who fulfilled all the
conditions, all the requirements, all the stipulations, to secure
the entire, complete, perfect salvation of all His people.
And they say, well, then shall we sin that grace might abound? And Paul said, God forbid. How
shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? Well,
how am I dead to sin? I'm still a sinner. You all know
that. You've been around me. I know the truth. I'm not trying
to pretend to be what I'm not. But you are too. I've been around
you. You're sinners too. We all are. So how can we say we're dead
to sin? Only in this way. Sin cannot condemn us. It cannot
condemn us. And it cannot be charged to us.
Why? Because of God's grace through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins,
if you're a believer, your sins were imputed, charged, accounted
to Christ. God cannot charge them to you.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, where there's risen again,
seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without work. God looks upon me as righteous,
not because of some fake issue. but because I stand before him
washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness.
And I sing that song from the heart, what can wash away my
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And it does wash away my sins. He paid the debt, all of that.
So Paul says, how can we who are dead to sin live any longer
therein? You see, the salvation in the
eyes or in the heart or in the mind of an unregenerate person. Now understand what I mean when
I say unregenerate. They're not born again. They don't believe. They're
unbelievers. Salvation must be conditioned on them in some way,
at some stage, to some degree. And they measure righteousness
and holiness on a sliding scale of human morality and sincerity
and determination. But how do we measure righteousness?
In Christ. The Bible says in Acts 17 31,
God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath appointed in that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he raised him from the dead. And what does
that tell us? That tells us, listen, that no
matter how good we try to be, and we should try to be good.
There's no argument there. We should try to be the best
person, best people we can be in every area of life. But we're
still gonna fall short in ourselves of the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And that's why Paul wrote in
Romans 5.21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, an unregenerate person
doesn't understand how God works by his grace and power to justify
us by Christ, to give us life from the dead, a new heart, to
motivate us by his grace. Let me read you a passage from
the Old Testament. This is a prophecy from the prophet
Ezekiel. concerning the New Covenant.
And the New Covenant is the covenant of grace and salvation that was
accomplished in the obedience unto death of Christ. It's what
we call a unilateral covenant, not a bilateral. In other words,
it wasn't a covenant where God said, I'll do this if you'll
do that. That's a bilateral covenant.
When you get a job, you're under a bilateral covenant. Your employer
says, I'll give you this much money if you'll do this much
work. But now the covenant of grace, the new covenant, which
is the everlasting covenant of grace, is not a bilateral, it's
a unilateral covenant. God says, I'll do this and you
will do that. And Ezekiel prophesied of it
in Ezekiel 36. Listen to this, this is Ezekiel
36 verse 24. God says, I'll take you from
among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and
bring you into your own land. The spiritual application of
that is to his people in the church, God's elect. He says,
then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, that's the blood of
Christ, and you'll be clean. I'm gonna do this and you will
be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols, I'll
cleanse you. Listen to this in verse 26, a new heart also will
I give you, a new mind, a new affections, a new will, a new
desire. And a new spirit will I put within
you, new life, spiritual life. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, that hard heart that won't bend in
humility. that won't submit to God's way.
And I will give you a heart of flesh that is one that's pliable,
one that's bendable. And he says, and I will put my
spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. This
is God's word. And you shall keep my judgments.
Now does that mean we're gonna keep the law perfectly? No, it
means we're gonna believe his word. We're gonna follow his
word. We're gonna believe his gospel. and do them, and you
shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you
shall be my people, and I'll be your God." That's spiritual
Israel. Paul, the apostle, shows us how
this operates in a believer's life, not to earn salvation,
not even to be righteous by our works before God, because we
cannot attain that. The best you can do will not
equal the righteousness you must have before God. But Paul shows
us how this operates in a believer's life by a greater and nobler
motive of grace. The motive of gratitude, huh? Thank you, Lord. The motive of
love. Serve the Lord because you love
him. Realize what he's given you. And even the natural man
can see that in some aspects, not under salvation. It's like
I tell you all the time, take a breath right now. Take your
next breath. I know you're doing it because you... Do you know
that's a gift from God? That next breath you take? And
do you know this, you didn't earn it and you didn't deserve
it? That's a picture of grace, isn't it? Paul writes in Romans
7 verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ. Dead to the law means the law
cannot condemn us for our sins. How do we get dead to the law?
By the body of Christ. That you should be married to
another, wedded to Christ by faith in him, even to him who's
raised from the dead, that we should what? Bring forth fruit
unto God. There's fruit in this thing of
grace. We don't produce it. We just
bear it. That's what we do. Christ spoke
of that in John 15 when he said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Well, look back at our text.
Verse 12, he says, not that I'd already attained. Not as though
I'd already attained. Not as though I either were already
perfect. What perfection is he talking
about? He's talking about final glory.
Look back up at verses 10 and 11. He says, that I may know
him, that's Christ, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his sufferings and be made conformable unto his death. He's
talking about final glory. When we leave this body, this
vile body, and we're transformed as he described in 1 Corinthians
15. into a glorified body, a glorified
person, no sin within us, no sorrow, no sickness, no pain. Do you think that's pie-in-the-sky
religion? Or as Karl Marx said, do you
think that's the opiate of the people that make you feel good?
I believe it's the word of God. I believe it's as true as I'm
standing behind this pulpit this morning. We're gonna be resurrected
unto a glorious body. He says in verse 11, if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. So
when he talks about perfect here, he's talking about that resurrection
of the dead, which will bring us to perfection, completeness,
a finished work within ourselves. And so he says, I haven't attained
that yet. But then he says in verse 13, Or verse 12, he says,
but I follow after if that I may apprehend or lay hold of that
for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. I want to lay
hold of Christ because he's laid hold of me. I want to know him, Paul says.
I want to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. We receive it by faith. And so he says in verse 13, brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. In other
words, listen, it's kind of like this, and this may sound contradictory,
but it's not. It's I'm perfect, yet I'm imperfect.
Well, what do you mean by that? Well, to understand this, we
have to understand what Paul had already attained and what
he had not yet attained. He says, not as though I have
already attained. What's he talking about? Perfection,
the resurrection of the dead. But there are things that believers
have already obtained, we might say, by the grace of God. And here's what it is. I'm already,
legally, objectively, as righteous as I will ever be, not in me,
but in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my surety. Think about it
like a debt. If you owe a lot of money and
you can't pay it, somebody steps in and says, I'll be surety for
you, put your debt on my account, I'll repay it. That's what Christ
did for his people. He paid our debt in full. We
sing a hymn, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. He paid the
debt. My sin debt. Often in the Bible,
sin is represented as a debt that we owe to God's law and
justice. We can't pay it. That's why salvation is by grace.
Talking to a man one time about that, and he said, well, what
does God require? I said, He requires perfection. And he said,
well, nobody can do that. And I said, you're right, that's
why salvation's by grace, not by works. That's why salvation
is by grace based upon the righteousness of another, and not you. That's why the gospel is the
revelation of the righteousness of God. which is Christ's obedience
unto death, the merit of his obedience unto death. It's not
the righteousness of men. Romans 3.10 says there are none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good
according to God's standard of goodness. You see, in God's mind,
you cannot measure goodness and righteousness and holiness on
a sliding scale. It won't do. God looks upon His
Son. That's where righteousness is
found. So what had Paul already attained? Well, he'd already
attained salvation, saved by the grace of God. You know, people
make fun of the idea of once saved, always saved. Well, if
God saves you, you're saved. The Bible says that Christ is
able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
Salvation, even the keeping of it, is not conditioned on us. If it were, we'd fall a thousand
times. Paul had already been justified. His sins were forgiven. By what? The blood of Christ.
That's what the Bible says. He already attained perfect righteousness
by which he was accepted and justified in God's sight, the
imputed righteousness of Christ. That's a righteousness that's
laid to our account, just like that debt. If somebody goes into
the bank and pays your debt on the account books, you don't
owe a dime. Well, Christ paid our account.
And not only did he pay our account, he gave us money to boot. His
righteousness is accounted to us. Paul had already attained
that. How did he attain it? Not by
his works, not by his will, not by his decision, but only by
the grace of God before the foundation of the world when God chose him
and gave him to Christ. Well, how did Paul know that
that was applied to him? He was brought to faith in Christ.
He believed in Christ. Do you believe in Christ? The
Christ of the Bible? He'd already attained redemption. He'd already attained the certainty
of final glory. He had not yet been glorified,
but it was certain that he'd be there. He said, for I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded, listen to this, that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. I'm not able. Salvation's not in my abilities,
not in your ability. He is able, Christ is able, to
keep that which I've committed unto him. And then he says, but it's not
already attained. What's he talking about? I'm
perfect in Christ, I'm sinless in Christ, but not in myself,
not in my own personal experience, not in my mind, my affections
and my will, within myself. I'm still just a sinner saved
by grace. As we sing, only a sinner saved
by grace, only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm still a pitiful, weak vessel
in this life. Mess up. Sometimes I have some
successes in my life. That's called growth in grace
and in knowledge of Christ. But I can't even be proud over
that, because that's the work of God. Remember what Paul wrote
over back in Philippians 1 and verse 6? I'm sorry, Philippians 2 and
verse 12 and 13. He says, Wherefore, my beloved,
as you've always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, Paul, are you telling me that salvation is
by my works? No, look at verse 13. For it
is God which worketh in you both the will and to do his good pleasure.
What's he saying? Whatever success I have in obedience,
whatever growth I have in growth and grace and knowledge, I'm
not the source of it and I'm not even the power of it. It's
God. Only God gets the glory here.
You understand that? You don't get any of it. I don't
get any of it. God gets all of it. But isn't
that as it should be? For he is God. And we're not. We're not. So all my salvation
is by grace. All of it. Ephesians 1.3 says,
I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. I didn't earn, there's not one
blessing of salvation, one benefit of salvation that I can stand
before you and say, I earned that, I deserve that. It's all
of grace. Somebody told me one time, said,
that's too much grace. I said, no, that's what we sing
about. It's called amazing grace. Psalm 130 verse 3 says this,
Lord, this is a saved man talking, his name was David. He said,
Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand?
None of us. But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou should be as magnified. So here's the point. So what do I do? Realizing all this that I've
attained, not by my works, but by the grace of God in Christ.
What do I do? Do I give in to the flesh and
throw caution to the wind? And not strive? No, that's not
the purpose for which God saved me by his grace. You know why
God saves his people by his grace? That we might glorify him in
every way. And this is why we as believers
need to hear the gospel whenever we're exhorted at obedience.
When we talk about obedience and exhortations, which are encouragements
to do well, to obey, we need to hear the gospel. Why? Let
me give you these reasons. Number one, we need to glorify
God in representing Him aright and separating ourselves from
the religious world. Well, what is it that separates
us from the religious world? Let's say you give money to charity. And if you have money to give
to charity, you should do that. That's a good thing in the eyes
of men. But that doesn't separate you
from the rest of the world. There's a lot of people. I know
atheists who give money to charity. What separates us? Our gospel
separates us. Matthew 5 verse 16, let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and do what? Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. The light there is not our good works. The light
is the glory of the Father in the gospel of Christ's salvation
by grace that shines on those works to show how they're acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ, and we want people to know that. I want
you to know that if you see me do an act of mercy or an act
of kindness or an act of generosity, that is not my righteousness
before God. That does not gain me points
with God. That does not earn my rewards
in heaven. My whole salvation is Christ
by the grace of God. Let the light shine on it. The
same light that exposes the good works of believers also exposes
the evil works of unbelievers. You remember those in Matthew
7 and verse 21 through 23 who stood before the Lord at judgment,
said, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we prophesied? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? We've cast out demons, only to hear him say, depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. What was their
problem? One preacher said, well, they
weren't sincere enough. Well, first of all, how do you know
that? The Bible doesn't say that. Well, they were sincere. What
were they doing? They were pleading those works
as their righteousness before God. That's the problem. I'm preaching in his name today.
But when I stand before God at judgment, is that what I'm going
to plea as my reason for entering heaven's glory? No, sir. I wouldn't
dare. I'm gonna plead Christ. I'm gonna
plead the blood of the crucified one, the Lamb of God, worthy
is the Lamb. What right do you have to enter
heaven's glory? I'll tell you what right I have,
the blood, the righteousness of my Savior, and that's it. So we need to glorify God as
we seek to obey. Secondly, we need the comfort
of assurance of God's grace in Christ. My works don't give me
any assurance of salvation. But when I do strive to obey
God, and that's what we should do. That's what Paul's talking
about here. Our hearts need to be established
with grace. knowing that our hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name,
on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
I need to be motivated by godly sorrow over my sins and my weaknesses,
and a desire to honor him for all that he's given me. And that's what establishes that
heart. Thirdly, we need to be reminded that our hope is Christ
and not in ourselves. And we do need to be reminded
of that. You say, well, I never forget
that. You better hold on to your seat sometimes. We still have the remaining presence
and corruption of sinful flesh we struggle with. A big part
of that is self-righteousness. A big part of it. And we need
to keep that at bay, that which dwells within. And that's why
Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. There's therefore now no condemnation
in him. Well, that's what Paul's saying
here in Philippians 3. He says, Christ laid hold of
me. in verse 12. Now having been saved by grace,
having been justified by his righteousness imputed, having
been born of his spirit, I want to lay hold of him. I want to
reach out for him. I want to know him. He is my
life. He is my salvation. How do I
do this? By trying to establish my own
righteousness before God? No, that would dishonor him.
That's a low calling. Paul said this in Galatians 2.19,
he said, for I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, by my works,
then Christ is dead in vain. Back here in verses 13 and 14,
he says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but
this one thing I do. Now you talk about simplicity.
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. There's that advanced citizenship.
Forgetting the past. Oh my soul, listen. Dwelling
on past sins, both that I've committed and those that have
been committed against me. Dwelling on those will do me
no good. That's that low calling. When
I think of the past, the only things I want to dwell on is
this. Number one, that God does not impute my sins to me. And number two, that God has
always watched over me and he brought me to hear and believe
this gospel. I know what I am today. Reaching forth, he says,
pressed toward the mark, keeping my eyes on Christ, that's what
it means. Seeking to know more of him and
his word, striving to follow his word and to be like him in
all things. That following after, it means
running, pursuing, seeking after eagerly. reaching forth, stretching
out towards him, pressed toward, running. This is no casual life. This is a struggle. And the mark,
he says, the mark for the prize, what is the mark? Well, that's
perfect conformity to Christ. The goal that we find in Christ,
nothing less. That's why we're so thankful
for our salvation by His grace, our justification before Him
in Christ. And this is what keeps us humble,
knowing that even our best, we still fall short, but we're still
assured of the glory that God has for us because Christ does
not fall short. His righteousness is perfect. Oh, I'll tell you, this is a
high calling. Back down in verse 15, he talks about walking in
agreement. Listen to this. Let us therefore as many as be
perfect, finished, be thus minded. And if in anything you be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal this even to you. He may be revealing
it right now to a believer. What you need to do. God's gonna
teach his people. We're continually learning. That's
what discipleship is, it's learning. Verse 16, nevertheless, whereto
we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let
us mind the same thing. Let's think alike on this. That's
what he's saying. There's no difference here between
believers. Verse 17, brethren, be followers
together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us
for an example. Paul says, follow me as I follow
Christ. Follow what I'm saying if I'm
preaching to you the word of God. And then he mentions in
parenthesis here those who are in disagreement with this. And
listen to what he says. Verse 18, for many walk of whom
I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they're
the enemies of the cross. This is serious business. Once
you put salvation or any part of it conditioned on you or any
sinner, you're an enemy of the cross. Why? Because Paul wrote in Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory, boast, have confidence,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's his person
and his work. He says in verse 19, whose end
is destruction, whose God is their belly, that's their appetites,
natural appetites, and whose glory is in their shame. who
mind earthly things. What they think is glory is actually
shame, just like those preachers in Matthew 7. Haven't we done
this and not done that? Remember the Pharisee? Thank
God I'm not like other men. That was his glory. It became
his shame. And then lastly, he puts it to
rest here. Our citizenship is in heaven.
For our conversation, citizenship is in heaven, from which also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who shall change our vile
body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
According to the working, whereby, and again, look at this, underscore
this, he is able to subdue all things to himself. He's able. It's his ability. That's a high
calling. It's not for everybody. It's
only for those whom God has called into the kingdom, given a new
heart, a new mind, a new will to glorify Him in their salvation. All right, let's turn to hymn
number 127. Hallelujah, what a Savior. 127,
let's stand, we'll close with this hymn.