Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter three. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book. Isn't it been a wonderful book
to study? It's just been amazing. This epistle written by Paul
to the saints at Philippi from Rome, when he's under house arrest. The name of the message is running
the race. Running the race. Now we hear
something like that, or people hear something like that, and
they think, oh, something I gotta do. But you know, this run in the
race, we're empowered by God, the Holy Spirit, to keep on keeping
on. He's the author and the finisher
of our salvation. Now, do we actively seek Christ?
Yes, we do. And we're going to see Paul does
something that we grace preachers always do. He's going to set
Christ ahead of us. And the analogy is of a Greek
runner, a Greek runner, striving to get to the finish line. And
what, remember last week I said if you look back, what happens?
We slow down, right? We slow down. So we're not to
look back in the past, except for to see how God's delivered
us. But we're not to let our past
sins weigh us down. Because a runner will be as light
as they possibly can. Their clothes will be light,
Their shoes will be light. Everything about running is less
weight is better. So when Paul says, forgetting
the things of the past, he's saying, don't let your past sins
hinder you from running the race, which is looking to Christ. Because
he's the prize, right? The finish is Christ. We see
through a glass darkly right now, but then face to face, oh,
it's wonderful. Let's read verses 10 to 15 of
Philippians chapter 3. Our main verse will be verse
13, the latter part of verse 13, and verse 14. But verse 14 we'll just touch
lightly. Verse 10, that I may know him. that being Christ, in the power
of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, so sinless perfection is starting
to creep in. So he's dealing with that right
away, isn't he? We are not perfect in this flesh. In God's eyes,
he sees us in Christ, but while we're in this flesh, we're sinners.
There will be a day, though, when we won't sin ever again,
when we're taken up to the glory. But I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. We're being conformed to the
image of Christ by God, the Holy Spirit. Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended." So further up, he talked about
the resurrection. So he says, I'm not perfect and
I've not been resurrected yet, but I will be perfect when I'm
resurrected. Or since we die, we're going
to be in the presence of the Lord. We'll never sin again.
Isn't that wonderful? It's beautiful. It's absolutely
beautiful. And then he says, brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. Now, notice this.
I love this. Remember, he's giving us the
picture of a runner, right? And he says, the one thing I
don't do as the runner running the race is look back. I don't let my past sins hinder
me. You know why? Because they're
all under the blood of Christ. They're washed away, forgiven
totally. Oh my, that's wonderful. I'll
tell you, forgetting the things that which are behind, and look
at this, in reaching forth for those things which are before. Notice that, forgetting the sins
of his past. Because remember, he wasted the
church. He killed Christians. He cast them into jail. If he kept thinking about that,
that would hinder him. And we know it weighed heavy
on him. But now he's saying, I have to
forget those things. I have to leave them in the past. And the past is the past. We
all have a past, right? We don't want to live in the
past. We're pressing forward, looking to Christ. What encouragement
here. What encouragement here. 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. That doesn't mean that he's seeking
salvation by what he does, not at all. Brother Travis, this
means he's looking to Christ, doesn't it? He's keeping his
eye on the finish. He's keeping his eye on Christ.
What happens when we get our eyes off Christ? We start to get anxiety and stress
and worry and all these things. I like what you said. Charlie
came in, he says, man, Wayne, there was a verse that just struck
me this week. For Christ is our peace. Oh! Hallelujah! What a Savior is Jesus Christ
our Lord! In the midst of all the stuff
going on in the world, Christ is our peace. In the midst of
the things going on in our life, Christ is our peace. No matter
what. We can look to Him and have peace.
And that's a light. We are going to spend our whole
life here on this earth looking to Him for peace. Because we're
flesh. We're flesh. Oh my. I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us
therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if anything
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. So
last week we looked at verse 13, where we saw that Paul was
not governed by his past. I've talked to people who their
past haunts them. Paul's past didn't haunt him.
He knew what he did was wrong. He knew he was a sinner in desperate
need of Christ, but he wasn't governed by his past. That's
a good lesson for us to learn, isn't it? See, again, people
say, well, you guys don't teach practical Christian living. This
is practical Christian living. But it's centered on Christ.
You see? There's a difference. It's not
centered on us. It's centered on Christ. Right? Look into Him. So He says, I'm
not going to let my past hamper me. I'm not going to walk around
in depression and doom and gloom for the things that I did in
my past. Christ forgave me. And we can all look in our past,
and we could be haunted with our past, couldn't we? Just in
our thought, our thought sins. Praise God, it's all under the
blood. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's
veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. And we say, hallelujah, what
a Savior is Jesus Christ, our Lord. My My, oh my, what a Savior,
what a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord. So He did not let His
past sins hamper His usefulness, because that's what can happen.
Our past can sometimes paralyze us. But if we're forgiven, let us
move forward. Let us keep our eyes on Christ,
no matter what, no matter how heinous our sin was. It's under
the blood, beloved. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Amen, my brothers and sisters.
Amen. I'll pass over you. And that's the blood of Christ.
My. Some people look over their past
and see great failures. We can all do that. Right? We've all had that. Some people
look back and see terrible acts of sin. We've all done that.
We can be paralyzed by memory, but beloved children of God,
let us rest in the fact that the past is the past. We can't
change it, can we? No, not at all. And it's all
forgiven under the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
born-again, blood-washed people. You know how God views it? Think
of this. How does he view the born-again,
blood-washed saint's sin? Your sins and iniquities I will
remember no more. And that's from a covenantial
aspect, isn't it? And Christ is our surety in the
covenant, isn't he? They're under the blood. Remember
the scapegoat? He was taken by a fit man, taken
into the wilderness. And then the fit man returned
without the scapegoat. The scapegoat carried all those
sins off into the wilderness. Christ is both the scapegoat
and the fit man. Oh my! Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. So let us not dwell or stew over
our past. And think of this. Let us not
act as if our transgressions are greater than God's mercy. Right? Because we start stewing
over something we did. Is God's grace greater than that
sin? Oh, yeah. It is, isn't it, brother
John? It is, my dear brothers and sisters.
So let us not act as if our sin is greater than the grace of
God. We're great sinners to our shame,
but Christ is a great Savior. And God's grace covers all our
sins and transgressions. Isn't that wonderful? I read
that and I said, I got to put that in the message. That's so
wonderful. That's so wonderful. Oh my, make your heart sing,
beloved. And so here's Paul, he blasphemed
Christ, right? He persecuted the church and
wasted it. He tried to destroy it in the
Greek. But we see in our text, by God's grace, that was all
behind him. Because his sins were covered
by the blood of the Redeemer, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us. Christ came into the world,
what? To save sinners. Paul had been shown by the Holy
Spirit, just as every born-again, blood-washed child is, of God,
that we're sinners. See, the problem with a lot of
folks is they don't think they're sinners. They still are, though, aren't
they? And when God, the Holy Spirit, shows them they're a
sinner, you know what they're gonna do? And he regenerates
them? They're gonna run to Christ,
beloved, just like we did. I had somebody tell me one time,
I can't come in that church, the building will fall down.
I said, it ain't falling down, it's full of sinners. We're just
a bunch of saved sinners over there. I had one guy tell me
that. I said, no, the building won't fall down, it hasn't yet. Any excuse, eh? See, that person,
in saying that, thinks their transgression is greater than
God's grace. They don't know the grace of
God in Christ. My, we do though, don't we? We're
rejoicing, aren't we, Brother Brian? It's wonderful. This gospel is wonderful. Let's read verse 13 again. Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended but this One thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind. And then look what he says now.
In reaching forth unto those things which are before. Now,
we're not to forget God's deliverance of us from the bondage of our
sin. We're to forget, we're not to
let our past sins hinder us in the race. We're not to let them
haunt us. Now, have you ever had the Lord
bring to memory something that you've done in the past and right
away you say, Lord, please forgive me for that? I'm not talking
about that. That's sometimes you bring remembrance
of things we did, we totally forgot. And right away we go, oh, Lord,
please. We know we're already forgiven, but see, that's just,
that's, we're still repenting before God, right? It doesn't
change our status with God. We're saved. We're born again.
But the Holy Spirit will bring remembrance sometimes, and we
just confess it, right? If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. It's wonderful. I like what Henry
said, where we, how did he say it? We've repented, and we continue
to repent. We continue to come to Christ
through the Christian life, and we do. It's not a one-time thing,
is it? It's all the time. Oh, my. And remember this, God
says this in Exodus 13, 3, and this is good for us, too, because
Him taking Israel out of Egypt is a picture of us being taken
out of the spiritual bondage of this world. He says this to
the Israelites. Remember this day in which ye
came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage? We were in
the house of the bondage of sin. You know what I mean? You come out of bondage. For
by the strength of the hand, the Lord bought you out from
this place. Oh! That's, if you want to write
that down, that's Exodus 13, 3. So we were in darkness. And by the strength of the Lord's
hand, my dear brothers and sisters, he took us out of the bondage
of sin, took us from the slave block of sin, as we saw on Wednesday
night, delivered us by his precious redeeming blood. What's that
verse right before? He is our peace, right? We're
made nigh by the blood of Christ in Ephesians 2.13. Nigh by the
blood of Christ. And now He's our peace. Oh, it's
wonderful, isn't it? It all goes back to our King,
doesn't it? It all goes back to our King. My, and as we were
talking about, Sister D, we're just a bunch of sinners saved
by grace, getting together here and rejoicing over our Redeemer. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Beloved, in the word of God,
we're told to remember what we are by nature. We're sinners. That's what we are. To remember
where we were when God saved us. In Isaiah it says, never
forget the rock you were hewn from. Don't forget where you
came from. Don't forget where you came from.
We came from the quarry of humanity. My dad used to take me to big
stone pits. He used to work on trucks at the stone pits and
all that. And I looked down, oh my, you see all the way down
there. And they would quarry rocks and
stone out of that. out of that, or they would harvest
rocks and stones out of that quarry. We're, humanity is the
quarry. And you know, we're called living
stones. Isn't that amazing? This one's mine, the Lord says. But we're all from the same quarry.
And the only one who made you and I to differ is the God of
the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love that, and
listen to this again in Exodus 13, 3. "'For by the strength
of the hand of the Lord, Jehovah, "'bought you out from this place.'"
We cannot save ourselves. But praise God, Christ is a great
saviour of sinners. He came to save sinners. Paul
says, "'Of whom I'm chief.' We say, "'Paul, I think I'm the
chief too.'" But doesn't matter, does it?
We're all sinners saved by grace. That's what I said to that fella,
right? When he said, oh, the roof will fall down. No, it didn't
fall down because we're a whole bunch of sinners saved by grace
in there. You don't have to worry about the roof falling down.
Oh my. And may God, the Holy Spirit,
consistently bring to our memories this marvelous, amazing grace
and the fact that He has delivered us from our sins. Like, we are
totally forgiven, beloved. 100% pardoned. We have absolute security. Remember
that message? Absolute security in Christ,
beloved. And because of His perfect sin-atoning
work, That's amazing. And nothing will stir up our
hearts and our minds so effectively. Nothing can motivate and govern
our lives than the remembrance of the redemption and grace that
we have received in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
that's why you always hear me say the love of Christ constrains
us from sin. Because when we remember what
Christ done for us, right? That restrains us. My, think
of how we could be if the Lord just let us go. Oh my goodness,
I don't even, I know my own sinfulness, even
as a saved man. Well, actually, I don't know
the total depths of it, but I have a little understanding. Because
I don't think we really totally understand the depths of sin.
It's, I think it was John Owen did an article on the sinfulness
of sin. He's laid it bare. My. So nothing will stir our hearts
up. Brother Brian, don't we get excited when we hear the gospel
preached? It stirs our hearts up. We're redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. Tell me more. Tell me more about
what Christ done for me. And believers never tire of that,
do we? You ever notice it never gets
old? You can hear it from a different text in a different place here.
It never gets old. We're like, that's marvelous. It's amazing. And that's the
Holy Spirit of God teaching us the things of Christ. Oh, it's
wonderful. Remember that thou was a bond
man in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. We were servants to sin. We were bondmans to sin in the
land of Egypt, which is a picture of this world. So the Israelites
were slaves in Egypt. Look at this. And the Lord thy
God, that's Jehovah Elohim in the Hebrew. That's the self-existent one
and the strong and mighty one, hath redeemed. Praise my name, right? Tell me
more. Tell me more. Oh. So let us always remember that
God the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, has bought us into
the glorious liberty, which is freedom, because we were slaves,
now we're free in Christ, of the sons of God, all according
to his will and purpose. We are saved on purpose. Let that, let that, let that
just marvel us this week. We are saved on purpose according
to the will of God. My, and we are bought into the
grace of God by his omnipotent grace, his all powerful grace,
his all powerful mercy. Oh, it gets better and better,
doesn't it? Let's read verse 13 and 14 again
in Philippians chapter 3. Now Paul's using again an illustration
in this section. He's been using an illustration
of a Greek runner running a race and comparing it to the Christian
life. And the race begun when the Lord saved us by his grace
and keeping power. And he will have us finish the
race when we are before him in glory.
Look at verse 13 and 14. And that's all by his power,
too. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but 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 high... Why do I keep wanting to say
hi there? For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. So we see here, salvation from
beginning to end is of the Lord and everything in between. Remember
earlier in our flipping study, we looked at the Greek word which
meant to energize us like batteries. That all comes from the Holy
Spirit of God, beloved. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. So salvation from beginning to
end is of the Lord. And we say, praise the mighty
name of Jesus. Praise the Lord for this. It's He who saved us
all from our sins by His perfect sin-atoning work. Look at verse
13 again. Look at the latter part of this
verse. And reaching forth unto those
things which are before. See the words reaching forth
there? They are from another Greek athletic term which describes
the runner whose eye outstrips his hands and his feet. I had
to think about that for a little while. So what it is, is he's
looking to the prize, even though his hands and feet haven't got
there. I had to sit there for 10 minutes,
beloved, and let that sink in, because I was, what is going
on? And then it clicked. Yeah, it's
like, even those guys that jump over those things, right? They're
not even looking at those things hard. They see them in their
lower peripheral, and they jump over. Their eyes on the prize.
Their eyes on the end. Isn't that neat? So let us, what's
that tell us? Let us keep our eyes on Christ,
even though we haven't got there yet. We'll just keep, isn't that
wonderful? Oh, it's so, it's so amazing.
And again, that's practical Christian living. That's just living the
Christian life. We're running this race of the
Christian life, and our eyes are looking way before looking
to Christ, and we ain't even got there yet, but we just keep
looking. Oh, Lord, you're there. I'm gonna see you face to face.
I was so thrilled when I saw that. It's just wonderful. Just wonderful. And then the words, The words
also mean to stretch forth after. So the eyes on the finish line,
even though they've not reached the finish line, again, let us
keep our eyes looking to Christ. In Colossians chapter three,
it says this in verses one to three. I thought this was very
fitting for this. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. where Christ is on the right
hand of God. Set your affection, that's your heart and your mind,
on things above, not on things in the earth. So we're looking
to glory, we're looking to our King, even before we got there,
before we get there. For ye are dead, dead to the
world, alive in Christ. And your life, listen to this,
your life is hid. with Christ in God. Ah. Now turn, if you would, to Hebrews
12. And we're going to look at this little section here. Hebrews
12. Got enough time. Good. Hebrews
12. We'll read verses 1 to 2 in Hebrews
12. I found this in the cross references
as I was studying for this message, and I thought, oh, this is so
fitting, especially for the text that we're in. especially about
reaching forth unto those things which are before, and running
the race. Look at this, Hebrews 12, 1 and
2. Look at that. Now, several of the commentators
said the sin here he mentions is unbelief, which plagues every
believer. Which plagues every believer.
Right? We all doubt. We all have times of unbelief.
He's saying, and I believe this is Paul, right? He said, look
at how similar it is to Philippians 2. Lay that all aside. Because if you're running a race,
it'll hinder us, right? Oh, I love it. I love it. Let
us lay aside every weight so sin can be weighed. and the sin
which does so easily beset us. I was thinking that if that is
unbelief, it does easily beset us, doesn't it? Because what
happens when something happens in our life? What's the first
thing we do? Oh, my wife, she's wonderful. And
we remind each other, God's in control. You keep preaching that,
oh yeah, yeah. Thank you for reminding me, because
we need to be reminded, don't we? Every one of us belong. Oh, look at this. And the same
which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. Look at this. Here it is. Looking. OK, so before we even reach the
finish line. Looking unto Jesus. This is wonderful. the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him, look at that,
the joy that was set before him, he's dying on the cross, but
he went willingly and joyfully because he's purchasing his bride
with his precious blood. Oh, for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is incredible. My, now the great cloud of witnesses,
they're the men and women of the faith who've gone before
us. They're the ones who've gone before us. And again, we see
in this text, just like in Philippians 3.13, we're to lay aside the
weights. We're to lay aside everything
that is a hindrance to running the Christian race. whether it
be worldly cares, riches, worldly companions, involvements that
take our interest and concern from Christ. Anything that the world would
distract us with. There's a lot to distract us in this world.
There really is. And when a runner is in a race,
again, I know I mentioned this earlier, he don't wear heavy
clothing, right? I don't wear, if I'm running a race, I'm not
gonna wear my winter parka. Because I'm going to be watching
everybody else run ahead of me. I can't run very fast anyways,
so everybody would probably run ahead of me anyways. But I'd
still keep my eye on that finish line. So what do we do? They
wear shorts and a light t-shirt, a little sign if they're in a
race, right? That's even light. It's just real light. Running
shoes, socks, that's about it. There's water on the side that
they can grab, drink, and they toss that away too, don't they?
Oh, yeah. So when a runner's running a
race, he doesn't all wear any heavy clothes or shoes, which
only serve to slow him down. So let us lay aside the sin that
clings to us. Lay it aside. It's under the
blood. It's under the blood. And this may be a particular
sin when it says the sin there. Again, I believe, along with
the commentators, that it's the sin of unbelief, because we are
so easily beset with that. So easy. But it could be something
else or somebody else. Think of any sin that easily
besets you. We have millions, don't we? My. And if it's unbelief, if it's
any sin, Our goal is to look to Christ and not let that sin
hinder us, beloved, but to run the race with patience, patient
endurance, and active persistence. See, we're not robots, are we?
No. Now let's look at verse 14. Paul writes, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. My, over there in Hebrews 12
too, if you want to go back there we can, but we are told to look
away from that which would hinder us. We've been told that already
in Philippians 3.13 as well, haven't we? Now, we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, we've never seen him, but with the natural
eye, but we look to him with spiritual eyes, don't we? And
we know he's real. We know it. Who is he? Well, he's our Savior. He's Jesus. He's the Christ. He's the Messiah,
sent by God, appointed and sent by the Father to be our Redeemer,
to be our representative, and to ransom our eternal souls. by the shedding of His precious
blood, and He's our mediator between God. He's also the author
and finisher of our faith. It's not in us to believe God.
It's not in us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But by
God's grace and spirit, He leads us to believe. He gives us faith
and repentance before God. And now what do we do? We believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a miracle. That's a miracle,
beloved. But it's all Him. By the grace
of God, we believe what God says about us, that we're a bunch
of sinners. And we believe what God says about Christ, that he's
the only way, the truth, and the life. And no man can come
unto the Father but by him. And we rejoice that Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners. Because that's us. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the object of our faith. Our faith has one object, and
that's Christ. He's the finisher of our faith, or the one who
brings it to maturity. Any growth we have in grace comes
from Him. Isn't that amazing? Because He
sent the Spirit, right, to minister to us the Holy Spirit of God,
and the only way we grow in grace is by Him working in us. It's
wonderful. Christ, for the joy of redeeming
his people, endured the cruel death of the cross, treating
the shame and humiliation of it. He ignored the shame and
is victorious, beloved. And the proof of his success
is that he has ascended unto the Father and is seated at the
right hand of glory, mediating for you and I, who are the born-again,
blood-washed children of God. So Paul gives us an example to
keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for the joy that is set
before us. We're heading to eternity, to
be with Christ forever, because he purchased us with his blood.
We worship him. Therefore, let us endure trials,
ignore the mocking and humiliation, and continue in the faith of
Christ. Let us, by the grace of God, press toward the mark
for the high prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Brother
Travis, can you close us in prayer?