Well, I want you to take God's
Word, and I want you to turn with me to the book of Philippians,
Philippians chapter 3. And today, I want to look at
verses 12 through 14 with you. The title that has been assigned
to me is, Pressing On. And in Philippians 3, beginning
in verse 14, I want to first read the text that we will be
digging into. And this is God's inspired, inerrant,
and infallible Word. The Apostle Paul writes, not
that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect,
but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I
was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. I do not regard myself as having
laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies
behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. There are many pictures that
are used in the Bible that represent what it is to be a believer in
Jesus Christ. A picture is worth a thousand
words. And there are many different
pictures of what it is to be a believer in Jesus Christ that
are found in Scripture. For example, among these pictures,
it is said that we're like a soldier. fighting the good fight. We're
like a farmer sowing the good seed. We're like a student being
discipled and taught by our Master Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are like a branch abiding
in the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ, and drawing up everything
that we need from the all-sufficiency of Christ. We're like a bride,
the very object of the affection and love and devotion of our
groom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many other such
metaphors and analogies that are used in the Scripture to
picture, represent what the Christian life is like. Other metaphors
would include we're a citizen belonging to a kingdom and living
under the laws of that kingdom. We're like a son and a daughter,
a part of the family of God, etc. And what we have in these
verses, verses 12 through 14, is one of the most prominent
metaphors used in the New Testament. It is that you and I, as believers
in Jesus Christ, are like an athlete. We're like a runner
who is running a race. And I've never been a farmer. I've never been a soldier. I've
never been a branch. I've never been a bride. Stop that. But I've been an athlete, and
I know what that looks like and feels like and smells like. And athletics is a universal
language. And every one of us here today,
whether you've been an athlete or whether you've not been an
athlete, nevertheless, you know what that looks like to be a
runner and to run the race that is set before you, in which the
start is the new birth, in which the track is the will of God. The rules are the Word of God. The requirement is obedience
to those rules from the heart. The progress is spiritual growth. And the prize is at the end of
the race, which is Jesus Christ Himself being conformed fully
into His image and being with Him forever. This is precisely
how Paul represents what it is to be a believer. And as Paul
writes these verses, he does it in an autobiographical way,
as he uses himself as the teaching tool to instruct us in what it
is to live the Christian life. A couple of years ago, one of
the major seminaries in the United States surveyed the students
upon their graduation. And after four years of being
taught systematic theology, Greek, Hebrew, exegesis, Bible exposition,
practical ministry, they were asked this one question, what
is the one thing that was most lacking in your education? And again and again, the answer
that was turned in was simply this. How do I live the Christian
life?" With all of this knowledge, and with all of this truth, and
with all of this information, there was still a struggle to
know, how do I put this into practice, and how do I live this? And I think to some extent, we
all. want a clear focus on how do
I live the Christian life. Well, what we have in these verses
is one major picture. one cut of the diamond that could
be rotated, and all these different metaphors represent some different
aspect of how to live the Christian life. But what we find in this
text is a very important contribution. So, as we look at these verses,
verses 12 through 14, there are four main headings. that I want
to set before you. This should be very easy to track
and follow with me, no pun intended. So, I want you to note first,
as we start to look at verse 12, number one, Paul made a sober
assessment. He made a sober assessment, and
he writes to begin verse 12, not that I have already obtained
it. And so we must ask the question,
what is the antecedent to it? What is the it that he has not
yet obtained? And we go back to verse 10, which
Stephen Nichols expounded for us in the last session, that
I might know Christ fully. and that the power of His resurrection
might be fully realized in my life, and that I might be fully
conformed to His death." That is what he realizes that he has
not yet obtained unto. He has not yet fully emptied
Himself like Christ emptied Himself when He laid aside His prerogatives
as God to assume the form of a bondservant in chapter 2, verse
7. emptied myself of self yet like
Christ did." I've not yet humbled myself to the lowest degree like
Christ did when He left the heights of heaven and came down into
this world, and He realizes I have not yet attained unto the obedience
unto death as Jesus did when He went to the cross. Philippians
2 verse 8. And so what Paul is saying here
is, I haven't arrived yet. I'm not there yet. I'm still in process. And this
is an amazing statement to come from one who was an apostle,
one who Christ Himself was the evangelist on the road to Damascus. who knocked him off his high
horse. The Apostle Paul that we would
arguably say is the greatest Christian who ever lived, right? And Paul, the greatest Christian,
says, I've not attained it. I'm not there yet. And if it
was true for Paul, how much more so is it true for me and for
you that we're nowhere near where we need to be in our Christian
growth and development. There's still so much more of
Christ that we must experience in our own personal lives. And then he gives a second denial,
and he says, or have already become perfect. He says, I certainly
have not hit that mark yet. And the reason he says perfect
is because Paul once thought he was blameless before God. And that really refers us back
a few verses earlier in chapter 3 in verses 5 and 6. Because Paul, as he says at the
end of verse 6, I'm blameless. before the law. He was so self-deceived
as a Pharisee, he thought he had arrived with God. He thought
he was a spiritual elitist, and that he had surpassed everyone
else in Israel. It says in verse 5, you'll note
in chapter 3, Paul said he was circumcised the eighth day. He
had the right beginning. that he was of the nation Israel,
he had the right nationality, he was of the tribe of Benjamin,
he had the right family pedigree, he was a Hebrew of Hebrew. You
can't be any more Hebrew than that. He had the right upbringing. As to the law of Pharisee, he
had the right standard. As to zeal, a persecutor of the
church, he had the right passion. As to the righteousness which
is in the law, found blameless, he had the right morality. Paul
had assumed that he had arrived as a Pharisee until he met the
standard. the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
was no longer comparing himself with someone else in Israel who
was a little bit behind him in his Phariseeism. Now, in this
moment when he met Christ, he compared himself to Christ, and
his only conclusion was, I am the chief of sinners, that he
had fallen far short. And so Paul, as he's now living
his Christian life, Paul now realizes, I've only just begun
the race. I've only just begun to become
more like Jesus Christ. And there is so much more yet
for me to grow into and to experience in my life. And this is where
you and I are here today. None of us have arrived. None
of us should be on a spiritual plateau. None of us can sit back
and be content with where I am right now. There is still so
much more of Jesus Christ for us to follow, for us to emulate,
for us to trust, for us to believe, for us to become like. And that
is what Paul is saying. And if Paul says it, how much
more so is this needed in my life? So this is what Paul says
first. He gave a sober assessment. He was not self-deceived. He was not caught up in the accolades
that others would give to him. His standard was Jesus Christ,
and he realized how far he fell short. But I want you to note
second, as we are in the middle of verse 12, I want you to note
Paul gave a strenuous effort. Because when Paul realized how
much ground he must make up in becoming like Christ, it motivated
him to reach out all the more to become like his Savior. So
he writes in verse 12, but I press on. Just stop right there. For
Paul to press on, it's a Greek word. that literally means to
move rapidly and decisively after an object, to run after swiftly
in order to catch another person. I used to run track, and I know
what that's like to have another runner out ahead of me and the
baton to be put into my hand. And now that motivates me to
run faster than even if I had the lead. I'm going to catch
this person no matter what before I hand off the baton to the next
runner." And that's what Paul is feeling here, as he knows
that Christ is so far yet out ahead of him, he says that, I
press on. Interestingly enough, it's the
very same word that's used in verse 6, just to bring this to
your attention, where it says he was a persecutor of the church. A persecutor is someone who runs
after Christians in order to apprehend them and lay hold of
them and drag them before the tribunal, just like Stephen when
he was stoned to death. And so what Paul once was running
after Christians to persecute them, once he was converted,
it was a 180. God totally turned his life around,
and Paul is still running full tilt, but he's running in another
direction. Now, he's running after Christ. Now, he wants to catch up with
Christ and be as much like Christ as he can possibly be. We've
got to love this about Paul. Paul was always going full tilt
in his life. Even when he was going in the
wrong direction, he was running full tilt. But now that he's
met Christ, and his life has been turned around on the road
to Damascus, That same energy and zeal now fueled by the Holy
Spirit of God and this vision of who Christ is. He is now running
as fast as His spiritual legs will take Him after Christ. Paul pictures himself as a runner.
widening his stride in prayer, and pumping his arms in the study
of Scripture. He's accelerating his legs in
worship. He's pushing out his chest in
ministry. He's expending every ounce of
energy within him, making every effort to press on to spiritual
maturity, laboring to the point of exhaustion in his spiritual
life. holding back nothing, leaving
it all on the track of life. how this should motivate us and
stir our soul to keep pace with Paul as Paul is pursuing the
person of Jesus Christ. And then he tells us why at the
end of verse 12. He writes, which introduces an
explanation, so that I may lay hold of that for which I was
also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Now, let me give you the cause
and effect here at the end of verse 12. The cause actually
comes last. The effect is stated before the
cause. The cause is that Paul was laid
hold of by Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus sought
him, Jesus found him, Jesus ran him down. Paul wasn't looking
for Jesus. Paul was running after Christians
to persecute them. And the Lord of heaven and earth,
Jesus Christ, appeared to Paul and ran him down and laid hold
of Paul and sovereignly apprehended him and subpoenaed him and brought
him into the kingdom of heaven. Paul now says, I want to lay
hold of Christ like he once laid hold of me. Jesus was so powerful
and so full of dynamic in His pursuit of me, I must now give
my whole life and effort to run after the One who ran after me,
that I may apprehend and lay hold of the knowledge of Christ
and of fellowship with Christ. Look, what I want you to note,
there's nothing passive here about the Christian life. There's
no let go and let God. Selah. Just pause and meditate on that. There's no sitting back and waiting
for something to happen in his life. There's no dismissal of
obedience. There's no downplaying of his
personal responsibility. There's no antinomianism here. There's no just looking back
to his justification and just kind of staring at his spiritual
navel in a just pacifistic state. No, Paul is running with all
of the strength that God would give to him to run after and
pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life requires of
each and every one of us an all-out effort in spiritual disciplines
and in living the Christian life. Let me give you some verses.
1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24, using this same athletic metaphor,
Paul writes, run in such a way that you may win. Don't be a
loser. Be a winner. Run in such a way
that you may win. Run. Don't sit. Run. Don't shuffle. Run, and then
he says, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in
such a way as not beating the air. And then in verse 27, he
says, I discipline my body and make it my slave. Did you hear
that? You know what an athlete does?
An athlete tells his body what to do. An athlete tells his body
when to wake up. what to eat, when to work out,
when to go to sleep. He's not sitting back just waiting
for a feeling. I played college football. They
told me when I would wake up. They told me when I would go
to sleep. They told me when I was to show up for practice. They
told me when I was to show up for training. That's the way
an athlete lives his life. This is the way a Christian lives
his life with this all-out pursuit of Christ. We read, we must resist
temptation. We must flee immorality. We must fight the good fight. We must be diligent to present
ourselves as a workman who needs not to be ashamed. We must discipline
ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We must labor and
strive. Those two Greek words, labor
and strive, 1 Timothy 4, verse 10. The word labor means to push
yourself to the point of exhaustion, that you have no energy left,
as if they just have to carry you off the field, that you've
given your all in the pursuit of this. And the word for strive
is agonizomai. Do you hear the word agonize
in that Greek word? This is part of what it is to
live the Christian life. We must work out our salvation
in fear and trembling. Philippians 2 verse 12, we must
pray without ceasing. We must cry out for the pure
milk of the Word. These are all active verbs. that
are incumbent upon us, and many of these are in the imperative
mood, meaning it is a divine command to us to pick up our
pace, to widen our stride, to press on in this pursuit of Christ-likeness. I want to encourage you. I want
to challenge you as I would motivate and challenge myself. to discipline
yourself for godliness. When Paul said, I buffet my body,
he did not say, I buffet my body. We must buffet our body. and
make it our slave, and bring our life into submission and
subjection in spiritual disciplines like Bible study, and Bible reading,
and prayer, and worship corporately and individually, and fellowship,
and ministry, and evangelism, and missions. These are all a
part of running the race. that God has for us. I want you
to note third in verse 13. This is so important. Paul maintained
a singular focus, a singular focus. A great runner must keep
his eyes on the prize. So notice what Paul says. And
when he says, brethren, it's as if he's wanting to almost
just grab them by the lapel and pull them up. It's a way to speak
into their lives in a very emphatic and direct way. And Paul is,
as it were, he's leaning forward as he addresses this to us. I do not regard myself as having
laid hold of it yet." Here is repeating what he said in verse
12, and the it again refers to the full knowledge of Christ.
Remember 2 Peter 3.18 says that we are to grow in the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we've only had a thimble
of the ocean to this point. There is so much more of Christ
for us to know and for us to experience. This it refers to
complete conformity to Christ. There is so much more of Christ
that must be present in my life, in my attitudes, in my actions,
in my reactions, in my speech, in my priorities, all of this. I'm not there yet, and you're
not there yet." He says, I do not regard. This word regard
is a very interesting Greek word. I'm going to pronounce it because
you can hear the English word in it, logizomai, logarithms, Paul's doing the math. Paul is
calculating this. This isn't an emotional reaction. This isn't Paul just being melancholy. This is Paul having made very
careful calculation about who Christ is and where He is in
His own spiritual life. And Paul is saying, in a very
sane, realistic self-diagnosis of his own spiritual life, he
said, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. But I love what follows. But
one thing, one thing, I do. Not two things. Not three things. There's only one thing on my
agenda. Everything else takes a distant second. There is one
thing that rises to the top. that dominates my life, one supreme
goal, one highest priority, one overriding ambition that demands
my full and undivided attention, that demands my total concentration this one thing. And you'll also
find it interesting, the two words, I do, are not in the original
text. They're just supplied by the
English translators so that it'll read more smoothly in our English
Bible. But as Paul wrote this, he just
said, but one thing. It's even more direct and emphatic,
one thing. So what is this one thing? Well,
he tells us. There's a negative and a positive. That's what a master teacher
does. Negative denial past a positive assertion. So here he begins
with the negative, and then he'll move to the positive. Notice
what he says. Here's the negative. Forgetting,
and that verb means to put out of your mind. forgetting what
lies behind. Now, in this metaphor of the
athlete who is running the race of faith, any runner knows that
you can't run to the most effective ability if you're looking behind
you. Whenever I see an NFL football
game or a college football game, sometimes I'll see a receiver
catch a pass, and he's going to make it to the end zone, but
then he looks back over his shoulder, over his shoulder pads, at the
defensive back that's pursuing him, and it actually shortens
his stride, and it slows down his running, and inevitably,
he gets pushed out of bounds. You can't look back. If you're
going to run as fast as you can possibly run, and that is what
Paul is saying here. And what would he be looking
back to? Past sins, past failures, past
tragedies, past hurts, past defeats, past victories. You know, some of the things
that trip us up the most and slow us up the most are not our
defeats but our victories, because then we begin to cruise, and
then we begin to slow down. And then we begin to stop pushing
and stretching for the finish line. Listen, Jesus said in Luke
9 and verse 62, no one, after putting his hand to the plow,
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven. There's no
rear-view mirror as we run the race. We cannot be looking back. And some of us here today need
to let things in the past go and stop carrying that around. It's over. Put it under the blood
of Christ. Confess whatever sin there is,
and by the grace of God, forget what lies behind. and press forward
to what lies ahead. And so, this leads to the positive,
and you'll see it at the end of verse 13, not only forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Now, reaching forward is one
word in the original language, and it's a very interesting word. The middle, the root means to
stretch. And there's not just one, but
there's two prefixes used as prefixes in front of the main
verb, which is like a double intensification of the stretch,
and these two prefixes are out and upon. out and upon." And
so, reaching forward, most literally out of the original language,
simply means to stretch out as if to lay your hand upon, stretching
as far as you can ahead of you. That's the idea here, that you're
holding nothing back, that you are stretching out to the limits. in your pursuit of Jesus Christ,
and to know Him, and to become like Him, and to walk with Him,
and to run with Him. It is straining every spiritual
muscle in your life. Now, I know some here today,
when they hear this, may be thinking, oh, this is just too much for
me. Well, then that's why God brought you here today to hear
this. You believe in providence, don't you? I'm here, you're here,
this is the text. we all need to be more highly
motivated and better disciplined in our Christian lives and not
be so content with where we are and what I know at this moment.
There is so much more, and Paul is not sitting back. Paul is
forgetting what lies behind. I mean, he's forgetting everything
in verses 5 and 6. He's forgetting that they laid
the robes at his feet when they stoned Stephen to death. I mean,
he could have gone into all kinds of, oh, I need Christian therapy
to get over this. No, I'm forgetting it, and I'm
reaching forward. to what lies ahead. And what
lies ahead is the greatest prize, is the greatest treasure, is
the greatest thing that there could possibly be. Jesus Christ
Himself is who lies ahead. So how does this speak to you
today? Where you are in your Christian
life? What do you need to let go? What baggage do you just
need to discard? What past failures? What past
sins? How do you need to reach forward
with greater effort in your spiritual life? How do you need to pick
up the pace? How do you need to better discipline
yourself, the use of your time for maximum return in the Christian
life? This is what Paul is calling
for here. Well, the last thing that I want
you to see is verse 14, and I want you to note that Paul kept a
swift pace. Beginning in verse 14, Paul says,
I press on. Now, he already said that in
verse 12, so to repeat it in verse 14 is to underscore it
in our minds and in our thinkings. I press on." Remember, it means
to run swiftly in order to catch a person. I want you to know
that this is in the present tense, meaning I am always pressing
on. This isn't just a Sunday morning
thing. This isn't just a Thursday morning men's Bible study. This
isn't just a Thursday afternoon ladies' fellowship group. This
is every moment of every day. Paul is continually pressing
on. It's in the active voice, which
means Paul bears the personal responsibility to make the choice
under the direction of God the Holy Spirit to press on. For Paul, there's no slowing
down. He is only picking up his speed as he is running the race. Now, please note, toward the
goal, and I just have to bring this to your attention, this
preposition toward. is a preposition that actually
means down, kata. It means down. And the idea is
that Paul is bearing down toward the goal, that there is an intensity
about Paul toward the goal. And the goal simply means a mark
or a target, and Paul has… he has a goal. fixed before his
eyes with singleness of focus toward the goal, and he layers
this out for the prize. And this prize is what motivated
Paul. A prize is what motivates an
athlete. We just moved from about three
years ago from where I pastored for 20 years and have moved to
Dallas, and we had to go through the garage and go through the
attic. And there were all of those trophies, football, basketball,
track. I still had the baton that I
ran with. I still had the socks that I wore. It just got better over the years
in my mind. And I was so motivated, and there
was my letter jackets. There were just all of the plaques
and everything that had been presented to me, and I want you
to know, it motivated me. I'm willing to say it appealed
to my flesh, but it was a powerful motivation. to compete at the
highest level that I possibly could. I didn't want to be just
sitting out in the student body. I wanted my name to be called
out. I wanted the prize to be given to me. I wanted to be called
up on the platform and to receive. It was a fire that was burning
within me. Well, Paul has a far greater
motivation. It is a motivation to win the
prize, to reach the goal. And he tells us what it is. It's
at the end of the race. He says of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus. Now, Paul has already been called
to Christ on the earth. This is a call to Christ in heaven. This upward call, as he will
be pulled up into heaven at the time of his death, or at the
time of Christ's return. And for Paul, it would be the
time of his death. And as he comes to the end of
his life, he can just, as it were, see the finish line in
front of him. And there, he sees at the finish
line, as it were, in his heart and in his mind, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it is pulling him forward,
and it is empowering him by the Spirit of God within him to keep
on keeping on, and to not let anything slow him down, and to
overcome whatever other obstacles are in his path. When Paul receives
this upward call, he is determined that he will not be shuffling
down the track. He will not be sitting on the
bench. He will not be a spectator in the stands. He will be on
the track, and he will be running faster than he has ever run in
his life at the time this upward call of God in Christ comes. And the prize is Christ. The treasure is Christ. To enter
into the fullness of a relationship with Christ that He's already
begun when He started the race, when He was born again, but now
to enter into the very presence of Christ and to be made into
His likeness and to know Him with a greater height and depth
and breadth and length than he has ever known Christ before,
and now to know that I'll spend all eternity with Christ and
will have made every sacrifice and every discipline worthwhile
as he now enters in to the prize. So as I bring this to conclusion,
let me just ask you these personal questions. Are you in the race
of faith? Have you been born again? Have
you been birthed into the family of God by the Spirit of God?
And as you're in the race, if you're in the race, are you pressing
on? Are you forgetting what lies
behind? Do you have a singular focus
upon what lies ahead? And are you reaching out to the
fullness of the extent of your reach of faith to grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? There is no greater
joy and pleasure in life than to be making this advancement
as you mature and develop in your faith. But be certain, it
will require maximum effort, fueled by the Holy Spirit, to
reach that for which God has prepared for you. As my father came to the end
of his life, it was very difficult to see him decline as he did. And my father, I was a believer
and he led me to Christ when I was a young boy. I began to
give him books on Reformed theology. I gave him R.C. Sproul's book,
What Is Reformed Theology. It lit him up. It fueled the
fire within his soul. I gave him a Reformation study
Bible. He loved it. And I remember the
last time I was ever with him on a Sunday. He's literally on
his deathbed. We're just in the den. We're
just going to stay there. And suddenly the door from his
bedroom opens, and my father, who could not even get out of
bed to go to the restroom by himself. comes walking through
that door with coat and tie on and a Bible under his arm and
says, we're going to church. I love that, sprinting to the
finish, chest out, knees pumping, arms moving, pressing, pressing
on, reading his Bible. Any time anyone ever came over
to the house, they were forced to listen to my sermons. He did. He'd make everyone watch
them, listen to them, witness however he could for the glory
of God. I have those books, and I see
how they're marked up. I see how they're underlined.
I see how they're highlighted. pressing on to the finish. May
you press on to the finish. And at the end of your race,
may you be running stronger for Christ than at any time you have
ever lived the Christian life. And like I told you last night,
you're not going to retire, you're going to refire as you serve
the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank You
for bringing us into this race. We need all the truth that is
represented in this athletic metaphor. Lord, we must forget
what lies behind. We must reach forward to what
lies ahead. We must press on. in our Christian
growth and development. We must use all the spiritual
disciplines that are required of us. So, Father, for my brothers
and sisters here today, I pray that You will take them to the
next level of Christian growth and maturity. I pray that even
in these few hours, there will be more octane in their tank.
that there will be more wind in their sails, and as they would
go back to their places where they live and where they serve
and where they worship, may there be a genuine impact that has
come into their lives. Father, I pray this in the name
of Jesus Christ, who is the prize, in His name. Amen.