Alright, brethren, let's go back
now to Philippians chapter 3. Now, having read the chapter
to you, we saw there that Paul counted
everything lost for the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He said there that I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection. and the fellowship of His sufferings,
that I might be made conformable unto His death, and that at last
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. He says, not that
I have already attained, neither were already perfect, but I follow
after a knowledge of Christ, so that I will apprehend that
for which Christ apprehended me. And then he says in our text,
brethren I count, verse 13, brethren I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do. Here's three words we're going
to pay attention to, forgetting, forgetting those things which
are behind. Here's the second word, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before. Here's the third
word, I press. toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In order to understand
Paul's message in Philippians 3, I need to show you a few other
scriptures. And I'm going to be a little
longer in my introduction this morning. When a child of God
is brought to believe on Christ, brought to believe on Christ.
He's already perfect in Christ. He's perfect in Christ. He's
complete in Christ. Colossians 2.9 says, In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him. complete in Him. When we're brought
to believe on Christ, we've already been made the righteousness of
God in Christ Jesus. We've already been made holy
in Christ Jesus. We've already been translated
into the kingdom of His dear Son. And as Ephesians 2, 6 says,
we're already seated in heavenly places in Christ. But also in the new birth, when
we're born of God, God the Holy Spirit creates within us a new
man. A new man, a new spirit, after
the image of God. That new man is after the image
of God. Remember in the first creation,
God said, let us make man in our image. Well, in this new
creation, that's what this new birth is called in scripture,
this new creation, God creates a new man within his people after
the image of God, after his image. In the resurrection, men seem
to want to have a problem when you talk about this new man being
created in the image of God. But brethren, in the resurrection,
in the final resurrection, we're going to be, he's going to create
a body after his image. For now, he's begun this good
work, he creates within us a new man, a new spirit after his image. Ephesians 4.24 says that you
put on the new man, which after God, which after God is created. This new man wasn't there before. He's created after God in righteousness
and true holiness. The new man is God's workmanship. God's workmanship. And so after
God, after God's image, he's created in righteousness and
true holiness. Romans 8.10 says, If Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. Now, a newborn baby grows from
a baby to a child, to a teen, to a man, to a mature man. He grows, but that newborn baby
as he grows does not become more of a human. And this new man
that's created in righteousness and true holiness is holy. We grow in grace, love, faith,
mercy, long-suffering, patience. We grow in grace. and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And actually this growth in grace
is by the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we don't become
more holy. We don't become more sanctified
as we grow. We're fit to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in life when we're created anew. That's what Colossians 1 said.
We're fed, we're made meat. Right then. That's why the thief
could go be with the Lord right then. He was holy. He had that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. He had it. It was created within
him. This growth in grace is by the
knowledge of God and we do grow in it, but we don't grow more
holy. Now, in Philippians 3, that's what Paul's dealing with.
Philippians 3, his desire is to know Christ more. He knew Christ, but he wanted
to know Christ more. He wanted to grow in the knowledge
of Christ because he knew that the new man is grown the same
way the new man was created. Through the knowledge of Christ,
by the knowledge of Christ. by the incorruptible seed whereby
the gospel is preached unto you. He said that's how we're born.
Go to 2 Corinthians 4 and we'll look at a few scriptures and
then we'll come back and start on our text. 2 Corinthians 4,
6. Look here. He said 2 Corinthians 4, 6. Let's read verse 5. We preach
not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord. That's who we preach. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord.
And it says, and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake. That's what we looked at this
morning. We've been made His servants for His sake, for His
name. Now look at verse 6. For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we were born. He gave
us the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ. He gave
us the knowledge of Christ and therein we see God's glory. Look
back at 2 Corinthians 3 and look at verse 18. We all with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the
Lord. See, that's how we began. That's how we started out. Colossians
3.10. Go over there with me real quick.
Colossians 3.10. And this is how this new man,
the same way he He was created in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ the same way He's grown from glory to glory or
from grace to grace by the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
continually, this new man is continually renewed by the knowledge
of Christ. Look at Colossians 3.10 or in
the knowledge. Look at Colossians 3.10. He says
here, we've put on the new man. which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created Him. We are renewed in knowledge
after Christ's image who created that new man. After His knowledge. Go to 2
Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Peter tells us the same thing.
He says, we grow in grace according as or the same way as we were
initially conceived. That's by the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1 verse 2. Grace and
peace be multiplied That's growing in grace and peace, wouldn't
you say? To be multiplied? Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as, or the same way
as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness. The same way that that new man
was conceived Grace and peace are going to be multiplied to
us. How's that? Look. Through the knowledge of
Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises. The knowledge of Christ
is the gospel of God's great and precious promises. He could
have just as well said, whereby the knowledge of Him that's called
us to glory and virtue through the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Whereby are given to us great
and exceeding and precious promises. And it's by these, it's by the
gospel, it's by this incorruptible seed, look here, by these that
you might be partakers of the divine nature. It's by these
that Christ has been formed in you and the result is you have,
you're a partaker now of Christ's nature. This is why we say the
new man is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. It's in Christ's righteousness
and Christ's holiness. That's how this new man is created.
Now read on. And the result is, we have escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. When Christ
is in you, you've been delivered from the reigning power of your
old man. Your old man is still with you,
the corruption and lust of your flesh are still with you, but
he can't reign over you anymore. There's a new man created, Christ
in you, preventing that from happening. Now watch this. And
beside this, beside the new birth, we're grown in grace the same
way. Besides this, giving all diligence. What are we giving
diligence to? It's what Paul's talking about
in our text. Giving all diligence to do what?
To the gospel of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. To know Him. giving all diligence to the gospel,
giving all diligence to know Christ, to know more of Christ,
to grow in the knowledge of Christ. And by that, look what happens,
you add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and
to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindliness, and to
brotherly kindliness charity. And if these things be in you
and abound, He says, they make you that you shall neither be
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another way of saying that is,
if these things be in you, it is the fruit of the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're in you, they're the fruit
of the Spirit given you through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But if you don't have any fruit,
He says, You're blind. And you can't see afar off. And
you can't remember that you perched from your old sins. In other
words, you don't have the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look,
verse 9. But he that lacketh these things
is blind, and he cannot see afar off, and he's forgotten that
he was perched from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren,
instead of being like that, give diligence. to make your calling
and election sure. For if you do these things, if
you give all diligence to know Christ. Giving all diligence
means there's some effort. I want to know Him and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable
unto His death. I want to know Him. I want to
give all diligence to know Him. And if you do these things, you
shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Or as Paul puts it, when you're
found in Christ, you shall attain to the resurrection of the dead.
But what he's saying there is, is if you're giving diligence
to hear the Gospel and to study His Word and to try to grow in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is only by His
grace and Him teaching you, but it's through diligence, it's
through looking into His Word and studying His Word and hearing
His Gospel preached. He says, if you do these things,
you'll never fall. You won't fall into blindness
and forget that you've been purged by Christ's blood. And come to
a place where you can't see afar off. When He says you can't see
afar off, you can't see that your life is in Christ at God's
right hand. All you can see is now and mind
earthly things. But he says, but if you give
diligently and you keep your affection on Christ above and
grow in the knowledge of Christ, you won't fall into that. Haven't
you experienced that? If you're feeding your flesh
and you're just listening to things that feed the flesh and
concentrating on things that feed the flesh, who's going to
be stronger? The flesh. And you began to feel
like a blind man. You began to feel like you can't
even see Christ. And you forgot everything you
ever heard about Christ purging your sin. All you can see is
your sin. What happened? Took your affection
off Christ. You started minding earthly things
as if you'd never even been called. Now look at this, go with me
to 2 Peter 3.17. Peter says a whole lot of things,
but then he comes around and he sums it up. This is what he
was talking about from the very first opening lines of the epistle. This is the whole point of the
epistle right here, 2 Peter 3.17. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing
you know these things beforehand, beware. Give all diligence, beware,
be on guard, lest you also being led away with the error of the
wicked, fall from Christ. Led away from Christ. Your own
steadfastness. That's where your steadfastness
is. That's where your foundation is. That's where you'll never
falter or fall or fall into this blindness of the flesh. steadfastness
in Christ. But here's what he says, do,
to prevent that, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Now the strict theologian would
probably have a big problem with Peter if he was a man here on
this earth today because he'd say, well you can't grow yourself
in grace. You can't grow yourself in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's not saying you can. He's saying what He
said from the beginning. Give diligence. Keep your focus on
Christ. Same thing Paul said in Colossians
3. If you be risen with Christ, set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you're dead. Your life's
not in this world. You're dead. And your life is
in Christ, at God's right hand. And when Christ shall return,
then you're going to appear with Him in glory. So give all diligence,
set your affection on Him. On Him. Now go back with me to
Philippians. This is what Paul's declaring
in Philippians. Verse 8, Philippians 3,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8, He said, I give up everything
else. I just want this excellency of
the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ. Well Paul, didn't you
have that? Of course he did. Just look at
what all he was used to write. But Paul, if Paul can say, I
need to grow in knowledge of Him. I guarantee you, I need
to grow in knowledge of Him. If Paul could say, I've not attained,
I guarantee you, I've not attained. Can you say that of yourself?
Paul is saying, I want to grow more in Him. This is the only
thing that's needful. He says, for Him I've suffered
the loss of all things, and I do count them, but dumb that I may
win Christ and be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. The righteousness which is of
God. by faith. Here's what he's wanting, that
I might know Him. That I might know Him. I want
to know the power of His resurrection. I want to know the fellowship
of His suffering. I want to be made conformable unto His death.
I want to attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Or as Peter said,
I want to have Christ so that an entrance is ministered to
me into the kingdom of God. And that doesn't just mean at
the end, brethren. That means right now as I go
through this life, I want to know Him so that rather than
being blind and not being able to see afar off, Heaven's open
to me and I can see I'm seated with Christ at God's right hand.
Look at this. Not as though I had already attained
it. It's not as though I'm already
there. Either we're already perfect.
I haven't been resurrected yet, but I'm following after Christ.
so that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus. Now here is what I want us to
get out of this. The one desire of the believer whose inward
man is created by the knowledge of Christ is to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once you are born of
Christ, you want to grow in that knowledge of Christ. Once you
are born by the incorruptible seed whereby the gospel is preached
unto you, that is the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, then
you want to grow in that knowledge. You just want to hear more about
Him and grow and know, you want to know more about Him. And know
it in reality. Know it by experience. You want
to know Him. Now, there's three words here.
This is our title and this is our division. Forgetting, reaching,
and pressing. First of all, forgetting. He
says, verse 13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind.
What are the things that are behind that we need to forget?
And notice he doesn't say, I have forgotten those things which
are behind. This is a constant thing. I need to constantly be
forgetting those things that are behind. What are they? I
need to forget those days of my rebellion and my unbelief. I need to forget about those
past sins. There is a time when it's good
to remember the pit from which we were digged. There is a sense
in which it's good to remember where God found you so that you
don't get too puffed up. You need to be kept lowly. It's
terrible when men start speaking of past sins and they talk about
it with joy and with fondness. That's a bad thing. You know,
whenever Caesar invaded England, And as they're coming into England
and he sees on the cliffs of Dover, he sees all the English
soldiers gathered up and he sees them all along the shoreline.
And when he finally gets to the beachhead and Caesar unloads
his little army and he's outnumbered by the English, he wanted them
to be so committed to him and so committed to his cause. and
have no option, no other option, he burned the ships they came
across the Channel in. That's talking about being committed,
isn't it? There's no option of retreat. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ says He brings His child to be committed to Him and burn
all your ships so that you can't go back to that life that He
brought you out of. There's no going back, brethren.
We're committed to Him. Burn every ship of retreat. But
it's not good if past sins make me doubt. It's not good if I
keep remembering my past sins instead of forgetting them and
I have some past sins that trouble me so much that I begin to doubt
I'm a child of God and doubt the grace of God has been bestowed
on me. Now that's not good. That's not good. That's what
I need to forget. When that happens, we become
like the little boy who his father took him out. He's going to take
him out for a walk along the river and he's going to teach
him some things along this walk. And they go out, as soon as they
start walking, first thing the little boy does, he steps in
a deep mud puddle and falls in that mud puddle and gets himself
just filthy. Well, the father picks him up
and he brushes him off and he says, now follow me, son. Pay
attention, follow me. And he takes him by the hand
and he starts off down the trail and comes to a big pin oak tree
and he reaches down and he pulls up a little acorn at the bottom
of that tree and he comes down to his son and he says, ìNow
let me teach you son.î That big mighty tree right there came
from this acorn falling into the ground and being broken and
from it here comes this mighty pin oak tree. And the whole time
he is talking, that little boy has his mind on falling in that
mud hole. And all he can think about is
how he got himself muddy and dirty and how his mother is not
going to like the fact that he is going to come home with mud
all over his clothes. And so he didn't hear anything
his father was teaching him right now. Because he was looking into
the past. Forgetting those things that
are past. Forget those things. Forget those
things, Paul said. If I'm concentrating on all my
past sins and they're bringing me to doubt, I won't hear what
God's teaching me right now. And that's what I need. You think
some past sin's too great for the grace of God? Does anybody
here think you've got sin in your past that's too great for
the grace of God? The man writing this, who's saying
forget the past, He held the coats of men while they killed
God's people. And He said, forget it. Forget
it. Just forget it. It's good to
forget my profession and false religion and all those attempts
I made to try to produce a righteousness. It's good to forget all those
things. Paul spoke there in verse 5. He spoke about being circumcised
the 8th day and being of the stock of Israel and the tribe
of Benjamin, being a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He talked about
touching the law, being a Pharisee. In verse 6 he says touching the
righteousness which is in the law is blameless. Those self-righteous
deeds, you know, when we think back on some past sin, We usually
think of some immoral thing that happened or something we did
that was not a kind thing, that was a very unkind thing. We very
seldom realize all those religious deeds we did was far worse than
any of that immorality. That's worse than any of it.
Paul said, But what things were gained of me, those I counted
lost for Christ. What's he saying? Forgetting
those things that were behind. I just forget it. Won't do any
good to dwell on that. Forget it. It's good to forget
even the good works that we've done in Christ's name in truth. Since God called us, it's good
to forget those things. When Paul recalled his good works
in the cause of Christ, he was talking about those things, he
said, I've become a fool in glory. Forget those things. No matter
what I did for Christ yesterday, forget those things. That's a
sure way to start getting puffed up in the flesh. It's good to
forget family and friends in the sense that I don't let them
come between me and Christ. Don't ever be unkind to family
and don't ever... You love your family. You ought
to love your family now more than you loved them before you
knew Christ. Love them. Love them to Christ. Don't do
anything hateful or spiteful to them. Love them. Be patient
with them. But what I mean is sometimes I get to think about
how far away my family is. And I tell you, it's easy. to
become very weak. You start thinking about those
things. But they love you and they love Christ and they know
this is God's will and this is where they want me because it's
God's will. They want me doing God's will. So God says in Psalm 45.10, Hearken,
O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, forget also
thine own people in thy father's house. So shall the king greatly
redesire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. It's good to forget past misunderstandings. When a brother or sister in Christ
offended me, it's good to forget that. You think if when I know
that God now says He remembers my sin no more because Christ
Jesus the Lord has laid down His life and bled and purged
me of all my sins so that God says He's cast them behind His
back as far as the east is from the west. Knowing that brethren, how can
I keep remembering offenses of a brother against me? When I
know what an offender I am against God, how could I possibly not
forget an offense a brother committed against me? Forget those things. So those are things we forget,
brethren. We forget some things. But then
he says here, secondly, we reach forth unto some things. Look
there in Philippians 3, he says, He says, Philippians 3.13, "...forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before." Reaching forth. What are those things
that I'm wanting to reach forth and lay hold of more and more
and more? Verse 10, I want to know Him.
I want to know the power of His resurrection. I want to know
the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to be made conformable
unto His death. So he says, reach forth to know
more of Christ. Not just a bare knowledge of
facts and a bare knowledge of a system of doctrine. That's
not what we're talking about. We're talking about, do you want
to know Christ Himself? This is what Paul's talking about.
Paul knew the doctrine of God's grace better than anybody. He
said, I'm wanting to know Him who the doctrine is all about.
That's who I want to know. I want to know Him. I want to
know the power of His resurrection. I want to know it in the sense
that I want to experience that power in my own heart. I want to experience the power
of His resurrection. I want to know I'm justified
from all my sin. When you heard a child was born,
were you confident just to hear it one time and that's it? Okay,
that's it. I don't need to hear about that anymore. I don't want
to hear about that child anymore. You couldn't quit talking about him.
Tell me all about him. I want to know. I want to know
how long he is and how fat he is. I want to know all about
him. I want to know all I can know
about Christ. I want to know the power of His
resurrection. I want to know that when He arose, I arose in
Him. When He arose and sat down at
God's right hand, I sat down. I'm free from all the works of
the law now. I'm free from trying to gain
acceptance with God. I'm free from having to try to
make myself holy and righteous and accepted of God. I'm accepted
of God. I want to know the power of Him
reigning and ruling because all power is in His hand. I want
to know that everything is happening in my life. You know, we have
a tendency to go, well that was providential. It's all providential. Everything God's doing in my
life is of God. And it's all just for me and
I want to know that. I want to know that power more
and more and more and more. I don't want to be satisfied
with some past experience. Men that want to defend something
that happened to them in the past, especially when it's contrary
to the Word of God, are looking to that experience every time. They wouldn't defend it if they
wouldn't. You take that away from them, you've taken their
salvation away from them. Mark that down. That's so. I
guarantee you that's so. I don't want just a past experience. I want to know Christ now. I
want to know Him right now today. I delight that God sovereignly
chose His people in Christ before the world was made. I delight
that Christ laid down His life for the elect and that He perfected
them that are sanctified. That He perfected us forever
by His one offering. I delight in the irresistible
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to know Him speaking into
my heart and declaring to me that I am His child. I'm glad you're His child and
I'm glad you that are elect all over the world. I'm glad He's
going to call out His people and none will be lost. I want to
know I'm one of those elect. I want to know it today. And I want to know it tomorrow
and I want to know it the next day. I want to be able to lean
on Him and live on Him today. I want to know that my sovereign
Savior lives at God's right hand because He's fulfilled all righteousness
and that I have in Him. I want to know this. I want to
know His forgiveness. I want to know acceptance with
God. I want to know that nothing I
can do I have a loving earthly Father. Nothing I can do is going
to make me stop being His child. I've done enough to make Him
stop loving me. And He hasn't. If that's so of
my earthly Father, it's so of my heavenly Father who changes
not. I want to know that. I want to
experience that. There's nothing I can do to ever
fall out of His favor. The most common problem I hear
from folks is people looking to some past act to try to find
assurance. Or they end up looking to some
past act that causes them to doubt and lose all assurance. You know what the problem is?
When we're looking to the past for assurance, we're looking
in the wrong direction and we're looking at the wrong person every
time. Reach forth. to Christ, not back
to you. Every time you look back, maybe
you're different than I am, but every time I look back to try
to find some assurance, I get cast down and sad and doubt that
I could ever possibly be a child of God. But when I look forward
and I look to Christ and I behold, I hear Him cry, it's finished.
and I hear Him in His gospel and I see Him suffering and I
see what He bore in my room instead on the cross, brethren, I have
full assurance. I have assurance. It's in Him,
it's not in me. I told you this, I think, one
time. You remember when they were building that One World
Trade Center up there? I saw a news report or read it.
These guys, before they opened it, these guys were washing the
windows on that thing. Can you imagine washing the windows
on that building? And they were right up towards
the top of it, washing the windows on one of those big platforms,
you know, that you let down with a chain. And one side of that
platform gave way, and the whole thing just fell down like this.
So they went down there. They had safety equipment on,
but they're down there dangling on this thing. And I don't care
what kind of safety equipment you got on while you're out there
dangling like that. You're not just real confident, real assured
that you're safe. And so they came and cut the
window out, and they They basically hooked up a line and tethered
it to the wall or something inside and brought it outside and hooked
it up to them. And they probably still didn't
have assurance at that time because they're out there dangling around
like they're doing. But the guarantee that they're not going to fall
wasn't the cause of anything in them anyway. It was the cause
of that line that was connected to that wall that wasn't going
to let them go. Those firefighters had them. And our assurance is
not by anything we think or do or feel or anything like that.
Our guarantee is Christ. Whether we have assurance or
not, it doesn't make us any less safe or any more safe. We're
safe and secure in Christ. You can't be more safe and secure
than you are in Christ. People always want to look back.
They always want to look at things. We got all these videos of Will
when he was a little boy. From the time he came home from
the hospital all the way up till we finally quit videoing him,
I think. Maybe we video him every now
and then. We don't have a camera now, do we? We didn't get one. Anyhow, we got all these videos
of him. But he don't have to go to those
videos and watch them and see if he's alive or not now. That'd be foolish, wouldn't it?
Go, I need to make sure I'm alive. Let me go watch these videos.
Yep, I was born. Yep, here it is. They got it
on video. I was born. I'm alive. That's what Paul said. I don't have to go back. I'm
reaching forth. There's a race set before me.
And I'm reaching forward. I want to know the fellowship
of His suffering. I want to know, I want to experience
the fellowship of His suffering. Not only I want to experience
Him what? He suffered on the cross so that
I know I'm redeemed by Him. But I want to suffer for Him.
That's what Paul says. I want to suffer for Him. You
know the best times in my life, the best times in my life, now
I'm not saying at the time. But the best times in my life
have been times when God shut me up to Him and forced me to
trust Him only by making me know just how thoroughly helpless
I am to contribute anything to the situation. And we don't like
that. The reason that's painful to
us is because we so want to put our hand to it. But sometimes
God brings you in a situation that's so bad and you suffer
so much that you say, I have no strength in this matter. And
you have to trust Christ. And He proves to you so that
it's beyond a shadow of a doubt that His grace really is sufficient. Paul said, that's what I want
to suffer. That's what I want to know. And that way I'm conformed
to His death. I'm submissive. What was Christ? Go with me. I want to show you
something. Go to Philippians chapter 1. You've heard men talk
about this as being morality and preach from this text and
talk about you need to grow in holiness and you need to do more
moral things and benevolent things and put this certain sin out
of your life and that certain sin out of your life and all
this. Let's see what Paul is talking
about in the context of this epistle when he is talking about
experiencing the fellowship of his suffering. Go to Philippians
1.27. He says, here is what he is talking
about, being made obedient, what does he say, being
brought to conformable unto his death. Here's
what he means, Philippians 1.27, Only let your conduct be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you
or else I'll be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which to them is an evident token of perdition,
but to you it's a token of salvation and that of God. For unto you
it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on
Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Having the same conflict
which you saw in me and now hear to be in me." What was that?
Paul was in prison because he wouldn't take the offense out
of the gospel. He was in prison for preaching Christ and Him
crucified. And look what he says now. Keep reading. If there be
therefore, having suffered all that you've suffered and being
made a fellowshipper of the sufferings of Christ, if His death, if there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort in Christ,
any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels and
mercies inwardly, fulfill ye my joy that you be like mine
did. This is what he's talking about
being conformed to His death. be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done
through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, lowliness
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look
not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things
of others. Here it is, let this mind be
in you which was also in Jesus Christ. who being in the form
of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even to the death
of the cross. He said, I want to have the mind
of Christ. I want to fellowship in His suffering
so much that He brought me to be conformed to Him, to have
His mind, to be lowly, to be the least, to be the servant.
Behold, everybody else better than me. Me, the chief of sinners. I want to know that. I want to
know that. And since I know that He's exalted
God, and so God's exalted Him, God's put Him at His right hand,
and all power's His, and He's established His people in righteousness
and holiness, and He's calling out His people faithfully and
triumphantly, and He's the victorious Redeemer. Knowing all these things,
and knowing what He's done for me, brethren, He says here, verse
12, work out your own salvation. You want me to tell you what
that means quite simply? You know what we were doing when
we bought this building and we went to work on this building
and people coming and going and we were dealing with one another
and we were working on the building and doing all these things? That
word work out your own salvation means work out all your daily
dealings with one another. That's what we were doing. We
were working out our salvation. It doesn't have anything to do
with being saved. It has to do with day-to-day
dealings with brethren. We were doing that and He says,
and do it with fear and trembling because it's God who worketh
in you. Do it with fear and trembling
because this Christ who accomplished all this, He's not lowly anymore. He's highly exalted and He's
in your midst. He's right here amongst you. He's in that brother that has
offended you. He's in that sister over there
that you've offended. So work out all your dealings
with one another with fear and trembling as unto the Lord, because
He's right there in your midst. And He says, and He's doing His
will and His good pleasure, so do all things without murmurings
and disputing. that you might be blameless,
harmless sons of God without the rebuke in the midst of a
crooked and perverse nation as you hold forth the Word of Life. It's all about that commission.
It's all about preaching this Word and holding forth this Word.
I want to be jealous for His honor. I want Him to make me
a saver of life unto life. I want Him to make me beneficial
to the souls of men wherever I'm at. And so He says, He says,
forget things that are behind and reach forth, reach forth
to know more of Him. And then lastly He says in pressing,
press, press toward the mark of the high calling of God. Simply
what that means is, it's not going to be easy. Your flesh
and everything about you is trying to go the other direction and
you're pressing forward. But he says, seeing we're compassed
about with all this cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience
the race that's set before us. He says, laying aside every weight
and sin that besets us, not looking back, forgetting those things,
reaching forth like a runner reaches forth to try to go across
the finish line. We do it looking to Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him. You have a joy set before you?
It's Christ. He had a joy set before Him. The glory of His Father, the
salvation of His people, who for the joy set before Him endured
the cross, despised the shame, and sat down at the right hand
of the Father. And in case you grow weary in
your mind and you become faint because you are looking at yourself,
lay aside that sin that so easily besets us. Lay aside the unbelief
and the self-righteousness and all the sin that easily besets
us. And run looking to Christ. Set
your eye on the mark, your affection on the mark, Christ, the prize. And if you grow faint and weary,
just remember this. Remember Him. and the contradiction
of sinners against Him that He endured for our sake. And remember
this, I've not and you've not, we've not been pressing and striving
against sin to the point that we sweat blood. We've never done
it yet. Or to the point that we were
hung on a cross and made to bleed. And so he says, look to Him.
That's the whole thing. Just look to Him. Look to Him. Look to Him. When I visited Henry
and Doris this week, I left there. I've been studying
this and I left there. Here's a man 92 years old. Here's
a woman, I won't say how old. But she's older than Henry. And
here they are. He preached for 55 years. He
never went back. He forgot the things in the past.
And he reached forth and he pressed on. And I thought, I don't ever
want to be somebody who says, well, I've done enough. I've
worked too hard on that. I've done too much on that. It's
time now for some of these other brethren to take it. I want to press on. I want to
keep on serving the Lord as long as I can serve the Lord. In this
situation, whatever it is, I don't want to give up on it and walk
away and say, well somebody else, it's time. I've done too much.
Have we ever? Have we ever? I want to press on. And I thought I hear pressing
on for 55 years. And now, still, you know how
tired and how worn out a body is at 92 years old? But there's a ministry to be
done. There's a whole lot of people looking to that man to
be in that pew hearing that gospel preached. Because that's encouraging
them. And that's ministering to them.
And so he gets up and he goes and he sits in that pew so he
can keep ministering to those people. You mean we minister
to people just by our presence? Go home and read Hebrews 12.
That's what he's talking about. Don't forsake the assembling.
You're exhorting one another by being there. He's still ministering
that way. Still pressing on. Still pressing
on. And he can say this. I fought
a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept
the faith. Henceforth there's laid up for
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all
them that love his appearing. I want to be able to say that.
Don't you? I want to be able to say that. I fought a good
fight. I finished my course. I finished
the race. The only way we're going to do
it is to know Him. and seek Him, and seek Him, and
seek Him. Every time somebody calls me
and they say, oh, I'm tore up over this, and I'm tore up over
that, and I'm, you know, this or that and the other thing and
all. Every single time, there's no exceptions. Every single time. You've been listening to the
gospel? Have you been studying the scriptures? Are you staying in the Word?
Are you keeping your affection focused on Christ? Well, no,
I haven't. Okay then, there's your problem. That's what Paul
is saying. Be diligent to know Christ more
and more and more. You won't solve 99% of our problems. get in a quiet place, turn on
a message and get your Bible out and listen to it and follow
along in the Scriptures and look the Scriptures up. In a little
while, you'll be so focused on Christ. You guess how it is when
you hear you get so focused on Christ, everything else is gone.
It don't matter. You forget those things that
are behind and you're pressing forward. See if it works. It does work. I guarantee it
works. That's how he ministers grace. I've kept you too long,
I'm sorry. All right, brethren, thank you.