Alright, we're going to be in
Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verses
12 through 14 will be our text. Now Paul here, what we have here,
the apostle, he's so taken up. in love with Christ, that he's
expressing his desire here to see him more clearly, more perfectly. And so what I want us to see
here today is that the believer is so one with Christ that the
life of Christ in them draws out this love to the Savior. The Spirit is the one that draws
out this love and this expression of love to Him. Our title is
Apprehended of Christ. And we're going to begin looking
at the union we have with Christ. Paul begins in our text saying
in verse 12, Philippians 3.12, Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ."
So let's consider this question this morning. What is it to be
apprehended of Christ? What is it to be apprehended
of Christ? Well, to apprehend is to lay
hold of, to lay hold of so as to make it one's own, to make
it one's own. And I can think of no better
entrance into an understanding of this than our Lord in taking
His people into union with Himself. He made us one with Him. And so I want us to consider
now our union with Christ, that is our oneness with Him, our
oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can do that first by looking
at baptism. And in Romans 6, verses 3 through
5, we see that baptism is a declaration of our union to Christ. We declare
our union, our oneness with Christ in baptism. So Romans 6, 3 through
5, reads this way. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And so our
public confession of the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism is a
confession of our union to Christ. We're saying to the world that
He's all my salvation. I didn't save myself. There isn't
any work I did to save myself. Christ is all my salvation and
I am one with Him so that when Christ died, I died. When Christ was buried, I was
buried with Him there in the tomb. And when Christ rose from
the grave, I was raised by the Spirit, raised Him up, I was
raised with Him unto newness of life. And so our baptism is
pointing to that work which Christ did on the cross. When Christ came as our covenant
head to fulfill all the righteous obligations of the covenant,
All that obligation for us to be righteous, for us to be sinless,
for us to be perfect before our God, for us to be holy before
the Lord God, Christ came and fulfilled all that righteous
obligation that was upon us. All the debt we accrued in our
sin, Christ came as our surety and he bore that punishment for
us. He came and stood in our place. We were as the ark, as Noah's
family was there in the ark, bearing the reign and the judgment
of God when he came down and destroyed the earth and every
living thing in the earth. And Noah and his family were
in that ark bearing that wrath, bearing the rain and the thunder
and the lightning. So we are in Christ when his
body bore that wrath of God coming down upon him. He bore that fiery
judgment of God. And so Christ we see there on
the cross, Christ was immersed. That's what baptism means, to
immerse. Christ was immersed or baptized
in that fiery judgment of God that was ours to bear Christ's
board in our place as our surety. And that's because of his union
to his people. He's at one with us. He is one
with his people and we were in him the whole time so that we
died unto sin. We died in him and the law has
nothing more to say against us. It has nothing more. We're not
bound to keep the law because it has nothing more to say to
us. We died that we might live unto Christ our husband, our
shorty, our savior, our lord, and so that he purge us of those
sins, and when he rose, having loosed the pains of death, we
were raised in him, and death will not be able to hold us."
This body of death will perish and it will lay in the grave,
but death shall not be able to hold us because death hath no
more dominion over him. He rules over death. He has the
keys of hell and death and so we live in him and we shall be
raised. And because of Christ, because
of what he did, it pleases the Father well to make known to
us what he accomplished for us. He reveals Christ in us so that
we know him and we understand, we grow in the knowledge and
in the judgment, the sense of what he really did accomplish
for us. He keeps growing us in that love so that there's a greater
fellowship and a greater entrance into what the Lord really did
for us and what he does for us day by day and immersing us in
his grace and pouring out his gifts upon us. So our being regenerated,
the gift of regeneration, the gift of of life, that new birth
that we now have is all because of Christ. It's not because we
did something. It's not because we asked Jesus
to be the Lord of our life. It's because he purchased us. He laid down his life. He put
away sin. He did all that was necessary
that we might have eternal life of him by his grace. Because
of that spiritual life, we now are brought into union with Him. Turn over to Hebrews 2.11. Hebrews
2.11. We see this union, this oneness. Hebrews 2.11 says, for both he
that sanctified, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and they who are
sanctified, that's his people who are made his own, both he
that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren." So we are so one with Christ that when
God looks upon us, when he looks at us, he sees his Son. He sees his Son in whom he's
well pleased. And so he's well pleased with
you, you brothers and sisters who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's pleased with you as he is pleased with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so we can't be distinguished
from Christ. We're not distinguished from
him. We are one with him. In John
17, 19, Christ said, and for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also
might be sanctified through the truth. So that when Christ sanctified
himself, we were sanctified. He sanctified us. We are one
with him. Turn over to Ephesians 5. Ephesians
5 and go to verse 25. This is that passage that reveals that the picture that
we see in the marriage between a man and his wife is a picture
of Christ and his church. Ephesians 5.25. Paul says, husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. And so that when Christ gave
himself for the church, when he died, that opened the floodgates
for all the spiritual blessings of God to be poured out upon
us. They all come from him. who lay down his life for us,
that we might know the things that God has freely given to
us in Christ. Now look at verse 26, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. Now here he shows us just how
one is with us through the picture of marriage. Verse 28. So ought
men to love their wives as their own bodies, he that loveth his
wife loveth himself. So Christ's love for his people
is love to himself. And it shows us just how one
we are with him. Because verse 29, for no man
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church." So with this understanding
of the oneness that we have with Christ, by seeing that, we understand
more and more what Christ really accomplished for us on the cross. What he was doing there on the
cross when he became one with us and took us unto himself to
bear our punishment. He bore all that for us, his
church, his bride, His love to make us spotless and pure and
sanctified. Turn over to Matthew 20. Matthew
20 and go to verse 22. We'll look at two verses there. Matthew 20, 22, and 23. This
is where the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Christ and asked him for this favor, that her sons,
her two sons, may sit on either side of Christ. One on the left,
one on the right, when Christ comes into his kingdom. And Christ
says, to the boys, he says to them, ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? And they say unto him, we are
able. They don't even know what Christ
is talking about. They don't even understand what
he's saying, because he's speaking of the judgment of God that he's
going to be baptized with. He's going to drink that cup
of wrath that is our due. He's going to drink it up, all
of it. And that baptism of fiery judgment that is our due, Christ
is going to be baptized with it. And he says, verse 23, And
he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, because of
our oneness with him. He's going to make it his own.
He's going to drink that up and bear that. He's going to be baptized
and immersed in the fiery judgment of God for his people. And brethren, this is why Christ
was actually baptized. This is why he was baptized.
If you look over in Matthew 3.15, that is to show his oneness with
us. It says we were one with him
when he was crucified and when he bore that judgment of God
for us, so he was baptized to show that oneness. It says in
Matthew 3.15, and Jesus answering said unto him, because he comes
to John the Baptist and says, baptize me. And John says, Lord,
I have need of being baptized by you. And Christ says, suffer
it to be so now, for thus it become it. us, me and my people. It becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness." And then John suffered him. So when we're baptized,
we're publicly confessing our union to Christ, that he is all
our salvation. And when Christ was baptized,
because why does Christ need to be baptized? He's confessing
his union with his people. He is becoming one with us in
all things that in him we might fulfill all righteousness. All the righteous requirements
of God are all fulfilled by us in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
right, let's just look at a couple more scriptures before we move
on. In John 17, 6. John 17, 6. Christ says, this is his high
priestly prayer before his crucifixion, he says, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. We keep the word of God because
of our union with Christ, because he's brought us to himself. Look
at verse 11, John 17, 11. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me, for that
they may be one as we are. And so Christ declares our oneness
together as brethren in him. That's how one we are with with
one another in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in his mystical
body and he goes on further saying in verses 21 and 22 John 17 there,
that they all may be one as thou father art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I
have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. So when Christ went up to the
Father, when he rose and went to the Father, he sent his Holy
Spirit, whereby the Spirit now dwells in us, makes us to know
the things that God has done for us in the Son, and that we
are one with him, and now by his Spirit we're walking. according
to His Spirit, walking by the Spirit, not according to the
flesh now, not trying to make ourselves righteous, not trying
to do that which is pleasing to God in the flesh, but rather
we are pleasing to God through the Spirit, through what Christ
has accomplished and done for us in that perfect work that
He did so that we're now made alive by the Spirit. And we have
the power, that power that raised Christ up, we have that power
in us whereby we know the things that God has done for us through
Christ. So that now, as Peter said, we have obtained like precious
faith with the apostles. We have that same faith that
they had believing Christ. The Spirit has given to us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. He's given
us all those things because we're one with the Son, we're one with
Christ and we know him and we have his Spirit dwelling in us,
coursing in us. flowing through us as a river
of living waters. He's given that to us whereby
we know Him. So this leads us to the next
point, pressing toward the mark. So having an understanding now
of what it means to be apprehended of Christ. He's made us one with
Him. He's brought us into union with
Himself and made us alive to the things of God. Now we can
better understand what Paul is saying, and that this is the
Holy Spirit coursing through him, working in him, and drawing
out this love and this emotion and this desire to know Christ
as Christ knows him, as Christ has apprehended him. Let's look
again at Philippians 3.12. We'll start over there. not as
though I had already attained, either were already perfect."
All right? This is the heart of a living
child of God, breathing out affection and love for his Savior. He's
longing to see Christ. Hold your place there and turn
over to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13, go to verses
9 and 10. And then we'll look at 12 and
13 as well. 1 Corinthians 13. Paul says, for we know in part,
and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Look
at verse 12. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith
Hope, charity, or love, these three, but the greatest of these
is love. So we now are perfect in Christ. We are perfect in Christ, fit
to stand before holy God, before his throne, but we know him dwelling
in these earthen vessels, these weak earthen vessels that are
sinful and weak and puny and unable to do that which is right,
unable to do anything consistently, unable to believe the true and
living God. So that's how we know Him, yet
we're perfect. We're perfect in Christ, and
yet even though we're in this weakness, we're alive. We're
alive and God has given to us gifts whereby we walk before
him, whereby we know him. And he's given us gifts such
as faith, hope, and love to him. These gifts which the Spirit
gives us, whereby these gifts, whereby these things we know
in part, We prophesy in part, we speak of these things in part
according to the light which God has given to us, but one
day we're not going to need all these gifts. We're not going
to need faith and we're not going to need hope because we're going
to see him as he is. But of course love will remain
because love is always going to be there. Love doesn't have
a time when it will be no more. But Paul isn't seeking here some
greater amount of security. He's not afraid, he's not worried,
he's not trying to gain more security in Christ, but rather
he's being lifted up by the Spirit who is flowing through him, who
is revealing to him how that Christ has apprehended him, and
he wants to apprehend Christ in that same way. He wants to
know the true and living God more and more clearly, because
he knows in part He prophesies in part, but he wants to know
it in completion. He wants to know the Lord God. So back in our text there, in
Philippians 3.12, the second half, he says, But I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. See, we're so one with Christ
that Paul's saying, I want to know that oneness. I want to
know him who is one with me and brought me into union with himself. And he says, verse 13, Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, I don't fully understand the
oneness that I have with my Savior, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before. So that in that one vast comprehensive
union, in which Christ has taken the whole of his mystical body
into oneness with himself and he sends now the spirit into
our hearts to draw out from us that same desire, that same willingness to yield ourselves
that we might know and apprehend him who apprehended us, that
we by that same love and power would pursue him who pursued
us and made us his own in love and in laying down his life.
That's what's being drawn out of Paul here now, being drawn
out to know him who so loved us and laid down his life for
us. And he says, verse 14, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. And it's by that same spirit
that John was speaking. The Apostle John said it this
way. Turn over in 1 John 4.17. 1 John
4.17. We read herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. We understand that we're perfect
in Christ. We understand that we're His.
We know it. As He is, we are in this world,
so that if we die today believing on Christ, we're fit to stand
before the throne of God on the day of judgment. And it's possible
because as He is perfect, so are we in this world. And that
really, that's salvation by grace, rather. That's really, that's
grace whereby we are saved so that even though here we know
Him part and we prophesy Him part, it's all perfect love in
Christ. Because as He is, so are we in
this world. It's all perfect love in Him. Look over at 1 John 3, verses
1 through 3. 1 John 3 1 Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God? Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. We're so loved of God, and we
have that power of God, we don't feel it in our flesh, right?
We feel the weakness, we feel the infirmity, we know it, we
see what we are. in the flesh, but we're so loved
of God that he keeps us pressing, waiting, waiting for that inheritance
that we have with Christ. He keeps us willing to yield
ourselves to the righteousness of God, to be used of the Lord
in this world, and not just to pursue the inheritance that this
world is pursuing after and enjoying, but he's drawing from us that
willingness and that heart and that desire to know him, more
than just impart, that we may know and apprehend him of whom
we are apprehended. And he says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope in him purifyeth himself even as he is pure."
Again, not by Moses' law. That's not how we're purifying
ourselves, but the Spirit of Christ, that One who produces
in us that fruit of love and faith and hope and joy and rejoicing
and patience and that steadfastness in Christ, it's born in and drawn
from the believer because of that living fountain, that flowing
fountain, that river, which is the Spirit of Christ in us. He
keeps on flowing out all those gifts and that joy and the blessedness
that we have in Christ. We know that false teachers today,
they labor to bring people back under the law. They see that,
oh, they purify themselves, they're whipping and beating themselves.
into shape, but it's the spirit, it's that as the love of the
Father is flowing in us, there is that love to Christ, there
is that desire, there is that willingness to be used of the
Lord, to be servants of righteousness unto the glory and praise of
the Father, rather than using ourselves in this world and spending
ourselves in this world just for that, which is the reward
of this world, which is passing away and fading and comes to
nothing in 70, 80 years and it's gone. That's not what we're seeking
after. to preach the law to mortify
the flesh, that's what we see produces that enmity in the heart. It produces that enmity against
God, because we see what sinners we are. And Paul said it plainly
in Romans 6.14, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye
are not under the law, but under grace. or under grace, or not
under the law, but under grace. I don't know how more clearly
he can say it than that. I guess he would have to say
under the moral law of Moses would be the only thing that
they might accept. I don't even know if they'd accept it then,
but they'd probably say, well, that was back then. Paul was
just a little confused, but we know better now. But we know
it's by regeneration, it's by the power of the Spirit of Christ
whereby we walk and know him through the redemption that is
in Christ. And Paul stated in Ephesians 2.1, remember he said,
we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were dead in trespasses
and sins. And what he's speaking of there,
he's saying that we didn't have the Holy Spirit. We weren't alive
in the Spirit. This body is dead. Now we have the Spirit of Christ,
whereby we know Him, whereby we walk before Him in righteousness. But we didn't have the Spirit
at all before them. This flesh is still corrupt. This flesh is still dying. It's
still perishing. It's still going to go and be
laid in the grave. And it hasn't improved, it hasn't
gotten any better, it hasn't made any improvement at all.
We still walk, our righteousness is Christ, and the walk that
we do that produces good works and fruit is His Spirit, which
He's ordained that we should walk in. So we walk in that which
He's worked out in us, but further in Ephesians 2, verse 5-7 we
read, Even when we were dead in sins, when we had no spirit,
he has quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are
saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. And the ages to come, that's
the resurrection day. That's the day in which the Lord
returns and raises these bodies up when faith will be no more
and our eyes shall behold him and we shall see him as he is.
As the psalmist wrote in 1715, as for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with
thy likeness. Yet even now we're alive spiritually
in Christ, and we live in that new man which is created by Christ,
in the new man, that seed of his which abides in us, and we
in him, and so the life that we have now we have by him and
even now Paul says we are seated with Christ in heavenly places
we have our place with the Lord Jesus Christ for by grace are
you saved through faith and that none of yourselves it is the
gift of God and so We have and see and understand these spiritual
blessings, the riches of his blessings and the riches of his
grace by faith, that faith which he's given to us. And so this
faith in this life in Christ is all given to us through that
regeneration whereby we are given life and have Christ revealed
to us so that we know Him and walk before Him in truth and
are spiritually alive now. Turn over to Colossians 3. Colossians
3. And look in verse 2. And here Paul says it again,
he says, set your affection on things above, not on things on
the earth. Paul is saying here, press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Set your affection on things
above. And here's why. Because you're
dead. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Your body, my body, we who believe
in Christ, our bodies shall be raised up, a glorious body, for
we shall see him as he is." That's what John said there. And I pray
that we see here that that excitement that Paul has here in the passage,
that desire It's the flowing, it's the working of the Holy
Spirit that's alive in his people that draws out that affection
and love to Christ for what he's done for us. And so it's not
about being more secure, but rather it's about knowing him
that apprehended us, him who took us into union with himself,
that we might know more and more Because we only know in part,
we only prophesy in part, but that we might see Him more clearly
and rejoice in Him who laid down His life for us. And that we
would be more willing, as Paul wrote, that we would present
ourselves a living sacrifice unto Him who laid down His life
for us. And that's what Paul is saying
there. He's speaking by the Spirit. He's speaking by the Spirit,
and that's how we know Him.