We looked last week, Paul had
a sevenfold desire, seven desires of every true believer, every
true believer has it. Paul said, I want to win Christ.
We made the statement how most people would rather win the lottery
than win Christ, the beauty in Him that they desire Him. But
God's people now, even Christ is truly their desire, their
heart's desire. Their husband, they want to win
Christ. They want to be found in Him
on that day. They want to stand before God
in judgment, pleading anything that we have done, but dress
in His righteousness alone. Found in Christ. Want to know
Him. Want to know Him. power of his resurrection, what
Christ obtained through being raised from the dead, and the
power of a resurrected life, a new creature in Christ, fellowship
of his suffering, consolation, comfort. What all that means,
a fellowship of His suffering that He gives to those that suffer
for His name's sake. It's too loud. Paul said, I want to be conformable
to His death. Like Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, and the world's crucified to me. I want to know
more about that, don't you? He said, I want to attain If
by any means, whatever it takes, I want to attain unto the resurrection,
I don't want to be left behind. You remember the story of Jacob? He said, don't bury my bones
in Egypt. Please, don't leave me here. You're leaving, and don't leave
me. That's what every believer says
to their Lord. Is that you? It must be. And it is. In verse 12, here's
where we left off, Paul says, Not as though I had already attained,
neither were I already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend or lay hold of that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ. If you've been apprehended. If
the Lord has laid hold of you, like Jacob, remember the story
of Jacob, the Lord coming to him, wrestling with him, grappling
with him, grateful to get ahold of him. It's real. A real person took hold of him.
And if you've been apprehended by the Lord Jesus Christ, that
means He has seized you, He's taken possession of you, and
your hearts. Your affection, your mind set
on things above. You're never the same, like Jacob.
The Lord touched his walk, but he was never the same. Brother
Mack and I love that story. I could count on you coming up
and talking to me about it, and you did. But we were talking
about how if Jacob walked in pride before, he's not walking
that way now. He's walking with a limp. When
the Lord saved you by His sovereign grace, He'd take away the pride. Like
Scott Richardson one time, a young man was preaching and got carried
away. And the young man, he said, now
that'll take all the pride out of you. And Scott, sitting back
there, hollered out, said, not all of it. The young man froze. But that's something. It's sad.
But when He does lay hold of us, He takes away some of the
pride, and our whole lives are spent in breaking this pride
in God's people. And never the same. Never the
same. Verse 12, Paul said, I haven't
attained. I haven't attained. I'm not there yet. Neither were
already perfect. Do not let the word perfect confuse
you. It's a good word. It just means
maturity. The believer is complete in Christ. There's a new creature in Christ,
created in the image of Christ, a new man. He's not going to
get more holy or more righteous. But he grows. It's like a child
is born. A child is born, and that child
has all of the faculties that it needs to become an adult.
It has all of its fingers and toes and limbs. It's not going
to grow any more things, all right? But the mind is going
to develop maturity and wisdom and knowledge and understanding.
The walk, the experience, everything will grow. And that's what the
word perfect means. Maturing, like when the scripture
says perfecting holiness. It's growing, more like Christ. Just grow up. Like when Paul
says, grow up in him and all things, did your dad ever tell
you, your boy, son, act like a man. It excuses you when you're
a child, when you're a little baby. It's excusable. But the older you get, it becomes
inexcusable then. Until your parent says, would
you grow up? Stop acting like a baby. Act
like a man. That's what that's talking about.
Perfect. And he that hath begun a good work in you, he will perfect. You can't do it yourself. But
he will. And the way he does it is through
his word and through experience and through humility by breaking
that. correcting us, chasing us. But Paul said, I haven't
apprehended you, I'm not there yet. But verse 12 he says, but here's
what I do, I follow after. This is what I'm after. Remember
when Christ said, he that will come after me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me. In other words, the Lord
is saying, if it's Me you're after. Have you ever gone after
something or someone? You fell in love with that man
or that woman, and you were after them. You wanted that person
as your mate. Well, that's what Christ said,
He that will come after Me. If it's Me you're looking for,
Me you want, deny yourself. Like a marriage, a husband and
wife, when they become one, it's no longer about me. No, it's my mate and I serve
them. And that's a thing of pride.
I apprehend, Paul said, I cannot myself to have apprehended this
one thing I do. Or verse 12, I'm sorry. I follow
after. Christ said, follow me. If that I may apprehend, verse
12, I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of
Jesus Christ. And then verse 13. He says, I count not myself to
have apprehended. In other words, I don't have
hold of the prize yet. I have the promise. I have this
faith. I believe. Paul said, I know
whom I believe. I am persuaded. But he's able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I
know. I believe. But while he was still alive,
he said, I'm not there yet. And it's not presumption to believe
him, and yet we can't act. We can't be fatalistic, say,
well, if I'm going to elect, I'm going to elect. That's not,
no, not God's people. No, they give diligence to make
their call in an election year. Honestly, if you do these things,
you'll never follow. What, Peter? If you do these things, whatever
you're saying, Peter, that's what I want to do, because I'm
not there yet. And I dare not presume that I
believe him, but Buddy, until I'm there in heaven with Him,
you need to be afraid of yourself. You know that? You need to be
afraid of yourself. You need to be afraid of the
world and everything else. You know what I mean? Because
of the temptation to try. Lots of people have fallen away.
Lots of people. And Paul said, I am not there
yet. But I follow after. And verse 13, this one thing
I do, and this one thing that he does is really three things.
These three are one. These three make up one thing. This one thing. Verse 14, Paul
said, it's the high calling of God. It's the prize of the high
calling of God. This one thing occupies my heart,
my mind, above all else. Christ the prize. Like we were
saying, someone falls in love with the mate and that person
consumes you. Don't they? They consume you.
It's like nobody else exists. You know, when you're fell in
love. And that's the way it is with
pride. That's the way it is with pride.
Psalm 27, we love this Psalm, Psalm 27, David, the man after
God's own heart. Our Lord said of David, you know
what the Lord said of David? He said, He hath followed me
fully. He said to him, except in one
matter, the matter of Bathsheba. And the Lord forgave him for
that. He sure suffered because of it. But the Lord forgave him
for that. And the Lord commended him as
a man that we should follow. Because he said, David had followed
me fully. His heart, his mind, read the
Psalms. Read the Psalms. Don't you want
to be like David? Well, I hope I am. Because David said, can you say
this? David said in Psalm 27, one thing
if I desire of the Lord, that what I seek
of Him. That's what I'm going to do.
What is it David? I want to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
What house is that? Well, it's His eternal house
in the heavens. We have an eternal house in the
heavens. I want to be there someday. But now this is His house on
earth. This is God's house. This is where God is. This is
where God's people are. This is where His truth is. This
is where His blessings are. The Lord hath ordained the blessing. He loves us. Zion Church, so
David said, this is where I want to be all my life. Lord, don't
let me leave. I want to be here. He says in
verse 4, I want to behold the beauty of the Lord. Now that's
a man who's seen something of Christ's beauty in them. As quoted
so many times, there was a time when I saw no beauty in Him that
I should desire Him. This was the last place I wanted
to be. But God, one day I heard His
voice, and He drew me with cords of love, and I've been here ever
since. And there's no place I'd rather
be, no one I'd rather be with, nothing I'd rather be doing than
hearing the same old thing. What thing? Christ. Is that all
you do? Well, yeah. Because the bride
loveth the voice of the bridegroom. Well, David went on to say in
verse 4 of Psalm 27, I want to behold the beauty of the Lord.
I want to inquire in his temper. Oh, Paul said, I don't know him
like a woman. So I'm going to come and sit.
And hear and listen to him, of him, and hopefully grow in grace
and knowledge of my Lord. Is that true? All right, back
to our text. So he says, Brethren, and I'm
in no hurry at all. Nancy and I, I said, Nancy, 80,
you're 80 years old. It was like that. We were talking
about 30 years ago, Mindy and I took this young 50 year old
woman. She seemed old to us then, but
50's young now. Took her to the Golden Corral.
Where's the Golden Corral? It's a parking lot. We took her
to the Golden Corral to celebrate her 50th anniversary. Think about it like that. And
the next 30 years it's going to be, and we're going to be
gone. Half the people in this room are going to be gone. Three
quarters, gone. Maybe this building will just
be a parking lot. See why the scripture says redeem the time.
Time is short. Time is so short. We've got so
little time. We're not there yet. We haven't arrived yet.
So what are we going to spend our time doing? All right, Paul says in verse
13, he says, Brethren. Now, when he says this many times,
Brethren, to get our attention. Brethren, I'm talking to you.
I'm talking to the world. Brethren, brothers and sisters. Dear Brother Bruce Crabtree,
a man of such a heart for God's people. He says it, brothers
and sisters. Brothers and sisters. That's
a blessed term, isn't it? Brethren, listen to me now. Brethren, I count not myself
apprehended, but this one thing I do, forget what's behind. Forget it. Forget it. Just forget it. What, Paul? What are you talking
about? Well, forget all your past. It's hard to live, nearly
impossible. David said, My sin's ever before
me. And that keeps us humble. That's
a good reason why we remember some past sins, because it reminds
us what we're capable of, reminds us how we're unworthy, and reminds
us of the mercy and grace of God and loving kindness. It reminds
us that. It ought to keep us very humble.
But thank God He has forgotten what we can't forget. What we
can't remember, that's His covenant, His promises we seem to forget,
and His mercies, and we get all torn up. What we can't remember,
God can't forget, His covenant. But what we can't forget, our sins, God can't remember. He says there's sins and iniquity. I'll remember no more. My parents
long ago forgot the things I did. In fact, I brought up something
several years ago to them. Do you remember when I... No,
I don't recall that. You're kidding me. You don't
remember when I... No. That's love, isn't it? That means,
you know, they must really be gone. For God not to remember
something, that means He's blotted out, isn't it? But we need to
do it. Somehow or another, we need to
forget the past, because it will haunt us, it will keep us in
despair, keep us in doubt and fear. Let's just trust Him, shall
we? Our worst sins may be yet to come. And so let's forget it. Forget
the past. False religion, you know. I remember
as a, saying some thanks to some old friends of mine, mocking
and scoffing my father's religion. I was a child of the 60s and
70s and I was enlightened through various artificial means. I was enlightened and I said
some things to some friends of mine in mockery and scoffing
and I just said, I know more about eternity and things. I had a little book that I thought
refuted the whole Bible. Well, God in great mercy spared
me, and after that, oh how I wanted to take back everything I said
to everyone. Everything I said. I had a preacher
friend who was in false religion for years, very zealous. and
had some converts under him. And when the Lord revealed the
truth to him, he said he wept constantly over all the lies
he told on God. All the people he lied to. And
he couldn't go and undo it. Well, God knows that. He knows
that. Do you think Paul ever got over
All that he did against the church. That's why he's the most zealous.
That's why he went everywhere. Not only doing what our Lord
told him to do, going all over the world, but he thought, I'm
going to find everybody I lied to. And I'm going to tell the truth
now. But just forget that. You can't undo that. Just forget
it. Forget your false religion. Forget
your baptism. Every now and then I'll run into
an old set of notes and it'll have, so-and-so was baptized. I think I did it at the time,
so I wouldn't forget your name when I was baptizing you. I used
to do that a lot. I still do it, write somebody's
name down, but I'd hate to get in that pool and say, I baptize
you, my brother, forget your name. my dear brother, whatever. So I write it down. And that
always makes me think of our Lord whose names are written
on the palm of His hand. And every now and then I'd write
it on the notes of that sermon I was going to preach that day.
But if you got your baptism written down somewhere, blot it out. Erase it. Forget it. Because
that doesn't account for anything. your baptism, whatever, anything
in your past, anything you've done, any experience. Don't trust
an experience. Oh, I had this life-changing
experience. Forget it. Forget it. Revelations and so forth, don't
just forget it. Your works, your labors, Forget it. Paul says, forgetting
those things behind. Verse 13, reaching forth unto
those things which are before. Reaching, reaching, reaching.
You know, the illustration here Paul gives is a runner in a race.
And he said that in Hebrews 12, verse 1. Let us run the race
that is set before. He said, Know ye not that they
that run, run to obtain a prize? And the illustration here is
of somebody running to the finish. And it's a race against time. Time is short. And the sense
is, don't stop and look, look how far I've come. Oh, don't
do that. Whatever you do, because you'll
stumble. If you look behind you, would you look at the problem? And now you're behind. Or don't
look back, look at so and so, he's not as far ahead as you. Remember the tortoise and the
hare? No, no. Look how far I've come. Or look
who I'm in front of. No, don't do that. Forget those
things behind you. Reaching. Reaching. Reaching. You ever reach for
something that's just out of your reach? You can stay to know
something like this when you're working on something and you're
in a tight spot, a bolt or a nut falling. You can't move, you've got to
handle it. Reaching, Lord. Reaching like
your life depends on it. I've got to have that. I've got
to have that. Reaching. Verse 14, I press. This thing is a pressing matter.
Have you ever had any pressing matter? Something that everything
else must stop. Nothing else matters. Something
that's a pressing matter, you say, I've got to put everything
else on hold because this is a pressing matter. Well, brethren,
there's no pressing matter like this one, like the one at hand.
Every message is the message of salvation.
I press toward the mark, I press, I press toward the mark of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It was our Lord that said
this one time, he said, the kingdom of heaven suffered by loss. storming the gates of heaven,
people that want in. And the violence, take it by
force. It's not only a violent act when
the Lord lays hold of you. There's a warfare that goes on
all your life. And it's oppressing man. It's
not a nonchalant, oh, if I make it, I make it. No, no, it's too
violent for that. All right.