Thank you, Jeanette and John. Go back to Philippians with me,
Philippians chapter 3. One of the brethren requested that we look at this chapter,
particularly verses 8 through 11. And two or three weeks ago
I had already prepared this, but many things came up. But
it gave me great pleasure to look at it again. Like Paul said
in these verses, to write the same things is not grievous to
me, but for you it's safe. And it pleased me that the brother
requested these things, these verses, because we've looked
at them so many times, and yet he still wants to look at them.
That's a good sign. It's still his desire. He has
one desire. As Paul said in these verses,
Oh, that I might win Christ. That is the evidence of being
a child of God, to want to win Christ and be found in Him. who
was, God said, a man after his own heart. Well, how do you know
David was that way? Because he said, one thing have
I desired of the Lord. And that's what I'm going after
until I realize it. Until I'm apprehended. Until
I apprehend that for which I'm apprehended. Our Lord said that
one thing is needful. To know Him. To win Him. He's
the prize. And Paul said, compared to Him,
everything else is done. No matter how much we prize things
and people, he said, compared to Him, it's all done. And Christ is the prize, and
He is worth losing everything and everyone to obtain this prize. And he said that. Paul said,
suffered the loss of all things, but I haven't lost anything if
Christ is all. And he said this in verse 11,
if by any means, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, if by any
means I might win Him. Now that man, Christ is surprising. Christ is the prize for that
person that can say that. We have many things that we prize,
that are valuable to us, precious to us. We do. My granddaughter,
I love her dearly. I love her as much as my own
daughter. I really do. Both of them. But
we had one. And I drove, we drove, well,
I drove seven hours round trip. A few more hours of stopping.
But to spend one day with her. One day. I'll take one day with
her out of six months. And I'll drive as far as it takes.
As far as it takes. She's worth that much to me. Paul said, if by any means, I've got to have Christ. He's the prize. And verse 14
says, so I press. I press toward this mark. Verse
14 is our text. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the prize.
Now, a prize is something you both win or you do that through
a drawing. If any of you have ever won a
prize, there's a drawing. In other words, a number or a
name has been chosen and they notify you you've won.
Me? Yeah, you've won. Five dollars. It doesn't take much for us to
get excited. You win. Usually these prizes
we win, you win. Do you ever get these keys in
the mail from Duncan Ford or something? Look, I've won a new
car. Yeah, right. Don't even bother to go there. One way you win a prize is your
name is chosen or a number is chosen, and the next way you
win a prize is like a prize fighter. In other words, he's out after
the prize being the mastery, the title, and he's fighting
for this prize. All right? This prize, salvation
in Christ, is both. Salvation in Christ is both being
chosen And I've got to hand it to him.
I've got to go after him. I'm going after him. It's Mo.
I hope I'm chosen. I hope I'm one of the elect.
I hope I've been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Those are the only ones that will be saved. Those are
the ones that win the prize. Christ is given to those chosen
by God in a covenant before the foundation of the world. That's
true. That's absolutely true. Only the elect will be saved.
Well, how do you know you're one of the elect? How do you
know you've been chosen? We cannot see our names written
in that Lamb's Book of Life. How do you know you've been chosen
to win the pride, to win Christ? If you've got to have Him. If you say with Paul, by any
means, Whatever it takes. In verse 12, he said, it's not
as though I had already attained. Now, Paul was an old man at this
point. Paul was nearly 70 years old
when he wrote that. He's about ready to die. He's
in prison. He's about ready to die. And
in his letter to Timothy from jail, he said, I've fought a
good... They've laid up for me a crown. But he doesn't take
that for granted. He doesn't presume He says, I
haven't attained yet. I'm not there yet. Isn't it? I'm not there. I'm not perfect
yet. But I follow after, He said. This is what I'm after. Christ
said, for you may come after Me. If it's Me you're after.
Many people look for things, look for church, look for fellowship
with people and all that. Our fellowship, truly our fellowship,
the fellowship of believers, the fellowship of the sons of
God, the fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. God's
people, although we fellowship with one another, our fellowship
is around the Son, around Christ. Everybody in heaven right now,
they're glad to see each other, but they didn't come there to
see each other. They came there to see Him. And they're all gathered
around Christ. And verse 12 says, I follow after
him, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ. You may have thought about this
too, but I thought about old Jacob. That's what this verse
is saying. Jacob was left alone. And I hope
next Sunday or maybe Wednesday night's message, I don't know,
Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him. A man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, came and laid hold of him, apprehended
him. How do you know the Lord had
apprehended him? How do you know the Lord had come for him? How
do you know? Because Jacob said, I won't let you go until you
bless me. Jacob laid hold of him. That's
the only way you knew the Lord was wrestling with this man.
Nobody could see him if they had come there. And you can't
see the Lord. The Lord is invisible. Now, the
Lord is still wrestling with men and women and young people.
Now, how do you know He's wrestling with them? They wrestle with
Him. They hold a hymn. They come and they sit and they
listen and say, I've got to hear Him. Verse 13, He said, I forget. I don't count myself to have
apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that
are behind. Reaching forth under those things before. Forgetting. Forsaking everything. Forgetting. What a wonderful word this is. Our Lord said about His people's
sins, who have laid hold on the Lord Jesus Christ, who look to
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their sin offering. He said
their sins and their iniquities, I'll remember no more. and that
the iniquity of Israel shall be solved and not be found."
God's forgotten. Listen to me. Listen to Him for
your own comfort. Forget your past. God has. For your own comfort, for your
own peace of mind, for your own assurance, forget the past. God has. He's wiped it out. He's
erased it. It's gone. Yesterday's sins. Forget them. And press. Reaching. Reaching forth like
a hungry person for bread. Like a thirsty person for water.
Reaching forth. Forget those things. Forget your
past profession of faith too. Forget that. Forget that. You believed Him yesterday? Wonderful. But that won't save you. We've got to hold fast to the
beginning of our confidence, steadfast in Him. I don't know,
you know, I hope the Lord chose me, and I believe He has dealt
with me, but the only way I can know now is It's a pressing matter. It's an urgent matter. Verse
14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God. It's a pressing matter. It's an urgent matter. Urgent. Not just another message. It's
life. And he said in verse 15, look
at this, Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect. You know,
if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, You're perfect. You're complete. You're complete in Him. That's
what the Lord said. That's what His words say. He
cannot lie. You trust Him. You're complete in Him. You're
wholly unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. I just said He
forgot your sin. They're over. They're gone. They're
under the blood. You're clothed in His righteousness.
All who trust in the Lord will not be ashamed, will not be found
naked in that day. You're clothed with the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why He began
this chapter by saying, Rejoice in the Lord. And He ends it in
chapter 4 by saying, Rejoice, I say. Rejoice in the Lord. Your sins are gone. Did you hear
what the Lord Jesus said to you? They're all taken away. Sins
are gone. Pardon. And you are free. Free from the law. They're all
taken away. Nailed to the ground. Perfect. But he's saying here, those that
are mature and strong in the faith, be thus-minded. Think this way. Verse 15. If
there's anything you're taken up with other than Christ, may
the Lord reveal this to you. If you presume upon anything,
may the Lord reveal this to you. Paul said, I am not there. The
Apostle Paul. I will never attain to a fraction
of the knowledge of the truth that Paul has. Even Peter said,
he says things hard to be understood. You need to listen to it. Paul
said, I preach in part, I know in part, that oh, that I might
know him. and be found in Him. I want to know Him. Don't you
know Him, Paul? Yes, but not like I ought to, not like I want
to, not like I'm going to. So if in anything, if you're
taken up with anyone or anything, if you're sidetracked by anything,
anyone, you need to understand, as Paul did, that that's That's
loss. It's lost time. And you can gain the whole world
and you can lose your soul. That's how precious soul is,
eternal. Don't presume upon that. Press. Verse 17, he said, verse 17,
Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk
In the same way, you have us for an example. And he wrote
in the Hebrews, he said, Hebrews 11, he wrote, and that's maybe
my favorite chapter in the Bible. We've looked at that more than
any other chapter, again, because it gives me such comfort. You've
got people just like us. You've got Abel. whose brother
didn't know the truth. And he hated him for it. You've got Enoch who felt alone. Nobody else walking. He had nobody
to walk with. He had God. He had Noah, you
know, in a day, a wicked day. He looked all around. Lot and
Vex were the converts, although he felt like a hypocrite and
one that mocked, yet he was warned, and on and on. Rahab and on and
on. All these people just like us.
We have a great cloud of witnesses, Paul said. A great cloud of witnesses
like us, Paul said. Like me. You have, for example,
they all died in the faith. They all received a good report.
From who? God. By doing what? Trusting Christ. He said, meet followers. I want
to follow Abel, his example, don't you? I want to follow Enoch,
his example. We're not following men, but
we're following them that are following the Lord. That is,
we're in line. And no one should go before another. That's what the Scripture said.
Those that have died before us, they're going to rise first.
Somehow or another, we're going to see that happen. It's only
fitting, isn't it? In verse 18-19, though, he said
with weeping, crying, he said, there are many who are enemies
of the cross of Christ. There's much antichrist out there
today in the name of Jesus Christ. And oh, how I wish that I could
have Paul's attitude. I think I'm getting a little
bit of it. After all this year, I think
maybe, I hope, I don't know, I hope, God knows. But Paul said, I could wish myself
a curse for my brethren. Now, Kim's not according to that.
He said, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. He said, I weep. But they're
enemies. They're anti-Christ. False religion is anti-Christ. We say that with authority and
with a sense of anger. and righteous zeal for God's
glory. Yes, we do. The zeal of God's
house and His glory and His name and His gospel and His Son eats
us up. And we say it, but let's say
it with a tear out in our eyes. We can tell the truth. We must
tell the truth. Very few people will tell it,
but tell it in love. Because that was us. That was
me. That's how Paul did it. Paul
was standing on the steps of Jerusalem and they'd beaten him
to a pulp. And his eyes were black and his
face was bloody. And he said, hold on there, I
want to say something. This is a man who has experienced
the mercy and grace of God that I know so little about. But he
said, stop, I want to say something to these people that have been
beating me and wanting me dead. He said, men and brethren, hold
on, I want to tell you the truth. You see, I haven't arrived there
yet. Not even close. Maybe if I can do that. I told
you my pastor's request for his funeral is this. I fought a good fight. I kept
the faith. They laid up for me a crown.
Well, my fight's not over. I can't say that yet. I can't say that yet. The message
Wednesday night was on that one. A soldier of Christ. I feel like
a worthless soldier. I feel like one of those that
a bunch of David's men went out and his champions went out to
the forefront and some of them hazarded their lives for David
while some of them sat back and watched the stuff. I feel like
one of those just watching the stuff. But you know what? They
all got the same reward. They all got the same reward.
The man who has slain thousands and the others who just watch
the stuff. That's how merciful the Lord is. Nevertheless, and
he said in verse 19, their God is their belly. There's still some people out
there, some people in this room. who only mind earthly things,
who are only after the things of this world, who don't have
spiritual life, who don't know Christ, who is life, who are
after the things in this world, earthly things, of the earth
earthing. After buying and selling and
building and marrying and giving in marriage and these things
and attainments and all that, And they may get these things,
but they may lose their soul. That's why I say this is not
just another message. It never is. When Christ is praying,
it's a day of salvation. And if you're after anything
but Him, if you don't win Christ, you lose your soul. But I didn't say that. The Lord
did. It's a prize. Let me try to tell
you a little bit about the prize. I want to try to tell you about
something I've never seen. That's what Scripture said, whom
have you not seen? The prize. That's what he calls
Christ here. Prize of the high calling of
God in Christ. And he's a prize. Scripture calls.
The things of Christ's unsearchable riches. And men and women have
been looking into these things for years. Unsearchable riches. But the half has not been told.
Unspeakable gift. Paul said, thanks be unto God
for this unspeakable gift. Men have been trying to speak
on these things for years. But it's not lawful. Paul said,
I went there and I heard And I can't put it into words. Job said, I've uttered things
I understood not, things too wonderful for me. First of all,
the Lord calls this, and it won't be long, the Lord calls this
the high calling of God to be in Christ Jesus, the high
calling of God. Salvation begins with the call.
And he calls it a high calling. It's a call from God. Stay with
me. Do you want to know if you're
elected? Do you want to know if you're
chosen? Do you want to know if you're in Christ? Do you want
to win? Here it is. It begins this way. The high
calling from God in heaven. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, Paul
said, called by our gospel, by the preaching of the gospel.
Many are called, yes. Many hear the Bible. Many hear
words. But having ears to hear, they
don't hear. It's evident. Because they don't
press. Because you might see them and
you might not. They don't have a need. They
don't see any hunger or thirst. They don't see any longing. You'll
see his desire. It's like a husband who might
come home and he might not. Well, he looks like he's married.
He sounds like he's married, but he's not married. Many are called, but few are
chosen. This is how the elect of God
are known. They hear his call. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. And they hear his voice. And
they say like the maiden, the sheep, it's the voice of my beloved.
The voice of the Gospel. Christ said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They come when they're called.
That's how you know them. They come to Christ when they're
called. The call of the Gospel is repentance toward God and
faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I preach that every
time. With tears. Repentance toward God. God is
holy. We've sinned against God. We've
sinned against our Maker. The One in whose hands our breath
is. that gives us breath every day of our life and feeds us. And Chloe said, I've girded you,
though you haven't known me, haven't called upon me, you haven't
glorified me. The God in whose hands your breath
is, you've not glorified. You've not given thanks to. You've
gone after other things. Repentance toward God. If He
calls you, you say, I sinned against thee, and thee only have
I sinned, or done this evil in thy sight. What's that? Unbelief. Not acknowledge my God. Not be
thankful. Not worship. Why is it so hard
to get people to come worship? They don't know God. Why do we
have to force our children to come thank God? They don't know
God. But if God calls us by the Gospel,
we come willingly, don't we? We come with desire. We come
with a heart full of gratitude. We come with a heart full of
repentance and say, Lord, forgive me. I now see, I now see, I once
was blind, now I see. Lord, thank you for opening my
eyes. Thank you for opening my ears. Thank you for feeding me.
Thank you for closing me. Thank you for sending Christ.
Can I have mercy? Can you show mercy to me? I sure
need it. Lord, help me. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So long I went and sat and sat
and sat like some in here and sat and sat and sat and heard,
but didn't hear a thing. Didn't hear a thing. But God,
who is rich in mercy, one day opened these deaf ears and these
blind eyes, and I started calling. Not knowing, not realizing, not
even believing that He could have called me. But that's exactly
why I started calling Him. That's how you know. And I'm
still calling, bless His holy name. I'm still calling. I'm
still rotten. I'm still no good. I've still
sinned against Him daily. Murmuring, complaining, I'm not
thankful. But blessed be the name of the
Lord. He's still calling me by His
gospel. I still see my need of Christ,
and I'm still calling on Him. That's how you know. That's the
only way you know. Only way you know. And I still
say with Paul, I've got to win Christ. I want to be found in
Him. It's high calling. There's no greater honor conferred
on a human being, on a worm and a dog, than to be called of God
like Bartimaeus The Lord of Glory stopped and said, go tell him,
the Master has called it to you. Lord of Mass? Out of all this
crowd of people, the Lord called one man? Like Mary. The Lord cast out
many devils. They told her, Mary, the Master
has come and He called it to you. Me? That's why hearing this gospel
is such a privilege. The high calling. Give glory to God in the highest
if you have heard and still hear this high calling. It's a low
man standing in front of you. The lowest of the low. But I've
got a high calling. The high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. It's to be called, salvation
is like two things. It's a marriage and it's an ark. It's to be called by God the
Father to marry His only begotten, well-beloved Son. Now, who's
worthy of that? Who's worthy to marry Him who
alone is worthy? You know who He calls? The unworthy. He said to His disciples, you
go out and you preach this gospel, and if you find a house that's
worthy, tell them, and peace will be upon that house. Tell
them the gospel. They'll receive peace. To be worthy is to know
you're unworthy. To hear the call is to know you
don't deserve to hear it. Salvation is a marriage. That's
what Paul said. I speak a mystery of Christ and
His church. It's like marriage. The Eternal
Son, who was with the Father in the beginning, loved by Him
daily His delight, the Son of His glory, the Son of His love. God the Father, out of glory
to His Son, betrothed the bride to be His wife, given to Him
in a covenant before the world began. And that blessed Christ,
though, had to come to this earth to redeem these sorry gomers,
every one of them, who had sold themselves in sin, on the auction
block of sin. And He had to come to this earth
to redeem them from all their sin. He labored hard like husbands
who work for their wives. They feel like it's worth it.
They're worth it. But our Lord came for the joy
set before Him. Please the Lord to make you His
people." Endured the cross, hard labor to work out our salvation. We had nothing to do with it.
Our blessed Husband purchased our redemption by His own precious
blood to pay the sin debt, which is death, which I deserve, this
death row criminal. This worthless prodigal son that
the beloved Son of God sent for this rebellious son. And God called me and said, I'm
sending my son whom I'm well pleased for you, with whom you've
done nothing to please me. Nothing. But I love you, I chose you. I send my Son down here to die
in your stead, Barabbas." I've given you to Him to be His
bride. He did nothing beautiful about
you. You went for years and saw nothing in Him whom angels praise,
whom God says He's altogether loved. You saw nothing in Him.
You despised and rejected Him. You better be thankful I didn't
reject you. I chose you. I gave you to my
son. Sit him down here." And Christ came, died for our sins,
shed his own blood for a worthless woman. And the Holy Spirit, he
sends the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel to
tell every one of them in search of his bride. And he finds them
in the gutter. He finds them washed up, used
up, filthy. Filthy garments. And he tells them back to Ruth. Ruth Boaz is called in here to
be his bride. She's out there in the field,
dirty, filthy. You know the story. You want
to hear it again? She's out there in the field.
She's dirty. She's filthy. She's poor, living from day to
day. She's been a nothing but a heathen,
Moabite all her life. Doesn't know the God of Israel.
Wants to. God's calling her. And she just happens to land
in Boaz's field. They're not everywhere, but he
does have fields here and there. It was her hap. And you're not
sitting here by accident. It was her hap to land at Boaz's
field, where Boaz is and where his young men feed the maidens
and leave handfuls on purpose for her. And lo and behold, Boaz
called her. She's in the field. Called her
out to be his bride. And she never got over it. Never
got over it. Like Abigail, married to a fool. That makes her a fool, doesn't
it? When she married that man, she was just like him. They bought
a fool. One day, David came by. King
David. And called her. Said, David's
calling you to be his bride. Many women in here can say, I
hope my wife can say this, I was blessed or I am blessed to be
married to be such and such's wife. Many women in here can
say that. I'm so glad you can say this,
can't you, Jeanette? You've said it to me many times.
Honored and thankful to be Ed Berry's wife. You've told me
that. You believe it's a gift of God,
don't you? A privilege of God. Here's a greater one. There's
a higher calling to be able to say, I believe that the Lord
God has called me to be the bride of Christ, the bride of the Son
of God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be given to Christ
and called the sons of God, the bride of Christ, the wife of
Christ. God says, this is my beloved
son. You don't deserve him, but I'm giving you to him. Now
serve him. Be thankful. It's a high calling.
High calling. And baptism. is like the marriage
ceremony. I keep bringing this up because
the Lord did. He didn't believe that he was
baptized. He didn't believe it's not. He
doesn't confess Christ. It's like marriage. If you really
fall in love, it's a love. If you fall in love with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And no man can do this. Only
the Holy Spirit does it. Peter said, whom having not seen
you love. You do, and you've got to have
Him. It's a marriage. You've got to have Him, if by
any means. And baptism is like that marriage
ceremony. You say, I've heard His call. He wooed me. I've fallen in love
with Him. Do you take this man? Do you take this gospel as yours? Do you take this call as being
from God to you that you need this. I do. I do. Will you? I will follow Him. Do you confess Him? By the grace
of God, I do. And then you wait for His coming. Oh, how blessed are they and
a call to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you wait for
His coming. Like a bride waiting for that
day. You ladies, do you remember that? Waiting for that day? You
were betrothed, you were engaged, and you're waiting for that day
to happen. Do you remember that? You couldn't
hardly wait, could you, for that day when that blessed union would
be completely consummated and you'd be joined to Him forever.
You wouldn't have to leave Him. You'd go home with Him. You'd
stay there. You never forget that, will you?
Well, God's people are waiting. They're like the virgins. But
don't be foolish. There were five that had no oil.
They were doing other things, I guess. And here's another thing,
they're not looking for the background. Oh, that's sleepy, isn't it?
Being found in Christ is a high calling. It says in verse 14,
a high calling of God in Christ. It's like that ark of Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. as do all of God's people whom
He's chosen, given to cry. They find grace in the eyes of
the Lord. And he was warned of God. He's
not a true preacher if he doesn't keep warning. Paul said, I've
warned day and night with fear. So he moved with fear and prepared
an ark. His life was given to the support
of and the building of that ark in which he himself had to be
in. And he wanted his children and
his wife to be in that ark more than anything else. That's how
you know. That's how you know. He gave his life to that ark. And he said, by that ark he condemned
the world. This is going to be destroyed. But that's all right. It's all
lost. that I may win Christ. That's what Noah said. And how
you know he found grace was he was found in the ark in that
day. The high calling of God is to
be married to His Son in Christ Jesus. The high calling of God,
the great honor, undeserved privilege and call of God It's to be found
in Him. That's what Paul said. Oh, that
I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. But found
in Him. And our Lord said this. Listen,
and I close. As in the days of Noah, so shall
the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days of Noah,
they were buying and selling, marrying and giving and marrying. And I say this to the young people,
unmarried, that's fine. Our Lord said it is. He's the
one that ordained it. And it's good. It's okay to pursue
that. And I hope the Lord will give
you a mate who knows the Lord. But if you don't marry Jesus
Christ first, Marriage is tough enough as it
is. Marriage is honorable, yes, but
in the flesh you're going to have trouble. But if you marry Jesus Christ,
if He marries you, it's all good. It's all good. And Paul said this, the time
remains. That they that have wives be
as though they had none. And all that matters is that
you're married to one person. Because in heaven there's no
marrying. There's no male or female. It's only those in Christ. In Christ. And how you know them
is like a woman pursuing a man. I've got to have him. I've got
to have them. Down in the yard. And I believe
these are those last days, those seven days. I know it. I know it is. These are those
last days, those seven days, the hardest days of all. There's
a lull, no sign whatsoever of His coming. And those that are waiting on
Him will say when they hear, this is going to happen. Behold,
the bridegroom cometh. And those in Christ, come, Lord
Jesus. Come. Those outside. Okay. May the Lord bless His
Word. Make it effectual. Open some
ears and eyes, is my prayer. Brother John, you come. We're
going to sing verse number 314. I am Thine, O Lord. I have heard thy voice. I.