Now this morning I want us to
open our Bibles back to the book of Philippians chapter 3. Philippians
chapter 3. Last week I began talking about
the subject of the life of salvation. What I meant by that is living
the Christian life, what that involves and what that entails.
And I'm going to deal with that in several scriptures in this
message and in upcoming messages. But I've entitled today's message,
The High Calling of God. I take that title from verse
14 of Philippians chapter 3, where Paul writes, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Living the Christian life is
a high calling. In fact, it's the highest calling.
Last week I drew your attention to verse 20. Philippians 3 where
he says in verse 24 our conversation is in heaven that is our citizenship
that's what that word conversation usually when you see the word
conversation you think of our walk and our talk our conduct
but there the word literally means citizenship we're citizens
not of the world but citizens of a heavenly kingdom the children
of the kingdom Christ told his disciples, he says, you're in
the world, but you're not of the world. And that's why believers
many times are described as aliens, strangers, and pilgrims in this
world, because we're not citizens of the world. We've been taken
out of the world and put into a heavenly kingdom, the kingdom
of God, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of grace. And so
what we're studying when we talk about Christian living whatever
that is in the scripture, we're talking about advanced citizenship. We're talking about what are
the citizens of the kingdom. So that's what this high calling
of God is all about. Now, last week I gave you these
things. Let me just go over them again briefly. And that's this. Number one, to live the Christian
life is to live a life of grace. That's what Christian living
is all about. We live by and in and from the grace of God. Salvation is by grace. It's not by works for by grace. Are you saved Ephesians to a
poor for by grace. Are you saved through faith and
that faith not even a work that you muster up. It's not natural
man through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of
God not of works lest any man should boast and a Christian
a believer. A sinner saved by grace, verse 10 of Ephesians
2 tells us what he is. He said, for we are his workmanship. Whatever I am, I am by the grace
of God, Paul says. I'm his workmanship. I'm not
self-made. I'm not self-saved. I'm not made
righteous by my works. Christ is my righteousness. He's
the Lord my righteousness. I stand upon the ground of his
blood and righteousness alone. That's grace, you see. And so
where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto, not because
of, but unto good works which God hath foreordained that we
should walk in them. So it's the life of grace saved
and secure in Christ, not trying to save ourselves. So whatever
the Bible says about our works, whatever it says about our endeavors,
our attempts, Our pressing on, we're going to talk about that,
pressing toward, I press toward, it's not in order to save myself.
It's not in order to make myself righteous. It's because I already
am in Christ. That's what the key is. Paul
wrote in the book of Galatians, chapter 2 and verse 20, he said,
I'm crucified with Christ. That's the foundation and the
ground of my whole salvation and my whole life. Nevertheless,
I live. And he says, Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. Christ lives in his people. If
Christ did not live within us, we would not be able and would
not be living a Christian life. Now, how does Christ live within
his people? We sing a song, Christ liveth
in me. He lives within his people by
his spirit and by his word, the Holy Spirit who indwells us.
The word which has been written in our hearts Scripture says.
We've been given a new heart. And so he says, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, walking around
here on this earth as you see me walk, he said, I live by the
faith of the Son of God. I live by looking to Christ,
and I live by what he accomplished, Christ who loved me and gave
himself for me. So it's living the life of grace.
Grace all the way. Saved by grace. kept by grace
and ultimately glorified by grace, not conditioned on me. Secondly,
to live the Christian life is to live a life of faith. That's
continually looking to Christ. One of the best verses to describe
that is Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2. Let me read it to you.
He says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. We live looking unto him as both
the beginner, the originator, the author, and the finisher,
the completer of our faith. So in other words, it's all conditioned
on him. And then thirdly, living the
Christian life is living a life of repentance, continually repenting
of all sin. 1 John 1, verse 8 says, If we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us. And then verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now, what is the foundation of
forgiveness and cleansing? It's not our confession. It's
the blood of Christ. And so we continually confess
our sins and we rest in him. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. We rest in Christ
for the forgiveness of sins. We rest in Christ for our continual
cleansing. You see, repentance has a beginning,
but it continues. It's called godly sorrow over
sin. And so living the Christian life
is continually fighting all sin, not in order, again, to be cleansed,
but because we're already cleansed by the blood of Christ. Fourthly,
to live the Christian life is to live a life of love. But now
it's not just emotional love. It's certainly not self-love.
It's certainly not filial love that has respect to persons in
the flesh, but it's that divine love that respects first and
foremost the honor of God's glory in Christ. We'll see that in
just a few moments in another verse. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
16, 22, he said, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be anathema. John wrote in 1 John 3 and verse
14, we know that we pass from death unto life because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. And so it's a continual life
of love and struggling to love. It's a warfare now, this whole
thing of a Christian life in every area is a warfare. It's
a warfare of the flesh and the spirit within us. None of it
comes natural. And then fifthly, living the
Christian life is living a life of obedience, but it's not just
outward obedience. First of all, it's the obedience
of grace and love and gratitude. It's not legalism. It's not trying
to earn your way into God's favor by your obedience. It's not trying
to earn your rewards in heaven. But it's simply expressing your
love and your gratitude to the God of all grace. Thank you,
Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation, so
rich and so free." Realizing that we don't deserve it and
cannot earn it, and yet he's given us all things. Brother
Joe read there in Romans chapter 8, he that spared not his own
son, how shall he not with him, with his own son, freely give
us all things? And that's what the natural man
cannot stand and cannot receive, those things that are freely
given, because he's got to take some credit. in this thing of
salvation. That which separates a true believer
from an unbeliever, the natural man has to take some credit for
that, whether it be his faith, his repentance, his free will,
his good works, whatever. He will not receive those things
that are freely given of God in Christ, which we don't deserve
and cannot earn. It takes the Spirit of God for
us to do that. So it's a life of obedience,
but it's the obedience not of a forced slavery trying to pay
his debt to the law, but it's the obedience of a willing, loving
bond slave whose freedom has already been given to him as
it was earned by Christ. The Son set us free. Christ did. Now, every bit of that that I
just mentioned, life of grace, faith, repentance, love, obedience,
can be summed up in this verse 14, right here. This is what
it's talking about. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is
this pressing toward? It's pursuing. That's what that
word pressing. Press toward means to pursue,
to go after. just like a runner in a race
seeking to reach the finish line. That's the analogy, that's the
metaphor here. So what are we doing when we
press toward? We're trying to pursue a life of grace. We're
trying to pursue a life of faith. We're trying to pursue a life
of repentance and love and obedience. And he says, we're pressing towards
this as a runner in a race. Paul used that analogy twice. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
9. Let me show you this. Paul, in
his writings, as he was inspired by the Spirit, I think I mentioned
this last week, but he basically used three metaphors to describe
the Christian life. One of them was a metaphor of
a soldier serving in the army of the King, the army of King
Jesus. And that's soldier. That's what
we are. We're soldier. We're in a warfare. And that's
why he wrote in Ephesians chapter 6 that we're to be strong in
the power of the Lord. We can't fight this war in our
own power. We fight it in the power of God.
We can't fight this war with our own goodness for we have
none. We fight it in the goodness of Christ and we put on the whole
armor of God. And he mentions that there and
he describes each piece of that armor in Ephesians chapter 6.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We're not to pick
up knives and guns. You know, I read a book last
year talking about the history of Christianity, and they always
talk about things like the Crusades, and they talk about the Spanish
Inquisition, where people were trying to be forced physically
to confess Christ. Listen, let me tell you something.
All that was false Christianity. There is no true Christianity
there. I'm telling you that now. The
weapons of our warfare have never been carnal. We don't pick up
knives and guns. We're not jihadist. No, sir. We don't go in and conquer countries
and try to make them Christian. We're not political. We don't
politicize it. You say the weapons of our warfare
are spiritual. And our battle is a battle of
the mind and the heart. And our main weapon is the word
of God, the sword of the Lord, the word of God right here. And
we fight in the power of God in that way. We're not we're
not to declare physical war. We don't fight with tanks and
guns and machine guns and all that. We just preach the word. That's what we do. So there's
the first. The second one is the analogy of a farmer sowing
his field. We're like farmers, we're the
sowers, Christ is the sower and he has his ministers who sow
the seed of the word. And we go out and we preach the
word and God gives the increase. He makes it effectual where he
sovereignly causes it to grow. But the third analogy, metaphor,
here's the metaphor of a runner in a race. Now look at 1 Corinthians
9 and look at verse 24, the last part of that chapter. He says
here, verse 24, he says, Now that prize there is the same
word prize that he has over in Philippians 3 and verse 14. Now,
what is that prize? That prize is crossing the finish
line. Now, what is that a symbol of?
That's final, listen to me, that's final glory. Christ That's the
culmination the harvest of all things in the Christian life
When Christ comes again and we're glorified together in him and
he says so run Now listen to the language here because this
is important verse 24. He says so run that you may obtain
Now, why didn't he say run that you may win? Tell you why because
this is not a competition And this is not us trying to
win something that's already been won. It's us running to
obtain simply to possess something that has already been won. That's
why. Remember last week I told you
about the children of the Hebrew children when they came to the
edge of the promised land and they sent spies over and they
came back with two reports. This is recorded in the book
of Numbers. And they came back with two reports. They had a
majority report and a minority report. And the majority report
simply said, now we, listen, we're on the wrong path here.
We can't take that land because those fellas over there are giants.
I mean, everything we've heard about that land is good. I mean,
it's a land flown with milk and honey. It's a very fruitful,
very plentiful land. But the guys who have that, they're
giants. Their armies are strong. We cannot
take them. That was the majority report.
But the minority report which came through Caleb, remember
Caleb the faithful dog, the faithful one, he said, fellas, you're
looking at it all wrong. We don't have to take that land.
We don't have to fight for that land. We don't have to earn that
land. That land is already ours. All we have to do is possess
it. God's already given it. It's
the promised land. And that promised That promise
was unconditional towards the Hebrew children. It was given
to Abraham. And that's what he's saying.
We have a promise of salvation that reaches all the way to final
glory. In fact, that's the reason I
had Brother Joe read Romans chapter 8 there, because it talks about
our predestination to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's
what the mark is. That's what the prize is, that
we be perfectly conformed to Christ. But we don't have to
earn that. We're not running this race as
a competition, trying to see who can get there the fastest
and who can get more. You may come in first place,
I come in second place, and you get a blue ribbon, I get a red
ribbon, and somebody else gets a yellow ribbon. No, that's not
what this is about. This is running to obtain something
that's already been won for us. That's what running the Christian
race is. It's a race of grace. And he says so that we may obtain,
we may possess something that we already have. That's what
he means by that. We're just, we're pressing toward
the mark, trying to reach for something that we really already
possess in Christ, but not yet in our own experience. We haven't
experienced it yet. But we have it. And we want to
get there. You know why we want to get there
because God saved us by his grace and his spirit His Holy Spirit
within us in he compels us Motivates us and so he says in verse 25
now look here in first Corinthians 9 He says and every man that
striveth for the mastery in is temperate in all things. Just
like a runner, you know, I mean If you're going to run a race
You're not going to go eat a big meal before that race. Are you?
You're going to train yourself. You're going to discipline yourself
to run that race. And that's what we're to do.
We're to be disciples of Christ. We're to train ourselves in the
word, discipline ourselves in the word, in prayer and in fellowship
and in worship and all these things, the means that God has
given us. Again, again, not to be saved,
but because we already are. And he says now they do it. These
runners in the Olympic Games, they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown. They'll get a crown. but it's
going to fade away. But we, an incorruptible, it's
an incorruptible crown, it cannot be, it cannot fade away, it cannot
be taken away. So he says in verse 26, I therefore,
so run, press toward, not as uncertainly, not being uncertain
that I'm going to finish, you see, He says, so fight I, not
as one that beateth the air. I'm not shadowboxing. He said,
but I keep my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any
means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway. What Paul's simply saying there
is I'm not just standing up here behind this pulpit telling you
to run the race. I'm in this race with you. I'm running it
too. We're all in this together. Look
over at Hebrews chapter 12. I quoted this earlier. Part of
this. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Well, the context there is Paul,
who I believe the Holy Spirit used to write Hebrews. He's talking
about running away. Look at verse 1 of Hebrews 12.
He says, wherefore seeing we are compassed or surrounded about
with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now that cloud of witnesses that
surrounds us are all the examples of God's grace and that's recorded
in Hebrews 11. all these men and women who endured
by the grace of God through persecution and opposition and he says we're
surrounded by these clouds of witnesses and he says and let
us lay aside every way you're going to run in a race you don't
want to run with a 200 pound weight do you so put it down
well what is that weight anything that would hinder you in this
race all right we're running a race of great we're pressing
to now anything that hinders us in doing that put it down
Just put it away. That's what he's saying. Whatever
it is. And he says, he says, and the
sin which does so easily beset us. I believe he's talking about
sinful doubts there and misgivings that hinder us. And he says,
and let us run with patience. That's endurance. The race that
is set before us. Now, how do we run it? Look at
verse two. Trying to beat the other fellow. Trying to get a
blue ribbon instead of a red ribbon. No. looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God." We run the race
looking to Christ, being assured of our final glory in Christ. Now look back at Philippians
3. That's what it is, to press toward the mark. What is that
mark? It's perfect conformity to Christ. That's what this is about, being
like Christ in every way. Listen to this very carefully
now. If you're going to live the Christian
life, you have to learn to make this distinction. You have to,
because it's scriptural, and it's part and parcel of what
we are in every way. Although I am, before God, legally
and objectively perfectly righteous, in and by Christ. He is the Lord
my righteousness. In him, I'm as perfect and as
whole as I'll ever be. In Christ. That's why Paul said,
look back up here in Philippians 3, in verse 8 and 9, he talks
about that I may win Christ, in verse 9, and be found in him. When I'm running this race, this
is what I want. This is what I desire. I want
to be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, do you see that? Verse 9. In other words,
I'm not trying to make myself righteous by my obedience. I
want to be obedient. I want to obey, but I'm not trying
to make myself righteous by my obedience, because I know that's
impossible. The best that I can do, even as a Christian, even
as a believer, will not make me righteous before God. Because
for me to be righteous before God, what I have to have is sinless
perfection. And I don't have that in myself,
but I do have it in Christ. That's why he's my advocate.
He's my intercessor. He ever lives to make intercession
for me. And he says, he says, that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of
God by faith, that I may know him. I'm pressing toward the
mark. that I may know Him, that I may
grow in more knowledge of Him. Pressing toward the mark means
growing. That's what it means. Growing in grace and in knowledge
of Christ. In verse 11, he says, if by any
means or in any way... When he says, if by any means,
he's not talking about, well, God can save me any way He wants.
No, God saves one way. There's only one way that God
saves, and that's by His grace through Christ. Christ said,
I am the way, not a way, the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So God saves one way. But when Paul says, if by any
means, he's talking about no matter what I have to go through.
And Paul went through a lot. When he was writing this letter
to Philippi, the church of Philippi, he was in jail at Rome. So when
he says, if by any means, No matter what I have to go through,
Paul is saying here, whether it's a time of blessing and pleasure
or it's a time of trial and affliction, no matter what I have to go through,
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now that resurrection
of the dead is the obtaining of the glory of Christ. It's
being made like Christ in myself. It's when I put away this flesh. when I'll be able to say I'm
sinlessly perfect in myself. So though I am right now, before
God, in Christ, perfectly righteous, I'm not yet perfectly righteous
in me, in my thoughts, in my motives, in my attitudes, in
my actions. I've not attained perfect righteousness
yet. Not in myself. I've not attained
perfect knowledge. I have knowledge that's given
to me by God, but as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, what did
he say? He said, we know in part. We have spiritual sight. If you
see the glory of God in Christ, if you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and rest in Him, and if you've repented of dead works
and idolatry, repented of sin, you see things you didn't see
before. You have spiritual sight. But you see right now through
a glass, darkly. Don't you? John wrote in 1 John
chapter 3, he said, Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But we know we'll be like Him,
and we'll see Him as He is. We'll see Him in His effulgent
glory. So we don't have yet perfect
happiness. You know, to be conformed perfectly
to Christ is to have perfect happiness. Do you have that now?
If you do, you're just euphoric. Look that one up. It means you're
just fooling yourself. And you may be happy today, but
just hold on till tomorrow. Am I right? I'm telling you the
truth, and you know I am. I mean, we're up one day and
down the next. When we're perfectly conformed to Christ, there'll
be no tears, there'll be no sorrow, the Scripture says. Though I
am right now justified, that means not guilty. That means,
as Brother Joe read in Romans chapter 8, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
is risen again. Seated at the right hand of the
Father ever living to make intercession for me there is therefore now
no condemnation To them which are in Christ and you may look
at me at a given moment You say buddy anybody looks condemned
you do but I'm not condemned in the court of God's justice
Because Christ is the Lord my righteousness. I have his righteousness
to my account. He took my sins and He put them
all away So I'm justified. And listen to me, I'm sanctified.
I'm not being progressively sanctified. I'm sanctified. That means I'm
set apart by God in Christ. That's what that means. And I
am sinlessly perfect in Christ, but not in myself. But these
things are not yet perfected in me. I know in part sin dwells
in me. Paul said I'm carnal, sold under
sin. My faith is imperfect, but I
press on. pressed toward the mark. I long
to lay hold of Christ who has already laid hold of me, and
I want what the Lord purposed and purchased for me on Calvary,
and that is to be like him, to be like him, for whom he did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Look at verse 13 of Philippians
3. Or look at verse 12, rather. He says, "...not as though I
had already attained." Already attained what? The resurrection
from the dead. Perfect conformity to Christ
in myself. Either already perfect, that
means complete, fully grown, fully where I want to be. He
says, "...but I follow after." That's what that pressing toward
means. I follow after the life of grace, the life of faith,
the life of repentance, the life of love, the life of obedience.
I'm in a warfare against myself, against the world, against the
devil. I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that is, lay
hold of that for which I'm also apprehended of Christ Jesus.
What he's saying there is that the foundation and assurance
of my final glory is the fact that Christ has already laid
hold of me. He's got me in his hands. And none can pluck them
out of my Father's hands, he said. And so he says in verse
13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. I haven't
yet reached final glory. I haven't yet reached perfect
conformity to Christ in myself. This one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before. What are those things which are
behind that he's talking about? Well, he's certainly talking
about all of our past religious experiences, all those things
that he used to glory in that he listed back in verses 5 and
6. I used to really think I was something, he said. I used to
really think that I was doing a good job, accepted before God. By these things I was circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, Hebrew of Hebrews, touching
the law of Pharisee. concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,
I really used to hold on to that stuff. And you know, it's like
I told you last week, you know, you ask most people today, are
you a Christian? The first thing they do is go
back to the past and say, well, I accepted Jesus when I was 12,
or I got baptized. Forget it. Somebody says, that's awful for
a preacher to say that. No, it's not. It's awful for
you to say anything else. I'm telling you, forget that
stuff. Most people live on it. Let me tell you one thing of
the past that we do not forget. Now listen very carefully. There's one thing of the past
that we do not forget, and that's the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 6.14, Paul said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The cross is ever before me. When I press toward the mark,
when I'm running the race of grace, the cross is ever before
me. And you know why? Now the cross,
the actual event of the cross is in the past. That's about
2,000 years ago. But you know what? The cross
is eternal. Has no time limitations. Christ
was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the scripture says
in the book of Revelation. Back in the Old Testament, those
believers back then who were running the race were running
the race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of their faith, just like we are. Everyone in the future whom
God brings into the kingdom, he'll bring there by virtue of
the cross. The finished work of Christ in
putting away our sins and establishing the only righteousness whereupon
God could be just to justify us. will never rise above the
cross, even in glory." If you read Revelation chapter 5, the
song of the redeemed in glory is, "...worthy is the Lamb that
was slain." The cross is our life, the cross of Christ. I'm not talking about a piece
of wood. I'm talking about his finished
work, the finished work of the God-man, God in human flesh. did his great work, and that
work has eternal application, eternal repercussions, eternal
power to save us and to keep us and to bring us to glory forever
and ever. Look over 1 John chapter 4. Let
me show you something about interpreting scripture with scripture this
morning. You know, we studied that in our Sunday school, no
scriptures of any private interpretation. And if you don't interpret scripture
with scripture, You might look at a verse like this, and you
might think, well, John and Paul were at odds here. Now, Paul
says over in Philippians chapter 3, he says, I count myself not
to have apprehended. And it's not as though I have
already attained perfect conformity to Christ, perfection. He says, I'm not telling you
that I've attained that. I'm telling you that I and you,
we are to be pressing toward that mark. seeking, running,
attempting, making efforts, efforts not to save ourselves, but efforts
of grace, as we're inspired by the Holy Spirit, as Christ lives
through us and in us, you see, by his power. So he says, I haven't
yet made that. But now, John, look at verse
17 of 1 John chapter 4. Listen to what John says here.
He says in verse 17, Herein is our love made perfect. That means
our love has is made full and reached its goal. That's what
it literally means. That we may have boldness, confidence
in the day of judgment, because as he is, that he there is Christ,
as Christ is, so are we in this world. You mean as Christ is,
so am I in this world? Absolutely. I heard a preacher
preach on that about a year ago, and he said, how far are you
going to take that? And he said, just as far as you want to take
it. Hold on. I don't know how far you want
to take it. I'll tell you how far we take that. We take it
just as far as the Holy Spirit meant it right here in the context.
What's he talking about? He's talking about what a believer
is right now in this world as you're sitting in that pew, what
you are in Christ. Prove it to you. Look back at
verse 7, 1 John 4. Here's his subject. He's talking
about love. He said, Beloved, let us love
one another. For love is of God, that's part
of pressing toward the mark, and everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And verse 9, in this was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son,
the propitiation for our sins. What is that propitiation? That's
the sin-bearing sacrifice that brought satisfaction to the law
of God for our sins. That's the cross. This love that
he's defining, that gives us boldness in the day of judgment,
is not what we find in ourselves. Think about that. Let's say you
go before God and stand before Him at judgment, and God looks
at you and He says, now I'm going to measure your righteousness
by your love for others. Now how many of you here this
morning would have boldness in the day of judgment based on
that? If you think you would, you are sadly, sadly deceived
by your love. You think a whole lot higher
of your love than I do mine. You're going to measure my righteousness
by how much I love my worst enemy. Think about your worst enemy.
Think about the one who would do you today the most harm in
this world. Can you say you love that one
without any thoughts of harm, of revenge, or anything? Just pure, perfect, as Christ
loved his people. I can't say that. I know I ought
to. But you're going to measure my
righteousness by how much I loved others? Well, if that's true,
then I can't have boldness. But now, herein is love. Not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent Christ to die
on the cross for our sins. And that's what he's talking
about in verse 17 over here in 1 John 4. That's the love that
reaches its goal in us when we have confidence in the day of
judgment because I'm washed in the blood of Christ. I'm clothed
in his righteousness. Oh, that I may be found in him. When you have confidence at the
judgment because of what Christ accomplished on Calvary, That's
when that love of God has reached its goal in your heart. You see
what he's saying? So they're not talking about
the same thing. Go back to Philippians 3, and I'll hurry. This prize, look at verse 14.
I press toward the mark for the prize, perfect conformity to
Christ, of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That word
for prize there, it's not usually a word that was used back then
in the original Greek for the prize that runners won in an
athletic game. It was a prize here that came
by judgment. In other words, they had a word
for prize that if you won the competition, you crossed the
finish line first, you got the prize. That's not this word here.
The word for prize here is one who gets the prize because Whoever
is in authority to judge has judged them worthy of the prize,
like a judge. So the idea here is not competition
between runners, but runners seeking to get to the finish
line to receive an assured prize by judgment. Now, who is the
judge? God is. And what is the basis,
the standard of his judgment? He said in Acts chapter 17 and
verse 31, God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and that
he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised
him from the dead. Christ is the standard. Who's
going to receive the prize here? The one who crosses the finish
line first and beats everybody else? No, the one who is found
in Christ. That's what this race is all
about. The prize is assured by God's grace. Look at verse 15. He says, Let us, therefore, as
many as be perfect, the word is mature there, fully grown,
be thus minded. Think like this. This is the
way we're all to think. And if anything, you be otherwise
minded. If you don't think like this, God shall reveal even this
unto you. We're perfect in Christ, but
here it means mature. And he says, you have this attitude.
And if you don't have this attitude, if you're God's children, God
will reveal it to you. Just listen to him. And then
he says in verse 16, nevertheless, whereto we have already attained,
let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. To
whatever degree of knowledge of Christ that God has brought
us to in growth and grace, we've attained it. Let us walk by that
light, by that rule, by that standard, by that truth, by that
doctrine. All believers walk by the rule
of grace. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. But we all have to be taught
in many areas, especially these areas of obedience and living
the Christian life. That's a continual thing. So
in verse 17 he says, brethren, be followers together of me and
mark or observe them which walk so as you have us for an example. Paul says, follow me as I follow
Christ. Paul's not seeking a following for himself, he's saying you
follow what God leads you through me. And those believers who are
walking by this rule, you observe them and follow them. He says
in verse 18, for many walk of whom I told you often and now
tell you even weeping that they're the enemies of the cross. Their
end, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, that's
their own fleshly appetites. and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things." That's the enemies of the cross. If
you're not resting in Christ, I don't care what you do or how
you look, you're an enemy of the cross. Your glory, their
glory is their works. Just like those in Matthew 7,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast
out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? None of those things are evil
in and of themselves, but if that's what you plead before
God as your righteousness, That makes you an enemy of the cross.
So he says in verse 20, for our citizenship is in heaven. From
whence? From that viewpoint. Also, we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We look for him
to come again. We don't know when he's coming, but we know
he is coming. And he says, who shall change
our bile body, this bile body, this fleshly body? that it may be fashioned, molded,
likened to his glorious body, his spiritual body, according
to the working whereby," now listen to this, he is able, I'm
not able, you're not able, but he is, he's able to save to the
uttermost them that come to the Father by him. And he says, even
to subdue all things unto himself, pressing toward the mark, the
high calling of God. Let's sing as our closing hymn,
Sweet Hour of Prayer, hymn number 361. 361.