Alright, let's open our Bibles
to Philippians chapter 3. In the last few weeks I've been
preaching on the subject of what is the Christian life. And just
going through these last few verses of this blessed chapter,
Philippians chapter 3. Last week I dealt with the subject
of the Christian life is a high calling. It's an upward call. A calling, a high calling to
strive to be conformed to Christ, to the image of Christ in our
character, in our conduct, in our thoughts, our deeds, our
walk, striving for perfection. Paul dealt with that in verse
14 of Philippians 3. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, that That
goal, that set mark that we strive for is perfection within ourselves. We're already perfect in Christ.
In God's eyes, in the view of his law and justice, we're already
as holy in Christ. Now think about this, and this
is the distinction. If you don't, listen, if you
don't see this, you don't see the scriptures. But in Christ,
I'm as holy as I'll ever be. But in myself, I'm not yet there.
And somebody says, well, are you getting holier? No. You know, there are no degrees
of holiness. I mean, what is, can somebody
be 99 and 44 100 percent holy? Is that possible? No. James said
this about righteousness, the righteousness of the law in chapter
one of his book. He said to offend in one point
is to be guilty of what? Are there degrees of righteousness? No. There are degrees of growth.
There are degrees of knowledge. There are degrees of faith. There
are degrees of assurance. But there are no degrees of holiness
and righteousness. In Christ, right now, I'm as
righteous as I'll ever be. In Christ, I have all wisdom,
the Scripture says. But in myself, and that's what
Paul's talking about, in myself, I'm not yet there. And no part
of me is there." Now, listen to him. He said, I press toward
the mark of the prize. What is the prize? The prize
is just exactly what he's talking about. Then I'll be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. Now, Brother Joe read about that
over here, 1 Corinthians 15. That's what he's talking about.
This is the goal. He's talking about this old,
weak body, this corrupt body. that sown in corruption will
be resurrected in incorruption and will be given a new spiritual
body. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
I don't know what that is. And you study it, and when you
find out, call me. The spiritual body. Paul said
this back over here in 1 Corinthians 15. He said, I'll show you a
mystery. And it is mysterious. And John said in 1 John 3 and
verse 1 and 2, he said, Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. It hasn't appeared to our eyes
yet what we shall be. But we know this, we'll see Christ
as he is. That is, we'll see Christ then
not through a glass darkly as we do now, as Paul said in 1
Corinthians 13, through eyes that are contaminated with sin
and with ignorance. But then we'll see him as he
is. We'll see the full glory of the Son of God incarnate,
our Mediator and our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord. And then
he says we'll be like him, we'll be made like him. And that's
what Paul says here, we'll have a spiritual body. And he says
that will be the final victory over death in the grave. Now,
Christ has already gained victory over death in the grave. He's
already done that when he was resurrected from the dead. when
he was brought out of that tomb, and we were in him, and he ascended
unto the Father, and we're in him. But when this happens, when
this final glory, when the Lord of glory comes again to receive
his people unto himself, then that'll be the final victory
over death and the grave. And that's what he says here
in verse 55 of 1 Corinthians 15, O death, where is thy sting? You know, the wasp that stings
you, the reason it hurts so bad is because that's poison. Well,
death, we'll go through physical death, but the stinger's been
removed. And he says, O grave, where is thy victory? The grave
could not hold our Savior. God said he would not suffer
his Holy One to see corruption. Well, that's the same way with
the people of God in glory. Now, we'll lie in the grave and
these old physical bodies will corrupt, but we'll be resurrected
with a spiritual body and given a spiritual body, united. He
says the sting of death is sin. It's sin that brings about death.
The wages of sin is death, and the strength of sin is the law.
The power of sin to condemn a sinner is the law of God, because where
the law finds sin charged, it must pronounce death. But you
see, you say, well, where does that leave us? It leaves us with
no hope but Christ. You see, because in Him, as I
am considered in Christ, the law finds no sin. You see, my
sins were charged to Him. He bore them away. They were
charged to Him. And He drank damnation dry, and
He gave me His righteousness. When the law looks at me through
Christ, it sees righteousness and holiness. And then he says,
verse 57, But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in verse 58, he summarizes
what Paul was saying in Philippians chapter 3. Therefore, based upon
the fact that this is a sure and certain truth, that we will
be glorified in Christ, that our salvation is sure and certain
through him, He says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch
as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Now,
go back to Philippians 3. That's what he's teaching here.
That's what he's preaching. And this is the Christian life.
It's a high calling. It's a high calling. I don't
say most, all men and women by nature have a very, very low
view of life. I mean, I want you to think about
it. What do most people by nature think real living is? You look
on TV and they see the movie stars with all their money and
their gold and their diamonds and their fame and somebody says,
man, that's living. No, man, that's dying. Oh, if I just had this, then
I could really live it up. No. You're teenagers. What's living to you when you
get that first car? Is that living? For a lot of
people, that's dying, really. Oh, you just think life's over
if you don't get this and don't get that. One man described the
seven ages of man this way. He says there's first the age
of spilling, And then comes the age of drilling. And then comes
the age of thrilling. And then comes the age of billing. And then comes the age of illing. And then comes the age of pilling. And then comes the age of willing. You want me to give that back
to you again? Spills, drills, thrills, bills,
ills, pills, wills. I'll write that down for some
of you. We hear people in religion talk
about the abundant life or the higher life. And you know what
they mean by that. They're talking about they're
walking on a cloud above everybody. It's just not so. Here's the
higher abundant life right here, verse 14. I press toward the
mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'm striving
to be like Christ. Striving to be like Christ. It's
a high calling. But I want you to look at something
else this morning in these verses. It's a calling of the mind. A calling of the mind. Now, I
know some people don't like that kind of language, but you know,
that's scriptural language. And the reason some people don't
like it is because they fear that you would portray salvation
or Christian living as mere intellectualism. But you know, over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, Paul describes the spiritual man as one who has
the mind of Christ. What he means by that is by the
Holy Spirit and the new birth, we have the mind of Christ. We come to desire to think like
Christ thought. That's what he means. in his
word, to live by his word. We do have the mind of Christ.
We have the word of God implanted in our hearts, in our minds,
our affections, our will. We have a desire to live according
to that word. It's not a perfect desire yet.
I'm going to show you that in a minute, because we still have
a desire within us to fulfill the lust of the flesh, and it's
a fight, it's a battle, it's a warfare. It's World War III. within a believer. And then in
Philippians chapter 2, he spoke of humility and love and unity
in the church, and he sought to motivate them by saying in
Philippians 2 and verse 5, Let this mind be in you. Here's how
you as a believer are to think. That's what he's saying. And
over here in Philippians chapter 3, he speaks of forgetting. There are some things we need
to forget. That's an act of the mind, isn't it? Then he says in verse 15, "...let
us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and in anything
ye be otherwise minded." There's the mind again. In showing the
mind here, he's not dealing just in terms of intellect and bare
knowledge. He's not saying you have to be
a genius to be a Christian or to live like a Christian. The
mind in scripture is the heart. The heart is the mind, the affections
and the will. It's the inner man, the very
being, the very center. And when he says, let this mind
be in you, he's not just talking about giving mental assent or
agreement to a set of doctrines. He's talking about this is part
of you. This is where your heart is, this is what you love and
desire. This is what you're all about,
that's what he means. And this issue of Christian living,
somebody said, is there intelligent life on Mars? Reminds me of the
biology teacher in college when he had a lab and there was all
kinds of expensive equipment around. And he said, I'm going
to give you a test and it's going to be one question. And he said,
based upon your answers, I'll give you your grade. And he asked
him this question. He said, if you were going to
travel to Mars and you wanted to find if there's intelligent
life on Mars, what piece of equipment in this lab would you take with
you? And one student wrote, he got several answers, electron
microscopes, telescopes, all these things. One student wrote
down, he said, I wouldn't take anything. I'd just go up there,
and he said, I'd ask the inhabitants. And even a no answer would suffice,
if there's intelligent life on Mars. Well, the question we might
ask is this. Is there spiritual life on Earth?
That's the issue. How do you know? Well, you know
it by its evidences. How is it evidenced? What does
the scripture say about spiritual life, living the higher life,
the abundant life, the Christian life? What does it say? Well, it says that there are
changes in a person who is spiritual. There's the natural man, there's
the spiritual man. We know the spiritual man is
not a self-made man. He's a man made of God, by the
Spirit of God. He's been born again by the Spirit
of God. He's changed in his heart, his
mind, his affections, his will. We may not be able to describe
it theologically or doctrinally, but we know it so. As Christ
told Nicodemus when he said, you must be born again, he said,
the wind bloweth and listeth where it will. You don't know
where it's come from, where it's going, but you know it. You see it.
You see the leaves rustling in the trees. You see the effects
of it. In a believer, in a born-again
person, in one who is a Christian, There are things old and there
are things new as to our experience of salvation. In the new birth,
the Holy Spirit has given us many new things. Let's look at
a few of them. First of all, he gives us a new
motive for living, a new motive for living. A Christian has a
different motive than an unbeliever. Look at verse 12. He says, not
as though I had already attained, there are some things I haven't
yet attained. What's he talking about? Perfection within myself. Either we're already perfect,
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend," now listen to this
last line, "...that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus." Somebody's got a hold of me,
that's what he's saying there. To apprehend means to lay hold.
And I'm striving to attain, he says, what I've already been
laid hold of." In other words, Christ has already saved me from
my sins. He has already redeemed me by
his blood. He has already justified me by
his righteousness. He has already adopted me into
the family, and he has brought me into his family by his And he's already got hold of
me, and he will not let go. He said that. He said that no
one shall pluck them out of his hand, his Father's hand. You
see, salvation is not based upon our hold of him, it's his hold
of us. And that establishes our motive. You see, that for which
we're striving, perfection in ourselves, which we know we will
not attain in this life, But why do we do it? Well, we have
a new motive. Our motive is not to be saved.
Our motive is not to be made holy by our works. Our works will not make us holy.
They're not good enough. Our motive is not to earn God's
favor. Our motive is not to be accepted. Our motive is because we already
are by God's grace in Christ. You see, it's all based on that
for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Look down at verse
16. He says, nevertheless whereto
we have already attained. Huh? What have we already attained?
In Christ we have all things. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. In Christ we're already redeemed,
in Christ we're already justified, in Christ we're already, now
listen to him, we're already sure and certain for heaven as
if we were already there because of him, because of his blood
and his righteousness. We read it this morning in our
Sunday School that Paul said through this man, through Christ,
we have the forgiveness of sin. Somebody says, shouldn't we ask
for forgiveness? Yes, we should. But do you know
what? In Christ we already have it. We come to God by faith in Him. Paul said it this way. He said,
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.
That's my motive. That's the rule I walk by. I
don't glory in my flesh. I don't glory in anything I do.
I don't glory in anything I strive to do. If I grow in grace, it's
by the grace of God. I can't glory in that. I've got
a long way to go. If I improve in my character
and conduct, that's by the grace of God. I can't glory in that.
I glory in one thing, the finished work of Christ on the cross.
That's your motive. That's right. The gospel is the
declaration of the finished work of Christ on the cross to redeem
us and justify us before God in Him. And we're already perfect
in Him, legally, in the view of God's law and justice, declared
righteous in the sight of God, but we're not yet perfect in
ourselves here on earth. Here we've got to fight remaining
sin, remaining selfishness. Perfection is our destiny. We read that in 1 Corinthians
15. That's where we're headed. It's what Paul is saying here.
But not because we're so good, not because we're so diligent.
Perfection is our destiny and our destination because Christ
is already there. That's why. He's the firstfruits. He's already entered into the
holiest of all. He's already there. We fight
here on earth. We war within ourselves. We walk. We run, we strive to obey, not
to be saved, not to be kept, not to be rewarded based on our
works. That's common in religion, isn't
it? God doesn't owe us anything based on our works. But we do
it because of God's grace. Our motive is grace and love
and gratitude, which we didn't have before the new birth. Now,
that's new. That's right. Look over at Romans
chapter 7. Why do we come to church? Why
do we seek to obey? Why do we give? Most people, when they preach
giving, they don't preach giving, they preach investment. They might as well call it the
New York Stock Exchange. And that's what it is. Why do
we give? The Bible says God loves a cheerful
giver. Huh? Well, based upon their way
of giving, the only way you can be cheerful is when you get the
return. No, that's not it. Huh? Why do you serve God? Because
of what you can get out of Him? No, we serve God because of what
He's already given in His Son. Isn't that right? That's love. Look at Romans chapter 7, look
at verse 4. He says, wherefore, my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law. Now, what does that mean? That
means you're justified. That means you're redeemed. The
law cannot condemn you. Now, how did you become dead
to the law? Look at the next phrase. By the body of Christ. When did you become dead to the
law? When he gave his body. When his body was broken for
our sins. Now, why? Why was that? That
you should be married to another. Not to the law, but to Christ.
You're united to him. He's your husband. The Church
is his bride. He's the head, we're the body.
Even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should what?
Work hard and earn God's favor? Work hard and earn that mansion
instead of the cabin? No. That we should bring forth
fruit unto God. Fruit bearers. And he goes on
in verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, now that means
when we were unregenerate. That's not talking about a Christian
who bounces back and forth. When we were in the flesh, the
motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. When you were unregenerate and
you were in religion and you were trying to serve God, what
were you doing? All you were doing was bringing
forth fruit unto death, serving as a legal mercenary under the
law, legalism. But now, verse 6, but now we're
delivered from the law. We're delivered from the law's
penalty in Christ. It cannot condemn us. Now, listen
to me. We're delivered from any obligation to the law in order
to be saved or to be rewarded. You see? has removed the penalty. Christ has kept the obligation. He's our hope. We've been delivered
from the law, that being good wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter. What is it to serve in newness of spirit? It's to serve
God out of a heart looking to Christ, having in our minds gratitude,
love, I want to glorify God and honor
him. That's right. That's the new motive. That's
the evidence of, that's Christian living right there. You see,
you may run up against non-Christians who are moral people, kind people, even more moral and kind than
some of us, dedicated. I mean, you think there's a religion
they call Christian, they'd give up one year of their life to
go out and ride a bicycle and bother people, knock on their
doors. That's dedication. You see, Paul
said, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
What's your motive? Are you seeking to be accepted
before God? Or is it because you've already
been accepted in the Beloved? You see the difference? That's
the work of the Spirit in you. He's given you life. Now, our
motive within us is still not yet perfect. Don't you still
have to fight legalism in yourself? I do. Don't you still have to
fight doubts within yourself? Have you ever done anything at
a pure and perfect motive? No. So what do you do? Philippians
3, pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. We do have a new motive set in
our minds, our hearts, by the Spirit of God, but yet not perfect in ourselves. Here's another thing. Look here.
We have a new goal for living. Look back at Philippians 3. Look
at verse 11. Paul says, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead, that's what he's talking about.
That's what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 15, I
want to be like Christ. David said in Psalm 17, we read
it last week, I'll be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
John said, it doesn't yet appear, but we shall see him as he is,
we'll be like him. That's our goal. Paul said, I follow after that
I may apprehend. I'm following after a goal here. What is it? To be like Christ.
I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize. What's the prize?
To be like Christ. As I'm perfect in Him, I want
to be perfect in myself. I want the new body. That's what
he's saying, the spiritual body. I want to be free. I'm free from
sin's power to condemn me. I'm free from sin's dominion
to keep me from looking to Christ, but I'm not yet free from sin's
influence. Influence is everything I do.
I'm not free from sin's power to contaminate me. Some people
say, well, you've got something that cannot be contaminated.
Now, let me ask you this question. Now, think about this. Think
scripturally. Let this mind be in you. Now
every child of God here this morning, now you can say honestly
that you love God. Now I'm not saying you can boast
about your love. I'm not saying in your love you've
got something to be proud of. I'm not saying that you're going
to plead your love as your righteousness, but you can say honestly by the
Spirit of God you do love him. The Bible says if any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, he is none of his. By this shall
all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one
for another." Now, you who are born again, you can honestly
say you love God. Right? And that is a work of
the Spirit in you. The Spirit of God sheds abroad
the love of God in our hearts, Romans chapter 5 says. Let me
ask you, in your best effort to love, can you say it's perfect,
uncontaminated? without any mixture of self and
sin. Can you say that? No. So something's contaminating
it, isn't it? Oh, my soul, don't you even yet, as being able to
say you love God, aren't you so glad for 1 John 4, 10, here
in His love, not that we love Him, but that He loved us and
gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Aren't you so glad
that your salvation is not based on your love for him, but on
his love for you? See what I'm saying? I'm going
to tell you something. If it is righteousness, it's
got to be perfect, or it's not righteousness. And I'm going
to tell you something about holiness and righteousness. They cannot
be contaminated, not if it's the righteousness of God. It
cannot be contaminated. Oh, I thank God that I do love
him. But my love is so pitiful even yet. Am I right? You think about that. But we
have a goal. And what is our goal? To love
him perfectly. Without blemish. Perfect, uninterrupted
love. Somebody said, well, I do love
him perfectly. Well, you're just lying to yourself. I bet you can't even keep your
attention on his word perfectly. I can't. Without interruption,
without an awful thought just shooting through your mind. We do love him, but our goal
is to love him more. Our goal is to love him perfectly.
And even though it doesn't yet appear what we shall be, we know
we'll be like him. Our goal is not to be conformed
to the world. And our goal is not to be conformed
to men, but to Christ. Our goal is to have a love equal
to his love, a faith equal to his faith. Our goal is not to
please men, but to please Christ. Before, our goal was to exalt
the flesh. Before, our goal was to earn
our salvation. Before, our goal was to be applauded
of men. Now, our goal is to please God.
You see the difference? Now our goal within us is not
yet perfect. We still have to fight the desire
to please men. We still have to fight the desire
to compromise the glory of God to avoid trouble and to exalt
ourselves and keep our earthly relationships. We have to fight
it. But our goal is to be like him.
Look at verse 13 of Philippians 3. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling
of God in Christ." Look down at verse 15. Now, here's another
thing. We have new desires in life,
new desires in Christian living. And these are not desires we
did not have before. These are completely new. These
are desires that were shed abroad in us by the Spirit at the new
birth." Now, look at verse 15. Paul writes, "...let us therefore
as many as be perfect." Now, that's in Christ. Now, some people
say that's speaking of maturity. Well, there is a maturity. But
he's talking about striving for perfection in Christ. Now, we
are perfect in Christ. We should be growing in grace
here, but here's what he says. Let's be thus-minded. And if
in anything you be otherwise minded, if you think any other
way other than the way that the Spirit of God is motivating and
instructing Paul to write these things down, God shall reveal
even this unto you." God's going to teach his people. God's not
going to let his people alone. You know, when a person who claims
to be a child of God gets off on a tangent, I'm going to tell
you one of the best things that you can pray for that person
in love. is that God will deal with that person. Now we pray
God deal with us. God deal with me. Don't leave
them alone. Because if God leaves them alone,
they're not His. Bring them to repentance. That's
what you pray. We pray God be gentle. But God
knows more than we know. He knows what they need. Man
will say, well, you've got to let them save face. Christian
living is not about saving face, folks. It's about humility. It's about godly sorrow over
sin. It's about repentance. It's about
love. You know what saving face is?
Pride. That's what it is. It's pride. And that's not what this is about.
So if any man be thus otherwise minded, God will reveal it to
him. He'll reveal it unto you. Verse 16, Nevertheless whereto
we have already attained, well, we've already attained perfection
in Christ. We've already attained holiness
in Christ. Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same
thing. Why should we strive so hard
for that which we cannot attain and will not attain in this life?
It's because we've been born again by the Spirit and we have
come to faith in Christ. We've come to repentance of our
dead works. Our hope is in Him who saved
us by His grace. We've been given new desires
now. We've been given a desire to glorify our Heavenly Father
and exalt our Savior. Oh, think about what they've
given to us. Think about what God has given
to us in Christ. We've been given a desire to
love him and obey him and his word, a hunger and thirst after
his word, his righteousness, to grow in grace and in knowledge,
not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. We've been given a desire
to evidence our justification, our union with Christ, our love
for him and his word, not to be saved, not to try to gain
his love for us, but because he already does. We've been given
a desire to be useful in the kingdom of God. Do you want to
be useless? You know, when we pursue the prize and run the
race, looking to Christ and grow spiritually, it brings joy and
peace in believing. It makes us useful in the kingdom
of God. We desire to see others saved.
Do you desire to see other people saved? I do. And I know you do,
too. Now listen, sinners will not
be saved by looking at our lives. It's only by hearing the truth
that God saves his sheep. All right? Faith cometh by hearing.
But do you want to be one who gets in the way of a sinner hearing
the gospel and hinders that sinner, or do you want to be useful?
Do you want to be a help in the kingdom of God? And these new
desires are not yet perfect in us. We still have old desires
of sin and self. We still have to fight sin. We
still have to war after the flesh and not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. We have to be minded to walk after the Spirit, the word
of God. Look at verse 17. He says in
Philippians 3, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an example." Now, look at verse 18, too. He
puts this in parenthesis. He says, "...for many walk of
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly," that's their appetites, their fleshly appetites,
that's their desires, "...and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things." Now, men cannot be our goal. or our
motive or our rule. Now, listen to me. But men can
and should be our examples. That's what he's saying there.
Christian living means being a disciple of Christ, not a disciple
of men. We're followers of Christ. So
whom do we follow? Well, Paul says we follow only
those who point us to Christ and him crucified for our whole
salvation. Only those who deal with the
word of God openly, honestly, and clearly, those who confuse
it or abuse it, are enemies of the cross," he said. Enemies
of the cross of Christ. Those who contaminate it, those
who mix it, those who complicate it, are enemies of the cross
of Christ. Don't follow them. That's what
he's saying. What's their problem? Their end
is destruction. Their God is their belly. They
have another motive and desire other than Christian. Their desire
is to exalt themselves, gain a following for themselves, draw
men away to themselves, make a name for themselves, and their
glory, that which they desire, will be their shame, he says.
They mind earthly things. They are not walking by the word
of truth. Let me put it this way. Paul
said this in 1 Corinthians 11. He said, Be ye followers of me,
even as I also am of Christ. When a man tells you something
to say, something to think, something to do, now listen to me. When
a man tells you those things, he says, now here's how you think,
here's what you do, here's what you decide, here's how you act,
when a man tells you that, If your first thought in response
to that man is, first, what does the Word of God say, then you're
not following Christ. You hear what I'm saying? If
in response, if it's me or any man, if we say, here's how you
think, here's how you'd act, here's how you're to do, if your
first thought is, is that according to God's Word? Is that what God's
Word tells me to do? Check him out, folks, with the
Word of God. And if he's a man of God, he
won't be offended at that, because he's in the same boat you are.
And this is what he says. Now, you follow Christ. That's
Christian living, disciple of Christ. Now, the last thing,
I'm going to deal with this next week in verses 20 and 21. We
have a new home in living. We're citizens. not of this world,
but of the Kingdom of Heaven. And we'll deal with that next
week.