Open your Bibles if you would
to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, we'll
continue our study in this wonderful book. Paul's writing from Rome. to the church at Philippi, and
he spent quite a bit of time with the church. They become
very close when he was at Philippi. Remember, the church at Philippi
was established when the Lord opened Lydia's heart and saved
her, and she was born again. And also the Philippian jailer,
too, who said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul gives him
the best declaration that could ever be given, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So simple, isn't it?
So simple. Believe on Christ. Look to Christ.
He's the only Savior for sinners. There's no one else. He didn't
say you have to do this and you have to do that. He said just
look, believe. And we know that faith is given
to us. It's such an amazing thing. Faith and repentance both given
to us by God the Holy Spirit. It's wondrous. Now we've heard
in the past from different people You have to let things go. You
ever hear that in your life? I know for me, it's true. I've
had to let things go in my life that happened and occurred in
my life, and I'm sure you have many instances in your life.
But we as humans have a hard time letting go, don't we? We
can hold on to things for years, but we ought not to. And the
reason we ought not to is because look how much Christ has forgiven
us. All our sins. And God says, I
don't remember them anymore. And I think it was Spurgeon that
said we should keep short accounts. Because you know what happens?
Bitterness becomes like a tree. It grows in us like a tree. And
a dear friend of mine, when the Lord first saved me, told me
this a long time ago. He said, Wayne, in every situation
in life, you can either get better or bitter. I didn't fully understand
that when he told me, but I do now. And it's true. It's not hard for us to get better.
But when he was saying get better, he's meaning just let it go. Just let it go. Paul here, today's
message is called this, forgetting the past. Forgetting the past. Now Paul's not, like we were
talking about last night, brother, Paul's not saying you're not
gonna remember things. Remember the analogy that he's
using here in the third chapter of Philippians that we're gonna
see in the next few studies is that of a runner. Now a runner doesn't want anything
to hinder them, do they? And so what he's saying is, forget
the things of the past, don't let them hinder you in your race,
which is just our walk, our walk with Christ, that's all that
is. And who's the final, who are we looking to? Christ, through
this life. So he's telling us, don't let
those things hinder you, because they will, they will hinder us,
beloved, they will, if we let them. And we marvel at the fact that
in Christ, God doesn't remember our sins against us. It's amazing. And we walk in that liberty and
freedom, don't we? With great joy and great love
for Christ. Our sins have been totally paid
for by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean,
they're gone. We remember them, but God says,
I don't remember them. I don't remember him at all. And Christ, by his perfect sin
atoning death, because he's God in the flesh and our riven place
at Calvary's cross, he purchased us, he purchased his people,
right? He came to save his people from
their sins. So he purchased his people, he
purchased his bride with his blood. With his blood. As we saw on Wednesday night,
we were on the slave block of sin. Right? And the world's auctioning
for us, fame, fortune, money, all these things. But all that
stuff is temporary. And Christ comes and purchases
us with his precious blood from the slave block of sin. And we're
his. We're his. Today we'll be looking at verse
13 of Philippians chapter 3, where, see, Paul makes a statement
about himself. So obviously there was some people
in the church that were starting to believe in what's called sinless
perfection, because Paul deals with that in verses, I think
it was 11 and 12, and he says, I'm not yet perfect. I've not
attained being perfect. We will. The moment we die, we're
perfect. No more sin ever again. Oh, that'll
be glorious. That'll be glorious. But he's
saying this about himself because he's forgetting completely the
things that are behind. Now, he still looks back and
sees how God delivered him. But remember who Paul is. He
wasted the church. He destroyed the church in the
Greek. He had them put to death. And he's saying, I'm forgetting
those things because I'm not going to let it hinder me in
my race. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful. So let's
read verses 10 to 14. It says that I may know him in
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as... Now here
he goes. He's saying, I'm not already resurrected. And we're
going to say, see, he's going to say he's not perfect either. He's still a sinner. Verse 12,
Philippians 3, 12. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ."
Now, Christ apprehends us, he saves us from our sins, but we're
also being conformed to the image of Christ, aren't we? We're being
conformed to his image. And he says this, "'Brethren,
I count myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, in reaching forth unto those
things which are before." So he's saying, now he's saying
this of himself. He says, I, by the grace of God,
are not letting those things in my past hinder my walk in
Christ. It's amazing. Look at this. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So who's
our reward in heaven? People talk about all these crowns
and rewards. Christ is our reward. Christ
is our, we get to see Christ forever in glory. My, that's
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Now
we see here when he says in verse 12, not as I had already attained,
either were already perfect. We see, we see now as several
commentators brought forth that the error of sinless perfection
is starting to creep into the church. and probably came from
either the Judaizers who were full of self-righteousness. We
don't know. Somebody came up with this. But Paul says, I'm not already
perfect. No. Now, when we rise from the
grave, we'll be perfect. The minute we're dead like that,
we'll be in glory. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So let's read verse 12 again.
or verse, yeah, verse 12 and 13. Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after,
if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ. Brethren, I count, verse 13,
our text, I count not myself to have apprehended, remember
he's talking about the resurrection, he's talking about being made
perfect. He says, I haven't attained that yet. Now he knows it's sure. because his faith is in Christ,
just like ours. We're sure for heaven if we're
born again, blood washed saints, we're sure. As I preached on
Thursday, absolute security. We have absolute security in
Christ. It's wonderful. It says, but 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. See the word count in verse 13? It's from a Greek word. which
has the force of looking back upon the process of discussion
and calmly drawing a conclusion. So he's looking back at what
he said in verses 11, 12, and he's drawing a conclusion. He's
drawing a conclusion saying, I haven't apprehended those things
yet. I haven't counted them as mine
yet. They're his in Christ. Right? His standing in Christ
hasn't changed, but he says, one day I'm going to be raised
from the dead, and one day I'm going to be perfect. And that's
in Christ's presence, isn't it? The one who redeemed us with
his precious blood. It's just marvelous. And Paul
had, after much deliberation and consideration, arrived at
the conclusions, which he stated in those, in verses 12, that
he's not already perfect. He's a sinner. He says in Romans,
O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body
of death, right? He's got the same struggle we have. But he
says, I thank God. He's got the victory in Christ,
doesn't he? It always goes back to Christ, always. It has to. Because remember, without me,
he says, Christ says, you can do nothing. Speaking of the vine
and the branches. We can't even produce fruit on
our own. That's why it's called the fruit of the spirit. And he produces, isn't that wonderful?
He produces that in us. It's absolutely wonderful. Joy,
peace, love. My, this is why we give him all
the glory, beloved, because it's all him. It's all him. Now, again,
it's evident that some of the Philippians had arrived at the
opposite conclusion. They may have thought that they
were perfect. For Paul uses the personal pronoun
I. Look, look at verse 15. Brethren, I, so it's a personal
pronoun, me. Me. I count not myself, again, another
personal pronoun, to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before. So he's setting an example for
us, isn't he? He reaches the conclusion that
he's not already perfect, and he won't be until he's in the
presence of the Lord. And he says, well, for me, I'm forgetting
the things. As a runner, running the race,
I'm not going to be hindered by somebody giving me a bag of
rocks of things that people did to me in the past, or what I
did even in the past. I'm not going to be hindered
by it. throw that stuff away, and run the race. Isn't that
wonderful? That's wonderful, beloved. Because
think of this, I've considered this many times, because it is
not hard for myself, and I imagine for you too, to get steaming
mad at people. for having wronged us, right?
Right, brother Brian? It's not hard. Donnie Bell, I
love Donnie. He said, I could sit in my easy
chair after I preach the message on Sunday and get so mad at somebody. And you know what? They don't
know. And it's not hurting them, is
it? It's only hindering us. Oh my. Now they might have done
us wrong, like I mean really wrong. But it's not hindering
them. They're probably not even thinking
of us. I've had to learn this, you know. Even with what happened
here, I had to learn that, beloved. Just to let things go. And now
look what we have. It's wonderful. We have peace
and joy and love, don't we? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. And that's all by the Holy Spirit
of God, beloved. Let's give Him all the glory
and honor and praise. So this erroneous teaching of
sinless perfection, it's not new. People still believe it. People still believe it. It's
still prevalent. But it was held by some In the
Philippian church, the words attained and apprehended in verse
12 merely refer to a past fact in the Greek. And the word apprehended
refers to a present process in verse 13. So Paul says, I haven't
obtained that in the Greek. Even though he has security in
Christ, he says, I haven't apprehended being perfect. Neither have we,
have we? Although God looks at us and
doesn't count our sin against us. Now that's just incredible.
We were talking about it last night. It's incredible. And I
like what Colin said. That's in the covenantial aspect. Because he's made a covenant
with his people, with his elect, hasn't he? In Christ. It's wonderful. So as far as Paul says, that
settled the question of being perfect. Because he meant by using that
Greek word for apprehended, he meant that he hadn't grasped
that yet. He hadn't grasped that yet. Even
though in Christ he's perfect. Isn't that amazing? That's absolutely
incredible. What did they call it last night
when we're justified and sinners? What was that, Erin? I can't
remember. Yeah, yeah, pull up the chat,
GDB, yeah. But the Theocast guys call it
we're sinner saints. That's wonderful. We're saints
and yet we're sinners while we're here. One day, we're going to be sinless.
Isn't that amazing? All because of what Christ done.
Did you find it, sister? Oh, yeah, sure. There's a special
word for it, though, that we were talking about last night. But the fact that we're simultaneously
justified in Christ, and yet we're sinners still. But that's
a fact. We're clothed in Christ's righteousness.
Isn't that amazing? That's absolutely incredible. simul justus effector yeah it's
on latin latin yeah so it means we're justified and yet we're
sinners saved by grace isn't it it's
marvelous it's marvelous so paul's saying i haven't yet appertained
Now think of this, he has now, right, for 2,000 years, he's
been perfect now. But what he's saying to us, he's
saying in the flesh, we're not perfect. We're a bunch of sinners
saved by grace. And he's saying, he's actually,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, who's the true
author of this, he's saying, I've found in my life that I
have to let those things go because they hinder me. I can learn from that, personally. My. Eric says, he says, well, you're
happy all the time. Not all the time, brother. I
can get married in a white hornet like anybody else. But no, it's true, isn't it? I love this. This is, you know,
people say practical Christian living. This is where the rubber
hits the road, isn't it, for us? And yet here we are, we're
totally forgiven in Christ, and we're struggling. This is real. This is not, oh,
I'm on the mountaintop all the time in religion, right? I remember
that. You gotta be happy and joyful all the time. You gotta
be big old plastic smile on your face. No. David said, why art
thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquiet me? Hope
thou on God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his
countenance. David, Joe Terrell told me one time, he said, David
is depressed there. Yeah, I know he is. Isn't that wonderful? He's just
like us. My, oh, my. Note in verse 13 the phrase,
but this one thing I do. Now, note the words this and
I do are in italics, so they're not in the original Greek. They're
not in the original Greek. They've been added by the translators.
So how we could read this is, but one thing, forgetting those
things which are behind. One thing. He's bringing forth
one thing. I forget those things. I don't
let those things in the past hinder me. He persecuted Christians. Remember, the Lord comes to Ann
and I and says, go see this Paul fella. He says, I heard him. He says, he's a chosen vessel. Oh my. Do you know every one
of us is a chosen vessel who are in Christ? A redeemed vessel,
precious in the eyes of the Lord. And in that verse when it says,
precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints, in
the Hebrew that means valuable. We're valuable to Christ. Isn't
that amazing, Brother Charlie? It's absolutely incredible. So,
the literal Greek means, but one thing. But one thing. But one thing. Forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before. So not being hindered by the
past, because there's enough trouble in the next day, isn't
there? Sufficient is the evil for the day thereof. God's grace got us through yesterday,
and by the grace of God, he'll get us through today. And you
know what? If we live another day or another
week or another month or another five years, he's already made
provision for us. Isn't that wonderful? Because
we're his sheep and he loves us with an everlasting love.
Christ does so much that he manifested that love by going to Calvary's
cross and purchasing us with his precious, precious blood.
Oh my, it's just incredible. That's absolutely amazing that
Christ did that for sinners such as we. Yep. No wonder we praise him. No wonder
we worship him. My. So the phrase, now notice the
phrase in verse 13, those things which are behind, this refers
to the things that he had depended upon. Now here's a really neat
thing. Not only is he forgetting the
things that he'd done to people, but he's forgetting about the
things that he depended upon when he was in religion. How
do we know that? How do we know that? Look at
verses 4 to 7 in the same chapter. Look at this. So he's saying,
he's saying, I don't depend on my past as a Pharisee to get
me favor with God. Because favor only comes in who?
Christ. Amen. In Christ alone. We only
find favor with God in Christ. We're forgiven for Christ's sake
because of what he done. Nothing else, nothing we do.
And look at Paul's gonna give a pedigree. Basically what he's
gonna say to the Philippians is if you wanna brag about this,
about trying to obtain sinless perfection, look what I used
to do. And then he's gonna tell us what
he counts it all as. And in the Greek it's waste,
it's manure. He counted everything, being
a Pharisee, having all this wealth, having this prestige. So it's
just a bunch of manure. Look at this. Verse four, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, in himself, in
his works, if any man thinketh that he hath there whereof, he
might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel. Look at this. of the tribe of
Benjamin, one of the favored tribes. And the Hebrew of Hebrews,
touching the law, Pharisee. Well, we know he was pretty high
up in the pharisaical ranks, wasn't he? Then he says this,
concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. You know what he just said there? When he said, concerning the
things of the law blameless, he's saying, I was perfect. He
thought, he thought he was perfect. He thought, he thought he fulfilled
the law of God. And we know that none of us can
fulfill it. Paul knows that now, doesn't
he? But he's saying, if you don't want to brag about being perfect,
you think you're perfect, here's my pedigree. And then look what he says next.
This is amazing. But those things which were gained to me, I count
loss for Christ." He says, I discounted all a loss. I counted all loss. It's absolutely nothing. It's
absolutely, it's worthless. So all the things he counted
dear, you know, being a Pharisee back then, that was something.
That was something. And look what he says in verse
8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things. Look at that. All those things
that he counted dear, they're gone now. And do count them but
dung, that's manure in the Greek, that I may win Christ in thy
love, verse 9, and be found in him. Be founding, we're founding
Christ. Do you know that, beloved? We're
founding Christ. Not having mine own righteousness. So all of those things he explained
in verses four and five and six, those are all things of man's
righteousness, what man thinks they produce. You know, I was in religion.
I thought I was doing everything right and everybody else was
doing everything wrong. I found out I was doing everything wrong. Because I was a self-righteous
Pharisee. Oh my. My oh my. And then he says this. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win
Christ. Now remember, He's not saying
I'm gonna win Christ by my works. He's not talking about that.
The analogy he's gonna go into is about running a race, finishing. Now we know, this is wonderful
too, we know that not only does Christ save us, but Christ keeps
us and preserves us to the end. You know, I often have some workspace
people, they say, well, he that endureth to the end shall be
saved. And I said, we can't endure unless the Lord keeps us. First Peter talks about that,
we're kept by the power of God. Christ said, without me and John
15, you can do nothing. Can't even keep ourselves. Praise
his mighty name. He keeps us. He saves us, and
he keeps us all through our life. Even though we're wandering sheep
going, oh, what's over here? Oh, this looks like some good
grass. It might be semi-poisonous for
us. He's, you know, remember that
shepherd's hook? I remember hearing one guy say, I love this. He
says that, you know what that crook is in the, it's not to
beat the sheep, it's to gently pull them back to himself. Oh
my, how many times have we been gently pulled back to Christ,
right? When we've wandered off and our
hearts are in our minds. Come back my little sheep, I
love you. Oh my, what a God, what a Savior,
what a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, let's go back to verse 13
again. It says, 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. Now, forgetting in our English
text is even stronger in the Greek. It's even stronger in
the Greek, as it means completely forgetting. He's saying, I'm not going to
let those things that happened, that I did, and all this other stuff that
I had where I thought I was something, I'm not going to let that hinder
me. Because he says, I'm nothing. It's amazing. Paul uses an illustration,
again, of a Greek runner completely forgetting his opponents. So
this Greek runner's running, and he hears the thud of the
people behind him, but you know what some people do? You ever
been watching races and some people go like that? And then
what happens? Whoa, the guy goes right by him,
right? Paul's saying, I ain't looking back, man. I hear the
thud, but I ain't looking back. I hear the other one's coming
on me. I ain't looking back. I'm not looking back. I'm pressing
forward to Christ. He's looking to Christ. And that's
why you always hear we grace preachers say, just look to Christ.
Just keep your eye on Him. Don't worry about the things
that are going on. Right? The opponents of our life. Right? Just press on. Press on. So again, you know,
I've watched that on TV. Somebody looks back and then
his speed is slackened. Or her speed. It's slackened
when they look back. But if they keep looking forward
and keep running, the speed continues. My oh my. They may hear the thud
of their opponent's feet. I'm going to keep looking forward. Things of our past might come
up. I'm going to keep looking forward. The footsteps of the world might
be hurt behind us. I'm going to keep looking forward.
I'm going to keep my eyes on Christ. My, I love this. This is things we can put into
use, isn't it, as believers? And it's all, again, centered
in Christ. It's all centered in Him. This world is full of heartache
and failures. Think how we can be hindered
by our past sins, by the heartaches we went through, by circumstances
that we went through. Think of how that can hinder
us, and it's not hurting those folks at all. But it's hurting
us. Paul says, I'm just going to
let all that go. I wasted the church. It's under the blood. I did this, I did that, it's
unto the blood. I'm forgiven. I really messed
up, like so messed up I can't tell anybody about it, but the
Lord knows. I'm gonna keep looking forward. It's like a preacher friend of
mine a long time ago. He preached at his church a few times recently.
Big Don. I talked to him on the phone
one time, and he said, I was talking to this young preacher.
And he said, the young preacher said, oh, I messed up so bad,
man. I messed up. And he goes, repent and move
on. That's wonderful. Confess it
to Christ and just move on. You don't have to tell anyone
else. Just move on. That's how I strive now to live
my life. It's wonderful. I messed up a
lot, and I still do, and I'm going to again in the future.
But we confess it to our King and say, oh Lord, please, I know
it's under the blood, but I'm confessing it to you. And it's already forgiven, and
we're still confessing, right? So we live a life of repentance,
which is a gift of God too, right? Just as much as faith is. It's
amazing. Because in our natural state,
we don't want to repent. I talked to my brother last night
who's got cancer and he wanted nothing to do with the gospel. Nothing. Don't have a care in
the world. It's just, it is what it is. It's tragic. But that's natural
man's thinking. They think I'm fine. Now do I still pray for him?
Oh yeah. Will I talk to him again? Oh yeah. As the Lord opens the
door. My. So if a Christian has made
things right with God by trusting Christ, we can't make anything
right with God by anything we do. we should completely forget
the past because God's forgetting all our sins. And I'm not saying
like forget, I look back and see before I was even saved how
the Lord was taking care of me. I like to look back on those
things and go, wow, I could have died there, but I wasn't saved
and I was one of the Lord's people and he had to regenerate me.
And then how many times has he helped us? And we might go, well,
I need this thing. And Vicki and I, one time, our
washer and dryer blew up in Oregon. Well, her dad comes with Linda,
not even saved, and said, well, we were just going to talk about
buying you guys a washer and dryer. And we never even mentioned
it to them. It's amazing. You know, we can
look back and see how God has taken care of us. Listen to,
I like looking at Wiest, he's a Greek scholar, or just a Greek
guy who did translation, but listen to, you can follow along
in verses 13 and 14 in the King James, but I'm gonna read what
he wrote. He translated these verses in the Greek, what he
thought the Greek was saying. This is fascinating. It says,
brethren, as for myself, as I look back upon my life, and calmly
draw a conclusion, I am not counting myself yet as one who has, in
an absolute and complete way, laid hold. So he's talking about
perfection. I have not yet laid hold. Goes
on to say this. But one thing, I, in fact, am
forgetting completely the things that are behind, and I'm stretching
forward to the things that are in front. bearing down upon the
goal, looking to Christ, to be with Christ. I am pursuing on
for that prize of the call from above, which is in Christ Jesus."
Isn't that wonderful? He's just looking to Christ,
saying, I'm living my life, I'm preaching the gospel, and I'm
just going to keep looking to Christ. I'm not going to let
the past hinder me. That's a good lesson for all
of us. I know for me it is. It's a good lesson for me. My
oh my. So Paul, we see, was never governed
again by his past. He wasn't governed by his past.
But he didn't erase the past from his memory. But the past
didn't rule over him. It didn't rule over him. Neither
did it hamper his present usefulness. Again, some people look in their
past, and we can all see great failures, terrible acts of sin. And sometimes we're paralyzed
by those memories. Paul said, I'm not going to let
that paralyze me. It's under the blood. I'm going to press
on. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh
my. Well, I got more, but it's already
1025. So Brother Eric, would you mind closing us in prayer,
brother?