Okay, if you've got your Bible,
you've got to have your Bible. This won't make any sense without
a Bible. Turn with me to the book of Philippians, Philippians
chapter 3, and I want us to look at verses 12 through 14, and
I'm sure Ligonier has asked me to do this because I have the
new DVD series there on preaching through the book of Philippians.
42 messages. Sinclair keeps saying it's 72
messages. I go, Sinclair, it's only 42.
No. Are you serious? Well, it sold out, but they only
had four copies, okay? And my mother bought all four
of them, okay? It was going to be too embarrassing
because no one would buy it, so she went in and bought all
four copies. Yeah, yeah. Alright, Philippians chapter
3. The title of this is Pressing On, and I'm down to 28 minutes
now, so I'm going to have to do this rather quickly. But let
me begin by reading the passage and setting it in front of you.
Philippians 3 verse 12, not that I have already obtained it or
have already become perfect, but I press on. so that I may
lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus." Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of
it yet. But one thing I do, forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus." There are many different metaphors
that are used in the Bible for the Christian life. believers
are represented as soldiers, farmers, sheep, students, branches,
a bride, citizens, sons, and each one of those metaphors represents
a different aspect of the Christian life. And each one of those are
vitally important for us to have a holistic view of what it is
to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Each one of those are like a
link in the chain, and the breaking of one of those links the entire
chain breaks. What we have here is a totally
different metaphor, and one that is very needed for us to understand,
how do I live the Christian life? And it is the metaphor of an
athlete. In the Christian life, in many
different passages, the first book I ever wrote was to take
all of the athletic metaphors that are used in the New Testament
and to write a book on each one of those passages because there
are many parallels. There's a starting block for
the Christian life, that's the new birth. There is the track
on which we run this race of faith, and that is the will of
God. There are rules by which we compete
in the race of faith, and that is the Word of God. We must compete
according to the rules. And there is progress. It's a
long obedience in the same direction. It's not just a step or a little
walk. It's a marathon for the rest
of our life. And there's a finish line, which
will be the time of our death or the time of the return of
Christ. And there's a reward, there's a prize at the end of
the race. And some will compete far better
than others. Some will live their Christian
life with greater commitment than with others. And it will
not be all the same when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ
and we will be given the stephanos, the crown that will be placed
upon the head of those who have competed according to the rules.
This text is very important. Because today in many circles
of the church, there is a very defunct view of the Christian
life that is having a devastating effect, especially on young men
and women in their twenties and thirties who are sitting under
kind of rock star preachers who have never been trained or taught
in the Word of God, and they say that It really, all that
matters is your justification. Just to look back at your justification,
God can't love you anymore, He can't love you any less, which
is true, and it has produced a passivity. It has produced
a form of the Christian life that
is almost antinomian. In fact, it is antinomian, which
means obedience is not important. And we need these verses and
other verses like this to remind us that in order to live the
Christian life in a way that pleases God and glorifies God
and honors God, it requires an all-out effort, that we must
discipline ourselves for godliness, that we must run with endurance
the race that is set before us, that we must resist temptation
we must buffet our bodies and make it our slave, that we must
put on the full armor of God. All of these passages that I
literally just quoted are nowhere near a part of their understanding
of the Christian life. They just want to sit and stare
at their spiritual navel. And so, we need to understand
that the moment you were converted, you were put into the race, the
race of faith. And there is a narrow path on
which we run, and there's not a one of us in this room who
has arrived, and there's still much of the race yet before us. and we must work out in the Word
of God, and we must work out in prayer, and we must discipline
ourselves, which is a Greek word, gymnazo, from which we derive
the word gymnasium. We have to be a dedicated athlete. I've never been a farmer. I've
never been a sheep. I've never been some of these
other metaphors, but I have been an athlete. I played college
football. And this resonates with me. So,
I want us to try to quickly walk through this passage and just
extract some truths from this for your Christian life. And so, let's begin in verse
14. He says, not that I have already
obtained it. And the it refers back to verse
10 in context to the knowledge of Christ and to the full power
of the resurrection and full conformity to Christ's death. He realizes I've not yet obtained
a full knowledge of Christ. I've not yet realized all of
the power of the resurrection to enable me to live my Christian
life in a dynamic way. I have not yet been fully conformed
to the image of Christ. And there was a time in Paul's
life when he was a Pharisee before he was converted. He thought
he had arrived. But then he met Christ on the
Damascus road, and he was knocked off his high horse. And in that
moment, he was sovereignly regenerated and converted and brought into
the kingdom. And from that moment on, Paul
realized, I have not arrived. He had met the risen Christ on
the road to Damascus. And there was so much more of
Christ that he must learn in his Christian life and emulate.
He then repeats it after he says, not that I've already obtained
it or have already become perfect. And here's the deal, the closer
you draw to Christ, the more you realize, I have not yet arrived. The people who are the closest
to Christ are those who are most aware of their own sinfulness.
And those who are the furthest away from Christ are those who
think, you know, I'm doing pretty good in my Christian life. And
so, Paul has come to the realization, I'm not yet perfect. There is
so much more. And so, because of this realization,
he understands his responsibility. as a believer. And let me just
say this, I remember the conversation I had with R.C. Sproul as we
were talking theology, and he said, Steve, regeneration is
monergistic. There is only one active agent,
and that is God. We are entirely passive in the
new birth. There is only one active agent,
capital A, and that is God and God alone. What did you do to
be born? Absolutely nothing. What did you do to be born again?
Absolutely nothing. It was entirely an invasion of
God into your life. But sanctification, you understand
what sanctification is? It is your progressive growth
in the grace and knowledge of Christ. It is not monergistic.
It is synergistic, which means there are two active agents in
your Christian life. There is God the Holy Spirit
who indwells you, and that is agent capital A. And Philippians
2.13 says, for it is God who is at work within you, both to
will and to work for His good pleasure. And so, it is God who
is driving your Christian life. But there is a second active
agent. And that is you, because you now have a new mind and a
new heart and a new disposition, and God has given you the gift
of faith. And it is incumbent upon each
and every one of us to be engaged and to be involved in the pursuit
of holiness and in the pursuit of Christlikeness and in denying
ourself and following after Christ. And so, where we were inactive
in the new birth, it is necessary for us to be active in sanctification. And so, that's why he says in
the middle of verse 12, I press on. Do you see that? But I press
on. And there is an indication there
of the expenditure of effort and pouring yourself into the
pursuit of Christ. Now I want to comment on this
verb, press on. Do you see it, press on? It means
to run after something. It means to flee as fast as you
can. And what's interesting is this
verb is used forty-four times in the New Testament. And in
almost every one of those forty-four uses in the New Testament, it
is translated persecuted. And the word persecuted means
you are being run out of town, that the enemies of Christ and
the enemies of the gospel are so hounding you and chasing after
you that you're being run out of your families, you're being
run out of your business, you've been run out of your synagogue.
In fact, you are now scattered the very same verb. And this
is a rare time in the New Testament where it is actually translated,
press on. And what Paul is saying is before
he became a Christian, he was a persecutor of the church. And
that's why he was going to Damascus. He had letters in hand, and he
was going to apprehend the Christians, and he was going to chase after
them and track them down and drag them back to Jerusalem and
have them no doubt be stoned to death, like he observes Stephen
being stoned to death. But now that he has met Christ,
he's no longer chasing after Christians, he's now chasing
after Christ. and he's pursuing Christ with
his whole heart to know Christ, to become like Christ, to preach
Christ, to make Christ known. And so, there's not one drop
of passivity in Paul's Christian life. There's not a drop of let
go and let God. mentality in him. No, he's disciplining
himself. He's resisting temptation. He
is devouring the Word. He is running the race. He is
putting on the new man. He is guarding his mind. He is
completely engaged with his whole being and pressing on in the
Christian life. And I don't know where you are
in your Christian life, but it just may well be that even in
these few moments that we're looking at this, this may be
a very significant time for you as a kind of a wake-up call,
that you've really got to be in this race of faith and pour
yourself into this and to run after Christ. And notice he says,
so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of
by Christ Jesus. This verb, lay hold, so that
I may lay hold of that. It's a very strong verb, and
it means literally to seize something, to take possession of something,
to overtake something. And he says that I may lay hold
of that. The that refers to the knowledge
of Christ, an ever-deepening, ever-growing, ever-maturing knowledge
of the person and work of Christ. The whole Christian life, it's
about Christ. That's why we're called Christians.
The Christian life is to believe in Christ. It is to worship Christ. It is to adore Christ. It is
to obey Christ. It is to serve Christ. It is
to make Christ known. Everything revolves around Christ.
That's why Paul said in Philippians 1 verse 21, for me to live is
Christ and to die is gain. Why would it be gain? Because
he would go be with Christ. And for you to live for anything
or anyone other than Christ, for you to die is loss. Only
if you live for Christ is for you to die, and it be gain. So, this is the imagery of an
athlete who is with sweat and effort and expenditure of energy
and widening his stride and pressing on, chasing after the knowledge
of Christ, that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid
hold of by Christ." Think about when Paul was on the Damascus
Road, and suddenly there was a bright light that appeared,
and it was the glory of God in Christ, and it knocked him off
his high horse, and he fell to the ground. And in that moment,
Christ aggressively overtook Paul. Christ laid hold of Paul. And Paul now says, I want to
lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of. Christ came after
me so aggressively that day on the Damascus Road. I must now
spend every day of my Christian life aggressively chasing after
Christlikeness and the knowledge of Christ, and nothing must deter
me. Nothing must keep me back from
progressing in the knowledge of Christ. And so, he says in
verse 13, he repeats himself from what he said in verse 12,
and the repetition here is to lay stress and emphasis to the
church at Philippi in their Christian life. I do not regard myself
as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do," I love this,
one thing I do. The two words, I do, are not
in the original text. Literally, as Paul writes this,
he just says, but one thing. He has one supreme goal in life. He has one chief priority. He has one driving ambition. He has one undivided focus, one
thing, and it is to know Christ. It is to
become like Christ. It is to walk like Christ. It
is to sound like Christ. It is to sacrifice like Christ. It is to preach like Christ.
It is to teach like Christ. That's what it is to follow Christ. And so, he gives us more insight.
He says, forgetting what lies behind. No one can run a race
and win the prize if you're looking backwards. You can only look
ahead if you're going to win the prize. And so, he understands
the necessity of forgetting what lies behind. And there are some
of you here today who need to forget what lies behind. There's baggage that you're carrying
around. Paul could…he had to forget his
past sins. He was a violent aggressor of
the church. He was a persecutor of the church.
He had a party in the stoning of Stephen. He could have carried
guilt around for the rest of his life, but he understood that
Christ had wiped the slate clean. He had full and free forgiveness.
He has to forget past sins, and he also has to forget past sufferings
as he has been plummeted and shipwrecked, and whipped, and
beaten. And he could have had a little
pity party about how hard it has been for him to follow Christ,
and the rejection, and the persecution, and the suffering under which
he has taken. And Paul says, I cannot let that
hold me back. And even past successes, sometimes
the most deadly thing for our Christian life is past victories,
because it causes us to stop praying. It causes us to go into
a self-reliant mode, almost an automatic pilot mode. And sometimes,
because things have worked out in the past, we begin to just
kind of coast in the present. And so, whether it's past sins
or past sufferings or past successes, Paul says, I am forgetting what
lies behind. And I wonder what you need to
forget from your past that is like trying to drive your car
with the emergency brake on. It just won't let you excel. Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what
lies ahead. And this reaching forward in
the original language is a compound word. It's actually three words
brought together to form one word. There's two prefixes and
then the main root word, and the two prefixes really intensify
how strongly He is reaching out and reaching forward to the prize. with every inch and every ounce
of energy that he can expend, which is being ignited by the
operation of the Holy Spirit within him and the grace of God
that is being given to him, he is reaching forward to know Christ,
to be like Christ all the more. So, he comes to verse 14. And
this very familiar phrase, I press on. I am chasing after Christ. I am sprinting after Christlikeness. And this verb, I press on, you
see it there in verse 14? Let me just parse it for a moment.
It's in the present tense, which means it's a habitual lifestyle.
every moment of every day, I am continually and always in an
ongoing way, as a lifestyle, pressing on to know Christ. It's
not just a momentary fleeting desire that he has. It's not
like just coming to a conference like this and for two days being
excited for the Lord and then going back to where you live,
and that begins to settle, the dust begins to settle, and it
wears off. No, Paul, every moment of every
day, It's in the present tense. It's a habitual lifestyle practice. I am pressing on. There's not
a day that I take off from pursuing Christ. It's also in the active
voice, which means he's not waiting just for God to somehow grab
him by the lapels and thrust him forward. He understands that
he bears great responsibility. to be in the Word, to be in prayer,
to meditate on the truth of God, I press on. And again, this verb
means to run swiftly in order to catch another person. I used
to run track. In fact, I just took my family
to a stadium where I ran the anchor leg on a track team when
I was younger. and can remember the baton being
given to me, and we're behind in the race, and running that
last leg, and running as fast as I could to overtake the other
runner who had the lead. And that is what Paul is saying.
I am running as swiftly as I can to reach Christ. I press on toward
the goal. The word toward, it's a word
kata in the Greek, and it means to bear down. Paul isn't shuffling
his feet. Paul is bearing down and pressing
on toward the goal. And we know what this goal is.
It's to know Christ more intimately. It's to know Christ more personally.
is to know Christ more experientially, not just in the head, but in
the heart and in the life. I press on toward the goal for
the prize. And he understands that the prize
is at the finish line. In this life and in this race,
there will be resistance and buffeting and difficulties and trials. You
don't get the prize in this life. The prize is at the finish line.
And so, therefore, you've got to press on through the pain
and not let anything slow you down. And keep your eyes on the
prize, because as you are focused upon the prize, it gives strength
that pulls you forward. You're almost pulled like a magnet
is pulling something toward the object. And as he remains focused
on the goal and on the prize, it has an extraordinary magnetic
pulling power in Paul's heart and in his soul. He says, for the prize of the
upward call of God. The upward call of God is that
time when God will call him home. Whether it would be in his death
or whether it would be at the time of the return of Christ,
everything in his life is riveted upon that time when God will
call him home. He can rest once he gets to heaven.
while he's here and in the race, he must press on, he must run
the race of the Christian life. And so, as we bring this to a
close, I wish I could give you a full exposition of this. But where are you? Where are
you in this race? Are you even in the race? Do
you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been born again? If
not, you're not in the race. Are you in the race? Have you
committed your life to Jesus Christ? And if not, why not? And if you are in the race, how
long have you been in the race? How long have you known the Lord?
And if you have been in this race, For many years, what progress
do you see in your Christian life? Are you standing in this very
same place where you were last year? Are you where you are in
your spiritual maturity where you were two years ago? Have
you plateaued? Or are you advancing to the next
level of spiritual maturity in your life? Have you slowed down
in the race? Maybe something has discouraged
you. Maybe in some way you've been deflated or defeated. You
can't slow down. You've got to widen your stride
and pick your pace back up and press on to the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus. And just understand that even
trials in your life God is using to mature you and to deepen you
and to wean you off of this temporal world to help you focus upon
the world to come. Press on. And are you forgetting
what lies behind? Have you let it go? Have you
just committed it to the Lord? and now press on. Have you come
to accept in the sovereignty of God and in the providence
of God, whatever it is that you're looking back, that either God
caused it or God allowed it, that it was a part of your life,
but you can't let it slow you down? And as you focus upon Christ,
that gives you supernatural strength and supernatural ability to run the race that God has
set before you. So, don't slow down. Run. Sprint with all your heart,
with all your might, with all the energy that God will give
you. Run with endurance. the race that is set before you.
This is what Paul said to the church at Philippi, and this
is what Paul says to us here today. Do not be content with
where you are. You haven't arrived, you haven't
even come close to arriving. There is so much more of Christian
growth for you to experience in your life. So, I need to close. Let me just close in a word of
prayer. Father, for my brothers and sisters
who have gathered here for this temporal session, I pray that
You would take this passage and just implant it again in their
minds and in their hearts. And may You use just our brief
survey of these verses really as a a challenging and motivating
passage to inspire us, to move us forward in our pursuit of
Christ. Father, we pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen. Amen.