Well, I want you to turn back
for a third week to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And I want to look
at the verses from verse 5 down to verse 14 to finish the psalm
this morning. We started this, you remember,
three weeks ago by thinking about the communion service and what
it is to eat the bread and drink the wine in a worthy manner.
And that is discerning the Lord's body. And what is it to discern
the Lord's body? It is sincere a sincere experience
of salvation. And if you don't have that sincere
experience and knowledge of salvation, to partake of communion is to
do it unworthily. It's to do it outside of the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to do it in an unbelieving
state. And you know what John's gospel
says, Jesus in chapter 3 said that he that believes not is
condemned already. It's not just for eating the
bread of communion and drinking the wine of communion in an unworthy
way that you are condemned. You're in a state of condemnation
if you're in a state of unbelief of the gospel. And to not have
that sincere experience of salvation, that's the state that you're
in. You're not discerning the Lord's body. And we saw then,
we started to look at Psalm 27 because as with so many of the
Psalms, they encapsulate the believer's experience. It's David's
experience, first hand, as with so many of the Psalms, David's
experience, but also Christ's experience is there in the words
of David. By the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, those circumstances 3,000 years or more ago when David
experienced these things and he wrote these things down under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these were the experiences of
Christ, the man. who came, God in human flesh
who came for the purpose of redeeming his people, of saving his people. He came in a human body. He came
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came with all of the trials
that having human flesh brings in terms of temptation. We saw
in John 4 with Cliff Early, his weariness in John chapter 4.
He was wearied with his, he was a real human body. You know what
tiredness feels like. You know what sleepiness feels.
He experienced these things. He experienced all of these things.
He was a real human being, though yet he was God. And it's his
experience. He had enemies all around him. He, the man, needed faith in
God. He needed faith in his father.
He needed to commune with his father as he walked this earth
for the salvation of his people. he had enemies all around him
who were seeking to destroy him when his foes came to him in
the garden of Gethsemane as verse two when the wicked even mine
enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh he spoke
that word I am and they fell backwards because they'd seen
something of the living God I don't know what it was but something
overpowered them with the person that they were coming to arrest
in the garden, and they stumbled and fell. This is Christ, it's
Christ's experiences. The host encamping against him.
The host of Satan, and all of those that would destroy him
and his people, encamping against him. and he comes with this mission
to accomplish. And it's a tremendous, we often
use the word challenge these days, it just doesn't do justice.
This was a tremendous thing that Christ did. We think of it glibly,
we think oh he was God and it was just all in God's purpose
so therefore it was easy. The price that he paid, he gave
his only beloved son, his only begotten son, for the salvation
of his people. What a tremendous, I don't think
we'll ever fully understand the depth of what he did, of what
it took to save a soul. So it's Christ's experience,
but also by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, It's the experience
of the believer. And we can learn so much about
our walk through this life. In Christ, in union with him.
We can learn so much from it. Verse 4 talks about one thing
of I desired. That I, that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his
temple. We looked at this last week.
This is the proof of the experience of salvation that you and I have
as believers, if we are. A desire to dwell in the Lord's
house. Is this real to you? A desire
to see the beauty of the Lord, to look upon it, to inquire in
his temple, to be fed with his word. Are these our experiences? Because this is what it is, to
have a real experience of discerning the Lord's body. It's part and
parcel of it, discerning the Lord's body. It's the assurance
that you are real. It's the confidence that comes
from the fact that you have a part in Christ's atoning work. And
it isn't just a one-off experience. It just isn't a one-off initial
believing experience. It's a lifelong experience, not
just one off. That's why I've called this message
the Life of Faith. It goes on. It affects every
part of the believer's experience. It affects your thinking. You
know, you look at the news and your thinking is formulated not
by the fashions of this evil world. Your thinking is formulated
by the gospel of Christ, and the truth of God, and the principles
of grace, and the principles of righteousness, your thinking,
your conduct, the way you behave. your interaction with others,
your life choices. All of that is affected by this
life of faith. It's not like the religious life
of so-called faith. You know, we see a lot about
it. You look at Hollywood and the life of faith is Catholicism.
That's all it ever is. That's all it's ever portrayed
as. The life of faith is what priests and nuns do, according
to Hollywood. No, that's not the truth. That's
false religion. I'm talking about true faith,
which is true gospel faith. Believers living and working
in this world as ordinary people, but with a mind focused on eternity. A mind set somewhere else, with
your heart set on things above where Christ is. It's captured
in Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. You know
how he was living in Vanity Fair. that city of destruction, Vanity
Fair, and how aware he became of the evil all around him and
of the evil of his own heart, and his sin was like a burden
on his back. And the story of Pilgrim's Progress
is that allegory of the life of faith. the believer's experience
of knowing the Lord, of living with the Lord, of walking by
faith, of walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, lifelong,
until the end of life. It's just like natural life.
You know, the analogy is natural life. Jesus says you must be
born again. Just as you must be born naturally
to have human life, you must be born again to have spiritual
life. It's just like that. You have
to be born, you grow, you mature, you age, you get more and more
experience, and the end of life you die. That's it. That's what
happens. So it is with the new birth.
With the new birth. We're encouraged. We're exhorted
as believers in this new life of grace. Peter says, 2 Peter
3, verse 18, grow in grace is an exhortation, an encouragement
to believers. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This isn't talking about
gradually, progressively becoming more sanctified, but talking
about growing. To say it's like being more and
more sanctified is like saying that a baby that's born and then
grows becomes more and more human as it gets older. No they don't. When a baby's born it's 100%
a human being. Isn't it? When a child, there he is, look
at him, 100% a human being. I'm looking at the growing ages
round the room. You're all 100% human beings. You're not becoming more and
more human being as you go through life. You're 100% human beings. You're sanctified in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but you grow in grace, in the life of faith.
And Psalm 27 encapsulates this life of faith. In verses 1 to
4 we saw the seeing and the trusting and the enjoying God's provision
of grace in Christ, and the rest of the Psalm covers resting in
Him, praising Him, praying, seeking, learning, hoping, and waiting. This is the life of faith. This
is ongoing discerning of the Lord's body. And I want to look
at these things with you this morning in the time that we've
got available. First of all then, verse five. Resting, resting. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. Resting in him. Physical life,
this physical life that we all share is fragile. It's frail. It's prone to times of trouble.
He says, in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion.
In the time of trouble. Believers have times of trouble.
You have times of trouble that come along. They're times of
trouble to do with your health, to do with your finances, to
do with your work, to do with your family and relationships,
to do with your sinful weaknesses in the flesh, to do with satanic
attack. But if I know and experience
the salvation of God in Christ, I know that God hides me in his
pavilion. He hides me in his pavilion.
Think of all these things that come upon you. God hides his
people in his pavilion. He shall hide me in the time
of trouble in his pavilion. It doesn't matter what they do
on the outside, these things, these times of trouble. I know
where I am. I'm in that pavilion. of God.
He hides me in that pavilion. I know I'm in the Lord's house.
Isaiah chapter 4 and verse 6, And there shall be a tabernacle
for a shadow in the daytime from the heat. The heat of what? The
troubles that come along. The judgment of God's justice
that comes along. There shall be a tabernacle for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of
refuge, and for a cover, a shelter from the storm and from rain.
It's like that other verse in Isaiah, Isaiah 32 verse 2, which
says, a man shall be as a hiding place. That man is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ shall be
as a hiding place from the scorching heat of the judgment of God,
from the tempest of the judgment of God against our sin. In the
time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. Christ, our
Lord Jesus Christ. It says, in the secret of his
tabernacle he shall hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. This tabernacle is that temple,
the house of the Lord that we were looking at in verse 4 last
week. That tabernacle is the house
of the Lord. And this This rock that is Christ
is what he sets his people upon. He is the one to whom his people
pray that they might be led. Psalm 61 and verse 2, lead me
to the rock that is higher than I am. Lead me there. God has
provided a rock which is Christ. That rock was Christ. Lead me
to the rock that is higher than I am. Lead me there. That's where
I want to be. I don't want to be outside of
Christ. What did Paul ask in Philippians
chapter 3? That I may be found in him. not having my own righteousness.
That's where I want to be, in that rock, hidden in the cleft
of that rock, set upon that rock, which is Christ. Discerning the
Lord's body is not just a communion requirement, it's a through life
experience. It's resting in the certainty
that the time of trouble is in God's control. Verse 5, in the
time of trouble, it's all in his control. Do you know that?
Is that your experience and your assurance? The time of trouble
is in God's control. It's all in his control. It's
part of the all things that he causes to work together for good
to those that love God, who are the called according to his purpose.
It's all part of it. All things, the time of trouble
is part of those all things. This is the life of faith. This
is discerning the Lord's body. It doesn't matter what happens.
The hap of life is just what happens. It just comes along. But it's all ordained by God.
It's all in his hands. And in all of those times, he
hides us in his pavilion and sets us upon a rock, which is
Christ. Then the next thing in this life
of faith, verse six, and now shall mine head be lifted up
above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. This life of faith is a life
of praising, a life of praising God, of truly knowing and praising
the living God. Oh, we say, oh, ought we to be
going around all the time going, oh, praise the Lord, brother,
praise the Lord, oh, let's have a time of praise and, no, I'm
not talking about the sort of glib, charismatic, superficial,
fleshly, external praising of the Lord. I'm talking about true
praise and worship, which is the sincere response of the heart
to the facts of God's grace that you've experienced, that you've
felt. That's where praise comes from,
from the heart that has experienced the salvation of God. In the
face of everything that would bring me down, Everything. What will bring me down? Satan
would seek to bring me down. The flesh would seek to bring
me down. The world all around and those
in it would seek to bring me down from a relationship with
God. My sin would seek to bring me
down from that relationship. In the face of all of that, salvation
accomplished, and knowing salvation accomplished in Christ, it's
that that lifts my head up. My head shall be lifted up above
mine enemies. That knowledge of salvation lifts
my head up above all of those things that would bring me down.
There's an allusion there to Pharaoh's butler. Do you remember
the story of Joseph? And, you know, when he was put
into prison, when he was falsely accused, and there was the butler
and the baker, and the butler and the baker had dreams, and
they'd been, they'd fallen, they'd got the wrong side of Pharaoh,
and they'd been put in prison. and they had these two dreams
and Joseph interpreted their dreams and it says of the butler
that his head was lifted up and he was restored to his former
position, lifted up above his enemies and that's what the allusion
is to there. My head shall be lifted up above
mine enemies around about me. It's the knowledge of salvation
and where I am in that salvation that lifts up my head above all
those around about me, all those things that would bring me down.
And my response to knowing that salvation is praise. It can't
be other than that. True praise comes from the heart,
based on what it is truly experienced. You know, sometimes You know,
children fall out and they hurt one another and you say, say
sorry and you get a kind of a sorry. And you know it's not really
sorry. You know it isn't at all. You know, it's not heartfelt
sorrow. But there are other times when you know that somebody really
means, when they say, oh, thank you. Thank you for that, sincerely. thank you for that, or sincerely,
sorry, what can I do to make amends? You know, really, a response
that comes from an emotion that's felt, and this is true praise,
comes from an emotion that is felt in relation to salvation.
Joy and thanksgiving. You know, when we know What the
scripture says, Romans 8, 35, shall anything be able to separate
me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? No, the answer
is obvious. No, nothing shall be able to
separate me from those things. I have such confidence. Why?
Because the salvation of Christ is certain. There are no doubts. There are no half measures. Cliff
sent us a picture of a bridge the other day, which was a half-finished
bridge, as a picture of the Armenians' salvation. It's a bridge that
does the job so far, but then you're left on your own to do
the rest. No, the salvation of Christ is salvation to the uttermost. It's salvation for his people
to the uttermost. He came out not to make it possible
for his people to be saved. He came out to save his people
from their sins. He came and accomplished it.
He cried on the cross, it is finished, because he had accomplished
all that was necessary. He had paid redemption's price. There wasn't a penny left to
pay. You know, it's like when you pay a mortgage off and you
get to the end of it, and the bank tells you, it's paid off,
it's finished, you don't owe any more, there's nothing left
to pay. In the justice of God, Christ paid the price of redemption
of all of his people. It's knowing that that results
in a response of praise and gladness. This is what gives the confidence
in salvation, because Christ has accomplished it. And that
praise starts privately in the heart. It's in spirit and truth.
As Jesus said to the woman at the well in Samaria, those that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It's
not in external things, it's not in cathedrals, it's not in
robes and vestments and altars and masses and all of these things.
It's in spirit and in truth, in the heart, where true worship
starts, true praise. True thanksgiving, Paul writes
to the Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, let the word of Christ dwelling
you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in
Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in
your hearts to the Lord. I will praise him, I will sing
praises to the Lord, says verse 6. And it's reflected throughout
the Psalms. Praise in private, then comes
out in praise in public. When we gather together, why
do we gather together? It's to praise God. It's to say
that surely we can get together once a week and praise him. Praise his name for his salvation.
And this, these These sacrifices of joy, I think there's an allusion
there to Numbers chapter 10 and verse 10, where the trumpet is
blown over the sacrifices. It's that outpouring of joy,
that this is accomplishing God's purposes. Praise, praise in the
life of faith, discerning the Lord's body. If your life does
not have that praise, not just on a Sunday when we meet together,
but in your heart throughout the week. Are you truly discerning
the Lord? This is what it is to discern
the Lord. Verse seven, praying. Praying. The life of faith. Hear,
O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. Praying. Truly discerning the
Lord's body in the life of faith must include prayer. It must. You know when Saul of Tarsus
was stopped in his tracks on the Damascus Road, and he was
taken into the city to that old man Ananias, and he was there,
and the Lord said to him, behold, he's praying. This was the sign
of the new life, the new birth that was within him, was that
he was praying. The child of God prays. How little
we truly pray. How little I feel I truly know
about prayer. I think we would all confess
that if we're honest. I'm not talking about prayers
that are much speaking. I'm not talking about long prayers.
Jesus condemned hypocritical long prayers that were just said
to try and impress others around about them like the Pharisees
did. Oh Lord I thank you that I am not as other men and blah
blah blah blah blah blah. Great long flowing prayers to
try and demonstrate how much more spiritually superior we
are to those around us. That's not prayer. That's showing
off. That's showing off in a limited
company. No. But God's true children must
and do pray to him. God, we read about David in 1
Samuel, God put it in his heart to pray. That's what God does.
He puts it in our heart to pray. He makes situations arise, the
troubles of life, that we might pray to him, that we might plead
with him. This is the experience of the
life of faith. He causes us to pray. He stirs
us up to pray. We know that all things are in
His hands. He's sovereign and omnipotent.
He's told us to come and pray and bring our requests to Him.
Crying out, Abba, Father. We're in the relationship of
children to a daddy, father. Abba, Father. Philippians 4 verse
6, Be anxious for nothing. Why? Because in everything, by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. We read in the book of Revelation
in chapter 5 and verse 8 that there are these golden vials
full of odors, and these are the prayers of the saints in
heaven. It's an important thing. Praying, the true life of faith,
the one truly discerning the Lord's body is one who prays.
He's one who prays. It may not be always spoken out
loud prayers, but they're prayers deep in the heart. The majority
are deep in the heart. Prayers that go up to God in
every situation. We know that we're in His hands
and under His oversight and supervision. He sees and guides and directs
all that we do as we walk in the Spirit. Then verses eight
to ten. When thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not thy face from me. Put not thy servant away in anger.
Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O
God of my salvation. When my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Seeking the Lord. The life of faith, the life of
discerning the Lord's body is not just a once-only seeking
of the Lord, it's a lifelong seeking of the Lord. Not just
a one-only, once-only experience. God calls his people to seek
his face. When you said, seek ye my face,
my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. If you
remember in the Song of Solomon, there are a number of incidents
where the Shulamite, the bride, the people of God, lose sight
of the bridegroom, of the king, of the beloved. And having lost
that sight, they must seek him and find him. Have you seen my
beloved? She goes out into the city. Have
you seen my beloved? I must find him. That's what
the believers like. I must have him. I must find
him. And he promises success. In Isaiah
45 and verse 19, we read this promise by God. I said not, this
is God speaking via the prophet. I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
that's you and me, his believing people. I said not seek ye me
in vain. In other words, he didn't say
you can look but you're not gonna find me. He didn't say that. Matthew 7 verse 7, Jesus said
in the Sermon on the Mount, seek and ye shall find. Jeremiah chapter
29 verses 11 to 14, this is a lovely passage, try and Remember where it is. It's such
a comfort is this passage. Jeremiah 29 verses 11 to 14. Again, this is God speaking by
the prophet Jeremiah. And God says this to his people. And if you're one of his people,
if you're a believer this morning, this is what God says to you
now. I, God says, I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. To give you an expected end,
in other words to bring you to glory, to bring you to heaven.
Then you shall call upon me and you shall go and pray to me,
and here's the promise, and I will hear you. And you shall seek
me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart,
and I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will turn away
your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and
from all the places whither I have driven you, says the Lord, and
I will bring you again to the place whence I caused you to
be carried away captive. The Lord calls his sheep, and
his sheep hear his voice, and his sheep follow him, they seek
his face, They find him, they find the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They plead,
as in verse 9, leave me not, neither forsake me. And they
find his promise true. Is this your experience? Is it
mine? Where he says, Hebrews 13 verse
5, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. There may be times
when it appears as if he's gone, but you look like the Shulamite
and you find him. He's the God of his people's
salvation. This is why he'll never leave
you. He had a purpose to save a specific people, a multitude
that no man can number from every tribe and kindred. Is he ever
the God of the universe who made and upholds all things? Everything
we see has its purpose in him. Everything that we see, this
vast universe, is all just an expression of the omnipotence
and the power of the one and only true God and he came out
to save his people from their sins he that spared not his own
son but delivered him up for all of his people for us all
how shall he not freely with him freely give us all things
as Romans 8 says Verse 10, when my father and my mother forsake
me, then the Lord will take me up. I don't think it's particularly
talking about parents abandoning their children. But it's talking
about those that are your best friends in life, your closest
physical relations in life, your best friends, husband and wife.
How do they forsake? They all forsake at one stage
or another in death. But he says, the Lord will gather
me into his bosom. When my friends, when my husband,
when my wife in this life forsake me in death, then the Lord will
gather me into his bosom. The Lord will take me up, gather
me to him. Isaiah 49 verses 14 to 16. Sometimes it appears that the
Lord has forsaken us. But Zion said, The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. And God says this,
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion upon the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet
will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. This is the confidence of the
believer. This isn't just a random salvation that you picked out. You know, you didn't come down
to the front. God had you graven on the palms of his hands from
all eternity. This is the basis of the confidence
of the child of God in the life of faith, discerning the Lord's
body, seeking Him. This is active discernment of
the Lord's body in the life of true faith. Then, going on, we're
running out of time so I'll cover these quickly, but verse 11.
The Psalmist prays, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me
in a plain path because of mine enemies. Teach me, teach me. I need to be taught of God. I
want to know more of the riches of God's grace in Christ. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path. If you look
over, this might even be on the same page, Psalm 23, verse three. the Psalmist talking about the
Lord his shepherd in this best known of Psalms. Verse three,
he restores my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Lead me in that plain path of
righteousness, that path of truth. Teach me your way, O Lord. I want to know more. This is
the ongoing experience of the child of God. The ongoing experience
of the true Human child is a wanting to grow physically, to be fed,
to be nourished, to grow strong, to become mature. And so the
true child of God wants to learn and know more of the riches of
God's grace in Christ. to be taught by his spirit within. That's what the true child of
God wants. You know, not just to put up with preaching once
a week or twice a week. No, to be taught by the spirit
of God within. Isaiah 54, 13, All thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, says the scripture. All God's
children. You know, he says in another
place that they'll say, know the Lord, but they shall all
know me from the greatest to the least. All of God's people
are taught by the Lord and by the ministry gifts in the church,
so that in your private devotions, you are taught of the Lord, but
he's given gifts to the church of pastors and teachers. And
this is all part of the ongoing life of faith, learning, learning,
walking with him, discerning the Lord's body. verses 12 and
13. Verse 12, deliver me not over
unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen
up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living." This is hoping. We live a life hoping. And it
isn't a vain hope, and it isn't a tenuous hope. It's an absolutely
solid hope that God will bring it to pass. It's a stony, narrow
path to glory. But the believer has a solid
hope that he will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. Is that this world in which we live? I think this is
the land of the dying. I think the land of the living
is the land of glory, where those spirits are. The spirits of his
people that have gone to be with him. That's what we're looking
towards, seeing the goodness of the Lord in glory. And then
finally, verse 14, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and
he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. He
says it once and then he repeats it. Wait on the Lord. Wait, I
say, on the Lord. Waiting, again, is part and parcel
of this life of faith. How long is life? In God's purposes,
it's long enough. For his people, it may be very
short in some cases. Some may be taken very soon.
Some in midlife, some at a very, very old age. The disciples questioned
Jesus about this. Peter was told that he was going
to be crucified upside down before too long. And yet, John, why
not him? Well, that's in God's hands.
He lived to a very old age, into his 90s, we believe. on the Isle
of Patmos before he was taken. And so it can vary from one to
another, but it's all in the timing and purposes of God. Waiting. Wait on the Lord. He will accomplish
all of His purposes. He will do all that He is determined
to do. Wait for a while as He determines. Waiting. Isaiah 40 verse 13. They that wait on the Lord. Turn
to it. Isaiah 14. Sorry, Isaiah 40. And verse 13. I'm sorry, I've got the wrong one there. No, verse 31, not verse 13. Verse
31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not
be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
This is the life of faith. This is the life of trusting
God. And not being dismayed. Another
verse in verse 10 of the next chapter, verse chapter 41. Fear
thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Wait on the Lord, for he will
do all of these things. Don't be dismayed. This is the
life of faith. Just as we close, let's turn
back to the passage that we read for our reading earlier on in
Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and verses
12 to 14, where Paul is talking about this. Where he wants to
be found? He wants to be found in Christ,
not having his own righteousness. And then from verse 12, not as
though I had already attained. You see, he's waiting through
this life. He's in God's will. Not as though I'd already attained.
Either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. 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 for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. The life of faith, the life of
discerning the Lord's body, of waiting upon him.