growing in grace? Are you making progress in spiritual
matters? Are you maturing in faith, in
hope, and in love? Or are you at a standstill, and
entertained in such a measure of faith, such a measure Such
a measure of love that you're very well satisfied with yourself
in your present condition. I know how we will all answer
those questions with our lips. We all know how they ought to
be answered. We would all answer them doctrinally. True, I'm sure. But I want us
to be honest with ourselves. An honest answer to these questions,
I believe, will reveal the true condition of our hearts before
God. You see, the condition of true
faith is always progressive. It's always progressive. Self-complacency
is the offspring of self-righteousness. No matter what name you Self-satisfaction
is the child of self-righteousness. Always is. As you read through
the scriptures, you can hardly help noticing that almost every
figure by which the believer is described in the Word of God
implies growth, progression, and a process of maturity. We are described as plants in
the Lord's vineyard. We have been sown in the soil
of his garden, and the plant must grow. If the plant doesn't
grow, it'll die. The growth is not sudden, it's
gradual. The growth does not take place
rapidly many times, sometimes it does, but generally it's a
very slow, gradual growth. Such a growth as you watch it,
you can hardly see it, you can hardly observe it. But if you
go away and come again, you see that plant coming up out of the
ground. I always find it interesting
when I plant in the garden, Shelby and I'll get out there and work,
put the seed in the ground, a little while, that corn will break up
through that ground. It'll come up, that's a miracle,
that little old blade of corn. Comes up out of that ground,
all the earth pressing down against it. Comes up, the gold of God
made it that way. It rises up and you get this
little shoot of green above the ground. And then you go away
for a week or two. And you come back and you've
got plants standing six inches high. If you stood there and
watched the plant every day for those two or three weeks, you
couldn't see it grow at all. You couldn't observe it at all.
The growth was very gradual. But it's always progressive growth,
or else it's dead. Always. First the blade, then
the ear, then the full corn in the ear. We're born into the
family of God, and every child in the family grows. In God's
family there are babes, little children, young men, and mature
fathers. But none ever became fathers
who were not first themselves babes. We are described in the
word of God as being warriors, warriors who are ever doing battle.
He is not a soldier in the dress parade who calls himself by the
name of a child of God, but rather he is one who is in the field
of conflict. He is not a soldier even standing
guard at the king's palace, but rather he is one out in the battlefield,
taking one hill after another, defeating one enemy after another,
ever gaining the victory, but never retiring from the battle.
God's saints are described in this book as pilgrims. The pilgrim
does not build houses, he does not seek his roots in a foreign
land, but rather he dwells in tents, ever looking for and moving
toward his homeland. If ever the pilgrim falls in
love with the land through which he's traveling, he'll never go
home. He'll never do it. If ever he
falls in love with that strange land, and puts his roots down
in that strange land, he will never make another step toward
the land to which he once set out. All of the sons of Jacob
are wrestlers, struggling to overcome the world, the flesh,
and the devil. Sometimes we take our falls,
but never are they quite defeated by their adversaries. These figures,
all of them, are full of instruction. They imply the very opposite
of complacency and self-satisfaction. They imply energy, strength,
the concentration of all forces in order to win the victory.
The believer is also described as a runner in a race. We have
a couple here. Rex and Lindsey like to run.
They run in these races they have across various parts of
the state. Did you ever see a runner in a race standing still? I never
saw one yet. He's not much of a runner. As
a matter of fact, when he stops running, he ceases to be a runner
in the race. The runner, if he merely holds
his ground, and he looks back and says, look, I have come so
far, I have progressed to this point, and there his content
is no runner at all. If he's satisfied with his present
position, he is no runner in the race. He who runs in the
race turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, is always
gaining ground, always getting nearer and nearer the mark that
is set before him. Progress is the characteristic
of faith. Sometimes the progress is slow. Sometimes it appears as though
there's no progress at all. But true faith has a mark. True
faith has a goal, a prize set before it. And it always runs
to the best of its ability, always runs as best it can toward that
prize. The believer makes progress and
he grows in the grace and in the knowledge of Christ. adding
to his faith virtue, following on to know the Lord fully, daily
receiving grace for grace out of the fullness of Christ, that
fullness that is treasured up in the Lord Jesus our Savior.
Now in this matter of running the race that is set before us,
the Apostle Paul not only gives us much exhortation, but in Philippians
3, I want you to turn there if you will, Philippians chapter
3, The apostle allures us in the race by his own example.
It's one thing to stand up and exhort someone. It's one thing
to stand as one who is aloof from and exhort others to run
in the race. But here's a man who puts himself
on our level. He's standing in the track with
us, and he's saying, come on, fellas, follow my steps. Come
on, follow me. Let's run the race that is set
before us. Now I want us to read verses
12, 13, and 14. 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
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." Now let me call your
attention to several things here. Paul was in a position of conscious
safety, let there be no mistake about that. This man counted
all his righteousness in the law, his righteous deeds as a
Pharisee, his religious pedigree, his religious birth, his religious
training, his religious Sabbath keeping, his religious knowledge,
his religious zeal. He counted it to be but done
for Christ. He counted all things but lost
and done for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
the Lord. He was a saved man. And he knew that he was saved,
for he rejoiced in Christ Jesus and had no confidence in the
flesh. He knew that he was justified by faith. He knew that he was
complete in Christ Jesus. He counted all his own works,
those which once were the basis of his trust before God, to be
nothing but a pile of waste, manure, a cow pile, nothing else
but that. He spoke very plainly and clearly.
He said, which I had in the law is nothing else but done. I count it to be waste, manure,
nothing of any value that I may have his righteousness." Now
that's the language not of an unbeliever, but of a man who
knows the living God. He spoke out of his heart and
out of his experience. He counted those things to be
but done, and he trusted the righteousness and blood of Christ
alone for his acceptance with God. He was redeemed, born again,
justified, forgiven, accepted in the beloved. He was a saved
man and he knew it. I rather suspect that Paul seldom
had any doubt about his acceptance with God. I don't think Paul
had much of a struggle over the staying of assurance. I know
there are indications that at times Paul seemed to have the
same struggles that many of us have. But generally, Paul recognized
it as a matter of fact that he was accepted of God in the substitute
whom he trusted. No reason not to. No reason not
to. He said, I know whom I have believed. I know him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. I know the power of his blood.
I know the efficacy of his righteousness. I know the merit that he has
before God as a mediator, and I trust him. I know whom I have
to leave. I'm persuaded that that man,
that God, is able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. So Paul was in a position of
conscious safety. Yet at the same time, Paul was
a man in a state of conscious imperfection. Look at what he
says in verse 12. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. He had not yet reached his own
ideal of what a believer in this world ought to be. He had not
yet obtained everything he hoped to attain. Therefore, he was
not content to sit down and rest and say, here I am, I have arrived. He did not hold his hands and
simply thank God that he was not any longer as other men are. But rather, this man spoke plainly
and honestly about himself and to himself. He did not dare say,
soul, take thine ease, for thou hast much good laid up for many
days. This man knew his own spiritual
poverty, and therefore he was ever reaching for something that
was just beyond his reach. He was ever reaching for something
that was just beyond his capability of grasping. Paul knew his weakness
and his imperfection in the flesh. Yet, he was not satisfied even
to know his weakness. He was not satisfied simply to
say, I know I have everything. He was not satisfied to say,
I realize that I haven't yet grasped that which I ought to
grasp. I know that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing. I know
that I can't do anything good, and I know that I have no righteousness,
and I know that I have no possibility of any perfection in this life.
All those things were true, but Paul was satisfied more. He knew
that they were true. He knew that it was not possible
in this world for him to be red sinning. He knew that it was
not possible in this world for him to be free from the lusts
of the flesh. He knew that it was not possible
in this world for him to reach up to that ideal goal of perfect
faith in Christ to which he constantly strove. Yet he kept on striving
after it. He kept on pursuing it. He was
a man in a state of steady, determined progress. He says in verse 13,
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. There are many who readily acknowledge
their imperfection, and they seem quite satisfied not Paul. He knew his sin and he despised
it. It caused him to cry from the depths of his soul, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this dead?
As a matter of fact, his awareness of his sin made him struggle
against sin. And that was a mark of life,
an evidence that he had been delivered from the reigning power
of sin. His sin was a horrible burden to his heart and soul.
You find a man swimming in the necks of the ocean, or swimming
in a deep pool of water, and that man is totally unconscious
of the weight of the water. You know why? Because he's in
it. He's in his element. He feels no pressure from the
water, no pressure of the weight of the water. He's there swimming
around in it, and though there's a little pressure, at first he
gets accustomed to it, and there he stays. You take the same man
out of the water, stand him on shore, and set a 25-gallon bucket
of water on his head, and he will soon have a great deal of
pain from the weight of the water, though there's not nearly so
much water on his head as the water which was over him when
he was swimming in it. Why? Now he's out of the element.
Now the pressure of that water's entirely different. And that's
much the way it is with the believer, one who's born again by God's
grace. There was a time when sin was
about us. Oh, the threat of punishment
was about us. The guilt of conscience was about
us. The terror of the Lord was about us. But sin was no trouble. It was no trouble. We lived in
sin. We ate, drank, and breathed sin. Sin was our natural element.
But God, by His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, has delivered
us from the reigning power, the dominion of sin. And now the
sin that is in us is like that bucket of water on our heads,
only this is a horrible, massive iniquity in our hearts, and it
causes horrible pain to our hearts. And like Paul, we're made to
struggle against it. Crying out, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this sin? All with
the full awareness of sin. Indeed, because of that awareness,
was constantly pressing forward. Constantly struggling hard. Constantly
lunging for the prize set before him. He longed to be free of
the burden of sin. And he was conscious of the fact
that he was making progress toward that goal. What do you mean,
Pastor? I mean he had his heart set toward
the goal. the goal of perfection in Christ
Jesus. And as he walked toward that
goal, no, as he ran toward that goal, he knew that soon he would
arrive at Jesus Christ and the perfection of life and peace. Do you mean he was progressively
getting more holy and less sinful? Not at all, not at all. I do mean that he was gradually,
gradually, but gracefully and progressively reaching forth
toward Jesus Christ, his Lord, our Lord, his Redeemer, and our
Redeemer. This man was like a runner in
a race. He saw the goal. And who was
running about? I don't watch him a great deal,
and I never did a whole lot of running when I played football. You had to run the mile in nine
minutes, but I was big enough, I could block good, I didn't
have to run in nine minutes. But I watched those runners in
the Olympic Games, and as they run, and they get near the line,
they seem to lunge as though their hearts are carrying their
bodies faster than their legs are carrying them, so that they
might fall to the finish line. That's what Paul said. As they're
running to the finish line, my heart is lunging forward to that
day when I shall be like him in revenge. Now this man, Paul,
also was in a position of anxious aspiration. He longed to be found
in Christ. He longed to know Christ perfectly. He longed to be conformed to
Christ. He longed to attain unto the
resurrection of life. He puts it here, the resurrection
of the dead. That simply means the resurrection
of my body unto life. from the grave of death. He longed
for it. He grasped after that for which
he had been grasped by Christ Jesus. Paul said, I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. He was apprehended by Christ.
That's salvation. That's what it is, we say. Christ,
our apprehender. He was apprehending Christ. That's perseverance, darling.
Christ grabbed him, and now he's grabbing Christ. Christ arrested
him, and now he's seeking to arrest Jesus Christ by the hand
of faith. Let me talk to you for just a
few minutes about this matter. If you're taking notes, the title
of my message is apprehended and apprehending. The Lord Jesus
Christ has apprehended us for a purpose. He's apprehended us
for a purpose, and it is our responsibility to strive to apprehend
that purpose. Let me make four statements,
and I'll be very brief. I'm simply going to give you
some things that have been on my heart, that will be blessed of God to
my heart and to yours, that we may strive earnestly after Christ
our Lord. Number one, we have not yet attained
our goal. Paul doesn't give us the details
of his deficiencies. He doesn't describe his imperfections
with clarity. But with one statement, he confesses
them all. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. Now, he had attained some things. He had attained faith. He had
attained righteousness. He had attained justification.
In the sight of God, he was perfect, for he was complete in Christ
Jesus. In the sight of God, he was a man with a perfect heart,
for he was a man given a sincere and true heart, like Job, like
David of old. Yet Paul recognized that in himself,
as he stood before God, a man with two natures, a man with
a heart of thanks and a man with a heart of grace, a man living
in the body of thanks and a man living in the spirit of God.
He recognized that in this body, there's no redemption. And he
had not yet arrived at perfection. He had honestly taken stock.
He had honestly taken inventory of his own soul, and he found
that his inventory was very small. He was very much dissatisfied
with himself. He says, brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended you. And if he'd been satisfied with
his present attainments, he would never have sought for more. See,
a man who's satisfied who's satisfied, doesn't need, he doesn't want,
he doesn't seek anything more. And the Apostle Paul says here,
now brethren, I am not satisfied, I have not yet attained, I am
not yet perfect, I have not yet apprehended. Christopher made
the statement, he who thinks he has attained everything, hath
nothing. Now you and I are very much like
Paul. Like Paul, we have attains in
things. Let's deal with things honestly.
We will not speak superficially or super piously. We have attains
in things. If we're born again, if we're
born of God, if we are true believers, I know I'm not speaking to all
of you, but I'm speaking to many of you, men and women who are
born again of God's spirit. If you're in Christ Jesus, Merle,
you've attains in things. If I'm in Christ, I've attained
some things. Here in Philippians 3, in verse
3, Paul says, we are the circumcision. That is, we are the true people
of God. We are those who are truly God's
covenant people. We are those for whom the promises
and the oracles of God were given, which worship God in the spirit. I've attained that. I've attained
that. I worship God according to spirit
and truth. from a heart of truth and sincerity. I truly do. You who believe Christ
worship God just that way. We worship Him not in form, in
ceremony, not in word and deed alone. We worship Him in spirit
and in truth. Now if we're truly born of God,
that's so. Not only that, but we have attained faith in Jesus
Christ the Lord. He says we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. That is, we trust Him. We have
confidence in Christ. Blessed be God, I pray to God.
You may not have to listen. I've got confidence in Him. I
do. I have absolute confidence in
His righteousness. absolute confidence in his redemption,
absolute confidence in his power, absolute confidence in his wisdom,
in his goodness. We have confidence in Christ
Jesus, and having confidence in him, we rejoice in him. We
rejoice in him, and we have attained that place. But we have no confidence,
no confidence in the There's nothing in the flesh
that causes us to joy before God. Now if you're a believer, you've
attained that too. Our prayers, our feelings, our
experiences, our works, our labors, our thoughts, our imaginations,
And I'm speaking now only of those things which are the best
of us. Only of those things that we
look upon as being true fruits of and products of the grace
of God within us. Even those things do not cause
us to joy before God. Our only confidence is Jesus
Christ's righteousness in blood. Mark you said it in your prayer
a little while ago. No confidence in ourselves. all confidence
in Christ Jesus, all confidence in his blood, all confidence
in his power, all confidence in his intercession, none in
ourselves. Yet, though we are born of God, we
have holy, holy, holy ambitions, aspirations, and goals to which we have not even come
close to attaining. Here the apostle says in verse
9, or verse 10 rather, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his suffering, Oh God, my Savior, I want that. To know Him. That is, really to know
Him. To know Him perfectly. To know
Him. Knowing the power of His resurrection. Paul's not talking about some
kind of ecstatic, charismatic, or Pentecostal experience that
makes you jump up and down. He's saying, I want to really
know what the result of my Lord's resurrection is. I want to know
it perfectly. I want to know it experimentally. I want to know it perfectly.
I want to know all there is to know about him and about what
he's done." And then he says, I not only want to know by experience
the power of his resurrection and know him intimately, personally,
and perfectly, I want to know him in the fellowship of his
suffering. I've had the privilege that most
of you don't have. I spend my life studying, reading,
preaching. That's a privilege. But in 20, I saw nearly 21 years of study reading and preaching unceasingly,
day after day, week after week, month after month, year after
year, as I study and pray over and preach the
sufferings of Christ. That is what he accomplished
by his sufferings what he endured and what he accomplished by what
he endured. I realize I don't know a thing. I just, I haven't even scratched
the surface yet. Oh, I know the truth. I know
the doctrine of it. I know the power of his blood,
yet I have not been able to enter into with understanding what
he suffered and what he did when he died at Calvary, my soul. I want to know you in the fellowship
of his sufferings, in that perfect conformity to him and his death, being made
conformable unto his death. There is a gradual conforming
of our lives to Christ and his obedience.
I know that so. The believer grows in this matter of obedience
to God, obedience to Christ, and in that conforms to the obedience
of Christ the Lord. My faith ain't much, but it's
more than it was yesterday, and it's heaps more than it was 20
years ago. And my love for Christ isn't much, but it's considerably
better than it was 20 years ago. It may not have all the fanfare,
glitters, sparkle, and excitement that is seen by others, but it's
a deep, abiding love. And that's true of all believers.
Believers grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and they
grow in this matter of submission and obedience to Christ. But we haven't yet even begun
to start to think about getting started, being conformed as he
was to the Father in his death. And one of these days, That's
what we're striving for. Do you follow me? That's what
we're following after. That's the goal. That's the prize
that we're looking for. That's the final end to which
we're racing. That we may know him. That we
may have fellowship with him in his sufferings. That we may
be conformed to him in his perfect obedience to the Father as the
God-man, our mediator. And then that we may attain the
perfection of life, that we may attain to the resurrection
of the dead. These are the things we want. And I can't be satisfied without
them. I've got to have these things. They're essential. Therefore,
I must strive for them. I must reach forth to them. They're beyond my grasp, but
I've got to reach. Does that make sense to you?
I've got to reach. Second, we have been, again I speak to
you who are born of God, We have been apprehended by Christ Jesus. Now, we don't use this word apprehend
much. In fact, I can only think of
one way in which it is used commonly in our day. When we speak of
a policeman and say that a man has been arrested, a criminal
has been captured, we say the fugitive has been apprehended. He has been seen. He has been
grabbed, laid hold of, arrested, brought in custody to the law. That's exactly Paul's meaning.
Paul had been apprehended, arrested by God's almighty grace on the
Damascus road. Do you remember how it happened?
He had papers from Rome, and he was going down to Damascus
with power and authority from the Roman government and from
the Jewish Sanhedrin to bring these men and women who worshiped
at the name of Jesus Christ into prison. It was his heart's determination,
thinking he was doing God's service, to rid the world of the name
of Jesus Christ. He was not seeking the Lord.
He was not doing something by which he might make himself a
favorable object of God's grace. But on that road, the Lord Jesus
laid hold of Paul. He apprehended him. He stopped
him. He arrested him. He got him and
wouldn't let him go. And that's what Paul's talking
about. He said, I was apprehended by Jesus Christ. I was running
from him, but he apprehended me. I would not come to him,
but he apprehended me. Grace grabbed him. And that's
how God saves sinners. I think I've told you a number
of times. When I was in college, I used to sell shoes. I had a
customer come in the store one day, never will forget the old
lady. She was a black lady by six foot tall and couldn't have
weighed a hundred pounds. She was skinny as a rail. She
bought a pair of shoes and she laid them away. And I took her
name and she said, my name is Grace Graves. Boy, she's like
that, isn't she? I said, you know, that's exactly
what Grace does. She says, it sure does, honey.
And that's exactly what it does. Grace apprehends. Grace! has end in a time, and grace
pursues them, and grace follows them all the days of their lives,
and grace lays hold on them after Him. Like Paul, we who believe
were apprehended by Christ. We were running from the Lord.
We were like lost sheep within the very reach of the wolf's
mouth when the Lord Jesus stepped in and laid hold of us. Thus
the eternal counsel ran, almighty love arrested that man, and almighty
grace did arrest us. There was no resisting then. You know, I resisted. I resisted
the terror of the law. And I resisted the fear of punishment. And I resisted the torment of
conscience. I resisted, I resisted, I resisted,
I resisted. But when grace grabbed my heart,
I had no will to resist. I had absolutely no resistance. You see, when almighty grace
lays hold of a man, that man cannot escape the hand of mercy. and he must surrender as captive
under the dominion of Christ, and he does it willingly. Once
Christ has apprehended a sinner, he never escapes the grip of
free grace. Paul always felt the grasp of
Christ that was upon him. He never got away, and he never
wanted to. It was not a work that took place
for a minute or two on the Damascus road, or even for a day or two
of excitement, something that he would never forget, something
that must always be remembered, but something that had no after-effect,
and no after-experience in his heart, but rather it was something
that began that, and it constantly held him. The hand of the Lord
was upon him, and would not let him go. But the believer This is a lifelong
grasp. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes
you don't. Sometimes you sense it, maybe is a better word, sometimes
you don't. But right now, we who believe are in the grasp
of the hand of the Almighty God. and he won't let us go. We're
prisoners of Christ, who by capturing us, has made us free. And you never get over that,
never get beyond that, never get past that. The man who stood
the systems back years and years ago, some folks still foolish
enough to follow them now, one of them went like this, that
if you were looking at a man when he died, the spell of that
man would be upon you forever. Well, I don't care then for legends. But I saw one hanging on a tree
in agonizing blood, who fixed his languid eyes on me as near
his cross I stood. And I've been under his spell
ever since. I've been under his power and his influence ever
since. I have never gotten over it,
and I pray that he will get more and more of a hold upon me. I
have been apprehended of Christ, but blessed be God, I am yet
now apprehended of Christ. He holds my heart with fetters
of love." With Paul, the arrest by Christ was the force and the
motive by which his life was directed governed and ruled the
rest of his days. May it be so with us. He had
been pressed into the service of Christ. The Lord Jesus had
forced him to bow down. Yes, sir, he forced him to. He
compelled him to. Folks, thank God he doesn't force
you to do anything. Thank God he does force folks
to do things. He forced us to bow down. He forced us to come to Christ.
By his grace, he gently forced us in. And yet, we willingly
bow to Christ, and we willingly come to Christ. With all our
heart, we volunteer for his service. The Lord Jesus came, and he said,
darling, you'll be my servant. You will be my servant. And darling,
here's his voice. And he says, I want nothing more.
That's it. That's what I want. That's what
I want. But it was his forced will upon
you that makes you willing to be his. Now, that's a paradox. and the religious fellow will
rankle at it and rebel against it, and he'll go to hell fighting
it, but if so, all of Christ's soldiers are friends and force
into his service, but they're all volunteers. Since Christ
has apprehended our hearts, we cannot follow after the world
that hates him. We cannot embrace the doctrine
that dishonors him. We cannot serve our own cause
and our own interest in this world. I ask you, have you been
apprehended of Christ Jesus? Has he laid hold of you? Has your heart been grabbed and
arrested by his almighty grace? Oh, may the Lord now The third,
we must strive to apprehend that purpose for which we have been
apprehended by Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul says here in
verse 12, I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now he's talking
about the purpose for which he was apprehended. We have been
arrested by Christ for a specific purpose. He called us, apprehended
us, and brought us into his service with a specific object in mind. Our Lord has left us upon this
earth for a reason, every one of us, and it is our responsibility
to strive that we may attain, apprehend, and lay hold of that
purpose. What is it? We're going to look
at the scriptures. If you want to continue, you
can read Paul's description of his conversion to the Florida
River in Acts 26, the Florida Canaanites in Acts What is the
purpose for which we are apprehended? Number one, it is that we may
be converted. That is, that we may be turned to the living God He said, well, preacher, we've
been converted. Yeah, I know. But conversion is not something
yesterday. Conversion is a lifelong turning. It's a lifelong process. And let us then strive that we
may be fully converted to him. I know a good many fellas who've been converted, but there's so much that hasn't
yet been converted. Here I am. And when I'm talking to you now,
I'm talking to me, you can listen in if you will. Thou has been converted, true
believer. I mean that, a true believer. Would to God his temper would
be converted. Thou has been converted, true
believer. Would to God his tongue be converted. Thou has been converted, true
believer, he's been converted, genuinely turned to God. Would to God that his time and
energy might be converted. What do you mean, pastor? I mean, Lord God, turn me and I'll be turned. Lay your hand upon me and arrest that sharp,
hot temper and control it. Control it. I can't be satisfied
until he does. I can't be satisfied until he
does. I mean his tongue. Lord God set a watch on my mouth.
for the door of my lips. Why is it? Why is it that we use these mighty instruments
for so much destruction and for so little good? I can't comprehend that. I just
can't comprehend Why is it that somebody says,
well, I just had to say what's on my mind. My soul is just nothing
but filth and poison on your mind. Keep it to yourself. I
don't need it. Nobody else needs it. If there's nothing but harshness
and meanness on your mind, then keep it to yourself. No, we've
got to speak. Isn't it amazing how much quicker
these things are to grumble than they are to praise? Isn't it
amazing how much quicker they are to speak a word to hurt than
they are a word to comfort? Isn't it amazing how... how quick? Let's just suppose
Merle and Donna were while sleeping. Merle had said something that
maybe Donna didn't like. Or Donna heard that he said something
he didn't like. And so, we've got to get that
straightened out. Merle! Now, I don't appreciate that.
Brother, you ought not to do that. Very quick to say that. If anybody ever comes along that
ain't got some tremendous, active love and grace and self-sacrifice
and self-denial, kindness that brother's got, what's he gonna do? Well, he oughtn't to do that.
That's the way we are. That's the way we are. Why not
forget the other and speak a word of kindness? Brother, I tell
you, it did my heart good the other day to hear what your neighbor
told me about you. I appreciate it. I appreciate
it. You say, well, you're going to flatter her. I wish we were nearly as concerned
about her as we are about flattering her. I wish we were just a little
bit near as concerned about letting people know we love them as we
are about defending ourselves. See something? Something wrong? I ain't got a problem. Ain't got a bullet in me. Boy, looks like I can do better
than that. I pick it up and read it. Oh
my soul, I appreciate the time I'm in with that. I picked up
an article the other day by Danny Blair. I've got a mental note. He'll get a letter this week.
Did my heart good. Did my heart good. And it's proper,
it's proper to let folks know they're appreciated. God, right
out of my head. Convert this. We've been apprehended
of Christ, that we may be witnesses for him. You know what a witness
is? He's two things. He's a fellow
who observes, and he tells. Lord, teach me to observe holy
things out of thy law. Teach me to observe for wisdom,
goodness, grace, and mercy in Christ, revealed in the gospel. Teach you to observe the Word. It takes a striving. It takes
a striving. Usually, when we read it, God forgives us. I read this chapter today, I
bet I read it 15 times. I'd read a verse or two and something
comes to my mind, and I'd go on and read the next 12 verses
and never observe anything in them. Got to strive to overcome that.
Say, well, I'll overcome it, I don't know any shit. No, no. I'm going to describe it. God,
my mind is so polluted and corrupted with everything else in this
world, I can't concentrate on what you're saying here unless
you focus my mind on it. I'm going to stay with it. I'm
going to stay with it. God give me grace, I'm going
to stay with it. It has observed that. Go ahead
and tell me. That's what I'm doing now. I've
observed what God said. Now I'm telling you what he said.
We observe what he does in his properties. And we tell what
he does. We observe what he's done for us and we tell what
he's done for us. We have been apprehended of Christ in order that others also might
be apprehended of Christ. In Acts 26.18, the Apostle Paul
tells us that the Lord Jesus rested so that he might bear
light in Gentiles. And that's the truth of every
believer in this world. We've been apprehended by Christ
Jesus that many more may be apprehended by Christ Jesus. The Lord God has put us here
as instruments of usefulness to the souls of his elect. That's
what we're here for. That's what we're here for. I
wonder. I wonder. Who they are, and where they
are. But you know, there are some
people in this world who can only be saved if they
hear me, God, tell them the truth of God. That Eric I told you about, I
hope you understand better than that. I said, Lieutenant, that's
God's purpose. He put me here. He put me here
to tell somebody Who he is, and what he did, and
they can only be confirmed in theory in this center, in that
center, what's going on. The Apostle Paul is the only
man, he's the only man who could reason with Lydia and her heart
be opened of God. That fellow who is with us, He
could not possibly be converted, except he hear the Apostle Paul
preach the gospel of God's grace to them. Oh, would it do this
anybody today? Oh, God will make that happen.
He got it today. Wonder who the Lord might be
pleased, through your instrumentality, to act with him by his grace. either by your direct witness,
your direct telling of the gospel, or that which you do to enable
others to tell it. We have been apprehended of Christ,
so that others might hear and believe. I read somewhere one
time, nine years ago, when we used to have carry-on teachings
that were very much a necessary part of communication. When a man wanted to do pigeons,
if he wasn't real honest, what he'd do is he would dip the wings
of his pigeon in a specific perfume, stick them out, other pigeons
would get a whiff of it, and here they come, followed him
back to the cellar porch. Now that's a roguish way of doing
it, but that's just the way we minister to folks. The Lord God
put his grace upon us. And he sends us out with the
sweet aroma of Christ in the word and in our own experience. And by that word, he brings his
own back to himself. We've been apprehended by Christ Jesus that we may be
conformed to his image. Good morning. How are you? I want to live in my home like
the Son of God lived in his home. And I want to live in this town
like the Son of God lived in Nazareth. I want to live in this
church like the Son of God lived in the company of those twelve
disciples, conformed to his image. we've been apprehended of Christ, that we may be finally made to
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, that we may be found
in him. And if we've then been apprehended
of Christ, let us strive to apprehend that for which we've been apprehended.
Paul tells us that. He said, this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind me. If you want to run a race, you better
forget what's behind you. You put your hand to the plow,
don't ever look back. Hardest thing on this earth to
do is to plow. Get out there and plow that road.
Gonna lay off the road. Pull out the train tracks. And
the surest way to lay off a straight rubber, put your hand through
the flywheel, and go straight ahead. Go straight ahead. And start pushing that flywheel
in that direction. It's that easy to do. Somebody that's a little more
disciplined than what I've got might need it. I give Ian three
and a half to stop. And here we go. God give me grace to forget what's
behind. Forget it. Everything's behind. Forget the good and forget the
bad. Forget today's experiences. They're gone. Forget them. Forget
today's sins. They're gone. Forget them. Forget
that which has been plaguing your heart for so many years.
Forget it! Forget that in which you've been
constantly looking for so many years as a source of joy. Forget
it. Forget what you've done and forget
what you haven't done. Forget those things which are
behind you. Don't live in the past. Don't live in the past. I hear people talk about
what they used to do. What they used to do for the
Lord. What they used to do for Christ. What we did back then.
churches and people, preachers, lose all usefulness living in
the past. Forget it. Just forget it. And
reach forth into those things which are before you. Reach forth
into those things which are set before you. Strive after it. Strive after
usefulness and conformity with Christ. Strive after those things
which he has set before you, plain steps to walk in, and press
toward the mark." There's the mark. What's the mark? The mark of all the Scripture.
The mark of the covenant of grace. The scope, the mark, the object
of all the law and all the prophets. The scope, the object, the mark
of all God's purposes and decrees. The scope, the object, the mark
of all faith. There he is! Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Restore the mark. Restore the
mark. Restore the mark. Give us grace
to lunge for the mark. One last thing. By the grace
of God, if we have been apprehended of Christ, We shall apprehend
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We shall
win Christ at last. I count all things but lost for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, that
I may be inspired to be found in him. For everything I count
but lost Nothing but dung in hell. We shall be found in Christ. We shall know Christ. We shall be like Christ. And
we shall attain unto that glorious resurrection of life. The Lord added words, added blessings
to his word to make it profitable. of our hearts, causing us who
have been apprehended to apprehend that for which we've been apprehended. May he graciously lay hold of
your heart, if never before he has, and force you, force you
by his sweet, irresistible, constraining grace. into his glorious, lifelong life
service. Amen.