the other day, and after I heard
him say it, I was aware that every time I've heard him preach,
he said this. At the end of his sermon, as
he began his altar call to get decisions for Christ, he said, And as sure for heaven as if
you were already there, raise your hand." Now, look at verse 12 of Philippians
3 and see if this is what Paul is saying. I don't think it is.
In Philippians 3, verse 12, he says, "...not as though I had
already attained." Back at verse 11, he said, "...if by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." I haven't attained,
he said. I'm not there yet. I'm not there
yet. As Brother Barnard used to say,
Paul was saying, I haven't arrived. I'm still here. I have not arrived. And he goes on and says, I'm
not perfect. And I'm not perfect. But I follow after. I have a
goal. I follow after if, now watch
this, if, if that I may apprehend, the word apprehend comes from
the word arrest or lay hold upon. So let's read it this way, Paul
says I'm not there yet, I'm not perfect, but I'm following after
if I may lay hold upon that for which I have been laid hold by
Christ, that I may lay hold upon that for which I am apprehended
or arrested or laid hold of by Jesus Christ. I want to be an object of his
mercy. I want to be clothed in his righteousness. I want to be washed in his blood.
I want to be like the Redeemer. Now if you're serious about this,
if you're serious about a saving interest in Christ, I am. I'm
very serious about it. I'm serious about a right knowledge
of the living God. I'm not satisfied with just having
religion. I'm not satisfied with just having
the right orthodoxy or theology. I want to know Christ. I want
to win Christ and be found in Him. And if you're serious about
this, If you're unwilling to rest in an old profession that
stayed old, or an old experience that stayed old, if you want
to come to know Christ, then when you read God's Word, and
when you're seeking a saving interest in Christ and a right
relationship with God through the Word of God, in reading the
Word, I suggest three things. Number one, find out who's speaking. Who's speaking? Secondly, find
out to whom he's speaking. Now Paul is writing here. Paul
the Apostle. Paul the Chosen Vessel. Paul
the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul's writing to the brethren.
When Jay walked up here and opened the scripture, Philippians 3,
verse 1, he says, Finally, my brethren. It's obvious to whom
he's speaking. He's speaking to those who profess
to be saved, to those who profess to be believers. What's he talking
about? He's talking about continuing
in the faith. He's talking about perseverance.
Now, he starts in verse 1. He says, Brethren, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you
that I've written to others and that I've written to you before
is not tiresome to me at all. I don't mind going over the same
message again and again and again and again. It's not tiresome
to me. It's not grievous at all to repeat
the same things that I've written to others and that I've written
to you and that I've preached to you many times. It's not grievous
or tiresome at all. But for you, it's necessary. It's for your safety. It's for
your good that you might keep your thoughts and hearts on Christ.
Oh, how our thoughts are prone to reach out for new things,
new doctrines, new teachers, new revelations, new accomplishments. Paul says, I want to keep your
hearts on Christ, your thoughts on Christ. I want to keep you
from the false teachers. I want to guard you against self-righteousness. He says in verse 2, you beware
of the concision. You beware of those who would
circumcise the flesh for sanctifying purposes. Circumcision served
a purpose. but it's not a sanctifying purpose.
Baptism serves a purpose. The Lord's table serves a purpose.
All of these things that have to do with the body serve a purpose,
but it's not a sanctifying purpose. In verse 3 he says, We are the
true circumcision who first of all worship God in the Spirit. We worship God in the Spirit,
not through ceremonies and rituals, and bowings and bodily prostrations
and bodily exercises, we worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, we
rejoice in his satisfaction, we rejoice in his sin offering,
we rejoice in his substitutionary work, we rejoice in his righteousness,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus alone. This is the true circumcision,
they worship God in the spirit. They don't have any hope of attaining
his favor by any position of the body. They have no hope of
attaining his favor by any clothing which they may wear. They have
no hope of attaining his favor by anything they do to their
bodies, such as circumcision or whipping the flesh or fasting,
or doing without food, or praying for 10 or 12 hours, or praying
for 24 hours. We don't hope to be accepted
of God by anything we do in the flesh. We worship God in the
Spirit. And we rejoice in the righteousness
and obedience and merit and person and office and work of Jesus
Christ, His intercession, His mediatorial character. We rejoice
in Christ alone. We don't rejoice in the flesh.
Now, what's this next line? and have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence in mine, yours,
or anybody else's. In mine, yours, or anybody else's. We have absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. In anything that it knows, or
has, or does, or claims, we have no confidence in the flesh. No
confidence. Not a little bit, not some, no
confidence. Now in that next verse, he says,
if anybody out there thinks he has confidence in the flesh,
I'm over. I'm over. And then he shows us
his works, his religious form, his ceremony, his background,
his heritage, and watch this now, his present claims and hope. Now you watch this. The Apostle
Paul, he says, brethren, if there's anybody out there that thinks
he has any grounds for rejoicing in the flesh, or having any confidence
in the flesh, or resting in the flesh in any way. I'm over. And then he goes on to show us
his Jewish heritage in verse 5. Circumcised the eighth day
of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe
stayed faithful while the other ten departed. A Hebrew of Hebrews. My mama was a Hebrew. My daddy
was a Hebrew. Touching the law, I was a high-ranking
Pharisee. That's my Jewish heritage. Now
look at my religious dedication. Concerning zeal for God, I persecuted
the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, I was blameless. Then my conversion to Christ.
But what things were gained to me, I counted lost for Christ.
I came all the way. I turned my back on my Jewish
brethren. I turned my back on my Jewish heritage. I turned
my back on my Pharisee office, my office of Pharisee. I turned
my back on everything. Those things that were gained,
that were important, that were everything to me, I gave them
up. Some of you can say that. I was raised in Southern Baptists
with their programs and all that, and I gave it up. I was a high-ranking
Methodist layman. I gave it up. I was an important
person in the Nazarene church, and I gave it up. I was converted
to Christ. I came to see Christ and His
righteousness. I gave up all these things. That's
what Paul said. Read on. Verse 8. Then he talks about his total
dedication to Christ. Total dedication. And doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. I'll leave home. I'll leave family. I'll leave my country. I'll go
to the mission field. I'll give up everything for Christ. I count
everything but loss for Christ. For which I've suffered the loss
of all things, I count them but doom, that I may win Christ."
That's his total dedication. Are you with me? If anybody thinks he has confidence
in the flesh, Paul said, I'm over. Let me tell you a story,
he said. Let me tell you about my Jewish
heritage. Let me tell you about what I was, who I was. Saul of
Tarsus. I was of the tribe of Benjamin.
And not only that, but I was a Pharisee, the highest ranking
Pharisee. I was zealous. I held more meetings,
preached to more people, had more decisions than anybody anywhere. I'll tell you what I did. One
day I met Christ. One day I met him who became
my Lord, and I laid these things down. I laid them down. I turned my back on all these
things. I was counted a crazy person.
I was counted an idiot. I was counted a madman. I was ridiculed and persecuted. I laid all these things down.
My family turned against me. My mother, father, brother, sister,
my own wife. But I turned my back on it. And
I counted these things but dumb for the loss, but lost for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord. I left it all
willingly. He's not through. He's still
talking about if anybody's got anything to glory in. I'm over. Now I know we're used to doing
this when we preach from Paul's testimony here. Coming up to
the time he was saved and then dropping it. But he's talking
about, Jay, the rest of it. He's talking about the rest of
it. I know a lot of times we talk about what we were when
we turned to Christ, and then we boast in our turning. We have
faith, and then we boast in our faith. We have orthodoxy, and
then we boast in that. We boast in our persecution.
We boast in our, somebody says, I used to do this, but I don't
do it anymore, and then we boast in not doing it anymore, which
is just as bad as almost doing it. This is what Paul is saying
there, and here was my claim to righteousness, verse 9. Only
in Christ, not having my own righteousness which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. I lay no claim to any righteousness
but Christ. He is my righteousness. I lay
no claim to any goodness or merit. of all of my own. I lay claim
only to the righteousness of God which is in Christ Jesus
my Lord. And look at his hope. Here's
my hope, that I may know Christ. That's my hope. And I want to
know the power of his resurrection, that is, the power of his resurrected
life. I want to know the strength and
the comfort and the grace of the resurrected life of Christ
which he gives to believers. That's what I want to know. I
want to know him. Oh, I know him, but I want to
progressively know him more deeply and intimately. I want to be
acquainted with the wonders of his person. That's the very yearning
of my soul, to know Christ, and to know something of what it
means to walk in the resurrected life of Christ with the comfort
and joy and happiness and strength and grace that he gives. And
listen, and to know the fellowship of his sufferings. I'll be glad
to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. to suffer
for Christ's sake. That's all right. Lay it on me,
I can take it, Paul said. To be put in prison, to be persecuted,
to be slandered, to be mistreated for Christ's sake, that's all
right. I want to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings.
And I want to be made conformable unto his death. I want to be
transformed into his likeness. That's my desire, to be transformed
into his likeness. And then verse 11, "...if by
any means I want to attain to the resurrection of the dead."
Now then, that's not just a future resurrection. It may mean the
future resurrection, but I think according to the context it's
talking about a spiritual resurrection that lifts us out of the death
and darkness and sin of this world to be made just like the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want to attain.
I want to be like Christ. And then comes verse 12. But
I haven't got there yet. That's what he's saying. I'm
not there yet. I haven't arrived. I haven't
attained. I'm not already perfect. I'm just not there. Now, Brethren,
he says, this is what I used to be. And I was brought one
day to a knowledge of Christ. And I turned my back on all that.
And I counted it but loss for the excellency and the knowledge
of Christ my Lord. I counted it but rubbish. I turned
my back on it. I turned my back on it. And it
cost me, and it cost me dearly, and it cost me severely. And
my desire is to know Christ, and to be made like him, and
to enter the fellowship of his sufferings, and to walk with
him. and to attain unto that glorious spiritual resurrection,
to be lifted out of the darkness and deadness and sin of this
world, to walk with the King like Enoch walked with God. Well,
he says, I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. I haven't
arrived. I press on, though he said, I
follow after. I press on that I may lay hold
upon that for which I've been laid hold of by Christ. Now,
I believe that God laid hold of me, he said. I believe Christ
has laid hold of me. I don't believe this is an empty
profession. I don't believe this is an empty claim. I don't believe
this is just a religious decision. I believe God laid hold of me.
But I'm interested in myself laying hold upon that for which
he's laid hold of me. Now, Charles Spurgeon said this.
He helped me a lot with this verse of Scripture. He says there
are two forces. at work in every true believer. Two forces. Now, we're not talking about
flesh and spirit here, we're not talking about the new nature
and the old nature. We're talking about two forces
that are working towards the same goal. Two forces working
towards the same goal. Now, the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And we are painfully
aware of those two forces. But there are two forces in the
believer that are working towards the same goal. to accomplish
the same thing, every believer. First of all, there is the power
of Christ which has laid hold of us and does lay hold of us.
Without me you can do nothing. That's the power of Christ. I
can't even know I'm a sinner without the power of Christ.
I can't even live spiritually, I can't hear the word of God
or see the beauty of Christ or understand the mysteries of the
kingdom without the power of Christ. is the power of Christ
that laid hold of me first of all. It's the power of Christ
that convicted me of sin and converted me to Christ and called
me by his Spirit. It's the power of Christ that
laid hold upon me as a rebel. But there is in the believer
that new life, that new man, that new faith, that new nature,
that new power by which we lay hold of him. And we continue,
Jay, to lay hold of them. And this is what John is saying,
if they had been of us. He didn't mean if they had been
in fellowship with us or if they'd been worn of us, wearing our
little silly pins. He meant if they'd really been
of us, they would have continued. If they'd have been partakers
of the new nature and the new life, for that new life never
leaves Christ. That new life reaches out to
lay hold on Christ and continues to lay hold on Christ. It calls
on Christ and continues to call on Christ. It follows Christ
and continues to follow Christ. It comes to Christ and continues
to come to Christ. What are you preaching, preacher?
I'm preaching preservation and perseverance. That's what I'm
preaching. I'm preaching that we are preserved. No man can
pluck them out of my Father's hand. My Father which gave them
is greater than all. But I'm preaching also they will
not be plucked out, because they will not leave. They will not
cooperate with that one that is trying to pluck them out.
I'm preaching that he will not forsake me, nor will I forsake
him. I'm preaching that there's a
preservation by which we are kept by the power of God. There's
a perseverance through faith. I'm saying that Christ lays hold
upon believers, but believers lay hold upon Christ. And if
a believer's not laying hold upon Christ, he's never been
laid hold of by Christ. And if a man's never been laid
hold of by Christ, he'll not lay hold of Christ. That's what
this verse is saying. He said, you think you got something
to glory in? You think you've got a story
to tell? You think you've got an experience in which to boast
or of which to boast? You think you've got an attainment,
an accomplishment? You've been cut off? You've been
persecuted? You've been slandered? You've
been talked about? He said, let me tell you a story. And boy,
he tells one, doesn't he? How many of you have been in
prison? How many of you have been beaten three times with
forty stripes save one? How many of you have been shipwrecked?
How many of you have been stoned three times? How many of you
have been pounced upon by enemies without the church and within
the church? Paul said, you've got something to brag about?
I'm worried. But you think you've arrived?
You think you can raise your hand to some silly proposition?
I'm as good as bound for heaven as if I was already there? He
said, I'm not already there. I have not attained. I've not
arrived. I'm not already perfect. But
he says, Bless your heart, I've got to go. I've got to go. I will not be denied. Jacob said,
I won't let you go unless you bless me. I'm going to keep knocking,
Lord, until you bring the bread to the door. I will not be denied. I'm going to lay hold by God's
grace. I follow after, if that I may
lay hold upon that for which I have been laid hold of by Jesus
Christ, I want that which Christ bought for me. The violent strive
to enter in, Christ said, for many shall seek to enter in,
shall not be able. The violent take heaven by force. Let's see two things here. Two
things. Paul said, I've been laid hold
of by Christ. I've been laid hold of by Christ.
I've been arrested. I've been arrested by Christ. I've been apprehended. You know
the story. Nothing was further from the
mind of Saul of Tarsus when he was going from Damascus, or from
Jerusalem to Damascus, nothing was further from his mind than
becoming a Christian. Just don't believe I hear folks
talk about he's under conviction. I don't believe a word of it.
I believe he's riding a high horse. He was exerting his authority. Damascus was in front of him,
and he had hatred in his heart for Jesus Christ, and hatred
in his heart for the apostles, and hatred in his heart for the
gospel of grace, and hatred in his heart for every professing
believer. And he was going down there representing
the high and mighty in Jerusalem, carrying the papers in his hand
to destroy them and to scatter them and to commit them to prison,
and he was riding the high horse of his self-righteousness, and
Christ laid hold of him. He arrested him. He arrested
him right there. He arrested him! He smote him! And old proud, arrogant, self-righteous,
religious, moral, solitarist was brought down with a great
fall. A great as are all who meet the King.
They are brought down with a great fall. I don't care if it's a
preacher with all his credentials and all of his accomplishments
and all of his self-righteousness. Everyone who meets the King meets
him on his knees. He meets him on his knees. Every
knee shall bow. Every knee shall bow. Men do
not look upon Christ from the high horse of self-righteousness,
but from the dust of repentance. That's the way men look on Christ.
And our Lord got Saul of Tarsus down there where he could see
him. He got him down there where he could see him. You don't see
Christ from the high seat of theology and orthodoxy and religious
accomplishments and morality and law-keeping and heritage.
You see Christ from the dust. If you've never been down there,
you've never seen him. That's where our Lord is seen in his
beauty. The prodigal son saw the glory of his father from
the field of repentance. That's where he really saw it.
The sheep saw the shepherd and the glory of the shepherd in
its lost estate. Against the God that rules the
sky, I fought with hand uplifted high. I despised his rich, unbounding
grace. I was too proud to seek a hiding
place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty Love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress. And I found I had no hiding place. He said he laid hold on me. He
laid hold on me. And he brought me down. He brought me down. And then
notice the next thing. The skilled, confident, arrogant
leader of men. That's what Solitarsis was. He
discovered that after all, he couldn't see. he couldn't see,
and stumbling about in the darkness like a little child. Now, you
know, a man suddenly who has all of the arrogance of solitarsis
and the pride and the self-glory, and those men with him looked
up to him, and then here he is now all of a sudden wallowing
in the dust, blind. He cannot see. He's totally,
totally without any ability to do anything on his own. He's
groveling around in the dust. And somebody has to come, Jay,
and pick him up. And he reaches out all around,
and somebody has to lead him by the hand. He's shut up to
mercy. He shut up to outside help. He shut up to divine instruction.
Lord, what do you want me to do? It will be told you what
you are to do. And he went three days without
sight, three days without food or water, blind, totally blind,
totally blind. And then the next thing, turn
to Acts 22. He was down there where God sent
him. And my friends, this is, when the Lord lays hold on a
fellow, this is what happens. Paul said, he laid hold of me.
He laid hold of me. He arrested me. He apprehended
me. I was on my way to hell and he
stopped me. He apprehended me. No preacher
does it. I know that's what happened to
a lot of folks. Some soul winner laid hold of
them, and they're not much better off. They're worse off than they
were, really. They're two-fold more the child of hell than the
soul winner. They got a false refuge, but Saul of Tarsus said,
he laid hold of me. I've been apprehended, arrested
by Jesus Christ! Who are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. I've been
dealt with by God. What'd he do? He brought me down.
He stripped me. He humbled me. Put me in the
dust and blinded me. I was already blind, but he just
revealed how blind I was. I was already blind. I didn't
know it. I didn't know seeing. I didn't
know blindness. I didn't know darkness. I didn't
know deadness. But I was sitting down there
and verse 12 of Acts 22, a fellow came to me called Ananias, a
devout man, according to the law, having a good report of
all the Jews that dwelt there. And he came to me and he said
to me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up
upon him and he said, Brother Saul, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee. You say what you want to about
the foolishness of preaching, and I know there are a lot of
foolish preachers and a lot of preachers preaching foolish things,
but I'm not talking about foolish preaching. I'm talking about
preaching the glory of the cross, which to the ungodliest foolishness. You say what you want to about
preaching, but you're not going to call on him in whom you've
not believed, and you're not going to believe in him of whom
you've not heard, and you're not going to hear without a preacher.
Now do what you will. You say, I want to go to a church
where everybody talks. Well, you're welcome to do that,
but you're not going to hear from God. You say, I want to
go to a church where they have a good youth program. Well, go
ahead, but you're not going to be taught the gospel on the basketball
floor. You say, I want to go to a church
where the gifts are prevalent, where they have a divine revelation
and a gift of prophecy and a gift of tongues. Go right ahead, but
you're not going to hear Christ in that confusion. They'll just
exalt your flesh and pamper your flesh and beg on your flesh,
and then you'll burn with all flesh. I'm telling you the truth.
I say, God is my witness. I have your future joy at heart. You say, I want to go to church,
rather have a good musical program. Go right ahead, but I don't hear
anywhere in the Bible where it says, by the foolishness of singing,
God saves them that believe. It says, preaching, preaching,
preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching the word of God. That educated Jew, Saul of Tarsus,
that influential Jew, Saul of Tarsus, that Pharisee of Pharisees,
Saul of Tarsus, that Hebrew of Hebrews, Saul of Tarsus, with
his head full of orthodoxy and his head full of legalism and
his head full of ritualism and his head full of ceremonialism,
had to be shut up, branded, crippled, and set for three days in darkness
until God was pleased to send to him a preacher! to tell him
some good news. And he said, Saul, verse 14,
God has chosen you. That's the first thing he told
that fellow. He told him that salvation was
of the Lord. The first thing he told him,
that he didn't choose God, God chose him. That's the first thing
he told him. He said, you're not here because of your will,
you're here by the will of God. God chose you and God that you
should know his will, his redemptive will, that you should see the
Just One, capital J-U-S-T, capital O-N-E, that's Christ, who enables
God to be just and justifier, the Just One. Christ redeems
his people not by hook and crook, but by righteous justice. He
satisfied the law, he honored the law, he satisfied justice,
and that you should hear his word, hear his voice. But you
should be his witness. God Almighty laid hold of me.
Oh, he laid hold of me. And my friends, Paul felt a security
in Christ. Turn to Romans 8. As the years
went by and God raised him up to write the letters and epistles
to the churches, he had some assurance of his interest in
Christ. He set forth four questions at every believer. Rejoices in,
Romans 8, verse 31, he talked about God ordained us, foreordained
us, predestinated us, called us, justified us, glorified us.
Then he says in verse 31, what shall we say to these things?
If God's for me, who can be against me? That's confidence. That's assurance. Who can be
against me? And then verse 33, he says, who
in heaven, earth, or hell? Who? can lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. God justified them. Verse 34,
he says, Who can condemn me? Christ died. Verse 35, Who can
separate me from the love of Christ, which is in Christ Jesus,
the love of God, which is in Christ my Lord? He was secure.
He felt a security and a peace and an assurance. But bless your
heart over here in Philippians, he said, I have not arrived yet. I'm not perfect. But I'll tell you what I do.
I follow after, if that I may lay hold, that I may lay hold
with the heart, with the soul, with my very being, with my innermost
being, with my inner man, that I may lay hold upon that for
which all this has been done. I will lay hold of it. All right, let me ask this question.
Why did Christ lay hold of Paul? Why did he lay hold of him? Well,
the grand design of electing love, the grand design of blood
redemption, the grand design of the Spirit's call, what is
the grand design? That he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. In other words, that he might,
Brother Rock used to say, have a people in glory just like himself. That's the grand design. That
in all things he might have the preeminence, yes, but that he
might have a people that enjoy the things that he enjoys, rejoice
in the things in which he rejoices, love the things which he loves
and hate the things which he hates. to be conformed to his
image, to be made like Christ, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Well, if this is his grand design
in laying hold upon me, then God grant that I might be more
like Christ. See what I'm saying? Is that
why he laid hold of me? Paul says, I haven't attained
this. John Newton says, I'm not what
I ought to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I expect to be. But thank God I'm not what I
used to be. But Paul says, I follow after
that I might be what I ought to be, like Christ. That's why
I'm studying the Word. That's why I'm seeking God's face in prayer.
That's why I'm gathering with the people of
God. that I might be more like Christ, that I might grow in
grace and in the knowledge of Christ. All right, what's another
reason? Turn to Ephesians 2. Why did
God lay hold upon Paul? To make him like Christ. And
that's what he says I'm following after. I want to lay hold upon
this goal. I want to be like Christ. David
said that. He said, I shall be satisfied when I awake with his
likeness. I'm not going to be satisfied
until I awake with his likeness. I know what today's religion
says. It says, you want to go to heaven? Yeah, I sure would
like to go to heaven. You want to go to hell, do you?
Well, believe on Jesus. Okay, I'll take you up on that.
I'll join up. Put me on the roll. I'll join up, and that's my ultimate
goal, to get to heaven. That's not my ultimate goal.
David didn't say, I'll be satisfied when I get to heaven. He said,
I'll be satisfied when I wake with his likeness. Paul said,
I'm in a strait betwixt the two, I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. I think the man who's
trying to lay hold of heaven has missed the gospel. I really
do. I really do. I think it's nothing
in the world but just carrying carnality a little bit further
than the present life. I think it's just when we talk
about wanting to see mother again, well, If God would leave us and
Mother here for eternity, we'd be satisfied to stay here with
Mother. The fellow talks about he wants to live without disease
up there. Well, if God would give him a
life down here without disease, he'd be satisfied here, too.
He talks about wanting to live in a mansion in heaven. If God
would give him a mansion here, he'd forget heaven. But I'll
tell you, there's just one consummation of the desire to be like Christ,
and that's to be like Christ. Ain't nothing going to satisfy
that. I will be satisfied when I awake, not in heaven, not in
a mansion, not without a natural body, not without the pains and
darkness and distress, but I'll be satisfied when I awake with
his likeness. And that's what Paul is saying
here. God has ordained that every one
of his people are going to be like Christ, perfectly conformed
to his image. And he said, that's why God laid
hold on me. And that's what I'm trying to
lay hold of. Ephesians 2, verse 6 and 7. God hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ,
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. God
laid hold on me to show forth the riches of his grace. God
laid hold on me to glorify his name. God saved me for his glory. Then I'll tell you this. I need
to start glorifying him. I want to lay hold on this purpose. He saved me to glorify him, so
I ought to show forth the praises of him who called me out of darkness
to his marvelous light. I hear preachers, their whole
message is bragging on the flesh. I hear people whose whole testimony
is, I used to be a drug addict, I used to be this, I used to
be that, but I accepted Jesus and I let Christ in my heart
and I did this. That's not praising him, that's
praising yourself. And then he laid hold upon me,
he told Paul that he should be a witness. And then I said, Paul,
brother Saul, God hath chosen you that you might know his will,
see the just one, hear his word, and be his witness. What does
a witness tell in court? What does a witness tell in court?
What does a witness tell when he's on the witness stand? He
tells two things. what he saw and what he heard.
No more. And I'll tell you this, that's
what a true witness of Christ is going to tell, what he's seen
and what he's heard. Turn back to the text, and I'll
close. I haven't attained, verse 12,
I haven't arrived, I'm not perfect, but I follow after that I may
lay hold upon that for which I've been laid hold of by Christ.
I count not myself to have laid hold upon it, but this one thing
I do. I forget those things which are
behind, and I reach forth unto those things which are before,
and I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Jesus Christ. I look through Paul's writings
on this laying hold upon things. It's amazing how many times he
used it. In 1 Timothy 6, 12 and 19, he says, lay hold on eternal
life. Lay hold on eternal life. Lay
hold upon it. You're not going to sit over
there in that chair with folded arms and God's going to unzip
your heart and put eternal life in it and zip it up again. You're
going to seek the Lord. That's right. Lord, lead me to
seek thee and seeking thee to find thee and finding me to love
thee and loving thee to serve thee. And he says in 1 Timothy
3, 9, you lay hold on eternal life and you hold the word of
truth without hypocrisy, with a pure conscience. If you're
going to play some games, you better play them somewhere else.
Let the pot sherds of the earth strive with the pot sherds of
the earth, but don't play games with God. Somebody walks down
this aisle, it scares me to death. I know a lot of preachers, they
whoop their door and click their heels together and throw a songbook
and count another soul. But I'll tell you, it concerns
me deeply. I feel like David Brandon when
he's preaching to the old Indians. I hope they're not making a false
profession. I hope they're not bowing a false vow to God. I
hope they're not playing with the things of God with a pure
conscience, without hypocrisy. And then in 2 Timothy 1.13, he
says, You hold fast to sound words with faith and love, genuine
faith and sincere love. Those are the two key graces,
faith and love. And then in Hebrews 3, verse
6 and 14, the Apostle Paul says we better hold our confidence
firm unto the end. Now, my friends, it may not alarm
you when somebody comes to church and makes a profession of faith
and gets baptized and goes along a little while and then they
begin to drift and they don't show up for the worship services
and they don't have any fellowship. That may not concern you, but
it does me. It breaks my heart, it troubles
me. When a person loses interest
in the gospel and loses interest in the glory of Christ and loses
interest in the things of our Lord He'd rather be here somewhere
else than here, and he'd rather be doing something else than
this. That troubles me because I know
this. Paul said, we are not of them
that draw back unto perdition, but we are of them that lay hold
of and reach forth and hold fast to our profession of faith. Growing
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, indifference is deadly,
deadly. I lay hold. I hope God uses this
message for whatever purpose it pleases him, for your good,
for his glory. But what I'm saying is this,
and I say it loud and clear. Christ has laid hold of me, I
believe that. The best evidence I got, Charlie,
that he laid hold of me is I'm laying hold of him. That's the
best evidence I know. That's the best evidence I know
that I'm laying hold of Christ. James said that. He said, Friend,
show me your faith without your works. I'll show you my faith
by faith. And I'm not talking about running
out here knocking on doors and selling papers to send a missionary
and collecting pop bottles to help somebody on the mission
field. I'm talking about works of godliness and faith and love
and hope and long-suffering and patience and these things. That's
the works of Christ. Our Father, how deceitful, how
desperately wicked and deceitful. is the human heart, how prone
to wonder, how subtle and crafty is that terrible adversary, that
enemy, Satan, how he works in spiritual places and high spiritual
places, and how he's able to deceive. And if our gospel be
hid, it's hid to them that are lost, whose minds are blinded
by the God of this world. But Lord, you're able You who
made the eye can make it see, and you who made the ear can
make it hear, and you who made the heart, the innermost being
of man, can make it wise unto salvation. You can defeat the
enemy of men's souls. You can confound him as he confounds
us. O Lord God, I pray that you take
this message today and make real to every one of us that this
thing of redemption is not a decision only. It's not just an experience
only. It's not just a commitment to
a local church only. But it's an intimate, vital,
living union with Christ Jesus.