If you will, turn back with me
to the third chapter of Philippians. Philippians chapter three, verses
13 and 14. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, 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. I thought about the fact that
tonight is the last time we will meet together as a church to
worship the Lord in the year 2022. And these words in verse
13 kept suggesting themselves to me, forgetting those things
which are behind. Forgetting those things which
are behind. Seemed to be an appropriate text
for tonight. In just a few days, the Lord
willing, this year will end. And then we will begin a new
one, God willing. Now, as we look at these verses,
I have three things I want us all to keep in mind. Three things
that I think are good for us to keep in mind before we actually
turn to the verses. First, let us recognize these
are the words of the Apostle Paul written from a prison in
Rome. The date of this letter is thought
to be about 59 or 60 A.D., the date when Paul wrote this letter
to Philippians, about 59 or 60 A.D. How long had Paul been a
Christian at this time? How long since the Lord had saved
him? Well, we cannot know for sure,
but scholars tell us that his first missionary journey began
probably in the year 48 A.D. His first missionary journey
in the year 48 A.D., this letter written in 59 or 60 A.D. That would mean, and the date
of his execution was about A.D. 66 or 67. In other words, about
six or seven years after he wrote this letter, he was beheaded
or put to death in Rome. And how old was he? Well, as I said before, we don't
know. But we can only surmise that
Paul had been a believer from anywhere from 12 to 15 years
when he wrote this letter. And I think that's important
that we keep in mind. He wrote this as a prisoner with
about six or seven years left in his life in this world. Number
two, these are the words of the Apostle Paul, whom God inspired
to write 14 of the 29 books in the New Testament. The man that
God used, God the Holy Spirit used to write almost half of
the New Testament. These are his words. And the
third thing I would have us to keep in mind is these two texts,
especially, are in a framework of running a race, of running
a race. The Olympian Games, no doubt,
was in his mind. And we'll see that as we come
to the third point this evening. He wrote this from prison and
He wrote this as a man that God had used greatly, as a man that
may be the greatest preacher outside of the Lord Jesus Christ
that has ever lived. A man who could write and say,
I labored more abundantly than they all, talking about the other
apostles. I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I. He had to add that, didn't he?
He would have been bragging, he would have been filled with
pride if he had not added, yet not I, but the grace of God that
was with me. Yes, he did labor more by the
grace of God. So I have three things to point
out to us in these two verses. First of all, the confession. I count not myself to have apprehended. The confession, I count not myself
to have apprehended. Now, to understand his meaning,
we've got to look at verse 12. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended, of Christ
Jesus. The Apostle Paul, like you and
me, and like every other child of God, if you're one of his
children tonight, every one of God's children, we all, like
him, have been apprehended. We've been apprehended. Now we're
all familiar with the apprehension of the Apostle Paul. You hear
people, secular people use the expression and a Damascus road
experience. I mean, people are familiar with,
with the experience the apostle Paul had when God apprehended
him. As we think about him that day
on the road to Damascus, convinced He was absolutely convinced that
Jesus Christ was an imposter, that he was a blasphemer, that
he was a deceiver. He just knew that with all of
his being, that this one, Jesus of Nazareth, he's an imposter. The very fact that he has confessed
himself to be the son of God, Paul was convinced this man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was an evil man, a deceiver. And he was also convinced that
those who followed him, they were just as deceived as he was. We know he had letters to the
authorities, the temple authorities there in Damascus, to apprehend,
to arrest believers. do his best to get them to blaspheme
the name of Christ or bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried
before the Sanhedrin. And then he was apprehended. God's grace, God's grace, he
was apprehended. A great light, he said, greater
than the sunlight at its peak at noonday. was shining about
him, and the men who were with him, and they all fell to the
ground. And the Lord spoke to Saul, his name was Saul at that
time, Saul of Tarsus. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. He was apprehended. He was apprehended
and his experience, I know there's a lot about his experience that
we may think differs from our experience as a child of God,
but really that's not so. Every child of God has the same
experience, not on the road to Damascus, but still there has
been a time, there was a time when we were apprehended, when
he came to us. When he sought us out, when he
found us, and when he spoke to us, he said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. Yes. I want you to look at his
account. Now he gives his account of what
happened that day on the road to Damascus three times in the
book of Acts. I want you to look in chapter
26 of Acts. as he tells King Agrippa what
happened that day in Acts chapter 26. And beginning with verse 13. At midday, O king, I saw in the
way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining
round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we
were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me. And remember, before we read
on here, the Lord spoke to Saul. There's no account, there's no
indication that the Lord spoke to any of those men who were
traveling with him. We see God's sovereign grace,
don't we? God's distinguishing grace. Whether
any of those men were ever called or not, we do not know. But the
Lord spoke to Saul. I heard a voice speaking unto
me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And I said, who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, which thou persecutest. But rise and
stand upon thy feet. For I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose. Here's God's purpose for Saul
of Tarsus. And everyone that God calls,
he's got a purpose for. He's got a purpose for your life.
Believers, our lives have a purpose. The reason there's so much discontent
in this world, and no doubt so many who take their own lives,
is because so many people are here and they don't have a purpose. They don't know why they're here.
They don't know how they got here, and they don't know where
they're going. So, I've appeared unto thee for
this purpose. And now he's going to tell him
the purpose for which he had called him, not only to salvation,
but to be a minister, to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus. Stand upon thy feet, for I have
appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a
witness. Now, a witness is someone who
can testify to something they've seen. If you're called to be
a witness in a court of law, and you were to say, well, I
think, well, we're not interested in what you think. What did you
see? Well, really, I couldn't see
because there was this car that passed in front of me. You can't
serve as a witness. You didn't see anything. Paul
saw the Lord. That's one of the requirements
to be an apostle, to see the risen Lord Jesus Christ. There are no apostles like there
were apostles, the 12 apostles today. He was a witness. He could testify and say, I know. This is not a doubt in my mind. There's no question, I know.
that that man who was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem
and laid in a tomb, he's alive. His body is not turned back to
dust or decaying somewhere. No, no. He's in glory. He could witness to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Witness both of these things
which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear
unto thee. We, the Lord willing, we will
observe the Lord's table this Sunday evening. We always look
at that passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And it begins, for
I delivered unto you, brethren, that which I received. He received. instructions concerning
the Lord's table from the Lord, from the Lord. That's what he's
saying here, and much more we could speak about. Delivering thee from the people.
Now, the people here, of course, refers to the Jews, the nation
of Israel. Delivering you from the people,
and the Gentiles, unto whom now I send you. Now, just a few minutes
ago, I said that your experience is just like the Apostle Paul's
experience if you've been saved. Notice what he says, to open,
the first thing, to open their eyes. We come into this world,
our eyes are spiritually blind. We can't understand the things
of God. We cannot perceive the things
of God. Our eyes have to be opened. Who
does that? God does. God does to open their
eyes. But he uses the instrument of
the gospel, doesn't he? Paul, you're sent forth as a
minister to preach the gospel, to open the eyes, to turn them
from darkness to light. Turn, that's conversion. Right
about turn. We're walking this way and we're
walking towards Hell full of rebellion, hatred of God, and
hating others. And God turns us around. We're converted. Now we're headed
toward heaven. You see, as I said, our experience
is just like Paul's was and like those to whom he would minister.
From the power of Satan, we were captives. in the strong man armed. We were in his palace and he
keeps his goods in peace. And the only way anyone gets
out of the control of the strong man, Satan, someone stronger
than him must come upon him and loose the prisoner. And that
stronger than Satan is Christ. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. that they may receive forgiveness
of sins. Our sins are gone. They're gone,
forgiveness of sins. And notice the next thing, an
inheritance. An inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in me. Now call our attention
especially to that word inheritance. Every child of God, that is apprehended
now is an heir, an heir to an inheritance. All who believe
the gospel are sanctified, as that scripture there says. We're
set apart by faith in Christ. We've been apprehended and we
have an inheritance. Now, if you look back to our
text, What is the believer's inheritance? What is your inheritance? What's my inheritance tonight? Do we ever think about our inheritance?
I hope we do. What is it? Well, it's glory,
eternal glory. It's heaven. It's to be one day
in a glorified body and soul, removed or saved from the power
of sin and also the very presence of sin. It is, our inheritance
is, as the Apostle Paul said, to forever be with the Lord. That's it. To forever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort ye one another
with these words. Oh, what a comfort it is, isn't
it? To have such an inheritance. Now back in our text, This is
what the apostle means here in verse 11, by the resurrection
of the dead. If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. Now Paul knew, Paul knew
beyond a shadow of a doubt that all men are going to be raised.
The lost are going to be raised, the saved are going to be raised,
but it was the resurrection of the dead unto eternal life. That is, having a body that is
glorified, united with the soul. When a believer dies, over these
last 2,000 years, or more than that actually, 6,000 years, every
child of God, just like Elijah was caught up, taken up to heaven
in that chariot of fire, so God sends his angels and escorts
his children, their soul, our spirits, right into the very
presence of God. What happens to our body? It
decays. It turns back to the dust. But
Paul was called to an inheritance which includes the resurrection
of the body of every believer, reunited, a glorified body, yes,
a body like unto his glorious body. He had not yet. This is what
he means when he says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. He hadn't received his inheritance
yet. And I believe the apostle Paul
wrote this to warn these Christians, to warn those early believers
and to warn us today to refute false teachers and to refute
the idea or the teaching, the lie that a believer can live
in this world apart from sin, that you can become so sanctified,
you can so progress in sanctification according to them, some of them,
that you can move out of Romans chapter seven into Romans chapter
eight, that you are without sin, live without sin. Paul said,
I have not yet attained, That's the reason I pointed out to us
this man was a man that had been saved for a number of years who
was suffering at that particular time in prison for the gospel's
sake. A man that God used to write
over almost half of the New Testament. And he tells us, not as though
I have already attained, not as though I had already attained,
no. Still in the future. when Paul
wrote this. And it's still in the future
for you and I. That day when we will not only
be with Christ, but be like Christ in every way. He had not reached
that place. And these false teachers would
come in. That's the reason he said in
the beginning of the chapter, beware of dogs. He's not talking
about dogs like we think of domesticated animals. He's talking about false
teachers, dogs. They come in and they destroy
and they teach false doctrine and divide, cause division and
cause God's children to lose the comfort and joy of their
salvation by this false teaching of what they call Christian perfectionism. Oh no, Paul said, here I am. I count not myself to have apprehended. So that's his confession. Now
second, his determination to forget those things which are
behind. And as I looked at these words
the last day or two, I could not help but notice things, to
forget those things which are behind. He didn't say to forget
those people. Oh, no. In fact, in Hebrews 13,
he said, be not forgetful to entertain strangers and remember
them that are in bonds, those that are suffering in prison
for the gospel's sake. No, to forget those things, those
things which are behind. Now, we might think that it was
his sins. that it was his sins that he
had committed before he was apprehended, before he was converted, before
he was saved, that he determined to forget. You know, one of the
promises of God in the new covenant is that he will not remember
our sins and iniquities. Some believers have said, you
know, we, we live our lives trying to forget what God will not remember. And that's true. But there's
a purpose. There's a reason why we don't
forget those sins and why sometimes they come up in our minds. Paul, he's not talking about
forgetting those sins that he had committed in unbelief. In
1 Timothy 1, he mentioned some of those sins. He said, before
I was a blasphemer. Before I was a persecutor. He
didn't forget that, and that's not what he's talking about.
God allows believers, I'm convinced of this, God allows believers
to remember their past sins, of which they've been forgiven,
of which those sins have been put under the blood, and they
are removed as far as the east is from the west from the believer,
and yet the believer remembers those sins sometimes, not all
of them, but sometimes they come up. in your mind. And I believe
there's two reasons. Number one, to humble us. To
humble us and keep us looking to Christ. I needed Christ when
I first looked to him, and I need him today. And if I live until
tomorrow, I need to be looking to Christ tomorrow. To humble
us, to cause us to recognize that we are still Guilty of many
things. Some things we don't even recognize. There are sins of ignorance according
to the law. Sins that we commit we're not
even aware of. You say, well, are we guilty
of those things? Sure we are. If you, if the policeman,
if you're driving along the street and the policeman pulls you over,
you're doing 50 miles an hour and he tells you this is a 25
mile an hour speed zone here. And you say, oh, well, I thought
it, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I'm ignorant
of that. Oh, well, that's okay then. No,
it doesn't work that way, does it? Ignorance of the law. There are sins that we commit,
we don't, and especially preachers and teachers. If any man be a
teacher, the scripture says, in James. We, because we speak
a lot. Preacher's Day, we talk a lot. And you know, this tongue, it
gets us probably in more trouble than any other member of our
body, doesn't it? Sins of the tongue, lying, evil speaking. You say, well,
I thought when you were saved, all that was in the past. Would
to God it was, but you know it's not. That's our desire. That's our attempt, isn't it?
How many times have you, in your heart at least, said, Lord, I'm
never going to do that again. I'll never be guilty of that
again. And before you knew it, you were guilty again. Right? I know. To keep us humble, to
keep us looking to Christ. And number two, to magnify God's
amazing grace. Sometimes we forget that word
amazing. We talk about grace, we love
grace, unmerited favor, but let's not forget just how amazing God's
grace is to save sinners like us. How amazing is his grace. What then were the things that
he was determined to forget, forgetting those things which
are behind. It was all that God had used
him to do, that God had blessed him and used him to do in preaching
the gospel. Men had been saved, churches
had been established, the word of God had been written, forgetting
all those things, forgetting all those things. Apart from the grace of God,
all those things will cause a person to be filled with pride. You
say, well, Paul, do you mean preacher that Paul could be guilty
of pride? He said he was. When he was caught
up into the third heaven, he saw things and heard things and
he came back and he said, so that I would not be guilty of
pride. What happened? God. Gave him a thorn in the
flesh, didn't he? What was that for? To keep him
from pride. Yes, forgetting those things. All of these things could, but
for the grace of God, cause him to be filled with pride, forgetting
those things. And then the third thing, the
commitment. I pressed toward the mark. Now
I mentioned the framework of the passage is that of a race.
of a runner in a race. In a race, there's a finish line,
and that's what he means here by the word mark. I press toward
the mark. I press toward the finish line. We can all see how foolish it
would be. You see these runners, they're
all lined up there in their station, and they shoot the gun, and they
take off in one He runs about halfway, and then he stops and
turns around and looks back. How foolish that would be, right?
To look back. No, he said, I'm not looking
back. I'm forgetting those things which are behind. I'm pressing
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling which is
in Christ Jesus. He presses. Notice that word,
press, in verse, 14, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling. I don't just sit down and say,
well, once saved, always saved. I don't just sit down on my laurels
and say, well, I've served the Lord now for 30 years or 20 years
or let someone else, let the younger people do it now. No,
no, I press toward the mark. And when I think of him saying
I press, we've all seen these runners in a race and sometimes
just a nose determines a winner, right? Just the length of the
nose. And what are they doing? They're pressing, they're extending
the upper part of their bodies as far out as they can to try
to break that ribbon first. Press toward the mark. This is a picture that Paul paints
here for all those who have received this high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. We're never to sit down satisfied
with our knowledge. Some of you, thank the Lord that
God's taught you, but are you satisfied with the knowledge
you have of Christ, of God, of his word? Are you sad? No, we press toward the mark.
There's more, there's more. We sang that hymn close to the
just a few minutes ago. That's our desire, isn't it?
Close to the. Now, if the dates that I mentioned
at the beginning are correct, this would mean for Paul, another
six or seven years and pressing toward the mark, pressing toward
the prize. The prize, of course, being the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, Paul said, would give
unto him, and not to him only, but unto all them who love his
appearing. Well, I pray the Lord would challenge
each one of us tonight. Encourage us and comfort us. Charge us. We may have a day
left in our life. We may have 10 years. We may
have 30 years. We don't know. But let's not
be guilty of setting down. Let's be engaged. Let's serve
the Lord. If God be God, let's serve him. If Baal be Baal, let's serve
Baal. We know who the Lord is. Let's serve him. Let's give it
our all by the grace of God. Amen? forgetting those things
which are behind. Let's press on, press on toward
the mark. All right, Bill, if you will,
lead us in a hand.