Graspng for Glory

Bibles in turn to the book of
Philippians. We find ourselves once again
in chapter three. Philippians chapter three is
where we’ll spend our time this morning. The to me, fascinating consideration
of this passage is that the context for the illustrations, the images
that Paul brings throughout this whole passage, are almost the same context that
we’ve had this past week, that is the Olympics. Paul has in
mind probably some of the earliest Olympic games in mind in the
course of these passages. And so even as we witnessed in
many different ways these great competitions, Paul has some of
that same imagery in mind as he brings this great passage
before us. Again, I want to set the context,
and so in order to do so, we’ve got to go all the way back to
verse two, even though we’ll be spending our time in great
measure in verses 12 through 14 this morning. Go with me,
if you would, to verse two. Beware of the dogs. Beware of
the evil workers. Beware of the false circumcision. For we are the true circumcision
who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus
and put no confidence in the flesh. Although I myself might
have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to
put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise the eighth
day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor
of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless.
But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted
as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things
to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count
them but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and may be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law,
but having that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which comes from God on the basis of faith. that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to
the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained
it or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that
I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself
as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus. Paul began that great and grave
section with a warning of false teachers, anyone who would add
to Christ, to the special and precious blessing that Christ
was in His fullness, everything that we needed. And to add to
Him makes one akin to a dog, an evil worker. One of the false
circumcision. Paul goes on to point out what
the true marks of Christianity are. What are the marks of those
who really and truly know God? It’s not a mark of the flesh,
as some were arguing. It is those whose devotional
service is completely and divinely actuated. We are the ones who
worship in the Spirit of God. It’s the Spirit of God flowing
through us that issues forth devotional works, not just a
worship service, but an act of worship that carries through
and touches our entire life. He goes on to point out that
their ground of boasting is divinely oriented there in verse three,
they glory in Christ Jesus. And their trust, likewise, is
divinely refocused. They put no confidence in the
flesh. They don’t add to it. They don’t bring anything else
to attend to Christ. They simply stand alone. They’ve
cast everything aside, everything into the sea, as we saw Paul
intimate there in the following verses. Paul cast it all in the
sea. All of those things that stood
in some sense, as benefits to him. The rituals, the upbringing,
the heritage, the background, the adherence to God’s law. Paul
heaved it all into the sea for one thing, that he might gain
Christ. That was his one desire. To lay
hold of Christ and to hold to any of these other things was
to lose Christ and to lose him forever. And so the argument might be
made that Paul has gained Christ. His one desire was to be found
in Him, to gain Christ, to know Him and to attain to the resurrection
from the dead. And we saw that in the form of
that verb, it talks about something future. Something that is, in
a sense, already and not yet at the same time. They are certainly
beyond promises. They are guarantees for the Christian.
But Paul couldn’t fully say that he knew Christ and had gained
Christ and had experienced the resurrection in fullness. But
he’s pressing on. There’s a very real danger. that
having come to know those things, having heard of the promises
that are in Christ, having begun to experience some of those things,
the real threat is to sit back and rest and to just wait for
God to bring it all to us. It’s a real threat, isn’t it? We are to grasp for glory. We
are to put out sustained and maximum effort in our pursuit
of heaven. And that is the likeness that
Paul has to the Olympic Games here, even in this passage. In
this past week, perhaps some of you have seen some of the
dramatic moments. If you’ve missed the Phelps thing,
you’ve got to, maybe you’ve got to buy the 2995 CD that they
offered only minutes after he touched the wall. But here you
have, I mean, well trained and seasoned athletes. putting out
every ounce of energy in a very brief race, coming down in an
absolute compelling moment, stretching forth, reaching towards the wall
and one touches one one hundredth of a second before the other. What they’re reaching forth and
stretching toward is a little gold medal. I did my homework. Somebody wondered. what the worth was of a gold
medal. One wrote Olympic gold medals
vary from year to year, but generally weigh approximately 250 grams. They’re not actually pure gold.
I wonder if that would change the pace of the race. They’re
not actually pure gold, but rather silver coated in no less than
six grams of gold, giving them an actual makeup of 244 grams
of silver and six grams of gold. At current gold and silver prices,
August of 2008, this means the actual value of the gold and
silver making up an Olympic gold medal is approximately $300.
And for that, an athlete will give his maximum effort. And
now, mind you, I know that what is involved is much more than
a medal. It’s what the medal symbolizes.
It is the fact that they are champion of the world, at least
for that moment. The point is that an athlete
in that moment, in whatever discipline he’s pursuing, gives he or she
maximum effort, everything they’ve got. We watched another situation
where runners came into the stadium and literally limping their way
after a 26 mile race. And the amazing thing about it
is no one was chasing them. They just were running. The only
reason I run is if someone’s chasing me. Here comes someone
into the stadium, literally limping. What would make somebody run
a 26 mile race and limp their way around the track one more
time? Sustained maximum effort. And
the image that Paul uses, he says, here you have athletes
giving sustained maximum effort, everything that the human body
can give, maxing it out. And it should, he says, be true
of the Christian life. The question is, is it? Because
for centuries, really, we have battled the issue of perfectionism where
almost immediately upon bursting onto the scene, Christianity
in some circles went astray. People’s application of Christianity
went astray. And there were those that said,
because we are now in Christ, we are perfect. We are sinless.
We don’t need God’s law. We just simply exist and God
courses His will through us. And the error exists down to
this day. There are those churches, those
denominations that hold to some degree of perfectionism that
we just inherently reach by being in Christ, that we are made perfect
in Christ. And that is the error that Paul
is seeking to attack now. He had already attacked the issue
of legalism. And there were probably those
legalists that felt like Paul previously did, that by mere
adherence to the law, they had achieved some level of perfectionism.
But this is another group. This goes beyond even what they
were advancing. These are those that profess
Christ and profess to rest in Christ so completely that effort
was almost nonexistent. And Paul said it can’t be that
way. There must be Christ and there must be effort. We are
to be grasping. For glory, we are to be yearning
and reaching out, stretching forth with everything that is
in us, working and and giving everything in our hearts and
lives to the pursuit of heaven. And if you would, Paul just lays
out a simple argument here for guiding aspects. Of the Christians
race towards heaven, there are four things that are going to
guide us in our course, our race course towards heaven. First
of all, we are guided by our efforts, corrective. It’s one
thing to be busy. I used to work with a guy who
he walked so exceedingly fast, no matter where he went, he walked
fast. Whatever he did, he shuffled
his papers fast. And for the life of me, I watched
the guy for almost two years. I had no idea anything that he
ever really accomplished. You know people like that. They’re
busy, but you don’t know what they’re busy doing. They’re active.
They’re putting forth some kind of effort. But you have no idea
what or even why. Paul gives a corrective to this
effort. It’s not supposed to be nonexistent.
We’re not supposed to, as Christians, having come to Christ, put our
feet up on the footstool and wait for glory. Neither are we
to work as if we were working our way to heaven. And so Paul
issues forth the corrective there in verse 12 when he says, not
that I have already obtained it or have become perfect. This is Paul talking, this is
the greatest evangelist, the greatest and arguably the greatest
apostle. wrote the grand majority of the
entire New Testament. And he says, I have not already
obtained it, I have not become perfect. We will come face to face with
the antinomians in verse 18 and 19, those who really seem to
set aside any effort and lived however they wanted to live because
they were already in Christ. But if you would, forecasting
this particular passage of Scripture, you can see that what it does
is teach and attack this idea of this self-righteous perfectionism. Certainly that the Pharisees
and the Judaists were advancing this attempt to bring these religious
rites alongside of Christ and to add to Christianity. There was no self-righteous perfectionism
for Paul. implying that in some sense he
had already made it his own or that he was already perfect.
It also attacks a kind of a self-sufficient semi perfectionism where to some
degree he was already perfect. Paul was very conscious of this
not yet perspective of scripture, and
yet he didn’t settle into a sinful self-satisfaction. It wasn’t
like Paul was good enough. And for many Christians, I would
say for most of us, that’s our mindset. I’m already in Christ
and kind of right now is good enough. If Christ came back right
now, you know, Christ knows and God knows me and God will, you
know, I’m thankful he grades on a curve. And I think somewhere
I’m in the midst of that bell. But the third thing that it attacks
is probably the most common with what one termed an indolent imperfectionism that settles in completely into
this self-satisfaction that says Christ has accomplished it all.
Kind of a let go and let God approach that really gives almost
no effort. towards the development of their
Christianity, towards the pursuit of Christ likeness, towards the
aggressive eradication of sin in their lives, towards the heartfelt
pursuit of virtue and grace. One said it this way, there was
a hazard. That recoils from formalism might be into moral in that,
pardon me, that a recoil from formalism might be into moral
indifference and indolence. The precious truth that believers
are complete in Christ being turned by the wicked ingenuity
of the carnal heart into an instrument of religious sloth, and I would
tell you that’s where most Christians are. Their heart has told them
they’re in Christ already and they can just sit back and be
fat and happy and wait for the rapture. Worse still, he goes
on, it might be made even to a direct incitement to sin. And
there were in apostolic times, as probably all ages of the church
since, persons who thus abused the doctrines of grace. And that
certainly is worse. Not that I have already obtained
it. Paul says, speaking of the prize, the crown of accomplished
glory, I haven’t gained it. I don’t possess it. It’s not
sitting on my mantelpiece. I don’t take it out occasionally,
dust it off, polish it up, put it on, wear it around the house
and act like I’m already there in the kingdom. The antinomians Paul will go
on would go on to represent the Christian is already there at
the goal. We’ve already achieved everything.
We’ve already gotten everything we need. And so duty and responsibility,
the call to press on and to give effort are all set aside because
we have everything in Christ. Paul says. I’ve gained Christ. There’s no doubt. I have the
righteousness of God. We talked about it last week.
I know the Lord. As he talked about his great
desire was to know the Lord intimately and fully. Paul certainly spoke
of his power, the power of the resurrection. But Paul, knowing
the humbleness that was becoming of any saint, And the watchfulness that must
also attend that humbleness saw the Christian life as a process.
The outcome was to be one of ever moving along, ever plodding
along, ever reaching forth, ever grasping for that gold, for that
glory. Conclusion cannot be drawn by
the Christian that we have in some sense been perfected, that
we’ve some sense plateaued or reached some level of perfection. We have not already obtained
it. I’ve seen numerous examples of this in sport. The most famous
was a guy named Leon Lett, right? Picked up a ball and headed for
the end zone, the opposite end zone, defensive player. began
to gloat and glory and celebrate far too early. And some other
guy came and knocked the ball out of his hand at the two yard
line. I mean, it’s an infamous play. The guy never lived it
down. To this day, anybody who knows
football, you mentioned Leon Lett, they know what you’re talking
about. We haven’t arrived and neither had he. The tortoise
and the hare. You want another simple illustration
for the children? The tortoise and the hare. The
tortoise kept plodding along. Meanwhile, the hare kicked back,
took a nap and the tortoise passed him by. The hare became arrogant, the hare
believed that he had already run the race and had already
won the race and neither were true. Paul says, not only have
I not obtained it or nor have I become perfect, And the perfection
that he’s talking about there is moral and spiritual perfection.
It certainly is the goal. Paul talks about it repeatedly
in his epistles. Paul prayed for the Ephesians
that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, Ephesians
3, 17, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able
to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length
and height and depth? And to know the love of Christ
would surpass His knowledge, that you may be filled up to
all the fullness of God. That was the goal. But Paul didn’t
tell the Ephesians, this is what you have. Go home, be warmed,
be filled. You’ve got all that you need.
Colossians 1.28, which verse is one of the guiding verses
for my ministry and for this church. We proclaim Him. admonishing every man and teaching
every man and women and children, teaching every man with all wisdom
so that we may present every man complete in Christ, which
implies that currently speaking, we are incomplete, including
me. We’re not perfect. We haven’t achieved some level
of perfection on this earth. Not even close. That’s not going
to happen until this life on earth is over and we go to glory. And that is the testimony of
Scripture. Hebrews 12, 23, to the General
Assembly and church, the first born who are enrolled in heaven
and of God, the judge of all and to all the spirits of the
righteous made perfect. That speaks of something entirely
future. We are in the process of being
made perfect. That’s the goal, but we’re far from there. Paul says that, look, he hadn’t
come to a place in his Christian life where growth in spiritual
maturity had been some way accomplished in full. He hadn’t been there. Where there’s no more room for
growth, no more room for development, no more room for chastening,
no more room for confession and growth in grace. Paul wasn’t
there. And if Paul wasn’t there, neither
are we. And that’s Paul’s point. One said it this way, perfection
has not been reached. The work of grace has not been
carried through to the end. Paul has not arrived at the stage
where what is perfect sets in. By perfection, he apparently
does not mean the glorification which follows hereafter. This
is where most people have gone wrong in this passage of Paul
merely says, hey, look, I’m not in heaven yet. No, because there
were people living in the church of Philippi and in that environment
that claimed that they had already reached the level of perfection,
even though they weren’t in Philippi or in heaven. They’re in heaven,
they’re in Philippi, they’re not in heaven. Paul goes on to point out to
them that in spite of the rich blessings that were in Christ,
he knew that he wasn’t perfect. His knowledge of Christ was still
incomplete. He had longings, even as we saw
in that previous passage, to know Christ even more fully.
The righteousness of Christ had been imputed to Paul. And even
still, he knew that deep in his heart, he needed to cleanse himself
from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Paul knew that he
had the power of God working in and through him. And even
still, he was weak at appropriating that power. Paul goes on in other
places to say that he didn’t even know how to pray as he should
pray. Paul was incomplete, but he was a Christian. Paul was
fully in Christ and yet not fully completed in Christ. Paul was absolutely certain of
one thing in particular here. That he had not completely closed
the gap and gotten a hold of that whole moral and spiritual
resurrection that lifts us out of. sin and deadness and sin
and the struggle against sin and fear and doubt. The bottom
line is believers don’t reach any level of perfection here
on this life. Jesus, in teaching the the disciples
to pray, said forgive us our debts also as we have forgiven
our debtors, implying that we have sin that needs to be forgiven
every day. Oftentimes we pray for mercy,
which in and of itself presumes sin. When we receive mercy, which
is new every morning, it’s new every morning because the need
of mercy is new every morning because we continue to sin. 1 John 1 8 says, if we say that
we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not
in us. There’s no sinless perfection.
Not in this life, not in this earth. Paul knew it so well that
almost the entire chapter of chapter seven of the book of
Romans speaks to this very issue. Paul said this in Romans 7 14,
and we know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh sold into bondage
to sin. What I’m doing, I do not understand,
for I am not practicing what I’d like to do, but I’m doing
the very thing that I hate. There were some that saw this
as so incongruous with the Christian life that Paul had to have been
speaking of his previous life. Paul’s talking about the ongoing
battle that we have with sin. We haven’t reached some spiritual
perfectionism. He goes on and says, but if I
do the very thing that I do not want to do, I agree with the
law confessing that the law is good. So now no longer am I the
one doing it, that sin which dwells in me, for I know that
nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for the willing
is present in me. But the doing of the good is
not. That’s us, isn’t it? One Puritan said it this way,
the holiness of a Christian is imperfect so long as he is on
the earth. You and I, brethren, know ourselves
to be very far from having reached entire conformity in heart and
life to the will of our Heavenly Father. Others, perhaps, may
not see a very marked defect in us. We’re pretty good at dressing
up the outside, he says. We’re pretty good at coming to
church and for at least an hour, hour and a half, if you stay
for Sunday school, two and a half hours of being and looking and
acting like a Christian. We’re pretty good at it. That’s
what he says. Others may not see a very marked
defect in us. We may be habitually characterized
by purity, sobriety, uprightness, patience, benevolence. You know,
don’t we begin to just sit up in our chairs and smile that
that’s what people think of us. We may be diligent in availing
ourselves of the public and private means of grace. We go to church. We have our quiet times. We may be actively engaged in
efforts to extend the Redeemer’s kingdom. We are the most zealous
evangelist that we know. We may hear at times with cheering
distinctness the witness of the spirit with our hearts that we
are children of God. Yet, trying ourselves by the
standard which God has given us in the character of his son,
we find every day abundant cause to acknowledge sin. Sometimes
candid self-examination makes us almost despond. That’s where
we really live, isn’t it? That’s where we really are. We
know that we’ve come to Christ. We believe it with all of our
hearts. If we could go back and say the prayer all over again,
we’d do it. We don’t doubt the facts of the
gospel, but we know our hearts. We know our lives. We know the
dark and deep secrets of our lives. We know our attitudes,
things that are even unspoken that would mortify our fellow
Christians. We’re not perfect, but you didn’t
need me to tell you that. I said there were four guiding
aspects for the Christians race towards heaven. We are guided
by our efforts corrective there in verse 12. We are also guided
by the goal. Look at the passage again, not
that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect,
but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which
I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. I press on. The word is
a simple one that just means to pursue or follow after. But
it is an intense word and strenuous effort is implied in here. The
athletic metaphor is seen in full. Not only is the race not
finished, but I’m still paddling like crazy. That word was often used by Paul
without a specific reference, but striving after blessings
and virtues of the Christian life is the most frequent use. Romans 9 31 9 30 and 31, it’s
used. What should we say then? Gentile
pardon me. What should we say then that
the Gentiles who did not pursue actively, strenuously reach after
righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which
is by faith. Romans 14, 19, Paul used it again
there. So then we pursue, we follow
hard after, we earnestly reach for the things which make for
peace and the building up of one another. That’s that maximum
effort that’s seen there clearly in that verse. First Corinthians
14, 1. I told you it was a favorite word of Paul. 1 Corinthians 14,
1, pursue love, earnestly reach and strive to excel at loving
and caring practically for your Christian brethren. Earnestly
pursue love, yet earnestly, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. First Thessalonians 5 15 see
that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek
after earnestly pursue, yearn, strive with everything in you.
For that which is good for one another and for all people, this
pursuit isn’t just a grasping in the darkness, it’s not a random
thing, it’s not undefined. It’s not conducted without any
intensity of passion or desire. It’s just like those Olympic
athletes reaching with everything in them for the wall. Because
the gold medal is in view, the Olympic championship is there
for their taking if they would only reach, if they could only
out-touch their opponent. That’s the very same image. Paul had zealously pursued the
law of righteousness, as we saw, as a son of Israel. But now he
was pursuing this righteousness of faith with an even greater
zeal. He says, it’s got to be everything within me. It was
everything in me. Why not? It was everything in
me as a heathen, as one that professed to know God and love
God, was zealous for His law. Why shouldn’t I be all that much
more zealous as a Christian? There’s no way that there was
any room for indolence with Paul. Sloth. Laziness. A casual indifference. Some kind of complacency that
had set in. No way. Not for Paul. I press
on. Paul was completely dependent
upon God’s power working in his life and yet he described the
Christian life as labor and striving. Colossians 1.29 Remember, he told Timothy, fight
the good fight of faith. He even claimed it of himself
at the end of his ministry. I have fought the good fight.
He considered it a fight. He considered it strenuous, vigorous
effort on the Christians behalf, not something that we rest back
and wait for Jesus to bring us because he loves us. Acts 20, 24. Acts 20, 24, Paul
said it this way, I do not consider my life of any account as dear
to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which
I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel
of the grace of God. It’s everything that I’ve got
in this ministry to which he’s called us. 1 Corinthians 9, 24,
same thought. Do you not know that those who
run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in
such a way that you may win. See, there’s your justification
for how you play Monopoly, men. Paul says, look, this Christian
life to which we’ve been called is a race that we are supposed
to purpose to win. We’re supposed to purpose to
have influence and impact in our world. We’re supposed to
accomplish things and we’re supposed to grow in grace. We’re supposed
to be what God has designed us to be. And it’s never going to
happen by just sitting back and waiting for it. Paul goes on
and says, everyone who competes in the games, exercises, self-control
and all things, they’re all athletes. They’re all good. You know, the
sad thing is to watch, you know, number four or number eight walk
away from the contest. They’re eighth in the world.
I mean, how sad can they possibly be? Everyone who competes in
the games exercises self-control in all things. Then they do it
to receive a They do it then to receive a perishable wreath,
but we an imperishable. It’s the same image as the passage
before us. He says that, you know, look,
they’re going after a wreath. They’re going after a gold medal
and they’re putting everything they’ve got into it. And Christian,
will you not do the same? Are you not going to pray and
serve and study As if all depends on you. Paul
did. Therefore, he says, I run in
such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating
the air. These are all the images from
the games. I run in such a way as not without
aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air. In other words,
he says, if I’m in a boxing match, I’m going to hit the guy right
on the nose. I’m going to play to win. But I discipline my body
and I make it my slave so that after I have preached to others,
I myself will not be disqualified. Paul put forth the utmost exertion
in striving for this prize. Look at verse 12 again. Because
Paul didn’t just say, I press on in some kind of blindly. I
press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I
was laid hold of by Christ. Paul, as you recall, was literally
nabbed by God on the road to Damascus. That’s the language
that he uses right here. He was seized, arrested, if you
will, apprehended. Paul speaks of his conversion. He speaks of a sudden supernatural
seizing by God. Not just that Paul gradually,
you know, over a period of years, entertained Christianity and
studied Christianity and gradually was led from Judaism to Christianity
and one day had a, you know, some kind of a meeting and formalized
it with some solemn occasion. That’s not how Paul came to Christ.
It was sudden, it was overwhelming, it was a seizure. The divine grace, said one, in Paul’s
conversion is the moving power of his Christian development.
The very fact that he was seized by God makes Paul want to reach
out and seize what is there for him to take. The fulfillment
of the ideal contemplated by Christ when he transformed him
from a persecutor to an apostle is the very goal which invites
him. His desires to grasp that for which he has been grasped
by Christ, literally a seizure. Paul then presses on to grasp
hold with that very overwhelming thought that’s there.
A graphic thought that Christ had grabbed hold of him in the
hour of his conversion for the very purpose that as he put Paul
on the path to faith and obedience, Paul might reach the goal and
the prize and grasp hold of glory itself. It’s a very graphic passage. We’ll take it up there next Lord’s
Day. But the question that I want
to leave us with, if you watch the Olympics or
you can even get the spirit of the Olympic contest from the
passages that we’ve read, 1 Corinthians 9, 24, Philippians chapter three,
verse 12 and following. Does that describe your life
with regards to zeal, with regards to the effort that you’re putting
forth in the prosecution of becoming more and more Christlike? Do
you wake up earnestly desiring to live for Christ and to serve
Christ and to seek Christ, to serve His people, to know His
Word, to eradicate anything that isn’t of Christ from your life
and to build into it that which is? Is that your desire? It should
be. Let’s pray. Our God, You are so merciful
because we are so sinful. Lord God, how a saint, one touched
by the grace of Christ, could ever sit back and become complacent in their
Christianity is insensible. based on what we’ve read, and
yet we know that it is so commonplace. We live such a casual Christian
life if we live it at all. And Lord, we pray that you would
take hold, that you would even seize our own hearts, that you
would grab hold of us by means of this great passage, that you
would change our hearts as you changed Paul’s from one of complacency
to one of absolute passion in the pursuit of Christ likeness
and eternal glory. Grant us that grace, Father,
as we examine our hearts. We pray these things in Jesus
name. Amen.