Transcript

How would your describe, or what are the marks of a mature believer. A mature believer. Well, Paul let’s us in on that as we continue our study through the book of Philippians. Would you turn there with me. Philippians 3. Paul shares his heart, unveils himself as I believe no where else in the scripture. And may I say that we are coming to a text today that is going to slice your flesh all to pieces. It is going to cut through all the stuff and get down to the core of what we really are as a child of God. It is one of the wonderful problems that you have preaching expository sermons, you cannot pass over these texts. Everybody knows it if you do. But let’s look at the heart of the apostle Paul as he uses his own testimony to give us a description of what it means to be a mature believer.

Philippians 3:10-16 “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 upwards call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by this same standard to which we have attained.”

First of all Paul points out that the mature believer has the passion to know Christ and to become like Christ. The passion of his life is to know Christ and to be like Christ. Now notice it here as he, as he begins in verse 10. First of all he says, That I may know Him. The Greek construction here means here an experiential knowledge. It is not just know him as my Savior. Paul says, I want to know him. I want to be intimate with him. I want to fellowship with him. The old song says, he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. That is what Paul is talking about. Knowing him. The passion of the life of the apostle Paul was not missing hell and going to heaven, the passion of his life was knowing the Son of God. And that is the passion of the mature believer. If our religions is just, just on the level of I, I, want Jesus, because I want to miss hell, my friend, you are still back in the nursery, you are still taking your pacifier, you are still playing with the ABC blocks. The mature believer is far above that. He wants to know Christ, experientially.

Now let me break this down. First of all he says in verse 10 he says I want to know him in his glory. That’s what he means in verse 10 when he says, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” The power of his resurrection. All Paul is saying there is I want to know him in his glorified state. Paul says, I remember seeing him as he was human, while he was veiled, in, in human flesh, and he therefore denied himself some of his divine prerogatives, he did not share his glory while on planet earth. But Paul says, I long to know him in his glory. I long to be like him in his glorified state. And of course, that gives a great assurance. Because once we are glorified then we have assurance of everlasting life. And down here we have the hope of everlasting life, we know it is so, we know that if we are saved, we are, we are going to live eternally with him. But folks, once you get glorified, either by, by the door of death, or either by the rapture, and we meet Jesus in the air, once you are glorified then you know you have everlasting life. But not only that, then you know you have victory over sin. Because once you are glorified, you lose the old body of the flesh, and that is your problem today, it is your old flesh. That is your problem, that is causing you all your problem. It is not your brother, it is not your sister, it is not your boss. It is not society, it is not even Hillary Clinton, your problem is your flesh. That is our problem. The greatest joy of the child of God is to get the old sinful flesh purged away and get our new glorified body. That is what we are looking forward to. Listen, you are your own worst enemy. It is the old flesh. It drags us down. And when we are living in the flesh, we may be faithful in church, but when we come into church dragging our ball and chain and flop that old ball and chain down, I mean, we are in bondage. Paul says, man I want to know him, in the power of his resurrection, I want to know the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to have my glorified body.

In Romans 8:23 he wrote to the church at Rome and said, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. And, isn’t that a neat way to phrase it. We ourselves groan within our selves. Waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of the body. Paul says the mature believer goes around with a groaning within to be changed up, up, to where he really ought to be. You see, right now I am in Christ, positionally I am glorified in Christ right now, but practically I am not there yet. I am still, still encompassed about by this temporal, mortal, defiled flesh, this body. It holds me back. But he says, man, I am groaning for that when I can have the redemption of my body and I can be glorified like Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:12 he says, for indeed in this house, that means this body, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Paul says, I have a passion to know him and to be like him in his glory. Let me ask you something friend, is that a desire of your heart. Do you have day in and day out, a longing, burden, passion of soul, that says, oh Christ could I be like you and be near you? If not, you are a baby believer. Mature believer has that passion.

But not only that it is broader and bigger than that. Notice also in verse 10, not only know him in his glory, he says, I want to know him in Gethsemane. I want to know him in Gethsemane. Look at it there in verse 10. “That I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.” In Gethsemane our Lord surrendered fully to the suffering that was his as he obeyed the will of his Father. Now Gethsemane was not the pinnacle of his suffering, but it was the turning point where he fully surrendered to say Father, whatever your will is, that is fine with me. And that meant immense suffering. When Jesus was there in the garden, he never sinned. But we do know in his humanity he went to God and said, Father, I pray that you would let this cup pass from me, Father, I pray that this going to the cross, if there is some way I can honor you and please you and not go to the cross, I pray the cup would pass. But then he said, not my will but thy will be done. And the Bible says, he dropped, drops of sweat, and it was as blood, blood pouring out of the pores of his skin because of the agony, intensity, and the suffering he was about to enter in upon. And the apostle Paul said that I know that my whole consuming passion is to be with Christ, to be near Christ, to know Christ and to be like Christ. Now listen. As I am near Christ and as I am like Christ, I know with that comes suffering. And I am ready for that. That’s why Paul said the fellowship of his suffering.

My friend, listen, Jesus is holy, and he came to an unholy world, and the unholy world hated him. And if you are like Christ, you are going to live holy and the unholy world is going to hate you. Jesus is righteous and the unrighteous world hated him. And if you are going to be righteous like Christ, the unrighteous world is going to hate you too. So to say I want to know him, I want to be with him, I want to be like him means you welcome the suffering that comes for following Jesus Christ. It is just a part of the package. Paul understood that. Paul didn’t go out with some sort of martyrdom syndrome. He just recognized and understood as I follow Jesus I am going against the grain of this world, there will be suffering. The thing that Jesus had such an ability to walk through that I struggle with is the misunderstandings of people. They don’t understand you. Folks, they are not plugged into where you are plugged in. I mean, they are screwed on a different bolt, they think, they think a different way, so very often the will look at what you do and what you say and where you go and how you do it and they will misperceive what you are all about. And say things about you that are not true. Folks, that is part of the suffering. Of following Jesus Christ. But the mature believer says I long to be like him and I welcome the suffering that comes form following my dear Lord.

In Colossians 1:24 Paul wrote to the church of Colossae and he said, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church. In filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s affliction. Now he is not saying that Jesus didn’t atone for our sins on the cross, he is simply saying as God works out his plan for the church, there are those particularly in leadership who have to continue to suffer in this world to get God’s work accomplished. And my friend, that goes for all of us. The mature believer welcomes the Gethsemanes of his life. Where he say, Father it would be much easier to go along with the current and the flow of this world, but not my will, but thine will be done, if I have to go against the current, face the suffering, so be it, hallelujah, I welcome fellowship in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the mature believer.

He says, not only do I want to know him in his glory, I want to know him in his Gethsemane. Let me just share with you another text, and our time is short, but I want you to hear this text. As a matter of fact, look over there with me. Look to Luke 6, would you do that? Luke 6. Jesus is going to look to his followers during his earthly ministry and give them a lesson on suffering and on living for him in this world. Luke 6, beginning in verse 20. “And turning his gaze on his disciples, he began to say, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Now, now, I don’t know if he is totally talking about actual financial poverty, but the point is, you who are my disciples are following me and you don’t fit into this world, you are poor in this world’s eyes, you don’t run with the crowd of this world, you don’t do the things that perhaps would get you ahead. You are poor, but you are rich in heaven, you are rich toward me. And he said, I want you to know you are on the right track. Blessed means good, you are doing well. It’s is a picture of suffering.

Luke 6:21. “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.” And in this day there were those who simply for following Christ would not have enough to eat. That was part of their suffering. But Jesus said, you are doing well, well off, blessed, well off. You may hunger in this temporal world, but you will be fed for eternity. And the others may be fed in this world, but they will go hungry for eternity. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” My friend, as you walk through this world and you see this whole world system going against the things of God, and you look and say, I don’t like the way this world is going, I weep over the way this world is going. I weep over the things they say is good, and that they say is right and that they say is the proper way to approach life. I am against that, I am for Christ. I weep now. But Christ said, that is okay, you are doing well, you are right on track, blessed, well off. Because you are going to laugh one day for all eternity. You will have joy then. Luke 6:22, “blessed are you, well off are you, when men hate you and ostracize you and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.” Who are you to assume that you can spend this lifetime and never be hated and follow Jesus. Folks, it is a part of the program. It is a part of the process. You live for Christ. You love him. You have a passion to be near him, you have a passion to be like him, you will be hated and who are you to exempt from this part of discipleship? I told you this cuts through the flesh.

Luke 6:23. “Be glad in that day.” What day? Well, when they hate you, when they ostracize, when they cast insults at you, when they spurn your name as evil. He, when they do all that, Luke 6:23, “be glad in that day and leap for joy. For behold your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.” Jesus says, go all the way back to the Old Testament chronicles and you will find that every person who stood for God was treated the same way. Folks, listen, you didn’t sign up with Jesus to be popular in this world. You didn’t sign on with Jesus Christ so you could get ahead in this world. If you have and you are, you are grossly and badly mistaken. And I’ve got a word for you. You need to grow up. Take something as silly and normal as a high school boy joining the football team. I remember those days. I am a real has been. And I remember folks suffering out there for the sake of the team. We had some coaches fresh out of college who thought the more they hurt you, the better you would be. It is amazing to me that I would willfully join up as a high school football player and take the suffering. But hoards of folks come to Christ and want some sort of watered down, compromising Christianity that has no suffering in it, none. We simply don’t have that option.

Luke 6:24. “But woe to you who are rich.” Now he doesn’t meant that exhaustively. He means those that don’t love Jesus and they place their passion on the things of this world. They live for the things of this world, they are rich in this world. “For you are receiving your comfort in full.” Folks, listen, listen, those who do evil, those who go their own way, those who compromise, those who do not have a passion for God, they may be very, very comfortable in this life, while those who try to honor Christ, those who live for him, those who want to be near him and those who want to be like him look miserable. Verse 25, “woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets.” About every week of my life I hear myself compared to another preacher, and how that other preacher is more this and more that. And I happen to know a lot of things about some of those other preachers. But I just have to remember, Jesus said, woe to you when all men speak well of you. I wish you was like that other preacher down there, he really cares, he is really loving. Why, why, he is not so dogmatic, and he’s not so hard, and he is not so whatever. Woe to you when all men speak well of you. I want to tell you, the pastor that is on a kick to be popular in the community is not worth sitting and listening to. He is not, he is not. He doesn’t love Christ enough and love you enough to share with you the word of God in its honesty and straightforwardness and in truth, and here is the other thing, a lot of churches will let you get up there and rave and shout and scream and holler, they will say, oh, we believe the book, we want to stand on the book, we want the preaching of the book, but you start implementing standards and programs in the church based on the book. Amen. Come on, are you with me. You start getting some standards for deacons and for pastor’s councils, and for teachers, got to come to visitation, you start basing the programs and the ministries of the church on the book, and all of a sudden, now wait a minute preacher, we want you to holler and scream about it but we didn’t really thing we were suppose to live this stuff. Amen? (Laughter, I am telling you.) Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets. I don’t know how we have survived in this community as long as we have with people liking us as well as they do. I really don’t. And I believe if you hang with us for the next five or ten years, the way things are drifting, there is going to become a much, much clearer dividing line. Those of you that are pussy-footing around and playing games and not serious about loving Jesus and being like Jesus, you are not going to make it with us. You are not going to make it. You are going to fall away. You are going to have every high sounding, emotionally based, intellectually discerned, rationally figured out reasoning for what you do, you won’t make it. Only those who love Jesus are going to walk the line.

Well, Paul says, my passion is to know him and to be like him in his glory, but also he mentions suffering. That is to know him and be like him in Gethsemane. But then lastly he says, I want to know him and be like him in his death and I call that Golgotha. Turn to Philippians 3 again and look there with me. His Golgotha experience. He says, I want to know him and be like him in his experience of death. In verse 10 he says there “that I may know him in the power of his resurrection,” that is knowing him in his glory. “And the fellowship of his sufferings,” that is knowing him in Gethsemane. “And being conformed to his death,” that is knowing him in his death. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and he says in 2 Corinthians 4:10, “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” You know what he is saying. Just as our Lord died to his will, just as our Lord died to his rights, my friend, you realize he is the God of glory, he is the darling of heaven, he is Lord God Almighty, who died to all those rightful divine prerogatives and allowed them to hang him on a cross, spit in his face, pull out his beard, punch him in the face, put a spear in his side. He died to his rights, so that he might do what was best for us and what was fitting in the will of the Father. And Paul says in the same way, I want to walk in that death. I want to live a daily life of dying to my rights. Dying to whatever prerogatives and privileges and so called things that are suppose to be mine, I die to those that I might live for him.

Galatians 2:20 he says, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The mature believer lives a life of dying to self. He says, I always carry around the death of the Lord Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:31 he says, “I die daily. I die daily.” Child of God ought to never use the word rights. We have no rights. We have no rights. The only thing we have is a passion for God. Listen to me friend, as you die to yourself, you weep over this world, you are poor in this world, Jesus says, well off, blessed, you are on the right track. Listen, folks, eternity is for real. And all this down here is exceeding temporal. Eternity is forever. And we are anchored in up there. We, we’re living for the other life. They call it pie in the sky, by and by, well, I don’t care. That is just part of being ostracized, misunderstood, laughed at. I want those of you who are in professional circles to listen to me. You know, all of you that are running with the high-up, muckity-mucks of society. You listen to me. You live for Jesus, you of all of us are going to be the most ostracized, the most criticized, the most misunderstood. Because the Bible teaches the more people have of this world, the smarter they think they are without God. Now I challenge you to grow up in Jesus and live for Jesus and take the suffering as a man of God. Go on for God. Live for God, be true to Jesus Christ. And die daily.

Let’s go on and tie in the next verse, verse 11. Verse 11 says, “In order that,” in the New American Standard, the King James says, if by any means. The expression here means, well, let me just read it all. “In order that, or if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Now he is giving a summarizing statement here. What he means is, he is not expressing doubt, when he says, if by any means. He is not saying I doubt that I am going to attain the resurrection of the dead, he means, it, it it a statement not of doubt, but of humility. It is a modest hope. His point is, I am confident I am going to attain, one day I am going to have the glorified body, one day I am going to be perfect like my Lord, I am going to be with him, I am going to be like him, I know that is going to happen, but I know that all of it is provided by means outside of myself. That is why it is a modest hope, it is a humble hope. That is why he words it this way. He says, I know it is true. And it has nothing to do with me. Remember, last week, we just covered all that stuff. He said, look at all I’ve done, look at all I’ve been, all my religious works, all my advancements, all my qualifications, all my associations, all the things I’ve done, what did he say about them. He said that’s all rubbish, it is all cow manure. So now he says, I have hope, I am going to be perfected, I am going to be resurrected. It has nothing to do with me. Has nothing whatsoever to do with me.

Well, first of all Paul says something about the passion of the mature believer. His passion is to know him and be like him. To know him and to be like him. Paul is saying, I want to know experientially Christ, I want to be like him, and that should be our passion. Should we live for glory? Should we live for glory? Yes, but his glory. Should we live for comfort in this life? Yes, but the comfort of being near him. Should we live for pleasure in this life? Yes, but the pleasure of singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. Should we live for, for wealth in this life? Yes, but we are to be rich in faith. Should we live to amass treasure? Yes, treasure in heaven. That’s the mature believer. He has a passion to know him and to be like him.

Well, let me go to the second thing, we’ll just start it and we’ll just cut this thing off and then we will pick it up next Sunday. Alright. Secondly, not only does he show us his passion to know Christ and be like Christ, secondly he shows us the pursuit of knowing Christ and being like him. The pursuit. The chase of knowing him and being like him. We see this in verses 12 through 16. Notice first of all it is an unfinished pursuit. Look at it there in verse 12. He says, “Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect.” The word perfect here means absolute sinless perfection. Like Jesus. Paul says, I haven’t gotten there. And notice 13, the first phrase, verse 13. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as laying hold of it yet.” Laying hold means grasp it completely. Paul says, Paul says, it is an unfinished task, it is an unfinished pursuit. I am still trying to come to know him better, I am still trying to be closer to him, I am still trying to be like him. I hadn’t gotten there yet. Now listen. Now Paul says, I have reached a level of maturity, I have reached a level where this is the regular pursuit of my life, but to say I have obtained it, no I haven’t. I am in the race, but I don’t know him all that I want to know him yet. So Paul here shows us that he knows nothing of this sudden spiritual perfection by some kind of experience. As some of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters would teach. That you get zapped one day by the holy spirit and all of a sudden you are sinless. You are perfect, you don’t sin any more. Paul said, not me. I hadn’t gotten there. Paul says, the goal is still before me, it is an unfinished pursuit. I am still reaching toward it, I am still marching toward it, to know him and be like him.

In a small graveyard, at the foot of one of the great mountains in Switzerland, there is a little graveyard there, and there is the little grave. And it is the grave of a man who was killed climbing one of those mountains in Switzerland, it is a grave of an Englishman. And on that tombstone, it simply gives the man’s name, his date of birth, his date of death, and underneath that the caption reads, he died climbing. That’s what Paul is saying. I am heading for it. I hadn’t got there yet. But I am going for it, until the end. And then at the end I know I am going to be translated on to his glory and share his glory. It is an unfinished pursuit.

Not only that, notice it is an unfailing pursuit. An unfailing pursuit. Look at it there in verse 12 with me. Verse 12, let’s just read all of it. “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.” Now, this is an interesting thing. Paul says, I am reaching forward to get what Jesus saved to give me. I am reaching forward to get, now folks, we are not talking about salvation from hell right now. That is back at the ABC blocks, leave that stuff. Paul said, I am reaching for it, I am pressing on to get ahold of. To experience, to enjoy, what Jesus saved me for. In other words, Jesus, listen folks, Jesus saved us to make us a part of his glorified bride. Jesus saved us, the Bible said that he appointed 12 that they might be with him. Then that he might send them out to preach. Jesus saved us that we might be with him, in John 17, in his high priestly prayer, he prayed that we might share his glory. He saved us that we might be with him and that we might be like him. And Paul says, I know, I know that is going to happen, because Jesus saved me to make that happen, I am not fully experiencing that yet, but I am pressing forward in this earthly pilgrimage that I might enjoy all that he saved to give me. He says, an unfailing pursuit. In other words, Jesus is going to finish it all up, I just want to get in on as much of it as I can while I am here. I want to know as much of the God of glory as I can while I am here. I want to be as much like him as I can while I am here. I am not just going to wait until I die and get glorified. But I know it is going to happen. I am pressing on here. He is not discouraged, he is encouraged. He is keeping up the chase, I am heading for it. Conversion you see is just the beginning of the chase of knowing him and being like him.

Associated Press put out a story some time ago about a man who was sleepwalking in Pasadena, California. This guy sleepwalking with only his pajamas on and carrying an alarm clock set to go off at 6:00 a.m. The story ends with the statement, the police beat the clock in waking him. You know that is the way people are in this world today. They are not pressing on toward a sure goal. They are wandering around aimlessly, not knowing where they are going. Until the alarm clock of death wakens them to the reality of the God they should have been serving. Or before the alarm clock of death goes off, Jesus comes and awakens them and they are confronted at that point. But we don’t’ have to be that way. We have an unfailing pursuit, we are a part of something that is sure, we are going to be glorified one day, but let’s get in on some of it now, let’s get close to him now, not wait just till then.

But not only an unfinished pursuit, and unfailing pursuit, but notice also an undivided pursuit. An undivided pursuit. Look there at verse 13. “Brethren I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do.” God wants you to be a good businessman, woman, God wants you to be a good homemaker. God wants you to be a good professional, God wants you to be a good laborer. I don’t think the Lord minds if you are a good bass fisherman or a deer hunter, I try to do some of those things myself. But if someone were to characterize your life, would they say, you know what they do a lot of things, but there is one thing they really do. Undivided pursuit. There is one thing that life is all about. Is that the way your friends would describe you? There is one thing they are really all about. And that is knowing Jesus and being like Jesus. Now they haven’t arrived. Just like Paul. Remember. He said, I hadn’t got it yet. But you analyze my life, he said, that’s what you’ll find out. It is an undivided pursuit. But you know, most people waste their lives right here. A lot of us add Jesus on and he is one of the main three or four things we are doing. Satan has got you. He loves that stuff. Loves it. See most people waste their life because they give themselves to the wrong things, they give themselves for popularity, they give themselves for power, they give themselves for pleasure. A lot of people waste their life because they give themselves to too many things. Oh, they’ve got Jesus out there, he is one of four or five, three or four, whatever, things they are giving themselves to. Paul said, hey, when you look. Hey, Paul was a good tent maker. I bet Paul made some of the best tents there are. It is okay to be enterprising, successful, whatever. Paul said, man, when you look at my life, you’d have to say there is one thing I do. Undivided pursuit. Not divided in my pursuit in life. One thing that encompasses what I am, what I am all about, I want to know Jesus Christ. And I want to be like him. But then again this is only for the mature believer. This is only for the adult Christian.

Dr. Vance Havner tells a story of getting on a train one day when he was a young preacher boy. He says, I sat down on that train, I looked up and saw one of my mentors, the men that I admired so much, Dr. R. A. Torey. Dr. R. A. Torey was a lot older man, Dr. Vance Havner just a young preacher boy was so excited, but old R. A. Torey was sitting there, and Vance Havner said, as I looked at him, he had that face, he looked like a prophet of God out of the Old Testament. Dr. Havner said, I flipped up there and sat down by old Dr. Torey, and here I am just a young preacher, and Dr. Torey said, son, what are you doing. And Vance Havner said, I think I am going to try this a little bit and then I may go on to this ministry, and I think I may get over here in this ministry, and I may do that ministry. He said, Dr. Torey look at me and said, son, set your mind on something and get with it. Dr. Havner said, that is some of the best advice I ever got. Set your mind on something and get with it. And Dr. Havner writes in his book, Paul here is a one track man, but you can go a long way on one track. Some of you are tracking off in so many different directions and you are getting no where. My friend, on your death bed you will look back and say, God help me, why did I spread myself out and do so little for the glory of God. Paul said, there is one thing I do. I decided a long time ago when God called me into the ministry, there is two or three things I will do. I will preach the word of God, I will preach expositorily the word of God, I will be a soul winner, I will disciple leading men, I may get to other things, but I will do those things. Now folks, listen to me. I may or may not do a lot of things you want your pastor to do, but I commit to you, I will preach the word of God, I will try to win souls, and I will try to disciple a few men. And I believe if I say right, see, you need to set your mind on something and get with it. Get on a track and go. Go. How would your life be characterized. Would somebody looking at your life say, yeah, they are good at this, this instance, but there is one thing that they really do. They want to know Jesus. And they want to be like him. That’s the mature believer.

Well, lastly, let me just mention this and we’ll stop for this morning. Not only is it an unfinished pursuit. Paul said, I haven’t obtained it yet, but I do want to know him and be like him. I am pressing on. Not only that, but let me show you something else. I almost forgot this. Now I want you to see this. Look at verse 13 again, the last phrase there, he says, “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” Now what are the things that lie behind? We don’t’ know for sure. But I believe Paul is saying, all that stuff. The pursuit of wealth, the pursuit of power, the pursuit of popularity, the pursuit of the things of the world, I am forgetting all of that. And I am pressing forward to what lies ahead, the Lord Jesus Christ and being like him and sharing his glory and being in his kingdom for all eternity. Now, here when it says reaching forward, that is an interesting metaphor here. The last part of verse 13 he said, “I am reaching forward to what lies ahead.” It is the metaphor of a runner leaning forward at the finish line. I mean, man, he’s out there, man, that runner, have you seen those guys on TV? They are sprinting, and when they get toward, I don’t know how they stand up. They are leaning way out there, leaning over. I mean reaching for it, with all that they’ve got. I believe some of you are heading forward for God like this. That’s right. That is the opposite metaphor. Some of you are saying, yeah preacher, I want to go on for God, but then I am hanging on back here to this, I am hanging on to that. No, Paul said, listen, that is the immature believer. The mature believer is stretching way out. I mean, man, stretching way out for the glory of God. I want to know Jesus and I want to be like him. Reaching forward.

Well, he says, an unfinished pursuit, hadn’t got it. It is an unfailing pursuit. Jesus laid hold of me to give me his glory, because I know I am going to get it one day, but I want to keep on going. I am not going to fail at this, because Jesus is going to get me there one day. It is an undivided pursuit. He said, this one thing I do. But lastly, it is an unequaled pursuit. An unequalled pursuit. Look at verse 14. “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” When he says, I press on toward the goal, that means Jesus Christ. I am continually pressing on toward Jesus. What is the goal? Jesus. Now it is not to gain Jesus. It is not to win Jesus, it is to be near Jesus. You see, Jesus is contrary and contradictory to everything in your flesh and everything in this world. And it is quite a contest to constantly deny yourself, die to yourself, follow Jesus, take the suffering and draw near to him. I mean, everything in this world tells you, don’t go to Jesus. I mean, you listen to me holler and scream for about 40 minutes on a good morning, and then you go out there in the world for six more days and all the hours of all those days and it is pulling you the other direction. Paul says, man, I want to tell you, it is pulling me back. But he says, man, the goal is, the goal of the mature Christian, is God help me get all these old downward pulls off, I want to reach up to glory, hang on to Jesus, get close to Jesus and be like Jesus. Cause that is all that matters. That is all that matters.

Some of you men are pulled down, on you are pulled down, you are way down here. You are way down here hiding behind the flowers. You are way down here. And Paul said, I don’t want that to be, man, the goal is to get unleashed from the shackles of the world and draw near to Jesus. Draw near, I wonder how many mature believers we’ve got in this church. I mean, listen folks, Paul said, he hadn’t obtained it, I am not talking about obtain, how many mature choir members we’ve got. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there is a resonating passion in your heart, God help me let go of this world and draw near to the precious Lord Jesus. That is the mature believer. I tell you this stuff cuts down to the core of the old flesh. You know what your flesh is screaming at you right now. Oh goodness. You do that you will lose everything. If you do that you will be robbed of everything. Oh my goodness, that preacher, he is trying to rob you of everything. No, I am trying to get you in on everything. There is a man named Jack who was just saved, and one of Jack’s old running buddies came up to him and said, listen Jack, I hear you have given up all your pleasures. Jack says no, no, it is right the other way around. I’ve just found all my pleasures, I am just giving up all my follies. That is the way it is. It is an unequal pursuit, there is nothing like trying to get rid of the old shackles of the world and drawing near to the Lord Jesus.

You know, that is why you need church on Sunday morning, and you need Sunday school, and you need Sunday night, and you need Wednesday night. Because you know what happens? About the time you hit that door and turn on one of those rotten secular radio stations in your car, you shackle back up. Are you listening. You shackle back up. Then you go home and you turn on the rotten television station, and we watch muck and mire and we shackle back up some more. Then we go down to the work place and all of our old running buddies are down there that we hadn’t grown enough to become enough like Jesus to make them quit hanging around with us, come on, listen to me, and they still are comfortable around us, because we are about as carnal as they are, even though we know Jesus, and then we get around them and get their influence and their priorities and their philosophies back, and we shackle up again. And about the time Sunday morning comes in, it is about all you can do is get out of bed and get all those balls and chains and shackles and dragged and pulled down and get back in here and let me preach the shackles off of you again. It takes us getting with God, loving him, having our quiet time, on a daily, consistent basis. Listen, we need church every day. You need hard preaching every day of the week. You know it? You do. I do too. It is just, just a good thing I have to study this, because it beats the daylights out of me before I get it out to you. And I need it. And you need it. Because friend, listen to me, one day, one day when we stand at the judgement seat of Christ, and say oh God, I wasn’t all that I should have been, thank you that I had a church that laid out the word of God and beat them old shackles off of me, because now Jesus I can see what a fool I was to live for this world at all and not to live completely for you. Paul says, man, if the goal, the prize, is to get the old downward pull off and hang on to Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the ultimate prize is to know him and to be like him. You know, everyone, listen, everyone and everything I have ever looked to in my life has disappointed me. Did you know that? I’ve got as good a wife and little girls, and I love them so much, but every one and everything has disappointed me. Nothing is all that I thought it ought to be. Have you found that out. I mean, boy, I, I finally got a house, you know, I always wanted a nice home. Finally got the vehicles I wanted, and boy, I praise God for them, but, it never. You know, I .. out there sometimes and want to sit in from of that house and say do something for me. Some of you sitting right here, 50, 60, 70 years old, and haven’t even learned that lesson yet. Sitting there worshipping bank accounts and CDs and big homes and stuff. My gosh, grow up for the glory of God. Nothing wrong with having those things if they don’t control you. But I want, I want to ask you, is that your passion? Is that your goal, is that your heart? Grow up. Want to look at that house and say, do something for me. Everyone and everything in this life that I have ever looked to has disappointed me. Except Jesus. And since I have come to know him, he is intimately more than I could have ever imagined. I want to tell you folks, no matter what your old flesh is telling you, no matter how much the pull of the world says not, the real stuff is down here, I want to tell you, the prize, the grand glorious prize of the greatest of all is to know him and be like him. Let’s pray together.