Well, I want you take God's Word and I want
you to turn with me to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3, and today I want to
look at verses 12 through 14 with you. The title that has been assigned to me is
"Pressing On." And in Philippians 3 beginning at verse 14,
I want to first read the text that we're going to…that we will be digging into. And this is God's inspired, inerrant, and
infallible Word. The Apostle Paul writes, "Not that I have
already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so 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." There are many pictures that are used in the
Bible that represent what it is to be a believer in Jesus Christ. A picture is worth a thousand words, and there
are many different pictures of what it is to be a believer in Jesus Christ that are
found in Scripture. For example, among these pictures, it is said
that we're like a soldier fighting the good fight, that we're like a farmer sowing the
good seed. We're like a student being discipled and taught
by our master teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're like a branch abiding in the true vine,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and drawing up everything that we need from the all-sufficiency of Christ. That we are like a bride, the very object
of the affection and love and devotion of our groom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many other such metaphors and
analogies that are used in the Scripture to picture represent what the Christian life
is like. Other metaphors would include we're a citizen
belonging to a kingdom and living under the laws of that kingdom. And we're like a son and a daughter, a part
of the family of God, etc. And what we have in these verses, verses 12
through 14, is one of the most prominent metaphors used in the New Testament. It is that you and I, as believers in Jesus
Christ, are like an athlete. We are like a runner who is running a race. And I've never been a farmer, I've never been
a soldier, I've never been a branch, I've never been a bride. Stop that. But I've been an athlete, and I know what
that looks like and feels like and smells like. And athletics is a universal language. And every one of us here today, whether you've
been an athlete or whether you've not been an athlete, nevertheless you know what that
looks like to be a runner and to run the race that is set before you, in which the start
is the new birth, in which the track is the will of God, the rules are the Word of God,
the requirement is obedience to those rules from the heart, the progress is spiritual
growth, and the prize is at the end of the race, which is Jesus Christ Himself, being
conformed fully into His image and being with Him forever. This is precisely how Paul represents what
it is to be a believer. And as Paul writes these verses, he does it
in an autobiographical way, as he uses himself as the teaching tool to instruct us in what
it is to live the Christian life. A couple of years ago, one of the major seminaries
in the United States surveyed the students upon their graduation. And after four years of being taught systematic
theology, Greek, Hebrew, exegesis, Bible exposition, practical ministry, they were asked this one
question, "What is the one thing that was most lacking in your education?" And again and again the answer that was turned
in was simply this, "How do I live the Christian life?" With all of this knowledge, and with all of
this truth, and with all of this information, there was still a struggle to know how do
I put this into practice, and how do I live this? And I think to some extent, we all want a
clear focus on, "How do I live the Christian life?" Well, what we have in these verses is one
major picture, one cut of the diamond that could be rotated, and all these different
metaphors represent some different aspect of how to live the Christian life. But what we find in this text is a very important
contribution. So as we look at these verses, verses 12 throughout
14, there are four main headings that I want to set before you. This should be very easy to track and follow
with me, no pun intended. So, I want you to note first, as we start
to look at verse 12, number 1, "Paul made a sober assessment." He made a sober assessment and he writes,
to begin verse 12, "Not that I have already obtained it." And so we must ask the question, what is the
antecedent to "it"? What is the "it" that he has not yet obtained? And we go back to verse 10, which Stephen
Nichols expounded for us in the last session, "That I might know Christ fully, and that
the power of His resurrection might be fully realized in my life, and that I might be fully
conformed to His death." That is what he realizes that he has not yet
obtained unto. He has not yet fully emptied himself like
Christ emptied Himself when he laid aside his prerogatives as God to assume the form
of a bondservant in chapter 2 verse :7, "I've not yet emptied myself of self yet like Christ
did. I've not yet humbled myself to the lowest
degree like Christ did when He left the heights of heaven and came down into this world." And he realizes, "I have not yet attained
unto the obedience unto death, as Jesus did when He went to the cross," Philippians 2
verse :8. And so what Paul is saying here is, "I haven't
arrived yet. I'm not there yet. I'm still in process." And this is an amazing statement to come from
one who was an apostle, one who Christ Himself was the evangelist on the road to Damascus,
who knocked him off his high horse. The Apostle Paul that we would arguably say
is the greatest Christian who ever lived, right? And Paul, the greatest Christian says, "I
have not attained it. I'm not there yet." And if it was true for Paul, how much more
so is it true for me and for you that we're nowhere near where we need to be in our Christian
growth and development? There's still so much more of Christ that
we must experience in our own personal lives. And then he gives a second denial and he says,
"or have already become perfect." He says, "I certainly have not hit that mark
yet." And the reason he says "perfect" is because
Paul once thought he was blameless before God, and that really refers us back a few
verses earlier in chapter 3, in verses 5 and 6. Because Paul, as he says at the end of verse
6, "I'm blameless before the law." He was so self-deceived as a Pharisee, he
thought he had arrived with God. He thought he was a spiritual elitist and
that he had surpassed everyone else in Israel. It says in verse 5, you'll note in chapter
3, Paul said he was circumcised the eighth day, he had the right beginning. That he was of the nation Israel, he had the
right nationality. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, he had the
right family pedigree. He was a Hebrew of Hebrew, you can't be any
more Hebrew than that. He had the right upbringing. As to the law, a Pharisee;; he had the right
standard. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church,, he
had the right passion. As to the righteousness which is in the law,
found blameless. He had the right morality. Paul had assumed that he had arrived as a
Pharisee until he met the standard, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was no longer comparing himself with
someone else in Israel who was a little bit behind him in his Phariseeism. Now in this moment when he met Christ, he
compared himself to Christ and his only conclusion was, "I am the chief of sinners," that he
had fallen far short. And so Paul, as he's now living his Christian
life, Paul now realizes, "I've only just begun the race. I've only just begun to become more like Jesus
Christ, and there is so much more yet for me to grow into and to experience in my life." And this is where you and I are here today. None of us have arrived. None of us should be on a spiritual plateau. None of us can sit back and be content with
where I am right now. There is still so much more of Jesus Christ
for us to follow, for us to emulate, for us to trust, for us to believe, for us to become
like, and that is what Paul is saying. And if Paul says it, how much more so is this
needed in my life. So, this is what Paul says first. He gave a sober assessment. He was not self-deceived. He was not caught up in the accolades that
others would give to him. His standard was Jesus Christ, and he realized
how far he fell short. But I want you to note second, as we are in
the middle of verse 12, I want you to note, "Paul gave a strenuous effort," because when
Paul realized how much ground he must make up in becoming like Christ, it motivated him
to reach out all the more to become like his Savior. So he writes in verse 12, "But I press on." Just stop right there. For Paul to press on, it's a Greek word that
literally means to move rapidly and decisively after an object. To run after swiftly, in order to catch another
person. I used to run track, and I know what that's
like to have another runner out ahead of me and the baton to be put into my hand, and
now that motivates me to run faster than even if I had the lead, I'm going to catch this
person no matter what before I hand off the baton to the next runner. And that's what Paul is feeling here, as he
knows that Christ is so far yet out ahead of him he says that "I press on." Interesting enough, it's the very same word
that's used in verse six6, just to bring this to your attention, where it says he was a
persecutor of the church. A persecutor is someone who runs after Christians
in order to apprehend them and lay hold of them and drag them before the tribunal, just
like Stephen when he was stoned to death. And so what Paul once was running after Christians
to persecute them, once he was converted, it was a 180. God totally turned his life around, and Paul
is still running full tilt, but he's running in another direction. Now, he's running after Christ. Now, he wants to catch up with Christ and
be as much like Christ as he can possibly be. We've got to love this about Paul. Paul was always going full tilt in his life. Even when he was going in the wrong direction,
he was running full tilt. But now that he's met Christ and his life
has been turned around on the road to Damascus, that same energy and zeal, now fueled by the
Holy Spirit of God and this vision of who Christ is, he is now running as fast as his
spiritual legs will take him after Christ. Paul pictures himself as a runner, widening
his stride in prayer and pumping his arms in the study of Scripture. He's accelerating his legs in worship. He's pushing out his chest in ministry. He's expending every ounce of energy within
him, making every effort to press on to spiritual maturity, laboring to the point of exhaustion
in his spiritual life, holding back nothing, leaving it all on the track of life. How this should motivate us and stir our soul
to keep pace with Paul, as Paul is pursuing the person of Jesus Christ. And then he tells us why at the end of verse
12. He writes, "So that," which introduces an
explanation, "So that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ
Jesus." Now, let me give you the cause-and-effect
here at the end of verse 12. The cause actually comes last; the effect
is stated before the cause. The cause is that Paul was laid hold of by
Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus sought him, Jesus found
him, Jesus ran him down. Paul wasn't looking for Jesus. Paul was running after Christians to persecute
them. And the Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ,
appeared to Paul and ran him down and laid hold of Paul and sovereignly apprehended him,
and subpoenaed him, and brought him into the kingdom of heaven. Paul now says, "I want to lay hold of Christ
like He once laid hold of me. Jesus was so powerful and so full of dynamic
in his pursuit of me, I must now give my whole life and effort to run after the One who ran
after me that I may apprehend and lay hold of the knowledge of Christ, and of fellowship
with Christ." What I want you to note, there's nothing passive
here about the Christian life. There's no "let go and let God." Selah. Just pause and meditate on that. There's no sitting back and waiting for something
to happen in his life. There's no dismissal of obedience. There's no downplaying of his personal responsibility. There's no antinomianism here. There's no just looking back to his justification
and just kind of staring at his spiritual navel in a just pacifistic state. No, Paul is running with all of the strength
that God would give to him to run after and pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life requires of each and every
one of us an all-out effort in spiritual disciplines and in living the Christian life Let me give you some verses. 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24, using this same
athletic metaphor Paul writes, "Run in such a way that you may win." Don't be a loser,, be a winner. Run in such a way that you may win. Run, don't sit. Run, don't shuffle. Run! And then he says, "I run in such a way as
not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air." And in verse 27 he says, "I discipline my
body and make it my slave." Did you hear that? You know what an athlete does? An athlete tells his body what to do. An athlete tells his body when to wake up,
what to eat, when to work out, when to go to sleep. He's not sitting back just waiting for a feeling. I played college football. They told me when I would wake up, they told
me when I would go to sleep, they told me when I was to show up for practice. They told me when I was to show up for training. That's the way an athlete lives his life. This is the way a Christian lives his life,
with this all-out pursuit of Christ. We read we must resist temptation. We must flee immorality. We must fight the good fight. We must be diligent to present ourselves as
a workman, who needs not to be ashamed. We must discipline ourselves for the purpose
of godliness. We must labor and strive. Those two Greek words, labor and strive, 1
Timothy 4 verse :10, the word "labor" means to push yourself to the point of exhaustion
that you have no energy left, as if they just have to carry you off the field, that you've
given your all in the pursuit of this. And the word for "strive" is agonizomai. Do you hear the word "agonize" in that Greek
word? This is part of what it is to live the Christian
life. We must work out our salvation in fear and
trembling, Philippians 2 verse :12. We must pray without ceasing. We must cry out for the pure milk of the Word. These are all active verbs that are incumbent
upon us, and many of these are in the imperative mood, meaning it is a divine command to us
to pick up our pace, to widen our stride, to press on in this pursuit of Christ likeness. I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you, as I would motivate
and challenge myself to discipline yourself for godliness. And When Paul said, "I buffet my body,." hHe did not say, "I buffet my body." We must buffet our body and make it our slave
and bring our life into submission and subjection in spiritual disciplines like Bible study
and Bible reading and prayer and the worship corporately and individually, and fellowship,
and ministry, and evangelism, and missions. These are all a part of running the race that
God has for us. I want you to note, third, in verse 13. This is so important. "Paul maintained a singular focus," a singular
focus. A great runner must keep his eyes on the prize. So notice what Paul says, "Brethren," and
when he says "Brethren," it's as if he's wanting to almost just grab them by the lapel and
pull them up. It's a way to speak into their lives in a
very emphatic and direct way. And Paul is, as it were, he's leaning forward
as he addresses this to us, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it
yet." Here, he's repeating what he said in verse
12. And the "it" again refers to the full knowledge
of Christ. Remember 2 Peter 3:18, it says that we are
to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we've only had a thimble of the ocean
to this point. There is so much more of Christ for us to
know and for us to experience that this "it" refers to complete conformity to Christ. There is so much more of Christ that must
be present in my life, in my attitudes, in my actions, in my reactions, in my speech,
in my priorities, all of this. I'm not there yet. And you're not there yet. He says, "I do not regard." This word "regard" is a very interesting Greek
word. I'm going to pronounce it because you can
hear the English word in it, logizomai, logarithms, logic. Paul i is doing the math. Paul is calculating this. This is not an emotional reaction. This isn't Paul just being melancholy. This is Paul having made very careful calculation
about who Christ is and where he is in his own spiritual life. And Paul is saying, in a very sane, realistic,
self-diagnosis of his own spiritual life. He said, "I do not regard myself as having
laid hold of it yet." But I love what follows, "But one thing,"
one thing I do. Not two things. Not three things. There's only one thing on my agenda. Everything else takes a distant second. There is one thing that rises to the top that
dominates my life, one supreme goal, one highest priority, one overriding ambition that demands
my full and undivided attention, that demands my total concentration, this one thing. And you'll also find it interesting, the two
words "I do" are not in the original text. They are just supplied by the English translators
so that it'll read more smoothly in our English Bible. But as Paul wrote this he just said, "But
one thing." It's even more direct and emphatic – -- one
thing. So, what is this one thing? Well, he tells us. There's a negative and a positive. That's what a master teacher does, negative
denial, positive assertion. So here he begins with the negative, and then
he'll move to the positive. Notice what he says, here's the negative,
"Forgetting," and that verb means to put out your mind. "Forgetting what lies behind." Now in this metaphor of the athlete who is
running the race of faith, any runner knows that you can't run to the most effective ability
if you're looking behind you. Whenever I see an NFL football game or a college
football game, sometimes I'll see a receiver catch a pass, and he's going to make it to
the end zone, but then he looks back over his shoulder, over his shoulder pads at the
defense back that' is pursuing him, and it actually shortens his stride, and it slows
down his running, and inevitably he gets pushed out of bounds. You can't look back if you're going to run
as fast as you can possibly run, and that is what Paul is saying here. And what would he be looking back to? Past sins, past failures, past tragedies,
past hurts, past defeats, past victories. You know, some of the things that trip us
up the most and slow us up the most are not our defeats, but our victories, because then
we began to cruise, and then we began to slow down, and then we begin to stop pushing and
stretching for the finish line. Listen, Jesus said in Luke 9 in verse 62,
"No one after putting his hand to the plow, looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." There is no rearview mirror as we run the
race. We cannot be looking back. And some of us here today need to let things
in the past go and stop carrying that around. It's over. Put it under the blood of Christ. Confess whatever sin there is and by the grace
of God, forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead. And so, this leads to the positive, and you'll
see it at the end of verse 13, "Not only forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what
lies ahead." Now, "reaching forward" is one word in the
original language, and it's a very interesting word. The middle…the root means "to stretch." And there's not just one, but there's two
prefixes used as prefixes in front of the main verb, which is like a double intensification
of this the stretch, and the word, these two prefixes are "out" and "upon," out and upon. And so, reaching forward, most literally out
of the original language, simply means "to stretch out," as if to lay your hand upon
stretching as far as you can ahead of you. That's the idea here that you're holding nothing
back, that you are stretching out to the limits in your pursuit of Jesus Christ and to know
Him and to become like Him and to walk with Him and to run with Him. It is straining every spiritual muscle in
your life. Now I know some here today, when they hear
this, may be thinking, "Oh, this is just too much for me." Well, then that's why God brought you here
today to hear this. You believe in providence, don't you? I'm here, you're here, this is the text. We all need to be more highly motivated and
better disciplined in our Christian lives and not be so content with where we are and
what I know at this moment. There is so much more. And Paul is not sitting back, Paul is forgetting
what lies behind. I mean, he's forgetting everything in verses
5 and 6. He's forgetting that they laid the robes at
his feet when they stoned Stephen to death. I mean, he could have gone into all kinds,
"Oh, I need Christian therapy to get over this." No, "I'm forgetting it, and I'm reaching forward
to what lies ahead," and what lies ahead is the greatest prize, is the greatest treasure,
is the greatest thing that there could possibly be, Jesus Christ Himself is who lies ahead. So how does this speak to you today, where
you are in your Christian life? What do you need to let go? What baggage do you just need to discard? What past failures? What past sins? How do you need to reach forward with greater
effort in your spiritual life? How do you need to pick up the pace? How do you need to better discipline yourself,
the use of your time for maximum return in the Christian life? This what Paul is calling for here. The last thing that I want you to see is verse
14. And I want you to note that "Paul kept a swift
pace." Beginning in verse 14 Paul says, "I press
on." Now, he already said that in verse 12. So to repeat it in verse 14 is to underscore
it in our minds and in our thinking, "I press on." Remember, it means "to run swiftly in order
to catch a person." I want you to know that this is in the present
tense, meaning, "I am always pressing on." This isn't just a Sunday morning thing. This isn't just a Thursday morning men's Bible
study. This isn't just a Thursday afternoon ladies'
fellowship group. This is every moment of every day. Paul is continually pressing on. I, it's in the active voice, which means Paul
bears the personal responsibility to make the choice under the direction of God the
Holy Spirit to press on. For Paul, there's no slowing down. He is only picking up his speed as he is running
the race. Now please note, "toward the goal," and I
just have to bring this to your attention, this preposition "toward" is a preposition
that actually means down, kata. It means "down," and the idea is that Paul
is bearing down toward the goal, t. That there is an intensity about Paul toward
the goal, and the goal simply means a mark or a target. And Paul has, he has a goal fixed before his
eyes with singleness of focus toward the goal, and he layers this out for the prize. And this prize is what motivated Paul. A prize is what motivates an athlete. We just moved from…about three years ago
from where I pastored for 20 years and have moved to Dallas, and we had through the garage
and go through the attic, and there were all of those trophies – -- football, basketball,
track. I still had the baton that I ran with. I still had the socks that I wore. It just got better over the years in my mind. And I was so motivated. And there was my letter jackets. There were just all of the plaques and everything
that had been presented to me. And I want you know, it motivated me. I'm willing to say it appealed to my flesh,
but it was a powerful motivation to compete at the highest level that I possibly could. I didn't want to be just sitting out in the
student body. I wanted my name to be called out. I wanted the prize to be given to me. I wanted to be called up on the platform and
to receive. It was a motive…it was a fire that was burning
within me. Well, Paul has a far greater motivation. It is a motivation to win the prize, to reach
the goal. And he tells us what it is. It's at the end of the race. He says that the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. Now Paul has already been called to Christ
on the earth. This is a call to Christ in heaven. This upward call, as he will be pulled up
into heaven at the time of his death or at the time of Christ's return, and for Paul
it would be the time of his death. And as he comes to the end of his life he
can just, as it were, see the finish line in front of him. And there he sees at the finish line, as it
were, in his heart and in his mind the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is pulling him forward, and it is empowering
him by the Spirit of God within him to keep on keeping on, and to not let anything slow
him down, and to overcome whatever other obstacles are in his path. When Paul receives this upward call, he is
determined that he will not be shuffling down the track. He will not be sitting on the bench. He will not be a spectator in the stands. He will be on the track, and he wi'll be running
faster than he has ever run in his life at the time this upward call of God in Christ
comes, and the prize is Christ. The treasure is Christ. To enter into the fullness of a relationship
with Christ that he has already begun when he started the race, when he was born again,
but now to enter in to the very presence of Christ and to be made into His likeness and
to know Him with a greater height and depth and breadth and length than he has ever known
Christ before. And now to know that I'll spend all eternity
with Christ, and it will have made every sacrifice and every discipline worthwhile as he now
enters in to the prize. So as I bring this to conclusion, let me just
ask you these personal questions. Are you in the race of faith? Have you been born again? Have you been birthed into the family of God
by the Spirit of God? And as you are in the race, if you're in the
race, are you pressing on? Are you forgetting what lies behind? Do you have a singular focus upon what lies
ahead? And are you reaching out to the fullness of
the extent of your reach of faith to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ? There is no greater joy and pleasure in life
than to make…be making this advancement as you mature and develop in your faith. But be certain, it will require maximum effort
fueled by the Holy Spirit to reach that for which God has prepared for you. As my father came to the end of his life,
it was very difficult to see him decline as he did. And my father was a believer, and he led me
to Christ when I was a young boy. I began to give him books on Reformed theology. I gave him R.C. Sproul's book What is Reformed Theology? It lit him up. It fueled the fire within his soul. I gave him a Reformation Study Bible. He loved it. And I remember the last time I was ever with
him on a Sunday, he's literally on his deathbed, we're just in the den, we're just going to
stay there, and suddenly the door from his bedroom opens and my father, who could not
even get out of bed to go to the restroom by himself, comes walking through that door
with coat and tie on and a Bible under his arm and says, "We're going to church." I love that, sprinting to the finish, chest
out, knees pumping, arms moving, pressing, pressing on, reading his Bible. Anytime anyone ever came over to the house,
they were forced to listen to my sermons. He did, he'd make everyone watch them, listen
to them, witness however he could for the glory of God. I have those books, and I see how they're
marked up. I see how they're underlined. I see how they're highlighted, pressing on
to the finish. May you press on to the finish. And at the end of your race, may you be running
stronger for Christ than at any time you have ever lived the Christian life. And like I told you last night, you're not
going to retire, you're going to re-fire as you serve the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank You for bringing
us into this race. We need all of the truth that is represented
in this athletic metaphor. Lord, we must forget what lies behind. We must reach forward to what lies ahead. We must press on in our Christian growth and
development. We must use all of the spiritual disciplines
that are required of us. So Father, for my brothers and sisters here
today, I pray that you will take them to the next level of Christian growth and maturity. I pray that even in these few hours, there
will be more octane in their tank, that there will be more wind in their sails, and as they
would go back to their places where they live and where they serve and where they worship,
may there be a genuine impact that has come into their lives. Father, I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ,
who is the prize. In His name, amen.
