Straining Toward the Goal

0:16Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast for Crossroads Bible Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Bible Church is a Reformed Confessional Baptist Church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church and for directions, you can find us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Turn to Philippians. Philippians chapter 3. We will read 12 through 4.1. But you can go ahead and start in Philippians 3, verse 12. I don't often use that heading in my Bible as the theme or the title of a sermon. I do try to be a little more original than that, but in this case, it is exactly what I was trying to say, which is straining toward the goal. Straining toward the goal. And this is a time of year where the world and often the church, where we have this mindset of goal setting, a desire to start over again. So it is appropriate to seek wisdom and encouragement from God's word as we move into this new calendar year and try to think biblically about each season of the year. Resolutions and those new habit trackers that you're all so fond of, but never complete. They weren't really a thing until very recently. This is a much more of a modern thing. In fact, many of our early church fathers encouraged the church not necessarily to abandon the Greco-Roman calendar, but to reorient time and patterns around a biblical-centric model. And we'll look at that a little bit as we go. And it makes sense when you consider that we are still in this dark, supposed to be cold season, at least on the northern hemisphere. So nothing is really new yet in that sense. The 12 days of Christmas that we like to celebrate have only just begun, really, on day four. And this is still a time of rest and reflection as we move into a new calendar year. I think even the idea of a fresh start is a bit antithetical, antithetical to the once-on-all forgiveness and justification that we have in Christ. It has a tendency to buy into that shallow and flighty perspective that we have to ritualistically recommit ourselves to Christ every year. Or every time we get a little sidetracked, as opposed to asking for and receiving his forgiveness once for all. Then a celebration of his birth, which we have done, and then a season of reflection and continued preparation and spiritual growth as we look forward to spring, to the culmination of Christ's work on the cross. Followed then by a life lived from that salvation that was secured for us. This is the model of the Christian year. It's the biblical model of the Christian life. So what are we to do this time of year then? What should we be doing this time of year? How should we be thinking to reorient time? From our text this morning in Philippians 3, I want to emphasize three things specifically if you're taking notes as we uh turn the calendar to a new year. And those three things are this the humility of our station. The humility of our station, the surrender of the past to the purpose of God, and living in light of what's to come. The humility of our station, the surrender of the past to the purpose of God, and living in light of what's to come. One final note. Next week, next week, next Sunday, we will begin a long journey through the book of Ephesians. I don't know how long it's going to take us. I don't have a specific plan, really, other than I have been steeping myself in the commentary and words on Ephesians from Martin Lloyd Jones. He wrote and preached almost 3,000 pages of sermons and commentary on Ephesians. So don't get your hopes up if you were that we're going to get through this quickly, because we're not likely. Just getting into even chapter one. There are some verses and then some sections of some verses and even some words in some sections and some verses that I can't even wrap my head around yet. So it's going to be the deepest, Lord willing, most profound journey that we've gone on. So I'm looking forward to it. But please prepare your hearts for that. And may the Lord even now begin to till up the soil of your heart to receive that word. Okay, that's all the introduction. Stand with me as we look at Philippians 3. Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus had just made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. But those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you, only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with mind set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for your word. We ask that you would help us, Lord, with eyes to see the truth that you have for us, Lord, and that we strain towards the goal for this prize that you have called us to, Lord. We thank you for Christ. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. Our text began then with the admission of our continued imperfections. This is the humility of our station, our continued imperfections. Verse 12, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. This is perhaps an anti-worldly perspective to take as you think about the new year, right? Cuts against the idea that you are great, that you are special, that you can do anything, or that this year the only thing that limits you is yourself. Paul so often, though, offers to us, in and through his epistles, a full and final assurance, doesn't he? A justification that is based solely on the will of God, according to the mercy and grace of God, a righteousness that has been given to us, an adoption that can never be taken from us, a sanctification and ultimately a glorification that is so sure because it is grounded in the person and work of Christ. But despite that, Paul continually returns to humility to say, I haven't arrived yet, though. I haven't arrived yet. I am not who I need to be, Paul says, or who I will be, but because Christ has made me his own. Because Christ was humiliated and suffered for me. I will, at the recognition of how unworthy I am before such a gracious and holy God, press on, that is, fight for the perfection that has been promised to me, to you in the gospel. Paul, as an apostle, as the most prolific and perhaps I would say fair to say, the hardest working apostle, denies that he has arrived or obtained anything for himself spiritually. This is a recognition of who we were, who we still are, who Christ is, and our pursuit of Christ-likeness. And there was something really interesting and informative in the Greek here in verse 12 that we do miss in the English, and this word is press on. He says, not that I'm already perfect, or sorry, not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on. This is the same word Paul uses elsewhere that we translate as persecute. This word press on in verse 12 is the same word that we translate elsewhere as persecute. Most notably, when Christ calls Saul, he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's the same Greek word that Paul uses here as press on. Remember, Paul was zealous in his persecution of the church, wasn't he? He was zealous of his persecution of the church and of Christ. So I think this is absolutely a play on words here, intentionally by Paul, to say that while he was pursuing or persecuting the church in a negative sense, Christ was pursuing him in the positive sense. So now Paul is pursuing Christ, he is pressing on in Christ with the same zeal and passion with which he was persecuting the church. Christ has redeemed Paul's persecution and redeemed even the usage of that word. In a real sense, redeemed the word. And redeeming even the concept of persecution to say, now go with righteous indignation and hunt down the righteousness that was given to you. This is what he's saying. It's this, if you want to use this somewhat negative word, violent pursuit of something. It's the same pursuit of something, but now with the righteous ends. That which was once negative zeal is now positive zeal, righteous zeal, redeemed zeal. It's a recognition of humility, then. And what we have been saved from and saved to. This is what causes us to press on, to persecute righteousness, not for some moral self-improvement, not to be a better self, but rather a constant and passionate persecution of the likeness of Christ. We are passionately pursuing Christ. This is what Paul is communicating. This is not a focus, again, on being a better you, it is a focus on being more like Christ. It's not an attempt to earn Christ, but because out of our sin and our rejection, Christ has captured us. This is the motivation for the new year. For any year, for any day, really, is that Christ has by his grace made you his own, made you his own. I know I've read it a number of times, but I just can't help it when it's appropriate. And this really is the best perspective to have humility and grace to start anything, specifically a new year. And this is what is your only, this is a Heidelberg question one, what is your only comfort in life and death? And the answer is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who has fully paid for all of my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. Come thou, fount of every blessing. One of the lines in that says, Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. That Christ would shed his blood, to rescue his persecutors from danger. That Christ would shed his blood to rescue his persecutors from danger, that he would step into flesh to pursue his own. That we might then with the same intensity and the same sacrifice take up our cross and pursue him. So won't we begin then this year with that humility of who we were? And resolve to chase after with everything in us, the one who has made us his own. Verse 13 then. The surrender of the past. The surrender of the past. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies ahead, lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of Christ Jesus, of God in Christ Jesus. Again, there in humility, he confesses that it is not him that is doing this. It is not in him to make it his own, but that he continually turns his attention then not to driven primarily by what he is saved from, but what he has been saved to. Paul does not deny his past, though, but recognizes it and sees the redemption in it. Forgetting what lies behind, he says, and straining forward to what lies ahead. What does it mean to forget what lies behind? I do not think it means that we're called to block out the past or pretend like it didn't exist. To make that point, I will consider Joseph, or ask us to consider Joseph. He's sold into slavery by his brothers, as we know and have talked about many times. He was despised, he was mistreated, he was rejected. Certainly typifying Christ. He was imprisoned. Later in his life, when he has the opportunity to reflect on that past, he doesn't hold a grudge against his brothers, does he? No. Because that would not be right. But he also doesn't simply paper over it like it never happened, right? He doesn't say, don't worry about it, guys. Listen, no big deal. It was a tough time in your life. I was probably a little bratty myself, so you know, water under the bridge, let's forget about it and move on. Not what he says, right? What does he say? What is Joseph's perspective here? He says, You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. In your sin, he was essentially saying, you were trying to harm me, but through it, God was working that same thing for my good. For the good of others, really. And this is the recognition that just as Christ has reoriented and redeemed Saul's persecution, we looked at that word press on in the Greek. Just as Christ has reoriented and redeemed Paul's persecution, God has redeemed even every act of evil, every sin, every mistake, and he's using those for his purpose. Or his purpose. For something good and something glorious that lies ahead that we may not see yet and likely don't see yet. Could you reflect on everything that has happened to you this past year and confidently give it back to God? Forget it in that sense, saying, I know that you are meaning it all, purposing it all for good, somehow, someway. That's what it means to surrender the past. Not forget it, but rather to trust in the God who has and who is redeeming it. I watched with Cade the other day a debate with an atheist, and I mentioned this to some of the guys, I think, who was struggling with this problem of evil. Problem that Brother Stephen has spent a lot of time on as well, but he couldn't, this atheist couldn't figure out logically how a good God could allow evil, suffering and pain. This is one of the big complaints of atheism against Christianity. And he couldn't couldn't wrestle with this question about evil. And the the commentator of this debate uh indicated that that's really the wrong question to ask with respect to our perspective. The better question is this without God, what purpose is there for any of the suffering and the wrong? Without a good God. I'll say that again. Without a good God, there is pain, which is evident and obvious. There is hardship, there is suffering, there is mistakes and failures, and then what? You die, and it was all for nothing. And the godless struggles with these things so mightily because they have no redemption. So everything is pointless. The Bible never sees those things as pointless, though, does it? Never. It sees them all as something God has intended for good because He has redeemed everything. Even evil and sin. It's all working for good. For us. For the one who has been redeemed, nothing is pointless. Nothing is purposeless. Everything is working for our good. Everything. As wild and as foolish as it would have been for Joseph way back then to be sitting in prison, like thanking God. Thank you, Lord, that I'm in prison and I've been betrayed. He hadn't seen it yet, right? But he did ultimately thank God for redeeming the evil, right? Working it for so much good. I think for us then it would also be silly and maybe a little weird for me to expect to be happy in the midst of some trial or hardship, right? But we can now, in the light of the biblical witness and in the redemption that we have been promised and know that we have and are assured that we have in Christ, we can trust that what lies ahead and that and we can strain for the redemption and the good that will ultimately come from this. We can trust that one day we will look back at everything in our lives and we will say over and over and over again, yeah, you you did mean it for good. That's the hope we have. That's the redemption that we have in a good and gracious God. Our text says in light of that, let us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Just keep trusting Him. Only let us hold true to what we have obtained, which is salvation. This is what we hold to. Finally, we live in the light of what's to come. We consider the humility of our station, we surrender the past to the redemptive purpose of God, and then we live in light of what's to come. And there's really two things here in our text that are contrasted on this point, and this is earthly things and heavenly things. Right? This is really starting in verse 19. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is their shame, with minds set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven or on heavenly things. The condemnation and destruction is for those whose minds are set on earthly things. And I thought a lot about this section of the text because on the surface it seems to contradict the notion that we can enjoy the earthly things, right? Remember, for those of you who are there on Wednesday night, we read that book from Rigney, went through called The Things of Earth, which primarily is about the redemption of the earth and the liberty that we have and the blessing to enjoy the blessing of creation. So is this saying something different than that? Is the best way to live life a wholesale rejection of earthly things in favor of ascetism or just practicing this stoic spiritual discipline? Maybe the way I frame that question kind of gives away the rhetorical answer I was looking for. There's something more going on here, right? There is. And there is some uncertainty as to exactly who, as I read through various commentators on who Paul is specifically talking about here, but I think it is safe to say that the issue with this thinking is a continual, temporary satisfaction as opposed to any eternal thinking. Continual temporary satisfaction as opposed to an eternal way of thinking. And this does permeate our minds more than you think. This is the rapid, we talked about this a lot, maybe, this is the rapid pragmatic church growth model that feeds that temporary appetite for bigger churches and bigger programs over this multi-generational way of doing things. This is why spiritual growth is so weak in our day, because we don't want to get roots time to grow. We try something for a few days, it doesn't seem to work, and we move on to something else, don't we? We want to start seeing results in as little as 24 hours. Talking about that the other day. We don't plant trees because we don't want to wait 25 years for the payoff, right? Why do we obsess over checking off as many things as we can on this totally arbitrary bucket list that we make for ourselves? Because we have to do all the things before we die, right? We have to do them all. This is a crazy idea, I know. But what if? Hear me out. What if you don't die? What if you have a million zillion years to do all those things? Paul isn't condemning creation here. Or rather, condemning a life that considers these really handful of years before you meet Christ as ultimate, right? As more important, as the time in which you have to do all of the things because this is all I have, and I've got to do everything before I die. To be earthly minded, then is to live today, to live this next year, to live the rest of your current life as though that is all there is. Our calling today and every day is something more than that, though, isn't it? Our citizenship is in heaven. And we are living in anticipation of this lowly body with all its flaws and imperfections to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. By the same power, our text says, that is presently governing the whole universe. That same power will transform you into the likeness of Christ. And the glorious good news of the gospel is that even now, by the work of Christ, you have already been buried with him. You've already died. Your life has been hidden with Christ, and you have been raised to walk with him already in newness of life. You are already living your eternal life. Romans 8, 6 to 11. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. To live then today in light of what's to come is to embrace the new life that you have already been given in Christ and to start living for eternity today. As the great R.C. Sprohl was known for saying, right now counts forever. Right now counts forever. Because eternity started today, yesterday, or whenever the day it was that you were saved. So we can do things now in light of the reality that what we do now, what we store up now in heaven will last forever. And it does. And it does. So as we close in, what's the summary of the encouragement for the new year? I'll refresh and rephrase. Consider your humility. Consider your humility. Consider what a wretch you were. Consider how gracious it was for Christ to purchase you and to make you his own. That's number one. Number two, surrender your past to the sovereign and providential hand of God. Not dwelling on your past, not letting it overwhelm you, not letting it control you, not whitewashing it or pretending like it didn't happen. But trusting that because God is so good, he will redeem every second of it. For good and for his glory. You will breathe deeply that heavenly air at some point. And you will summarize every moment of your life, every second of your life with, God, you meant it for good. Finally, we live today. Just start today. As though it is the first day of forever. What would you do if you had a million years in front of you in glory? What would you do? I don't think you'd worry about getting everything done today. I can almost assure you that. You wouldn't worry about seeing results in the next 24 hours, right, if you had a million zillion years in front of you. What would you do? You'd start doing things that will take a really long time, but that will last forever. This is the essence of living heavenly-minded. And there is obviously much more I could say, but I think I'd allow those thoughts to percolate. And ask that you pray diligently this week that our God would ignite a passion and a fire in you, in us all for those eternal things. And that we would stand firm in those things, as it says, therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus. What is the thus? Those things we just talked about. Stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. So that we would stand firm in those things this year as citizens of this great and glorious heavenly kingdom that is not shaken and that will not be shaken. Amen. Let's pray. I thank you for saving a wretch like me. Lord, would you help me and remind me of the humility of who I was and who I still am, Lord. And in light of who you are, who I will always be. Thank you. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for pursuing me. Thank you for giving me salvation, Lord. Help me in light of that, Lord, to pursue you. Help us all, Lord, to pursue you, Lord, in everything that we do. Lord, help us to look back at this past year and know and trust that even if we can't see it now, Lord, that you are redeeming everything, Lord. Everything good, everything bad, every hardship, every success, Lord, you have redeemed it all for our good and for your glory. Help us surrender the past to you, trusting you, Lord, to redeem it. Lord, and now we press on. We strain towards the goal, Lord. We live in light of what we know is ahead of us, Lord. We plan and we prepare not for tomorrow. Lord, not for next year. Let us plan and prepare for eternity. Because that is what you have secured for us. That's what you've blessed us with. Thank you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.