Philippians 3:13–14

0:00 Good evening, church. The text that we'll be working out of this evening's devotional is, like Mike said, Philippians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. You might find it helpful to turn there in your Bibles. It'll be in the pew Bible in front of you on page 981. I'll be referring to it a few times. Now, if you were in our service this morning, you heard Mark Collins preach on Psalm chapter 1. And the goodness of God's law for Christians and how we can delight in Christ who glorified God because he obeyed that law perfectly.

0:41 In light of this, Paul demonstrates in this book how the perfect obedience of Jesus gave God the Father so much pleasure that he gave all authority over creation to Jesus as Lord. Here in chapter 3, our text tonight, Paul, who was formerly an esteemed Hebrew of Hebrews, describes the reason why he quit putting faith in his own good works. If you have your Bible, look at verse 7.

1:13 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I wonder if you caught that, that Paul determined that knowing Jesus was a more worthy cause than any other pursuit that he had previously lived for. Verse 9, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ Jesus, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

1:57 Paul has a single goal. And this will be our main point for this evening. Stay focused on knowing Christ until the resurrection. Stay focused on knowing Christ until the resurrection. Now after these first 11 verses, Paul kind of switches and shows us his mindset. He gives us an opportunity to look into the way that he's thinking about how he pursues this as a goal. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

2:34 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. When Paul considers his goal to imitate Christ and grow in his faith, friends, Paul's clear. He's not there yet. Look around. Can you see sin still?

3:06 Do you see or have you heard any trumpets blaring or have you seen Christ come back, coming floating down from the clouds or any bodies floating up to heaven recently? No, so we're still called, just like Paul is, to run this race now. Now, when Paul is talking about what lies behind, I think there's a couple options for what he could mean. He could be talking about his life there at the beginning of chapter 3. He could be talking about that he's forgetting all of the sin before he became a Christian.

3:39 Or he could be talking about all the progress that he's made since he became a Christian, saying that neither of these things distract him. And I think that's the point that he's making. He's not letting any of his sin or any of his progress in his sanctification keep him from pursuing more and more knowledge of Christ. No, I'm not saying that Paul didn't think about sin. Surely he did. We see that in places like Romans 7.

4:10 The depth of sin is real. And we have to consider that as Christians. But in this race, Paul is running. He's telling the Philippian church that he's not turning his head back. He's not letting himself get distracted from what's ahead. He's keeping his size set on the goal. Well, I think this just becomes immediately applicable to our own lives. Two imperatives we'll see in this text tonight. And this is the first.

4:40 Christian, don't get distracted. When Paul says he's not perfect yet, when he's doing it, he's admitting that the Lord has, to some extent, sanctified him already. But he isn't letting that reality of knowing that he's been sanctified slow him down from knowing that there's still more work to be done. Now, ladies, moms in the church, let me give you an example. If some other mother was to come up to you with your kids, And she said, I don't think you're doing that really well.

5:17 I don't think that you're actually, like, parenting those kids well. You would think, this lady's actually crazy. You'd be like, she's totally insane. But I think that's a little bit of the point. Do you see that in our own hearts, we can kind of do that ourselves sometimes. When you see someone making decisions that you deem unwise, do you ever think to yourself, before you think, oh, I should help them, do you ever think to yourself, oh, that's not the way that I would have done it?

5:56 Maybe it's even based on some kind of true conviction from the scriptures that you think the way that you do. But if we're not careful, you will little by little slowly start putting yourself above those around you. Start taking pride in your own estimation of the things that the Lord has taught you instead of remaining humble and remembering the grace that you first received. You can begin to get satisfied looking back at the race that you've run, thinking, well, this is good enough.

6:30 Now, what if Paul said that that was good enough when he was a zealous Jew? Or what if Paul said that was good enough after he wrote his very first letter? That we wouldn't have been encouraged in the way that we are today. Christ wouldn't be known to the world in the way that he is today. That's a one-way ticket to self-absorption. Christian, the Bible standard for our priorities goes you, others, and Christ. so when that mom does seem like she's struggling and you see her you show her the love of Jesus and you say hey you know I'm actually growing in my parenting as well and my kids are 16 and 17 why don't you go out with your husband and we'll take him for the night the internal response goes from self-estimation a high self-estimation to embodying God's grace the more we take pride in our own understanding,

7:32 the more we forget how much grace we still need ourselves. But pride isn't the only thing that distracts us, is it? Now on the other end of the spectrum is when you feel overwhelmed by your own sin, or more generally, that nasty sin that's in the world. Sin is hard, and we've heard of some of it here tonight, some of the terrible things that are going on that we're praying for.

8:07 We begin to realize the depth of your own sin and the sin that still remains in the world. It's hard, and it's going to feel even harder the more we learn how good our God is. Sin can feel like these deep roots just planted in our flesh. Our awareness of sin and suffering can be so sensitive that it feels like we can't press onward.

8:38 How can I? It's all that I could do to be here tonight, to pray with all of you. Brothers, sisters, no one is discounting your pain. The struggle is real, but praise God that Christ knew exactly the depth of your sin and the sin that this world has when he took it to the cross, redeeming us. So rest in that. That means even though you don't feel clean or pure or justified or loved, you are if you trust in Christ.

9:17 So don't rest in your feelings, but in the knowledge of Christ. While you feel like you're doing everything you can to keep going, God is literally pulling you to the end. Now, one caveat. I think if you are here in this room, and you in no way submit to the Lordship of Christ, if you do not call yourself a Christian, if you've maybe heard of the gospel, you know of the perfect life, maybe you heard the sermon this morning and you've heard of the substitutionary atonement of Christ and yet you still don't believe, then friend, the caveat I have for you is that you should be distracted by your sin.

10:06 It should be the primary thing that you're thinking of because you have a relationship that's out of sorts with the Lord. You're not running the race we're running so the encouragements I have in this text tonight are not for you. My encouragement for you is to repent of your sin and seek Christ. Maybe have that conversation with the person that brought you here today. You're on a much different track, a much worse destination. Second imperative.

10:38 Keep running by understanding the race. Keep running by understanding the race. So why not get distracted? Paul says he presses on. That's why we don't. But to what do we press on for? What are we even racing for? Paul's ultimate goal was knowing Christ, right? He says that. But he also says that at the end of, I think it's verse 10, that it's the resurrection from the dead.

11:10 So is Paul's goal knowing Christ, or is it the resurrection to heaven? Well, that's just it. Paul determined that the greatest thing in heaven wouldn't be the pearly gates or golden streets. The thing Paul was looking forward to most was finally seeing the God who made him, and Jesus who shares in the same nature of that God, face to face. Friends, this is our greatest prize.

11:42 To be in the presence of a holy and good God. Paul calls it the goal and the prize. But Paul says in verse 10 that the way he presses on is by sharing in Christ's sufferings. So how does pressing on in that way help us know more of God? Well, I think it's this. That what if your pain, your suffering, over the hooks of sin, killing your pride, is actually God's grace to you?

12:22 And God's mercy, your grief over sin, is actually you beginning to image God's character rightly. Let me give you an example. God commands the members of this church to love each other in encouragement and in action. Even when we sin against each other in terrible ways. So when we start to do this, when we start to truly forgive and love one another, to look over one another's sins, we begin to understand and imitate the knowledge of God's forbearance over our own sin.

13:03 We start to learn more of the character that our God has. Your suffering becomes a paradigm of Jesus. The more we suffer for his glory, the more we learn of his faithfulness to us until heaven, when we will see him face to face. Brothers and sisters, I don't know when those trumpets are going to sound, when the Lord is coming back, but he has given us these scriptures. that reveal himself to us.

13:36 Remember the psalm this morning. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Jesus didn't leave us hanging dry while we sit here and wait for him. He left us the Bible. Look around you. He left you one another so that we can grow in relationship with one another, further imaging Christ to one another. we overcome our sin through this model that Christ has given us.

14:10 So now, not only Paul, but we too may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, we may attain the resurrection from the dead. Would you pray with me? Oh, Father, we confess that we don't suffer well. That we are prideful, Lord. That we don't forget the things that have come behind, Lord.

14:40 But we get distracted in our daily life. Father, I pray that we would not forget the goal. We would not be distracted thinking heaven is simply a good time, Lord. But it's the ability to know you, the God who's redeemed us in Christ our Savior. So Lord, I pray that you would help us press on in this. Help us to wake up tomorrow and read our Bibles. Help us to love one another well, Lord, and forgive sin. We thank you, Lord, for the mercy that you've given us.

15:11 In Jesus' name, amen.