The Lord’s Day
Morning
May 4, 2008
Philippians 3:12-16
Fighting for Joy, Growing in Humility,
Knowing Christ and the Peace that Passes
Understanding: A Study of Philippians
“Pressing On Toward the Goal”
Dr. J. Ligon
Duncan III
Dr. Duncan: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is
good; His steadfast love, His covenant faithfulness, His lovingkindness, endures
forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from trouble
and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and
from the south.” Let us worship God.
Dr. Thomas: Now let’s come before God in prayer.
Let us pray.
O Lord our God, we bow once again in Your presence. It
is a fitting posture that our hearts are bowed, our hands stretched out in faith
to lay hold upon You as You offer Yourself to us. We are unworthy servants,
unworthy to come before You, unworthy to mention Your name. We have sinned; we
have erred; we have strayed like lost sheep. We’ve done things that we ought not
to have done, said things that we ought not to have said. We’ve left undone
things that we ought to have done.
Father, we come before You conscious that You are
thrice holy — “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth is full of
Your glory. Angels and archangels and cherubs and seraphim bow in Your presence
and exalt You. The church triumphant sings Your praises, and we join with them
now as a company of Your people here at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson,
Mississippi. We join with that grand company on the other side. We thank You for
the communion of saints. We bless You, O Lord God, that You are exalted in the
praises of Your people, and we desire in the depths of our hearts that You would
be exalted, and then some.
Our Father, we thank You for Your grace to us in
the gospel. Thank You for redeeming love. Thank You for a Savior born in a
stable, crucified on a cross, raised up into the clouds sitting at Your right
hand in glory — the altogether lovely one and fairer than ten thousand. “How
sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear; it calms his sorrows and
heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.”
We thank You, O Lord, for the covenant that is
ordered in all things, and sure: a word of promise that You will never leave us
nor forsake us; that in the depths of woe when we pass through the fire or the
deep waters, You will not abandon us. You will not give us over to our enemies —
our archenemy, even Satan himself, who prowls about like a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. We resist him steadfast in the faith; we lay hold of Christ
and say with Luther, when he knocks on the door, that we don’t live here
anymore, but Christ lives here. And we slam that door shut in his face.
We thank You, our Father, for our adoption into
the household and family of God; that we are heirs of God and join heirs with
Jesus Christ; that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into
the heart of man what You have prepared for those that love You. You are so good
to us even in trial, even in sorrow; even when You afflict, You do not afflict
willingly. We thank You for a fatherly hand in every contingency and every
circumstance, in every providence.
We thank You, O Lord, that there is a silver
lining to every cloud — the silver lining of the sweet promises of the gospel.
We thank You, O Father, this morning especially on behalf of our brothers and
sisters and some who are here today… this morning in this service… who are
aching–whose hearts break; who pass through deep waters; who are taking care of
loved ones and watching them die and their bodies give out. And in the hope of
resurrection promise that one day there will be no sin and no disease and no
death and no graves to visit, we thank You for the new Jerusalem paved with
gold, with a river that flows down, and trees on either side giving fruit in
their season. We thank You for the new heavens and new earth in which we shall
dwell. We cannot even begin to imagine the greatness and glory of what that will
be when in newly transformed bodies, reunited with our souls, we shall live
forever in a condition of ecstasy and blessing.
Our Father, we pray this morning as we worship
You that we might catch a glimpse of it, that we might live for those things
which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Help us now to
put aside those worldly cares and sorrows, and in the quietness of this hour
know that You are in the midst of Your people; that by Your Spirit, You’ve come
to dwell, to energize, to convict, to teach, to exhort, to comfort, to help, to
heal. Lord our God, we cast ourselves upon You and upon Your word.
We do pray this morning for those who serve You
in far off places… friends of ours who have gone to the uttermost parts of the
world to preach the gospel… and we remember Don and Fran McNeill as they
minister in Kampala in Uganda. We thank You for them. Thank You for all that
they have done for the kingdom. We pray that they might be encouraged in the
Lord. We pray that today, this morning, this afternoon for them…that You would
draw near to them in a way that cannot be explained in human terms, and that
they might know that round about and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Our Father, we do continue to pray for our
country: for the election process, that You would grant to us a president who
would rule and govern wisely and justly; that You wouldn’t give to us what we
deserve, but that You would give to us in mercy and in grace. We pray for a
president that will advance the cause of the kingdom of God and allow it to
flourish and allow it to do the work that You’ve called us to do; and if that
not be the case, help us to be good soldiers. Help us, O Lord, to take on that
responsibility which brothers and sisters of ours in other parts of the world
have been doing for decades and centuries, working for Christ in the midst of
opposition and persecution and tyranny. Lord, You know our hearts’ desire, but
we pray, O Lord, that our hearts might conform to Your will and to Your
overruling purpose for us in these days.
Now bless us. We pray for Ligon now as he opens
up the word, as we taste the sweet fruits of Paul’s letter to the Philippians,
filled as it is, with joy, urging us on to holiness and righteousness, and the
standard of our commitment to You based firmly on the foundation of gospel
principles. Help him, we pray. Be unto him now all that he needs, and through
him may we hear the Spirit speak to us through the word on this the Lord’s Day.
Hear us, O Lord.
Teach us now to pray, as our Savior taught His
disciples to pray, saying:
‘Our Father, who art in
heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread,
and forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and
the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
Dr. Duncan: Amen.
If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with
me to Philippians 3. We’ll be looking at verses 12-16.
You’ll remember from our study last week, the
Apostle Paul left us in verses 10 -11 with this important assertion about what
he wanted to do in life. He said that he wanted to know Christ. He wanted to
know the power of Christ’s resurrection, he wanted to share in the fellowship of
His sufferings, he wanted to become like Christ in His death, that he might
attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul makes it clear that he’s looking
forward to a time when he is made completely like the Lord Jesus Christ–and that
will come at the resurrection of the dead, but in the meantime he is pursuing
likeness in Christ. He is pursuing holiness through the power of the
resurrection. It’s the Holy Spirit that is bringing to bear the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Paul’s life, in Paul’s life, so that he
might become more like Jesus. Even the sufferings that he is experiencing in
this life all conspire by God’s design and God’s providence to make him more
like Jesus, so that he is becoming like Jesus in His death. That is, even as
Jesus died so that we would die to sin and live to righteousness, so also Paul,
because he has trusted in Jesus Christ and been united with Him, is dying to sin
in His death, and being raised to newness of life in His resurrection. And so
the Apostle Paul pulls together two glorious things in verses 7-11: one, he is
absolutely assured that he is accepted by God not because of anything that he
has done, but because of the righteousness of Christ which he receives by faith,
and therefore he is secure; and, at the same time, he is pressing on in the
pursuit of holiness. He wants to be more like Jesus. He wants to be more holy.
And at the Last Day, he wants to stand perfect before his God and Savior.
Now it’s that that is in the background of what he
says in Philippians 3:12-16. That, and the fact that there are some people in
the Philippian congregation who have fallen under the influence of a false
teaching, and that false teaching is perfectionism. Now, by perfectionism,
we mean the view that some very sincere Christians hold that believers can
become perfect in this life — that they can move beyond the struggles with sin
and with the remnants of the old nature and the old man in the flesh and they
can reach a state of perfect maturity — entire sanctification, perfect love.
Now in order to teach that, you have to either scale
down what you mean by sin, or you have to scale down the requirements of
holiness, or both. Brister Ware was telling me between the services of a man
came up to a minister who had just preached a sermon in which the minister said
that he had achieved this state of perfection. And the man said, “Do you mind if
I ask your wife whether you’ve achieved the state of perfection?” And the
minister responded, “Well, you can ask her, but she doesn’t believe in that
doctrine yet!” Yeah! Well, I can tell you why she doesn’t believe in that
doctrine yet!
Now that kind of teaching is around today, and in
the modern world it actually flows from the teaching of a very sincere and godly
man. John Wesley, studying this very passage, looked at Philippians 3:12 and
said, ‘You know, Paul there says that he’s not perfect. But if you look at verse
15, he speaks of those who are perfect.’ And so John Wesley got the idea that
Christians were not going to be perfect in some things but that they could be
perfect in other things, and that they ought to strive for that perfection, and
that some of them could reach that perfection in this life.
Now his concern was a concern that you and I would
share. He ministered in a time when the Church of England was characterized by
dead formalistic faith, and he wanted to see real vibrant holiness in the lives
of believers. Praise God for that…it’s just that his doctrine is wrong on this
point.
But that’s not the problem actually that’s happening
here with the perfectionism in Philippi. It’s probably the Judaisers, those
Jewish Christians who wanted the Philippian Christians to believe Paul’s
teaching about Jesus the Messiah but also wanted people to strive for holiness
by doing what? By keeping the Law of Moses, especially the ceremonial law — the
ritual law. That the way to be complete, mature, perfect, was to not only
believe in Jesus, but also to keep the laws of Moses: circumcision; the food
laws; the various ritual ordinances of the Old Testament that have passed away.
And in that context Paul speaks these very, very helpful words.
Paul gives us here three key truths that guide us
in our sanctification, that guide us in our living of the Christian life, that
help us in our growth in grace in the Christian life. And those three teachings
are: We are not there yet; two, press on with zeal; and, three, strive by grace.
Paul teaches here that we believers are not the fellowship of the arrived. We
are not there yet. We have not gotten to our goal. But we do press on towards
that goal; we do pursue holiness with zeal. But, three, we do it dependent upon
God’s grace. We strive, we press on, but we do it from God’s grace…dependent
upon God’s grace. It’s those three things that I want to look at with you today.
And before we do so, let’s look to God in prayer as we read this, His holy word.
Heavenly Father, we ask that You would open our
eyes and take the blinders off, that we may see wonderful truth in Your word.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is God’s word:
“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. 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. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything
you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to
what we have obtained.”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired,
and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
In the first couple of years that I was in Jackson
teaching at Reformed Theological Seminary, a very godly, mature young couple
showed up in my office one day after class. They had been very encouraged by
something that they had heard in class at RTS, but they were very confused by
something that they had learned in Bible College. They were headed for the
mission field. They had graduated from a Bible College together. The husband was
studying for his Master of Divinity degree; the wife was taking courses in the
M.A. curriculum. I think, if I remember, they wanted to be Wycliffe Bible
translators, and they wanted to be a part of translating the New Testament into
a language that had never been translated before, so that people in that
language could read the Bible for themselves and hear it read in their own
words. And they were very, very mature–mature beyond their years. They were in
their twenties, but they had their sights set on Christian service. But they
were deeply discouraged and filled with guilt because in their last semester at
their Bible College the president of their Bible College had preached a sermon
in which he said that he had not sinned in three years. And he went on to
explain that he had reached this higher life, this entire sanctification, and he
encouraged everyone in the Bible College audience that day to pursue the same
because of the way that it would free them for gospel service to attain this
level of maturity and perfection in the Christian life. This had deeply
discouraged this young couple, because they knew they were still sinners. Like
many young couples, they loved the Lord and they loved one another deeply, but
they had issues with one another; they had issues with their parents; they were
struggling to grow in grace. They knew deeply their continuing fight with sin,
and they thought that because they were in that fight with sin something must be
wrong with them.
Now if I were to tell you the name of this person
who preached that sermon that day, many of you would know him and you would
revere him — and revere him rightly, because he did so many wonderful things
over the course of his life. But on this point his doctrine was diametrically
opposed to the Bible and to the Apostle Paul, and had deeply discouraged that
young couple.
Well, the Apostle Paul is dealing with just that
kind of fallout from the false teaching of perfectionism here in Philippi. And
in the course of that he does three things. He tells us three things that are
vital for our knowing how to live the Christian life. As I said, we are not
there yet; nevertheless, we are pressing on; and, third, we are striving by
grace…from grace…dependent upon grace. Let’s look at how Paul lays that out in
the passage before us.
I. We are not yet there yet
(sanctified).
First look at verses 12-13, and in each of those
verses look at the first half of those verses. Here Paul makes it clear that
Christians do not and cannot attain perfection in this life. Notice what he says
in verses 12:
“Not that I have already obtained this or am
already perfect….”
And then in verse 13:
“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made
it my own.”
Now what is the it? The perfect holiness
about which he spoke in verses 10-11. ‘I don’t think I’ve made that my own.’
Paul is making it clear that he’s not there yet. He’s saying, ‘Philippians,
understand. I am pressing on. I have a zeal to become more like Jesus
like you can’t believe! But I’m not there yet! I have not arrived at that
perfection, and I will not arrive at that perfection until the final
resurrection.’
Well, you say, ‘Why, then, does he talk about the
perfect in verse 15?’ Take a look at the words: “Therefore as many as
are perfect.…” (In your translation — if you’re reading the ESV — it
probably says mature. That’s a good translation.) But I think what Paul
may be doing here is doing a little play on words. He’s saying, ‘For those of
you who are ‘perfect’, you need to recognize that none of us are perfect yet.
And we will not be until the day that God stands us before His throne in glory
with exceeding joy, by His grace, in entire perfection. Until then, we’re on the
way. Life is a pilgrimage. It’s growth in grace, it’s not perfection.’ The
church is not a place where perfect people gather, but it’s a hospital where
sick sinners get well, as Augustine said so many years ago. And Paul is pressing
this point in this passage. In other words, he’s giving us the first of three
mottoes for the living of the Christian life: “We are not there yet.”
Now if there are unbelievers who are here in our
midst today — those who have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ for
salvation…or perhaps you’re watching on the television — it’s important for
you to understand that Christians still
struggle with sin. Some of you who do not believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ have rejected the gospel because you have encountered Christians who you
believe are hypocrites because they’ve sinned. Perhaps they’ve sinned against
you in some significant way. It is very important for you to understand that
Christians do not believe that we have somehow become perfect. We do not excuse
our own sin thereby; we’re still responsible for our sin. We ought to be
different, and I would challenge you, unbelievers, to hold us to account. We
claim that God’s grace has done a work in us so that we can live in ways that
are different and better than the unbelieving world around us, so you hold us to
account. But don’t think that you can reject the gospel because you’ve caught a
Christian sinning, because Christians do not claim to be perfect. In fact, there
are very often Christians who have done really, really bad things who have
subsequently come to faith in Christ, and they still have to pay for the
consequences of their sin.
There’s a great story in Chuck Colson’s book
Loving God, where he talks about going to a prison in Michigan with a judge.
And they’re visiting prisoners in that prison, but they have a luncheon
scheduled with the governor of Michigan, and Chuck Colson is very conscious of
that and wants to leave on time. Their last part of the visit is on death row,
and the judge goes into one of the cells and he stays a long, long time. And
Chuck Colson gets very impatient, and he keeps walking back to the cell and
motioning to the man to come on out. And he doesn’t come out. And finally he
gets angry and irritable about it. And finally the judge comes out of the cell,
and as they’re on their way (late) to the governor’s luncheon, Chuck Colson says
to him, “Why were you in there so long?” And the judge said, “Well, as it so
happens I sentenced that man to death, and he is scheduled to die. But since he
has been in this prison he has become a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, and
we are now brothers in Christ. And we wanted to pray together one more time
before we meet in glory again as brothers.”
That man still had to pay for the consequences of
his sin. He was a Christian, but there were consequences that still had to be
paid. So if you’re an unbeliever thinking that Christians are immune from the
consequences of sin or that Christians claim to be perfect, we don’t and we
aren’t.
But if you’re a believer today, let me just say
this: the fact that you are not there yet is your charter of hope in this life.
You know, it’s the truth of my present imperfection and that God is
progressively changing me and molding me to be more and more like Jesus Christ
that keeps me from giving up, because if I thought where I am now was as far as
I was ever going to get, I’d give up today. I’d just completely give up today.
I’d have no hope. But the fact that I have not arrived there yet, the fact that
God’s sanctification process will not be ended until the final day, that gives
me hope. That gives me comfort.
II. We press on.
Secondly, Paul goes on to say though we are not
there yet, nevertheless we press on with zeal. There’s the second motto for
the Christian life: we’re not there yet, and we press on with zeal and passion
and energy. In other words, Christians are always desirous and active in growing
in holiness, in becoming more mature in Christ, in pursuing godliness. Notice
the language that Paul uses in verses 12, 13, 14 and 16: “I press on… I strain
forward… I forget what is behind… I strain forward to what is ahead… I hold true
to what we have attained.” In other words, the Apostle Paul says, ‘My pursuit of
holiness is active and passionate: I desire to be more like Jesus Christ, and I
press on to attain that.’
Now again it’s important: if you’re an unbeliever
listening to me today, I’m not telling you that this is the way that you are
saved. If this is the way that you’re saved, you’re in big trouble! This is
not the way that you’re saved. The way that you’re saved is by embracing the
gospel. What is the gospel? That God made us and cares for us, but we have
chosen to worship ourselves and to turn our backs on Him, and that this has
resulted in His righteous judgment of us, and of our harming others, and of our
own self-destruction, and our estrangement from Him. But God himself in His love
and mercy has come to us in the person of His own Son, Jesus Christ, to save us
from God’s just judgment and from ourselves. His Son lived a life that we
haven’t and can’t, in our place. And He died a death that we should have, but
that He shouldn’t have, in our place, for our forgiveness and acceptance with
God. And all who respond in faith and repentance to that good news freely
receive forgiveness and are welcomed into God’s family, and are reintroduced
into fellowship with Him. That’s the gospel.
When you hear Christians urging one another to press
on, to strive to grow in holiness, they’re not talking about how they’re made
right with God. They’re talking about having been made right with God by
grace…how they become more like the Lord Jesus Christ who saved them by grace.
That’s what we’re talking about today.
But for believers, we come to this passage and we
hear Paul say, “Press on,” and we know that this means we must never ever rest
with where we are today, with regard to godliness. We must always press on,
cultivating a holy dissatisfaction about our present state of growth. And isn’t
it amazing how Paul is able to do that and it doesn’t compromise his assurance
at all? Paul knows that he is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone; and yet, he is utterly dissatisfied with staying with where he is
in his present state of godliness. He wants to be more like Jesus. Isn’t it like
that in every place in the Christian life?
I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago, and
some ministers were talking about how they struggle with dissatisfaction with
their preaching. You know, they preach a sermon and then they go back to their
office after the sermon and they say, “Boy, did I wiff that one!” and how
frustrated they can get wishing that they could do better in their preaching.
And they were all trying to encourage one another in the struggles of
discouragement. And then R.C. Sproul spoke up, and he said, “Should you ever be
pleased with your sermon? Shouldn’t you always want to do better? Isn’t that a
good thing?” And everybody looked around the room and said, “Y-e-e-s. We ought
to all want to do a better job of preaching.” Nothing wrong with that…you don’t
want to be discouraged, but you ought to want to do better.
Well, how is Paul able to be confident and assured
in Christ and to be wholly dissatisfied with just staying how he is now? Because
he knows that that his salvation is entirely based on the grace of God in
Christ, and that he is not satisfied with being what he once was. He wants to be
like the Lord Jesus, and he is pressing on to that end.
III. We strive by grace.
But how is he pressing on? Well, that’s the third
point, because the third motto is (along with “We’re not there yet” and “We’re
pressing on with passion and zeal and energy”)…the third motto is “We’re doing
this (we’re striving) not by our own strength, not so that we can be accepted by
God (because He’s already accepted us in Christ), but we’re striving by grace.”
We’re striving from grace.
In other words, Christians want to grow not so that
Christ will accept us, but because Christ already has. Christians want to grow,
not so that we will be embraced by Christ, but because we already have been
embraced by Christ. Christians want to grow because of what we already have by
faith in Christ Jesus.
Listen to what Paul says. Look at verses 12-13:
“I press on to make it my own…” [What’s the
it? That perfect holiness in the resurrection day.] “…I press on to make it
my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own.”
Christ Jesus has made me His own. Now does that lead
Paul to say, “Well, nothing more for me to do?” No. What does it do? It impels
him to the pursuit of holiness, because he has been accepted in the beloved,
because he has been embraced by Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ has
made him his own, it makes him want to be more like Jesus Christ.
And then listen to what he says in verse 14: “I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God…” [listen to
the last three words] “…in Christ Jesus.”
I think that Paul there is telling you how it is
that he presses on. How does he do it? In Christ Jesus. In other words, he
pursues holiness in and from his union with Christ. How does the Holy Spirit
change our hearts from the inside out? By uniting us to Jesus Christ, so that
all that is His becomes ours. How are we united to Jesus Christ? By faith. So
the Holy Spirit causes us to trust in Christ, and as we trust in Christ our sin
is imputed to Him, His righteousness is imputed to us, and the power of His
resurrection begins to work in us doing what? Renovating us. And the Apostle
Paul is saying, ‘I am dependent upon that resurrection power that I have because
I trusted in Christ and I’m united with him. I’m dependent upon that
resurrection power changing me to make me more like the Lord Jesus Christ.’
Now, unbelievers who are listening today, let me
just say this. If you want to change your life, it’s got to start with you
realizing that you can’t change your life. Christianity is not offering you
yet another program or package or schtik about how you can change your
life. Jesus has to change you before you can
change.
And by the way, one of the ways that you can tell
whether those guys on TV and radio are preaching the gospel or not is if they
tell you the things that you can to do change your life; then they’re not
preaching the gospel. But if they tell you what Jesus has done in order to
change your life and talk about your responding in faith and repentance to that
free offer of what Jesus has done, then they’re preaching the gospel.
But believers, our security is not based upon how
well we do in this pursuit of holiness. Our security
is based on Jesus Christ having embraced us, on our union with Christ.
But what that leads us to is not laziness. It leads us to energy and
passion and zeal in the pursuit of godliness. And those three truths
that Paul lays out in this passage are life-transforming, if we’ll just
understand and practice them.
We are not the fellowship of the arrived. We are not
there yet. But we press on. And we do it not in our own strength, but from and
by God’s grace.
May the Lord bless His word.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your rich and
precious word. By Your Spirit, bring this truth to bear deep, deep in our being;
and cause it to overflow from our hearts all through our actions and lives. We
ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Would you turn with me in your hymnals to No.
576. This hymn… though at the top of the page it says Hebrews 12:1…Hebrews 12:1
really only gives you the image of stanza two. Really, the rest of this hymn is
just a beautiful, accurate, poetic exposition of Philippians 3:13-14. Just look
at how this hymn expounds the passage that Paul has just preached to us. Let’s
stand and sing it to God’s praise.
[Congregation sings: Awake, My
Soul, Stretch Every Nerve]
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your
spirit.
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