Hopeful Sermon: Press Onward

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios' channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them God bless you. We will be continuing in our study in the book of Philippians.

We've been doing a little bit of hopping around, but we don't want to leave anything behind.

We don't want to give the indication there's anything less important than any other passage of scripture.

So we are back in Philippians chapter 3. I know we've already done the end of Philippians chapter 3, but that's what happens when we do subject things and tie it in with where we are.

That works real well. It's also a good thing.

I think it's a really good thing that Jeff is able to call me and say, hey, I've got something really important going on.

Would you be willing to step in here? And you're probably not going to get too much differently than what you would have gotten if Jeff was preaching today.

That's a good thing. If you were to get something completely different, that would not be a good thing.

So we will certainly seek to avoid that. I was going to get all duded up.

I was going to have a tie and the whole nine yards. And then that storm came through this morning and now it feels like it's

August. Did you feel that? Wow. The humidity shot up and it's like, yep, that's

August. Great. And we just got out of April. How did that work?

That's not supposed to work that way. Well, welcome to Phoenix if it's your first summer here.

We'll have some sermons on hell a little bit later on that will be very, very useful to you.

And the illustrations will be real life. So Philippians chapter 3, here's the game plan in essence.

What we will do first is establish a bit of a context. Then I will work through the text.

And what I will do initially is sort of a live translation with you talking about some of the issues relating to the text, relating to what it's saying and how it expresses itself.

And then we can go back, look at the whole text together and then make applications.

Sort of like how the Puritans used to do it. I just promised not to go nearly as long as they did.

I think that Jeff reads too many Puritans and that's why he just loses track of time as the hour goes by and it gets longer and longer.

I think last week he actually thought he had gone like 48 minutes and it was an hour and 15 or something like that.

It's like, well, at least you're within the same day period. That's a good movement in the right direction.

We'll keep working on that. So Philippians chapter 3, now let's remember where we are.

We will be picking up with verse 12. And so you remember a number of weeks ago when we looked at the discussion in verse 9 of the doctrine of justification.

And that began a series that we did, a three -part series. Jeff did two sermons. I did one sermon on justification.

And then we have also gone past this section and looked at our citizenship being in heaven and what that does and does not mean and how that text is frequently misused.

We did that within the context of what's going on within our society right now. But the intervening section is a section you've probably heard if you've ever attended a graduation.

If you've ever attended a high school or college graduation, this is the one text that the pagans like to read.

If they are at a Christian school or something like that, even the pagans will read this one, leaving the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are ahead.

Very rarely actually understanding what this apostle is talking about, but that's what this particular section is about.

Now it is interesting that in looking at this section, the commentators go a lot of different directions because it does seem that even though we do have a very clear statement of justification by faith in verse 9, clearly that wasn't

Paul's intention to lay out his whole doctrine of justification in a single verse. As in so many other things, what you have going on here is you have

Paul writing to a congregation, writing to his friends, and in so doing, he can assume a common faith.

And so he can mention things. He doesn't have to stop and say, okay, now let me tell you about this doctrine of justification by faith, because he's already explained that.

He has already communicated that to them, so he can just make reference to it and move on from there.

And so this section we're going to be looking at, you will notice, is a little bit, I would call it almost a little bit on the choppy side.

Now some of you might say that's a strange thing to say. How can you accuse the Holy Spirit of God of choppiness? Well, what is scripture?

As Peter described it, men spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so when

I read Romans, I can tell the difference between Romans and Galatians. Well, they talk about a lot of the same things.

They do, but Romans is clearly laid out by Paul. It has been thought through.

It has been organized. It's been labored over. And Galatians was written in one shot.

And Paul is calm and focused, like a laser beam in Romans.

And in Galatians, he's really upset. And he skips over his verbs, and he says some really strong stuff there.

Now Philippians has been called the epistle of joy. And so we don't really get the sense that Paul's writing to the church of Philippi, because, wow, they're in deep danger.

There are some warnings. There's going to be a warning in our own passage. Look out for these kind of people. The chapter started, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

And so he is concerned, but he's writing to a church where there's nobody in the church trying to tell them all that Paul guy is terrible, horrible, don't listen to what he has to say.

He's not having to defend himself in that way. It's more like the type of letter that you would expect between friends, an apostle exhorting the church in joy and love.

And so he can just sort of start preaching. And sometimes preachers wander around.

And sometimes preachers feel free to go, oh, by the way, let me mention, oh, isn't it just wonderful that...

And then you go into another area of discussion. And I think that explains somewhat of the fact that whereas you can look in Romans and everything is connected to the next thing, and there's an argument being presented, that's not really what you have here.

It's more of the at ease type of thing. I'm at ease with my friends here, and I'm just sharing with them what's on my heart.

And that's what we are looking at. And this is a very personal section, a very personal section, because he's talked about the fact that he doesn't want to have a righteous that comes to the law.

He wants to have one that comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

And he wants to be conformed to his death. If somehow

I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

He's talking about his motivation, what drives him.

When you think about what the apostle Paul went through, when you think about what he experienced, the difficulties, stonings and imprisonments, and the tremendous pressure that was upon him, the pressure of the churches and the pressure of the enemies and everything that he went through.

How could he have joy? How could he have contentment? And we are given a very good idea of what that is in this particular section.

So having said that, laid these things out, that I may know

Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, the fellowship of his sufferings.

How many people pray for that? I want to have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. How many of us pray for that?

Most of us pray to be released from any and all sufferings. But Paul wants to know what it means to share in the sufferings of Christ, because he realizes to serve the body, the body is the body of Christ, to serve the body is to know the fellowship of his sufferings.

When the body suffers, that is Christ suffering in them. It's a mysterious thing, he calls it that.

And sometimes we Reformed folks are a little scared of words like that, but the reality is it's a biblical concept.

Christ is living his life in and through us by his Spirit. That's why when Paul is persecuting the church, when

Jesus confronts him on the road to Damascus, why are you persecuting me? Who are you,

Lord? I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting. He's going after his people. And we enter into that fellowship, now beginning in verse 12 then.

He says, now we normally are reading from the ESV, like I said, this is going to be choppy, but I want to explain why it's choppy.

It's because it's choppy. We can smooth it out all we want, but that's one of the problems when you have an

English translation, is the translation normally has a goal, a certain reading level, a certain audience.

And let's be honest, these days, a certain market. That's not good, because I can assure you,

I could turn to 1 John here, and it's nice, simple Greek, and then you turn over to Hebrews, and it is like chewing aluminum foil.

They are very, very different, and it's good that they're very, very different. And if we have a translation that makes them all sound the same, you don't see that.

You don't see that. So this is somewhat choppy. So here's what he says, not that I have already obtained or received, and then it, whatever it is, or that I have already been made perfect, but I am, and then this word's going to appear a number of times in this text.

So let's think about it for a second. I am, and some of the translation's saying, I am reaching out for something, pressing on.

It's actually the word to me, in many contexts, is to persecute. That doesn't work here, does it?

No, it means to press forward towards something. So when it's using, when you're being persecuted, someone's pressing against you.

They're coming after you. But when you're doing it yourself, you are reaching forward.

You are striving for something. And so he's saying, I'm not saying that I've already received it or have been made perfect, but I am reaching forward.

I am pressing on is very frequently the translation that is used.

In order that, why is he pressing on? If he's not there yet, why then is he pressing on?

That in order that I might, by some means, grasp hold of that by which

I have been grasped hold of by Christ Jesus. Like I said, it's a little bit on the choppy side.

So he's reaching for something, but then notice it's not just him and his working.

It's something that he's also, God has laid hold of him by Christ Jesus.

So whatever it is that he's saying he's reaching for, he realizes the only reason he is consistently doing so is because of the work of God in his life.

This is something that God has placed within him. Why do any of us persevere?

It's not because you're better than somebody else. It's not because you're more special than the person next to you in the pew that might a year from now not be here.

That's an experience the church has. What's the difference? Is it you? Is it you're smarter?

Stronger? No, it is the work of God. And he says, look, I know that God isn't even yet finished with me.

I have not yet reached perfection. That's eschatological. That's at the resurrection. I know that day is coming, but I press on in order that I may obtain, lay hold on that which

I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I do not consider myself, that's the word consider, there's the same term that we translate it impute to someone.

It's to think about something, to reckon. That's the old South way. I don't reckon. I do not reckon myself.

I do not consider myself to have already obtained, I've laid hold of it yet.

And we're going to come back and go, what is it? Because Paul doesn't really just lay it out in a nice, concise way, what the it is.

He makes us sort of work through it to figure that out. But brethren, I do not consider myself to have already laid hold on it.

But then I love this. Two little words, each one has two letters.

But one. But one. He says, but one.

That's one thing. But one thing, he says, right there in the middle of verse 13. We translate this, but one thing

I do, we translate it as a much longer thing. But it's the primary thing. But one, forgetting the things that are behind.

The things are behind me, forgetting those things. The things that are before,

I am reaching for. I am, I am pursuing after the things that are before.

I am reaching out. It's like, it's like when the outfielder is out there and it's a fly ball and he does that diving catch is way out there to get it.

He's reaching for what is before him. And so you have directions here. And I think one of the things that's going to help us to sort of put this all together is that fundamentally what

Paul is saying is I have a direction that does not change. I'm not just wandering around the wilderness.

I'm not going in circles. I'm not revisiting where I've been. I have a goal.

And what he's going to say to the Philippians is you need to have the same goal that I do. Imitate me.

Christians should never be people who sit around going, I just, I just don't know what to do with my life.

I don't, I don't know where to go. It may be one thing to figure out specifics in a move or a career choice or something like that.

But as believers, we should have no doubt about the fact that God has arrested us.

He's grabbed hold of us and he's given us a purpose. And that may work out differently in each one of our lives, depending on what it is we've been called to do.

But the goal is going to be the same. The goal is going to be the same. He says, look, I've got one thing.

There's one primary thing for getting the things that are behind. I am reaching out to the things that are in front of me.

And he says I pursue. Again, I press on, that same term to persecute.

I go after the goal of the prize.

And then it's, again, an interesting thing to try to translate. It's literally the above calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And so I am pursuing one particular prize. It's a particular goal in my mind.

And it is this upward calling. It's the word that is translated upward there is the same word that's used when we talk about being born again, same root anyways.

But it's actually born from above. And I think if you think about Philippians chapter three, there's another chapter in one of Paul's epistles that's very similar, uses a lot of the same language.

Colossians chapter three, where Paul talks about, don't think about the things upon earth.

Think upon the things that are above. And he's going to say here, watch out for people whose minds are always on things upon the earth.

We should be seeking this upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

This is the prize. This is something that he is reaching for.

Just as that runner runs toward that tape. And you've seen there's a dozen videos on YouTube that you can watch where somebody thought they had it all won.

And they started to celebrate earlier. They let off the gas or whatever it was. And somebody comes along and nips them right at the end because they're reaching for that prize.

And they beat them out. And Paul is saying, I'm pressing on. I am expending energy toward the goal of the prize of that upward call of God.

He's calling me upward because what's going to be the final fulfillment, the final accomplishment of knowing

Christ and being known by him and being conformed to his image? It's in the future.

I still experience so much now that keeps me from that fulfillment, but it's coming.

And I'm pressing toward that prize, is what he says to his beloved in Philippi.

And so he says, in light of that, therefore, as many as are, and I would translate the term here as mature, as many as are mature, because he had said up in verse 12,

I have not been made perfect. I have not been made complete yet. That's still to come.

Here's the same root, but it's being used in a different way. As many of us, therefore, as are mature.

If you've come to understand, you know, you come into the Christian life and you absorb so much from the people around you and you pick up a lot of traditions that may or may not necessarily be biblical.

And then over time, there is a maturing process that takes place.

He says, as many as are mature, think in this way.

Now, where have we heard thinking before? In Philippians. Philippians chapter 2. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Same term. And so he's saying, as many as mature, think in this way.

Have this attitude that I have expressed to you. But then we have this very strange, and it comes up with lots of interpretations, and if anyone has a different attitude or thinks differently,

God will reveal it to them, to you, literally. He will reveal it to you.

Now, there are a lot of things that Paul would be speaking to us about where he would not use this kind of language.

If he was talking about who God is, who Christ is, what the gospel is, he's not going to be saying, and if anyone disagrees, hey, you know,

God will get around to you. We're all cool. That's not what happens in Galatians when he starts off your anathema, if you have a different perspective on this.

So obviously, he's not talking in this idea of this mindset of some kind of doctrinal position where he's saying, well, whatever you want to believe.

Instead, it's this maturity, and he recognizes that there can be immaturity within the body of believers.

And in fact, there always is. We're all in different states of immaturity, are we not?

That's not something we should want to continue in, but he recognizes that in the fellowship, there are going to be those who do not have that same level of maturity, and God, in the process of sanctification, will reveal that to those individuals.

That's not up to us to be running about making sure that everyone dresses like us and thinks like us on every single little issue or that's something we could really use some help on.

We seem to think very often that if we've figured something else, if we've figured something out, everybody else needs to figure it out too.

And right now, and I'll help you to do it. In fact, I'll drive you insane until you have listened from me this great truth.

Well, you know, it may have been a great truth, and the Lord may be doing a lot in your life for you to come to understand that, but it may not be time for that other person.

And I've seen a lot of friendships and difficulties come about when people did not realize that.

But he says, we're not doing the application part yet, but there you have him saying,

God will reveal it to you. But he says, however, those of us who have attained a particular standard, who have come to understand what it is

I'm talking about, let us walk in that standard that we have attained.

In other words, let's be consistent. Philippians, don't be looking for new stuff all the time.

Walk in the standard that you have obtained. He says, be my imitators, become imitators of me.

Join in following after my example, brethren, and take notice of, look to, mark out those who walk just as you have an example in me.

So it's not just me, but when you see others, when you see those mature brothers and sisters and how they are walking and how they are consistent, mark them out and follow after their example.

Why? Because he says, for there are many, and I've told you this many times before, and I'm saying it again now with tears, who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose

God is literally their belly. So that would be their desires, their inward desires, whose

God is their belly and their glory is their shame. And then at the end, he just simply renamed them with this interesting phrase, the ones thinking about setting their mind on earthly things.

That's the description. They are consumed by earthly thoughts and pleasures.

That's his warning. It would seem to me, we'll make application a little bit later, but that would seem to me that he's talking about people who are making a profession of faith.

Why else would he be crying? Why would he be saying with tears? Except that these are individuals who claim to have been freed from the tyranny of sin, and yet they have actually not been.

So as you can see, there are a number of interesting aspects to just how

Paul expresses himself here, but let's go back and let's ask the question, what is it?

Some of you are too young to remember that we had an impeachment of a president many years ago, and it was all over what does is mean?

It was obviously an argument about the very basic meaning of language.

And sometimes the apostle will leave unexpressed what we would like to have expressed in very, very, very clear terms.

So when he says in verse 12, I have not yet grasped hold.

I have not yet been made perfect. It does seem to me that he is hearkening back to what he has just said.

That is that eschatological, the final day perfection that I hope on a regular basis we as believers long for.

I hope the world doesn't have our attention so deeply that there are not times we find our minds going, oh

Lord, for the day when the tyranny of sin is gone.

When I no longer am hurtful to others because of my own ignorance, my own foolishness.

Do we ever stop? And I don't mean to become so heavenly minded of no earthly good as is often said, but shouldn't there be a regular part of our thinking?

Let's put it this way. Shouldn't we be thinking a whole lot more about this than we think about some type of thing we've got coming up in our own lives, some trip we've got coming up, something we're trying to save up to buy, you know, whatever else it might be.

Shouldn't it, when we have those times and you catch yourself daydreaming, what are you thinking about?

What takes up your time, your mind? Shouldn't there be at times, along with the apostle, such a deep desire to be perfected?

So many of the disrupted relationships we have, what are they because of? Our own selfishness, our own ignorances, this tongue that we have that says so many stupid things and causes so much hurt.

And isn't there a longing, oh, the day when in fellowship with Christ and with the saints,

I can speak and no stupid word will ever come out.

Won't that be wonderful? But Paul knows he is not there yet, but what

Paul is saying is we need to have a goal. You see, each one of us has been called to very different lives, businesses, occupations.

You've been given different gifts, but I am convinced that everyone needs to have goals.

I'm convinced. I mean, for me, I fall into a real funk when

I do not have goals, when I'm not moving towards something. Physically, we need to have goals.

Mentally, we need to have goals. We need to challenge ourselves. We live, I'll be honest with you, in a lazy day.

Even during this this lockdown, what did you hear all the time?

Everyone's sitting on their couch watching Netflix. Well, there's a goal for you. That's real hard to do.

That's tough. And we've already, I saw a story this morning, literally, about a school principal who went into lockdown and she already struggled with weight issues and she died of a heart attack because she didn't do anything.

She just stayed in her house. She never went for a walk. She never... Now, some of these folks, I mean, there are some people out there that are scared to go for a walk down the street.

That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. But there are a lot of people, judging by the number of memes, you saw them too, huh?

There are a lot of memes of people out there that it seems that the food supply is doing okay so far.

You know what I mean? We need to have goals and not just in January. We need to have physical goals.

We need to have mental goals. We need to have spiritual goals.

And Paul says we have a goal. And when you have a direction you're going, even if you have to vary one way or another to get around a roadblock, as long as you know where you're going, you keep trying to get there.

If you don't have a goal, you're never going to accomplish anything. And Paul says, I have a goal. And even though I do not consider myself to have arrived, one thing

I do. There is one conviction, and it was the apostle's conviction when he rose in the morning, and it was still his conviction when he laid down at night.

And let me just ask honest question. This is a really personal, straightforward section.

So if you're thinking you're going to be able to hide behind a lot of doctrinal stuff today, it's not going to happen. Sorry. Sorry.

We got it. We got to hear what the apostle is saying. How many times you've gotten up in the morning and, man, you pray,

Lord, I want to be sensitive to your spirit today. I want to, I want to accomplish things for you.

I want to guard my tongue. I want to, I want, I, oh man, were you focused.

And you lay your head on the pillow that night, and all you can say to yourself is, what happened?

Where did I lose that day? I mean,

Lord, I started off all right, but I got lost.

The world hit me from every which direction, and I, I lost my way.

I didn't accomplish any of the things I wanted to accomplish. Now, you can go to bed going,

I'm such a loser. Or you can go to bed going, wow, you're a gracious God, to continue to use me and to promise that tomorrow

I can still serve you. I've not lost that opportunity. But you have to have a goal.

You have to have a goal. He says, I forget the things that are behind. That does not mean I don't take lessons.

It does not mean I do not grow and learn from God's work and sanctifying my life.

That's not what he's saying. But that stuff behind me cannot define who

I am, cannot define what God is calling me to do. I can learn from it.

I can see his hand in it. I know that it has been used by God to make me the person

I am, but I have to press forward. I can't keep circling back.

And over the years in ministry, you meet a lot of people just keep circling back.

They just keep circling back. It may be some one huge, horrible thing.

It might be a series of things. It might be broken relationships, but they keep circling back.

They're never making any progress. The goal's still out there, but they keep circling back.

Keep revisiting the past. Be thankful for what God has done in your past, but realize

God created time for you to exist in it, and you need to be pressing forward. You need to be making an advancement.

You need to be keeping your eyes on the prize, and that prize is the upward call.

Now, this could be understood a number of different ways. Some see it as a call that comes from that which is upward, because it could be heavenly.

The heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. And that term, calling, that frequently is used in a satirological sense, a salvation sense.

We have been called. The verbal form is used of our calling and election. All of that is true, but it seems that what is really in view here is that call upward to fellowship with God in Christ Jesus, because that's what he started with, that I might know

Christ. I might gain Christ. I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and we know that that will come to fruition in the eschaton in fullness, but is that just simply something that means we can put it off till then?

No. We have the privilege in this life of learning more and more about God's heart if we would just have our eyes open to see.

Every day, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, every day His Spirit is conforming you to the

Christ, and if we would but look, we would be able to see it. If we would but pray to be sensitive as we read the word,

Lord, use this word to open my heart to see what you're doing in my life, that I might know you better.

It's not just taking in knowledge. That's important. We're to grow in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ, but if it's all just a list of facts that does not tell you more about who

God is, you're missing something very important. You're missing something very important, and so there is a prize.

It's that finish line run that He is making, and that is that upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

It's not just a divine upward call for Apostle Paul. If God's doing it,

He's doing it in and through what? Actually, in and through whom? Jesus Christ.

It's exclusive. The only way to experience this call is in and through Christ.

All the pluralism in the world can't be crammed into the text of the New Testament, and so I would ask each one of us in this coming week, how often as work looms on Monday, if you are still blessed to have such a thing, or as whatever responsibilities that you have come your direction tomorrow, how often do we give serious thought,

Lord, I do not want to be the same person I am today at the end of this week that I was at the beginning.

I want you each and every day to remind me of who

I am in Christ, and I want to be more like Him on the next

Lord's Day than I am today as I start this week. I want to apply what your

Word communicated to me in that brief period of time that we call worship,

I want to apply it to my life in this coming week in how I think, how

I act, how I respond to others. For some people, that can be a general thing.

You can make a general application and pray that in all of your relationships, but other people need to be more focused, and so you can say, you know,

Lord, there's that one person at work, and I always struggle. I may have some prejudices because of things they've done to me in the past.

I may not like this person at all, but I would pray that in this coming week,

I would come to understand what the upward call of God in Christ Jesus is in my life in relationship to that person.

What is that going to mean? Some people have to be specific like that.

Other people can be generally seeking a sensitivity, but why do we come here if not to see the specifics of God's Word applied in our lives to be made more like Christ?

And Paul's talking to all believers. He's saying, be an imitator of me. This is what

I'm doing. What gave his life direction?

What gave it the kind of power that has made him one of the most beloved people in all of history, and one of the most hated people in all of history?

Both. There was a focus, and he's explaining what that focus is to us right here.

That upward call, one thing I pursue after it, that prize.

Do you prize the upward call? Most of you know

I'm a cyclist, and man has cycling been messed up this year.

Some of you are going, yeah, try being a baseball fan. Yeah, the exact same thing.

I mean, the Tour de France is going to be in September. What's that? I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. Half the races have been canceled.

And I think, well, the Olympics, well, so much for that. Put off to the next year.

And I think of the athletes and the focus that they need to have to compete at the highest level.

It's hard for all of them right now to have any focus on, because they don't know what the future is going to be. They don't know what they're going to be facing.

And we don't know what we're going to be facing in the future as well. But one thing we do know is that this high calling of God in Christ Jesus remains the same no matter what the political situation, no matter what the economic situation.

It doesn't change. That's something the rest of the world doesn't have, folks. It's something we should be thankful for.

It doesn't change. But if we are willing to put out the kind of effort that we see in athletes to win that gold medal, and that gold medal is just going to sit there.

It doesn't do anything for them. It doesn't give them eternal life. You and I have the opportunity to pursue this goal of the upward call in Christ Jesus, and he gave himself for you and for me on the cross of Calvary.

Should that not result in an absolute effort on our part?

Oh, I don't want to hear about effort. Well, I realize it's just like Paul said at the beginning.

I want to grab something, but it's because I've already been grabbed by God in Christ Jesus.

It's the now and the not yet. It's the reality that Paul can say,

I'm striving for this. It's already been guaranteed to me, but I still desire it. I'm reaching out.

That's where we are right now in this in -between time. Yes, the future is going to be awesome.

Yes, being completely perfected is going to be tremendous, but what a promise we have in this life as well, and our desire should be to reach out with full effort for these things, and he says because of that, because of that, those of you who are mature have this attitude, have this attitude.

Now, remember in Philippians chapter 2, the previous chapter, he had exhorted all of us to have the same attitude which was in Christ Jesus.

This is how you have peace within the body. If we are not pulling the same direction, we're not going to accomplish anything.

That's why Satan wants to create division within the body, and that's why it should be something that we all pray every day,

Lord, protect your people from division. Right now in our society, we are living in a day where that which used to hold society together is being ripped out of the very fabric.

Each one of us is being told that we should be offended by everybody.

The whole concept of intersectionality is designed to destroy any societal cohesion, and it's coming into the church.

We're being taught it through movies and films and books and television.

It's being laid out for us, and that's what makes so many of the passages in Scripture seem so strange to us.

Let's all have the same attitude. Well, wait a minute, I'm a victim, and I want my rights.

No, we're to have the same attitude. We're to lay those things. That's part of what's behind. Oh no, that's what needs to be in the front now, and it's happening all around us.

The results are incredibly dangerous societally, but they're fatal for the church.

I can tell you one thing. When you have a local body that is blessed by God to have people that are on the same page, to use that colloquialism, that are pulling the same direction, that have the same goals, it's a joy to be in that church.

It's a joy to have fellowship with saints like that, but when you have a fellowship where people start pulling their own direction, thinking they're the most important person in that fellowship, and everybody needs to be fulfilling their needs.

In other words, when that worldly attitude begins to come in, and you don't have this attitude of the mature, division, backbiting, there is no place you'd rather not be than in a context like that.

And for leaders in a church like that, it is horrific. It truly is.

It's a horrible thing. I'll never forget driving down the road in Georgia many years ago.

We were going to visit the Andersonville prison, if any of you have ever heard of that, the Confederate prison in Andersonville.

Notorious for the number of people that died there. But on the way there, you're going through the back roads, and you come across the

First Baptist Church. Well, there's the First Baptist Church. And then you go over the hill, go around the corner, and there's the

Second Baptist Church. And 150 meters down the street is the

Third Baptist Church. And literally, we got to the Seventh Baptist Church.

We did. Before you got to the next town, it started all over again. Oh, do we know how to divide.

What's the greatest way to avoid that? Have this attitude. Have the same goal.

Have the same goal. And if verse 16 says, let us keep living by that one thing, that same conclusion, that same goal, that same standard to which we have attained.

Folks, the world will tell you, you constantly need something new. Isn't that what consumer culture is all about?

All your old stuff. Oh, you can't wear the same dress you wore last year to the party, can you?

I mean, really? And you know, that car is a couple years old now.

And sure, it runs fine. But I mean, what are the neighbors going to think? And we've had it drilled into us in a consumer society that contentment is un -American.

Being happy with what you have. Being thankful for what you have. Oh, no, no, no, no.

We can't have that. And we see it in the church.

I'm old enough now, I remember all these movements. Oh, my goodness. They were all the...

How many... Oh, this is dangerous. Because I'm sure Jeff's old enough.

But some of the rest of you are going to go, huh? How many of you remember the prayer of Jabez?

That's about a third. That's about a third.

The other two -thirds of you, you are blessed. There was a time you could get prayer of Jabez coffee mugs and Bible covers and t -shirts.

And oh, it was the big thing. I think an entire publishing house came out of the prayer of Jabez stuff.

And now, who's every... Look it up sometime. You'll go, they built something out of that?

Yes. Yes. And as I think back over my life,

I think of fad after fad after fad that has come and gone.

Millions of dollars generated. And what does Paul say? You know, to us mature, let us keep living by that same standard we've already attained to.

Be content with that. Be consistent. Be consistent.

You young folks, let me tell you something. You want to have a goal?

Want to have a goal? Ask God to make in you a heart of wisdom that counts your days, that allows you to realize that you may think you've got forever, but this life is short.

So that you will make wise decisions. You will love the friendships and relationships that God gives to you.

And that when you are on your deathbed, people will look at you and they will say, there was a person that in every season of their life showed that they were a follower of Jesus Christ.

Every season of their life, they were consistent. Don't go for having your name up in lights.

Go for consistency. You will present to God something tremendously precious.

And I can tell you, I've been at the bedside of dying saints. I've been at the bedside of dying saints.

I remember a fellow elder of mine in a previous church. He was always weak.

He had a very weak heart, but he was just one of the most godly men you'd ever want to meet.

If there was ever a gentle soul, he had a gentle soul. And I saw him the afternoon that he passed away.

He was hardly able to speak whatsoever. But in those few moments, the fact that he could confess his continued faithful trust in Christ to be his savior, and that he had done that week in, week out, day in, day out before then, was one of the most beautiful things

I've ever seen. And I can tell you right now, there are some really rich people in this world. They don't have anything in comparison to what he had as he lay on his deathbed.

Now, all that money, what that man had is what you should strive to have yourself.

The world cannot offer it to you. The world cannot offer it to you. Live by that same standard to which we have attained.

Then Paul says, follow my example. Follow my example and follow those who walk according to the type, the pattern that you have in us.

Follow the apostolic example. That's why I love teaching church history. But you'll find sin in people, and you'll find some of your favorite theologians, you know, they had blind spots.

So do you and I. So do you and I.

But you can learn so much from them. Let me give you a quick example of one instance of that.

I'd recommend to you, I think it was Ian Murray's biography of Jonathan Edwards. Ian Murray? I think so.

Anyway, it's a great biography of Jonathan Edwards that I read years ago. I'm not sure that any of us can ever, if you've looked at Jonathan Edwards' resolutions, you just end up going,

I'm not a Christian. You just walk away. At 19, that's what he, okay, fine, whatever.

Buddhism sounds good now. And you just give up because you're just like, wow, what an incredible set of goals and standards he had.

Well, he didn't live up to them all the time. But man, is it challenging to think about how he lived his life.

But it wasn't so much him as it was his wife. It is

Mother's Day. His wife, of all the things in that book, what stuck with me was the fact that when he died, and he died of a botched vaccination, yay.

They were just learning how to do vaccinations back then. Everything could kill you back then.

And I think it was a smallpox vaccination, and they didn't do it right.

And he died. And of course, he didn't have cell phones and things like that.

He was founding president of Princeton. And so he was far away from where his wife was, and they had lots and lots of kids together.

And she is informed, word finally comes to her, that her husband has died.

Edwards had a rough life. You might think, oh, he was greatly viewed as a great theologian. He was, but he had a rough life.

He was kicked out of his church. The church turned on him. That happened to a lot of people during their lifetimes.

They were not nearly as esteemed as they would be later on. That's why you got to leave it in the

Lord's hands as to what your legacy is going to be. But her reaction, she lost one of her daughters right around the same time.

I can't remember if it was before or after. I think it was right afterwards. But her reaction upon being informed of her husband's death will stick with me forever.

She wrote a letter and she said, may the Lord lay his hand upon me in this dark providence in such a fashion.

I didn't memorize that. I'm just giving you the gist. That I will not do anything.

In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I think she wrote this in a letter to a daughter who never read the letter because the daughter died of the disease before she got the letter.

I think that's not what I'm recalling. Here was her sentiment. May I do nothing in my response to the loss of my husband that would in any way, shape or form detract from the glory of God.

Her first thought was not for her. Her first thought, and she had been taught well by her husband.

Her first thought, he lived to glorify God. He preached to men and women that they needed to glorify

God. He preached the sermons, sinners in the hands of an angry God to the glory of God.

And in the midst of this, God having cut him off, he wasn't very old.

In the midst of it all, her focus was solely upon the glory of God. What about us?

What about us? What will be our goal? It's not just a switch you can turn on right at the time of crisis.

If we aren't living that way regularly, we will find it difficult to respond properly when the real crisis comes into our lives.

It's the everyday consistency, living according to this same standard.

We can learn from those who've gone before. And finally, last word, I think that's the second time

I've said it now, because Jeff's counting, because he did it six times during the sermon to the governor.

I think I was just to keep governor listening. That's what it's supposed to be. But the first one was like 35 minutes before he finished, so that doesn't really work.

There's probably a law under false advertising you're not supposed to do. But the positive of verse 17, we've given you an example, is balanced by verse 18.

For many walk, for many walk, as I have told you so many times before, and now with tears

I tell you again, as enemies of the cross. Enemies of the cross of Christ.

How can you be an enemy of the cross of Christ? That's why I think they are claiming to be followers of Jesus.

They name the name of Christ. And yet, how does he describe them?

Whose end is destruction. Whose God is their belly, their desires, their appetites.

Whose glory is their shame. And then he just simply wraps it all up.

He uses, my favorite part of the Greek language is what's called a participle. Isn't that weird?

Most people hate participles. Participles are the color palette that the writer can use to fill in all the beautiful shades of the language in Greek.

It really is. They're beautiful. And what you can do is you can turn a participle into a substantive by using an article.

And then what you do is you pack some cool stuff between the article and the participle to come up with this really neat description that carries a big punch.

And so the end of verse 19 is, the things upon earth attitude ones, thinking ones.

Why do I want to finish with this? We cannot be consistent

Christians who will glorify God when we allow the world to define the way we think and react.

And my friends, we have freedom in Christ. It's a wonderful thing. But how often do we use that freedom to expose our minds to worldly ways that we end up adopting to our own destruction?

How often when we hear the psalmist say, I will set no useless thing before my eyes, can we go, me too?

How can someone who claims to be a Christian be described by Paul as an enemy of the cross of Christ?

Because you can slather religion all over a worldly attitude.

It's still a worldly attitude. It's still a worldly attitude.

If your goal really is the upward call to really know

Christ, to understand the fellowship of his sufferings, is that not going to make a change?

Aren't your priorities going to be different? That's why he has this warning.

Mark them out. Mark those who walk according to the apostolic example. Imitate them.

But then I warn you with tears, be careful of those who call themselves Christians.

But they're enemies of the cross. Why are they enemies of the cross? Because they refuse to die on it. They refuse to die on it.

Jesus says, take it up. Follow me. Join the death march.

What would it have done anyone to take up the cross and then go run off down the road with it?

I'll keep carrying it, but I ain't going to die on it. I'll wear it, but I won't die on it.

Become the enemy of the cross when you say, that's mine, but I won't live in light of it.

I won't live in light of it. Personal words, the apostle communicates to his brothers and his sisters, but they are words that echo down through the centuries and give guidance to us on the practical level right now.

Before you forget, before you're distracted, before you move on with all the other things you've got to do, what are you fellow believers going to do this week in asking, ask the

Lord right now, Lord, how can I experience the upward call of God in Christ Jesus between now and the next

Lord's day? How can I experience it? Don't let me forget,

Lord. Don't let me be distracted. Let me follow the apostolic example.

Let me bring glory to you. Let's make that commitment right now.

Let's pray together. Indeed, our gracious heavenly

Father, we would ask that in this moment of quiet, that by your

Spirit in the heart of each individual who has truly bowed the knee in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, that you would by your

Spirit bring conviction of sin and encouragement to press forward, to pursue, to put out that full effort to obtain the prize.

Help us not always to be circling back. Let us be moving forward to that upward call.

May we understand what that would mean in this coming week. If we know what that means, that sin that needs to be mortified and put to death, that temptation that we keep playing with,

Lord, whatever it might be, by your Spirit, make us more like Jesus.

If there be any in this room that do not know you, Lord, we pray that they would see their need, that they would realize that they have no goal or direction in life at all.

They would see their need, their sin, and see the perfect sin bearer, Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you. We thank you for these words that you have preserved for us down through the centuries.

And Lord, as we sit here this day, you caused these words to come alive in our hearts.

May we be thankful that you continue to build your church, that you are with us now, and you'll especially be with us now as we celebrate the

Lord's Supper. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for the freedom we've had.

Thank you for this place to meet. We ask that you would continue to meet that need as well.