WWUTT 023 Forgetting What Lies Behind (Philippians 3:12-16)

I'm going to reveal something to you that's probably no great revelation at all. I am not perfect.

I'm not. I'm really not. I desperately need a Savior. Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and it is only because of the work that Christ has done that I have right standing before God.

Now, even though I'm not perfect, I strive to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text. My name is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Such a delight to be along with you as we have been studying through the book of Philippians together.

Today, we're going to be in Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 12. Yesterday, I shared a little bit of my testimony with you.

I gave my life to Christ when I was four. Told him, hey, God, whatever you want to do with me, please do it with my life.

And if you looked at my resume from that point on, I lived as a pretty squeaky clean Christian. I didn't smoke, never smoked a cigarette, never been drunk.

I remained abstinent until marriage. I worked at a Christian radio station. I was pretty knowledgeable in the scriptures, and I shared

Bible verses on the air so people knew my name and whatever church I walked into. They kind of accepted me as this

Bible pro because they knew me as the Christian guy on Christian radio playing Christian songs, working for a

Christian organization and sharing Bible verses. So I must have been really good, right? But behind the scenes was a guy who manipulated people to get my own way.

I lied. I cheated. I used people. I was not very sympathetic to this day.

I can't even really know all of the people that I probably hurt in order to get my own way in order to live selfishly the way that I did.

Even though I was abstinent, I had an addiction to porn, so I was committing adultery in that way.

I was not good enough. There was nothing that I could have done to attain right standing before God, no matter how squeaky clean you thought that I looked like on the outside.

On the inside, I was full of dead men's bones, and I desperately needed Christ Jesus. And Jesus saved me from my own self righteousness.

And it is only through Jesus Christ that I have right standing with God, not attaining a righteousness of my own, but the righteousness of Christ.

All of that stuff that you said would have been great and fantastic. And man, I hope that my kids can grow up being as squeaky clean as you were.

I count all of that as loss for the surpassing greatness that is in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Now, I want you to keep that in mind here, as that was the testimony that the Apostle Paul shared.

All of that stuff that he had attained as a rock star Pharisee, he counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

He goes on in verse eight of chapter three to say, indeed, I count everything as loss.

Nothing, nothing of what I've got, nothing that I have attained can help me gain perfection or puts me in a right place before God.

I count all of that as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. This is a full, humble attitude here.

I'm giving up everything to follow Christ. Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple, you got to die to yourself, take up your cross daily and follow after me.

And Paul is displaying that for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him, like him in his death, that by any means possible,

I may attain the resurrection of the dead. And now we get to verse 12. We're going to be reading verses 12 through 16 today.

Paul says, not that I have already obtained this, the resurrection from the dead, 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 for getting 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 anything you think otherwise, if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Only let us hold true to what we have attained. And what we've attained is righteousness in Christ.

Let us pray. And then we'll go back through these scriptures again. Our precious heavenly father,

I pray that your spirit would be upon us as we read these things. Lord, I thank you that we can be called your children.

And we know by what we read in Hebrews chapter 12 that we are being disciplined because we are your children.

If a father doesn't discipline his children, he hates his children. But you love us and so you discipline us. And as we're being convicted of the things that we've talked about, as we read through the scriptures here, as we become more knowledgeable of your righteousness and holiness and perfection, and therefore at the same time become more knowledgeable of our sin and how far short of the glory of God we truly fall.

I pray that by your spirit, we're able to digest these things in a proper way that we are convicted in our hearts and we repent before God.

Create in us a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit as we seek your truth in your word today.

And it is in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So Paul says in verse 12, not that I've already obtained the resurrection of the dead or am already perfect.

I'm not. Now, even though I've said that because of my obedience to the law, I'm not perfect, but it's only through Christ Jesus that I attain righteousness.

So now before God, he sees the righteousness of Christ, not a righteousness that I attain by obeying the law.

OK, now, even though I've said that, I'm not saying that I'm already perfect. I press on, though, to make it my own.

All right. And this is sanctification. Talked about this yesterday, too. Justification is that right standing that we have before God.

We are justified by faith. We attain that justification through faith in Jesus Christ. That justification in action is sanctification.

So as we grow in the knowledge of God and in holiness and we grow in love for the body of Christ, we are being sanctified.

So Paul presses on to make that perfection his own. He seeks to attain perfection through Christ, even though he knows that in the flesh he's not going to get it.

But he grows in that sanctification process and righteousness and holiness through Jesus Christ, putting that justification into action.

And he seeks perfection in Christ, even though in the flesh he's not going to attain it.

It's not going to be until Christ makes our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

We're going to read that in verse 21. Christ is going to transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

That's when we will attain perfection. But we still seek that perfection that is in Christ Jesus as we grow in this sanctification process.

Are you keeping track with me here? All right. So Paul saying, I haven't already obtained perfection, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own because he has called me to himself.

I am going to display that I belong to Christ by seeking the perfection of Christ. 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 that is in Christ Jesus.

OK, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Now, there are there are oftentimes where we will take this verse to mean

I'm going to forget all the negative stuff. I'm going to forget about the bad things that are happening to me right now.

And I'm just going to focus on the positive things. So I'm going to press forward to what lies ahead, forgetting the past and pressing forward to what lies ahead.

OK, there's some a bit of truth to that. Yeah, definitely. But in the context of what we're reading here, what

Paul is actually talking about, he's saying that I forget what I have accomplished. I'm not going to sit back and kick back and relax and throw my feet up on what

I've accomplished, even as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as the founder of this church, the church in Philippi.

OK, Paul is not saying, hey, look, I can just kick back now and relax and say, man, look at all the good stuff that I have done.

I can coast the rest of my earthly life on this stuff and still get some pretty good praise for it.

I'll still have some pretty awesome jewels in my crown because of this that I have accomplished. The apostle Paul is not sitting back and relaxing on what he has accomplished up to this point.

He is saying, you know what, it's great that I've accomplished those things. It's an accomplishment of Christ, not the accomplishment of me.

OK, and I'm going to forget that to press on, to strain forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God that is in Christ Jesus.

I think back to Hebrews 12. I mentioned that in the prayer here, but also in Hebrews 12, we read that we are supposed to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, the perfecter of our faith, and we run the race with endurance.

OK, we're fixing our eyes on Jesus, running the race with endurance that is set before us.

And Paul is basically saying that same thing here. I forget what lies behind and I strain forward to what lies ahead.

A person who is running a race doesn't think about the track that they've covered so far. They are pressing forward to what they have yet to accomplish, and that is crossing the finish line that is making it to the goal.

All right. I read an article this past week that involved the musician

Prince. OK, yes, the great rock legend Prince. All right. Stick with me here.

Anyway, I was reading this article that had to do with Prince, and there was a journalist who was there with Prince in his studio, and he answered the phone and Prince had a phone call, a cell phone call.

And so he answered the phone and he said, this is Prince. And the journalist is sitting right there listening to Prince have this phone conversation.

And the first thing that Prince says is after he says, this is Prince, he says, I don't want to talk about the past.

So it was a journalist who was calling him up, who was praising Prince for all of the things that he had accomplished in rock music so far.

And Prince is saying, I don't want to talk about that. I've got other projects coming up. That's what I want to talk about. Let's talk about the stuff that I've got coming up.

So that's a very worldly example. Okay, but it's an example of a person who understands I'm not just sitting back and relaxing on the stuff that I've accomplished so far.

I'm going to press on to more stuff. You could already call Prince a rock legend, but he is still pressing forward on more musical accomplishments, not relaxing on the stuff that he has done so far, but continuing to work hard.

All right. Again, a very worldly example. And unless Prince is in Christ, none of this is going to count for anything once he stands before the judgment seat of God.

But we can still take that example from a worldly person and apply it to how we need to be in Christ Jesus.

We cannot relax on what we've accomplished so far. Well, I prayed a prayer of forgiveness, and so now

I'm good before God. There is nothing else that I need to do. No, we need to continually be showing repentance in our lives.

There needs to be a continual attitude of repentance, not having repented once, but continuing to repent, to come before God and say,

God, I am still struggling in this flesh to do the things that you want me to do.

I'm being tempted, and sometimes I'm giving into that temptation. God, I need your grace, and I need your mercy.

Forgive me and lead me in the truth of your words so that I have the confidence of that forgiveness, and I may give all glory to God for the forgiveness and the grace and the mercy that I have received, nothing to myself because of any work that I have accomplished.

Folks, that is a gospel message that we need to continually be reminding ourselves. We still need the gospel.

Just because you came to Christ doesn't mean that you don't need the gospel anymore. You still constantly need to have your minds renewed and refreshed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead.

Lies behead. Lies ahead. Yes, you do need to forget about all the stuff that people have said to put you down.

Okay? Sure. You need to forget that work was hard today or something.

I don't know. Whatever is weighing you down that is negative, yes, you do need to forget that stuff because we can dwell so much on the negative things that we lose that hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

Our hope is not in the things of this world. It is in the eternal. We look forward to the eternal things of God, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

I think also of Colossians 3. I'm going to turn there here in the first few verses of Colossians 3.

Paul says, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So we are to fix our eyes and our minds heavenward toward Christ Jesus. Have you ever heard a saying before?

I've had pastor friends who have used this saying before. Have you ever heard the saying, don't be so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good?

Have you ever heard that before? Don't be so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good. I want to tell you, that is a lie from the pit of hell.

It is not possible for you to be so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good. In fact, the only way that you can be of any earthly good is to be completely heavenly minded, having your eyes, your thoughts, your heart fixated on the eternal things of God, not the limited things of this earth.

It is the only way to do any earthly good is to fix our eyes on Christ, the eternal, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

Forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead. And what lies ahead?

The resurrection of the dead. The goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus, our

Lord. I press 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. Okay, let me say that again here.

Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise,

God will reveal that also to you. The word that is used there for mature actually happens to be the same of the same root word that Paul is using for perfection.

So he's basically saying here, let those of you who are perfect, who think you're perfect, think this way.

If you truly have attained perfection that is in Christ Jesus, or you truly understand that perfection that can only come about in Christ Jesus, then you will realize that you're not actually perfect.

If you think that you are mature, you will actually realize how immature you really are and how much more of Christ you need.

So let those of us who are mature think this way. If you're really mature, you'll realize how immature you are and how much you still need

Christ. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Okay, so we seek the mind of God. We seek a humility that comes about through the

Holy Spirit, humbling ourselves before God so that we might be able to see our shortcomings, our failings in light of His glory and His righteousness so that we see how much more

God we really need. We continue to pursue perfection, okay, continuing to try to make that our own because Christ Jesus has made us

His own. Let those of us who are mature realize we're not really all that mature. And if in anything you think otherwise, if you think you're perfect, let

God reveal that also to you. Pray and ask God in His Spirit to convict you and show you what you need to continue to submit before God.

Maybe something in your life that you've not yet submitted to God. Maybe there is a sin that you are still clinging to and you are thinking to yourself, hey,

I've got the grace of God so I can continue to indulge in that sin and know that God is going to continue to forgive me for it anyway.

No, if that is your attitude, then you are still enslaved to sin. You are not a bond servant of Christ Jesus.

We need to be slaves to Christ, not slaves to our sin. So what sin is there in your life that you need to give up in order that you may chase after the things of God in the way that you are supposed to?

So that more God is filling up in your life in the places where you need more God, okay?

Maybe it is a relationship with another person. Maybe you have a dependency on another person to fulfill certain needs.

And that dependency on that person is an area where Christ is not in because you're depending on that person to fulfill your needs instead of Christ to fulfill that longing.

I think of one of my elders at church. Chris is his name. As a matter of fact, I hope he doesn't mind me using his testimony here, but he will talk about how there are things in his life that maybe he will look at his wife as being the person who needs to fulfill those things.

And if he does that, he's lifting his wife up as an idol and he can't do that. His wife cannot fulfill his any and every need.

It is Christ that is our true fulfillment. All right. So maybe there is a relationship in your life that you need to give up in order to be filled with more of the things of God.

Maybe there is a goal that you have for the future and you think to yourself, I will not truly be happy yet until I have achieved this.

That has become your idol. That has become an area where God has not yet fulfilled you. And you need to give that up to God and ask for more of Christ because our fulfillment as we're talking about our fulfillment is in things of the future.

That doesn't mean your earthly goals. That in itself is also limited. Our focus needs to be toward the eternal things of God, not the limited things on this earth.

So even a future thing that you've not yet accomplished, that cannot be your hope either. Our only hope is in Christ Jesus.

So let us submit ourselves fully to him, not kicking back and relaxing on all that we have accomplished so far, but realizing that we are not perfect.

We seek the perfection of Christ because Christ has made us his own.

Would you pray with me? Our gracious heavenly father who has given us Christ Jesus so that we might have the righteousness of God upon ourselves since we could not attain righteousness on our own.

I pray that we have truly submitted ourselves to Christ, that we are followers of Christ Jesus.

In your eyes, you see us as holy because of what Christ has done, not because of what we have done.

And God, now with that standing before you, give us the desire to continue to seek the things of Christ.

If there is anything in our hearts that is preventing us from being filled up with more of Christ, convict us of that and help us to learn how we need to repent of it and lay it before you.

Continue to lead us in these things in the truth that is in Christ Jesus our Lord and we pray in his name, amen.

Christian musicians are fond of saying things like, well, we're not a Christian band. We're Christians in a band and think they're being profound.

Frontman John Foreman was once asked, is Switchfoot a Christian band? And he answered, to be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it misrepresents a much bigger issue than simply a couple of Switchfoot tunes.

In true Socratic form, let me, oh good grief, let me find a shorter example. Christian filmmaker David Schultz has said, what

I've learned from Smarter Men Than Me is that products can't be Christian. A movie can't be baptized or take communion or follow

Jesus. So are Schultz and other artists correct? Are we misapplying the word Christian? Well, as with anything we talk about on When We Understand the

Text, this all has to do with context. Believe it or not, the word Christian appears only three times in scripture, twice in the book of Acts and once by the apostle

Peter. Christians didn't call each other Christians. They used names like saints, disciples, brothers or the elect.

And Christianity was called the faith or the way. Christian was a word used first by unbelievers to describe followers of Jesus.

And do you think they knew what being a Christian entailed? They didn't understand concepts like baptism or being redeemed.

It was a word used in the context of describing a person associated with Christ. Likewise, when we're using the word

Christian to describe a song or a t -shirt, no one's implying it's born again and going to heaven. It's just a word to describe something that's hopefully giving glory to God through Christ.

If a Christian artist doesn't want that, they have bigger concerns than having their work labeled Christian.

After all, as Peter said, do not be ashamed, but let God be glorified in that name. When we understand the text.

Our question today actually has to do with Christian music. And it comes from Mikey in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Menomonee, however you pronounce that. Anyway, he says, hello, what I would like to suggest music as a topic.

More specifically, are other forms of worship legitimate other than the classic hymns? I am also a big metal fan, and I believe that singing along with bands like Wolves at the

Gate is just as much worship as the hymns are. Thanks. Hey, Mikey, man, that is a crazy question, and I appreciate your heart.

I'm going to be really careful with the way that I respond to this. First of all, when you ask, are other forms of worship legitimate other than the classic hymns?

I'm going to answer this as if you're talking specifically about worship music, because ultimately, I think that's where you're coming from.

You can fold laundry and worship or eat and drink to the glory of God. But we're not talking about that as worship.

We're talking specifically about music. OK, so with that said, are there kinds of worship music as legitimate as singing hymns?

Yes, absolutely. There are hymns are not necessarily universal, and there are people in other languages who lift songs to God in a variety of ways with multiple cultural influences.

The ways that the apostles and the first century church saying praises to God. And they did. We see the instruction in Ephesians and in Colossians to sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs, psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

The songs they sang was not much like our classic hymns. But at the same time, there was a lot of similarities to both in style and in substance.

I just say that to mean that styles change with the times. There's no one way to do worship music right.

OK, except that the lyrics must be doctrinally sound. I would simply put that now. How about metal like Wolves at the

Gate or any other Christian rock music? Can that be worship? Of course it can. And like I said before, even the small tasks that we do throughout our day are to be done as worship to God.

But we're just limiting the conversation now to to music. OK, Romans 12 one says to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the

Lord. Even the music that we listen to needs to honor God. So it's great that you listen to Christian metal.

That's good. If you're going to listen to metal music, I'm glad that it's Christian. A better question, though, or a better way to word this question perhaps would be like this.

Does it belong in a church worship service? OK, and I have to say, Mikey, that I don't think that it does.

Last week, I touched briefly on contextualism and how it's not a good idea for a church to do that.

Contextualism is when a church will focus on just a certain group of people and build an entire church centered to that group's interests or catering to that interest.

OK, so more often than not, they're trying to reach a certain age group like 20 and 30 somethings.

But you can also have a church trying to meet metal fans. That would be contextualism as well. The problem with that is we lose the diversification.

The body of Christ is really supposed to have and we're supposed to display it. As Paul says in Colossians three here, there is not circumcised and uncircumcised black or white barbarians get the enslaved free.

But Christ, who is all and in and in all Jew or Greek, that's what he says, not black or white. But anyway, that same concept, you understand where I'm going here.

So there needs to be a diversification that is displayed in the body of Christ. Another problem with this of having a contextual worship service that may be geared toward metal fans.

Another problem with this is that it makes the style the reason that we go to church instead of Christ. Church is not supposed to be a place where we get comfortable and have all of our tastes for certain styles satisfied.

It's supposed to be about Christ. Mikey, I'd have to ask you if you love Christ enough to give up metal for the cause of Christ.

All right. Can you be satisfied with a diverse church service that maybe does not embrace metal music as a form of worship, at least in the church congregation sense, and still be satisfied with attending that church and worshiping with that group of people?

Now, I'm not trying to presume anything about you. I'm just saying metal can't be the reason why you do church.

Another reason why I would say that I have a problem with metal worship music is that it would be entirely too chaotic.

To be frank, it would look like a charismatic or a Pentecostal church. It would just be chaos. That's the nature of metal music.

It's just noise. You can have a Christ -honoring metal band. That's great. But I don't think that it belongs in the church gathering, the formal assembly of the saints gathered together.

1 Corinthians 14 .33 says that God is not a God of disorder, but of order.

Mikey, whatever you're listening to music -wise, I hope that it is God -honoring and fills your heart and mind with good things that roll up into praise to God.

But what you listen to in your car as worship and what belongs in the formal gathering of the saints, the assembly that gathers together is the body of Christ.

That's two different things. What you do in your car and what you're doing with the body of Christ is two different things. In either case, I hope the lyrics are grounded in sound doctrine and are serving you in a great way to help you focus more on the things of God.

If you have a question for our broadcast, go to our website, www .utt .com.

Let's conclude with prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this body of Christ that we can be a part of.

Lead us into understanding and appreciation for the body of Christ, laying down our lives for one another and considering their needs as greater than our own.

Let the righteousness of Christ be displayed among His body. The love of Christ there in the church.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Pastor Gabe wrote a book for a Bible study at our church that has since been taught on two continents.

It's a study through the book of 1 Corinthians entitled To the Core, great for a group study or for personal use.

It is available only in paperback and you can find it on our website, www .utt .com.

Be sure to let someone else know about our program. We'll resume our study of Philippians tomorrow, rejoicing to hear