Don't Look Back

We'll turn your Bibles, please, to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3, our text this morning, will be verses 12 through 16.

To remind us a little bit of the context, I'll begin reading at verse 10, but our text, as I said, will be the five verses following 10 and 11, that's 12 through 16.

So from Philippians chapter 3, that I may know him, that's

Christ Jesus, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already attained this, 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.

But 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 attained. Heavenly Father, we come now to the true and living

God by way of the true and living word that you have given us, I pray that you would bless this word as it is proclaimed, that you would bless it as it is heard, and Father, that from it you would make us more and more like Christ Jesus your

Son, in whose name we pray, Amen. You know, in these verses here, these five verses

I read, there's a justification for a phrase that we commonly use, that we hear a lot, called progressive sanctification.

The idea that the Christian life is one of growth in the Lord, it is progressive, it is dynamic, and it is going somewhere.

We're progressing in sanctification, which word means, or comes from the word for holiness, and in that we are moving further and further towards, we are growing in the stature of the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's what progressive sanctification means, and these verses, these five verses

I read from Philippians 3, 12 through 16, is really one of the go -to passages for theologians and commentators to discuss this idea of progressive sanctification, of this dynamic process by which we grow in holiness and sanctification, holiness without which no one will see the

Lord. So you, as a Christian, you today, and you from the time

Christ Jesus came upon you, like the hymn we just sang of the church -destroying

Saul, stopped on his way to Damascus to again destroy the church, and began then, when

Christ Jesus halted him and revealed to him who he was, or is, he began, as you began when you became saved, this process of progress into the stature of Christ Jesus.

You as a Christian that sit on this journey that demands from you complete reliance on another, that's the

Holy Spirit of God, in order to form you to be like yet another, and that is Jesus Christ our

Lord, to the praise and glory of yet one more, God the Father of the

Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a Trinitarian adventure, if you will, that we are all on from the moment that we were saved, from the moment that Christ came upon us, stopped us on our tracks, and brought us to himself by giving us faith to believe, and repentance towards God the

Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's a triune Father, Son, Holy Spirit quest that we are on.

What is the goal of all this? The goal is the stature of Jesus Christ our Lord. The goal is to be like him.

Your goal must be to be like him more and more each day. To borrow from the old musical, this is your quest to follow that star no matter how hopeless, no matter how far, and that works because how far tells us that he is infinitely far from us, we will never achieve that stature in this life, and yet the process, the attempt is good because Jesus Christ is good.

The apostle writes in verse 12 that he has not attained this. This is the resurrection, and that's back in chapter 3 verses 10 through 11, which as you suspect or figure it out, is the reason

I began reading from there. Not that I've already attained unto this resurrection that he had just spoken of, or I'm already perfect, meaning

I have not yet become what I will be once the resurrection does come.

You see how he adds perfection to this equation of not already perfect, and he adds to that the resurrection.

The resurrection is tied to this perfection. He's not already perfect because the resurrection hasn't happened.

And so anticipating that which we will never fully know while we live in this world, you must strive now to be like you will be then.

We must all strive now to be like we will be then.

God tells us here in this passage to grow more and more into the image of his son

Jesus. He is the prize of the upward call of God in him.

So what are these verses about? Verses 12 through 16 of Philippians 3, well they are about your part in this.

They bring to you your responsibility in growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, becoming like him.

Now in all this we are dependent upon God, and we need to be sure of this, and I know you are sure of this.

These verses are about what you must do. So before we dig into them, let me remind you of verse 116 from several weeks ago in this series.

He, that is God the Father, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

It is God the Father who began this work. It is God who will bring it to completion. Chapter 2 verse 13, for it is

God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So who gets the credit for what we do as we grow in the stature of Jesus Christ?

God. And by what means are we able to progress in the stature of Jesus Christ to become more like him?

By the power of the Holy Spirit. And what is the goal? Again and again we will say it,

Jesus Christ. So while we are talking about our part in this, what you must do in order to gain this stature, let us never forget that this is only possible by God's grace, by his mercy upon undeserving sinners and by the power that he gives us to accomplish this.

So what do we have here? We have first in verses 12 -14 to keep the goal in mind, it is

Jesus Christ. You know without an object that we are striving for, as Paul wrote in 1

Corinthians 9 .26, we are running aimlessly, we are beating at the air. But you have a goal, to be like your

Savior, to be as the Lord told Israel and as Peter told the church, therefore you shall be holy as the

Lord your God is holy. This is what we are aiming at, to be like God. To be like Jesus Christ, that is verses 12 -14, the goal is

Christ. And second in verse 15 is don't be distracted by minor issues, don't get thrown off course by the minors.

We major in the majors and we need to be discerning and not be distracted by small issues, by questionable issues, by issues that fall to the wayside, may be important, may be worth discussing in some context, but they are not the main thing.

Don't be distracted. That would be in verse 15. And third, cling tenaciously to whatever progress the

Lord has given you, as you come from what you were to what you are becoming, which is like Christ.

Cling tenaciously to those steps of progress he has given you. The fruit of the spirit comes in different ways, it comes in different paces for everyone, but notice, but nurture, but magnify those sprouting sprigs that he has given you.

Hold true to them and strive for more. So verses 12 -14, the goal is

Jesus Christ, verse 15, that we don't get distracted, we stay on course, and finally verse 16, we notice and we cling to, we hold tenaciously to the progress

God has given us. So verses 12 -14, the goal towards which all this effort is spent is

Christ Jesus. Let me read those verses again. 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.

Now again, have already obtained this, this is the resurrection, or am already perfect.

To become perfect is not possible now and will not be realized until the resurrection.

Not that I have already obtained this, but I press on to make it my own, that resurrection, to live in the power of the resurrection.

To make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing

I do, forgetting what lies behind, let me say this again, forgetting what lies behind, and now you know the emphasis

I'll have this morning, 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.

So the middle verse, verse 13, I think it has the main point here for us, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Walter Hanson puts it very well here, he says, Paul's practice of forgetting the past gives him freedom to strain towards the future.

Forgetting the past gives us freedom to strain towards the future. Ridding ourselves of that extra weight of all the guilt and all the shame that we have of what we once were.

Ridding ourselves of that weight allows us to turn the other way and strain towards the future.

What is the future? I read it in chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, the resurrection. And then chapter 3, verse 12, what comes with the resurrection?

That's when we will be made perfect. Don't worry too much about that word perfect, we'll talk about that later as we go through this.

The apostle's language is of this continual forgetting combined with an equally continual straining.

Forgetting behind, straining forward, and I ask you, what must you forget that is behind you?

What is it that you must forget? Paul says, forgetting what lies behind. The language is clear. Forgetting what lies behind, what must you forget?

What is behind you that you've allowed to bog you down, to weigh you down, to hold you back?

This doesn't mean that we forget what happened yesterday or last week or last month or even last year. We're not speaking of amnesia here.

In fact, this same apostle, the apostle Paul, he reminds us, after a long list of sins that are generally engaged in the world, even at the time he wrote it, even as we read it here 2 ,000 years later, he gives that long list of sins in 1

Corinthians 6, and then he says, and such were some of you. So it's not amnesia that we're talking about. In other places, the apostle

Paul recounts Israel's history, and he says, this is a warning for you today, church, against your ever -present pride.

Paul means forgetting whatever was or is in your past that bogged you down in this process of growing towards Jesus Christ.

For him, for Paul, it was his form of pride in Judaism. It was his lineage, it was his accomplishments, what he now called rubbish, what the gospel calls them to repurpose, all of that goes from the trophy room to the garbage dump.

Hebrews 12, chapter 12, verse 1, calls it the sin that weighs you down, the sin that so easily entangles you.

Think of an athlete. When Paul speaks of straining forward, it's an athletic imagery that he has here.

It's the athlete straining with every fiber of his being, trying to grab that last gasp breath effort to make those last two strides ahead of the guy closest to him and get to that ribbon to break it first.

And you see these guys sometimes, you ever see them, and they're leaning over, they're trying to get their chest to be there first, and they're leaning so far, sometimes it looks like they're going to fall on their face, but it's every sinew of their body, every focus of their mind towards that one goal they have to get there, and they'll give anything to do it.

And this is the image Paul has here, this straining forward, this straining, this forgetting behind and straining ahead, it's that athletic determination to get over the finish line first.

Now that's a race that we're going to get ahead of each other, but the imagery is of the effort behind it, the determination.

I ask you this morning, are you satisfied with your progress as a Christian? Looking back at where you were and where you are now, are you satisfied?

Well, we can never be fully satisfied because perfection awaits the resurrection. But I want to make a couple of points here, and then we can move on to some diagnostics.

Point number one is this, there must be some measure of progress. There has to be some measure of progress in you.

Can we say some improvement in you, in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in your life that reflects that knowledge?

Your holiness, your ethical behavior, your first response to situations has to become more and more like Jesus.

As I said a few minutes ago, it all comes to us in different stages, at different times, in different contexts, but brethren, it must come.

Something has to be there. Are you satisfied with where you've gone? None of us can be completely, but there has to be something.

Our life as Christians is a dynamic one. Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 and other places likens the church, this body, all of us together to a body, a body that is growing, a body that is living, a heart that is beating, a blood that is coursing through veins and giving life and energy and strength.

It is a dynamic process that we're in. We walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, or as Paul put it in chapter 3 verse 10, the power of the resurrection.

The same power that in Ephesians 1 .19, the same apostle writes,

God is working toward you. Let me read the verses to you, starting in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

What is that hope? It is Jesus Christ. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance? What is that inheritance?

Christ Jesus our Lord, inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

The power that God used to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, that resurrection power. Chapter 3 verse 10 of Philippians, he's working toward you, toward we who believe.

There must be some progress, there must be some mortification of sins, there has to be holiness of speech, there has to be sanctified thoughts, there has to be somewhere where you're going and getting better.

Can we just say better? Better meaning more like Christ? Point one is there has to be some progress.

Point two is that too often our progress is hindered if not stifled altogether by a rearward fixation.

And here's the focus that I think Paul has here in trying to get us to look toward where we have to go because looking behind only slows us down if not stops us altogether.

Paul understood this as an impediment to our forward progress. Imagine someone who's working out and has a goal.

They buy a machine, whatever machine they can put in the house that you want to imagine. And they, he or she has this goal,

I need to get a maximum heart rate of this, or I need to have a sitting heart rate like that, I want my blood pressure here,

I want my weight there. So they take a measurement, they take a metric of all these things and record them. And for six months they work out faithfully and regularly and vigorously on this machine.

And after six months of this consistent and hard effort, they decide to check their progress.

As long as they see where I've gone. So they look back at where they were six months ago and all these metrics that they recorded. And they look at that and say, oh this is nothing,

I mean look at that. I haven't gotten anywhere. And you say no, no, no, you look at it six months ago, you're looking back, you need to record where you are now.

And the person says, no, no, I'm discouraged and now I'm going to use this machine just to hang up the laundry because I've gotten nowhere.

What was the problem there? It's a ridiculous story. But it's that rearward fixation. It's unable to look ahead.

It's unable to even acknowledge that there's been any progress. What would you do if you were this person who couldn't look ahead?

You've been working out for six months and you say I need to see where I am and you look at the old record. You look at six months ago and you don't take your pulse now.

You don't check your blood pressure now or your weight or anything else. Well, I'd do what I think the rest of us would do.

Well, I'd give up. Why put in all this effort if you're not getting anywhere? You see, too often we only see where we were.

We gaze at that old man and we never get our eyes fixed on the new man, looking upward to where Christ is, to where we're being called and for which

God is preparing us. Why does this happen? Why does this happen to us?

I mean, is it discouragement? Is it humility? Is it desertion?

It'd be discouragement because we don't feel like we're getting anywhere. It'd be humility because we don't want to take credit for anything that God has done.

It'd be desertion because it'd be deserting our duties. I just wonder why this happens.

In our Reformed circle, there's a term that we hear a lot. It kind of comes from the Puritans.

It's called besetting sin. By besetting, we mean that thing, that sin that just keeps popping up.

It besets me. It plagues me. It jumps into my mind. It brings action to my hand every time. I'm bedeviled by it and so on.

It's a besetting sin. Now, do you think that way? Do you think of sins as besetting sins?

Do you have a besetting sin? I want you to reason with me carefully from verse 13 of Philippians 3.

Brothers, I do not consider that I've 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. Paul writes that he does not consider himself to have arrived at the perfection that has to await the resurrection.

He's not beating himself up. This is not an emotional meltdown. It's a well -thought -through consideration of his human condition now compared to what it will be then.

He hasn't arrived, but he presses on to the then. He hasn't arrived now, but what awaits then causes him to want to press on, to keep straining towards that goal.

So it's a careful analysis. He considers. He's thought it through. The word in the

Greek is logikizomai, logic, reasoning, thinking. And where does it lead him?

It leads him to forget what lies behind. Now stay with me here. He's not specific as to exactly what he forgets, but the context might tell us that, first of all, it is his former accomplishments in religion, his advancements as a

Pharisee, his zealousness for the law, and so forth. And what is that all now? Well, it's rubbish.

It's forgotten. So I wonder, can we expand this idea by way of application to include everything that holds you back from stretching out towards the goal of the prize of the upward call?

I've met so many well -meaning Christians whose self -assessment is so negative that it almost denies that God, by His Holy Spirit, has given them any hope at all.

They'd be convinced that they're a sinner, which is a good conclusion, one that is fully supported in Scripture and necessary to salvation.

But they sort of stop there. I'm just a lousy sinner. I'm just covered in filthy rags.

I have nothing to give to God. I have no good thing that He should be impressed with me. And all those are true things.

But this idea of, I'm just a depraved sinner, they've stopped there. I am beset with sin.

Whatever I do is filthy. And I ask you, is that not a look behind?

Is that not something that will impede, if not stop altogether, the straining forward?

Like the runner straining towards the goal, all of a sudden has an elastic band around his waist that's anchored behind him.

Well, how's he going to get forward? He's not. He's going to get snapped back every time. This failure to forget the past, is it a false humility that is so afraid of ever -near pride that it refuses any achievements?

You see, in the quest for humility and to be sure we don't take credit for myself for something that God has worked in me,

I ask, do we end up denying that He's done anything at all? I propose to you this conclusion, to humbly confess myself only as a depraved sinner and that that's where I am, that's where I stay,

I can't stop looking at that, I can't get away from that idea of myself. I would suggest to you that that's as detrimental to the

Christian life as it would be to pridefully show off my wonderful piety.

I might even say that a refusal to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of you would be sinful.

If you have recognized a sin, I'm talking about a particular sin, I'm talking about the kind of thing like the

Puritans, as I said before, would call a besetting sin, and you've confessed that sin, and here

I'm in the scope of 1 John 1 -9, one of our go -to places, if we confess our sins,

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you've confessed your sin in that scope with faith in Christ, looking to Him as your

Savior, as the one by whom we've gained forgiveness, repented that sin, and felt or known or believed that God by the blood of His Son has forgiven that sin, then faith says, forget what lies behind.

It has been forgiven. It can no longer hold you down, and I fear that too often, especially we in Reformed circles who tend to have a very high view of Christ and the

Scripture, and a correspondingly and a right low view of humans. I think sometimes, though, we let that hold us back, and it almost becomes a belief that I can do nothing.

Jesus Christ said, without me you can't do nothing, but He also said, you will do greater things than what you've seen me do.

How do we work out both of that? Walking in the power of the Spirit, in what

Paul calls in Philippians 3 .10, the power of the resurrection, we accomplish much.

By God's power, to God's credit, but brethren, we do accomplish something, and that something is growth in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Does this mean that you or I will never fall back into the same sin?

No, that's not at all what I'm saying. I'm not saying that we, with the dogs, will never return to our own vomit.

I don't mean that at all. Jesus taught Peter about what human forgiveness looks like.

In Luke's Gospel, He says, if your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

Why is that? The reason is because that's what it means to imitate

God. That's what it means to be like God. Go back to Philippians 3 .13

and forgetting, when a repetitive sin pops up again, what do we do with that?

I would suggest treat it like something totally new. Look upon it with shock and surprise.

Ask yourself, where on earth did that come from? Well, repent as you did when you held the besetter's view.

Take sin as a grave matter, which it is. But when you've confessed, believe that God, because of your faith in His Son and Jesus Christ's sacrifice, has removed your sin.

Not all sin. That sin, as far from you as east is from the west, forget it.

I'm not saying treat it lightly. Forget it because what? Because God does. Be like God as Jesus said.

Be like God to others and be like God to yourself. Don't stare at that old sin anymore.

It's become a contributor to that pile of rubbish. It's old news. As yesterday's sorrow is now lost, it lies behind.

Remember in Pilgrim's Progress, when Pilgrim is growing with that burden on his back, he's got that knapsack or that backpack, and it seems to be getting fuller and fuller as he becomes more and more aware of how depraved he is in God's sight, and how egregious his sin is.

And this pack is getting bigger and bigger. I've always understood that if he kept walking, if that cross didn't come up pretty soon, that thing's going to get so big, it's going to be totally overwhelming.

He's going slower and slower. And it's harder and harder to make his journey. But remember that beautiful part of this allegory,

Pilgrim's Progress, when he finally gets to the cross, and by faith in Jesus Christ, leaves the burden there.

And do you notice that when he goes on from the cross, life doesn't suddenly get easy, but he's no longer burdened with those sins.

They are where? They're at the cross. Forgetting what lies behind.

Don't let them hold you back anymore. I'm not saying that you will never fall into the same sin. I'm saying that when that sin is forgiven, believe it's forgiven.

Believe that God will remember it no more. It doesn't mean he forgot all about it, as if God has amnesia. It means he will not hold it against you.

We can't hold it against ourselves. I'm not saying forgive yourself. Forgiving yourself is a silly idea.

You cannot forgive yourself any more than you can forgive others in the way God forgives us.

Don't forgive yourself. Only God can forgive sin. But believe, brethren, that when you've repented, you've confessed your sin and you've repented, and you've gone to Him on the basis of the cross and by faith in Christ, that He truly has forgiven.

And you can now forget what lies behind, because according to the Scripture, by God's mercy, it does lie behind.

And there's another important aspect to this. It's don't stop. Both the verbs are continual.

There's a continual refusal to look back, and there's a continual insistence on looking ahead.

So don't stop. A motto for our church is 2 Peter 3, 18.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow. Expand.

Go forward. Looking back impedes, if not stops, this completely.

Don't let the past remind you of what you are not now. It'll hold you down. Don't forgive yourself. That's silly.

It's impossible. Who can forgive sins but God alone? But He has sinned. He has forgiven.

Believe that God has forgiven what you have confessed and what you have repented. You know, the world, the unsaved people in general are controlled by their past.

They're taught the reasons for their dysfunctions are in their past. It's bad parenting. It's social stigma.

It's all those sorts of things which become nothing but excuses. Excuses to blame it on others, to blame it on something other than self.

And to really not grow yourself. Not to take the responsibility for growing.

They don't need to change. Those around need to change. But that's not true for the Christian. That's not true for you if you're in Christ.

Jesus is bigger than your past. His cross covers your sins. His forgiveness cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

And His forgiveness makes it possible to take ownership of who I am and what I have done. We have to say that again with a different emphasis.

Who I am and what I have done. And from there to appreciate even more the grace of God that showers love on undeserving sinners.

We don't forget in the manner of letting our guard down against our known tendencies. We forget them by giving those past sins, now repented, over to the transforming power of the gospel.

Have I got your gaze forward? Are you one of those who insists on looking back and saying, there

I am, covered in filthy rags. There I am, undeserving of grace. Well, of course, undeserving of grace because if you deserve it, it's not grace.

There I am, totally depraved. And taking those views, those views that keep our pride down, and we need to keep our pride down, those views that remind us of the glories of God in Christ Jesus and what

He has done for us, undeserving us. But focus on them so strongly.

Attach yourself to them so firmly that we almost deny that we've moved away from them.

And is it we who've done the moving? Well, these verses in Philippians 3, 12 -16 are about our part, but who has done the moving really?

Well, it's God who has moved us. Has God not moved you? He must have done something.

You're set upon salvation. You're set upon this journey, and there has to have been some progress somewhere that you need to acknowledge.

You've got to gaze forward. You know, there's another thing that can stifle us. It's saying, okay, pastor,

I get it. The Scripture's saying, don't look back. Don't let that hold you back. Don't let that weigh you down and stifle you.

Keep going forward. And we can fall into the same sins again, and it's going to happen.

But when I confess it, as Jesus told Peter, if Jesus would tell a man, a sinful man like Peter, who's a sinner like the rest of us, to forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive.

Why? Because God forgives. Believing that God has forgiven you. Taking that weight off so you can go forward.

With the gaze forward, there's still something else that can stifle us, and that's majoring on the minors.

If you look again at verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise,

God will reveal that also to you. Now, this is a really hard one for the translators to translate.

And it's as hard, if not harder, to interpret. But the Net Bible, the

New English Translation, has it this way. Therefore, let those of us who are perfect, perfect in quotes, embrace this point of view.

If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. Now, it takes some interpretive liberties with the language, but it gets the point across.

The mature Christian, which is what is meant by perfect, doesn't mean completely perfect. It doesn't mean you become divine.

It's maturity. The mature Christian will embrace this point of view. What view exactly is he talking about?

That of moving ahead towards the image of Christ. This upward call. This divine call.

This call that God has given to His kingdom of priests. The call

He's given to you to think forward and not back. And that's a thought process of the mature

Christian. Knowing where they're going. Leaving behind what God has forgiven. And going where you're going.

When we stumble again, we confess again, we repent, we give all effort, we strain towards the goal of Christ, which means we work as hard as we can, take all the measures we can, not to repeat the sin, but when it's forgiven, it's forgiven.

Paul writes that any other viewpoint will be corrected by God Himself. He will turn your head around.

He will bring your eyes upward. He sent His Holy Spirit to you for a purpose. Romans chapter 8 verse 29 says that that purpose is one you've been predestined to, to be conformed to the image of Christ.

That's not only at the resurrection, that's in this life now. To be conformed to the image of the one of whom

God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. To be well pleasing to God.

That God pleased according to His good pleasure, the good pleasure of His will, to make you more and more like Him, like Christ.

And it's Christ who is ahead and not behind. So also is your destiny ahead and not behind. It's there, it's up where Christ is, where one day you will be, and where while we're here, waiting to be there, we must be looking up to this.

We must think this way. I think Paul's emphasis on this, ahead not behind, is throughout here.

If you mature, you're going to think this way. Some of us need to be corrected by Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 10.

Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 10. The preacher says to us, say not, why were the former days better than these?

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. See, no Christian would look at his or her old self and think that was better.

So I bring this verse up for a couple of reasons. One is because our passage is so concerned to get our perspective changed, to stop us from living the way

Mr. Magoo drives, which is looking everywhere but where his car was pointed. Some of us say, but again,

Pastor, you said it before, and I can't get over it. I'm just a filthy, ragged sinner. And if Jesus Christ would save one like me,

I can't believe it. So what are you today? Saint? Holy one? Christian, the things the

Bible calls you? No, just covered in filthy rags. I'm just a depraved sinner.

I can't step forward. My offering is unworthy. I would suggest to you how easily this seemingly humble self view eases us of some things.

It takes away a lot of responsibilities that we might otherwise have that the Scripture would give us to be serving one another in love, to be taking our part in the church, to be stepping forward when the church needs someone.

We say, well, yes, I see the church needs us. I'd love to help you out. But you know,

I'm just such a bad sinner. I'm so depraved. I'm so covered in rags and so forth.

And so we say, it's a pious thing? Is it a sign of humility? No, I say it's a refusal to acknowledge and believe that God has done this work.

It's looking back when the apostle says, look forward. It eases us of responsibility to be moving forward even personally, if not in service of the church, even personally into the image of Christ.

How so? Because I just can't do it. How can I step closer to Him if I'm in this condition?

And the apostle says, forward, not back. Strain forward, not back.

I forget, continually, day by day, I forget what lies behind. I continually, day by day, strain towards this other, which is the image of Christ.

If you were to do otherwise, it would be to turn Ecclesiastes 7 .10 on its head. For him to say, it's right to say the former days were better than these.

That is from wisdom that you ask this. Which would be ridiculous. Another reason for this emphasis, from our desire to remember the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am the chief. We live our Christian life as though He saved us. He then chose to constantly chastise us for our sins.

Even sins we've confessed. Even sins for which Jesus Christ bled and died. Even for sins which

God has removed from you as far as east is from the west. That He says He remembers no more. He holds against you no more.

So I ask, why do you hold them against yourself? I don't ask you to forgive yourself.

As I said, that's a ridiculous idea. I ask you, I insist upon you, believe that your faith is in Christ and you've confessed that you truly have been forgiven.

You can forget that one. You can move forward and not let it bog you down.

Don't let the past remind you of what you are not now. I look back myself, I shudder at times when

I see the depth of the real depravity from which God saved me. But I don't stay there.

There are times when my unworthiness overwhelms me with such a darkness that I just want to give up. But then I know,

I just know that God could never have been interested in me. You know, really

He was. And He is. Now is it because of me? Is it because of you that He's interested in you?

No, not me, not you. Because I, like you, was born by nature a child of wrath.

Not because of me, who, like you, was dead in trespasses and sins in which I once walked. Not anything in me, not anything in you, but solely because of His own good pleasure and solely because His Son bled and died for you or for me.

Are you held back? Is this resonating with you? This idea of looking ahead, not behind?

For many, what holds us back is uncertainty of forgiveness. I've hit this chord many times in these last few minutes.

Uncertainty that you've truly been forgiven. You can't please someone who you think is always scowling at you.

This dark frown of providence, as it's sometimes called. But God doesn't do that. He sees you as He sees

His Son, Jesus. He looks upon you as in His Son, Jesus. And on that basis, on the basis of Christ, not the basis of you, on the basis of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, and not our works, on the basis of Christ and His merits,

He is pleased. Pleased to work in you so that you will work to do

His good pleasure. There's God who works in you to work and to will for His good pleasure.

So think that way. Think forward, not back. Think to Christ and not to yourself.

To the cross where your sins heard their death knell. To the cross where they were debited from your account and credited to Jesus' account, and He paid for them.

He paid for them. And you're something new. If anyone is

Christ Jesus, behold His new creation. The old has passed away.

The new has come. That new will keep coming and coming and coming.

Brethren, it must come. At different paces. In different ways.

We all have different sins that we need to work on. But it does come. And in the end, at the end of this section,

Paul tells us something that is possibly the hardest of all. In verse 16,

Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Literally, let us to what came before walk orderly.

Something like that. What's the idea here? Stay true to what you've accomplished.

Yes, you. You, by the grace of God and the powerful working of His Spirit in you.

To the praise of God's glorious grace. All credit and thanks to Jesus Christ for His sacrifice and the

Spirit for His enabling power. You have something to hold to.

To hold true to. You have attained. You must have attained. You must have gotten something. We need to look and thank

God for the progress that we've made. Because if you're in Christ Jesus, there must be progress. Galatians 5 .22

There's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Some of these fruit are coming through in you at different times, at different rates, in different places, different scenarios, different contexts.

But look carefully. Because the Holy Spirit is working you. This is the fruit of the Spirit. And every

Christian has the Spirit working this fruit in him or her. Hold true to what you have.

Hold true to what you have gained. What you have attained. Not taking credit for what God alone has done.

Far from it. It is acknowledging that He's done something. He's given you steps of progress.

It is not sinful pride to say He's done a work in you. It may be sinful to say or to imply

He hasn't. Your progress comes from the grace of God. Your progress comes from the power of the resurrection, which is the power of the

Spirit applied to you by His Spirit. The power of the resurrection, Ephesians 1 .19, which I read before.

It comes to you because of faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. And can you say with all this that you've gotten nowhere?

Is that even possible when the triune God, when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are working this in you?

The Apostle says, hold true to what we have attained. Cling tenaciously to whatever progress the

Lord has given you. And why is this so hard? Well, for one thing, clinging is hard work.

I remember once I was clinging tenaciously to a fishing pole. I was on a deep -sea fishing boat with my brother -in -law and his friends.

He was an ironworker. All his friends were ironworkers. And one of their ironworker friends got sick and couldn't go.

So they needed somebody to make up the number of people they needed to get the right rate for the fishing party boat.

Anyway, so there I am with all these ironworkers. And I got the pole in the water.

And I test the pole to see if anything's on it. And I got something. I got something. And I start working this thing.

And I'm clinging to this pole. Because it's getting to be such a big lunker of a fish. I mean, this is a monster that's coming out of the water. It's like,

I can't let go of this thing. And I want that prize of the downward call of this sea monster so I can show off to all these ironworkers what

I've caught. And I'm pulling and I'm clinging. And my hand's cramping. I didn't think I'd be able to let go of this fishing pole.

And I'm pulling and pulling. And finally the guys came around. They see all this effort I'm putting in. I'm straining towards this goal.

And they're cheering me on. And I had to reel it up. I had to cling so hard. I thought it was just going to melt.

My hand's cramping. And everybody's around me cheering me to the finish. And finally up it comes. And my quarry was out of the depths and in full view of them all.

Was it a sea monster? No, it wasn't that. Was it a bragging rights fish? No, it wasn't that either.

It wasn't a fish at all. It was just the weights. It was just the lead weights. And here's this beam counter, me, with all these big -muscled ironworkers.

And, oh, you should have heard the abuse I took. But I was clinging tenaciously. I clung tenaciously to what

I thought I had. You're not clinging to a bunch of lead weights like I was. You're holding on to precious gems of sanctification.

You're hanging on to sins consumed at the altar. You're clinging to that time when your flesh said, curse that guy, but your spirit blessed and didn't curse.

To that time when your finger said, it's just a click, but your spirit said, no. Hold true to these.

Hold true to these. The way I held on to that fishing pole because I didn't want to lose the fish. Versus, like I said, it was just the weights on the end of the line.

But you have something else. You have these great jewels of progress that you've made from what you were.

And don't look behind. You can remember it. You know what you were. We all know what we were. Remember that Christ Jesus has given you to make you more like him.

Look at those and not behind. Cling tenaciously to your faith that forgiveness any time we fall away is but a prayer away.

Have you attained in the Lord? God is working in you if you are in Christ Jesus.

The scripture says that God's spirit is in you working to form you into his image, to make you more like him, to make you perfect.

This is what we started with. But Paul says, not that I've already attained or I'm already perfect.

Attained, this is the resurrection. And at that time, we become perfect. We become like Jesus. Just like him.

Like him, not as him. How will we be like him? Well, we won't be divine like he is divine.

We won't have the power that he has. We won't be a little God or anything like that. How will you be like him?

There will be no more sin. Your sin has been answered at the cross. And in the resurrection, we become perfect.

We become without sin. We'll be able to see Jesus as he is because we'll be like him. That's when perfection comes.

At the resurrection. Let me emphasize again. We don't become little gods or big gods.

We don't become anything other than sinless human beings. Back to the Garden of Eden before sin.

Back to what Adam was when God could be heard walking in the pool of the morning. But we wouldn't have to hide.

If you repented of your sin. If you've gone by faith to Jesus Christ at his cross and sought

God's forgiveness. This is your end. God, at that time, the faith is sparked within you.

By the power of God working in you to remake you. And to remake you then from sinner to saint.

From sinner to saved. And to make you as a saved sinner more and more like Jesus Christ.

Paul says he had not attained that perfection. He knew he was a sinner. He thought he had attained that perfection in his prior life.

But now he knew that it had all been a fable. There's no perfection for us in this life. Only the striving to be like the one perfect one.

Which is Jesus Christ. Which one day he shall be like in the resurrection. I encourage us all to grow in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And how? By looking ahead to him. By looking up to where he is. To straining daily.

As hard as we have to strain to forget what we were. To strain forward to that prize.

And not let anything else hold us back or bog us down. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Rather, we have attained much because God has given it to us. And yet the attainment is for us.

Let us continually work towards that image. And towards that goal. That upper prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks once again for this wonderful day you have given us.

And for being able to meet in this place. And to have the safety and the weather. And all the things that you have provided to us to make this a comfortable meeting for us.

Lord, we pray that your word would have its way with us. We pray, Father, that the comfort we derive from knowing

Jesus Christ. Would drive us closer and closer to his image. And may you,

Father, by the working of your Spirit. Would work in us more and more to be like him. As we repent of our sins.

As we forget what lies behind. As we strain ahead towards that prize that you have shown us.