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Sermon: Don't Look Back Date: May 31, 2020, Morning Text: Philippians 3:12-16 Series: Philippians Preacher: Pastor Josh Sheldon Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2020/200531-DontLookBack.mp3
We'll turn your Bibles please to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians 3 our text this morning will be verses 12 through 16.
Though 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 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 I'm already perfect.
But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus had me has made me his own
brothers, I.
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward while 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 whose name you pray.
You know in these verses here these five verses I read There's a justification for a pray 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
so 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 to him.
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 yes
He began as you began when you became saved this Process of progress into
the stature of Christ Jesus.
You as a Christian to 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 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 were 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.
Where the Apostle writes in verse 12 that he has not attained this.
This is the resurrection that's back in chapter 3 verses 10 through 11.
Which as you suspect or figured out is the reason I began reading from there.
Not that I've already attained unto this resurrection that he 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 excuse me the resurrection the resurrection is tied to this perfection.
He's not already perfect because the razor 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.
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 the 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 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 do we have here?
We have first in verses 12 through 14 To keep the goal in mind is Jesus Christ.
You know without an object that we're striving for as Paul wrote in first Corinthians 9 26.
We're running aimlessly.
We're beating at the air.
But you have a goal to be like your Savior to be as the Lord told Israel as Peter
told the church.
Therefore you shall be holy as Lord your God is holy.
This is what we're aiming him to be like God.
To be like Jesus Christ.
That's verses 12 to 14.
The goal is Christ.
And second 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.
Maybe worth discussing in some context, but they're not the main thing.
Don't be distracted.
That'll 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's given you.
The fruit of the Spirit comes in different ways.
It comes at 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 through 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 through 14 the goal towards which all this effort is spent is Christ Jesus.
And read those verses again.
Now that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect.
But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own now again.
Have already obtained this this is the resurrection or a Mary already perfect.
To become perfect is not Possible now and will not be realized until the resurrection now
that I've 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've made it my own but one thing I do.
Forgetting what lies behind they 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 lies in 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 if 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 Apostles language is of this continual forgetting combined with a an equally
continual straining.
Forgetting behind straining forward.
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 1st Corinthians 6 and then he says and such were some of you so it's not amnesia.
They're talking about in other places.
The Apostle the Apostle Paul recounts Israel's history and 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 bogs you down in this process of
growing towards Jesus Christ.
For him for Paul.
It was his former pride in Judaism.
It was his lineage.
It was his accomplishments what he now called rubbish.
What the gospel caused him to repurpose all of that Goes from the trophy room
to the garbage dump.
Hebrews 12 chapter 1 chapter 12 verse 1 calls it the sin that weighs you down the
sin that so easily entangles.
Think of an athlete.
And Paul to you speaks of strength 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.
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.
They're leaning so far.
Sometimes it looks like they're gonna fall in the 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 for the strength.
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 Asked 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 context, but brethren it
must come.
Something has to be there.
Are you satisfied with where you've gone?
None of us could be completely.
But there has to be something our life as Christians is a dynamic one.
Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 in 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 in blood that is coursing through
veins and given 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 towards you.
And read that the verses to you starting in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18.
Then 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
in this 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.
But 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.
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 all together.
Paul understood this as an impediment to our forward progress.
Imagine someone who's working out has a goal.
They buy a machine whatever his machine they could 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 see where I've gone.
So they look back and where they were six months ago and all these metrics that they recorded.
And they look at that say oh, this is nothing.
I mean look at that.
I Haven't gotten anywhere and you say no.
No, no, you look at six months ago.
You're 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 gonna 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 it there's been any progress.
What would you do if you were this person who couldn't look ahead?
You're 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.
You don't take your pulse now.
You don't check your blood pressure now or your weight or anything else?
Well, I do what I think the rest of us would do.
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.
What does it happen?
Why does this happen to us?
I?
Is it discouragement.
Is it humility.
Is it is it desertion.
It'd be discouraging because we don't feel like we're getting where 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.
You know 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?
Want you to reason with me carefully from first verse 13 of Philippians 3
Brothers.
I do not consider that I've made of my own, but one thing I do.
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward lies a hit 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.
There'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 all rates then cause him to causes him to want to press on to keep straining towards
that goal.
There's a careful analysis.
He considers he's thought it through the word in the Greek is like logic.
It's a mine 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 wall and so forth.
And what is that all now?
Well, it's rubbish.
It's forgotten.
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 many 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 convinced that they are sinner.
Which is a good conclusion one that is fully supported in Scripture and necessary to salvation.
But they sort of stop there 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 they've stopped there.
I am beset with sin.
Whatever I do is filthy.
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 also has an elastic band around his waist that's anchored behind him.
Well, how's he gonna get forward?
He's not he's gonna get snapped back every time
this failure to forget the past.
Is it is it a false humility that is so afraid of ever -near pride that it if 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 is working in me.
I asked 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 pride.
Felicia pridefully show off my wonderful piety.
I might even say that a refusal to lay hold of that for which Christ is lay hold of you.
Would be sinful.
I.
If you have recognized a sin, I talk about a particular sin.
I've talked about the kind of thing like the Puritans as I said before we call a besetting sin.
And you've confessed that sin and here I'm in the scope of first 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.
Repent of that sin and felt or known or believe 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 are 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 them?
It's walking in the power of the Spirit in the book Paul calls and flippance 310 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.
But Jesus taught Peter about what human forgiveness looks like
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 313 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 it ask you where on earth did that come from?
Well repent as you did when you held the besetters view take sin as a grave matter, which it is.
But when you've confessed Believe that God by because of faith your faith in his son
and Jesus Christ 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 tribute of contributor to that pile of rubbish.
It's old news is yesterday.
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 it becomes more and more aware of how
Deep pray if 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 gonna be so big.
It's gonna totally overwhelming when he's going slower and slower.
It's harder and harder to make his journey.
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 we will never fall into the same sin.
I'm saying that when that sin is forgiven believe is 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 as a silly idea.
You cannot forgive yourself any more than you forgive others in the 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 of this.
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 Model for our church
is second Peter 3 team, but grow in the grace and knowledge of the 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.
That's silly.
It's impossible who can forgive sins, but God alone, but he has sinned he has excuse me He has
forgiven.
Believe that God has forgiven what you have confessed and what you've 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 is bad parenting is 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've 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 repentant 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 I'm deserving 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 as we who've done the moving.
Well these verses of Philippians 3 12 through 16 are about our part.
But who has done the moving really was God who has moved us.
Has God not moved you.
He must have done something.
Upon salvation you're set upon this journey and there has to have been some progress somewhere
that you need to acknowledge.
They're like gaze forward.
You know, there's another thing that can stifle us.
It's saying okay pastor.
I get it the scriptures 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.
Since again and it's going to happen but when I confess it as Jesus told Peter
if the Jesus would tell a man a sinner a sinful man like Peter.
Who's a sin like the rest of us to forgive and forgive and forgive and give 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.
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.
That 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 just maturity.
The mature Christian will embrace this point of view and you get what view exactly he's 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 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 repent 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.
I mean he sent his Holy Spirit to you for a purpose.
Romans chapter 8 verse 29 says that that purpose is when you've been predestined to to be conformed in
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.
The 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 not behind so also is your destiny ahead not behind.
It's there.
It's up where Christ is where one day you will be and we're while we're here waiting to be there.
We must be looking upwards.
We must think this way.
I Think Paul's emphasis on this a head not behind is throughout here.
If you mature you're gonna think this way.
Some of us need to be corrected by Ecclesiastes chapter 7 of verse 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 10 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.
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 humble the seemingly humble self view eases
us of some things.
It takes away a lot of responsibilities that we might otherwise have.
The description 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.
He says 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.
As we say.
It's a pious thing.
It's 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 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 forget what lies behind.
I continually day by day strain.
Towards this other which is the image of Christ.
You have to do otherwise would be to turn Ecclesiastes 7 10 on its head.
For him to say it's right to say the former days are 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 chose.
He then chose to constantly chastise us for our sins.
Even since we've confessed even since for which Jesus Christ bled and died.
Even for sins, which God has removed from you as far as East is from the West.
Then he says he remembers no more.
He holds against you no more.
So I asked Why do you hold them against yourself?
I don't ask you to forgive yourself.
As I said, that's a ridiculous idea.
I asked you.
I insist upon you.
Believe if your faith is in Christ, and you've confessed that you truly have been forgiven.
You can forget that 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 that's 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.
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 and 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 cord many times in these last few minutes.
Uncertainty that you've truly been forgiven.
Can't please someone who's you think is always scowling at you.
This dark frown of Providence is 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 in 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 at the will for his good pleasure.
So think that way.
Think 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 does anyone is Christ Jesus.
Behold his new creation 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 the added into 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.
You need to look and thank God for the progress that we've made because if you're in Christ Jesus, it 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.
So 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 simple pride to say he's done a work in you.
It may be simple 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 119, 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 is
Cling tenaciously to whatever progress the Lord has given you.
And why is it 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 part the party boat.
Anyway, so there I am.
With all these ironworkers.
And he got the pole in the water, and I test the pool to see if anything's on it.
I got something.
I start working this thing.
I'm clinging to this pole because it's getting to be such a big lunker of a fish.
I mean there's a monster's come 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 the sea monsters so I can Show off to all
these ironworkers what I caught and I'm pulling and I'm clinging and my hands cramping.
I didn't think I'd be able to let go of this fishing pole.
And I'm pulling and pulling 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 reel it up.
I had to cling so hard.
I thought I was just gonna melt.
My hands 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 ball.
It was just the weights.
It's just the lead weights and here's this bean count for me with all these big muscled ironworkers.
No, you should have heard the abuse I took.
But I was clinging tenaciously.
I'd 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 sanctifications.
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 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 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 who were.
That Christ Jesus has given you to make you more like him.
Look at those.
And not a hint not behind.
Cling tenaciously to your faith that forgiveness anytime 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 the Paul says not that I've already attained or amory perfect.
Attained this is the resurrection at that time.
We become purple we become like Jesus.
Just like him.
Like him not as him.
How will we like him.
Well, we won't be divine like he is divine.
We won't have the power that he has won't be a little God or anything like that.
How will you be like him?
There'll be no more sin.
Your sin has been answered at the cross and in the resurrection will become perfect.
We've come without sin.
We'd be able to see Jesus as he is because we like him.
That's when perfection comes at the resurrection.
Let me emphasize again, we don't become little gods.
Or big guys.
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 to be heard walking in the pool of the morning.
But we wouldn't have to hide.
He 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 that faith is sparked within you by
the power of God.
Working in you to remake you and 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'd attain that perfection in his prior life, but now he knew that that 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 you 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.
Well, let us hold true to what we have attained of rather.
We have attained much because God has given it to us and yet the attainment is for us.
Let's continually work towards that image and towards that goal that upper prize.
By the calling of God in Christ Jesus, amen.
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
Weather and all the things that you 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 Will comfort we derive from knowing Jesus Christ.
To drive us closer and closer to his image and the you father by the working of your spirit
Would work in us more and more to be like him.
So we repent of our sins as we forget what lies behind as we strain ahead towards that Prize that
you have shown us one day one day we will have before we ask it all in Jesus name.