In your Bibles, please, we'll read a few verses from 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 17. Verse Peter 1, verse 17, hear now the inerrant, infallible, and inspired word of God. And if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him Do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his most holy word. I have a quotation. from the Reverend Samuel Rutherford, speaking about, oh, that this world is not the place of our continued residency, but we are sojourners. Listen to what Mr. Rutherford has to say. "'Tis a common inn where bed and board are free to men, "'devils, sons, bastards elect and reprobate, "'yea, to beasts called from their country, "'beasts of the earth. "'An earthly-minded man is a fellow citizen with beasts. "'It is a home to all but the saints. "'Tis their pilgrimage ends. "'It is a strange land, the house of their pilgrimage.'" Psalm 119, 19. "'I am a stranger in the earth, so Abraham and his, "'though they had the heritage of a pleasant spot "'of the earth by promise, even the land of Canaan, "'yet they sojourned in it as a strange country.'" And Hebrews 11, 13 confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Well, that's a good reminder, helpful from the preacher there, Samuel Rutherford. So let's do a few moments of review and then move on in our study. We have been speaking about what it means to call upon God as Father from verse 17, the first few words of that, if ye call on the Father. We took a few weeks to see the privileges of what that is, and now we have come to Peter's examination of calling upon God as father, Peter's instruction with regard to that, and it's not really benefits or privileges, it more has to do with responsibilities. And both are true in the Bible, and we've seen that. So the first responsibility that we looked at of calling upon God as father is living as those who will be judged by him. Then the second is, Peter says, to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. And so the second would be to live as sojourners here. We looked at that a little bit last week, and we limited our look last week to several examples. of that and didn't really talk a whole lot about what it means to be a sojourner. We're planning on doing that today. The third thing that Peter notices is that we are to pass the time of our sojourning in fear, that is in godly reverence. The fourth thing that we are to remember from this passage as the duty of calling upon God as Father is that we are to remember that the price of our adoption is not a low price. It's not corruptible things like silver and gold. Rather, it's the precious blood of Christ. And then the fifth thing that Peter tells us we are to remember in calling upon God as Father is that our faith and hope should be in him. So we're gonna take each one of those in order. We started with judgment, now we're looking at sojourning. When we're done with sojourning, either this week or next, then we will look at godly fear, then the cost of our redemption, and then faith and hope in God. Those as we move through the passage down to verse 21. Let's remember that last week we looked at Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Many other Old Testament saints could have been added to that list, including David, right? Who professed as much in Psalm 39, 12 and 119, 19. And I recognize in saying that, I always have to qualify these statements because I don't want to mislead you. The Bible never tells us that David himself wrote Psalm 119, but I do believe he did. I think it bears the impress of David in almost every verse. So that's my opinion. All right, so I'd like to come now to the New Testament for two examples. The Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Two examples of men, true, and let's remember Jesus Christ is a man, he's a true man, he's also God, but he's a true man. He lived in this world as a man, right? And so Paul was a sojourner and Christ was a sojourner. We want to use their examples also to help us. And then after we look at those two examples, I'd like to spend some time talking about what it means to be a sojourner and why that is a favored position. That's a favorable thing for us, to be called a sojourner through this world rather than an occupier of it. Like Rutherford said, it's our pilgrimage inn. It's not our home. Okay, all right, so that's where we're going. Let's begin then by turning to the Book of Acts. We're gonna look at the Apostle Paul for a little bit. Whenever we wanna look at Paul, we remember his epistles, either 13 or 14 of them, right, depending on how you're counting. And then also the Book of Acts, we see a lot in the Book of Acts pertaining to the Apostle Paul. So we're in chapter 20, verse 17. Let me read this for you. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and he called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, you know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. We'll stop right there. Paul makes it very plain, doesn't he, in this passage that he is a sojourner on this earth. He uses this phrase, finish my course with joy. Now by course, that Paul would use that. He is reminding us of language that he uses elsewhere in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 where he says, you know, there's those guys that run in a race, right? Run so that you might obtain the prize. Notice that the running is not the end, the prize is the end. The course is not the end, the end of the course is the end. Paul sees his life here on earth as like someone might view a race course, a track upon which to run, a cross country track, you know, over hill and dale and 3.2 miles or whatever it's going to be. And, you know, you have a beginning and you have an ending and you have a particular course and you have checkpoints, milestones along the way so you don't cut across the middle, right? It's a course. And a course is not the life of the person that runs the course. It's not their home. It's not their place. It's not the place that they go to. We, beloved, are running a course ourselves. This is not the final thing. This is not all there is. we must treat it like a course, like it is something we are moving through, not something upon which we have stopped and become stationary. Runners on their courses do not, quote, set down roots. Runners running on their courses do not encumber themselves with extra weight. Runners running on their courses run, like the apostle again will tell us, they run lawfully. They stay on the right course. They don't cut across the middle. They run with an eye to the prize, to the end, to the reward. This is not the reward. I know you'll, maybe some of you have done some fishing. You know how you can always tell a fisherman that's not really a good fisherman? You know how you can tell? Well, here's how. You ask them when they came home, did you catch anything? And they'll say, no, I didn't catch anything. Now, that's not the sign of a bad fisherman. Even good fishermen have bad days. It's when they say, you know, it's not really catching anything. It's just the getting out there. Right? It's just the getting out there. That's really what I enjoy. Oh, I see. So you could leave your fishing pole at home. Of course, you don't want to ask too close of questions when it comes to something like that. But that's the point, isn't it? The fisherman, he's not really out there with a goal to catch fish. He said, you know, the goal is just being there. That's not treating it like a course with an end. It's the opposite of that. So the Apostle Paul tells us here, he wants to finish his course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That's where I'm at, Paul says. I'm moving through this world. I'm not a squatter here. I haven't set down roots. I mean, if you think about it, now think with me for a moment here. We look at the book of Acts, We look at the epistles of Paul. How many times do you hear about the Apostle Paul dwelling in a house? How many times? Throughout his entire life. Off the top of my head I can think of only one. Only one. When was that? The hired house that he had while a house prisoner in Rome. Fascinating, isn't it? the apostle Paul, and the ministry that God had given him. Now that may be different for us. I'm not saying it's sinful to own and live in a house. Please don't hear me saying that. But I'm hearing, or sorry, but what I am saying is that if we would hear the apostle himself and his own testimony concerning his life, and then we take a look at a description of it, I can't think of a place where he actually settled in a house except when he was in prison in Rome. He traveled hither and yon. Oh, truly, when he was probably a young man, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, learning as a Pharisee, and perhaps as a Pharisee being one of those covetous Pharisees that we heard about earlier today, there are some who would say that Paul is perhaps that rich young ruler that went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. Paul will say himself in Romans chapter seven that it was covetousness that the Lord put his finger on that caused him to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ most properly. I know there's the Damascus Road experience, but again, in the totality of the revelation of God pertaining to Paul, the Lord was working on him through covetous a long time before he ever met him in Damascus. Paul learned to be a sojourner, didn't he? He learned to live rightly and lightly upon this world rather than to set down roots. Notice in 2 Timothy chapter four, For those of you that are still getting your legs under you regarding New Testament introduction, we think that Second Timothy is Paul's second imprisonment, probably the last letter he ever wrote. We think he was imprisoned twice, and then at the second imprisonment here, this is the time where he wrote Second Timothy, that he was taken from here and beheaded by Nero, somewhere around 67 AD. So this is the parting shot, right, of the apostle. And listen to what he says in chapter four. For I am now ready to be offered, for the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Notice the temporal difference between what we've read in the book of Acts and what we read here. Paul says, can I put it colloquially? I can see the finish line. I see the tape at the end of the course. My arms are raised and I'm ready to run through it. Isn't that what he's saying? Put it colloquially, yes, that's what he's saying. And notice that the way he gets from Acts 20 to 2 Timothy 4 is by remembering that he's a sojourner. Because he said in Acts 20, that I may finish my course with joy." And now here in 2 Timothy 4, he's ready to finish his course with joy. The time of my departure is at hand. That's a great example, brothers and sisters. It's a great example of a man who knew how not to invest in this world but to invest in the next. Paul will also lament that there are some who have stopped short. and have not reached the end of the course, but have turned aside and set down roots, and left their traveling or sojourning position. In the same passage, verse 10, 2 Timothy 4, verse 10. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Now I want you to see that Paul shows one side and then the other side of the coin. Davis here, he's mentioned elsewhere, but here at the end of Paul's life, he's the only one. Now there's also, there's Crescens and Titus. They're not said to be partaking of Davis's reason for departure. Davis' reason for departure is that he's loved this present world, right? And so Paul will say of him, he has loved this present world and that's why he's departed. But still, I need you to come to me, Timothy, because Davis has loved this present world and departed. Crescens is on apostolic mission to Galatia, and Titus is on apostolic mission to Dalmatia. Okay, we don't want to think ill of Crescens and Titus because what's said of Davis is not said of them. Only Luke is with me. Now notice what he says. Take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry. In Acts chapter 14, we read that Mark left the ministry early I think it got too hot for him, too difficult for him, because then in chapter 16, both Barnabas and Paul end up in an argument over Mark as to whether or not Mark's gonna go again to the field with them, and the strife became so heated between them that they could not go forth together. And Mark went with Barnabas, right, who was his uncle, And then Paul chose Silas and the brethren commended Paul and Silas to return to Asia Minor. We see that in Acts chapter 16. So notice that although Mark had departed from the work back in Acts 15 during the first missionary journey, here at the end of Paul's life, Paul says, bring Mark with you. He is profitable to me for the ministry. So Mark got his footing again. He lost his sojourner footing for a time, but he got it back. Isn't that interesting? So notice all of these things. There are some, Paul will say, who have turned aside. He will say that in 1 Timothy chapter one. He's talking about the law itself, the law of God. Verse four, he'll say, don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in Christ. Do that. Teach, charge those folks that they teach no other doctrine, in other words. Now verse five. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some having swerved have turned to vain jangling." They've turned aside. They've swerved away from the truth. They've swerved away from that doctrine which is according to godliness. In chapter five, verse 15 of the same book, notice what he will say. Some are already turned aside after Satan, We see this in several places, but let's go ahead for the sake of time and go to 1 Corinthians 9 and we'll finish out that section that we referenced earlier. It's at the end of that chapter. Verse 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. I fight, or so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, that is, I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway, a reprobate, literally. Well, it's a fascinating passage. Paul is talking about a couple of different athletic contests. One is running in a race, the second is fighting in a fight, probably boxing or some kind of hand-to-hand combat. Remember that Rome, and all over Rome, they were given to those kinds of things. Those were the entertainments of the people. We say it this way today, we say bread and circuses. but the part that Paul is talking about are the circuses, or he's talking about those circuses, those places where people came to watch trained athletes compete. They competed either in those running games, and the remnant of that is our Olympia today, and then also in physical contests, matching strength and hand-to-hand skill. If anyone striveth for the mastery, that's what he means when he says that, mastery. So what some have called today the sweet science, right? So Paul says, if someone's going to do that, if he's serious about it, and think of it this way, which one of us would walk into the ring with a boxer that is trained, exercised, You know, he's dusted off his skills. He's in shape. He can run the bag. He can do all that. How many would do that without training? How many would do it at all? Right? But especially not without training. Especially not without some kind of, you know, I mean, it'd be silly. It would be a violation of the Sixth Commandment, certainly. We'd be putting ourselves at risk. Okay? What Paul is saying is these guys don't go into these contests without training. They exercise temperance in all things. And by the word temperance there, literally we might want to say self-control. But that self-control is comprehensive. It's over what they eat. It's over how they sleep. It's over the exercise that they undertake. It's over the friendships that they make and the social calendar that they keep. Many of us perhaps have known folks that toward as the drawing near of some particular contest comes near, they will go into what they call training. Sometimes it's a 12 or a 16-week program, very austere with regard to their food, their sleep, their exercise regimen, their schedule, their social calendar. you know, hardly see them. In fact, some would even leave their place of residence and go somewhere out into the country to train and get away from everything without distraction and so on. This is the kind of mindset that we must have as sojourners as well. We must have that same kind of singular focus as sojourners. If we're going to make it to the end of the course, Paul says, We must exercise ourselves. I keep under my body, he says. And he's using that same kind of illustration, that same kind of training illustration. He doesn't mean only his body, obviously. He's talking about the totality of his person, his body, his soul, his heart, his mind. Think about the inner man, the outer man, everything. Paul says the entire picture, the entire package has to be brought under a particular kind of discipline if we're going to finish our course and not turn aside. You wanna run so that you may obtain. You don't want to train in the way such that as soon as you step into the ring, it's two hits. He hits you, you hit the ground. You don't want that. You don't want that kind of training. You want the kind of training, you want the kind of attitude, you want the kind of focus that will bring you to the end of the course. This is what Paul is talking about here. This is the course that we saw first in Acts chapter 20. And notice then how he presses that. And I will say it this way also. We often talk about in churches, can you lose your salvation? Is there any such thing as that? Is once saved, always saved a true doctrine? Well, we believe that that's a true doctrine. And yet, as soon as we say that, we must qualify our understanding of what we mean by that. Because the once-saved, always-saved doctrine has led to presumption, which is not a sign of salvation at all. In fact, we must bring that first that first syllogism, or sorry, that first term into question. If someone begins to behave themselves presumptuously against God, it doesn't matter what I do now, I don't need the law of God, I don't have to go to church, I don't have to show the signs and the marks of Christianity, because you know, it's once saved always saved, pastor. We want to go back to the once saved Doctrine in the first place and see whether or not that was actually true because the Apostle John will tell us they went out from us because they were not of us and Paul will say some have turned aside after Satan after having made that profession So let's make sure we get this, right? Paul is going to say here Do you want to know why I train like a boxer trains with regard to my own Christian life? Do you want to know why I train like a runner trains with regard to my own Christian life? Do you want to know why I keep under my body, why I keep under that whole of who I am, why I keep myself under stern scriptural and spiritual discipline? You want to know why I do that? Because at the end of it all, after I've preached to others, I myself don't want to be sent away a reprobate. That's why. Because that doctrine of assurance that we're all looking for in the once saved, always saved thing, that doctrine of assurance that we're truly looking for is found every day getting up and pulling on your boots for the kingdom of God. That's where that doctrine of assurance is truly found. And if you're doing that, you will never stumble. Beloved, remember that. The Bible never tells you to look back, it tells you to look forward to the end of the course. We have one of our elders who was raised on a farm and one of the things that he learned as a young man driving a tractor, if you want to plow a straight road, what do you do? You have to look a little bit beyond the tractor. Right? In other words, at the end of the field, you pick a spot, and you don't take your eyes off of it. And when you turn around, you pick a spot, and you don't take your eyes off of it. You keep your eyes focused on the end. Otherwise, your rows are going to look like this. Right? You've all taught your children, some of you have taught your children to drive. And what do you tell them? Eyes up. Get your eyes up. Look ahead. Don't look off the end of the hood. You don't know where you're going. Paul says, eyes up. Look to the end of the course if you want to make it there. Eyes up. This is the kind of sojourning that the apostle is speaking about here. Notice in 2 Corinthians chapter five, he's going to talk about sojourning as well. We may not get past the apostle Paul today, but he's teaching us a lot. So let's go ahead and stay with him. Verse one, 2 Corinthians five, verse one. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, he that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade men, but we are also We are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. So we have the nexus between responsibility one and responsibility two. Living as those who will be judged and then living as sojourners in this world. Those two things are brought together in this passage, aren't they? Notice the terminology that the Apostle Paul uses here. First of all, he says it is our earthly house of this tabernacle. What's another word for tabernacle, children, you know? Tent, right? It's a tent. How many of you like to go camping? You don't need to raise your hands. I know a lot of you do like to go camping. Now, I know for some people camping is like a hotel room without room service. I get that. But for some of you, camping is you load up the car, you load up the truck, you drive to a campsite, you get out, and one of the first things you get out is your tent. When you set the tent up, what are you saying to all of the people that are watching you set your tent up? I don't live here. I'm only here for a little bit. Right? I'm camping. I'm just here for a little bit. I don't live in a tent. It's true that some folks are sometimes reduced through some very difficult times to living in a tent. But that's not what we're talking about here. That's not our illustration. It's not Paul's illustration. Paul's illustration is the place we live now, he says, let's call it a tent. You know why? Because he's wanting us to understand it's temporary. Let's call it a tent. We know that the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. We have, notice, a building of God. You see the contrast? It's very clear. He's teaching us to be sojourners here in 2 Corinthians 5. We have a building of God, then house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What is your attitude toward that house? For this, that is this house, we groan. I know some of you groan when you get up after sleeping in the tent overnight, right? No, we're groaning to come home, Paul says. Our eyes are fixed not on this present tent existence, but that eternal building in the heavens that God has wrought. You see what he's doing, he's turning our eyes away from this world toward heaven. Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so, that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. Of course, what's being spoken of there is that we have no covering, right? No righteousness from Christ. The white robes of the saints are the righteousness of Christ. so that we are in this tabernacle, we do groan being burdened, but not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that our mortality in this life might be swallowed up of that which is life itself, or eternal life. It's valuating things properly. I know it's hard for us. Our senses can't tell us about heaven. Our senses only tell us about the good things of this world. and we're often drawn to them. Our eyes are drawn to those things. Paul's saying that we need to exercise some discipline in our thoughts. Now he that wrought for us the self, same thing as God, who is also given unto us the earnest of the spirit. Okay, earnest, that's another temporary situation, isn't it? Again, over and over again, Paul is speaking to us about temporary things with regard to this life. Do we, the people of God, those who have been regenerated by the grace of God, do we enjoy the Spirit of God in our day? We do. What does the Spirit of God do for us? A myriad of things. He intercedes in prayer for us. He illumines our understanding into the scripture. He convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment. He leads us in the way of uprightness. He interprets the law of God to us in our own place and station so that we might know how to behave ourselves in this world. And the other thing that he does is he testifies to us that he's only in earnest, that this is not everything. There's something else coming that's better and bigger. Those of you who bought a house, you had to put down a little bit of earnest money. How much was it by comparison? Just a little bit, right? Because the earnest, the great things that we enjoy today from the Spirit of the Lord are not worthy to be compared to the greatness of the inheritance and the house that's coming. So then we are confident, Paul says, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, which is, by way of implication, our true home. We walk by faith and not by sight. We don't let our eyes tell us what reality is. We let God's word, mediated to our minds by the Spirit of God, tell us what truth is. That's where we get truth. And that tells us what? That we are sojourners here and we have a home in the heaven, a house, a building, an edifice. that God is building and we groan for that house. We are confident and I say willing rather to be absent from the body than to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we notice, here's running the course again, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. We're learning how to be a sojourner here, right? We turn to Philippians chapter one. The apostle Paul is talking to the Philippian church. And let's remember the Philippian church. Let's remember Lydia. Let's remember the Philippian jailer. Let's remember that there was a church that sprung up from those early missionary efforts of Paul in that area, right? And let's also remember from the first chapter as well that there was great affection from the apostle to the Philippians. Great affection. He loved them. He longed to see them. They were praying for him. He was in prison. There were some people in the Christian world in that day that were preaching the gospel out of envy and strife in order to add afflictions to Paul's bondage. Paul says, I'm gonna rejoice. But then there were the Philippians who loved him and prayed for him. Those folks that had an appreciation for him. And so notice what he says. Verse 19, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy and faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again." Paul says, you know how much of a sojourner I am? This is his first imprisonment, probably 10 years, eight years between the first and second imprisonment? Eight years before he would say what we heard earlier, I'm ready to go now, I can see the tape. Here he says, my earnest expectation and my hope is, it's to depart and be with Christ. That's far better. But I know also that ministry is needful for you and so I would rather stay, this is what I choose, who knows what God's choosing, but what I'm choosing is to continue my course here for your sakes. That's selflessness. And then in chapter 3, verse 17, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample, for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. And so in this final passage, then, what do we hear from the apostle? We hear that there are those Even in the church, Paul says, I tell you weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Their God is their belly. The old Puritans who had a really great way of spinning words, they called them belly worshipers. Right? Belly worshipers. That is, they worshiped all of their appetites. Whatever they desired, they simply went for it. Whatever they thought was the gusto, they grabbed for it. That's how we say it in our day, right? Whatever they desired, whatever suited their fancy. Right? In that day, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. no helper, no enforcer, no legal authority to bring him back to heal. And there were some incredibly indulgent things that went on there in chapters 19, 20, and 21 of Judges. So here we have it then, from the lips of the Apostle Paul, setting his own pilgrim lifestyle before us, keeping his eyes fixed on heaven, on the goal, on the resurrection. This passage that we just read in Philippians chapter three is preceded by those few verses where Paul speaks about forgetting that which is behind and pressing for that which is before. He will tell Timothy as an example to him, no, no soldier who is called to be a soldier invests himself in the things of this life. that he might please him who has called him to soldiering. Second Timothy chapter two, long about verse eight. This must be our footing, beloved. We must have sojourner's footing in this world. We must not love the things of this world. We must turn from that love and we must love the things of the next world. And we will find, like it was for Paul, as he made known to us in 1 Corinthians 9, we will find that this is something that we will constantly strive to do. It's not something we can ever let up on. We can relax. Because to relax is to drift off the course. and we must not drift off course. We must finish our course with joy as sojourners. Peter will tell us, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Well, the old country churches had a song they used to sing. We don't sing those songs. We sing God's inspired Psalter. But they would say it like this, wouldn't they? This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, right? We must remember who we are. Strangers, aliens, pilgrims, sojourners, all of those consistently and constantly apply to the people of God. There is a time coming, beloved, when we'll be home. But that's not today. That's not our day today. These days are not the days of our home. These are the days of our tenting, right? So next week, Lord willing, we'll spend a little bit of time looking at Christ and his life. Think about it, how it said in Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and following, where it says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of God. What did Jesus keep before his eyes? And what must we keep before our eyes in order rightly to sojourn through this life? And then we'll look at some of the advantages that sojourners have. You think advantages? Yes, advantages. Let's stand and call upon the Lord in prayer. Our dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for the thoughts that we have gathered from the writing of Paul and his example to us. Oh Lord, we do confess that this world often looms large and heavy in our eyes, that we are often tempted, and we confess, succumb to that temptation to put too much stock in it, to overblow its importance, to overblow its value, and to overblow it as a place of residency rather than a place through which we are traveling. Lord, we pray, grant us that sojourner's feet, those sojourner's feet, that we might walk through this world as those who are pursuing a course, as those who are running a race, as those who are striving for mastery, as those who recognize the tented nature of this life and the eternal building of the next. And Lord, fill us up with that proper priority and value, that we would evaluate this world properly and ascribe the right value to the next. Help us, Lord, to do with less. so that when that day comes, we may be found running for the tape. Oh Lord, we ask that these examples that we have looked at in scripture, especially here today of the Apostle Paul, would inspire us, would push us, would drive us, would cajole us, would draw us into that kind of heavenly mindset that we must have. We thank thee, Lord, that through Jesus Christ, we are able to commune with thee forever in glory. That by his gospel and by his sacrifice, there is a place made for sinners. Oh Lord, we pray then that we would not see our place here, but there. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen.