And let's pray and ask God to help us as we come to his word. Oh Lord God, we do want to thank you so much for this opportunity that we have this evening to think about your word and to think about the attitude that we should have to our lives, both our lives at the present, our lives in the past, and our future lives. And we pray, Lord, that you will help us to have a right attitude. Lord, help us to learn from your word now. And I do pray that you would please help me to be able to bring out from your word what's going to be helpful for us all. And please, Lord, would you speak to each one of us to encourage us, to help us to love you and serve you better. And Lord, if anybody should be here or might listen in who doesn't know you, we pray that you might draw that person to yourself as well. So we pray, bless this time now in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I realized as I was preparing, I was thinking a few nights ago about what I should speak about on Sunday, and I thought, yeah, we'll look at verses 12 to 14 of Philippians, because it's the last Sunday in the new year, last Sunday in the old year, just coming up to the new year, because there Paul talks about his attitude to his life at the moment, And he also talks about his attitude towards what's past and his attitude towards what's future. So that was what I was thinking a few nights ago. And as I came to prepare my notes, I realized, I preached for Philippians 3 last year, same Sunday last year. However, I actually approached it at a different angle. I was then looking at the whole chapter and talking about goals we should have in life with a view to setting good resolutions for ourselves. So this time it's coming, it's looking at a different angle. And besides, also some of you weren't, most of you actually, weren't here this time last year. So hopefully, nobody's going to complain, I hope, if we look at this passage again this time of year. It just seems to me so helpful. that at this sort of pivotal time of, you know, we tend to be a bit more contemplative at the end, at least I do, probably many of us do, coming to the end of a year, starting a new year, we tend to sort of perhaps look back a bit and review, take stock, what's coming to the future. So I thought it'd be helpful to look at this passage. And so let me read these verses. And I think you'll see present, past, and future coming up in these verses. Not that I have already obtained all 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've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now, just before we look at those verses, in a bit of detail. Let me just sort of remind us of the context here in Philippians chapter 3. So Paul is warning the believers to whom he's writing about false teachers who were troubling the church. Now it wasn't just this in Philippi that was happening. Got something very similar in coming up in his letter to the Galatians. Also in Colossians something quite similar as well. People who were wanting to add to the gospel something else to make you right with God. And often this was people from a Jewish background who were saying, it's no good just believing in Jesus. You've got to be circumcised. You've got to keep the Jewish ceremonial law to be an OK Christian. And Paul is saying, no. If you try, if you listen to these people who say you've got to do this, you've got to do that, follow this rule, follow that law in order to be an okay Christian, you will lose your joy. You will lose your power. You will lose that sense of the knowledge of Christ because you'll be relying on what you can do to make you okay with God, being circumcised, keeping Jewish laws, and it could be other things. rather than relying on Christ. So it's really important that you hold on to the real gospel and you do not allow yourself to be diverted to another gospel. And what he does in this chapter is he says, effectively he says, if anybody wants to play the game of being right with God through Jewish rules, I can beat them hands down. because he was a Pharisee before he was converted. If anybody ever kept all the Jewish law, it was him. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, of Hebrew, the Hebrews. He was so keen in his service of God that he was persecuting the church. But he realized that all the things that he used to set store by, all the things he used to be so proud about, in terms of his following of Jewish rules, he now realizes they're rubbish, because they don't make you right with God. They don't give you salvation. And so he says, verse 8, Verse seven, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. It didn't help. In fact, if anything, it was reverse because it led me not to trust in Jesus. And then he says, verse eight, indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. He says, I've realized that all those things I used to be so proud about, how good I was, how religious I was. I now realize that they are like rubbish compared with the great worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And he says he wants to be found in it. Now then he talks about two things he wants to gain from Christ. First of all, He's realized the value of being justified in God's sight. He's realized the value of being declared not guilty in God's sight. And so he says, I want to be found in him, verse 9, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. He says, I have now realized that the really important thing is to be justified, declared righteous in God's sight, not by works, not by religious ceremonies, but only through faith in Jesus. That is absolutely fundamental because without that, you've got nothing. You're on your way to hell. So he's realized that is something he really wants to be justified by faith alone. But then he says there's something else he wants. He doesn't just want to be justified, he also wants to be sanctified. He wants to be holy. He wants to be like Christ. And that's what he talks about in verse 10. He says that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection that I may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Now, you might think, well, what's he talking about there, attaining the resurrection of the dead? Is he saying, I want to become more holy so that I'm counted worthy of being raised from the dead on the final day? Well, that would be a complete contradiction of what he's just been saying about justification by faith. No. What he's talking about, I believe, is he's talking about experiencing the resurrection power of Christ to live a new life. That's what he wants to have. He wants to experience now the resurrection power of Christ in his body, flowing through him, enabling him to live For Christ, of course, there's a future dimension to that. But that is what he's talking about. And I think, actually, that hymn we've just sung, I think, captures it so well in the third verse. 7, 2, 3, let's just find that again quickly. O to know the power of your risen life, and to know you in your sufferings, to become like you in your death, my Lord, so with you to live and never die." To have this resurrection life. And he knows that the more he experiences death in this life, the more he dies to sin, the more he conquers, the more he puts to death the misdeeds of the body, the more he crucifies the flesh, the more he will know the resurrection power of Christ. now in his life. And he says, I want to know that. I want to, my goal is not just to be justified. My goal is to be like Jesus. I want to be like Jesus. I want to have the resurrection power of Christ flowing through me so that I might be living that fruitful holy life. And so, in that context, then, we have these, what Paul talks about, his attitude, his attitude to the present, his attitude to the past, and his attitude to the future. So, attitude to the present. And the first thing we have, then, as regards his attitude to the present, is realism. Realism. When he looks at his life now, he is realistic. He's not perfect yet. He's realistic. Look at what he says there. Verse 12, not that I have already obtained this. See, I haven't yet obtained this perfection yet. There's still a mixture of the resurrection power of Christ and the old flesh still at work in me. I haven't yet obtained this perfection. Or have already obtained, or am already perfect. I'm not there yet. I'm not perfect yet. I can't say, oh look at me guys, I don't sin anymore. He's not there yet. Again, verse 13. Brothers, I do not consider that I have yet made it my own. Now he can't be talking about justification there. Because the moment you're justified, the moment you believe in Jesus, you are justified. And you can say, I have made it my own, or not, because I've received by Christ, from Christ, his righteousness is my righteousness. I'm justified. He says, Dr. Berger, he's talking about sanctification. I haven't yet got there. I'm not yet fully perfect. Now Ed was reminding us in the Bible study a few weeks ago on Wednesday, Bible study, how at various points in church history there have been people who have made the claim that if you just have a certain experience or if you just surrender to the Lord or go to some prayer meeting and somebody prays for you or something like that, you then move from a situation where you were a sinner to no longer having a problem with sin. And they call it, they say that you can, they say there are some who've said, just as you are justified by faith, You can also be sanctified by faith. Same principle, they say. When you got justified through believing in Jesus, what did you do? You just said, Lord, I can't save myself. Please save me. I trust you to give me eternal life. I trust you to justify me. And bang, immediately, you're justified forever. And they say, ah, just the same principle. You go to the Lord and you say, Lord, I'm unclean, I'm unholy, I can't conquer sin in my life. Please give me that power to overcome sin, and bang, God gives you that power, and then sin is no longer a problem for you. That's what they say. And people say, you know, there are testimony meetings, because oh, you know, I used to have this problem, this or that sin, and I prayed, I prayed, couldn't get it. And then I went to this meeting, and the Lord delivered me, and I don't have this problem with sin anymore. And people say, oh. And keen Christians would go along to these meetings and say, oh, I want to have this. And it's great that they want to have it. But then people would say, oh, I prayed, but then I've sinned again. Oh, no. Perhaps I haven't had that experience. And oh, then they'd be thrown into despair. And along with this sort of teaching, you probably have heard, you know, this expression people sometimes, this little, Little slogan people say, oh, you need to let go and let God. You ever heard that one? Let go and let God. Just stop doing another one. Do not strive, they say. Do not strive. Just let go, and God will do what you can't do. But Paul doesn't say that. He doesn't say, I had that experience, and now I don't have a problem with sin. Not at all. He says, I do not consider that I've made it my own. Not that I've already obtained this, already made perfect. The reality of my life is I've still got to battle with sin. Now he talks about that a bit more in Romans 7, second half of Romans 7, which people have argued about for generations and they think, oh, this sounds so pessimistic. He couldn't possibly be writing as a Christian. He must be writing, he must be describing his experience pre-Christian. Pre-conversion, or pre-some experience. But the problem is that the devotion to God that expresses in those verses, and the desire for God, is something that only somebody who's born again has. Let's read you these verses again, Romans 7 verse 14. He says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do what I do not want. For I do not do what I want. But I do the very thing I hate. So he wants to do what's good. He's got this new nature, this desire. But he's not doing it. And he hates sin, but he ends up doing sin. Verse 16, but now if I do what I do not want, and I agree with the law, that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. And so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Now look at this, verse 22. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. As a Christian speaking, I delighted in the law of God. No non-Christian would say that. I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see in my members another body waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. So there's a battle going on. And that's exactly what he's talking about here. I haven't got it all yet. I'm not perfect yet. So that's the present. The attitude of the present is realism. There's a battle. I'm not perfect yet. Are you a Christian? If you are, I expect you will echo that in your mind. If you don't, I think you're living in unreality because I think any Christian who is honest with himself will say that's true. I'm not perfect. So that's the first one. Second, attitude of the past. Forgetfulness. Forgetfulness. Look what he says there. It's quite interesting. So we're back in Philippians 3. Now look at verse 13. He says, brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind. Forgetting what lies behind. Now, that's a curious thing, isn't it? Because we know that having a bad memory is not good for people. What is the whole problem with someone who's got dementia or Alzheimer's? The memory is failing. And when the memory fails, life becomes impossible. So of course he cannot mean, I forget everything. He cannot mean that because life would be impossible. And of course there are certain things in the Bible we're actually told that we should remember. We're actually told in the Bible that we should never forget the condition that we were in before we were saved. There are certain passages in the Bible where Paul is almost rubbing the noses of the believers in how they used to be before they were converted. Don't forget this, he says. Ephesians 2, just back a couple of pages. He talks about them as individuals. Verses one to three, he says, and you, reminding them of their pre-conversion experience, you were dead in trespasses and sins, in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature objects of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Don't forget what you used to be like. And also, going on to verse 11, in terms of their corporate experience, therefore remember, Ephesians 2, 11, remember at that one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. what is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the covenant of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So there are certain things we should remember. We should remember what life was like for us before we were converted. We should also remember the mercies that God has shown to us. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And forget not all his benefits. Remember what the Lord has done for you. So there are certain things we should remember. So why does Paul say forgetting? If the Bible at certain points says we should remember, what is it that we should forget? Well, let me mention a few things. Harm done to us by others. That's gonna cripple our Christian lives. If we go over and over and over and over and over, well, he did this to me, and then he did that to me, and then he did this to me, and then he did that, and my life is so much the poorer because of this thing that he did or that she did. If you go over and over and over in your mind, It's going to cripple your Christian life, isn't it? Because your life is going to be consumed by bitterness. He says, forgetting what lies behind, forgetting. Another thing to leave behind is your pre-Christian identity. Now, I don't mean you forget your sins you committed before you were Christian. But you leave behind your pre-Christian identity. There are some people who say, well, of course, I'm a gay Christian. No, you're not. You're a Christian former homosexual. You're not a homosexual now. Oh, I'm a Christian alcoholic or Christian recovering alcoholic. No, you're not. You were a drunkard, but you're not anymore, hopefully, by God's grace. I'm a Christian trans person. No you're not. You once lived in the illusion that you could change your gender but hopefully by God's grace you've repented and you've changed your mind. You're not one anymore. We need to leave behind, oh I'm a Christian for, I'm a Christian gangster. No you're not. You were a violent man. Hopefully not anymore. But sometimes we bring our pre-Christian identities into our Christian life, and that really hinders people. You've died to your old life. The old man has died. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. Think of yourself as dead to sin and alive to Christ, dead to that old identity. Another thing we should forget is The benefits that we had as non-Christians. Do you remember Lot's wife as she was escaping from Sodom? She looked back, those were good days. I can remember those days, the parties we used to have. And she turns into a pail of salt. She looked back. The people of Israel as they were in desert, oh, I can remember we used to eat cucumbers and melons and we had lovely feasts back in Egypt. They look back, oh, those were the good old days. No, your life as a Christian wasn't good old days. Your life as a non-Christian, sorry, your life as a non-Christian, that was not good, that was terrible. You're on the way to destruction. Forget that way of life, forget that old past. That belongs to your former nature. Another thing. Now this might sound a bit strange, but I would say this. To a certain extent, we need to forget our past mistakes. What do you mean by that? There are some people who never recover from mistakes they've made in the past. They say, oh, you know, I was a terrible dad. I really messed up and, you know, I'm just a useless, just been a useless dad. But the problem is, they're not, they can't do anything about the past. The question is, okay, you've been a useless dad. Well, what sort of dad are you going to be now? Are you going to carry on being a useless dad? Are you going to say, all right, okay, I've learned from that. I'm going to try and be a better dad. That's the important point. Paul talks, doesn't he, about worldly sorrow that leads to death as against godly sorrow that leads to repentance. Yes, we should grieve over our sin, but in the right way that doesn't lead us just to, oh, I'm just a useless, and we just give up. That's not going to help your sanctification, is it? If you just mope about the past and say, oh, I've been so useless. Or I am useless. What's going to help you to be a godly Christian if you say, well, I made mistakes. I even sinned. But God has forgiven me. And now, by God's grace, I'm going to learn from that. I'm going to be different. Another thing we need to forget, in the right sort of way, The glory days. You know, some Christians will say, oh, things are not like what they used to be. I can remember the 1950s when you walked down the street, somebody'd, hello, sir, good morning, sir. A policeman would click around the year old if they were naughty. And then the kids would just go away. There was no troubles, no vandalism. I can remember those days. Or maybe you read about revivals in the 18th century. Oh, those were the days when things were really great. Well, of course, if you went to the 18th century, they'd say, well, I can remember the days when it was the 16th century or the 17th century, the Reformation. The Puritans, oh, that's a real struggle. And the thing is, at every age, people will always look back to the Golden Age somewhere. But nostalgia doesn't help us to live the Christian life today. Forget what lies behind. Of course, we learn from history. And of course, we read about revivals, and we pray for revivals today. But we don't live in the past. One more thing to forget. Previous successes. You know, there was that time when I really did great things to God. Well, that's a danger as well because we're living off our capital from the past. No. Leave that, you need to go beyond where you were before. to really know Christ. Okay, so forgetting, as regards the past, forgetfulness. Now then, as regards the future, embracing it with confidence in God. Look what he says there, and with determination to be like Christ. Verse 12, not that I've already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. And then verse 13. 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 towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So as regards the future, We run to it. We don't shy away from it. We run to it. They say about good policemen is that they run into danger. Well, we run into the challenge as Christians. We should be running into the challenge of becoming like Christ. We know it's going to be hard work. We know it's going to be a battle, but we run to it. We embrace that challenge. We say, right, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to strive to be like Christ. Do you notice how you've got words that sound like pain there? Yeah? Effort. I press on. That sounds like somebody going up a mountain. We pressed on, like arctic explorers going through the blizzards and the deserts, the blizzards of the cold. We pressed on, straining towards the goal. That doesn't sound like getting into the lazy river. There used to be this theme park that Ed used to take Vicky and me and the kids to, and there was the lazy river. And you just lie down on your back in this lovely, super warm thing, and you just lie on a float, and you just float down the river. Lazy river, just a nice easy, that's not, a lot of people think that's what the Christian life is like. It's like the lazy river. You just lie back and you just enjoy life, take life easy. That's not what Paul's talking about here, is it? Straining. Press forward. Press on towards the goal. And you find this same sort of language used in other places, don't you? How about this for an example of the Christian life? This doesn't sound like the lazy river either. 1 Corinthians 9. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box like one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." I don't think Paul's talking about losing his salvation there, some would disagree. I don't think he's talking about that because that would be in the salvation of my works. But he's saying, look, I want to win that prize of the Lord's commending me on that day. In fact, I want to have the prize now of being like Christ. So I'm pummeling my body, I'm disciplining myself. I keep my body under control so that I may gain that prize. What about 2 Timothy chapter three? This doesn't sound like the lazy river either. 2 Timothy chapter, sorry, chapter two. And verse three, share in the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops." Hard work! Athlete training day in, day out. Soldier, not getting involved in trivial pursuits, in civilian pursuits. Hard-working farmer, out there, morning, noon, and night, plowing the field, sowing the seed, watering the seed, harvesting the crop. It's hard work, but he does it because he wants the harvest. Or what about this Hebrews chapter 12? Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you do not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood." And so on. Then I could have also mentioned 2 Peter chapter 1. We haven't got time really to refer to it. 2 Peter 1, make every effort to add to your faith virtue and virtue knowledge, so on and so forth. Make every effort. Hard work. And so there are no easy fixes. It's not as if, okay, you go to some meeting, you just relax and zap. Suddenly you don't sin anymore. No. It's the daily hard work, the jog, the fitness training, as it were, spiritually speaking. Well, what are we talking about? We're talking about things which which sadly often very despised these days but are very important. Personal Bible reading, prayer, getting up early, having time with the Lord, coming to meetings of the church, joining together with other Christians to have fellowship, watching your life very closely to look to see if there's any sin starting to rise up. And as soon as you become aware of sin, repenting of that sin, crucifying that sin. feeding your spiritual life with good Christian literature, good sermons, and the like, so that you're strong. It's these nuts and bolts every day, what people used to call the means of grace, that is how we progress, bit by bit by bit by bit, becoming more like Christ. There is no easy fix. We'd love it if you could just have some amazing thing, and suddenly you don't have a problem with sin anymore. It doesn't work that way. But as we bit by bit progress in sanctification, bit by bit become more like Christ, we come closer to that goal. We become more conformed to the resurrection life of Christ. And the flesh becomes bit by bit weaker and weaker. And why does Paul want to do this? Because he sees there's tremendous value in knowing Christ. There's tremendous value in being like Christ. Both in this life and in the life to come. That's the teaching of scripture. You might lose out materially if you're like Christ. You might have enemies. but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're walking with God. The satisfaction of not having to go to bed at night with a guilty conscience. The satisfaction of not seeing your life and other people's lives being ruined by your own sin. And as Peter says, in that passage which I refer to in 2 Peter chapter one, which I will just read to you, He says in verse 11 of 2 Peter 1. In fact, I'll do, I'll read from verse 9. He talks about developing qualities and he says, verse 9, for whoever lacks these qualities, no, and I'll read from verse 8, for these qualities are, if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want to be that? Do you want to be kept from being ineffective and unfruitful in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, develop these characteristics. The first sign, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted he's blind, having forgotten that he's been cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. Do you want that? Do you want to be a Christian that doesn't have a spectacular fall? You hear about these famous people who've had these terrible spectacular falls into ruin and sin. Do you want to be kept from that? Well, develop these qualities. And then he says, For in this way, you will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior. Do you want to just scrape into heaven? Or do you want to come into heaven in triumph? Well, the way to come into heaven in triumph is by developing these qualities. Yes, if you're saved, if you're trusted Jesus, you'll be in heaven. But how do you want to get there? What sort of entrance do you want? You sneak in backwards like, you know, well, you know, or you go in with joy and confidence and with a welcome, well done good and faithful servant. This is what the scripture says, it's the way to have a rich welcome. into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, may God write these things upon our hearts and as we come to the new year, may we do this. May we be realistic about our present situation. May we forget those things that we should leave behind. And may we run towards the future, being determined that we will, by God's grace, in 2025, if the Lord hasn't come before, grow in our knowledge and love of the Lord. Well, let's sing a hymn looking forward to that future. We trust in you, our shield and our defender.