Turning from the Bible's place to Philippians chapter 3, we're going to look at verses 13 to 14 and then back to 12. and all over the Bible for everything else, okay? The slides will appear on the screen, and you can read as well as I. So for that purpose, in order to save time, I will not tell you the verse address. It'll be on the screen, and I'm gonna fly, I hope. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his word. We thank Thee that He loved us so much that He gave Himself for us for our sins. We thank Thee for the mission that He left us with, that we might share the message of His love with others and we might be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that we might do that in Jesus' name. Amen. The King James has some words in it that are not normal because when we think of the mark, we're thinking of Mark Overstreet, right? Well, yeah, Jill does, but yeah. At any rate, that's not what we're talking about tonight, okay? A lot of times if you're a hunter, you're thinking of a mark and it's called the bullseye. Or if you're hunting a deer, it's where you're supposed to hit him with the gun, with that bullet. That's the mark, okay? And we're not talking about that kind of mark either. The mark actually would be better translated a goal. as in running or track kind of idea. And I have a couple of those verses tonight. And one of them is this one, Philippians chapter 3, verses 13, 14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul was goal-oriented. We need to have some goals as God's children. Now, some people call them resolutions. We're gonna call them goals tonight, okay? Goals for God's people. In other words, what are you aiming at in your life? Notice the first thing says, forgetting those things which are behind. Now, when you're running a race, you don't look behind you. If you're playing football and you've gotten into the clear and you don't see anybody in front of you, you don't look behind you to see where the defender's coming, whether he's gonna level you or not, okay? That's not what you do, okay? So that's the idea of not look, forgetting the things which are behind. Whatever ground you've covered, okay? Whatever ground you've covered, you don't look back. because there's a problem there. You're not heading in the right direction. You're looking back and it slows you down. So we have to look at, number one, things of the past is forgiven sin. You know, sometimes when I'm talking to people, I'm saying, how are things going with you? And they begin to list off a bunch of things that disturbs them because of things that they've done wrong in the past. And we all have those. But the question is, have you talked to God about that and asked for his forgiveness? A lot of times people say, yeah, I've done that lots of times about some particular issue. I say, well, how many times do you think you have to ask God to forgive you before he's gonna forgive you? And the problem is somebody else reminds us of forgiven sins. Because God doesn't remind us. of forgiven sins. As far as the East is from the West, so far have He removed our transgressions from us. The first time when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something that we've done wrong, and we go to God and say, God, I really did this, messed this thing up, would you please forgive me? It's forgiven. When we go back to Him the second time about the same sin, God says, what are you talking about? So we tell him what we're talking about. And God says, what are you talking about? And we tell him again. And he says, what are you talking about? You know why? Because he doesn't remember any of that stuff. Because it's been forgiven. As far as the East is from the West, the Bible says to be remembered against us no more forever. Okay, so once it's forgiven, one time forgiven, One time forgotten by God, but not one time forgotten by you. That's where we have the problem. Our mind keeps remembering those things that we messed up on. We asked God to forgive us, and he did, and he forgot it, but we didn't. Now, this verse has a lot of stuff in it. I actually have a whole sermon on this one verse, but it's not tonight, okay? For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. There's two kinds of sorrow when we've done something wrong. There's godly sorrow and there's worldly sorrow. Okay? Here's two illustrations of godly sorrow. David looked out across his palace one day and there was Bathsheba taking a bath. And he liked what he saw. So he decided he'd take it. It was somebody else's wife. Uriah, her husband, was out on the battlefield with General Joab. Before long, Bathsheba sends David a note and says, you and I are gonna have a baby. David decided the best thing to do was cover his sin. So he sent out to General Joab and he said, send me Uriah. And so Uriah comes into town and he supposedly reports about the condition of the battle. And David says, okay, you can go home now. And he figured he'd go home that night and the sin would be covered and nobody would ever know. But Uriah didn't go home that night. And they told David Uriah didn't go home. So they have a big party for Uriah the next night and they make sure that Uriah is so drunk he hardly knows what in the world he's doing, but he doesn't go home. So, David sends a note with Uriah to General Joab to make sure that he gets killed in battle. Joab follows instructions, sends a note back to David and said, Uriah got killed in action. God was not happy. When we sin, God's not happy. And the Bible says, be sure your sin will find you out, even if you're the king of Israel, and it will. Sooner or later, God's gonna nail you on it. The prophet Nathan comes in to talk to David, and he says a neighbor had a whole bunch of sheep. And he had another neighbor that only had one little pet lamb. And the neighbor that had the whole bunch of sheep, that's David, with a whole bunch of wives, took his neighbor's little sheep, that was Uriah's little sheep, Bathsheba, killed it and ate it. Now, he didn't really kill and eat it, but it was the illustration that Nathan was using. David was so mad at that guy, he said, this guy deserves to die. And he's going to pay four times as much for this. And Nathan said, you're the guy. And then godly sorrow happened. David said to God, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this iniquity in thy sight. That's godly sorrow. When we sin and the Holy Spirit takes the word of God, which we have anchored in our souls and in our hearts and in our heads, because we've been under good biblical teaching and says you've done the wrong thing, then we need to agree with God and God's word and God's Holy Spirit and confess the sin and clean it up. That's what we need to do. That's real godly sorrow. Saul, later the apostle Paul in the New Testament, was a persecutor of the church. He stood by while they stoned Stephen to death and he was going to Damascus in order to find some more Christian people, those sect people that believed in Jesus Christ and believed in the resurrection, kill the whole bunch and throw them in jail. And God knocked him off the horse and said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Saul thought he was doing God a favor. But he was fighting against God. And God said, go into Damascus and somebody's gonna come talk to you. And he called Ananias and he said, go see Apostle Paul. Saul, excuse me, is also called Paul later. and he'll tell you what you need to do. Paul had godly sorrow. And every time he gives his testimony, until finally he says, I was the worst of the sinners, but God forgave him. Then we had worldly sorrow. Remember the people of Israel were coming out of the land of Egypt and Moses sent them into the land of Israel with 12 spies to spy out the land. And so they went in and they came back and 10 of the spies said, we can't do it. God's not big enough. God's not going to help us. God doesn't like us. God wants us to die here. Joshua and Caleb said, wait, wait, we have the biggest God in the world. He's gonna give us the land. He promised the land to us. He promised the land to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There's no way in the world we can lose. The 10 spies said, those people are giants. I mean, they're like 10 feet tall. We're like grasshoppers in their sight. There's no way in the world we can do it. Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron said, God's bigger than everything they've got. They said, we're going to pick a new leader. We're going to go back to Egypt, go back to slavery, where we belong. Otherwise, we're all going to die in the wilderness. We're going to die trying to kill those giants. God said, OK, that's what you want to do. You can walk around in circles in the wilderness for the next 40 years till you all die. They said, we're going to go out and do it. Why did they do that? because they had worldly sorrow. They were sorry for the consequences. They weren't sorry that they had not trusted God. They didn't believe God was big enough to help them capture the land. They had worldly sorrow. Moses said, don't go up. If you go up and try to win the battle, they're gonna kill you. They said, we're gonna do it anyways. Worldly sorrow. Just, Lord, please don't make me face the consequences of my bad actions. Now, isn't it amazing today, and I realize this is from an old guy, okay, and he didn't live in the 21st century, but it is amazing today to me that the policeman who is trying to protect me from the bad guy, the policeman is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy, And the policeman didn't treat the bad guy right when he's trying to protect me, law-abiding citizens like you and me. Why is it that the policeman is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy today? I don't understand that. You know why? The bad guy doesn't have godly sorrow, he has worldly sorrow. He's upset when he gets caught. He's upset when the policeman has to wrestle him to the ground and stand on him and put handcuffs on him. More about that later. Illustration number two. Samuel said to King Saul, I want you to go down and kill every last one of the Amalekites. I want you to, everything they've got, every animal that they've got, kill everything, clean house down there. Saul says, yes, sir, and he heads off down to take care of them. God talks to Samuel in the night before Saul arrives back in town. And he said, Saul didn't do what I told him to do. The Bible says Samuel cried all night. That was godly sorrow. You know what? Saul didn't cry at all. He wasn't crying. Saul comes back to town and he tells Samuel, I have fulfilled the world, Lord. And Samuel says, what then meaneth the bleeding of the sheep, which I hear? To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams, for rebellion is the sin of witchcraft and idolatry. Saul had worldly sorrow. He was sorrowful that God did not accept his rebellion and his witchcraft. instead of obedience. Samuel said, God has rejected you from being king. Saul was upset about that. But did he have godly sorrow? He did not have godly sorrow. See, there's a difference. When we've done the wrong thing, we have to agree with God's word and God's Holy Spirit. And a person who may have told us that, like pastor, And we need to really acknowledge that it's wrong, even though it may be something that we love, or love to do, and forsake it. Satan reminds us of forgiven sins. That's where those reminders of forgiven sins come from. God reminds us of unforgiven sins. You got that? Satan reminds us of forgiven sins. Now, remember those things we were talking about a little earlier? Things that you've done wrong in the past and you've asked for forgiveness. And God has forgotten them, but you haven't forgotten them. You know why? Because the devil reminds you about them. And when he reminds you about them, here's what you tell the devil, forgiven. Forgotten by God. That's the end of the story. It's a reminder from Satan about forgiven sins. Now, God does remind us of past sins, and those are sins that we have not confessed. Unforgiven sins. When God reminds us of those things, then we need to ask forgiveness. If we need to go to a person to take care of some issues, then we need to do that. The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Now, I have a same verse with Nasby, and it looks like this. The foolishness of man ruins his way, and his heart rages against the Lord. Now, when you and I have messed something up, You know what we have a tendency to do, and the devil helps us out on this one. You know what we have a tendency to do? We blame it on God. God, why did you do this? And God said, why did you make a foolish choice? Don't blame it on me. We know God's word. I know most people here. We've been under the teaching of God's word, good Bible teaching for a long time. And most of you for a lot longer than I've known you, I'm sure. But the point of the matter is, we know what we're supposed to do. We still have a sinful nature and we still mess up. But when we mess up, it's not time to blame God. That's worldly sorrow. when we blame God, when we have made foolish mistakes, we have not listened to the Holy Spirit who is in us that says, this is the way, walk ye in it. And we have no reason in the world to blame God. Godly sorrow says, I did the wrong thing. I disobeyed your word. I did not listen to your Holy Spirit. God, please forgive me. I'm going to do better. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word. If ye are without chastisement to which all are partakers, then are ye illegitimate children, bastards, the King James says, and not sons. If you can sin and nothing happens and God's Holy Spirit doesn't talk to you or remind you of verses of scripture that tells you that you have sinned, there's something wrong there. Because when God afflicts us in punishment to bring us in conformance with his word, that's because he loves us. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son that he receiveth. Second part of verse 14, reaching forth unto those things which are before. Any of you guys ever run track? How many of you, well, you're not a guy, but. I've seen girls run track. In fact, I've seen some ladies run track in the Olympics that I wouldn't even want to be on the field with them when they were running. They would embarrass me to death. At any rate, I was watching the Olympics one day, and it was a marathon. And there was a lady running in the marathon. And before she got to the finish line, she had about 100 yards to go, she collapsed. She just fell on the track. And people came up to her, but they didn't help her. Because in order for her to finish the marathon, she couldn't have any help. So she literally crawled the last 100 yards, falling down a number of times before she made it. That's the idea of reaching forward. Now, we have a tandem bike. That's a bicycle built for two. How many know what that is? Okay. In Pennsylvania, where I used to pastor, there's a bike trail from downtown Pittsburgh to downtown Washington, D.C. 335 miles. And we've ridden that sections at a time. And one day we decided we're gonna do 66 miles today. Well, we did all right for the first 60 miles. When we got to mile 65, we hit the wall. You ever been there? You've been doing something and you hit the wall. In other words, there's nothing left. And we decided we were not going to push the bike an inch, but we were going to sit down until we had some energy back. And so every 50 feet, we eventually got done. But when you're running in track, there's a goal, and usually there's a tape at the end, and that's what Paul's talking about in this verse, reaching forth into those things which are before. In other words, when you come to that line, if anybody's close to you, you're not looking back, but if anybody's close to you, you start leaning forward as far as you can so that you hit that tape first. This is the idea here in verse 14. Not as though Paul said, I have already attained, neither were already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. Notice what Paul says in the first part of the verse, I have not yet attained. You know why I don't need to come to church? Because I've already arrived, right? You didn't know that, did you? I didn't know that either. Is there still room for me to grow? Yes. Can pastor still teach me something? Absolutely. Do I come and sit here with the attitude, you know, there's nothing pastor can teach me? No, I don't. Every time I come to church, I say, God, teach me some more stuff. Help me learn some more. Help me to do better as a child of God. Think of the Apostle Paul saying, I have not yet attained. Paul, why in the world don't you grow up? Why don't you arrive? He said, I haven't attained. He said, I've not arrived. There's still room for growth. There's still room for more maturity in the Christian life. And every time I come to church, I say, Lord, help me to grow some more. Notice he says, either we're already perfect, You know, I think sometimes as Christians, some, because they've been a Christian for a long time and they've heard lots of Bible, they think that there's no more room. So why bother to waste my time in church, right? Notice it says, but I follow after it that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended. Now notice the verse has a funny word in it, and we don't usually use this word except in police arrest. You know what the word means in police arrest, don't you? Here's a guy, let's make an illustration, okay, he robbed a bank. The bank teller smacks the alarm, the robber doesn't know that they smacked the alarm, and they head out the door, and the next thing you know, here comes the police. And they're like, whoa, where'd you guys come from? You know, we didn't let you know we were going to do this. How come you're here? And they put a gun up to him and say, hold up your hands. And he's deciding whether he's going to start shooting or get killed. And so he finally throws the thing down, but he starts running. Now, if they have a canine unit, the guy turns the dog loose, and the dog tackles the guy and puts him on the ground and starts chewing him up. And I've known some people that that's how the way they need to be arrested. And the policemen come up and they step on top of him and they put their knees in his back and they put the handcuffs on him. And he's been apprehended, right? The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended you. You see it in the verse? that I may apprehend, capture that for which I have been captured, arrested by the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I'm not there yet, but I'm working at it. If Paul has to say he's working at it, guess what? Mel has to still say he's working at it. Otherwise Mel saying, you know, I've obtained better things than the apostle Paul. And now, as we all know, is a long ways from that, okay? For whom he did foreknow, that's you and me, he also did predestinate, and here's the mark, here's the goal, to be conformed to the image of his Son. When you are exactly like Lord Jesus Christ, then you have attained, you have arrived. We're not there yet. But we're aiming that way. That's what we want to happen. That's why we come to church. That's why we have our regular devotions. That we might be conformed to the image of his son. The word conform is like the word mold. In Daily Vacation Bible School, do we do molds? We put plaster of Paris into molds? Yes? No? No? Okay. Back in Pennsylvania, when we had Daily Vacation Bible School, we had plaster molds. They used to have them at the Wilds. Do they still have them at the Wilds? Somebody help me. No? Hannah says no. Okay. And you mix up plaster. Oh, I gotta tell you, speaking of mixing up plaster, I was in Montevideo in Uruguay working on the mission house, and my translators were all at camp, and I needed some plaster to plaster the wall with. So I looked on Google to see how you pronounce the word plaster in Spanish, and it's yeso. So I went to the hardware store, and I told the guy I needed some yeso. So he handed me a bag, I took it back to the house, I mixed it up, and the first trial of plaster on the wall, and everything was as hard as a rock. So I called one of my translators on the phone, and I told her what happened, and she said, what kind of plaster did you ask for? And I told her, and she said, you asked for molding plaster. So it turned rock hard the minute I was done stirring it up. At any rate, when you pour something into a mold, it takes on the image of the mold. I understand GE, where's my GE people? They used to do that. They have molds there that they put stuff in. Is that correct? My GE people are not here. At any rate, this is the idea of conformed. to the image. In other words, when you take a liquid and pour it into a mold, it conforms to the image of the mold. The mold is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we are exactly like him, then we've been conformed to the image of his son. That's the goal. The problem that we have is we live in a world. And the Bible says, and be not conformed to this world. So that means that as a child of God, I can start looking like the world. I can get poured into the world's mold, and it's real easy to do. It's something we've got to fight against every day, because the goal, the mark, is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Wherefore, seeing also we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, this is a sports arena kind of thing, idea here. So great a cloud of witnesses, Hebrews chapter 11 is talking about those are the great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, notice there's two things in the verse that create problems, sins and weights. Most of us know what the sins are. The problem that a lot of Christian people have are the weights. Suppose I'm running 440 dash. That means I've got to run 440 yards all by myself. I have two hand weights at home that weigh five pounds apiece that I exercise with. I have leg weights at home that I exercise with, five pounds apiece. Is it illegal for me to run the 440 with those weights? Is it illegal? No, it's not illegal. In fact, if I wanted to, I could get two 10-pound weights, and I could have weights on my wrist and weights on my ankles. I could get my hunting boots out and wear them. And none of that's illegal. I'm allowed to do that. The referee's not going to say, now what are you doing with those weights in your hand? He's just going to shake his head like, well, not too sharp. He doesn't understand this thing at all. It's not illegal, but it eliminates me from victory. There are a lot of things that we could use the term time wasters that we can do. And they're not wrong, but they're weights. They're not illegal, but they're weights. They're not sins, but they're just weights. And notice these two things, it says, easily beset us. In other words, hold us back. from being conformed to the image of Christ. It says this, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. When I was in high school many thousands of years ago, not quite that many, about 60, I read to track. Now when you're running a hundred yard dash, it's not patience, it's just get on and go. But when you're running a marathon, 10 miles, it's run with patience. In the Christian life, it's not a 100-yard dash. It's a marathon. And it takes patience. That means you have to keep on plugging away at it. A few suggestions that you've already heard a million times, but just a refresher for the beginning of the year. Number one. Read God's Word every day. Pastors emphasize this to us. Pastor Walker has emphasized this to us. Your Sunday school teacher emphasizes this to you. We hear it all the time. But it has to be all the time. We have to do it all the time. Every day, God's Word. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. Pastor talked about this this morning, so I'm not going to spend much time at all on it. but praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for, notice the last two words, all the saints. Everybody here who's a Christian is a saint. We're not Catholics, okay, we're just saints. You're gonna pray for everybody. Everybody that's not here, unsaved people, you need to pray for them too. Say they're not saints, that's true, but we want them to become saints, right? Right, that's what we want them to do. But be you a doer of the word and not hear only. Deceiving your own self. Put the word into action in your life. When we hear what God tells us to do, it does us no good if we just heard what they told us to do, but we just walk out the door and it hasn't changed us. Yeah, I really ought to do that, but we never do. Last part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus finishes up with an illustration. And he says this, and everyone that hear these sayings of mine and doeth them not is a foolish man. You know, when you hear the word of God, or when you read the word of God in your devotions, and you don't actually put it into practice, you're a foolish person. Because storm of life's gonna come. And everything's gonna collapse. Because you're not doing the word of God. We have to be doers of the word and not hearers only. The Bible says in the book of James, a person looks at the mirror and looks into the glass, it's used in the King James, and he goeth away his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. In other words, he looks into the word of God and he sees himself as God sees him and he sees what he needs to fix up so he's more completely conformed in the name of Christ and he walks out just a mess. Nothing's changed. He hasn't become a doer of the word. The last part of it, therefore, whoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man. In other words, as we hear the word of God and we put it into practice, we lay aside the things that are wrong, put off the works of the flesh and put on the works of the spirit, then we're wise people. We must be doers of the word and not hearers only. Now, I know you've never heard this from a pastor, Only a million times, okay. Be regular in attendance at church. Now, a pastor didn't write this verse in the Bible, even though some of you may think that he did, okay. And I didn't write the verse in the Bible. And I'm sure you knew that that would not be true. And you didn't get to write the verse in the Bible. or to amend it, but it says, not forsaking assembling ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ returns, is what it's talking about. The Bible says we ought to be regular in church attendance. God wrote the book. He didn't ask for your input. And he didn't ask for mine. Therefore, he expects you to do what he tells you to do. Seek for opportunities to turn many to righteousness, Daniel chapter 12 verse 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Ask God to show you people that you can help spiritually. Some of them are people who've never heard the word of God before in their lives. You run across them. You need to be alert when God opens a door. You need to be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason to hope that life within you and do so with the spirit of meekness and fear. There are Christian people, Pastor was talking about them this morning, who you can help. Be willing to help. Ask if you can help. If you see they're struggling with something, say, could I help you with something? If they just say, just pray for me, or if they say, could I talk to you sometime, you say, certainly. Say, I wouldn't know what to say. Yeah, you would. That's why you have the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you, and he'll help you with that. Say, I don't know all the answers. Well, I don't know all the answers either. You know what I do when I don't know all the answers? I tell somebody, I don't know, but I'll find out for you. Right? You can do that. You don't have to be a know-it-all person. You just have to have a person, be a person who's connected with the Holy Spirit and willing to share the message of the gospel of Christ Jesus with whoever. Or help a Christian be strengthened, turn many to righteousness, that includes saved and unsaved alike. I pressed toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is that mark? One more time, Romans 8.29. You realize that 8.29 comes after 8.28. For whom he did for now, that's you. He also did predestinate, that's you. To be conformed to the image of his son, that's his goal for you. Paul said, I have not yet attained, but I am have been apprehended so that I can be apprehended of Christ. That's our goal. We haven't arrived. Paul hadn't arrived. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only one who arrived. When we have been conformed to his image, we are called Christians, Christ-like ones, and that's what he wants us to do. In a moment the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Maybe we'll hear the sound of the trumpet this year and we will see Christ. And so then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. You will not give an account to me. You will not give an account to our pastors. He will stand face to face with God, and he will take the Word of God that he knows that you know, and says, why did you do this? Why didn't you do this? Listen to the sound of the trumpet, shall we pray? Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for the example that he has set before us. We thank Thee for the power of the Spirit that He has given us that we might walk in obedience to His Word and to His Holy Spirit. We pray that You would help us this year that we might be more completely conformed to the image of Christ than we were before. We pray that if there are any here who have unforgiven sins, that they would take care of that matter this evening before they go to sleep. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.