But surely, I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; on account of Whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be refuse, that I may gain Christ,
and that I may be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which would be on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ—the righteousness which is of God through faith—
to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
if anyhow I arrive at the out-resurrection from among the dead.
Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing: forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you. But whereto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps.
May we have a word of prayer?
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou lovest us, and lovest us to the utmost—lovest us to the end. Thou hast proven to us again and again that Thy love towards us is as fresh, as living, as it was when Thou diedst on the cross.
We do praise and thank Thee that it is by Thy blood that we have the boldness to enter into the holiest place and to behold the beauty of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. We do thank Thee for gathering us together here this morning.
Dear Lord, we pray that Thou wilt once again reveal Thyself by Thy Spirit in our innermost being, that we may be so drawn and attracted by Thee that we too may pursue and run after Thee.
How we praise and thank Thee, knowing that the end is before us. Lord, enable us to run to the very end and to seize the prize. We ask in that precious name. Amen.
The Lord put in my heart one thought, and I want to share it with you, brothers and sisters. That thought is: looking toward the goal, pursuing after the goal.
Now, we know, brothers and sisters, even in this world, if you want to be successful, you have to have a definite goal for your life. Because a life without a goal has no meaning, no purpose, no incentive to press on. A life without a goal—you just drift along, meaningless and unfocused.
Even in this world, if you want to succeed, you have to set a goal before you. Whether your goal is that you may be rich, or famous, or attain to a high position, or succeed in a certain sphere, if you set the goal, that will give you the drive towards it.
Whether you are able to attain your goal or not, that is another question. But even if you have attained it, what do you find?
You will find, just as King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” It is like pursuing after the wind. In the end, it is nothing, because the things of this world, and its traditions, are passing away.
Now, we who believe in the Lord Jesus find in the Word of God that we should have a goal for our Christian life. If we want to succeed, as it were, in the Christian life, we need to have a clear goal before us.
That goal is different from the goal of this world, because the goal of this world is based on earthly, material things, and it is for ourselves. To put it in a very simple way, whatever your goal may be, actually your goal is yourself. You want yourself to be rich, abundant, famous, or powerful.
It is self that motivates all these earthly goals. But thank God, He has saved us. And after we are saved, brothers and sisters, have you ever set a goal for your Christian life after you were saved? Or have you never even thought of it?
In other words, even after you are saved, is your goal still that former goal? If this is the case, you will find your Christian life is futile, because there is no incentive for you to press on to something much more worthwhile and everlasting than any earthly goal.
So this morning, I would like to encourage you, especially young people. You who are redeemed by the Lord need definitely to set a goal for your life after you are redeemed. Otherwise, your Christian life will be an empty thing.
Now, what is the goal that all Christians should set before themselves? Our goal is to be decided by God’s calling, because we who are saved have actually been called by God.
The Bible tells us that even before the foundation of the world, God has called us in Christ Jesus. You remember Romans 8. It tells us that whom God foreknew, He also foreordained; and whom He foreordained, He called; and whom He called, He justified; and whom He justified, He glorified.
So even before the foundation of the world, even before you and I existed on this earth, in God’s mind He already had us there. He foreordained us, and He called us.
If you read the Word of God, you will find that His calling is a holy calling. In 2 Timothy 1:9, it tells us that He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, we have been called by God with a holy calling.
Recently, I read a book containing a message given by a very famous American Christian, Wilbur Smith. He was one who had read very widely and was very familiar with the Scriptures and with writings about the Scriptures.
In his message, he said that holiness is found only in God and nowhere else. It is a character of God that He does not share with any being in the universe. In other words, it is uniquely His.
Why? Because the meaning of holy is to be separated from anything that is common—being so special that it is one of its kind, and you cannot find it anywhere else. Now, that is what our God is.
We are common, but God is holy—uncommon. That is holy: totally separated, altogether different, one of His kind. Nowhere else can you find it. That is God.
So our God is a holy God. In other words, He is altogether different from anybody else, uniquely all by Himself. That is a very special character.
In the world, you may find something called love. God is love, and even though the nature may be different, there is something called love. But holiness—no. The very definition of holiness excludes everything that is common.
And yet He wants to share that with His redeemed people. God is holy, and we must be holy. Without holiness no one can see God, please God, or fellowship with God.
This is one precious thing of God’s own nature that He is willing to share only with His redeemed. Think of that. We are called with a holy calling. In other words, we are called to be different.
Today, Christians are often no different from the people of the world. But we are called to be different—uncommon, extraordinary. Do not sit back and say, “Well, I want to be like the people of this world.” Then you fail your calling, because God has called you to be different.
To be so different that He makes all the difference in you—that is a holy calling. Holy is in contrast to anything that is common. Therefore, our goal must be very different from all the goals that people in this world set before themselves.
Not only that, the Bible tells us that we are called with a heavenly calling. In Hebrews 3:1, we read:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.
We are called with a heavenly calling. Heavenly is in contrast with earthly. All the goals we naturally set are earthly, but now, as believers, we are called to something heavenly. Our calling is on high; it is in heaven, something that relates to heaven, because God is the God of heaven.
Therefore, we are called into that which is heavenly, not earthly. Our goal has to be something heavenly, not earthly.
Then, in Philippians 3:14, it is an on-high calling: “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” God is on high, not down below, and He calls us with an on-high calling. It is something high—not something cheap, small, or down below. No, it is something very high, glorious, and sublime.
Think of that. What a calling we who are redeemed are called with. Have you ever considered that? Do you want to be just common, like the people of this world? Do you want to live merely earthly, like the people of the earth? Do you want to be down below, like the people of this world?
No, brothers and sisters. We are called so differently. We are called with a holy calling, a heavenly calling, and an on-high calling. Our goal is set according to our calling.
All who belong to the Lord need to share one calling and one goal. We need to have a goal before us, and that goal is holy, heavenly, and on high.
Without that goal, your Christian life will be meaningless. Your daily life will not have that incentive, that pressure within you to press on, because you need a goal in order to press on.
I am afraid this is where God’s people are today. We may never have thought about it. After we are saved, we may never sit down and really set a goal for our Christian life. How are we going to live afterwards? What are we going to live for? What am I aiming at? What will make my Christian life meaningful in fulfilling the purpose of God?
Brothers and sisters, we need to do that.
You know, the Apostle Paul wrote a number of letters that are all in the Word of God. The letter to the Philippians is very special because Paul wrote this letter when he was in prison in Rome for the testimony of Jesus.
He wrote to the church in Philippi, a church that had such a loving relationship with the Apostle Paul. There was such an understanding between the apostle and the believers in Philippi. There was an intimacy there.
Because of that intimate relationship, Paul was able to open up his heart to them. Of all his epistles, the letter to the Philippians is the one that really shows us the inward life of the apostle. He opened himself up to the Philippian believers and shared what was going on within him with his beloved brothers and sisters.
In this letter, he shows us what his goal was, how he came to have that goal, and after he had that goal, how he pursued after it. I believe that reading the letter to the Philippians will help us in this area.
Before Paul was converted, he was like us. He tells us in Philippians 3 that he was a typical Jew: of the tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Israel, and, of course, of Abraham.
Even before he knew the Lord, he was a person who had set a goal before himself. This young man was very different from other young men. Other young men set their goals upon the things of this earth and sought after the world.
But this young man was different. Even when he was young, he set a goal for something different from other young people. He wanted to be very religious. He wanted to be a rabbi, a chief rabbi.
So he began to pursue that goal. He studied at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel, at that time, was the greatest rabbi among the Jewish people. He studied under him, became a Pharisee, and said that he was a Pharisee of Pharisees—not just a Pharisee, but a real Pharisee.
He was very successful. He persecuted the believers in Jesus because, according to Jewish teaching, they considered Jesus an impostor and a danger to Judaism.
They wanted a Messiah who would come, overturn the Roman Empire, and make Israel the first of the nations. But they found that Jesus did not do that. He came for the souls of men. They rejected Him, considered Him an impostor and a danger to Judaism, and got rid of Him.
This young man was so zealous for Judaism that he became a chief persecutor of the followers of Jesus. But unfortunately, he was in darkness. His whole life was governed by the tradition of men. He had no heavenly vision.
But God knew his heart. He was sincere, and God looks upon the heart.
One day, while he had documents from the high priest and was going even to foreign cities to seize followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem for judgment, God met him.
Before he arrived at the city of Damascus, a great light, greater than the noonday sun, shone upon him. He was smitten by that light, fell to the ground, and heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
In other words, he heard not a voice of condemnation, but a voice of tenderness—a voice that was hurt, yet a voice that considered him rather than merely considering those he persecuted.
“Saul, Saul, why do you do that? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. Don’t you know that everyone who comes into this world comes with the purpose of God behind him?”
God sends people into the world not without a purpose. Why were you born? It is God who created you. It is God who brought you into the world. But He has a purpose concerning you. There is a work He wants you to do for Him.
You are not your own master. You are like an ox that draws the plow for the master, the farmer. God has a work to do, and He brings you into the world to do that work.
But you think that you are your own master. Sometimes, when the ox thinks he is his own master and wants to have his own way, the farmer uses the goad—that sharp instrument—to touch his side, just to remind him, “You are not your own master. You have a master.”
But the ox is stubborn. It kicks back and hurts itself. After it has been hurt a few times, it begins to be obedient. That is what we were. God reminded Saul, “Don’t kick against it. You only hurt yourself.” How loving is our God!
Then Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou? I do not know Thee.” And the voice said, “I am Jesus, Whom thou persecutest.”
That melted the heart of this hardened, official man. He began to see that all his past had been in the wrong direction.
So he surrendered himself and said, “Lord, what dost Thou want? Thou art my Master. I am here not for myself. I am here to do Thy will.”
That is how this young man, Saul, was converted and transformed into the Apostle Paul.
The reason why you find such a change in that young man is that there was a change in his goal. He now had a heavenly, holy, and on-high goal. What changed him? It was that heavenly vision.
Brothers and sisters, the reason why we do not have a change in our goal is probably that, even after we are saved, our goal remains the same. What you decided before you were saved, you still pursue after. You are still pursuing for yourself.
There has never been a change, a transformation, coming into your goal.
This does not mean that, after you believe in the Lord Jesus, everything you were pursuing on this earth must completely vanish and that you become so heavenly that you are of no earthly good. It does not mean that.
It simply means that you need to have an all-controlling, holy, heavenly, on-high goal. Within that goal, God may or may not allow you to continue with the goals you formerly set.
Put it another way: whatever goal you set formerly, behind it was yourself. Self was your goal—to advance yourself, to improve yourself, to get yourself to the front, and to satisfy yourself.
But after you believe in the Lord Jesus, brothers and sisters, you need a higher goal to deliver you from self. Your higher goal is God. God becomes your goal. Christ becomes your goal.
Because you have Him as your goal, whatever you are pursuing on this earth, you will find its character has changed. It may be the same thing, but the character has changed. It is not for yourself; it is for the Lord.
If it is the Lord’s will that you should be successful in a certain area, you do it for His glory, not for your own good. That is the difference.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to set a holy, heavenly, on-high goal.
That is what Paul had. He said, “I count all things as loss.” What he had pursued before was now loss—nothing. Why? What made the change? It was because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Paul realized that Jesus Christ is so excellent, so worthy, so holy, so heavenly, so on high, and so eternal that He is the One worthy to be gained. So he said, “I have suffered the loss of all things, that I may gain Christ.”
Christ became his goal. Formerly, he himself was the goal, but now Christ was the goal. He wanted to gain Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, do we have this goal in our lives after we are saved? Do you really set Christ as your goal? Do you want to gain Him, win Him, know Him, and enter into His fullness? Does that become your consuming ambition, as it were?
In order to have that, you need to have a heavenly vision—a sight of Christ. A sight of Christ will make everything on this earth vanity of vanities.
It becomes so supernatural that you despise the things of this world, knowing that these are vanities—pursuing after the wind. Now you have come into that eternal, everlasting reality. That is gain for eternity.
Brothers and sisters, we need to have that change.
See how Paul pursued after that goal, step by step. In Philippians 3, you really see how he went after that goal. First, he changed his goal out of self into Christ. Nothing for himself; everything for Christ.
The first thing he said was that he wanted to know righteousness—not his own righteousness, but the righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ.
For this young man, that was a turning point. He had been seeking his own righteousness. He kept the law and wanted to be perfect before God by his own effort. He tried very hard and kept all the letter of the law.
He said that, as far as the law was concerned, he was blameless. As far as the letter was concerned, he was blameless, but he violated all the spirit of the law. He wanted to establish his own righteousness, and he failed.
But now he said, “I want to know, not my own righteousness by works, but the righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus.” Thank God, he knew that.
Christ, Who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Thank God, this is something we all have entered into.
Unless you are still trying to establish your own righteousness, remember: your own righteousness is as filthy rags before God. You need to know the work of our Lord Jesus. He died for you. He shed His blood for you to cleanse you from all your sins and offenses and give you a clear conscience before God.
That is the only salvation. But that is the beginning, not the end. To many Christians, in their pursuit after salvation, they think this is it. No, this is the beginning—only the beginning.
The second step comes after knowing the righteousness by faith through Jesus Christ. Then Paul said, “To know Him.”
Not only knowing His work, but knowing His person. If you only know His work, you have all the benefit of it. You know Him as your Saviour, and by knowing Him as your Saviour, you get the benefit—you are saved.
But God does not have any benefit, as it were, from you. He has not got you yet. So the next step is that you have to learn to know Him—to know Christ as the Person He is.
He is not only your Saviour. He is the Son of God, the Heir of all things, the Lord of the whole universe—your Lord, your King, your Sovereign. In knowing Him, you surrender your life.
Many Christians are saved, but they never surrender their lives to Jesus. They still live out their own lives. They are still their own master. Why? Because they do not know the person of our Lord Jesus.
If you know Who He is, then it is very natural for you to surrender your life to Him as Lord: “What dost Thou want me to do? Thou art my Master.”
To know Him. We need to pursue to know Jesus. There is so much in Christ Jesus that we need to know, and to know Him is to gain Him.
The third step is to know the power of His resurrection. Our Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” He died for our sake, but He was raised from the dead.
He is the resurrection, and He lives in you and in me. But do we know the power of His resurrection in our daily life?
After we are saved, we are still on this earth. We have changed, but our environment has not been changed yet. The world is still the world—full of sin, full of vanity, full of temptations. We live in this world and face all these things day by day. How are you going to overcome?
You try to overcome by your own struggle, and you struggle and struggle until you are tired. We find many Christians are worn-out Christians—so tired, tired of trying to be good, tired of trying to be good Christians, tired of trying to live up to the standard. You cannot do that.
To live a Christian life, there is only one Person Who is able to live it: Christ Himself. We cannot live it. But thank God, Christ is in you, the hope of glory.
Do you know that Christ is in you? He is your life. Do you realize that He is your life? What is life for? Life is to live.
You may call this a gospel for believers. Formerly, before you were saved, there was a gospel for unbelievers: you do not need to fear death, because Christ has died for you.
That is the gospel for the world. But there is a gospel for believers: you do not need to be afraid to live, for Christ will live for you. Now you begin to experience the life of Christ in you as resurrection power.
Only after you have known Him as your Lord, when you surrender yourself to Him, do you begin to realize that He is living in you.
The Apostle Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; no longer live I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith—the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
So, brothers and sisters, do you experience Christ as your daily life? Whenever temptation comes, are you still struggling to meet it, or do you step aside and say, “Lord, Thou go ahead and meet the temptation”?
That makes the difference. What you cannot overcome, you overcome by His life—His resurrection life. His resurrection life is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
That is a further step towards the goal: to know Him in your daily life through the power of His resurrection.
Then there is another step further: to fellowship with His sufferings. Think of it. Not only will He live in you, but He wants you to share with Him in His sufferings.
Our Lord Jesus’ sufferings are of two kinds. One kind we call vicarious, or atoning, suffering. In other words, He suffered on the cross for our sake.
He bore our sins in His own body. He took us into Himself, and because of that, He died. He died an atoning death. His death atoned for us, redeemed us, washed away our sins, and redeemed us back to God.
That atoning suffering He suffered alone. We cannot share in that. But He calls us to share with Him in His non-atoning, non-vicarious sufferings.
When our Lord was on earth, He suffered for righteousness’ sake. Because He was righteous and the world was unrighteous, He had to suffer—to be misunderstood and persecuted.
He suffered for righteousness’ sake. He suffered because He was different, because He was heavenly. The earth did not understand Him, and they persecuted Him. They tried to get rid of Him, and He suffered for that.
He suffered because of His sympathy with us. How He sympathized! You remember, “Jesus wept.” Why did He weep? Not for Himself, but for the world. He suffered for sympathy’s sake.
He suffered that He might bring us into one body, the Body of Christ, to present us to the Father holy.
Our Lord Jesus suffered non-atoning, non-vicarious suffering throughout His whole life. This is the kind of suffering Paul wanted to share with Him.
Do you ever suffer because of the name of Christ? Do you ever suffer because you are a Christian? Do you ever suffer because you are righteous and want to do the right thing? You will not go along with the world. Do you suffer because of that?
If we suffer with Him today, we shall be glorified with Him when He is glorified. We are called into the fellowship of His Son.
Do not consider suffering strange. In 1 Peter, he says, “Do not consider it strange.” If you are following the Lord, you will suffer because you are so different—so extraordinary.
Then, being conformed to His death. Our Lord’s death is like a mould, and we are poured into that mould so that we will come out just like Him.
How can we be like Christ? The only way to be like Christ is to be poured into His mould of death: death to sin, death to the world, death to self, death to the enemy—everything that is not of God.
In His death, He put death to death. As you are conformed to His death, you are completely separated and delivered. You become totally of Christ, totally of God.
Out of that comes the apostle’s pursuit: “that I may arrive at the out-resurrection from among the dead.”
We know that every believer will one day be resurrected. This mortal body will be changed into an immortal body. This physical body will be changed into a spiritual body like our Lord Jesus in His resurrection. All of us will be resurrected.
But even in the resurrection of the body, there is a difference. Some who are resurrected are counted in the first resurrection. Some who are resurrected are not in that first resurrection.
In other words, the quality is different. In the original, the word here is out-resurrection. It is resurrection, but out-resurrection—of the first quality.
Those who are resurrected with that first quality shall reign with Christ during the millennium, a thousand years, in His kingdom. That is what Paul was aiming at.
You can see that there is so much before us. Brothers and sisters, being a Christian is very thrilling and exciting. You may think, “Well, I am saved. That is all. What else is there?” So you go after the world.
But, brothers and sisters, you will find that there is so much in Christ that He wants you to share, to possess—to possess your possession. This is the inheritance that God has prepared for you, and we need to possess all that He has possessed for us.
Sometimes I think the most ambitious people in the world ought to be Christians. But our ambition is on a higher level, on a higher ground—much, much better.
If you have the whole world and lose your soul, you pay such a price for nothing. But if you pursue Christ as your goal, you will find reality—eternal reality. It never passes away. It is glory, and glory, and more glory. It is worth it.
Dear brothers and sisters, even Paul said, “I do not profess that I have already arrived.” No, he was still pursuing.
After we have believed in the Lord for ten years, perhaps twenty years, perhaps thirty years, perhaps sixty or seventy years, we may stop pursuing. But remember: we have not arrived. You cannot stop. You have to pursue.
Forget the things behind. Do not look back and say, “Well, I have gone a long way.” That is nothing. It is the end that we should keep before us.
You may cover three quarters of the course, but there is still one quarter that really makes the difference. It is a warning to me: I have not arrived yet, and the last portion is the most important portion.
You have to forget what is behind. Do not think that you have gone a long way. Forget it, as if you had never run before and today is the day you begin to run.
You have to have that kind of attitude. Christians never grow old. The more you pursue the Lord, the more childlike you become—a baby.
You graduate from college, then go back to high school, then back to primary school, then back to kindergarten, and then back to pre-kindergarten. That is the spirit we should have. Never get old. Press on.
Looking toward the goal: without the goal, you cannot pursue. There is no incentive. But with Christ—the living Christ, the eternal Christ—set before you, you look at Him.
You do not look at anything else. You do not look at yourself. You press on to win that prize, the prize of the on-high calling.
What is the greatest prize? Christ Himself. He is the greatest; all the others are just added on.
Brothers and sisters, we are almost at the end of the road. This is the most difficult time. When you are running, toward the end is the most difficult. Your strength has gone out, and you are tempted to stop.
But this is the time that we should press on. Look! This is the mind that we should have, and this kind of mindset will make us perfect. By perfection, this means mature—really mature in the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, I say all these things to encourage myself, to warn myself, and I want to share them with you.
I am thinking that this should be our best time in seeking the Lord. The darkest, most difficult time is the best time for us to pursue and to press on.
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, Thou art beckoning us. We are almost there, but not quite. We do praise and thank Thee that Thou art warning us and encouraging us.
We pray that we may really be those who have caught a sight of Thee, and that Thou wouldst consume our whole being for Thyself.
Lord, Thou art the only worthy Person.