I sent out the notice—last week, yesterday. Yesterday. There you go. So once in a while, the blind pig, you know, picks up.
Anyway, about the verses, I hope you read the verses. That will save us some time. The overall burden comes from that phrase in Philippians 3: “But this one thing I do.” When Paul was speaking of his pursuing, he said, “But this one thing I do.”
Now, I do not want to read all of these again. I know you have read them, but look at Philippians 3:8.
But surely I count all things 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 things.
The second verses that will focus my second point are Philippians 3:10-11.
To know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death;
if by any means I may arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.
Or, as my version puts it—and I like that old version, the Authorized Version—“if by any means.” This version says, “if in any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.”
Then Philippians 3:13-15. This is really where the third point comes from.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have got possession;
but one thing: forgetting the things behind,
and stretching out to the things before,
I pursue, looking toward 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 you are any otherwise minded,
this also God shall reveal to you.
Father, we just come, committing Your Word back to the One Who is the Author, and pray that You would breathe on it this morning. We know You alone have the words of eternal life, and we know, as we come, that we are utterly dependent upon You to open those words of life to us.
Without those words, we know as well that we cannot live before You, and we cannot live in the fullness that You have called us to. So, Lord, we ask that You would anoint Your Word this morning. Open our eyes. Breathe life into these words, that they would not just be words of men that fail and fall short, but heavenly words—words from the throne, words that hit the mark, words that never return to You void.
In these things we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You know, this clock is going to mess me up terribly. It is seven minutes to eight, and I am sure that is not right. But I will do my best to keep somewhat on time. I will take this as grace.
It seems to me that we have been gathering more and more together in person. Before COVID—well, the COVID days, we are still in COVID—but pre-COVID, we were gathering regularly together. Since we have come back together, we are having more in-person gatherings. There are still some on Zoom, and we are having classes in some form, meals in some form, and we will probably return to somewhat regular types of ministries. Whatever that means, I will leave that with you.
But we also have really focused, in these days of transition, on giving a word of encouragement. That was our thought. I do not know how many of you picked up on that, but every speaker intended to get up and give a word of encouragement.
The burden that has been on my heart for some while is “but this one thing I do.” You will remember that I started a series, COVID interrupted that series, and now today I will finish that series—maybe.
We are going to look at Paul’s purpose. Paul had a purpose that affected and controlled everything in his life. We are going to look at Paul’s passion. Paul was full of passion. He was all in, as we like to say in our modern verbiage. And Paul never stopped pursuing: Paul’s pursuit.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, if those three things are true of us, then we will have a fruitful life in the Lord Jesus, and we shall have great reward. These three—well, I hate to say three things, because it is one thing. You know that. I have tried to beat that into you by my extended repetition. But it is all one thing. There are three aspects of the one thing here.
This is Paul’s secret. Brothers and sisters, I have tried to communicate these burdens that I have shared: these are not just to be Paul’s secret, or David’s secret, or, if you remember, Mary of Bethany’s secret. This is to be your secret, and this is to be my secret.
They were not communicated to us by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to be some sort of historic biography of how they lived. How they lived was communicated so that we might live the same way. Now, is that clear? That is clear. My wife tells me I am often not clear, so I hope I was clear. I intend to be clear. Stick with me.
There is this phrase in the Bible, “one thing,” that is a secret in God’s Word. We looked at David, you know that, and we do not want to cover much. But there is not a more influential person in the Old Testament.
You remember what it says in Psalm 27:4. I will just read it.
One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in His temple.
This one verse, to me, marks this man after God’s own heart. You remember what the Lord said—God’s summary of David’s whole life in the New Testament, in Acts 13:22:
I have sought a man after My own heart,
who will do all of My will.
I will be dogmatic, and you can argue with me later: there is not a more influential person in any Old Testament record than David. When the Gospel opens with Matthew’s Gospel, it speaks of the Lord Jesus in the first verse of the New Testament as “the generations of Jesus Christ, son of David.” That is how important he is.
He was a man of passion for God Himself, and he was a man of passion for the house of God. As a matter of fact, in this famous verse, he mentions the house first. You would say, “Oh, no, no, no. That is terrible theology. It ought to be that he mentioned God Himself first.” But David said, “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
If this secret—this one thing—were true of us, how great, how inspired, how full our Christian life would be: a passion for God’s house and a passion for God Himself.
Yesterday I was thinking, if you are waiting for a vaccine for the deadly virus of spiritual malaise, this is the cure. So many spiritual ills are corrected by passion. We must be a passionate people.
Now, secondly, we looked at Mary of Bethany. I just want to say this in review; it has been a long time. I was struck by how little we know about Mary of Bethany, but I was also struck by the fact that the little we know speaks great volumes.
You remember the story. It is recorded in all the Gospels, when Mary of Bethany took that alabaster flask, broke it, and poured it upon the Lord Jesus. She wasted this precious, priceless, costly substance upon the Lord Jesus.
How wonderful that is. I think that is her one thing. You remember what the Lord said when Martha was scurrying around with her service—her detailed service, her service somewhat filled with anxiety. The Lord said:
Martha, Martha,
you are busy about many things;
but Mary has chosen that one good thing,
which shall not be taken away from her.
Then He said the most priceless thing. You remember what the Lord said? He said this of no one else:
Wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world,
let it be said what this woman did
in memorial of her.
Priceless. I think marketing people are very clever. I wish I were half as clever. They know how to get something into our psyche, and it sticks with us. We have a hard time shedding it.
I do not know how many of you remember the MasterCard commercials: “Priceless.” They are a little artsy—do not get upset, my dear daughter—they are a little artsy. As soon as their great marketing spiel comes from them, they are usually tired of it and looking for the next genius. But that commercial has been going seventeen years. That might be the world record.
You remember, it started with that man and his son in the baseball stadium, sharing a hot dog. It said, “There are some things money cannot buy. For everything else, there is MasterCard.”
Now, that is just not true. I am sorry. You see, that is the secret of marketing. I am a businessman; you remember that. If your client believes it, it is true. For seventeen years, we bought it hook, line, and sinker.
But what the Lord said was priceless: what this woman did, let it be spoken of her wherever this Gospel is preached, for a memorial to her. That is the effect of one thing.
Well, today we are going to look at Paul in these three aspects of his one thing. There are three deep impressions, let me put it this way, when I come to the Epistle of Philippians and to the Apostle Paul.
First of all, there is not a more influential person in the New Testament than the Apostle Paul. That is not arguable. Just as there was no person more influential in the Old Testament than David, so Paul is to the New Testament.
Just think about it—just the facts, ma’am. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. You all know that. Thirteen were written by the Apostle Paul. If you are one of those fanatics who believes he wrote the book of Hebrews as well—which many do, and many we greatly respect—then he wrote more than half of all the New Testament.
He laid out the purpose of God. He laid out the plan of salvation. He laid out the Christ in all of His glory, and the mercy of God in all of His wisdom. No one compares to him in the New Testament. You know I am excepting the Lord Jesus in that, right? No mere human man does what he did.
Now, I personally am a little bit on Graham Scroggie’s persuasion on Hebrews. He said, “Much ingenuity has been exhibited in the effort to determine who wrote the epistle.” But one thing we can be confident of is that we do not know.
You know, sometimes that is the best counsel we can give people: “We do not know. We will pray for you. We do not know, but we will stand. We do not know what He knows.”
This influential man—what an impression that makes on me.
The second thing is that this epistle is the last letter to a church. I will never forget: I was a much younger man, and I was in Brazil. I made that statement, and a brother could not wait. I saw how agitated he was. He could not wait to come up to me at the end and say, “Oh, no, no, no, dear brother. You know that 2 Timothy is the last book.”
I said, “Well, of course I do, but this was the last letter to a church that was written to Philippians.” I happen to believe that last words are important words. In this, he gave his last words, and we should pay attention to them. What was the one thing which moved him, made him, shaped him, and affected him all his life?
The third impression is that this epistle is a love letter. Above everything else, it is a love letter. As a matter of fact, many say the Bible is this vast love letter.
One brother, Professor Findlay—you may have never read him, but I do, and I enjoy him—said, “This is an epistle of the heart, a true love letter.” When Paul came to his conclusion in Philippians 4:1, he said:
My brethren, beloved and longed for,
my joy and my crown.
What a love letter it was. This was a bond that started when that Macedonian man, in a vision, called Paul over to Macedonia. He went, and there you remember Lydia, and you remember the Philippian jailer and his whole house being saved.
Throughout his life, many assemblies abandoned him. Paul said this extraordinary thing: “All Asia has forsaken me.” Can you imagine? This one who poured his life into Asia had to say in those last books, “All Asia has forsaken me.” But Philippi never did. They stuck with him to the end. There was an unbreakable bond of love.
The deep impression upon my heart is this: you share the deepest secrets with those you love. You do not just go out on the street and say, “Hey, come here. Come here. Let me tell you deep things about myself.” You have never done it. If you did, I would worry about you. But to those you deeply love, you share the deepest things.
Let us look at the first thing: Paul’s purpose. You see it in Philippians 3:1-9. We will not read all of those, but we will look at the beginning, where Paul talks about his pedigree, as Lance used to love to say.
You remember Lance? I used to love to hear him, with that perfect Queen’s English, say “pedigree”—however he said it—when he spit all over us. Pedigree. Sorry, this is COVID; I get it.
Here is a man of such stature, such incredible stature. He shares his sevenfold stature, his reputation—a résumé that is unparalleled.
Now, one of my responsibilities as president of the company is to hire and fire. Do not worry, Jerry, I am not going to fire you. I hate that firing part. But I love when I find someone with a résumé that is impeccable and unparalleled, to hire that person, to get that person. They are rare, but they are out there. When you get them, it is a great gain for your business.
Paul had this great gain, sevenfold great gain. Just listen to it:
As to circumcision, I received it on the eighth day.
He was a true Jew. He was not a proselyte. In the gain he was talking about, in this impeccable résumé, was the Abrahamic covenant: “On the eighth day I was circumcised.”
Then he said, “Of the stock of Israel.” He was of God’s chosen people. He was not just someone who came in from the outside, but he was of that people upon whom God laid His heart and said, “You will be My people. Out of all the people in the world, you will be My people.”
Then, “Of the tribe of Benjamin.” Now, that is significant, because Benjamin stayed faithful to the end when the other tribes of Israel went their own way and forsook the Lord. Benjamin was faithful. What a résumé.
“A Hebrew of Hebrews,” he said. Think about it. That is sort of like “Lord of lords” and “King of kings.” He was a Hebrew of Hebrews.
Then the fifth thing he said: “As to the law, a Pharisee.” He was in the highest ruling class of the Hebrew nation—the Pharisees, not the Sadducees, by the way. I think they sort of considered their brethren spiritual kooks. But these were the ruling class, the highest class.
Then he said, “As to zeal, persecuting the assembly.” No human being’s zeal has matched the zeal of the Apostle Paul, probably in human history. What zeal! It was just misdirected zeal.
You remember his own testimony: “I ravaged the church.” He was doing what he thought would protect God, in his testimony, and he was merciless in doing it.
Then he said, “As to righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.” Can you imagine? If this is your testimony, please come to me. I would like to have lunch with you today. I would like to meet with you and talk about that. But as to the law, he was found blameless.
He even said to the Galatian believers, when he was talking about himself, “I was advanced in Judaism beyond most of my contemporaries, being exceedingly zealous of the doctrines of my fathers.” What a résumé. Think about it.
And then the only word that comes to me in Paul’s purpose is this phrase: something happened.
Now, I do not know if that is your testimony, but that is my testimony. Something happened.
I will never forget years ago—and I will not embarrass her or mention her by name, though maybe I already have, and I ask forgiveness in advance—one sister here, on a Sunday, breaking bread just as we did, prayed out, “Lord, thank You for interrupting my life.”
I seized upon that. I made it my own. I said, “This is someone that is called into purpose. This is something happened.” God, in His mercy, interrupted our life.
I will never forget, in that little Assembly of God church building down in the Fan District, February 4, 1972, when God interrupted my life. I will never forget it. I have said before: it is just like it was yesterday.
Thank God He interrupted our life. That is what He did with the Apostle Paul. Brothers and sisters, on that Damascus road, here was this man filled with zeal, Israel’s best son, with all that gain, that sevenfold boast of a résumé.
On that day, the God of glory appeared to him. He was knocked from his horse by the light, he fell to the ground, and he was blinded by the light. The only thing I can come up with that is adequate is: something happened.
Did something happen in your life? Has the God of glory appeared to you and shone into your darkness His light, and captured you so that now you are called according to purpose? I believe that is the beginning of a life with purpose.
I remember in that old little Assembly of God church—now, you know I am not a raging charismatic anymore, you know that—but I will never forget that. That was God. That was God.
We sang for that week of revival, again and again, that Gaither hymn, “He Touched Me.” We never sing it here. I do not know. I had no religious upbringing, and that word was written in my heart from that night on and has never left me.
The verse says:
Shackled by a heavy burden,
’Neath a load of guilt and shame,
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.
Then that chorus says, “Something happened, and now I know He touched me.” How wonderful that is. Something happened.
That is the Apostle Paul. You know, Saul means “the great one.” The first king of Israel was named Saul, and you know what a case he was. The great one.
Well, you sports people like me think of Wayne Gretzky, right? I hate to muddy this, but “the Great One”—that is a hockey player, for you sisters who do not know.
Something happened, and that great one, with just the change of a letter, became the little one.
Everything he counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, on account of Whom he had lost all things. Listen to what he said: he counted them but filth.
Now, that is my version. It is a little cleaned up, because today we have these tidy little baskets in our kitchen with liners, and we tie it up in a nice bow and walk it out to the trash can. But the actual word is dung.
Do I have to translate? If you go out to a cow pasture this afternoon and step in something that sticks to your shoe and does not have a pleasant smell, that is dung. Are the angels coming for me? Thank God, you will be spared the message and I will be in glory.
All that résumé faded. All that sevenfold glory faded. All that brilliant man disappeared. All things were counted loss for the excellency of the glory of Jesus Christ.
Then he said something marvelous. His new purpose was this:
That I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him.
Brothers and sisters, that is the Christian life. In this life that we live here on earth, there is but one purpose. In this short lifetime, that one purpose is that we would gain Christ and be found in Him.
When you wake up in the morning, when you begin your day, when you begin your week of work, or at home, or at school, wherever you go, make this prayer to God: “Today, Lord, let me gain Christ and be found in Him.” What a purpose.
I believe that is his one thing. I believe it is a secret.
Now, young people, you are going to be happy: I am not going to pick on any young person. I am going to pick on myself and my generation. There are many in here, by the way, called baby boomers—1946 to 1964, is that about right?
Tom Wolfe, the author, in the seventies said this is the me generation. That is what it was: the me generation. It was all about me. Everything was about me. Self-gratification became the words; self-realization became the words. Everything became about self.
Now we have these iPhones that do everything, a computer on our hip. We have the selfie and we have YouTube. Does that give any emphasis to what I am trying to say? My generation, the me generation, it was all about me.
Before something happened to the Apostle Paul, it was all about the Apostle Paul. There was no one his parallel. But then, thank God, something happened, and his whole life changed.
I remember leaving this meeting one day and seeing that car and that young lady with that bumper sticker saying, “I am the center of the universe.” I thought, “Good grief.” I may have thought it, but I would never put a bumper sticker on my car and say it.
Before something happened, before God interrupted my life, I was the center of the universe. I did not have a résumé like Paul. But after that, He became my center.
You will notice one common thread in these three characters of one thing: they were all God-centered. They were all Christ-centered. That is one thing. That was their secret.
I think you get the point. I think that is something we need to see. From that moment on, I think Paul discovered the secret of John the Baptist when he said:
He must increase,
but I must decrease.
That is John 3:30. This is a man of great purpose: “That I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” Is that your purpose? Is that your secret? While you are here on earth, what are you doing with your life if it is not to gain Christ and be found in Him?
Well, let us look at Paul’s passion. I like the word passion. You can tell. I hate the way the world has corrupted that word into some dirty word. I think this ought to be our word.
I think if you read Song of Songs, you realize passion should be our testimony. We need to be a passionate people, and Paul was passionate.
Look in Philippians 3:10-11 for this second aspect:
To know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
then the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death.
This was Paul’s one secret: to know Him. Is that your secret?
You might think this is a bit of a puzzle. After all, this is the aged Paul. This is Paul in AD 62, and he was martyred at Nero’s instructions in AD 68, I think—right in that range. This was the aged Paul. If anybody knew the Lord, Paul knew the Lord.
As a matter of fact, we say to newborn babes in Christ, to those that are new creations, that they know the Lord. But is that what Paul is talking about? I do not think so, brothers and sisters. He is talking about something deeper, something fuller.
I do not know if I can even express it, but I remember reading Robert Govett, and he said something that stuck with me. He said when Paul was met on the Damascus road, that was first knowledge. But this is much more advanced. He called it, and I love this phrase, after-knowledge.
It is deepening knowledge, the knowledge of the mature, the knowledge that laid hold of and seized upon all that the Lord really was. You will notice the pronoun Him dominates this verse. I think four times. Everything became about Him—Him this and Him that. To me, it was his secret.
You remember Paul’s own testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. He talked about a man he knew, and he said he was raised to the third heaven, raised to paradise, and heard unspeakable things that cannot be repeated. Surely, this one knew the Lord deeply.
But his passion never subsided. To the ends of his days, and to the church he loved, he gave his deepest secret when he said, “It is to know Him.” Just to know Him.
Do not make the Christian life much more complicated than that. That will solve all our problems if we know Him.
He spoke of three ways of knowing Him: the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death.
Brothers and sisters, the power of His resurrection is a secret you and I need to know. You cannot live the Christian life in your own power. You cannot live the Christian life in your own consecration. You cannot live the Christian life in your own abilities and strength, even if you had the sevenfold abilities of the Apostle Paul. You cannot.
You remember one of my own sayings that I have bored you with for years: the Christian life is not difficult. Now, let us repeat it: the Christian life is impossible.
Unless you know the power of His resurrection, you cannot live the Christian life. It is life through Another. You remember when John wrote in his epistle, in 1 John 4:9, that we live through Christ.
I will never forget when my eyes were opened to this the first time as a young believer. I was so excited, and it was in this very letter, Philippians 1:21, where that verse, “For me to live is Christ,” became the embedded word in my heart.
Lights went off. Fireworks—at least in my mind. I saw for the first time the great secret: the one thing required for me to live the Christian life was Christ alone.
What a difference it made. I had Jonathan Ford frame that verse, and it is in my foyer in residence. If you come to my house, you will see that verse:
For me to live is Christ.
Not like Christ. Not for Christ. Is Christ. What a difference.
The power of His resurrection: we must live through the power of His resurrected life. God puts us in Christ, and God does more than that. Think of it—you can hardly take it in—God puts Christ in us.
Now, reading in 2 Corinthians, we see that treasure in earthen vessels. We can live the Christian life by the power of His resurrection. We have that treasure in earthen vessels. How wonderful this is.
In that exact verse, 1 John 4:9:
Herein to us has been manifested the love of God,
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through Him.
You see it? I will never forget. Brothers and sisters, it is like I said: fireworks went off. I saw the secret. I remember going to that dear man, Pastor Worth Johnson, at that little Assembly of God church, and saying, “Worth, Worth, look what I have discovered: for me to live is Christ.”
I will never forget. I did not know much. I still do not know much, in case I have bluffed you this far. But I knew Him as the secret of the Christian life, by the power of His resurrection.
I often pray a prayer before I speak, whenever we serve: “Lord, let us serve in the power of Your resurrection.” I believe that was the secret of this man. May it be our secret.
You remember when the same apostle prayed for the church in Ephesus that they would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation. In Ephesians 1:19-20, he said that the surpassing greatness of His power is toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength:
Which He wrought in Christ,
when He raised Him from the dead.
The power of resurrection—how important.
The second part of this aspect—which is all one thing; you get it, it is confusing, but it is all one thing—was the fellowship of His sufferings.
If any man knew deep fellowship, it was the Apostle Paul. I think you would agree with me. If any man knew incalculable sufferings, it was the Apostle Paul.
You remember in that first knowledge on the Damascus road, when the light struck him down, the Word of God came to Ananias, that little brother. God said to Ananias, “Go to him. He is an elect vessel, and I will show him how much he will suffer for My sake.”
What an introduction. I am so glad God did not give that introduction to me through some brother when he prayed and led me to the Lord: “Brother, I just want to tell you how much you are going to suffer for His sake.” I think I would have turned back maybe then.
But here is an elect vessel. Now, I always try to make this clear, because I am often not clear. The point is not that you are to suffer like the Apostle Paul. The point is that he took this test case through extreme, incalculable sufferings.
Just read 2 Corinthians. In those deep, deep sufferings, he proved that He was faithful to take him all the way through. As he concludes in 2 Corinthians 12, His grace was sufficient.
Dear brothers and sisters, Paul is to us a living message that God can never fail. Regardless of what you go through, regardless of what He allows in your life, regardless of what He puts you through, this extreme case is a beacon light that says, “I am faithful to the end.”
God, Who cannot lie—the anonymous and anointed writer of Hebrews said—“He Who promised is faithful,” because He cannot lie.
Every Christian will suffer. I know that. There is a teaching out there that gives me a migraine. It says no Christian is to suffer. Some left us sincerely believing and preaching that no Christian is to suffer.
I do not know what Bible they read. I wonder, when you read 1 Peter and 2 Peter, how you can come to that conclusion when the topic he is telling those of the Dispersion is that they will suffer, but God is doing a great work in them, and their sufferings will turn to gold. They are being tried in the furnace, and God will not fail.
That is the message of Paul. That was the secret he shared.
Notice: it is the fellowship of His sufferings. Notice that. First of all, he even told the Philippians this in the very opening of the letter, in Philippians 1:29: “Because to you it has been given, as regards Christ, not just believing on Him, but suffering for Him also.”
He told Timothy that if we suffer with Christ, we shall reign with Christ. But to me, the highlight of this verse, the emphasis in this phrase, is the fellowship of His sufferings.
Brothers and sisters, He brings us into fellowship in His sufferings, and He never leaves us and He never forsakes us. If anyone made the discovery of that great secret, it was the Apostle Paul.
You remember he said to the Corinthians in his first letter:
God is faithful,
through Whom ye were called
into the fellowship of His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
How tremendous. In the middle of our darkest moments is sometimes the sweetest fellowship. Have you discovered that secret? Have you discovered that one thing?
I have been through moments, and I knew the sweetest fellowship in those darkest moments. I felt my spirit was being lifted to heaven, and I cannot thank God more for this secret: to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.
How sweet that fellowship is. How merciful God is. This was his passion: if he could know Him, continue to know Him, go on to know Him in that way.
Then he said, “and being conformed to His death.” You know, the King James Version—I am prejudiced, because when I was first saved, I read the Bible voraciously five times in a row, and that King James Version is hard to shake from my memory. I have read Darby for the last forty-some years, and it comes out somewhat a muddled mess.
The King James Version says, “being made conformable to His death.” Brothers and sisters, if you want a concise definition of the Christian life and the great secret, that is what is happening: you are being made.
You are Jeremiah 18, at the potter’s house. You are the work on the wheel. You are Peter, in present-day language, when He said, “Come unto Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
When Peter was all broken down at the end, in John 21, and all his confidence was gone in himself, the Lord said to him that same call, with the exception of one word. He said, “Come unto Me.” He had made him.
In all of his blunders, all of his many thoughts, all of his many out-of-place spoken words, he discovered the Lord was doing something. Can I offer you that encouragement today? Will you take it as the secret? He is making you. He is making you.
As a matter of fact, in the very beginning of this book, the Apostle Paul offered to that church he so dearly loved at Philippi, in Philippians 1:6:
Being confident of this very thing,
that He Who has begun a good work in you
will complete it
unto the day of Jesus Christ.
What a secret: being conformed, or being made conformable, to His death. That is what the whole New Testament era is about. You are called according to a great purpose, and now you are being conformed through that purpose into the very image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
You remember what Romans 12:1-2 says. It talks about brethren, by the mercies of God, offering yourselves as a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable service of worship. Then it says:
Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed.
You only have two choices in life. I tell people this. I have told this story before; Chinese get mad at me, by the way. I speak to a lot of Chinese groups. Those Chinese restaurant menus drive me crazy. There are way too many selections. I go to Linda like a two-year-old and say, “Linda, what should I eat? There is a book here.”
Worse than that, I think the Cheesecake Factory literally has a book. If I wanted a book, I would go to a library. But I want a meal. You get it?
But praise the Lord for this passion. You have two choices. You can either, in this lifetime—and this is serious business, this is one thing—you can either choose to be conformed to this world, or be conformed to the image of Christ, to be conformed to His death.
You die to self. It is no longer me at the center. You take up the cross. You follow Him. Paul shared with the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians, “I die daily.” “Death works in me,” he said later, “but life in you,” because he discovered that great secret.
Two choices. What will you choose? Choose wisely. You can say, “Oh yeah, I would like C.” There is no C.
The world likes to believe, “I am my own man.” They thrust out their chest: “I am my own person. I can choose to be whatever I want to be, and you will have to like it.”
No, you do not. You are a fool if you say that. Romans 12 makes it absolutely clear: you have but two choices in life—Christ or not Christ. What will be your choice?
Then he said something very strange: “If by any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
That is bad theology for us evangelicals. Do you think you have to strive to attain to the resurrection from the dead? Even Martha, when Lazarus was still in the grave, bound by grave clothes, said, “I know, Lord, I know in the last day he will be raised.” All of us know that, right?
But here is something different. It is the one thing: “If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” This word here, resurrection, only occurs here—one place in all the Bible—so you should pay attention to it.
It means the out-resurrection from the dead. It means a select resurrection from the dead.
Brothers and sisters, he is not talking about eternity or grace. He is talking about reward and the kingdom. We, as believers—particularly evangelical believers—have conflated all of this into one resurrection and eternity.
But Paul understood a great secret, and he gave himself to that great secret in his lifetime. It was to attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.
I do not have the time; it is already gone, and my clock has stopped. But listen to this: when you read Revelation 20, you will discover, as Govett so clearly stated, that there are two resurrections and one thousand years in between.
As a matter of fact, in Revelation 20 it says “the first resurrection,” and that is what he was after. Those that build with silver and gold and precious stones, as 1 Corinthians 3 says, will have that first resurrection. That out-resurrection is the way it literally means.
They will have the glory of a thousand-year kingdom with the Lord. If you read the rest of Revelation 20, you will understand there is a second resurrection from the dead.
Now, brothers and sisters, 1 Corinthians 3 makes it abundantly clear: no one loses their salvation. This is not talking about grace and first knowledge. This is talking about after-knowledge.
We who know the Lord are to do business with the Lord in this lifetime and desire that He would so work in our life, making us, that we would be made with gold and silver and precious stones, which are His life and His character, instead of wood, hay, and stubble, which are our life and our character.
If you build with those disposable materials, it says, “You will be saved, but as by fire.” You will have eternity. Thank God for that.
I have trouble with the real holiness people. When I started in Pentecostal surroundings, we knew some real holiness people. The real holiness people lose their salvation every other week because that is the way they read the Word. They do not realize it is not talking about eternity. It is not talking about grace. It will never be taken from you. It is talking about the kingdom and reward.
If you understand that, you know what his passion was: “That I may attain to it.” I think that is really important.
Now, the last thought—I will do it quickly—Paul’s pursuit. Those last three verses deal with Paul’s pursuit.
You would think Paul had done enough. I mean, Paul, come on. Take your Social Security from the Hebrew nation. Play golf for the rest of your life. I do not think they had golf back then, but you know what I am saying. You have done enough. No one has done like you in all of the New Testament. Take it easy. Be good to yourself.
I will never forget the first time I read from Brother T. Austin-Sparks that he said, “Retire? There is no retirement.” I remember Brother Kong; he would say, “He never retire.” Gee, I am one year and three months out, and I never retire.
Jerry, you did not retire. You just changed locations. You got that? Okay.
That is the secret. He never stopped pursuing. Paul never stopped pursuing. He pursued, and he pursued, and he pursued to the end. He never quit and never gave up. This was his great secret.
He said in Philippians 3:13, “But this one thing I do.” I pursue the goal of the calling on high in Christ Jesus. That is the secret. Are you pursuing? Are you pursuing today? Are you still pursuing?
I think that is the one thing. He was a possessed man. He said, “I want to possess what I have been possessed for in Christ Jesus.”
That was surely what was on his heart with this pursuit:
But this one thing I do:
forgetting those things which lie behind,
pressing on toward the goal
of the calling of God on high
in Christ Jesus.
There could not be better advice to you, if you are a believer: forgetting the things which lie behind. What a secret.
You know, we are prisoners very often of our past. We look in the mirror and we see our past.
A brother already mentioned at the beginning, Tom, about the testimonies last Sunday. There was a testimony besides Jonathan’s and others that deeply moved me. It was Ben’s testimony. I may not have it right—Ben, forgive me—and what was Vasco da Gama, who in the world you were talking about, the great explorer? But when you said, “Burn ships,” it sunk deeply.
Forgetting the past—is that your secret? You do not have to live in the past.
I will never forget watching young brothers, not knowing how to lead the assembly, stumbling and bumbling. Many of you may think that is still our case, and it may be. Brother Kong shared with us some profound counsel. He said, “What is under the blood stays under the blood.” Did you get that?
I cannot tell you how many times I have offered that counsel. But it was the secret of the Apostle Paul. It was his great secret: forgetting what lies behind and pressing on toward the goal of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. “I pursue,” he said several times.
Fixing your eyes on the goal is not bad advice either. You cannot run a race looking backward, I will tell you. Just try it. You will stumble on your face and bruise your chin.
I know—I do run. Some people would not call it running; you might think of a snail. But I do run, and I am always looking for the goal at the end.
I have even got this watch, and if I reach the goal, it has sparklies and fireworks. It comes up: “You have made three new goals.” I get all excited for a moment, not being able to breathe, going, “Made the goal.”
That was his secret. Have you made the goal?
He said the most merciful concluding words of encouragement. He saved them to the end. I call it the pursuit of the imperfect. He said, “Not as though I am perfect, or have already attained, but I pursue.”
Then he said, “Let this be the mind of those who are perfect.” This is perfection, not sinless perfection: forgetting what lies behind, looking to the goal.
Again, the most encouraging words. He said, listen to this—these are sweet words from the apostle’s lips—“If you are any otherwise minded, God will show you this.”
You talk about grace. We may stumble our way. We may not know the way. We know there is a way. But he said in the end, “If you are any otherwise minded, God will even show you this.” What great mercy.
I want to be one, in this short lifetime—I do not have much left—that has this purpose of Paul: to gain Christ and be found in Him.
I want to be one that has this passion of the Apostle Paul: to know Him in that manifold way he spoke of, that deep way, that after-knowledge.
I want to be one that never stops pursuing. I think of Gideon and his three hundred in Judges 8:4, when it says this wonderful phrase: “Weary, yet pursuing.”
Now, they were pursuing the enemy. You understand, we are not pursuing the enemy. Some people pursue the enemy everywhere: “In the enemy, in the name of Jesus,” everything is the enemy. We are not pursuing the enemy. We are pursuing the Lord. You understand?
Weary, but pursuing. Another version says, “Exhausted, but pursuing.” Maybe that is you. Maybe, just maybe, that is me.
But like Paul, I want those two words to come out of my lips, and my secret, my testimony, to be: “I pursue.” Then, when I think maybe I will not repeat it again: “I pursue.”
To me, this is Paul’s one thing. I hope you get it. It is a burden on my heart, a secret that we need: the way to live this Christian life, and to not only know all of eternity, but to know and live in the kingdom and be part of that first resurrection, or that out-resurrection from the dead.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we just leave these thoughts before You, knowing again that You alone have the words of eternal life. We ask You to speak to us in our daily experience. Make these things real so that we cannot escape them.
These three people we have talked about in some little detail—make their secret our secret. Lead us into a life of one thing, that You may have what You are after in a people.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.