The Old Testament scripture this morning comes from Psalm 46, all verses. If you have the same Bible I do, that is on page 421. Psalm 46, hear now God's word. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar in foam, and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her. She will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar. Kingdoms fall. He lifts his voice. The earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. The New Testament scripture lesson comes from Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 16. And that is Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 16, and this is the text of our sermon this morning. Again, God's Word. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take a hold of that for which Christ Jesus took a hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken a hold of it, But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. The word of God so far. Let us pray that God will bless the preaching of it. Father, this is your word. Help us to attend to it this morning. Help us to hear the law, convicting us of our sin, and also the gospel, raising us to life through Christ. Lord, help us to clear our minds of all thoughts that would distract and to focus on this word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Congregation of Christ and friends. Perfectionism is the idea, the wrong idea, that one may attain moral perfection in this life. Now, we say that is a wrong idea because the scriptures are abundantly clear that while a Christian is justified, they have a right standing with God through Christ and his righteousness imputed to the saint, he is or she is at the same time sinful and wicked. So in the context of Philippians and certainly in the context of this passage, Paul speaks against perfectionism. But he does speak for the goal of perfection. One is to press for that goal in this life, realizing that one will not reach that goal into the next life. And having this goal means that your thinking and your orientation must change. Your thinking and orientation must be directed to the future, while at the same time, it's directed back to the cross of Christ. Because of the redemption you have in Christ, You press on toward the goal of being perfectly like Christ. That is simply the point of this sermon. Because you are a redeemed creature, you can press on to be more like Christ, and you will be more like Christ, perfectly like him one day in heaven. Well, to get at this, we'll first begin by thinking about the much broader context of this passage, that is, redemption in Christ, and how this is to be understood in the larger design that is God's design. Second, this broader context will help you to understand what it is to press on toward the goal of being perfectly like Christ. So first, the redemption you have in Christ is understood within God's eternal design. Well, in this design, you have to understand that there was a beginning and there will be an end. God created all things good, that is, the creation itself, but he also created mankind good, or upright. But we don't say that God created Adam and Eve in a perfect state, that is a completed state. So we say while they had righteousness, holiness, and knowledge, they were upright, they were able to sin. Which of course means they were able not to sin, but of course they did sin. And that is exactly the problem with freedom in an unconfirmed state. And the possibility of sin or not sinning was marked by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam and Eve would have kept God's law and stayed away from that tree, not eating of its fruit, then they would have been confirmed in that original righteousness, holiness, and knowledge. And in fact, after they fulfilled the creation mandate, they would have brought in, basically, God's providential design, the new heavens and the new earth. Therefore, in the beginning, the creation and mankind were good, pressing forward to the end, moving forward to the final goal of moral perfection and creational perfection. But Adam, the covenant head, fell, and all people fell with him. But God's original design, his original plan, cannot and will not be thwarted. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. There will be many of God's people there in a perfected state forever and ever. The means through which this goal is achieved, however, does not come through Adam's righteousness, and it certainly does not come through your righteousness. It comes through the righteousness of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. His righteousness is imputed to those who receive him by faith alone. Therefore, there is a final end in view for God's adopted children, a perfected paradise, and a perfected moral image. That moral image will be perfectly restored in the new heavens and the new earth. But how is it restored? It's completely dependent on the work of Christ. So the first gospel promise, the first gospel preacher in the Old Testament, of course, is God himself coming to Adam and Eve in their sinful state, preaching to them about the seed of the woman, that is Christ, who would crush the head of the serpent. So before they are excommunicated from the garden of God, that first temple, God promises them the gospel, he clothes them with the righteousness of Christ, and he gives them a future goal. The future goal in the future state would be the new heavens and the new earth. So now when you open the Old Testament, you can see that it is wide awake to the fact that there is that final goal. And the Psalms and the prophets are especially interested in that goal. Of course, because the kingdom of God in Israel is in this continuous state of sin. Israel is God's unfaithful servant. But he speaks of another servant to come, Christ, and a final new heavens and new earth. So, for instance, in our call to worship, Isaiah 65. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and a former thing shall not be remembered or come to mind. Isaiah 62 speaks of Zion, Jerusalem, which is a type or a model of the final new heavens and new earth. It looks forward. It yearns to get to that final state. Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. Though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters war and foam, though the mountains tremble, it is swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts. The chorus says, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. In other words, who has any reason to fear? after all there is a goal there's an end to which the history of redemption moves the river making glad the city of God recalls the river that flowed out of the garden past the tree of life doesn't it thus the end goal as seen in the new paradise the new heavens and the new earth has its own river of water of life as Revelation tells us clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb In the middle of the street, this organized dream flows in contrast to the chaos of the wild insurgency of the fallen world. The people of God have this final end in view as they hope for the morning to come. It's just a wonderful allusion in Psalm 46. God will help her when the morning dawns. That is hope for the future, that there is something that God has left, as it were, for his people. As God's people, you will not be moved because God is your refuge and strength. In that final light-filled day, you will be perfected, singing a new song for eternity, as Isaiah 42 says. Well, in light of this, the Bible understands, as one person says, that the end is not flung upon the world out of the lap of chance, but that it proceeds with a stately, unhastened, unretarded step from the council chamber of God. The history of redemption is not random. It has a goal, it has a purpose, it has a focus. And the redemption you have in Christ is understood in this eternal framework. God created the world good and created mankind upright. Not perfected, but upright. The fall caused the corruption and rotting of what was good and upright through Adam's sin. Redemption allows the original goodness in order to be restored and furthered to what the original goal was to be. In light of Christ's work of redemption, in this eternal framework, you can press on toward the goal of being perfectly like Christ. Now, why is it important to understand redemption in this eternal design, that there was a beginning, there will be an end? Well, it's often the case with sinners, we have a natural sort of twisted view of God. We know the Bible calls us to be perfected. We know we are to press on. But often we make it to remind us that God is a big cosmic meaning. that he sort of prods us, that he loves to put us on a treadmill, as it were, or bash us over the head with a Bible. Of course God's not like that. It's not his character. God is slow to anger. He's long-suffering. He's a gracious God. And you see, the framework of this eternal design highlights the gospel. And so really, this is the way you're to think of sanctification. It's not a treadmill. God lays out his law very clearly, like tracks on which you run. It doesn't push you, it doesn't prod you. He persuades you with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sort of pushes you, we could say, with that gospel. But also he pulls you in the sense that there's a goal to which you're moving. There's an objective. It is the final heavens and final earth. Not everything is wrapped up in the here and now. There's a design, there's a grand eternal design which God is in charge of. Therefore, God's original plan was not forwarded. It cannot be. There will be a final heavens and final earth and a perfected people. And you must keep this in mind as you press on to be like Christ. Now, in this passage, in Philippians 3, Paul clearly speaks against perfectionism, but he's not shy to say that you must press for perfection in this life. You will never achieve that goal, of course, in this life, not even close, but you are to press on nonetheless. So in verse 12, Paul says he has not attained the final end of which he had just spoken of in verses 8 through 11. What was that end? He says, of gaining Christ, of being perfectly found in him, knowing him, rising from the dead. In other words, he says he is not personally perfectly righteous. That is something for the end, Paul says. He is actually justified, but he's also wicked. He argues this very clearly in Romans chapter 4. But of course, Romans chapter 7, we're so familiar with this. We love this passage because we can hear ourselves in this passage, can't we? Paul sounds schizophrenic. I know I do the things I shouldn't do, and the things I should do I can't do or I don't care to do. And so we are schizophrenic people. But that's good. It's good because you care. You know you don't do the things you should do. You're convicted by God's law, but that pushes you towards the gospel. Paul says still, strive for personal perfection. In the same way that the end, the new paradise, proceeds in a stately, unhastened, and unretarded step, So does Paul and you press on to make it your own? Press on means to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective. Your pressing on to this goal then matches what the creation is doing. The creation is moving towards perfection. Paul makes this clear in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He's redeemed in the creation and you as sort of a parallel, morally speaking, are being perfected too. And so Paul is wide awake to the fact that this is the expectation for Christians. Chapter 1 of Philippians, verse 10. Paul prays for the church that she will be pure and blameless for what? The day of Christ. A constant refrain in this letter. Chapter 2, verse 15. Likewise, the people of the church are to be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom they shine as lights in the world. But Paul says the possibility of pressing on is due to the fact that Christ Jesus has made him his own. And surely this is an allusion to his experience on the road to Damascus, where God literally grabs Paul and raises him from the dead, as he has done to you. Because God, by his Christ and through his Spirit has saved you, he will sanctify you. It's not some distant possibility, it is a surety. So the goal of your life, the goal of your life is to be perfectly like Christ in the last day. You are to press on toward this goal. You are to strive. You are to care to be like Christ. And it is the power of the Holy Spirit that works to achieve the change, applying the work of Christ to you. But this process of becoming like Christ is low, long. It is slow and it is arduous. Therefore, Paul forgets what lies behind and presses on toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. Of course, this is the language of a long-distance foot race, a marathon. A marathon, as you know, is 26.2 miles, a very long race. Elsewhere, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 9, 24, Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with the endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. I think it's a fair question to ask, why does Paul use the metaphor of a long-distance race to describe your life in Christ, your life of sanctification? Well, obviously, your life in Christ is just like a long-distance race, isn't it? If God providentially designs it, your life may be long. It also may be hard, filled with many physical difficulties and so on. You have resistance. As you hear about these different marathons, you hear about the horrible sort of hills they face. It's a kind of resistance. Adverse weather, circumstances. You will face setbacks. You will face discouragements. You will want to give up. It takes a lot of training. And overall, the danger is that, when we think of a long-distance race, you will lose focus and forget why you are doing such a thing. I've never run a marathon, but I've talked to people that have done so, and they say that this is brutal. You lose focus very, very easily. You can lose focus in your training for a marathon. And you ask yourself, why am I doing this? It doesn't matter that there are maybe a thousand people running with you. Why are you running such a long race? And so have you asked yourself that in the Christian life? Why am I making sacrifices? Why am I suffering? I mean, the scriptures tell me to be thankful when I go through hard times. Why am I doing that? Let the Psalms speak to that. It's easy to look at your neighbor, your friend, your co-worker, whomever. Life seems to be going very well for them. Why do I suffer, you ask? Why do I go through the hardships of life? Why do I have this continuing duty to walk with Christ, come to church every Lord's Day? You lose focus. You forget why you're doing this. So Paul says you must keep your focus. And he forgets what lies behind. This is probably an allusion to the Jewish prerogatives he enjoyed as a rabbi, but also probably to his apostolic work. He can't look just to those things. No, he has to keep his focus ahead. And so you must keep your focus ahead. Paul says, strain forward to what lays ahead. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. That is, strain with all effort, using every muscle and bit of energy to go forward to that final day. the upward call refers to God's act of calling you to salvation it is the summons you see to enter the kingdom of God in order to be conformed to the image of Christ you are to keep this in mind and apprised of the full and complete gaining of Christ for whose sake everything else has been counted loss the gain in this life is achieved through the means of the word and sacrament and so the power to even care comes from these divine means of grace and so there's a certain sense in which when you come to worship God on the Lord's day you are passive that is God comes to serve you yes you come to serve God but God also comes to serve you through his Christ Christ comes to wash your feet as it were through the preaching of his word through the ministration of the sacraments and that's your food that's your nourishment that's how you keep going It's not your power, in other words. It's God's power through his Christ. They're means of grace. Grace is a power. Law doing is not a power. The gospel is the power. Well, this race applies, Paul says, to all in the church. Some are more mature than others. These mature ones are to think this way, Paul says. That is, they are to pursue the same Christ-centered goal Paul has to press on to the final day. Others will have some minor differences with Paul in terms of thinking and living, but God will reveal to them by his spirit what is correct on minor issues. Therefore, Paul is speaking, you see, to the church. And the church is an organic, living, corporate body. In other words, it's not a bunch of individuals running individual races. But this corporate body, you see, is like a beautiful mosaic. There are many differences within the body of Christ. Not all are the same, and everyone is at a different point in their sanctification. Some are more mature than others. Some are more discouraged than others. Some seem impervious to problems. Some just hide their problems. But nonetheless, there is one corporate body. All of you are connected by one spirit. And so you run together. And Paul is saying here that immature need to mature on minor points, but all must have the same goal, to be perfected in the image of Christ one day in the final heavens and the final earth. If you keep that in view, the minor things will not seem like such a big deal. Therefore, Paul finishes, Hold true to what you have attained. move forward in this race together in accordance with the same rule that they have already followed. That is, the things that Paul had taught them about the gospel. So finally, it's important to consider what Paul means by prize. He doesn't mean strive to get first place. When he says prize, he means he must strive to finish. And he does so corporately. The Christian life, in other words, Paul says, is not really like a marathon race in which you're trying to get first place. You're just trying to finish. And he was keeping view that there are many kinds of people and churches. There are long-established churches and there are church plants. But we're not in competition with each other. In fact, we try to encourage one another and push one another along in this long-distance race. We do that ultimately for God's glory. In conclusion, Paul speaks against perfectionism, but speaks for the goal of perfection, which will be reached only in the next life. But having this goal means that your thinking and orientation must change. It must be focused on the past in terms of the focus of Christ, but also the future. So first, you've seen that perfection, righteousness, or gaining Christ is understood rightly only by considering the end from the beginning. God's eternal plan for you to be perfectly like Christ has not been thwarted by the fall. Rather, the fall has become the occasion in which Christ was crucified and raised for your justification. And so you see, the tree of life has grown out of the ground where Christ's blood was spilled, towering to the heavens. You have already been raised to life with him and are seated with him in these heavenly places. And now you wait because of what Christ has done to be perfectly like him on the final day. Second, you do not merely wait, but you press on and strive with every fiber of your being to be like Christ now. The power of the word and sacraments shapes and molds you into Christ every single Lord's day, whether you feel it or not. it is the power of God which does that using the word by the power of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit poured out on his church by the risen Christ compels you through this word of Christ to keep on it's not you it's God working this is so important brothers and sisters because you can become so discouraged but there will be an end to the race when you see things perfectly clear that's when a perfect comes As Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, still God sustains you even now. After all, to press the analogy of a race, God created the canopy of the heavens under which you run. The woods, the roads and the stadium of the new heavens and new earth where you will finish. It is there where you will drink finally from the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And you know the saints of old will be there too, who have had a foretaste of that river, which has made glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. For then, in that final day, the sun will have fully risen from the beginning of the dawn. Then you will see perfectly clear, And you will laugh, enjoy, and sing when you think of the small sacrifices you had to make in this life. All of it will be submitted to Christ, the Lamb of God, who arrived there first. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Now let's pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do confess our weakness, our tiredness. We confess our many sins to you, but we are grateful that in Christ we have freedom from those sins. We've been released from the condemnation that comes from your wrath. And so, Father, out of this freedom we have in Christ, help us to press on toward that final goal to be like Christ. Help us, Father, to be pushed by the power of the gospel and pulled by the reality of that final day, that sun-filled day. Lord, may our hearts and our souls meditate on that fact throughout this week. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.