Our scripture reading this morning comes from Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 16. Please turn there in your Bibles, Philippians 3, read verses 1 through 16 for context. Our sermon text will be verses 12 through 14, page 874 in the NIV Pew Bible. Hear now, beloved, the inspired and perfect Word of our God. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. It is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more, circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever it was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ, But as more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken 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. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, many of you have competed in a race before. And for the winner of a race, there is always a prize. Whether a trophy or money, something. But there's always a prize. Children, some of you still race a brother or sister or some of your friends. And perhaps the only reason that you run, the only prize for which you run, is to be able to cross the finish line first. To be able to proclaim, I won. Whatever the situation. In a race we run for a prize. We want the prize because we do not yet have it. You want a trophy because you don't yet have one. You want to win because you haven't won before. What about running a race for a prize you already had? A few of us would run a race if we already had the prize. But this is precisely the curious thing about the Christian life which we read about in Philippians 3. Christians are to run a race. And, of course, at the end there's a prize, more glorious than we can imagine. But the interesting thing is that this prize is one that we already possess to some degree. This is one of the great truths we learned from God's Word this morning. And the Christian life is a race, like any other race. It has to be finished for the prize to be attained. Paul tells us how to run that race so that we will make it to the finish. So we will attain to the ultimate prize. Paul tells us how to run. He tells us exactly what the prize is, that we've not yet attained it, but that we have attained it already in part. Most importantly, God's Word tells us this morning how we are made able to run this race to the finish. A way of explaining this text for some may be a little bit troubling. As you know, there's a little bit of debate these days about taking persons of the Bible and using them as examples. You remember in our passage, Paul is talking about himself. He says, I press on, I've not yet attained the prize. There are people who would say then that this passage is not for Christians to emulate. It's about Paul. They say, not us. You can't take his experience, say it's the standard for all of our lives. You know, usually I would say that is quite right. Paul's an apostle. We are not. However, we must take care to read the surrounding context. You see, in Philippians 3, verse 17, Paul says, Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. And later in 4.9, he says, Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you. It is true not everything Paul does, not everything that happens to him is to be transferred to Christians today as if we are also to be evangelists or writers of Holy Scripture or as if we may be thrown out of our cars, blinded by the Lord, receiving an audible voice that gives us a commission from Him. But when an inspired apostle of our Lord offers himself as our pattern and example to follow, friends, we're not only permitted to do so, we are obligated to do so. We should be especially zealous to do this because Paul writes in 3.15, all of us who are mature should take such a view of things. Beloved, I am sure that you want to mature in your Christian faith. So, let's begin to see what it means to run the race of the Christian life this morning. The first point we should take from our text is that the prize is the knowledge of Christ. This is the identity of the prize that Paul is talking about. It's the Lord Jesus himself. We find in verse 12 that Paul says he presses on to lay hold of something. And in verse 14 he says that something is a prize. Specifically, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. But it is earlier in the passage that Paul spells out what exactly this prize is. He speaks of losing all things to gain one object, you remember. In verse 8, read that again with me, please. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Savior, or my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. You see then that the object of Paul's pursuit in this race is Christ himself. Paul lost all things in order to gain Christ. So Christ is this prize of the Christian life, the prize to which we run. There in verse 8, you see that Paul speaks about this prize in a little bit different way. He says it's not simply Christ himself, as if Christ were some object, something merely to be possessed. Instead, Paul wants to gain the knowledge of Christ. He speaks this way because Christ is a person. When a man is looking for a spouse to whom he'd like to unite himself in marriage, we don't hear him say, I'm looking for a spouse to obtain. That'd be a rather crass way to say what it is he really means to say. Something like, I'm looking for someone to get to know that I may marry that person someday. This is what Paul means by gaining Christ, you see. He wants to get to know Christ in an intimate, personal union with Him. The prize which we believers in Christ are pressing onward to attain is Christ Himself. But when we attain a person, beloved, it's really a relationship with that person that we gain. And this is Paul's meaning. He'd not have been satisfied with knowledge about facts of Christianity. Well, that sort of knowledge certainly has its place. Paul would neither be satisfied with knowing that Christ's blood and righteousness have justified Him before the Father, although that is obviously a most important and precious sort of knowledge, vital to our salvation. Nevertheless, what Paul wants to know is Christ Himself. This is the prize, as he says in verse 9, to be found in Christ, not having His own righteousness, but the righteousness that is from God through faith. And he continues in verse 10 to explain what it means to know Christ. He says there, I want to know Him, Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. This is what it means to have the knowledge of Christ our Lord. Of course, it is necessary that we know the elements of the Apostles' Creed, which we recite so often. Of course, it is also necessary that we know for our salvation that we are washed in the blood of Christ, that we have His righteousness freely given to us. If one doesn't have such knowledge, he doesn't know Christ at all. We can be sure of that. He must abandon himself. His filthiness must be washed in the blood of Christ. He must put on Christ's righteousness for His salvation. This is all absolutely vital. But, beloved, I hope you see from this passage that the goal of our upward calling from God in Christ is a far more intimate and personal knowledge than this. See, Paul had the knowledge of Christ. His only hope, his only comfort was knowing that before God, He was not naked, but he was clothed in the perfect blood and righteousness of his Savior. But Paul had much more knowledge of Christ than this. As you see, he'd gotten to know Christ Jesus in a real union, a real relationship with Christ through the power of the Spirit of God. It was such a bond that Paul knew himself even to be sharing, as he says, in the sufferings of Christ. Paul speaks in this way in 2 Corinthians 4 as well. If you turn there, please. 2 Corinthians 4. Verses 8-11 of chapter 4, Paul speaks in similar terms. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 8-11. He writes, We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. Paul, as we find here, experienced the resurrection power of the Lord in the midst of persecution. His knowledge of the Lord went as far as experience in his own life the persecutions of Christ. And in the midst of those persecutions, Paul knew the resurrection power of our Lord. I don't want to give you the impression that our ultimate goal as Christians is to suffer for Christ's sake or for any other reason. That's not our ultimate goal. It happens and it must if we're united to Christ. But the point is rather this. If we are truly in union with our Lord, we will bear His image so that this darkened world will not be able to treat us differently from the way it treated Him. In other words, we too, beloved, will be hated and persecuted for the sake of Christ. In other words, this is where true knowledge of our Lord invariably leads. as Paul teaches it's true we experience the power of the Lord's resurrection when we are converted and as we are sanctified throughout our lives that is what is at work in us God's power that is the resurrection power of Christ it's by virtue of his rising that we are saved and sanctified but what Philippians 3 shows us today is that there is a knowledge of Christ a getting to know Christ that must characterize the Christian life. And the result of this knowledge is a sharing in the persecution and resurrection power of the Lord. Christians too often settle for a knowledge of Christ that stops far short of this. We know Him as our Savior. His blood and righteousness are given to us freely of God's grace for our justification. But that's enough for us. We stop there. We think that's a sufficient knowledge of Christ. God's Word, however, teaches us that the knowledge of our Lord must be more deep than this. Sort of personal knowledge of our Lord can be somewhat scary, of course. Knowing Christ as Paul knew Him means that there will be certain suffering for us in this world. But we can be joyful even in that, Loved, that it is in the midst of those persecutions that we come to know the power of Christ's resurrection. And to some degree we can and should welcome such trouble from this world for the sake of Christ's name. For that is when we come, so much more so, to know that we belong to Him. I encourage you then this morning not to be satisfied with the knowledge of the faith, not even to be satisfied with the knowledge that you have been washed, that you've been justified, as precious, as important as that knowledge is. I encourage you this morning to be satisfied only with knowing Christ. This is our ultimate purpose as Christians, you see. We've not been saved simply to be saved. Christ purchased us to be His bride. And in a healthy marriage union, There's continual growth in love and knowledge of one another and in sacrifice for the sake of our beloved. Now that is our first point this morning. The prize of our Christian calling is Christ himself. Knowing him intimately so that we are conformed to his likeness. But we should note secondly from our text this morning, the prize is not yet ultimately possessed. This is why there is still a race, of course. You remember from verses 4 to 7 in this chapter, Philippians 3, Paul had this outstanding Jewish heritage and he made remarkable achievements as a Pharisee. But he left all of it. He counted it as worthless, as rubbish, he says, that he might gain Christ. You see, he gained Christ as soon as he lost all of that self-righteousness. It's not as if he abandoned all that he once was and remained empty-handed. No, Paul abandoned himself and immediately received Christ and salvation through Him. This is true for all Christians. When we forsake ourselves, we put our trust in Christ. We then and there gain Christ. We gain His Holy Spirit. We gain access to our Heavenly Father. It's a happy day when the redeeming work of our Lord is applied to us. That day is surely the day that we move from not knowing Him to knowing Him. So in a very important sense, we do have Christ the prize. We have attained already by God's grace. We must be careful to remember this, but this is not the end. We might say that this is an immediate prize for starting the race. But it's not the ultimate goal, you see. With Paul, we must confess, We have been given Christ. We have Christ. But we do not yet have Him as we are meant to know Him and to have Him ultimately. God has saved us with the end in mind that we would be transformed after His image. And on the last day, we would know Christ just as fully as we are known by Him. That, I trust you will agree, is a prize we have not yet attained. And it's one well worth our running. This is why the Christian life is a race. We have to run toward Him who is our prize to gain Him more than we now already have Him. So as Christians with Paul, we must press onward. We've become children of God. We do not yet know our elder brother as we are meant to know him. We've not yet crossed the finish line. Philippians 3.11 Paul tells us where the finish line is. He says, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. It's the resurrection life. And if it sounds like Paul's at all doubtful about reaching the finish, we need only remember what he says in verses 20 to 21 of the same chapter. Our citizenship is in heaven, he writes, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body. That, beloved, is the finish line. That is when the race will be over. We will come finally to know Christ, even as He knows us on that great day of resurrection. Or if we die before He comes, then at that time, when we go immediately to be with Him. But one way or another, we must see the race is not yet over in this present life. now there are two pitiful errors that the scripture opposes and we should consider both of them there are many professing believers it's difficult to say whether or not they are Christians who stop running this race in this life they make profession of faith in Christ they begin to run but soon enough they just stop in the middle of the course dead in their tracks there are two classes of these quitters First, there are some who stop because they mistakenly think that they have arrived at the end. They've crossed the finish. It's all been done. They know they've not yet died and gone to be with the Lord. They know they've not been resurrected. They're even aware that from time to time, as they say, they still sin. They've usually been in church for many years. No more Bible stories surprise them. They're quite confident they've learned all that's really necessary that they learn. And so they've attained the goal in their minds, at least as much as can be expected, they say. Secondly, you see there are some who stop halfway in the race course because they've simply grown too tired of running. Exhaustion with the Christian life has caused them to forget the greatness of their calling, the greatness of the prize, which has not yet been attained. These also have been at it for some years. And it all just becomes a bit of a bore to them. Sort of humdrum. They become complacent with this halfway point in the Christian life. They say they've run a good distance anyway. But both of these quitters are terribly wrong. The race is not yet finished no matter where you think you may be in the Christian life. And if you stop running, you must know there is no prize if the finish line is not crossed. those who wait halfway along the race course for Christ the prize to come to them are not running the race at all they're deceived bystanders beloved run until you have reached the prize when you behold the face of our Lord and know him as you were created to know him some of you maybe have not stopped running entirely but you have slowed down to a dangerous walking pace whether you've become somewhat complacent with where you are or wrongly are thinking that you've attained to the end the goal, the finish hear from God's word this morning that you've not yet attained there is more running to do run in such a way that you may obtain the prize for it is attained only by those who run and finish and remember the foretaste of course of that prize that we already do have to refresh you and strengthen you. Beloved, we have the Spirit of God working in us, fashioning us to be the very temple of the Lord. God is working in us to press us onward to that prize of glory. So let us run with great speed, with great confidence that we will reach the finish. So we've seen then that the prize of our calling is Christ himself. We've learned that this prize is attained in part, but not yet fully, because we've not yet crossed the finish. But thirdly this morning, consider with me how it is to run this race. How we are to run. The prize is gained by forgetting what is behind and pressing on to what lies ahead. This is how we run to the finish. We know that Paul left behind much Here in Philippians 3, he was warning the church of Judaizers, those Christian Jews who thought that belief in Christ was merely a beginning. And that if a Gentile convert was truly to be accepted by God, he'd have to be circumcised, he'd have to follow the law of Moses, the dietary laws, the observances of days and seasons and so on. Paul teaches here that this sort of self-righteousness is no place in which one can put his confidence as the Judaizers were doing. And he explains that if this were the right way, he would have been above all the rest. For Paul was a true Jew, as he explains, and one who kept a perfect record of law obedience. His outward obedience to the law, however, was revealed as filthy rags next to the perfect righteousness of Christ. There was no comparison. And so Paul knew, he realized that this righteousness of Christ was all he could have confidence in. And so he abandoned all his self-righteousness to gain Christ. This is surely what it means to forget for Paul, so to speak. He really put everything behind him, set his focus on Christ alone. He counted his righteousness, his own legalistic obedience, as the NIV says, as waste in order to gain Christ. However, we shouldn't misunderstand Paul's forgetting here. It's not as if Paul was despising his Jewish past, his learning as a Pharisee. There were surely things of his past which he valued very much, even as a Christian. Things that made him who he was as an apostle. His point, rather, is that he could no longer cling to any of this as the hope to be right with God. In this sense, all but Jesus Christ alone was lost to Paul. And so it must be for anyone who is to be a Christian. We come to Christ only when we abandon all our hopes to be righteous in ourselves, only when we accept His righteousness as the only basis upon which we have acceptance with God. And of course, all the rest of our Christian life is ran without our hoping in any of those works we once performed outside of Christ. They are once and forever put out of sight, abandoned, so that we may gain Christ, His righteousness, the only righteousness which God accepts. But we mustn't stop here. We mustn't think that as Christians we can forget all those deeds we performed outside of Christ, but that since we've become Christians, we might be aided in some way by the good works we perform in Christ with the help of His grace. That's Roman Catholicism, of course. The thought must be far out of our minds. For Paul teaches us to run like him with undivided focus on Christ alone. He does not leave all his self-righteousness that he had outside of Christ merely to take up self-righteousness again as a Christian. And sadly, there are many who do this very thing, perhaps even in our midst. They start out holding to those Protestant solas, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. But then later they get to that place in life where they might say they still believe those doctrines, but in truth they have started putting their trust, their confidence in themselves. They say, yes, God has been really so gracious to me. It's only by His grace I've become His child. That's true, but besides that, look here. I've really been so good since then. I've really become quite holy. No cursing or smoking. I quit all that immediately. No more lying, no adultery. I've been so faithful in attending church and reading my Bible. Really, I have a great deal of obedience myself, they think. But this is not the confidence of a Christian, of course. Indeed, if we become children of God, we will certainly be sanctified more and more all the time. But the good works we perform are only a reason to thank God whose grace is working in us. Those good works must never become the basis upon which we have confidence. If they are for you, I cannot hesitate for a moment to say, you're not running the right race. you must repent and put on Christ Jesus and Him alone for good. This is what it means to forget what is behind, to press on to what lies ahead. Christians running this race toward Christ are those and only those whose hope is always in Him alone. We must never find ourselves looking back on that part of the race we've already run, pat ourselves on the back that we've really done such a nice job we've really ran a good race already we must perish the thought before us, ourselves this morning we must look onward, beloved only to the prize which is Christ and remember that we will gain it only because He has already won it for us that is what it means to press onward toward the goal. If we look back, we are in danger of falling, tripping up and falling. We'll only gain the prize if we keep our attention firmly fixed on it and running to the finish. We've not yet finished until we've gone to be with Christ, until that crown is placed on our heads, not awarded to us for our running, for Christ has won it for us. However, it is attained only by those who run to the finish with their attention fixed on Christ, not on themselves to any degree. So the prize is Christ. This prize is possessed by believers now, but not yet fully. And it is attained fully by forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward the end. But our fourth and final point this morning is that the prize, Christ Jesus, will be attained in full because He has laid hold of us for that very purpose. It's really a very simple point, but it's a vital one. If we are running this race, the Christian life, we must understand that we strive onward. We run, not in our own power, but because Christ has a hold of us. And the Spirit is in us having us to run onward to the finish. In verse 12, if you look there again, Philippians 3, 12. Paul says, Not that I have already obtained all this or that I've already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Paul pressed onward in order to grasp that thing for which Christ had already grasped him. And you see the point that must be made is if Christ has won us and has already claimed us for Himself, most definitely we will be able by His power to run to the finish, to lay hold of Him. This is the very reason we ever stand on that race course. It's the very reason we've started out, isn't it? We never would have began the race if Christ had not seized us. We would have wallowed in a pitiful dead condition until all damnation had come wailing down upon us. But Christ did claim us beloved. Not only on the cross, when our sins were made His, but also when we were converted and the Spirit of God breathed new life into us, taking us as the very prize of Christ. But He's not the only reason we begin this race. He's also the reason at every moment that we can press on, that we run, that we continue to the finish. It is all owing to His sovereign grace which has grasped the whole of us so that we who believe in Christ are never to be lost from His grip. It's the grip of the Almighty God. This is really the most glorious truth that we learned from our text this morning. The prize has already won us in full and our race is completed only because he is claiming his prize. We mustn't be mistaken. This doesn't mean that we can be passive. It doesn't mean that the race is run for us by another. We still must run, and we must expend a great deal of effort in doing so. Paul's teaching in the earlier verses is that effort must not be misplaced. We must not endeavor to justify ourselves. That's the sort of effort that he is rebuking. but he is in no way opposed to effort itself. He commends it to us here with great force. The comfort for us in Christ is not that we need not run, but rather that we are made able to run to the end, to take hold of the prize, because Christ has us in his almighty grip. This is really a principle that applies to the whole Christian life. Christianity can never be something which we seize hold of alone on our own power, of ourselves. If that explains a person's Christianity, we must acknowledge that something is vital, something vital is lacking there. If the faith is something that you grip, something you place in a bag to be taken out at your leisure, to be put back when you please, something you've got in a nice, tidy little compartment of your life, You must know you have no Christianity at all in your possession. True Christianity is the knowledge, it's the certainty of one who has been seized, one who has himself been grasped by the Lord of glory. So that no matter where he is, no matter what he does, he cannot escape the grip of God. You know when you have this Christianity, though it in no way means that we will not sin, it does indeed mean that we will not be overcome by it. You find at times, as a Christian, that you don't feel much like running the race anymore. In fact, you feel like a worldling yourself. You can't really tell there's even a difference. You find yourself even committing grievous sins. It's a great offense to God. But even then, beloved, even in the midst of that unfaithfulness, sometimes as you do it, You cannot help but feel that you do it as the bride of Christ. And after that unfaithfulness, you have great regret, of course, great sorrow that you could so offend God to His face. You become sorrowful that you lost step with His Spirit. But then the most unnatural thing happens. Instead of your sorrow turning to despair, It is interrupted by great wonder and joy, marvelous gratitude. And you think, though I fail him, he is faithful. Though I grieve him, he has laid hold of me and he holds me still. Oh, how I wish that I would not ever act again as if it were not so. You see, beloved, this is also what it means to run the Christian race, to run to the prize. You will stumble along the way, distracted by many evils. But the Lord is faithful to pick you up and to complete in you that which has begun. So today, set your thoughts on His great mercies toward us in Christ and continue to run. Run the race for the prize, which is Christ, who has already laid hold of you and will be your strength as you continue to press on toward the end. Amen. Please pray with me. A gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank You this morning for Your Word. For it is sharper than any two-edged sword. And it cuts to our heart, for we know, Lord, we have not ran as we should have run. We ask for forgiveness for this. We ask that you might strengthen us by your word this morning. Cause us to store it up. To grip a hold of it because Christ has seized us. And to run with great vigor, with great energy and speed to the end. The prize is for those who reach it. We ask that you would continue by your grace, by the power of your spirit, to fashion us after His image, our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might share in His suffering and that in doing so we may know the resurrection power of our Lord, that we may know Him so intimately as Paul knew Him. Give us a great desire this morning to do so. Father, be pleased to work in us fruit that is good and pleasing to You, that You may be praised by our lives, by our words, by our deeds. We do ask all of this in the name of Christ and pray for His sake. Amen.