The Christian life is a continuous pursuit of a deeper, more complete knowledge of Christ, not a state of already having arrived. Paul, though a seasoned apostle, humbly admits he has not yet attained or been perfected in this knowledge, but he presses on with relentless passion. This pursuit involves forgetting past achievements and focusing forward on the goal for the prize of the upward call of God, which ultimately means seeing and knowing Christ as He truly is in eternity. The sermon encourages believers to maintain this forward-looking, passionate pursuit of Christ, understanding that the ultimate prize is an eternal, intimate knowledge of Him.
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The last week of Don Yema's life was not a good week. Her mind began to go, and what made it worse was she knew it. We sat with her one day, talking with her just towards the end of January, and she began to whisper, and sort of looking over her shoulder, she was seated in a wheelchair, almost giving the impression that she felt there was someone else present, and she didn't want them to hear. what she was saying to us and we were really quite confused listening to this conversation which we didn't really understand and also the physical infirmities became very very noticeable and it came to mind a poem that was given to me in Canada last year by a close friend I had never seen this poem before it's a long poem and it has the title Let me get home before dark.
And part of this poem says, The darkness of a spirit grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine, bitter to the taste of my companions, burdened to be borne by those brave few who love me still. No, Lord, let the fruit grow lush and sweet, a joy to all who taste, spirit sign of God at work, stronger, fuller, brighter at the end. Lord, let me get home before the dark. And right down at the end of the poem, you find these words, I do not cling to shadows cast by immortality.
I do not patch the scaffold lent to build the real eternal me. I do not clutch about me my cocoon, vainly struggling to hold hostage, a free spirit pressing to be born. But will I reach the gate in lingering pain, body distorted, grotesque? Or will it be the mind, wandering untethered among light fantasies or grim terrors? Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask, let me get home before the dark."
And at the end of that week, the family realized one day that Don Yema was very near the end. The doctor was present, and the decision was made to take her to the hospital. And an ambulance arrived, and the family went, and they met in the hospital. She was only there just a half hour. and her youngest daughter, Dita, a very close friend of ours, slipped into the room beside her mother and took her hand. And Don Yema said to her in a beautiful and clear voice, I am ready and I am going home. And she closed her eyes into the sprites of Dita and the other members of the family.
She was absent from the body and present with the Lord. You die in the Dominican Republic in the afternoon. The funeral is the following day. That is one of the largest funerals I have ever seen in the Dominican Republic. The family asked me to take the service and looking down this long, large auditorium right to the back door, in this case on the right-hand side, there were people standing right out onto the street. Not everyone could get in that day. And as I looked at them, I thought, this is really Don Yema's extended family. We might not all fit in the chapel today, but each one of us had a spacious place in her heart and in her life.
And then on the following Saturday, a memorial service was held, and it was a beautiful service. Again, I was asked to give the message. I don't know how many will remember the message, but there's one thing they will never forget. There were twelve members of that family, daughters, granddaughters, one great-granddaughter, the only surviving sister, and some other nieces, all women. And they came up on the platform and sang one of our great Christian songs of hope. and confidence in God.
It was symbolic because here was a family and really there were very few men in that family. In the sovereign will of God, they'd been taken away prematurely. But this chorus of women, they stood and they sang that day. And as they sang, I thought of these words from the Proverbs, Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Now, I've written out an article about Don Yema, and there are some copies on that little table to the right of the door, and if you would like a copy, you're welcome to it after the service.
The title of the article is, She Shall Be Praised. Thank you. Grace and I also want to say thank you to all of you who have made this week so special for us, all of those who participated in the musical aspect of this week of services. I think we should always remember those who play the organ and the piano, those who sing in the choir, those who played the bell tonight. That is something very special for us. And my special thanks to Roy.
It's not often that you have a series of meetings, and each meeting begins with a mini concert of beautiful Christian hymns. A beautiful introduction to the ministry of the Word of God. And to all of you who have entertained us, we give you our thanks, and we also thank those who wanted to entertain us. But the Social Secretary said the list was full. We appreciate your love and your kindness. We leave you tomorrow, but the memory of this week will go with us, and we will pray that God will multiply the blessings in the remainder of this period of conferences. Now, you are a young man, and you have just finished your basic training in the Imperial Army of Rome, and you are very excited.
You wonder where you're going to be assigned. God forbid that you'll be assigned to the city of Jerusalem. You know that they hate the Roman soldiers, and you've heard that those that go to Jerusalem wouldn't dare walk a narrow, dark street at night, lest some Jew come with a dagger and kill him on the spot. You don't want to go to Jerusalem. You wonder where they're going to send you. One day you get the assignment and you're sent to the city of Philippi. probably jump up and down for joy. You couldn't imagine a better place to go. Philippi was a Roman colony.
It was populated by veteran soldiers and an active garrison. And all the people in Philippi enjoyed exactly the same privileges as those who lived in the imperial city. So you are delighted. It's a prize. You never dreamed you would get an assignment like that. Probably you trained On the other hand, to be one of the great administrators in the Roman Empire, and there are certain places you don't want to be sent. Away in the back parts of the province of Asia, or down into some of the colonies in Africa, you don't really want to go to a place like that.
And if you were sent to Philippi, you would be delighted. This is a colony right on the Via Ignatia. All the movement from the Imperial City to the Far East goes right through the city. You'll have news every day about Rome and about your family. You would be very happy you would consider it a prize. Or maybe you are a businesswoman. Some of my closest friends and colleagues in the service of God in the Dominican Republic are women, intelligent, active in the professions, And in business, well, you are a businesswoman. You live in Thyatira.
And there's a very special industry there. It is true that around about the Mediterranean, they had developed a similar industry, taking the little organisms that live in the water right on the shore. And by crushing them, they were able to make a very good purple dye. But you live in Thyatira. long way from the Mediterranean. And one day someone discovered there's a common plant that grows wild all round about the city. And from the roots you can make the color of purple and a far more vivid color than the other that comes from the industry around the Mediterranean Sea.
So you got involved in that industry. It didn't matter which industry it was. Purple was an expensive color to develop. That's why it was the color of kings, of noble men and women, of generals of the army. Now you've got a good business going in Thyatira, and you're beginning to think, I would like to expand. Now where will you take your business? There are many possibilities, but you've heard about Philippine. You know it's on that main road to Rome, You know there are dignitaries passing by there all the time, and there are some veteran generals in retirement, and you decide I'm going to extend my business to Philippi as Lydia did, and you would think of it as a prize.
As we bring our meditations to a close this evening, we're going to talk about the prize that lies before the Christian. Paul uses that term. And I think it would be well understood in the city of Philippi, because so many people thought just to be there was a prize, was a very special privilege. We go then to Philippians chapter three, and tonight we begin with verse twelve. Philippians chapter three and verse twelve. Paul says, Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected.
Now I must point out that the previous sentence begins in verse eight and it ends in verse eleven. It is a very long sentence. There is a definite break after verse eleven. Then you read at the beginning of this sentence, Not that I have already attained Now let's imagine you're a professor of English and you're dealing with the university students just beginning their university career and you've asked for some type of paper on a given subject and a student comes and hands you a paper like this and you find this sentence not that I have already attained and you take your red pencil and you make a mark right there and you give it back to the student and you'll tell him, now that is incomplete.
You have not attained what? Where is the object of the noun to attain? Now the student will have to go back and reword that sentence again, but we can't do that with Paul. He wrote the sentence a long time ago and it's in our Bible by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. but there is no object that corresponds to the verb attained. And when you come to the second phrase, or am already perfected, the question is perfected in what? What is Paul talking about? First of all, I suggest to you, these are beautiful words from an apostle of the Lord Jesus.
These are words of humility. There is no arrogance here. Paul lived in the world where some men and women were already saying, we have attained, we have achieved, we know it all. Paul says, I don't belong to that class. I have not yet attained. Perhaps even better, I have not at this time yet attained. and I'm not yet perfected, but we have to press the Apostle Paul and find out what he is talking about. You have to go back then to the previous sentence.
I suggest you do not go back to verse eleven. You may notice that we missed that verse last night because of time, not to say that it's a difficult verse. And you read that verse and you listen to the Apostle Paul saying in verse eleven, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. And you ask yourself, did Paul have a doubt about this? Was he not sure? Well, first of all, never take a phrase out of context. And though it's not our subject this evening, remember the last two verses of the chapter where Paul deals with that subject. With great confidence, these are dogmatic phrases, for our citizenship is in heaven.
from which also we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. There's not a doubt in the world. The difference between the last two verses and verse eleven is noticeable. The last two verses, we, our. Paul is talking about the whole Christian community. He's talking about our hope in Christ and he speaks with absolute confidence.
Verse eleven, if by any means I, this is personal. Most scholars will agree there is no element of doubt here. Verse eleven, is the word of a man who has never got over the wonder of the mercy and the grace of God. He's already told us in the previous verses, I persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, God in Christ came down and reconciled Paul back to God. He committed his life to the Lord Jesus. He never speaks with arrogance about himself.
He never presumes on the grace of God. He doesn't take it for granted. Verse eleven, perhaps could be paraphrased, could be translated in a somewhat better way, but it's the thought of a humble man, who in the light of the closing verses of the chapter has no doubt in the world that his body will be changed on that day, but that he, individually, personally, should be included in that group is still something that fills his heart with wonder and with awe. I don't think the resurrection from the dead is really the object of the verb attain in verse twelve.
You have to go back into that long sentence and find the main thoughts. Now, we talked about it last night. Paul last night in what we read is saying to us that I may gain Christ, that I may be found in Him, that I may know Him. Now He's telling us in verse twelve, not that I have at this point attained the full meaning of Christ. I am not yet perfected in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. But this is what he is after.
He has met the Lord Jesus. That lingering vision in his heart day by day, what he saw outside of Damascus was just the foretaste. I don't envy Paul for that experience, because some of you here tonight have spent fifty, sixty, seventy years reading this book. And the more you read it, the greater grows the glory of the Lord Jesus. But as you think about Him and as you know Him, you realize you do not fully understand the meaning of Christ. You do not perfectly have that complete knowledge of Him.
So Paul says, I haven't attained. I am not yet perfected in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. But verse twelve says, I press on. Now, this is the word for most of us here tonight with gray hair. Paul was more or less my age when he wrote these words. But he wasn't driving an air-conditioned car on a trip up to Atlanta, Georgia, to begin meeting Sunday in the North Atlanta Bible Chapel. He was in jail. And there was a chain around his leg. And there was a Roman soldier always present. He couldn't even go to the washroom alone.
But this is a man with a free spirit. Like Professor F.F. Bruce's title to that beautiful study of the life of Paul, he says, Paul, the apostle of the heart set free. Now you could be in the prison of infirmities. You might not even be able to drive a car today. You may be not able to move very far from your own home, up to the chapel and back. Your life has become very confined. Here's a good example. Here's a man who says, I press on. Let's extend it. I keep pressing on, never confined to the things that surround him, but in his heart and in his mind he is pressing on.
And he says to us in the verse that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Paul is a master of words. Paul plays with words. Paul is capable of creating a word when he can't find it in the dictionary. And most scholars believe there are two or three illustrations in the writings of Paul of words that you won't find in any other Greek translation or literature, probably words of his own creation. Here he's going to play with a verb that has two meanings.
Perhaps in English the best translation would be the word apprehend. That verb in English has two meanings. One meaning is to lay hands on violently, as they do in our country when the police catch someone who's been stealing something, and they grab him violently, and they take him to the police station where he's put in prison. The other meaning of that verb is to grasp or understand with the mind. Now, Paul is using the Greek word with those two meanings, and he's going to use both meanings in this verse.
Let's begin with the last phrase. Verse twelve, the last phrase where he says, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. So you ask the question, what is Paul talking about? Well, I suggest he's talking about that great trip he made from Jerusalem to Damascus. He's just about at his destination. And all of a sudden he is detained with an element of violence right in the middle of the road. I'm not suggesting the Lord Jesus came down and with hands, laid hold of him, but that ray of divine glory that surrounded him stopped him dead in his tracks.
Christ laid hold of Paul. almost in a physical sense outside the gate of the city of Damascus. Paul never forgot that moment. Now the second last phrase in verse twelve reads, That I may laid hold of that, for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Now it's the mind, it's the heart. Paul wants to understand the reason why Christ stopped him there outside of Damascus and saved him and brought him into the kingdom of God. This is an apostle over thirty years in the service of God, now nearing the end of his life.
And he's humble enough to tell us, I haven't attained yet the full meaning of the wonder of Christ. I'm not yet perfected in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, but I keep pressing on. I want to know more and more about the reason why he called me outside of Damascus. Paul, of course, had gone a long way. If you read Ephesians chapter one, which is filled with such tremendous concepts from his mind and heart, he already had a vast understanding, but he knew. It was in its fullness still beyond his understanding, his full understanding.
He keeps pressing on. You know, you really only have two alternatives, especially as we grow older. One is just to drift and wait. That is, you can say to yourself, well, I know it's not possible now in this lifetime to fully understand the glory of Christ. I'm just going to sit and drift and wait until I'm taken home. and then I'm going to see him. Paul says, I don't belong to that group of people. Doesn't matter where I am in prison or travel, I keep pressing on to know more and more about the will and the purposes of God for me and for all of his people.
It's such an important point in his mind that in verse thirteen he adds, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but One thing I do, forgetting and then reaching forward. It's one thing, but there are two sides to that movement. One is forgetting and one is reaching forward. Forgetting those things that are behind. This is the word for all of us here tonight. I'm just like you are. I can go back and say to my friends, I remembered. the Easter conferences in Vancouver, Canada, when we would have between twelve and fifteen hundred people together, and I can say to my friend, there's nothing like it today, nothing like it.
Or I can say, and do you remember Mr. So-and-so, the old man, there isn't a Bible teacher like him today in the land. And all of a sudden, we've locked ourselves into the past. We are living in the past. Paul does not do that, forgetting those things which are behind. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have warm and precious memories, but he will not allow himself to be locked in history. Instead, he says, stretching out. Now, this is the word of the runner. You would see it in the Greek stadiums.
We see it on television, in the races, when they have the Olympic Games, these young men and women who have trained, and the moment comes and they're in that position, head down, arms out, and when the sign goes, all their energy is given to driving them down that range as they try and win the race. Paul is in jail, but that's the attitude of his heart. He has a passion for Christ. He is running after Christ. That verb I press on really comes from the world of hunters. It doesn't really mean to run. It's not from the world of sports, but Paul takes that word and he sort of brings it in to the stadium.
But the meaning is to pursue, to hunt down, to catch. I have a Dominican friend. I met him in the early years in the Dominican Republic. His name was Mega. He came to your country. and lived almost all his working life in New York and Miami. And then he died in the city of Miami some years ago. When I knew him, he was young and strong every Saturday morning. Sun, rain didn't make any difference. He had his gun and he went out to hunt and he would spend the whole morning with that dedication, that persistence. to try and find the object of his hunt.
That's the word that Paul uses. It's an energetic, it's a passionate word. I keep pressing on. Now he tells us, I'm forgetting the past. I'm not living in the past. But there is one frustration in verse thirteen, and you find it right down at the end, reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I'd like to be in his Bible class. I would put up my hand and say, Sir, what are the things that lie ahead? He doesn't tell us here. I'm almost sure I can see Paul pacing up and down in his cell with the secretary. He's dictating the letters and the secretary is writing them down.
The thoughts just bubble out of his heart and mind. Half the time he takes for granted, you know what he's talking about. But here he doesn't tell us what the things are that lie ahead. So you've got to look for them. And you go right back again to that long previous sentence. What are the things that lie ahead? To fully gain Christ. To be completely found in him. To know him perfectly. Paul is after that moment. As he thinks of life. and then of death, and then of the entrance into the presence of God, which brings us to verse fourteen.
And just for a moment tonight, let's step beyond time and into eternity. Paul does that in this verse. It is a precious verse. Notice how it begins again with the same verb. He says, I press toward, I keep pressing on toward the goal. for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You've got to take it part by part. It's such a beautiful verse. First of all, the goal. This is the only time the word is used in the New Testament. Perhaps I suggest a better translation is goal marker.
The goal marker is one thing. The prize is another thing. Paul is pressing on toward the gold marker for the prize. We must not blend those two thoughts together. Grace and I, in the grace of God, have visited Greece three times. And the last time we were there, we went a way up into the mountains to the place called Delphi. Some of you have gone there. There's nothing there today but ruins, but their interesting ruins. For the Greeks really believed that Delphi was the center of the world.
They were mistaken, but that's what they believed. And there's a great marker there. This is the center of the world. So they built their temples, their theaters. Across a little valley, you can see the ruins of a town where the athletes would spend up to ten months preparing for the games. From that height, you can look away down and in the far distance you see the GMC. And I said to Gracia, no, we came here today in an air-conditioned bus. Think of the thousands of people who came on little boats, led off at the beach, and they walked up into the mountains to reach Delphi, the center of the world, and to worship their gods and to participate in their games.
It was a hot day and Grace was tired and I looked for some shade and I said, Grace, I want you to sit here because I want to go higher up. Because higher up are the ruins of the stadium. They're good ruins. You can really see what it was, that long field with what we might call today the bleachers down the sign. And I walked that field, I could imagine in my heart and mind, thousands of people gathered together, and then at one end all the runners, and they would be looking down the field, and at the other end would be the gold marker, painted a vivid color.
Right beside it there's a platform. And on the platform is a very highly respected individual, chosen to be the judge. And beside him is a strong man with good lungs. He's the announcer. Now when the indication is given to begin that race, every one of those runners have their eyes on the goal marker. That's what keeps them going in a straight line right to the end. If it wasn't for the marker, they could trip over each other, end up going round in circles, but everyone is looking at that goal mark.
Now, again, there's a frustration here. Paul uses the term. He doesn't tell us what it means. He simply says, I press toward the goal for the prize. And again, I'd like to be in his Bible class and say to Paul, tell me what is the marker. Well, as he doesn't tell us, we'd have to glean from other parts of his writings and of the whole Bible. What are the things that God has given to us to keep us going the right way, right to the end of our life here in this world? You start with the Bible.
You think of prayer, you think of the church, you thank God for those who minister His Word and teach us the things of God, and you thank God for Christian friends, how important they are, our fellowship together, our warmth. And if you put all of those things together and other matters also, you end up with the spiritual goal marker. the things that keep us moving in the right direction to the end of our pilgrimage. And when you near the end, the judge is there. And when you pass the marker, he calls the man beside him, the announcer.
And he says to him, Announce John Smith from Keystone Heights in the United States, the son of Alex Smith. And the whole announcement is given. Father, name, place of origin. And the whole audience erupts in applause as this man has passed that mark. But by that announcement, he is called up onto the platform. And he stands before the judge. And the judge gives him the prize. In those times it was a little crown made of green leaves or a palm branch, but it was the symbolism.
Here is someone who's run the course and is finished, and he's called upward before the judge and he is given the prize. Of course, Paul is not writing about the Olympian Games of two thousand years ago. He's talking about his own life. He's writing about your life. Have you ever thought what is the initial experience when you close your eyes for the last time and you open them on the other side? None of us like to go anywhere where we feel completely as a stranger. In my younger years, when Grace was home with the children and I used to travel sometimes for meetings here in North America, you know you're going to a certain place you've never been there before you don't know anyone at all and in those years you get down off of the train onto the platform and you wonder who is here to receive me and it's a funny feeling you've never been there you don't know you don't enter heaven like that when this life is over and you pass the goal marker and
the race is over The first thing you will hear is the voice of God calling you upward into His presence. You will not be left wandering around. There is this upward call into His presence. And then in His presence, you are given the prize. And again, Paul doesn't really tell us in verse fourteen what the prize is. If you think that the upward call is the prize, then you're talking about vocation, what we have been called to, what we are going to be forever and ever.
Surely there is a higher price, pardon me, a higher prize than the prize of our vocation, precious though it may be. I suggest to you that Paul has already given us the answer. He's thinking of Christ. The passion of his life is to gain Christ fully, to be completely in him, and to know him the way you cannot know him now. And when life is over, you are called up into the presence of God, and it is the Father's joy. to present to you the one you have only known by faith that you have never seen and to see him and know him as he is for the first time.
Can you imagine a greater promise, a greater goal of all our Christian experience? You know, Paul is a great theologian, but John is a great theologian. I think sometimes John even has an edge over Paul. At least in this point, he sometimes can take great concepts and put them in such simple terms that even children can understand them. Here's a great illustration. John says, we don't know what we are going to be. Good word for all of us who have an interest in prophecy. Don't be dogmatic. We don't know.
what we are going to be. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, and now the prize, for we shall see him as he is. There is no greater goal. There could be no greater glory or joy than to move into the presence of the Lord Jesus and see him as he really is. Have you gone to Florence in Italy? Well, if you have, you've gone to see David, Michelangelo's great work of art. You know the story. He saw this block of marble rejected by all the other artists.
They said it's worthless, and this genius looked at it, and he saw David. He built a great fence round about it, worked for a long time, and when the fence came down, and people saw David. Well, from that point until now, thousands of people from around the world have traveled to see David. You walk into the museum. Your first impression is, you didn't know it was so large. You've seen pictures about it, but it's so large and it's so real. You almost expect that David's going to jump, the muscles, the arms, the legs, and the look. He's looking with such a steadfast gaze that you turn your head.
There's nothing but an empty passageway. But in the mind of Michelangelo, David is looking at Goliath. He has the sling and the stone, and he's about to kill the enemy of God's people. And people come. No one speaks in a loud voice. You just walk slowly around and look at this masterpiece from all the different angles. and there's a sense of awe and of wonder. I'm not talking about David, I'm not talking about Michelangelo, I'm talking about our Savior. We shall see him as he is. Paul says when he comes, he comes to be glorified among his saints.
There's nothing selfish about the Lord Jesus. all the glory that belongs to him by right he's going to share it with those that surround him and then paul adds and they will admire him that's heaven when you see him and you know him and you admire him as i close grace and i were over in scotland some years ago and we were down in trune in airshire and we had a very good week with some close friends there, and then we were going to Sterling to see Grace's relatives. And I remember Kilmarnock. When I was a boy in Vancouver, Canada, at the Christmas treat every year, those with good attendance were given books, and they all came from John Ritchie and Kilmarnock.
And I said to Grace, I want to go and find that bookstore and see if it's still there. They gave us instructions and we got lost. At least I thought we had got lost and we gave up all hope. And all of a sudden there was the sign, John Richie. And I put on the brakes, made an abrupt left turn right into the parking lot. And we went into the store. It was good to meet them and talk with them. And I spent a good part of an hour going through the books. And I found two volumes. I didn't even know they had been printed. the collected writings of Harold Finjan. Never met him, but I'd read about him and his writings. Someone went to the work of getting all of his articles and putting them together in two volumes, and I bought them.
I asked my wife's permission first of all, then I paid the money, bought the books, and the man said to me, would you like us to send them by mail? I said, I'd be delighted because when you travel, books are heavy to carry. We got back to the Dominican Republic and the whole year went by and the books did not arrive. And I said to Grace, they're lost in the famous Dominican postal system. They're lost. But over a year went by and they turned up in good condition. You don't know the hours of pleasure. I've spent reading some of the writings of Harold Senge and here's just one thought tonight. He talks about Christ.
The treasures of wisdom and the knowledge of God are hidden in Christ. You can think of Ephesians, the riches of His grace in His kindness to us. Where? In Christ. All the good things of God, all the treasures of God are in Christ. And Sinjin writes, The stage of time and of history and of space is too small to show forth the glories of the Lord Jesus. That's why the Apostle Paul wrote, In the coming ages, eternity, where the stage has no dimensions, there are no limitations.
It is only there that we will see Him as He is. And one has suggested that eternity will be surprised after surprise as the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge of the grace and the kindness of God come out to his people and we will enjoy him. We will