This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 28, 1992.

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah, We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for walls and billboards. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. For he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city, he layeth it low, he layeth it low even to the ground, he bringeth it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.

The way of the just is uprightness. Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. The desire of our soul is in thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Let favor be showed to the wicked, and yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see. that they shall see and be ashamed for their envy of thy people, yea, the fire of thine enemy shall devour them.

Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us. but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise, therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation, thou art glorified, thou hast removed it far unto the ends of the earth. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

Like as a woman with child that doth near the time of her delivery is in pain and crieth out in her pain, so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have, as it were, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world followed. Thy dead men shall live Together with my dead body shall they arise, awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for thy due is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

Then from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, beginning at verse 12. not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect that I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgiving those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me.

Our God, we would have strength from you. We might seek it elsewhere. We might look for it in ourselves, we might look for it in some other person, we might even look for it in some thing. But Father, we would confess that all the search for strength apart from you is vain and empty. We come, therefore, to you, our God. and most particularly we come to your word. Lord, now by your spirit strengthen your people whom you love. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

It goes without saying that Paul’s letter to the Philippians confuses many. In fact, it even confuses Brockwood Calvinists on occasion. After all, this is the epistle in which the Apostle speaks with such grand confidence, such certainty, a certainty that is certainly rooted in God’s sovereignty. in his predestinating plan and purpose, his election of grace, but then there seems to be all these qualifiers. There seems to be all of these comments that speak to us about striving and straining. comments about working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, I thought that was a settled matter. What are we doing here, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, if we already have our salvation?

And here, in the third chapter of Philippians, the Apostle is speaking about He speaks in the eleventh verse of attaining the resurrection. He tells us flat out in verse twelve, he hasn’t attained or obtained, and suddenly the whole climate of the epistle to the Philippians becomes quite sweaty. filled with testimony to exertion, work, hard work no less. Well, as I said, it’s not without reason that many a saint coming to Philippians becomes confused, maybe even somewhat disoriented. Even Calvinists have been known to stumble a bit in Philippians. But I want you to know that there is this consistent theme for Philippians as well as other epistles from Paul.

There is this consistent theme, the theme of possessing yet to possess. the theme of having yet to have. This language in which the Apostle says he’s got it, but he’s still gaining it. Now, understand what’s in the balance. no peripheral matter here of which the apostle is speaking. He is speaking about salvation. And he is speaking as a saved man.

As such, there is this magnificent ring, this magnificent ring of confidence, this affirmation of gospel truth, inclusive of all that that gospel sets before us. Yes, Christ’s divinity. Yes, Christ’s humanity. Yes, Christ’s life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and all of this for the sake of God’s elect.

Therefore, the Apostle Paul speaks as one who is seemingly absolutely confident, confident of the living, resurrected, reigning Savior who, by his Spirit, has intervened in his life in order to rescue him, in order to save him. He has done this by working faith in the Apostle, thereby uniting the Apostle to himself. So real is Paul’s salvation, his sense of salvation, so alive is Paul to his Savior.

So compelled is Paul by the truth of this salvation and by his Savior that this man cannot think of his Savior or the salvation that has become his as objects that are out there somewhere. As if they were articles objects that might be sitting on a coffee table somewhere, to be picked up, admired, enjoyed, then to be laid down again. It is out of his confidence and the confident assurance that salvation is his, that the Apostle Paul doesn’t do something like this.

He doesn’t pick up Christ to put him down. Paul uses the language repeatedly. He puts on Christ. He wears him. It’s a garment that he hopes never to put off. Such is Paul’s experience of Christ and such is his confidence of salvation that he has said, I cannot underscore this enough, I cannot repeat this verse too many times. The Apostle Paul has said, for to me, to live is Christ. To die is gain.

Now that’s Philippians 1.21, but Paul now is in his third chapter and he’ll take up the theme with respect to this confidence again.

He says in verse 9 of this third chapter, I am found in him. It’s not the prospect of being found that the apostle is concerned about at this point. He is speaking definitively about His experience over against the loss of all things, losing them for the sake of gaining Christ. This is how He expresses His confidence. I am found in Him. My place presently is in Him. That’s what He’s saying.

And I am found in him, my place is in him, not depending upon any self-achieved righteousness from the law, but rather the righteousness from God, supplied in the faithfulness of Christ, received by faith, and that only. But it isn’t done. goes on. Not only is he found in Christ, his place is in Christ, he says now boldly, I know Specifically, I know the power of his resurrection by which I am assured the strength to arrive at glory even though I am called to share his sufferings. So then, be aware of just how adamant and insistent the apostle is. He possesses Christ. He has salvation. He can say, I am saved. Yet, still, but, however, Nevertheless, furthermore, he must yet attain.

He must yet, in the apostles’ vocabulary, be saved. but he must as well be saved the apostle knows so well the already category dimension of redemption that he is also fully aware of the not yet dimension he knows the already but simultaneously he knows the not yet so he speaks of having been saved he will also speak in language that communicates salvation future He speaks about a future salvation, for instance, in that first chapter of Philippians, the 19th verse.

If you recall our treatment of that text, we concluded that the apostle there is not merely talking about getting out of jail and rule. He is talking about final deliverance, final redemption. He speaks similarly in the eleventh verse of the third chapter when he speaks about attaining unto the resurrection from the dead, that certainly being a future event. And now he will explain that eleventh verse more fully as he progresses from the twelfth verse on. Paul, now in this twelfth verse, openly confesses that he has not attained his salvation as far as his own resurrection from the dead is concerned. to rob language that he has applied to the Philippians themselves, to rob language from the second chapter, the twelfth verse, where he tells them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

Now the apostle applies it to himself. He also is working out his salvation with fear and trembling, by pressing on toward the resurrection from the dead. that in the future he may lay hold of the very thing for which Christ, the risen Christ, has taken hold of him.” How beautifully the Apostle holds together the already and not yet in that 12th verse of the 3rd chapter as you come to its conclusion. that he may lay hold, but not yet, for which also I was laid hold of by Christ.” So then, the Apostle Paul knows full well that his salvation must as yet be completed in the resurrection from the dead. But he also knows, and this is something with respect to the weight of his argument in the letter thus far, he also knows that his salvation and his participation in that resurrection lay in siege presently from the things of this world.

The things in which the flesh boasts, if in fact the flesh has its way. But the Apostle Paul tells us in that thirteenth verse that he’s leaving all of that behind. It’s like a rocket shot, as if the apostle is leaving an entire world and its existence behind. The world of the flesh and its ghost. He escapes through the deliverance effected through Christ.

He presses ahead, he tells us, toward the goal. for the prize of his salvation here understood as the resurrection from the dead the veritable goal belonging to life above through Jesus Christ. It is then the possessing yet to possess that having, yet to have, of which the apostle speaks. He has it, he tells us, still he’s gaining it.

As we suggested at the beginning of the message, this kind of talk sometimes bothers the saints. sometimes confuses the saints. They become a little disoriented when such language is set before them. But let me remind you that this language is not peculiar to Philippians, nor even to the Apostle Paul. It is part and parcel of Scripture truth. from beginning to end. The Old Testament itself is full of it.

Does not Abraham have God, yet there is a gaining of God yet for him? In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, does not God come and tell Abraham that he God is Abraham’s reward that he presently is given to Abraham as possession, yet Abraham is one who will come into a fuller realization of his possession of God, and that through trial and testing. Thus Mount Moriah, thus the offering of Isaac and the confirmation of Abraham’s faith.

Then what shall we say about the children of Israel? Are they not called the son of God? Called out of Egypt to serve their father, yet in the wilderness they are tried and tested. They have that sonship, but yet they must prove it. And how many times in the Psalms do we read about God being a fortress and a refuge and a city for his people to dwell in, yet his people are portrayed as pilgrims coming up into the city. Yes, they have God who is their citadel, but yet they are coming up to God at the same time. They have him, yet they are attaining him.

And in this respect, there is no more dramatic description of this very thing than that which we read in Isaiah 26 this morning, where in the opening of that chapter, God is described as that magnificent city in which the people of God dwell. But then, as the chapter progresses, it’s obvious to us that the people are en route seemingly two places at once, in the city, with God, yet on their way up into the city, secure and at home, but also on a journey.

What shall we say about Jesus Christ himself? Is he not declared to be the Son of God from the waters of baptism? You remember the scene? The voice out of heaven, Thou art my Son, in thee I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit drives this one who is so described by the Father into the wilderness for testing. to what end? That he might obtain sonship.

Isn’t it interesting, then, that later on the apostles apply that verse from Psalm 2 to Christ, but specifically with respect to Christ’s resurrection? Psalm 2, where it says, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. What day? The day of resurrection. From sonship then unto the attaining of sonship.

That is the pattern that we find. Having yet not having. Possessing yet not possessing. How many examples can we multiply in our own lives? the son who has the inheritance, in fact, who lives off the inheritance but yet doesn’t have the inheritance in full those of you who are homeowners you say you own the house the bank says you don’t you live in it He possessed it, but there comes that day when they will hand over the deed to you. But as you notice in this text, the Apostle Paul has his own example. It’s not an economic example.

He’s been using those previously in this chapter. His imagery shifts here as we move into the eleventh and twelfth verses and following. Now he’s using athletic language, sports language. He’s a runner in a race. He’s striving to attain, to obtain. He’s pressing for the prize. Now I think that we can all see how this applies to the not yet category. He’s striving to get something he doesn’t have. So the illustration seems to be a bit one-sided. Paul is in motion.

But while that is the emphasis, Paul, as we have indicated, has not lost sight of the already dimension, the possession that is his. For you see, the one who has already laid hold of him is himself a runner and is himself the prize. Paul runs the race with the prize in hand. You run the race with the prize in hand. And in heaven, Christ Paul possesses not only the certainty of the race’s conclusion, he possesses the power to run it. And nothing less than the power of the resurrection is at work in heaven. But even more, he has, as we’ve said, the prize itself. firmly in grip.

He runs with and in Christ, the very one who has finished the course. Do you want to read about the course that Christ ran? Read Philippians 2 verses 5-11. There is the race of the Son of God. Paul then runs with Christ, firmly held in grasp, or even better, being firmly held in Christ’s grasp. The race’s conclusion and its prize are already seen in the apostle as he writes. But now, in conclusion, having made this observation, seeing that Paul has Christ the champion in the race, this should most certainly tell us something about the race itself.

How is it that Paul runs? Or is he really running at all? Paul really isn’t interested in races, is he? He’s not really chiefly concerned here about an athletic event, is he? Not at all. Paul is concerned about life And the race is an illustration and metaphor. Paul is concerned about his life. He’s concerned about the Philippians’ life. He’s concerned about Christ’s life. Christ’s life then being the source, the wellspring.

And how is it that Christ lived? Do I really have to answer that question? How is it that Christ ran his race? He lived by giving up his life. He lived by giving himself over to death in service to God and to God’s elect. That is why the apostle stresses the fact at the end of the tenth verse that he is being conformed unto the image of Christ’s death. Here is a race that you win by dying. Dying to yourself and dying to the world. Here is a race that you win by losing. just as Christ won his race.

And now Paul wins, if we can speak in this language. Now Paul wins as the very life of Christ shines through him in his sacrificial service even for these Philippians to whom he presently writes. Paul gives his life for them, as Christ gave his life for all of us. But this is stuff meant not merely for saviors and apostles.

It is meant for all who will then run the race. For there is no other way to run but that way that is seen in Christ, imitated by Paul. Notice how strange the race is. We’ve already noted that it is a race that is won by losing. But notice also this anomaly.

Paul, in gaining the prize, doesn’t mean the prize is now captured, possessed, and no one else can get it. What does it mean that there is only left to us lesser metals? In fact, the very way Paul runs is so that the Philippians to whom he writes might gain the very prize he has in you. It’s not, then, I win, you lose. My prize, not yours. I’ve got it, I’m not sharing it. It’s my glory, another reason for me to boast in the flesh, I’m not in a reason for me to feel proud about myself. This isn’t ordinary athletics. Paul lives in such a way that everybody else will get the prize. The very prize he wants. The very prize. that Christ himself has given. That prize is the resurrection and Christ now will have all of his people blessed with that prize for glory.

I possess, yet I do not as yet possess. I have, yet I am to attain. Let us pray. Oh God, may we glory in so wonderful a salvation, so full, complete and rich, affording us confidence and comfort and yet inspiring us in our labor that we might be diligent to work out our salvation with fear and trembling unto the procurement of the resurrection from the dead. O Father, may we be mindful of the way in which we are to run this race assigned to us, running it with Christ firmly in our grasp, being held in His grasp. O Father, We ask that the very service of our Savior, His love, might be evidenced in us for the benefit of others who with us would attain such a prize. We therefore press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing less than the resurrection from the dead.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.