Run with Your Eyes on the Goal

Paul is writing to the Philippians. And we notice, as he writes to them, it is an entirely different message from the one he wrote to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were still carnal Christians and had to be admonished, but as he writes to these Philippians, he is writing to a more mature assembly. There are those there who are going on with God. He calls them his “crown and his joy.”

How wonderful to hear the pathos in Paul’s letter! He loves them as a father loves his children, and he calls them his crown and joy. People had heard him preach, and those of other assemblies had heard him preach.

And there were those who had failed. He said they made him sad, although at one time they brought him joy. We see that reaction in a mother’s life when she must punish her child. It makes her sad and causes her heartache to have to punish the child. Yet, the one who can make her sad is the very one who can make her heart glad. There is no such message as this to the Philippians.

He said, “You are my crown and joy.” He tells them to beware of dogs, of those who are evil workers, of those who try to mutilate the word of God. He tells them if they can boast about their authority, he too can boast. He said, “I am from a Hebrew family, from the tribe of Benjamin. I have a good foundation to stand upon. I was zealous to persecute the church of God, but now I count all those things as loss for the excellency, the privilege of knowing Christ Jesus.”

He counted all those things as nothing, so that he might know Christ. He had so much to boast about, yet he did not boast in any of these things. And if he did have cause to boast, he said he counted them as loss, as dung, as off-scouring of the world, that he might have the excellent privilege of knowing Jesus Christ, for whom he suffered the loss of all things. He did not only suffer the loss of respect of those who probably put him in high places—friends, relations, home, money, etc. But he suffered the loss of all things—everything—that he might win Christ. He said to “be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.”

God had smitten Paul on the road to Damascus. As Paul was on that road on his way to persecute the Christians, Jesus appeared to him. He was smitten with blindness, and as Ananias laid hands on him, his sight was restored, but he was a different man. It was no more the Saul of Tarsus, but it was Paul, the one willing to lose all things, to suffer, that he might be able to catch the One who had caught him.

He had to do something, he was impelled to do something. Every breath that he drew in, he was steadily, solidly pushed along to win that One who had smitten him on the road. He was not satisfied. There was a longing, fighting something in his heart that kept him stirred to the place where he said, “Everything is loss to me. The One before me is Jesus Christ, and I am pressing on, that I may catch hold of Him who has caught me.” It was strange for him to say that Jesus had caught him. But now he is saying, “I must run to keep up with Him.”

As Elijah and Elisha, Elijah passed by, and Elisha was busy with the oxen. There was something that witnessed to Elisha’s heart. He said, “Let me kiss my mother and father goodbye. I must make haste and say goodbye to them.” Elijah left it up to Elisha. And he burned the bridges behind him, left all and followed Elijah.

Elijah came to Jordan, Gilgal, Jericho. They met with many obstacles, and he said to Elisha, “Stay here and wait, my Son.” He tested him to see what material he was made of.

But Elisha said, “As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.”

The same words were said to Naomi by Ruth. She did not go back when Naomi told her to, but she said, “I will go where you go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God.” It meant leaving home, everything that was dear to her. But she said, “I must go on, because I know you have something that we do not have in this land.”

We see this something burning in other breasts. And here, in Paul’s breast, we see him laying aside the weights and sin that would beset him, and he is pressing on to the prize. We think of Paul, suffering loss of all things. I believe he was the highest type of follower of Jesus Christ that we know about, but yet he said, “I have not attained.” Later, he said, “I have kept the faith, I have finished the course.”

Some people would have you to believe that you never could get anywhere. Thank God we can get to it. We can move on in God. We can attain unto the prize. As he wrote to the Philippians with all his struggles, persecutions, loss of friends, home, etc., he said, “I count not that I have apprehended, but I know what I am going to do. I am going to press on until I win the prize.”

He was not giving this out to say that he alone was going to do it. But he said to these mature saints, “I want you to do what I am doing.” He wanted others to go through. He wanted others to see that there was a race ahead, and that they too could attain to the prize. It is wonderful to hear Paul writing to these who had pleased his Father, who were called of God, telling them they too could have the privilege of running.

We would say this is a high standard. But he is not writing it down for himself alone, but for as many as would take it: for all those who were there, and also those who did not understand—if they opened their hearts, God would reveal it to them, too.

How just God is, and how merciful! If we do not understand, if we keep our hearts open, one day He will bring us to the place where we will be grown up in God. We will be in the race, attaining to the prize. Praise God it is not just for one, not just to the apostles, but to all who will be of the same mind.

Oh, let us hold fast to what God has given us! As Paul wrote to Timothy, “Hold fast to your profession.” Here, to the Philippians, he is saying, “Do not lay down that which you have, but hold fast to it.” What are his eyes upon? On the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.

He was a man who had suffered, gone through persecutions, but nothing had moved him from the goal. And he had a call, he answered the missionary call, he had assemblies to go to, he gave admonition and warning, he had many things upon his heart, he had much suffering, he attended to all this, but they did not hinder his vision. He kept his eyes steadily fixed upon the goal.

Many of us, when we get our eyes on one thing, we get so lopsided. We set our faces towards the field, we suffer a little, but we lose sight of the goal.

God wants us to keep it. When we lose it, the enemy has succeeded. The enemy’s aim is to get our eyes off of the goal. He is ready to say always, “Look at this….there is a need here…suffering there.”

But God wants us to keep our eyes on the goal. Paul’s were, and he said, “I am going through.” Did he fight? Yes. Did he have anything to do? Yes, he admonished the saints, visited different churches, wrote letters. But he never took his eyes from the goal. These things were the means to the end, and he never got down from that.

If we can get our eyes fixed on the goal, knowing that Jesus Christ is the victor, then we too will be victorious. The enemy cannot defeat us as we keep our eyes on the goal. How many times Paul could have gotten down. He was in jail, beaten on the back, hungry, in shipwrecks, but his eyes were on the goal. He sang praises, and the earthquake came and opened the prison doors.

He was pressing on, running to find that prize, running to carry out that vision for his life. Whatever came to Paul, he welcomed it—whether suffering, persecutions, death, no matter what, it made no difference to him—anything that came his way, that would cause him to answer his heavenly call. He threw his body in the gap and welcomed anything that would bring the goal nearer to him. Anything that would come his way, he was glad for it. How many times we feel pressed, we try to get out of something, when God would use that very thing to bring us to the place where He wants us.

Paul said, “I press on, whatever is there for me, whatever is in the way, whatever comes against me, whatever tries to stop me, I move on in God. This one thing I do, that I might answer the heavenly call.” In other words, that he might do His will. He said, “I joy in tribulation, I joy in the cross.”

Is there joy in these things? There is sorrow. But he knew it would bring him closer to the goal. Anything that brought him close, he was ready for it. If there was a fight, he could fight; if he had afflictions, he would call on God. Nothing slowed him up from the vision that was before Him.

How many times we meet with grief, or disappointment, failure, sorrows, many things, and we become defeated. It means we do not have our eyes fixed on the goal. We let them swamp us. But if our eyes were fixed on the goal, we would welcome the trials, we would rejoice in them, because we are pressing on, pushing on, strengthening ourselves, in order that we might go over that mark into the next place.

Paul had not come to the end, but he said, “I am going after it, I am going to push, fight, press, do everything I can. I am not going to stop until I win this mark.” Praise God! He had it set before him. He had his vision, his call, he laid hold of it, and now he wants us to lay hold of Him and our call. As he said to Timothy, “Lay hold of eternal life.”

When Jacob wrestled, who did he wrestle with? The devil? No, the Bible says, with a man. As he wrestled, the man said, “Let me go.”

But Jacob said, “Not so, until you have blessed me.”

As they wrestled, the man said, “No longer will your name be Jacob, but it shall be Israel.”

Jacob had wrestled with the angel. As he later said, “I have seen God face to face,” and he called the place, Penuel. Later, he had power over the enemy, but first he had wrestled with God.

We might be able to do many things, but it does not say that we have authority. Our authority cannot come from the enemy, it must come from God. Just wrestling, taking victories, will not give us power, but we need to prevail with God. As we wrestle through with Him, God will give us power, authority, prevailing power.

The Lord tested him as He tested Elisha and Ruth. When Jacob wrestled with the man, he said, “Let me go.”

But Jacob said, “I can’t let you go, the enemy is coming, I can’t, I must not let you go for I need power.” As the sun came up, Jacob had power with God and with man.

God wants us to break through with Him. If the devil is in the way, fight him, but move on. If something is in the way, push through with it, but for Jesus’ sake, do not lose sight of the goal. Do not lose your mark, do not lose the thing that God is calling you to.

We have been apprehended, we have been smitten on our way of sin. God has arrested us and said, “You must come out of it,” and now we are stirred to run, that we might attain. Don’t let anything hold you up. Let not heights, depths, things present, things to come, principalities, devils, angels, let none of these things move you, but keep your eyes on the goal.

If you get your eyes off of the goal, and put them on the enemy, on his power, we will fail. But if our eyes are on the goal, we can have power with the enemy. God wants us to get through when we wrestle. He wants us to wrestle until the break of day. We need to come to grips with God. We need to come to a settlement with God. He will test you, “Why don’t you stay here?”

“No, I won’t, I am not satisfied.”

God help us that we will not be satisfied with our present condition. We do not have power with God or man. But as Jacob wrestled and prevailed with the angel, he won the victory, and he had power with God.

Moses said, “I pray, Lord, that you will not take us up if your presence is not with us. It will not be worthwhile.” If God is not with us, there is no use to talk about mountain heights, great battles, or anything else, for there is nothing to it. As Moses said, “If your presence is not with us, I pray thee, do not take me up.”

There was a promised land ahead, but he did not want to go if God’s presence did not go with him. As he came to grips with God, God said, “My presence will be with you.” The Lord promised, and Moses was satisfied to go.

How many times do we get down on the level with the enemy? We lay our vision aside for a while. Many times, we just put our spiritual vision on the side. We wipe up the floor with the devil. But when we come to ourselves, we are perspiring, overcome, played out from the battle. Where is the vision?

“I do not know,” you say.

“Where is the call?”

“I do not know, I have been so busy wrestling with the enemy.” We are too much on the enemy’s level. When we finish wrestling through with God, we will have the neck of the enemy. God wants us to have the very neck of the enemy. We do not have it because we do not have power with God. But God wants us to keep our eyes on the vision. It does not mean forever fighting and rolling in the dust with the enemy, but it means to the end, that heavenly call, that we might be called to do the thing that He wants us to do.

He has apprehended us, and now we want to be apprehended by that which we have been apprehended by. Why should we grovel in the dust? You can have so much yieldedness, but it is just dead weight unless you have the vision. Yield, with the idea that the vision might be done in our assembly, that God’s work will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It is something, when you have something to yield for. We have a vision. God has called us to do something for His glory. As we do, then they will be the means to the end. God’s will will be done in our lives and in our assembly. I do not read where Jesus cried out in the synagogue, “Is there any devil in here, let him step out.”

No, but Jesus preached, and the devils cried out. And he said, “Hold your peace, come out of him.” I do not believe Jesus got on the level with the devil, but His will was to do the Father’s business. I believe He was aiming towards something to the end. He kept His equilibrium and went on.

It was true of Paul. When the damsel was following him for many days who was filled with demons, at last Paul was grieved, and he said, “Come out of her.” And they came out. He had power with God and man.

You will never get power for casting out devils by wrestling with him. You will get that from God. After you get that, you will have power with man and demons. Too often, we get our eyes off of the thing we are aiming for, and get to grips with one or the other.

Paul said he kept his eyes fixed on the goal, and he told others to do the same thing. It was not just for an apostle, but he said, “I ask all of you who are mature believers, that you be of the same mind, that you follow me and we will go through together.”

Isn’t it encouraging? When we see such a high mark, we would say it is just for Paul. But he said, “Follow me. If any of you do not understand, if you do not see just what it is, if you have an open heart, God will reveal it to you, too.”

The piece we were singing says, “All the earth is filled with sunshine, there is hope for everyone.” God wants us to run with our eyes on the goal. We should not let the things of life slow us up. But we should look to Him and get the vision of our life. Yieldedness, persecution, battles, suffering—all will seem small in the light of His greatness. Your greatest efforts will seem so small. When you do it yourself, it seems so great, so hard, like you cannot make it. You wonder if you will ever go through. But when the vision becomes all to you, it will work out to God’s glory.

Fenton Hall said, “I will drag out every Agag so that God may slay it.” God wants us to be able to welcome all things. When persecutions come, we cry out. But God wants us to welcome it, that it might make the vision more real and be magnified in our lives.

Tonight, as persecution, trial, suffering would come in against us, let us ask God to give us a vision of Him, and press through to Him. It took all things that Paul could obtain. And, at last, he did obtain. He said, “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, I am ready to go.” It is a wonderful thing to know that the vision has been finished, that the call has been worked out.

How dreadful to come to the end of our days and have nothing for Jesus but a hard, bitter life, that rebelled, that resisted, and ended in defeat and remorse. Oh, to let the heavenly call to yield, battle, fight, suffer—anything that is needed—be done, by keeping our eyes fixed on the goal, that we might apprehend for that which we have been apprehended by. Praise God! Amen.