When Paul says, be followers
together of me, in verse 17, what would that look like? If you were to be a follower
of Paul, what would that make you? Well, look at verse 13.
He made that pretty clear. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. For getting 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. Now, because of the wickedness
of this world, we press. We press. That word means to
run. To run as fast as we can run. To run in order to obtain. Because of the deception of our
own hearts, we run. Because the time is short, we
run. We run to the Savior. That's what Paul said. That's
where I am and that's what I'm doing. And he's saying, here,
come with me, come with me, follow me. We run from ourselves to
Christ. We run from the subtlety and evil of Satan, because we're
no match for him, we run to Christ. Because he has that in us that
would be our downfall of Christ, or not our refuge. So we run
to Christ. All of that which Paul described
as dung and loss in the previous verses of this same chapter,
it was simply himself. His heritage, his works, his
so-called righteousness. He said, I won't have it. I cast
it behind my back and pressed toward Christ Jesus. Now come
with me. That's what he's saying. Follow
me in that. I'm running to Christ with all I have. Come. It breaks my heart. He's saying
here, verse 18, that there are those who will not come with
me. There's some that simply won't
come. Do you know what he's talking about? There are those that you
would have come with you in pursuit of and running to Christ for
life, for hope, for everything. I'm saying I would to God that
they would come with me, but they're not coming. It looks
like they're not coming. And notice in verse 19 that these
enemies of the cross of Christ, which he calls them enemies,
they're not described as going around spreading false doctrine.
You'd think in order to qualify as an enemy of the cross, you'd
have to go around preaching false doctrine and deceiving people
and things like that. Doesn't say that. They're just
regular people who worship themselves. That's what everybody does, pretty
much. They just worship themselves rather than God. The belly, he
said that their God is their belly. That's the appetites.
It's the flesh, it's what the flesh wants. And you know, you
may have things going through your mind about that, but you
know what the flesh wants that maybe you didn't think of? The
flesh wants a God that they can control. The flesh wants a little
Jesus that's waiting on them. That's what they want. That's
one of the appetites of the flesh. That which the flesh longs for,
that's the belly. And that's their God. It's themselves. Wealth, the approval of men,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
Their God is themselves. Their own will, their own desires,
their own reasoning. That's just a normal human being. Just a normal human being. You don't have to go high up
the hierarchy of false religion to find an enemy of the cross
of Christ. It's just everyday ordinary sinners that despise God. They would
never admit that. They don't despise their God,
you see. I don't despise God, yeah, but have you met this one? Have you ever heard of this one? The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That's all of us by nature. Now,
if you're not God's enemy, it's because of his grace. It's because
he's done a miracle in you. But if you just don't have any
use for God because you're all about the things of this world
and the things that benefit you, then you're the enemy of God.
That's what's made clear here. The enemy of God. They just mind
the things of this world. The cares of this world have
choked out the seed. You're an enemy of the cross. I can't think of a more unenviable
position than to be an enemy of the cross now. But by the free grace of almighty
God, our conversation, us, is in heaven. Those who worship
the Lord, those who bow to Him, those who don't care for the
things of this world, but for the things of God. We don't mind
earthly things. Not the new man, not the me that
God has created. Our flesh wars against us, but
We just don't. We just don't crave the things
of this world. Now, conversation in the New Testament sometimes
means conduct and manner of life, and I'm sure you've heard that,
so it's important that we point out that that's not this word
here. Conversation here means citizenry. Our citizenry is in heaven. We are citizens by birth and
by grace. of heaven, not this earth. We're
already citizens. Hebrews 11, 13, these all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. We
looked to the Savior. These all died in faith. Faith
just has one object, that's Christ. We look to Christ and we've received
the promises. What promises? The ones he gave
us. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will come again
and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.
And believing those promises and rejoicing in that, we confess
this world is not Our country. It's not our country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country from which they came out, they might have had
opportunity to return, to have returned. But now, they desire
a better country. We desire that. Brother D's already there, and
we desire that, don't we? I was writing down some things
about you know what D is up to right now, I couldn't help but
get a little bit jealous. Have you thought about that?
It's hard not to. We don't live here, not really. We're here for now for a little
while, for a little while. But we desire better than this,
don't you? If this is it, we are of all
men most miserable. that is in heavenly, wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them that city." He's already fixed himself a
place. And some people say, well, I want a mansion on the hilltop.
The place is that place that Moses was told by God when he
said, there's a place by me. I'm gonna hide you in the cleft
of the rock and cover you there with my hand. That rock was Christ
too. That's the place that we're looking
for. Where Dee is now and where all of this is just, I don't
know what we'll think about the vanities of this world, if we'll
even be aware of them, if it even matters. I know that's not what's on Dee's
mind right now. When a believer dies, that is,
as this verse says, a sinner dies in faith, in faith, trusting
the Savior, looking to Him for righteousness, looking to Him
for forgiveness, looking to Him for everything we need. When
a sinner dies looking to Christ, he doesn't go to some strange
place. We think about it that way, don't we? Well, I wonder
what that's all about. It's so strange. It's home. That's what it is. It's home.
We didn't go somewhere strange. He went home. And we're going
to, too, before long. Do we live every day in the conscious
awareness of the fact that we're not home? We're not home. Our brother B has left the land
of the dying and gone to the land of the living. That's where
he belonged all along. Ever since the Savior stood a
surety for him in old eternity. That's where he belongs. He was
ushered by the Savior into the land of the living. Dying is
not natural to the believer. When D hasn't died, the Lord
said, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Now we
use the word die, and I use it deliberately because people say,
well, they passed away. The scripture doesn't say that.
It says they died. But we understand what that means. This body dies. We leave this body for a while.
But we go to be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. But what happens to this body
then? It dies. But we are just asleep. We're just asleep. Those that
sleep in the Lord, he refers to here. And dying is not natural. We shall never die in the ultimate
sense. We shall never die eternally.
We shall never die really in any other way except this body
will lay down and in corruption shall perish. But the Lord's
gonna come get it. and raise it incorruptible. We're
dying, really dying is what we're doing right now. That's what
we're sitting here dying tonight. But that's what's strange, not
glory. That's what's strange. Think
about that. What is it to be a citizen of heaven? Christ has redeemed us. We can't
stay here. Christ has redeemed us. He has saved us from the body
of this death. He's redeemed us body and soul
and we can't stay here. Because of His precious blood,
we are citizens really of Himself. Think about this. What is heaven? We're citizens, our citizenry
is in heaven. What does that mean? Paul said,
I'm in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. Heaven is with Christ. I've never heard a better definition
of you than heaven with Christ. That's what it means. Even now
we are citizens of with Christ already. Now, you know, I'm glad
I'm an American. I'm real happy about that. But preeminently, I'm not an
American, I'm a Christian. If I can borrow that word from
our enemies, that's what the enemies called the disciples
back then. Now false religion just calls
everybody that that's not a Muslim, I think. So it doesn't really
mean a whole lot anymore except that we realize that we're citizens
of him. That's what we, that's who we
are. We are defined by him. That's all, you know, John, John referred to himself as the
disciple whom Jesus loved. That's who I am. I'm the one
he loves. What is there about you that's more important to
say than that if it's true about you? Christ loves me. That's who I am. That's who I
am. But I'm glad I'm an American,
but being an American or anything else can't make me free indeed.
What do you love about America? Freedom. It don't take me long
to come up with an answer to that. Do you? Freedom. What do
you love about America? We still enjoy freedom like nobody,
literally nobody else in this world does. How long? I don't know. But right
now, to a great degree, we're free. But being an American can't make
me free indeed. In order to be free indeed, the
Son has to make you free. The Son of God. If the Son shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. D is free. In a whole other sense than we
are. Free from sin. I don't even know what that feels
like. Free from shame. You know, everybody's problems, psychiatrists say everybody's
problem is unresolved guilt. Yeah, I agree with that. I got
a little different take on how you resolve guilt. You don't. Only Christ can. He can put it
away. The shame of what we are. No
more of that for me. These are things that we're not
free from yet completely, from pain. These are completely free
from any pain whatsoever. You know, we probably have pain
that we don't even know we have. I know that sounds weird, but
if you were completely pain-free right now, you'd probably feel
different than you do right now. You reckon? If I start thinking
about it, I'm like, my shoulders. I don't want to think about it. No more pain. No fear. No wondering
about what's going to happen? What's going to happen is what's
happening right now. Eternity is not an endless span of time. It's altogether other than time. Dee is forever with the Lord
and rejoicing in the Lord and enjoying without sin, without
separation, the presence of the Lord Jesus. No sorrow that the
body of this death is susceptible to all these things. But he's
not in that body anymore. We're free in Christ. We're free tonight from the penalty
of sin. Hallelujah. I don't dread the
consequences of my sin because there are none. Christ is my
righteousness and justification. from the power of sin, sin shall
not have dominion over you. Bless God for that. Thank God. Free in Christ from the law.
The songwriter well said, oh happy condition to be free from
the law. The bondage of the law, the condemnation
of the law because Christ took the wrath of God in our place. What does a citizen of heaven
do when he still lives on earth? Paul told us, didn't he? We look
for the Savior. See that in the next? We're looking
for the Savior. From our place of citizenry in
heaven, though we were camping out here for a little while,
but we're looking for the Savior. That's what we're doing. Notice
he says he didn't just stop with that. I would've known who he
was talking about But he said we look for the Savior the Lord
Jesus Christ That's who we're looking for. We're not looking
for the Jesus of Religion, but the Lord The one where we looked
up that word the one who owns and the one who has the power
of deciding Hmm We have here no continuing city,
but we look for one to come. Where is that? With Christ. With
Christ. With Christ. With the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no savior beside him.
There's just one, and he's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's significant now. this
religious world would have a savior that's not the Lord. There is
none beside him. Look what Paul says at the end
of verse 21. He's gonna do something for us
that only the sovereign can do. Only the one who is able to subdue
all things unto himself is able to do this for us that we need
so desperately. Like he's always done. according
to the power wherewith he is able and hath subdued all things
to himself. The whole earth is his footstool.
The Lord has given him a name which is above every name, that
every knee should bow at the name of Jesus Christ. And every
tongue confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father. He subdued us in our hatred of
him. Think of Saul of Tarsus. We despise
God by nature. Just look at people that don't
know him. I mean, by their fruits, you
should know them. This wretched world, even the
religious world, they despise the Son of God. and have raised
up a false Jesus, an idol in his place. Like Saul of Tarsus, he subdued
our evil pride and caused us to cry, Lord. Paul knew who saved
him, didn't he? Lord, what would you have me
do? That's who saves, that's who
subdues them. The only one that can subdue a sinner the Lord
Jesus Christ Lord what would you have me do
like the like with the centurions servant the Lord Jesus spoke
the word only and made us whole That's who we're talking about
What was Paul's hope expressed in that verse that we all probably
have memorized, 2 Timothy 1.12, when he said, I know whom I have
believed. What was his hope? That Christ is able. That's what our text says. He's
able to subdue all things unto himself. Who is worthy to take
the book and open the seals thereof? He's able. Heaven wept until
the Lord Jesus Christ stepped forward. John wept and the Lord stepped
forward and all the angels began to sing worthy is the lamb to
open the book, to take the book and open. He was able to stand
as surety for us in eternity. Who's gonna do that? but Him. He was able to come where we
are and pour in oil and wine when everyone else turned away.
He was able to redeem our souls with His precious blood. Who
else? Who besides Him? He was able
to draw us to Himself with cords of eternal love. He has loved us with an everlasting
love and with loving kindness. He's drawn us. He's able to keep
us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. That, Lord Jesus Christ. What's he gonna do? Change us. Aren't you glad? We're already
citizens of him, of his presence, of being with him forever. We're
already citizens, but what's the difference between thee and
us tonight? Change. Little change. Change. How bad do you, citizens
of heaven but dwellers of earth, how badly do you want to be changed? changed. You see, we're still
afraid. We're still sad. We're still
hurting. We're still full of unbelief. We're still selfish
and arrogant, proud. We're still idiots. You like that word change? He shall change us. 1 Corinthians 1550, in case you're
wondering, where is that in the text? Well, it's in this text,
1 Corinthians 15. The change is here in our text,
but he says he's going to change our body. He's going to change
more than that. Look at 1 Corinthians 1550. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Some of us are gonna die. Or
as the Lord, you remember how he spoke with With Lazarus' family
about that and the disciples, he said, our friend Lazarus is
asleep. He told them the truth. He wasn't
dead in the eternal sense, in the truest sense. But they didn't
understand that. They said, well, that's good.
He's sleeping, that's good. If he's sick, he needs some sleep.
That's the best thing for him. And then the Lord finally just
plainly told him he's dead. Because that's the language we
understand, you know, he died. But it didn't change the truth
that he was asleep in Christ. He was asleep. And some will
sleep in Christ like our friend, D. And some may not. We don't know if we ever will
or not. But we know this, all of us are
gonna be changed. We're not gonna be like this
anymore. Bless God. Bless God. Paul said, who shall
save me from the body of this death? Oh, I can't do anything
I wanna do and everything I don't wanna do, I do. Who's gonna save me? I bless
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, will be saved. will all
be changed in a moment. It's not a process. In the twinkling of an eye. Isn't it beautiful? The scriptures
aren't always descriptive in that way. You know what I mean?
Very clear. All scriptures clear as a bell.
But what a beautiful description. In the twinkling of an eye. at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy stain?
O grave, where is thy victory? In other words, If you think
like the world does, like the flesh does, then death has its
day. Death won this battle. No, it
didn't. Where is your sting, death? All you did was usher
a wretched sinner into the presence of his savior. Where's the sting
in that? Where is your victory? Not one
battle, not one inch do we give to death because of Christ. and
what he's done for us. He has made that which we dread
most to be a joy. The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God. Christ
kept the law. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. So where is death's sting? Thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And look
at verse 58 now, because I want you to see how beautifully this
corresponds with our text. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
what are we gonna conclude from this? What do we change in really
just about every way? Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. You see how beautifully that
corresponds with the last verse of our text, Philippians 4.1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved, and longed for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the
Lord. That's what he's saying to us.
We're citizens of heaven, but we still live here. That's strange, isn't it? That's
what's strange. Going home is not gonna be, not gonna be that
strange. But stand fast in the Lord. We
look for him now, and then, face-to-face. We'll soon be free from trials,
but now we're not. So what? Stand fast in the Lord. Stand fast. Don't look away from
Christ in bitter trial and heartache. Understand now that standing
fast in the Lord doesn't mean for you to be strong. Well, you have to be strong to
stand fast in the Lord. Then I'm out of luck. What about
you? It means to look to Him as your
strength. That's what standing fast in
the Lord is. We will soon be free from all
fear, but not yet, not yet. So stand fast in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We'll be free from sorrow. Is it a marvel to you to think
that God himself shall wipe away all tears from your eyes? Past, present, and future, all
of them, all of them, go. All of them go. Because the ones
that we cried thinking, oh, it's a disaster, no, that was a blessing.
He makes everything beautiful in his time for his sheep. Everything,
it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Stand fast in the Lord. He said,
you're my dearly beloved. And I can say that about you
without hesitation. I've had friends in this world,
but I'm not sure I have any now. And that's OK. Because my family
is a big family. Brothers and sisters and moms
and dads. By the hundreds. And I can say without hesitation.
You're my dearly beloved and so. Paul being able to say that,
what are you gonna say to those that you dearly love? You're
gonna say that which would be most true and most helpful. And that's what he said. You're
my dearly beloved. Here's what I got to say. Stand
fast in the Lord. Look to him for all things, in
all things. Never look away, don't dare trust
the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on his holy name. Stand fast in the Lord. May God
give us grace to not just agree that that's the right thing to
do and not just determined to do it. But may he give us grace to do
that. to find in him our refuge, our
comfort. He's gonna be that perfectly
in eternity so that we'll never even experience those things. The former things shall be passed
away. But now, citizens of glory, yet
dwellers of earth, Look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and stand fast in Him. You don't have to be strong to
stand fast in Him, because you've got Him. Oh, may God make it so.