Open your Bible. Our Father, we thank you for
your goodness toward us. We thank you for this past week
and how you have met all our needs and given us plenty of
reasons to rejoice, even in the matters of this life. And now,
Lord, as we have gathered to open your book, we pray that
you would give us an understanding of what's in there and that it
may direct our thoughts and minds to Christ. And therefore, that
our minds would be transformed, be renewed. Renewed to be more in his way
of thinking. We pray this in Christ's name,
amen. Now in Chapter 1, verse 27, we see these words, whatever
happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel
of Christ. Now, as far as a law that would
cover the way we are to act in virtually every situation we
find ourselves, that's a pretty good one. You know, we say that
our law is love, but of course, love will always conduct itself
in a manner worthy of the gospel. Now, in our last lesson, when
we went over the last part of chapter one, we did point out
that word worthy means consistent with. We say we believe the gospel.
Well, do we live like people who believe the gospel? If you
say, that you believe it's going to rain, but then you walk outside
and you don't bother taking an umbrella with you, then people
have reason to doubt whether you believe it's going to rain.
And so he speaks of walking worthy of the gospel. And this conduct,
while it applies in all matters of life, it applies especially
within the matters of the church. That is, how we relate to one
another, how we treat one another, It should always be gospel based. Now back to Philippians chapter
two, we'll read the first four verses. It says, if you have
any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort
from his love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any tenderness
and compassion, Then make my joy complete by being like-minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing
out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. Each one of you should look not
only on your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Now, these four verses here serve
as kind of a commentary on chapter one, verse 27, when he says,
whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of Christ.
This is how we conduct ourselves so that we can find that unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. If we don't do these things,
If we don't put them into practice, then the church becomes a place
of contention, which eventually leads to division. Even if the
church itself doesn't split, you have within the church various
cliques and groups that don't associate much with one another.
But the church is defined as one body. Now, of course, the
apostle didn't understand everything about biology that we understand
nowadays, You can imagine what it would
be like if the parts of your body didn't cooperate. And I
guess that's what they call being sick, when they quit cooperating. If one leg says, I want to go
this way, and the other leg says, well, I want to go that way,
and you can't walk. And so for the church to have
within itself these factions, always creates difficulty, always
creates bitter spirit, and creates a bitter spirit in the people.
Folks start to look at one another with suspicious eyes. They begin
to judge one another, even questioning. It gets so far, and I've seen
it get so far, as to say, you know, I don't even believe they
know God. As though we're in any position to determine that
about someone else. Now, It says here, if you have
any encouragement from being united with Christ, the words,
strictly speaking, are if you have any encouragement from being
in Christ. In fact, the word being isn't
in there. It's just if there's any encouragement in Christ. Now, the way this is written,
that phrase, in Christ, modifies every other statement made there.
In other words, if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any
comfort from his love in Christ, any fellowship with the Spirit
in Christ, any tenderness and compassion in Christ. Now, even
though Paul didn't write in Christ over and over the way he wrote
it, it's obvious that's what he intended, each one of those
things is seen and practiced in Christ. Now that takes it
out of the realm of the flesh. The flesh is not in Christ. The
flesh is natural. The flesh of the believer is
wicked. Paul says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And in our
natural beings, these things are impossible. Consequently, he talks about
encouragement in Christ. Now, even the natural world knows
how to encourage people. And they can comfort one another,
they have their various fellowships, and some tenderness and compassion. But it's a fleshly thing, and
it has its ups and downs according to the circumstances of the day
or according to the other people. If they don't act the way you
want them to act, then you're not going to be very encouraging.
You're not going to be very tender, not going to be very compassionate.
But when these things are in Christ, what they actually become
is fruit of the spirit in operation in our lives. And that which
is the fruit of the Spirit is continual. So if we encourage one another
in Christ, comfort and, you know, give and find comfort in Christ's
love in Christ, if we fellowship in the Spirit in Christ, are
tender and compassionate in Christ, these things will continue. They
become the pattern that directs our relationships with one another.
And if we do relate to one another in this fashion, what a sweet
and peaceful place the church becomes. So, All of this that we read in the
first four verses is actually compared to the mind of Christ. Verse 5 says, your attitude should
be the same as that of Christ. The word translated attitude
is the mind. I think King James says, let
this mind be in you. And I've translated, given the
sense of the word mind, as the Bible uses it, in this way, your
way of thinking, your values, how you perceive things, that
is your mind. Paul says in Romans 12, verse
1, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so our mind
makes up all of our values, which in turn affects how we perceive
the world, how we perceive one another. Attitude is certainly
part of it. But just as Christ is in his mind, in his
attitude, in his way of thinking, so are we to be toward one another. Here, we've got to take in mind
the context, and the context we have to take in mind actually
will be next week's lesson, but we can touch on it here in just
a minute. Verses 5 through 11 speaks of how Jesus Christ is
toward his Father. And this is the way I've normally
preached it. You know, I'd say, well, your attitude should be
the same as that of Christ and who being in very nature God
and so forth. And we find the submissive nature of Christ before
his father. And I have said the application
of this is we are to have a similarly submissive attitude towards our
father. Well, that's true, but that's
not how Paul is using this example. What he's actually saying is
the way that the son relates to the father in terms of submission,
humbling himself, and all that. That's how we're to be to one
another. Now that kind of, as my mother
used to say, that's a horse of a different color. That changes
things a little bit. It's easy for us to say, well,
yes, I should relate to the father the same way Jesus Christ does.
but that I should relate to you the same way Christ relates to
the Father, that I should be willing to take a submissive
aspect, that I should be willing to be
stripped of all the things which might be my glory in this world
for your sake. But that's exactly what he's
teaching. In the New Testament, Everything
the believer is exhorted to do is to be done with an eye on
Christ. He is the pattern. Now, you know,
one of the issues of virtually every denomination or sect of
Christianity is the place of the Ten Commandments in the life
of a believer. And particularly if you're in
the Sovereign Grace Movement, because Sovereign Grace, as it's
expressed in our day, came out of the Reformation, and the Reformed
churches and the Presbyterian churches, which came out of the
Reformation, they all considered the Ten Commandments. That's
God's moral law for everyone, for all times. And you're brought
up to think that. Virtually any church would be
willing to put up with the Ten Commandments on it. And I can't
say there's anything wrong with it. It's, it's scripture. There's
nothing wrong with displaying scripture any way you want to.
But of course they put them up there just for the same reason,
you know, they put speed limit signs on the road. They want
you to see those Ten Commandments and go by and say, Ooh, I didn't
keep those this week. I better try harder next week.
But that law was never given to anybody but the Jews. Now, that doesn't mean that none
of the things contained in it couldn't be described as everlasting
binding laws. I mean, thou shalt not murder.
Actually, everybody already knows that. God wrote it down, but
it's not like that was a new one to the Jews. They didn't
say, well, I guess I'm going to have to quit killing now.
They already knew that. It was written in the heart. The law of a believer, though,
is something much higher than the law given from Mount Sinai.
In fact, it is absolutely impossible to write a set of commandments
that will cover all of the details of human life and human interaction. And the easiest way to prove
that is to look at our own nation. They started out with a handful
of laws, and now you can't build a building big enough to house
all the books that contain all the laws which regulate how we're
supposed to live our lives as American citizens. And they're
making more of them all the time, because somebody can always say,
well, what about under these circumstances? OK, well, we got
to do it. There are just too many. different sets of circumstances
to be able to write a law that covers every one of them. So
normally we say that the overriding rule, overriding law by which
the church is to conduct itself is this, the law of love. And that's true. You know, if
everybody did what love demands, well, what a wonderful world
it would be. I remember it, you know, in the 60s, the Beatles
had the song, All You Need Is Love. And there was a song, you
know, what the world needs now is love. They keep singing it
and nobody does it. You know, it's almost like what
the world needs now is love. And if you don't believe me,
I'm going to bash you over the head with my protest. You know, that's the
way it goes. Love's easy to talk about. Everyone,
everyone knows love's the best route. Very few are willing to
do it. Because as Paul describes love
in the book of 1 Corinthians, there are several things in there
that are so contrary to man's natural way. Love does not seek
its own. Meaning by that, love is not
trying to get its own way. Love is not puffed up. It's not
rude. That pretty well cancels most
of Facebook, doesn't it? You can't ever call Facebook
the book of love because people get very rude on there. But we could go even farther
than to say that the law of God's church is love. We can go one
step further back. The law of God's church is Christ. We don't have a written law. We have a living, breathing,
living, breathing law, a person. And we're to be like him. Now
God says, he said to the Jews, be holy as I am holy. And then
he gave them a bunch of rules and they couldn't keep them all.
And there were over 600 separate rules. in the Old Covenant, who could
remember them all? Take a lot of work to get all
those memorized. And just as you could not write
down all doctrine concerning God, God revealed himself in
a different way. He revealed himself in the person
of Jesus Christ. He that has seen me has seen
the Father, says the Lord Jesus. He is the revelation of the Father,
not only in character, and all that kind of thing, and purpose,
and all that. He is the revelation of the Father
even when it comes to law. However Christ lived, that's
how people are supposed to live. For that is, He is God living
in this world. So we always do whatever we do
with an eye to Christ. Those bracelets that came out,
what would Jesus do? And, you know, I'm not a fan
of all these religious fads, but that's not a bad question
to ask. We just shouldn't make a big
show of it, you know, that, yeah, I do what Jesus, you know, would
do. But the character and conduct
of the Lord Jesus is our pattern. Now, it says here, it mentions
encouragement in Christ. When believers get together, we ought to be here, you know,
we come to worship Christ, but we're here to encourage one another
as well. We're here to encourage one another
in the faith. Book of Hebrews says it's good
for the heart to be strengthened with grace. And grace, the doctrine
of grace and all that, that is our faith. That's what we believe. And we encourage one another
in the faith. And we not only encourage one another in the
faith by something we might say, our very presence here in the
assembly of the saints is an encouragement to everyone else
who's there. You know, it's kind of like the
church saying, we are family. You know, I've got all my brothers
with me. And we're encouraged just by
being here. We encourage one another. We
can encourage one another with a word of wisdom. Sometimes through
the week we hear of struggles that our brothers and sisters
are going through. And I usually don't mention these
things from the pulpit because a lot of people don't want their
struggles aired out publicly. But there's nothing wrong if
you know about it and saying, hey, I heard about such and such,
I'm praying for you. And you know, whatever. This
is how we encourage one another in Christ. Any comfort from his
love. Now, I would never preach to
a general audience of people I didn't know and tell them indiscriminately,
God loves you. I don't know. But to believers, and we assume
when people profess to believe and they're willing to sit and
listen to gospel preaching, we assume they must be believers
and they wouldn't stick around. There's nothing wrong with saying
you realize the Lord loves you. And what's happening to you right
now is every bit as much an act of his love as anything else
he's ever done or caused to happen in your life. Rest. in the love that he bears
towards you. What comfort comes from that? And then, fellowship in the spirit,
oneness, or that word, it means to have in common. And whatever
else we may not have in common, with our brethren. We have this
in common. We've been united by the Spirit. He has brought us together and
made us one body in Christ, called us to one hope. So we are united in this. And so we express that. And then tenderness and compassion. I know in some churches, you
let someone experience a notable fall. And tenderness and compassion
just isn't what happens. There's a lot of gossip goes
on. People go, well, I never would have done that. Well, that's
one of the most dangerous things in the world to say. I never
would have done that. Peter said, I'll never betray
you. I'll never deny you. No, you really, you won't? You
don't know what you're going to do. What do you do with the
fallen? And by fallen, I mean someone
that is just, they've fallen and made a big mess of things.
What we might call one of the more notable sins. Well, I'll
tell you one thing we don't do. We don't immediately cast them
outside the church and say, well, you obviously don't know God,
you know, so you can't be one of us. We don't chide them. We need to go to
them. We need to ascertain whether
what we've heard is true. And if it is, where are they
in relationship to it? How do they feel about what happened?
And you know, if they're broken over it, you say, well, yeah,
what you did is wrong. What you did is wrong. But I
tell you this, brother, God has forgiven your sin. You're in
Christ. There may be a mess to clean
up. There may be some sorrow in this world, just the natural
circumstances of what you've done. But God does not hold it
against you. And I don't either. It's not
a part of the equation of my relationship to you. Consequently, in tenderness and
compassion, you bring them back within the fold. But he says, Down here, beginning
in verse three, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Now this
is exactly the opposite of the world. The world is all about
self-esteem. And I know that there is a, sometimes
when they're talking about self-esteem, they're talking about something
different. We don't have to go around saying,
I'm such a bad person. You know, I'm worthless. I'm no good to anybody. When
we talk about being worthless and no good, we're talking about
in our relationship to God. So far as God's standard is concerned,
there's none good. There's none of any worth. It's
worthless. We've all gone out of the way. So we don't go, when he says,
esteem others as better than yourselves, He's not saying,
well, you've got to figure that others are smarter than you and
others are more righteous than you. He's actually talking more
in terms of how you act towards them. That is, that you esteem
them as more worthy of having their way than of you having
your way. That's what he means. Now, there are things that are
a matter of God's way. And in those, we don't give an
inch. You know, if somebody said, well,
I'd sure like it if we just quit the preaching part. I just like
the singing and that kind of stuff for worship service. Well,
we're not going to give in to that because we know that preaching
is what God has said occupies a significant portion of worshiping
him. But if it's a matter of whether
the drapes are blue or red, you know, just let others have their
way. Don't do anything out of selfish
ambition. There are only two classes of
people within the church of the Lord Jesus, and that's the Lord
Jesus and then everybody else. There's no reason to have any
selfish ambition because there's nowhere to go. There's no ladder
to climb. There's no hierarchy to achieve.
I know most churches are set up with a hierarchy. You've got
the general pew sitters, and then you've got the pastors and
the deacons, and then they might have what they call elders, or
this, that, and the other, you know. And then above them are
bishops, or they have other kind of names for their district managers
and all that. The more structured a church
is, you get into like the Roman church, you know, and they got
cardinals and they got the Pope, you know, and people with selfish ambitions
strive for those positions. Don't do anything out of selfish
ambition. There's nothing to be ambitious for. There are no
heights to attain in the church. Christ is Lord of all. and we
are all his servants. That's it. So, no selfish ambition,
no vain conceit, and any conceit we have is certainly vain. Verse
four, each of you should look not only on your own interests,
but also on the interests of others. Now, Paul, notice here,
he didn't say that you're not allowed to look after your own
interests. Everyone has a responsibility
first to take care of himself and then take care of his family.
And then, you know, it just keeps expanding. But none of us are to live our
lives in such a way that we just gather and gather and gather
and gather and pile up and pile up and pile up. ignore the needs
of those around us. Our Lord did not distribute His
natural blessings evenly. In fact He doesn't distribute
His spiritual blessings in this life evenly. Why was that? Why did He do that? He could
have given everybody the same amount of money. He could have
given everybody the same size house, same model car, could
have done that, made all His people absolutely equal. He didn't.
He's got them, he's got people who are very, very wealthy and
he's got people that are very, very poor and everything in between
them. Why did he do that? So that we
might have opportunity to manifest his gracious conduct toward us
by being that way toward those who are in need. And then when
it's our turn to be in need, In that time, we learn to patiently
wait upon the Lord and trust His providence in all of these
things. Everything that God does, He does for the sake of His people.
Everything He does is for their good. And He has given us differences
in gifts, in blessings, so that we might learn to be like Him
in sharing, in communicating, I think is the old word for it.
No man should consider his possessions to be his own. He should consider them as belonging
to whoever happens to need them. Now we in the United States,
I'm not saying there's no poverty in the United States, but it's
almost against the law to go without. And so we have so many
social programs, some of them good, some of them not so good.
If you can't find a way to get food in the United States, you're
not trying. But we still need to keep a watch
over one another at all times, as God keeps watch over us. And
if we find someone in need of what we have, then we should
consider what we have Not to be ours, but to be theirs. And should freely give. And that's
not, you know, we always go immediately to thinking about material things,
that's the easiest way to think about it, but it has to do with
all manner of things. Has to do with our time. Has
to do with our efforts. But if we're to have the mind
of Christ, as he had toward his father, that it means that we
must always have our eye upon Christ, and we must always be
ready to submit, to humble ourselves, to look at our brethren and count
every one of them as dear brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
just brothers of us, brothers of Christ, remember. Book of
Hebrews said he's not ashamed to call them brethren. Let us
not be ashamed to call them brethren. And let us make sure that none
of our brethren are in want in any way if we have the capacity
to fix it. All right, you're dismissed until
the regular service.