Okay. Yeah, I'm very excited
about this message today. So let's get right into it. Turn
if you would to Philippians chapter 3. We're going to be finishing
Lord Will in this chapter today. It's a wonderful portion of scripture. And like I said, Lord Will, and
we'll finish it. And then next week, if the Lord
wills, we'll start chapter 4. And that's the last chapter of
this book. And then if you want to pre-read, We're going to be
going to Ephesians after this in Sunday school for the next
book. Very excited about that. That's
actually one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know you're not
supposed to have favorites, but I just love Ephesians. I just
love Ephesians. It's just an incredible... I
know Travis does too. It's just an incredible book. Just an incredible
book. But let's read the context of
the verses that we're going to look at. Our verses today will
be verses 20 and 21, but let's read the context of it. We'll
start off in verse 17 of chapter 3 of Philippians. Brethren, be
followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye
have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and tell you now, or now tell you, even weeping,
that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is
destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in
their shame, who mind earthly things. So note those folks there,
mere professors of Christ, not possessors. Now look at the change. Now Paul's going to talk to these
saints who are possessors of this heavenly citizenship. See conversation there in verse
20? That's citizenship in the Greek.
Part of a community. We're a community. Community
of grace believers. And our citizenship is in heaven,
beloved. Listen to this. For our conversation
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, here we go. Who shall change
our vile body, these bodies of flesh, beloved, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. How
does he subdue all things unto himself? By his almighty sovereign
power, doesn't he? He's going to change these bodies
of flesh. by his almighty power, beloved,
into incorruptible bodies that will never corrupt. These are corruptible bodies
we're in now. We'll be changed to have incorruptible bodies.
We'll never have another pain. Isn't that wonderful? Think how
we get older now, we get out of bed, we're like, oh man, something's
hurting that's not hurt before. We won't have any more pain.
Sister, we'll be able to see perfect. My eyes are starting
to go. We're going to be able to see
perfect, sister. There will be no hindrance to our sight physically. There's no sickness. There's
no sorrow. There's no trouble. Isn't that amazing? And our dear
brothers and sisters who are already there are already experiencing
this. Isn't that amazing? Oh, my. experiencing sinlessness. So last week, Paul warned us
about false professors who were actually enemies of the gospel.
And note Paul, he says this with weeping. He's compassionate for
lost souls, isn't he? And we ought to be that way,
too, for the lost. You have to have compassion on them, those
who are in error and those who are... I sometimes can be a little
harsh with people that are in error, but I always have to remember
where I came from. You know where I came from? I
came from error. Isn't that amazing? But it's not hard for me to be
like, well, come on. It's not hard for me to be like
that. It's actually easy. But we have to fight against
it, don't we? We have to remember the rock we were hewn from. Remember
the pit we were taken out of. Right? And remember this, too. Oftentimes, I've talked with
different believers, and we all say this. We say, well, why can't
they understand? Why can't they see? Because they
don't have eyes to see. And let us remember when we didn't
have eyes to see. And let's have compassion on
them. So Paul's being, even though they're enemies of the cross,
which we were in our minds at one time. By wicked works, the
scripture says. Let us remember that. That's
why Paul's so compassionate with them. He's so compassionate with
them. He doesn't agree with them, and
he tells them, he warns the believers, be careful of these folks. But
I bet you he was very prayerful for them. Now, we'll jump right into these verses
in 20 and 21. I'm not going to do a lot of
review of 18 and 19, because they're pretty self-explanatory,
aren't they? These false professors are enemies
of the cross. Their God is their belly, and
their glory is their shame, and they mind earthly things. It's
very clear. Just imagine the false prosperity
preachers and stuff like that and people that are all into
that and promote that stuff. That's what this is like. Now
look at this. Look at verse 20. We're going
to jump right in because this is comforting for the weary pilgrim.
We're weary pilgrims, aren't we, going through this world
of woe, right? What's that? I'm a poor wayfaring
stranger. I love that old tune, right?
Wandering through this world of woe. Oh my. That's what we
are. Look at this. For our conversation
is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul is writing to Roman
citizens. Philippi is a Roman city. It's actually in Europe. It's a very prominent city for
the Romans. But the people who live there,
there would be a high amount of Roman citizens. There's going
to be a mixture, too, of other people. But there's a high amount
of Roman citizens. Citizenship, to be a Roman and
to have Roman citizenship was a privilege. It's kind of like
being an American citizen or being a citizen of a free country
in the world. You guys have rights that others
don't have. Even me as a permanent resident,
I'm still Canadian, right? And you guys have rights that
I don't have. I'm protected by some of the rights of the Constitution,
but you as citizens, You have way more rights than I do. That's
a privilege. So to be a Roman was a high privilege. A high privilege. And Roman citizen
came with all these things. As a matter of fact, they couldn't
crucify a Roman citizen. Do you know that? Crucifixion
was for criminals. My. Our Lord was not a criminal,
was he? But they treated him like one,
didn't they? He's perfect, he's pure, he's
holy, he's sinless, and yet he suffers a death that's set aside
for criminals, enemies of the state. And by wicked hands, we were
talking about that, Charlie, men by wicked hands took him,
but he willingly went. I love what we were talking about,
Charlie, said the pilot. He said, you've got no power
over me, except to come from above. God sent his son to save
us from our sins by the shedding of his precious blood. And now
we're heavenly citizens. And think of this, too. All the
privileges in Christ, all the spiritual blessings are privileges
only for citizens of heaven. Not for anyone else. Redemption. Sanctification. Justification
with God. All our sins forgiven. Washed
in the blood of Christ. So when Paul's writing this,
they would understand the privileged status because Roman citizenship was
a privileged status that conferred legal rights and responsibilities
and social privileges that no one else got. Remember when Paul said, I'm
a Roman, and you remember how fearful they were? Remember that
portion in Acts, and he said, I'm a Roman. And remember, they
tried to, oh, sorry! They were stumbling over themselves
in our study in Acts. Because they knew, if Paul went
to Rome, or went to the pro-council of that area, and said, I'm a
Roman citizen, and they beat me, you know what would happen
to them? They'd get beaten. Or they may
even get put to death. See, that's the privileges of
being a Roman citizen. And the empire was vast, right?
And also, Paul could travel anywhere in the Roman Empire. A huge swath of land, from Carthage
all the way over to the Middle East, up to Italy and all through
there, in Gaul, which is France and all that, down to Spain,
and Spain touches Carthage. All that area, he could go anywhere
in that area he wanted to. because of his Roman citizenship.
Isn't it amazing how God used him to spread the gospel into
the Roman colonies? See how our God planned and purposed
all that? Remember, he said, Paul, he's
a chosen instrument. He can take the message to the
Gentiles. Praise God, beloved, because
we're a bunch of Gentiles. Oh, it's wonderful. And these social privileges and
legal rights and responsibility, they changed throughout the history
of ancient Rome. They were expanded upon or they
were lessened a little bit in certain areas, but these were
rights that Roman citizens had. And the word conversation there
in verse 20, let's read it again. For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this verse in the Greek
literal Bible, because conversation there is citizenship in the Greek.
Listen to this, Philippians 3.20 in the Greek literal Bible. for
our citizenship exists in the heavens. He's talking, he's talking, it's
already there, isn't it, brother? We already have ours, even though
we're here on earth. And I was looking at this word,
and a couple words later, it confers, it confers, A past,
like being God chose us in Christ, a past setting that's just as
the same today as it will be in the future. And notice how
that says that in the Greek. Notice this. For our citizenship
exists in the heavens. That's why Henry used to say,
as far as being secure, we're as secure as the saints already
in heaven. Isn't that wonderful? That's
comforting for us, isn't it? And then it says this, from whence
also we are awaiting a Savior, notice that, a Savior, not saviors,
a Savior, singular, the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my, beloved. Yeah, Lord
Jesus Christ. And again, Roman citizenship
was called Civitas Romania. It was a cornerstone of ancient
Roman society. Right from the beginning, to
have Roman citizenship was very, very important to Romans. And
again, it conferred all these specific legal rights and responsibilities
to the Roman citizen that others didn't have. So when they went
and they conquered Gaul, right, which is where Galatians is written
to. There are a bunch of tribes that come down from Scotland,
very Celtic in nature. When they went and conquered
that and they made it a province, Those Gauls, they had Roman citizenship,
but it was limited. I didn't name them all, but there
was four branches to Roman citizenship. The one I'm talking about now
is for pure Romans. Those in Gaul, when they were
made a province, they had citizenship, but it was limited. because they
were a captured province. Eventually, they would gain full
Roman citizenship. But at that time, it was limited. And then some soldiers from other
countries would enlist in armies or auxiliary sections, they called,
like archers and spearmen. And they would have a promise
of a certain level of Roman citizenship, too. So when they were done their
campaigns, they would be granted that level, whatever the level
they agreed on prior to enlisting. So it had a lot of benefits. And even the lowest tier next
to the bottom, the bottoms were slaves. You know what it said
in the thing I read? They weren't even treated like
people. They were non-citizens and they
were just instruments to be used. You see what man is? We're so
evil and so depraved, aren't we? Oh my. So initially, citizenship was
limited to the partition class, but over time it expanded to
include the plebeians, and other groups reflecting the changing
dynamics of Roman society. Now the Greek word here, where
it says our conversation, we're just going to say citizenship,
okay? And the name of the message is heavenly citizenship. The Greek word here is a noun. And it refers to the commonwealth
of which the Philippian saints were citizens. You see, we're
part of a commonwealth, beloved. Out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. Do you notice when it says that?
Out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation? It doesn't
say out of every race. Because what have we talked about?
There's only one race, isn't there? Man are the ones who've
divided us into supposed races. No, out of every tongue, kindred,
tribe, and nation, we are a community. We're a commonwealth of believers,
beloved. Taken out of mankind, right? God looks at mankind, he only
sees mankind. He sees one race of people, no
matter what the pigmentation of our skin is. Isn't that wonderful? And we're gonna be, we're gonna
see folks in heaven who we never ever have met, come from all
different places. And you know who the one we're
all gonna be focusing on is? Jesus Christ, our Lord. Isn't
that beautiful? My, oh my. So this is a noun. It refers to a commonwealth of
which the Philippian saints were citizens and to which they had
citizenship obligations, which we see in our text is heaven. Look at that. We have privileges,
beloved. that other people in the world
don't even have. Now, we're in awe of that, aren't
we? Because we don't feel, we don't deserve this. We know we
don't deserve this. We know we don't merit it. But
it's so. And who's the true author of
these words? God the Holy Spirit, right? So he's telling the Philippian
saints and us here today that we're citizens of heaven. We're
part of a commonwealth of a people that no man can number, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, justified before God, saved from all our sins,
sanctified in Christ Jesus our Lord, and forever forgiven because
of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died in our
room and place. Oh, my. And the Philippians, knowing
the privileges that came with being a Roman, are now told by
Paul, now think of this, because being a citizen of heaven is
far greater than being any citizen of any empire in this world,
right? And they would know. These guys,
I'm telling you, citizenship was so important to them. It was ingrained in them from
a young child. You're privileged. And now they're told by Paul,
having been born again and washed by the precious blood of Christ,
knowing that all their sins are forgiven, that they, by God's
grace, are citizens of heaven. That would have left them in
awe, beloved, because they would value that citizenship Those
privileges in Christ, and that's all by grace, remember that too.
It's all by grace, right? Because we don't deserve it,
we don't merit it. All these benefits are all by
the grace of God in Christ. My, and they would have an understanding. Think of the privileges we have
in this country. They're nothing compared to the privileges we
have in heaven. We're limited by time and space
here, aren't we? In glory, we're not. Oh, to be a citizen of heaven,
what a privilege. What an honor that God would
bestow that on a worm such as I. It's true, isn't it? I stand
before you, a man saved by God's grace, now a heavenly citizen. all by the grace and mercy of
God and absolutely nothing in me or nothing by what I can do. All by what Christ has done.
And what do we say, beloved? Hallelujah. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. All the privileges which came
in and through Christ, all spiritual blessings are now theirs and
ours in Christ. The privileges of the saints
in heaven are ours right now. And remember, he's writing to
them on earth. He says, you're citizens of heaven. They're not
in heaven yet, are they? But they're already citizens.
Sister, we're already citizens of heaven. That's glorious, isn't
it? And we're not there yet, but we will be one day. But we're
already citizens by the grace and mercy of God. Oh my, how
this comforts us as believers in this world. What comfort! And Brother Travis, it can't
be taken away, can it? This citizenship can't be revoked. It's in Christ. It's sealed by
His blood. Oh, my beloved. It's wonderful. And note here how comforting
this would have been for them. They're being persecuted for
their faith. And how comforting it is for
we who are the born-again, blood-washed saints of God today to know this
world is passing, but our citizenship is fixed. It's fixed, and it's in heaven,
and who dwells there? The one who can subdue all things
by the word of his power. The one who, and that's the one
who saved us. Don't forget, the one who can subdue all things,
the one who can change these vile bodies into glorious bodies,
is the one who saved us. Will he lose any of us? No, he
won't, will he? What security, what comfort we
have. Oh my. Lord, help my unbelief. Help
my unbelief, Lord. My, oh my. So, The Greek word
here also speaks, I just said fixed, the Greek word also speaks
of fixedness, of fixedness. Therefore the commonwealth of
which these saints are citizens of has its fixed location, which
is in heaven. Far away from all the troubles
in this world. And if it's fixed, and it's in
Christ, it can't be changed. Isn't that wonderful? I told
you, I was excited to preach this message today. It's wonderful. Now the stability and security
of citizens under Roman law filled the thoughts of these saints
at this time with high conceptions of citizenship and the value
of it, the value of being a Roman citizenship, now the value of
being a citizen of heaven by the grace of God. And being a
Roman colony and its citizens, therefore, the saints at Philippi
were Roman citizens, and they thought in terms of citizenship.
This was just something they thought about in their lives. And Paul, by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God, seizes upon this fact. Isn't it amazing how
the Lord will give something that they know well, but apply
it to heavenly things? And that's what the Holy Spirit's
going to do here. He's going to apply what they know about
citizenship being Roman and say, well, you're citizens of a better
country. Right? We seek a better country, the
scripture says, right? Oh, my. So Paul, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, seizes upon this fact as a good opportunity
to illustrate to the saints their heavenly citizenship. With all
its privileges, It's all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then see the words we look for? They're one Greek word. Those three words are one Greek
word. You know what it means? To expect fully. Do we not fully
expect our Lord to come back? Either at our death or when he
comes back and gathers all the saints together. It's going to
happen, isn't it? Wow, my. We look for the return
of Jesus Christ, fully expecting his coming. For us in life or
in death, the world is not our home. This world's not our home
anymore. Again, we look for a better country
where Christ dwelleth. And the word speaks of this word,
these three words in English, one word in Greek, it speaks
of an attitude of intense yearning. Why do you think we all want
to be home in glory? We all got that yearning, don't
we? So did the Philippian saints.
So did Paul. It's an intense yearning, an
eager waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into
the air to take his bride to heaven with him. So what it's
telling us, again, Paul is taking their thoughts off the world
and pointing them to heavenly things in Christ. So when someone
says you're too heavenly minded to be any earthly good, well,
they're going to be arguing with Paul, aren't they? Because what
has Paul done? He's kept pointing us to Christ, hasn't he? And
when we're looking to Christ, we're looking to heaven. We're
looking to him in glory. My. People say the most foolish things
in religion. Oh, it's just. Oh, my. Again, it speaks of intense yearning
eager waiting for Christ to take his bride and And it talks about
keeping our eyes upon Christ. Let's read it again for our Conversation
is in heaven that citizenship from whence also we look for
the Savior the Lord Jesus We see who the focus of the Saints
on earth is here We're set our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ
now Let's go to verse 21 Now Jesus Christ is spoken of
here, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. Now we could have
spent weeks on this verse. Weeks. It's amazing. Amazing. Marvel at the great change brought
forth here. Marvel at the great change here. And marvel that
it's all by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone. These vile sinful bodies, which
is our bodies of flesh. Remember, we have a new nature
in us, right? We have a new man in us. These vile sinful bodies will
be fashioned into, like under the glorious body of Christ. Remember, we're being conformed
to the image of the sun, right? The word change here, who shall
change our Bible, is the translation of a Greek word which speaks
of an expression which is assumed from the outside. Now, something
interesting, something interesting in Philippians, Same chapter. Actually, where is it, Wayne? It's a portion where it speaks about Christ becoming
a man. Oh, there it is. Chapter 2 verse 5 let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of
God see that word form This is the same Greek word it
expresses and see that Christ was the Lord Jesus Christ was
the outward expression of God in bodily form These vile bodies
that are just houses for our souls, right and That's really
what they are. They're just houses. Paul said
they were tents. They're like a tent. When my mom died, I went and
put my hand on my mom, and that hand that used to hold me, it
was cold. It was her frame, but she wasn't
there anymore. She was gone. It's just a tent. When I die and when you die,
our bodies will be put into the ground or whatever, however we
decide to have it taken care of. I told Vicki, I don't want
to wake. I want a celebration of Christ. That's what I want. I want us
to be, because I'm going to be celebrating, right? We're going to be celebrating.
But this speaks of a whole change of our outward body, beloved.
A whole change of our outward body. The change is translation of
a Greek word which speaks of an expression which is assumed
from the outside, which act brings about a change of outward expression. We have a new body. A new body. These mortal bodies will become
immortal. Will become immortal. The change
has to do with the body or the house or outer casing, because
that's really what this is. You know, we hold each other
and give each other hugs, but it's our outer casing. But the
love we feel comes from inside, doesn't it? That's where that
comes from. The love of God shed abroad in
our hearts. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. And you know what's amazing?
We'll be sinless. We'll be sinless. We'll never
struggle with sin again. We will have no more pain. We
will have no more sorrow. We will have no more sickness.
We won't have any more heartache. Oh heartache. We all have heartache,
don't we? We won't have any more. No more. Oh my. We'll be forever with
the Lord in our glorified bodies, perfect and sinless and fully
conformed to the image of the Son. The word vile is humiliation
in the Greek. Remember we talked about when
the Lord came to this world, it's in humiliation. He humbled himself. The old timers
used to say it was his time of humiliation. The old preachers
used to say that, that God became a man. Well, these vile bodies,
it's translated humiliation. It brings forth the sinfulness
of our flesh, beloved. Paul calls it our body of sin
in Romans. So rejoice, beloved. It will
be changed by the power and by the might in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a transformation. What a
transformation. when these bodies of our humiliation,
of our flesh, our chains, to be fashioned like unto His body,
His glorious body. And the transformation of our
bodies at Christ's coming for the church results in our bodies
being made like unto the Lord's body. but not only made like unto it
in substance and nature, but made so that they will become
a perfect medium through which our inner spiritual lives can
express themselves fully. You ever think about how we desire
to tell people fully about how we feel, but we can never express
it? We're going to be able to. That comes from a Greek scholar.
I was reading him and he says, he said, this will allow us to
fully express what we feel about Christ. Oh my, my. Our minds will once again, as
Adams did before the fall, will function perfectly. And our bodies
will be immortal, they'll be perfect, free from all the effects
of sin that man have accumulated on 6,000 years of human history.
Our citizenship and interests are in heaven, not tied to this
world. In Christ, we are the sons of
God. We are united to him. We are seated in him. We are
heirs of eternal glory, and we patiently wait for his return.
All we are, we have, and hope to be is in Christ and he will
complete the work. He will complete the work he
has begun by changing our vile bodies into the glory and majesty
of his own body. Isn't that amazing? Exerting
the power which enables him to subject everything in this universe
and everything we have ever seen and never seen by the same power
that he's able to subdue all that. Turn, if you would, to
1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to close with this.
Paul brings this forth so beautifully here. Oh, so beautifully. This is just wonderful about
the great change that's going to come upon us. Verses 50 to
58. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, verse 50,
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show
you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Every believer is going to be
changed. The ones that are alive at Christ's
coming will be changed, and the ones who have their bodies being
buried in the ground, those bodies are going to change. In a moment, in the twinkle 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." Look
at that. People always talk about immortality.
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 sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord. Beloved Christ, and Christ alone
is able to subdue all things unto himself. Why? Because he's King of kings, and
he's Lord of lords. He is the ruler of everything.
That's our saviour. That's our redeemer. Brother
Brian, can you close us in prayer?