Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. The name
of the message is maturity. Maturity. Now, as we grow in
the grace and knowledge of our great Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, we mature in Him, but we will never see it ourselves,
because as we mature in Christ, you know what happens? We see
ourselves more as sinners. That's what growing in grace
is. We see ourselves more and more as sinners in desperate
need of Christ. We do not see ourselves getting
better, even though we're being conformed to the image of Christ.
And think of this, as we learn more about Christ and his holiness
and who he is, it will be natural for us to see our sinfulness
more then, wouldn't it? In contrast to his holiness.
So that's all part of us being conformed to the image of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? We didn't
see our sin before. We thought we were good. Oh, I love this because what
it does is what John said, he must increase and I must decrease. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
wonderful. Last week we looked at verses
13 and 14. Let's read verse 14 again of Philippians chapter
3. Paul is under house arrest. He's in Rome. He's writing this
letter to the Philippians, a church in Philippi, where we saw that
church birthed with the conversion of Lydia and the Philippian jailer. And there's many more there.
Epaphroditus was their preacher. He's with Paul. He was nigh unto
death. So Paul's gonna send him back
with this letter to the Philippian church. Look at verse 14. He
says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. So Paul's bringing forth again
that his goal in this Christian life because the Christian life
is like a race. And we need to press on to the
end, which is being in glory with Christ. Always, this whole
thing is done with Christ and him keeping us and giving us
the power to continue on. It's all, and he's the one we're
looking to. He's the one we're gonna see
face to face when we're done this race of life, race of the
Christian life. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's bringing
forth that his goal and his aim is to finish the race of life,
the race of the Christian life, and obtain the supreme and heavenly
prize, which is the incorruptible crown of life, righteousness,
and glory, which is in Christ. And Christ told us in Genesis
when he said to Abraham, he said, I'm your exceeding reward. People
are looking to get these rewards when they get to heaven. There's
only one we want to see, and that's Christ. He is our reward,
right? Oh my, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. David wrote this, as for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. That's in Psalm 17, 15. That's
what Paul's talking about. When we die, we're going to see
Christ. He's the prize. He's the ultimate. He's the finish.
Isn't that wonderful? So it's always Christ-centric. The preaching of the gospel,
the Christian life, is all Christ-centric. It's all about Him. It's all
about Him. Religion will tell you it's about
you and what you do. Grace says it's all Christ-centric.
It's all about Christ. all about Him. And we looked at, last week we
looked at Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, I'll read those
again. Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in
the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience
the race that's set before us, looking unto Jesus, there's the
key, the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So
we're not to let anything, we're not to let our past sins hinder
us in this race. That's why Paul says, forget
the things in the past. He knows they're there, but he's
not going to let his past sin or his sin hinder him from looking
to Christ. That's why I say when we sin,
we live a life of repentance, don't we? So when we sin and
we do, and sometimes we don't even know we did it, but when
it comes to our minds, we just go to Christ, don't we? Forgive
me, Lord. I know my sins are forgiven,
but please forgive me. I'm such a sinner. And those
times show us more and more our desperate need for Him. He's
the only hope we have. We don't have any other hope
but Christ, none. Okay, so now let's read, well
actually I'm going to turn if you would to 1 John, 1 John chapter 3. Do you know that as
born-again blood-washed believers, we now depend on Christ, don't
we? We used to depend on our own
selves. Remember? Remember how we were
in our natural state? It was all about number one,
right? Remember the old adage? Look out for number one. That
was big when I was a kid. That was big. We say, look to
number one. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. But so now we depend upon Christ. We live a Christ-centric life. It's all looking to Christ. It's
the hardest thing for us to do. Because we are born again, we
have a new spirit within us, but we still have this old body
of flesh, don't we? So much so that Paul said, as
a believer, oh wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from
this body of death? Paul, just like us, wasn't he,
brother Travis? He struggled with sin just like you and I. But then he says, the victory's
in Christ. When I look at myself, I see
my sin. When I look to Christ, I see it's gone. I was listening
to a couple of fellows this morning, and he said about in Colossians
chapter 2, when it says, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
against us, you know how it's being blotted out? The blood
of Christ. Christ's blood has blotted out
our sins. And in the Greek, that means
whitewashed. They're blotted out. The handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, brother, now is covered with the blood
of Christ. You can't read those things that were against us.
Oh my! Now that's wonderful, isn't it?
That'll make you jump for joy. It's true though. The handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, the law was against us, has
all been blotted out. Your sins and iniquities I will
remember no more, God tells us. Oh, my. My, oh, my, what a Savior,
eh? What a Redeemer, Brother Charlie.
It's Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, look at this in 1 John chapter
3. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. Now he's writing to believers,
isn't he? He's writing to born-again, blood-washed believers. That
we should be called the sons of God. Sinners. Sinners who have been saved by
the grace and mercy of God. That we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. See, it always goes back to him,
right? Why is the world against True Christianity? They really
don't know the difference. They lump all different Christianities
into one. But if you get down to the brass
tacks, even religion will be against what we believe. Because
we say it's nothing that we do. It's all Christ. Religious people
actually give us more opposition on what we believe than the unbelievers. Ain't that true? My! So the reason being, the reason
the world don't know us, the religious world and the natural
world, is because it didn't know Christ. Didn't know who he was. Look at this, I love the emphasis
on this is what we are now. Here on earth. We're not gonna
become the sons of God. Beloved, if you're saved and
you're here and you're washed in the blood of Christ, this
is what we are right now. Isn't this wonderful? Look at
this. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Verse 2. And it
doth not yet appear what we shall be. We're not what we're going
to be. We're saved. We're the sons of
God. But there's going to be a day
when we're going to be translated, isn't there? We'll have a new
body. My if we're alive at the second
coming of Christ. We're gonna be we're gonna be
Translated in a blink of an eye not even a twinkle of an eye
oh my Doth not appear what we shall be, but we know This is
something that we know when he shall appear We shall be like
him for we shall see him as he is You take that to the bank
beloved? And every man hath this hope.
Do you have this hope in you? What happens? Purify themselves.
Even he is pure. Now we see our sinfulness. Now
we fight sin. Now we struggle against sin.
My. Now with that as our introduction,
let's read verses 15 to 19 of Philippians chapter 3. Turn back,
if you would, to Philippians chapter 3. And we'll read verses
15 to 19. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded. And if any things be, or ye be
otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless,
whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. 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 now tell you, even weeping, that they
are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mined earthly
things." Now, there has been much confusion brought about
by people who think we can obtain sinless perfection. Remember,
Paul's already dealt with that a little bit in this chapter.
He said, we're not perfect. We're gonna be. When we're with
the Lord, we'll be sinless. But we're not perfect now. So
this sinless perfection has crept into the church. And there's
obvious some Philippians who think think that they can obtain
this sinless perfection. Paul wouldn't have dealt with
it, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have dealt with it unless it was there,
right? And this word here, let as many as be perfect, people
have taken that and built false doctrines with that. Perfect
here doesn't mean perfect. Do you know what it means in
the Greek? Mature. It's talking about maturity. It's amazing. Listen to this verse. So the
Greek word for perfect in verse 15, it's a different word than
what we know in our English translation. The underlying Word for perfect
in verse 15 speaks of maturity, growing in grace. It's used in describing one's
growth from an infant to a man or woman. That's how it's used. But see,
people take words like this without looking at the underlying Greek,
and they say, well look, we're perfect. Well, yeah, we are complete
in Christ, but we're still a bunch of sinners while we're on this
earth. Paul's evidence of that, he said at the end of his ministry,
I'm the chief of sinners. And we all put our hands up and
say, no, Paul, we are too. Right? Oh, my. The underlying Greek word means
fully developed or full growing of ripe age. And I thought, as
I was putting this together, when I saw that fully growing
of ripe age, you remember that saying? Oh, there's a saying
we used to talk about when we get older. We're a ripe old age.
You guys ever say that down here? We used to say that in Canada. Folks, oh, they're a ripe old
age. Isn't that wild? Because they're mature, right?
They've reached an age of maturity. My, oh my. Listen to this verse
in the Greek study Bible. And we see it speaking of spiritual
maturity. Listen to this. All of us who
are mature. That's the underlying Greek word
for perfect. should embrace this point of
view. The point of view Paul is bringing forth is that we're
not sinless. We have not reached sinless perfection. While we're on this earth, we
are gonna struggle with sin. I like to call it a civil war
within the believer. All right, because Charlie, we
didn't feel that way before the Lord saved us. And now we're
like, oh my, I'm such a sinner. That means we're growing in grace. And then the Greek literal goes
on, and if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal
this to you as well. So if you think differently from
what the true gospel is, and you're one of the elect, like
the Galatians, who've just been bewitched by the false teachers,
God will reveal the truth to you. He won't let you wallow
in that error. Vicki and I came through several
religious groups. And we're amazed at how the Lord
didn't let us wallow in those things. Now we learned what was
right and what wasn't right. And we can look back and go,
look from scripture and go, that's totally wrong, but we were in
it. And he will not let his people
stay in there. He will take them out of it.
And he will teach us the truth. It's amazing. God will reveal
this to you. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians. Look
at this. So the underlying Greek word
for perfect in our text is used over in 1 Corinthians. Is used
over in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Turn over to the, if you
would, to 14. And we're gonna see the same Greek word, it's
applied, making a difference between a child and a man. I thought this was fascinating,
because it's actually translated man. It's not translated perfect,
it's translated over here as man. Because it's contrasting
the maturity of an infant with a man. And it's speaking about spiritual
growth. Look at this. 1st Corinthians 1420. Brethren,
be not children in understanding. Hallowed be in malice be ye his
children, but in understanding be men. That men there is the
same Greek word for maturity, perfect in our text. So he's
saying, there he's saying, now as far as malice, I love this. I was thinking about this. You
remember when we were kids? I remember, I'll tell you a little
story. I was playing road hockey once with my friends. And my
best friend at that time was John Murray. And he's a lot bigger
than me. And he did something. He must
have sticked me or something. I got mad at him. I dropped my
sticks. We thought we were like real players. We dropped our
sticks. We started hauling on each other. And I hit him real
hard. And he went home crying, and
I went home myself. But we were about six or seven
years old, right? Just young, young'uns. Do you
know what? Two hours later, we're in his
backyard playing again. That's what Paul's writing here.
Be like children where you just forget about it, as far as malice. If someone's wronged you, just
let it go. Because it really only hurts
us. And he's saying, be as men, though. Right? Be mature. Isn't that
wonderful? So what a lesson for us here,
even as believers. You know, people talk about practical
Christianity. This is practical Christianity, but it's all centered
around Christ. Because as we mature, we mature
in Christ. We're being conformed to the
image of the Son. It's wonderful. I was leaping
up and down when I saw all this, because it's like, wow, this
totally takes the emphasis off us, and it's all about growing
in grace. It's all about Christ growing
us, whether it be through trials and afflictions, like what you
and Dan went through, Sister Kathy. You guys drew closer to the Lord
through all that, right? And trials that we've all went
through, it draws us closer to the Lord, doesn't it? There's
a purpose in it that we don't understand when it first happens. But there's a purpose in it that
we see after it's passed. It's just amazing. It's absolutely
incredible. So here we are. Brethren, be
not children in understanding. So there's the main point, in
understanding. Let us, Sister Diane and I were
talking about this the other day. Let us go from the milk
and to the more weighty things and then to the meat. But the
Lord's got to have us grow in those things. I remember when the Lord first
saved me and I started learning about election. Now that's strong
meat. I was like, what in the world is this stuff? But now
I love it. It's actually my favorite doctrine
in the Bible is the electing grace of God, because I know
if God hadn't chosen me, I never would have chose him. So for
me, it's just one of the sweetest doctrines. When I see people
opposed to it, I think, why? Because we all deserve hell.
But God has mercy on those he chose. Isn't that wonderful?
And we don't know who they are, so we tell everybody about the
gospel of Christ. My. So what's being brought forth
here, then, it says, in understanding, how may the malice be as children
let things go, but in understanding, be men, you know, or women. It just means growing. We're
no longer infants, are we? We were infants, then we were
young people, and now we're more mature as older people. And everybody
goes through those stages in the Christian life, too. But
something that's gonna be brought forth here too, which I think
is wonderful, and we're gonna get into this. Paul's not saying,
think that you've arrived. He's saying, be mature, but know
there's a lot for us to learn. Have you ever been around somebody
who thinks they've arrived, when it comes to spiritual things?
It almost makes you sick. They think they've reached the
pinnacle, And it's like, I'm still a little baby chewing on
paddling, man. I'm having a wonderful time.
I'll get lunch soon, and then I might get a steak later on. But there's so much more to learn,
isn't there? Whether we've walked with the
Lord for 50 years or whether we've walked with the Lord for
six months, there's so much to learn. And it's the Holy Spirit
who teaches us, isn't it? And as we grow in grace, beloved,
we become more and more dependent upon our King. More and more
dependent upon Christ who redeemed us with his precious blood. And
we fall more in love with him, don't we? That's why he's the
fairest of 10,000 to our souls. My, he saved me? He gave his
life for me? Yep. Oh my. I don't know any love greater
than that. And I love my wife a lot, more than anyone else
in the world. But then I find out Christ loved
me even more. I love my brothers and sisters
in Christ, but I find out Christ loves us even more. Isn't that
amazing? Isn't that incredible? Oh my. My, oh my. So let all of us who
are spiritually mature, which just simply means taught of God,
because God, the Holy Spirit, teaches us the things of Christ,
doesn't he? He's the scent comforter, and the Lord said, here not speak
of himself, here teach the things concerning me, which he does. That's why we long to hear the
preaching of the word. That's why we long to hear expositional
preaching about what, looking at the text and saying, oh, look
at this. This is for my living each day. And I just live each day looking
to Christ. But it's the hardest thing for
me to do. But even Paul, he's saying, just keep your eyes on
the prize. Keep your eyes on the king. And remember who the
true author of this is. It's God the Holy Spirit. He's setting Christ before us,
beloved. The only hope for sinners. My, it's amazing. Oh, my. And we're to have the
same mind together. We're to have the same mind together.
Remember, humility leads to unity, right? It's amazing. And Paul had these
convictions in light of what he wrote here. Number one,
we're to count all heritage, ceremony, tradition, and works
of religion as rubbish. Remember, he says, I count all
things but none. All those things I counted precious, they're just
manure to me now. Refuge in the Greek. They're nothing to me, he says.
That's how we are, too. All the things we once counted
dear, right, in this world. You know, I was a very successful
salesman. Top 200 nationwide in the Fortune
500 company. Nothing. It's nothing. I look
at that as God preparing me to be a preacher. You know why?
Because it helped me talk to people. I have a whole different
view of it now. Before it was all about making
as much money as I could. Now it's like, well, the Lord
was preparing me. And I have no desire to do that. I have no desire to seek riches
and wealth. We were talking, Jim. I have
no desire to some preachers seek celebrity status. I don't have
any desire for that. I'm content being here with you
guys and preaching the gospel and putting it out on the internet
because you're my family. God has knit our hearts together
in love. And that's more special than
anything we can find in this world. It really is. It really is. So we count all
heritage, number one, there's four things that we count, five
things that we don't bother with anymore. We count all heritage,
ceremony, tradition, works of religion as rubbish, that we
may win Christ. That's the first one. The second
one is to be willing to suffer the loss of all things for the
knowledge of Christ. You know, worldly knowledge is,
there's some neat things to learn, but we want to learn about Christ,
don't we? And I look at history, I'm a huge history buff, but
now I look at history totally different. I look at history
and see God's providence at work. Raising up a nation and they
come and they persecute sometimes the Lord's people. Lord's people
are scattered all over and there goes the gospel. Remember the Jews started persecuting
the Christians in Jerusalem? What happened? All over. The Word of God. And Peter writes
them in Bithynia, Cappadocia. He's writing to the strangers
that are scattered in the world. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely
incredible, beloved. Absolutely incredible. Just amazing. Number three, we
disclaim perfection in ourselves. We say, I am not perfect. I'm
a sinner saved by grace. But we look to He who is perfect.
You ever think of that? We see ourselves as imperfect,
but we look to He who is perfect. Isn't that wonderful? My. And now we have a desire to be
found in Him. We have a hunger for righteousness,
which is Christ. We have a hunger and desire to
learn more about him. That was not there before, was
it? And number five, we desire above all things to be like Christ.
We sin more than we want to, don't we? People say, oh, if I believe
like you, I could just go and do whatever I want. No, you got
the wrong information. You got the wrong pamphlet. Because
I sin more than I want to. I've had people say that in the
last few years to me. You just do whatever you want. I said, nope. And then I turned
around on them. I said, I sin more than I want
to. Do you? Do you? And some of them, they stumble
over that, because have you ever noticed there's some people who
don't think they sin as many times as... I've talked to one
friend of mine, and we were jazzing away over there, and he said,
well, I sin a few times a day. I said, you liar. He looked at
me, I said, you sin so much, you don't even know you're sinning.
And he got a smile on his face. I think he was trying to get
my goat. He knew, he knew I couldn't keep my mouth shut with that
one. And he got a smile on his face and started to laugh. And
he goes, yeah, I know. I'm thinking, you tried to get me there, buddy. It worked. I can't keep my mouth
shut with that. Because I'm a sinner saved by
grace. And this is wonderful. Oh, it's
amazing. It's amazing. So the spiritual maturity here,
our dear brother Paul, he's exhorting the Philippians Saints in verse
15, who are spiritually mature, right? They're growing in the
grace and knowledge of Christ, to consider that they're mature
in a relative state, and to remember that there's so much room for
spiritual growth. So much room for spiritual growth.
You know, Dan and I, we had to deal with some people who thought
they were more mature than everybody in this congregation. You know, you guys weren't involved
in that, but we had to. Thought they were better. Well,
God straightened that situation out, didn't he? Because there's
no room. I'm a servant to you guys. I'm
a servant, I'm your pastor, but I'm a servant to the church.
Dan's a servant, Travis and Brian, we're servants. I believe in
servant leadership. We're all the same. Sinners saved
by grace. That's all we are. And so Paul's
saying here, don't get to a place where you think you've arrived.
Never, never. You know, I still like, well,
I can't drink milk anymore, but if I could, I'd still like milk.
I got that lactose intolerance stuff, but I'd still like to
drink milk. Tastes good, doesn't it? I still
like a good lunch, and I sure like a good steak. Right? All in their situations, right?
Yeah. My. Let's read verse 15 again. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, which is mature in the Greek, be thus minded, and
if anything, be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto
you. See the word if, if in verse
15 there? And remember this too, the spiritual
maturity spoken of here is not a stage of sinless or flawless
perfection. but one of completeness, of a
well-rounded Christian character that we've grown in grace. We
still have a lot to learn. We see through a glass darkly
here, but we're more well-rounded than we used to. We're not tossed
to and sway anymore by, sister, what you experienced. You knew
that was wrong. You weren't tossed to and fro.
You're like, no, that was wrong, what I heard. So we're able now. to distinguish truth from error.
And the error doesn't sway us. Remember the Galatians? They
were young in the faith, right? They were swayed by some things.
It can happen. But if we're God's people, here,
teach us. That's wrong, and this is right.
It's amazing. Now see that word if though in
verse 15, let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded. And if in anything you'd be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Paul is presenting
a hypothetical, well, some people might consider it a hypothetical
case, but it's not because there are people there who think they're
perfect. So this isn't a hypothetical
situation. This is a real situation that's happening. because these people think that
they're perfect. They think they've reached a state of maturity where
they can't learn anything anymore. Now they're there to help the
preacher, or they're there to help the congregation, because
they're so knowledgeable. My, what a terrible place to
be in. There's a fellow that goes to
Gabe Stallacher's church, and I guess he went there to help
Gabe. As soon as I heard that, I went, oh my, that's trouble. That's trouble. You think you're
going there to help someone? Just come and worship the Lord
with us and be an encourager. Come alongside us, but don't
be there to go, this fellow, I guess, was going to straighten
him out on certain things and just, well, I've listened to Gabe's
preaching. I don't think he needs to be straightened out. Pretty clear what he preaches.
He preaches Christ, doesn't he? My, my oh my. So Paul's not presenting a hypothetical
case here, but a fulfilled condition as there were some of the Philippians
who were otherwise minded and thought that they had reached
sinless perfection. So he's saying if you think that
way and you're one of God's elect, he's going to straighten you
out. See? And he does. He does. And Epaphroditus obviously had
told Paul that there was those in the church who were teaching
sinless perfection, which is an error, as we've seen in our
past studies. Because in this world, we struggle
with our sin every day, don't we? Praise be to God, though,
it's washed in the blood, it's forgiven. In the precious blood,
we are redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we see that Paul turns those over who are in this error to
God, which is what we're supposed to do. Just turn them over to
God. And if they're true born-again
blood-washed people, Lord will keep, He'll take them out of
that. But if they're not, He might just let them get carried
away with that error. My. And see the word otherwise there,
too? If in anything, you'd be otherwise
minded. Paul's speaking of diversity in a bad sense. In a bad sense. It refers to the otherwise thinking
of some of the Philippian saints who thought that they had reached
the place beyond which they could have no more spiritual development.
They couldn't mature anymore. They'd arrived in their minds.
I met people like that. In religion, I was kind of like
that. You know that? And I found out I knew nothing,
nothing about grace. That's what I found out. I knew
nothing about grace. Praise God, I know a little something
now. Just a little bit. I'm gonna tell you about it each
week. My, my oh my. Listen to this translation by
Weiss, the Greek scholar. He says of this verse, as many
therefore as are spiritually mature, let us be of this mind. And if, as is the case in anything,
you are differently minded in that, in an evil sense, this
also will God reveal to you. Isn't that wonderful? So he's
saying, he's saying to the saints of God, God's gonna reveal to
you if you're an error. But don't ever think we've arrived.
God, keep us from that spirit, right? Keep us from that spirit. Amen and amen. Brother Travis,
can you close us in prayer again?