That's a lovely hymn. It has
so many echoes of what we're talking
about today. I thought we'd, seeing we looked
at fear and trembling last week and what it was for God in graciousness
to move His beloved people from a fear of death and a fear of
drowning to a fear of God. that we might profit, if the
Lord allows, by looking at some verses which are used, in some
sense, to harass God's people more than most in all of the
scriptures. And they are those famous verses in Philippians
2, 12 and 13. In this last few weeks, I've
had them come to me in several ways. And that song is wonderful,
isn't it? It talks about I was lost, but
Jesus found me. Faint was I, and fears possessed
me. Bruised was I from many a fall. Hope was gone, and shame distressed
me. days of darkness still may meet
me, sorrows paths I oft may tread." And then in the midst of that
darkness there is just great promises. And so, you know, my
proposition is that these verses which are used so consistently,
and there are not very many of them, are used so consistently
to batter down the lost and the faint hearted and the bruised
and those who seem as if they have no hope and those who are
aware of their shame and those who seemingly walk in darkness.
Those verses which are used in some sense to harass God's people
are actually by God designed to be the very opposite of that. So that's why I thought it would
be appropriate for us to look at these verses in Philippians
2 this morning. But it's good for us to read
them in their context. The situation in Philippi is
that Paul is in jail. He has the pastor, the minister
of the Philippian church, Epaphroditus, with him, and he's sending Epaphroditus
and Timothy back carrying this letter. And it's a great letter
of encouragement, 16 times, In the letter of Philippians, it
talks about rejoicing or joy in the Lord. And then 61 times
in Philippians, it talks about the Lord Jesus. And it talks
about the Lord Jesus in the most glorious way. And it proclaims
the gospel in such a significant and profound way that it's just
a delightful letter. and the verses that are caused,
bring so much grief to God's people, set back in their context
are actually verses that bring us great joy. And so we have
a gospel to proclaim, and Paul has a gospel to proclaim. He proclaimed it in Philippi,
and God, who had sent him there, did a wonderful work amongst
these people. And it's good for us to go back
and revisit the gospel that Paul proclaimed to these people. And Simon and Jenny wrote out
a thing a couple of weeks ago, which I was hoping to use, and
it's called Our Gospel Experience. And so it's good for us just
to sit back and remember the good news, the good news of the
gospel. The gospel is the good news of
Christ and him crucified, the person and work of God the Son,
and is declared throughout the scriptures. The gospel, we believe,
is the good news that the salvation of the elect children of God
has been completely secured from all eternity by the triune God
alone. This salvation involved the sovereign
choice of God the Father, who having chosen a people for himself,
then gave those children into the hands of God the Son, who
committed to substitute himself for every possible requirement
that divine holy justice could ever demand. This substitution
and satisfaction of divine justice was displayed in time as our
gracious Saviour first secured our eternal holiness. Having
been born under the law, He completely fulfilled the law on behalf of
those who believe and then completely satisfied the just wrath of God
for every sin of every single one of the elect. This salvation
of the elect, having been completely secured in the person and work
of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is then personally applied
in the lives of each of these redeemed sinners by God the Spirit,
as determined by God the Father before time. This salvation is
completely inclusive of all possible aspects of the redeemed sinner's
life. Having actually begun in eternity,
this salvation encompasses every moment of the elect's life, both
before and after conversion. While conversion is the revealing
of this salvation to the individual, the benefits of it are applied
to their lives even before conception. This salvation then extends throughout
their life, as God works in them to will and to do, and it continues
on into eternity. There is absolutely nothing that
can damage, diminish, divert, or destroy this salvation. Not
the devil, not the world, not even our own sin. Nothing. as it is all completely achieved
and sustained in Christ Jesus alone. There is absolutely nothing
that can be added to this salvation as it rests on the infinite perfection
of Christ Jesus alone. Then it must stand alone for
all eternity. The judgment of God's elect by
divine justice has already taken place at the cross of Christ. and God's children are attributed
with the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Any attempt
of man to please God through his own service is an insult
to the thrice holy God, as the only possible standard acceptable
to God is the complete and infinite holiness of God the Son. The
blessing of God upon His children is such that every single thing
that has ever taken place in all eternity has taken place
only for their good, even our sin. The love of God for His
children is such that it is infinite in both its existence and its
magnitude. Because the salvation of the
elect is so comprehensive and because it lies securely in Christ,
there is nothing else required of the elect, not his response
or his obedience. Christ has taken full responsibility
for him and will produce anything needed for the worship of God
and for the service of his people. And so at the beginning of the
church in Philippi in Acts 16, we have two marvellous examples
of God's grace in the lives of his children. Paul was led by
the Spirit to Macedonia by a vision and he was actually stopped from
going where he wanted to go in western Turkey, and he came across. And then, on that wonderful day,
he met a certain woman named Lydia. and she was a seller of
purple from Thyatira who worshipped God. And then this marvellous
description in Acts 16, 14 of her salvation. The Lord opened
her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And then there's
even a more wonderful and clearer declaration of saving faith. As the jailer, Paul and Silas,
ended up in trouble in that city, and the jailer fearing that his
life was lost because the earthquake had opened the doors for the
prisoners, feared for his own life and he came in and he fell
down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he made that cry that
all saved sinners will make at some stage in their lives. Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? And they answered, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. It's wonderful, isn't it? Salvation is a grace gift of
God. It doesn't require our works. It requires God to do something
in us. And it's simple, isn't it? Let's
always make sure that the gospel we declare comes with that simplicity. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you will be saved. I don't know what God is doing
in your hearts, but God's promise to you is believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And so Paul is now writing
to the Philippians knowing that the persecution that has come
upon them now is far more serious than the persecution that saw
him end up being beaten and locked in jail and put in stocks. The
persecution that's come upon the Philippian believers has
come upon them from wolves in sheep's clothing. And so Paul
writes to these Philippians to remind them of the gospel, because
Paul still trusts that the gospel is the power of God under salvation. The Philippians need to hear
the gospel again. And people might say, as we declare
that gospel of God's saving, electing grace that flows to
sinners, not because of things they do, but because of things
that the Lord Jesus do. They say, we destroy human responsibility
because we proclaim these doctrines. No, we don't destroy human responsibility. We raise human responsibility
to God's standards. God's standard is perfect, holy
obedience, 100% obedience, 100% of the time. Do these doctrines
that we proclaim, does this gospel that we proclaim, destroy the
work of God's law. No, it doesn't destroy God's
law. It upholds God's law as holy,
as spiritual, as good. And we honour the law as it is
perfectly kept by a man, the glorious God-man, our Lord Jesus,
who was obedient to his Father in spirit and in deed, even unto
death. And so this passage in Philippians
2 is used by people, both Arminians and Reformed, to undermine the
security and the comfort of God's children who cling to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus on our behalf. And these people seek
to take God's people, God's children, where they are, to take them
back under a yoke of bondage. They're looking, causing God's
people to look at our works, our response, looking to the
law for moral reformation. And sadly, In doing these things,
they take God's children's eyes off the Lord Jesus and take us
away from just rejoicing in what He has finished. So why do they
do it? Why do these people that are
harassing the Philippians do it? Fallen man is hardwired to
works righteousness. That's how we were created in
the garden and then Satan came and took that fallen man to another
state of fallenness where he will doubt the Word of God, he
will doubt the goodness of God, he will doubt the judgment of
God. And so this little bit of yeast is promised by God, a little
bit of yeast of man's works, man's works righteousness, works
through the whole batch of dough. So it's not surprising that we
see it all over the place and see it commonly. And sadly, I
think, they have forgotten to rejoice. As Revelation says,
the Lord Jesus says in Revelation of the Ephesians, they have forsaken
their first love. They have forgotten what it's
like to be loved by the Lord Jesus into salvation. And I think
even more sad that the people that use these verses actually
believe that they have done the works required. And they really
often want to boast about their activities. And they might boast
with great humility, but at the end of the day, they boast. And then there is a fear that
people have that unless God's children are taught obedience
to the law, they will just live lives of wickedness. But God
says that the law is good if one uses it properly. The law
was not made for the righteous man. God's children are righteous. So we don't nullify the law by
faith. No, we establish the law as holy
and spiritual. So let's look at these verses.
The famous ones are in Philippians 2, 12 and 13. But let's begin a bit further
because there is just the most wonderful declaration of who
the Lord Jesus is. In verse 5 of chapter 2, it says,
Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the
form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of
those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to
will and to do for His good pleasure. do all things without complaining
and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children
of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding
fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain or laboured in vain. Yes, and if
I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and
service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. And so as we see this verse that
is so well known and is used so regularly sits in the middle
of an amazing passage of scripture. And so just let's look at it
together. The reason it is so appealing to people is that in
this verse there is the call to obedience, therefore as you've
always obeyed, and then there's a call to working out and so
the normal way it's it comes to people is, well, there you
have God has done His bit, now it's all up to you. You have
to do your bit and let's see it in action. So let's just look at these verses
together. So then, my beloved, just as
you have always obeyed, What is the obedience that's being
talked about here? What is the obedience that began
the Philippian church, was the foundation of the Philippian
church? The Philippian church was founded
on the gospel, the declaration of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And in that declaration, Paul
saw the power of God do its work through the gospel. And as Lydia
says, if you have judged me faithful, come back to my house. And as
we saw earlier, the jailer cried out, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus, and
you will be saved. The obedience that the scriptures
talk about over and over again in these contexts is the obedience
of faith, the obedience of clinging to the gospel. Romans has bookends,
Romans 1.5 and Romans 16.26 talks about the obedience of faith. In this letter to Philippians,
there's some wonderful verses that I'd like you to look at
that have parallel thoughts to these ones in Philippians 2.12. In 127 Philippians, Paul says,
only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that
whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of
you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind,
striving together for the faith of the gospel. Over and over again, Paul is
exhorting these Philippian believers to stand together. God has begun a good work in
them, according to Philippians 1.6. God has begun this good
work in them. causing them to respond to the
Lord Jesus by bowing their knee to him. And they have this fellowship
in 1.5, this fellowship in the gospel from the first. This is what it means for them
to always have obeyed. They have stood together with
Paul for the sake of the gospel. And in 1.7, Paul talks about
the fact that even though he's now in prison, And in defending
and confirming the gospel, you are all partakers with me of
the grace of God. The grace that came to Paul and
brought him his apostleship is the grace that's come now to
these Philippian believers. And He prays for them, that your
love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all
discernment, that you'll judge things rightly, judge doctrine
rightly, judge other things rightly, so that you may approve the things
that are excellent. in order to be sincere and blameless
until the day of Christ. And in 1.11, there's a declaration
of the finished work of the Lord Jesus on behalf of His children,
having been filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through
Jesus Christ to the praise, to the glory and praise of God. He's saying what Colossians 2.10
is saying, to believe on the Lord Jesus is to fulfill all
that God requires of people because our lives are hidden with Christ
in God. Colossians 2.10 says that we
are now complete in Christ. And so the exhortation for these
believers is to cling to the gospel, to cling together to
the gospel with one spirit, with one mind striving together for
the faith of the gospel. The gospel is under attack in
Philippi, it's under attack in this world we live in today. We need, God calls on us here
to stand firm in one spirit, to be of one mind and to stand
together, to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
And in 128, there's a warning and an encouragement. An encouragement
not to be alarmed by these opponents. A warning to the opponents, their
opposition to God and His people to the fellowship of God's saints
is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you,
and that too from God. For, verse 29 is wonderful, for
it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in
Him, but also suffer for His sake. And so God, in his sovereign
providence, has brought opposition to the Philippian church. Wolves
in sheep's clothing. And so he's calling upon the
Philippian believers to stand firm for the gospel. as Paul
calls it, his service of your faith. Paul is interested in
their faith. He wants them to stand together
in fellowship with the gospel. And he saw this as the verses
go on, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence. And so Paul's visit to Philippi
was marked by persecution and opposition and was probably very
short, maybe only in that first visit a couple of weeks. And
so in his presence, he saw them being obedient to the gospel.
He saw them bowing their knee to the Lord Jesus and faith being
exercised, God doing a work amongst them. And he was persecuted at
that first time in Philippi in Acts 16 because the commercial
interests of the people who had the slave girl were taken from
them and there was accusations about him upsetting Roman customs. But now the opposition, which
is why I think he says much more in my absence, but now the opposition
is much more severe because it comes from those who make a show
of their devotion to God. And Paul has some hard words
to say about them as a warning He calls them in chapter 3, he
calls them dogs. Beware of the dogs, beware of
the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. We'll look
at these verses later on. But in 3.18 he says, walk, of
whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with weeping,
they are enemies of the cross of Christ." And so these people
had come, as they did into the Galatian churches, as they did
into the Church Colossi, as they did into all of God's churches,
they came proclaiming something other than the finished work
of the Lord Jesus. And so he says that he has seen
their obedience. In his presence, they stood firm
for the gospel. In his absence, the report from
Epaphroditus is that they stand firm for the gospel and Paul
rejoices in it. Then he says, work out your salvation
with fear and trembling. And it's really hard for us to
take this verse except in its context, which is what the next
verse says, for it is God at work in you. There is a working
out of salvation. It's what is produced by faith. The faith that God exercised
in Paul's life was a faith that ended up in actions. Faith works,
faith produces activity. There's a wonderful verse in
2 Thessalonians 1 11 where they are encouraged Therefore, we pray always for
you that our God will count you worthy of His calling and fulfill
all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith
with power, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be
glorified in you and you in Him according to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. It's always about grace. It has
to be God's work. And that's why He accompanies
those words with those words that cause us concern, but they
shouldn't. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. Why fear and trembling? We saw last week that there is
a fear of death that the Apostles had, but when they saw the Lord
Jesus as He really is displayed in something of His glory, they
feared a very great fear. The Lord Jesus Himself acted
on this earth with reverence and awe. In Hebrews chapter 5
verse 6 and 7 it has a description of the Lord Jesus as the glorious
priest of Melchizedek, in the order of Melchizedek. who, this
is how he lived out his days in the flesh, who in the days
of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him
from death, he was heard because of his godly fear, his godly
awe and reverence of who God is and the enormity of eternity
and what lies before people. But the apostles came in this
same spirit and why would we expect anything other? When Paul
goes to the Corinthians, he comes to them not with eloquence of
speech or wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God in
chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians. For I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And there
was a reason for this, wasn't there? And my message and preaching
were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. The reason being, so that your
faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Paul wanted these people not
to be drawn by the fact that he was an eloquent speaker and
a knowledgeable man. He wanted God's power to be seen
in their lives because he knew that if God began a work, then
God would complete that work. If the work was begun by the
wisdom and cleverness of men, then more wise and more clever
men can come and take it away. In 2 Corinthians 5.11, he says,
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but
we are made manifest to God, and I hope we are made manifest
also in your consciences. The apostles didn't go around
boasting about their activities. They came in weakness and in
fear. And Paul to these Philippians,
even in his warning against the false teachers that have come
and harassed the Philippian believers, he says in 3.18, for many walk
whom I've often told you and now tell you even weeping. that they are enemies of the
cross of Christ. The apostles were deeply aware
of eternal things that lie before all people and there is a sense
of the awesomeness and the weightiness of who God is and what eternity
means. There was a man who died in our
town a couple of days ago who I knew well. And as far as I
know, he spent his whole life as an enemy of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus. And he lived a long life and
was well known. And I was really struck yesterday
in the kitchen. I was just cutting a small piece
of watermelon and remembering the story in Acts chapter 16.
how, and I'm not saying where this man is, but for those who
are in hell now, that simple thing that I did, having a little
piece of watermelon or having a drop of water fall from someone's
finger onto your tongue would be a pleasure beyond imagining. and that will never, ever, ever
be that person's portion. Hell goes on forever and ever
and ever. He will never be free of his
sins. Jesus says they die in their
sins. They suffer the wrath of God
instantly when they die. They suffer the wrath of God
forever and ever because God's justice demands perfect satisfaction
and the work of man can never be satisfied by the suffering
of human beings. Only a God-man's suffering is
infinite in the eyes of God. There is a weightiness, isn't
it? I keep praying that God would give me a deep abiding sense
of the weightiness of what is going on around us in this world. When you think of the multitudes
in this world who spurn the Lord Jesus, and their destiny. There is a fear and trembling
which is respectful of the destiny of the lost, isn't it? We rejoice
to think of heaven's glories, but heaven's glories are even
more glorious in light of what we have been saved from. The
reality is that as in Noah's day, so it is in our day and
has been in most of the days throughout this world. God's
children are a remnant. God's children are a persecuted
remnant. God's children are a misunderstood
remnant. God's children have been granted
not only the faith, but they've been granted suffering. And part
of the suffering is the reality of what lies around us and before
people we love dearly. And so rather than being heart
of heart, Paul weeps over the lost. And the gathering of God's
people together is so precious. But also it's a great warning
to those who stay apart from that fellowship of God's people
and remain apart from it. God says it's a sign of their
destruction. And so the public proclamations
of the gospel come with people who feared and trembled. Their
private thoughts were ones of great sorrow and unceasing grief,
says Paul, as he thinks about Israel. How many saved out of
that nation Israel? Millions. We think of the great
victories on the day of Pentecost and the thousands added to the
church. We need to also be mindful that Paul was aware that there
were hundreds of thousands, millions who heard that message, who experienced
something of the work of the Lord Jesus and yet went to hell. There's a weightiness about what
we are involved in and it weighs heavily on God's people. And so not only did the apostles
come with this sense of fear and trembling, they actually
encouraged that in the lives of the disciples. Hebrews 4 says,
Let us fear, therefore, while the promise remains of entering
his rest, that any of you may seem to have come short of it.
For indeed, we have had the good news preached to us just as they
did. But the word they heard did not
profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who
heard. For we who have believed enter
that rest, just as he said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall
not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the
foundation of the world. There is a fear and trembling
which fills God's children at times. Slaves in Ephesians 6
are encouraged to be obedient to their masters with fear and
trembling and in sincerity of heart as to the Lord Jesus. They were mindful of who the
Lord Jesus was in his presence with them. and in Titus is commended to
the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 7 15. His affection abounds all
the more towards you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how
you received him with fear and trembling. And then the Philippian
churches we saw was begun with people who feared and trembled
and asked what they must do to be saved. as the jailer came
in, he was trembling with fear. Something had gripped his life
and he trembled with fear and fell down before Paul and Silas. So the next part of this verse
is wonderful comfort for God's children, isn't it? The reason
that there is a working out, a demonstration, an effecting
of obedience in the lives of God's children is for one simple
reason. For it is God who is at work
in you. The work was begun in them, says
Paul in verse 6. They have this fellowship in
the gospel when they first received, being confident of this very
thing, he who has begun a good work in you will complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus. The work is God's work. in 129
as we've seen earlier, for to you it has been granted on behalf
of Christ not only to believe in Him but to also suffer for
Him. And we could be reminded again
of the Lord Jesus. Those wonderful verses that come
before this passage which is used to harass God's children
so often. being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to the point of death,
even death on the cross. Therefore God has also highly
exalted him and given him the name which is above every name,
that is the name of Yahweh, and that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, those in heaven and those on the earth and those
under the earth. that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
God has determined that every tongue, every tongue, Every tongue
will confess. You'll either confess here as
you bow your knee to the Lord Jesus, or you will confess on
the Day of Judgment. You'll acknowledge at the point
of death that Jesus Christ is Lord, that you don't have any
right to rule your own life. You have marched around like
Nebuchadnezzar in this world, but come that day, you will see
that God is absolutely in charge of your life. You have no authority. Satan says you will be like God
on that day. You'll understand very, very
clearly. Everyone will understand very, very clearly that we are
not like God. And so God has begun this work. God continues this work. God has promised to take this
work through to the day of Christ Jesus. And it's a wonderful work,
isn't it? And he will do this work both
to will, for God is at work within you, work in you, both to will
and to work. There's a wonderful climax to
Romans the wonderful doctrinal section of Romans as we call
it, Romans 11.36 and it says, for from him and through him
and to him are all things. God produces the willing. God produces the work. God gets
the reward for the work because it's for his good pleasure. And what is the good pleasure
of the Lord? Philippians 3.20 has a great
description of the good pleasure of the Lord. for our citizenship,
our fellowship, our belonging is in heaven, from which also
we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
the promise of grace in this next verse, who will transform
the body of our humble state into conformity with the body
of His glory by The means is the exertion of the power that
He has even to subject all things to Himself. The one thing that
we keep proclaiming is that Jesus Christ is God. God is determined that everyone
sees Jesus Christ as God. He rules this universe. He has
determined everything that happens in this universe and He has a
purpose of it. And the purpose of it is that
God will have a great family, a great citizenship. Just think
of those wonderful pictures of Revelation 21 and that city that
comes down from heaven. And He will be our God. We will
be His people, He will be our God and He'll wipe every tear
from our eyes because He will have done what He's promised.
He will transform the body of our humble estate into conformity
with the body of His glory. God's children will live like
the Lord Jesus in the new creation. We will interact with each other
as if we're interacting Jesus to Jesus because sin will be
gone. That doesn't mean that we are
God. that we are gloriously transformed. We have a glorious future. And
it's His pleasure for us to exalt the Lord Jesus. It's His pleasure
for us to say that we have been filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And just before I finish, I think
there is a solemn warning in these verses. A solemn warning
to those who would take these verses and then use them as a
means of putting people back under the moral law. I think
Philippians is written as a warning to those people. Please don't
do that. Please don't destroy the fellowship
of God's people like that. These are the opponents who oppose the gospel. who used passages like this and
many other passages to take away from the glory of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus and give man a work of merit to do and
especially a work under the law. If you turn in chapter 3 again,
he calls on his people to rejoice in the Lord and then he says,
beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the
false circumcision. because what they were saying
is, you come back and be circumcised, and you live under the law of
Moses, and having lived under the law of Moses, you will then
please God. The Scriptures are full of the
most dire warnings not to do that, not to participate with
those people who do it. Paul himself lived that way,
and he now says that we, the believers, are the true circumcision,
who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus
and put no confidence in the flesh. The reason these people
use that verse is they have confidence in their own flesh and they want
you to look at your own flesh and your own activities. And
Paul then outlines the fact that he had reason for confidence.
Under the law, he was blameless. But he says, all of that which
seemed to be my account, my moral goodness under the law, he now
considers dung. He counts them rubbish. because
there's something far more important and it's knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord and 3.9 and having may be found in him not having a
righteousness of my own derived from the law not having a righteousness
derived from my activities but which is through the faith of
Jesus Christ of Christ the righteousness that comes from God. If you're going to have a righteousness
before God that gets you into heaven, it must be God's righteousness. It can't be God's righteousness
plus your righteousness. And this is what Paul is saying.
Don't let these men disturb you. Trust what the Lord Jesus has
promised to have done. He's taken away the sins of his
people. He's robed them in his righteousness.
There is a righteousness that comes from God. and it's on the
basis of faith, it's not on the basis of our activities. Paul's
great desire is that he might know Him and the power of His
resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, to stand for
that gospel that we've talked about is to suffer in this world,
being conformed to His death in order that I may attain resurrection
from the dead. We turn away from ourselves and
our abilities. That's what fear and trembling
is, isn't it? That I look at myself and I see nothing but
filthy rags. I can't tell you to do things,
I can tell you who the Lord Jesus is and what He's done. Be faithful,
hang together, is what He's saying. Stand as one, in one in mind
and spirit. and rejoice. If your gospel doesn't
cause you to rejoice, think about your gospel. God commands rejoicing. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would protect us from the teaching that harassed
your people almost 2,000 years ago. That teaching has promised
to spread, Heavenly Father, and has spread throughout all centuries. We pray that You would cause
us to proclaim the Gospel to each other, Heavenly Father,
that You would cause us to talk to each other about who the Lord
Jesus is and what He has done and what He is doing and how
glorious it is that He has made promises to take these lowly
bodies and transform them into the likeness of His glorious
body. Please help us, Heavenly Father, to rest on the promises
of the Gospel. And when opposition comes along,
we pray that we would be like Paul, that we wouldn't be proud,
that we wouldn't look down on others, that we would fear for
where they are at. and we would weep with trembling.
Father, give us hearts that are soft. Give us hearts that love
our brothers and sisters, because they are children of Adam, just
like us, and we are no different from them. The only difference
that's in our lives is Your grace, our Father. Please help us to
cling to the Lord Jesus, to proclaim Him faithfully, and to trust
Your Gospel, to have the power that You have promised to have.
We commit ourselves into your hands, in Jesus' name, our Father.
Amen.