book of Philippians and chapter
4, it says, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for,
my joy and crowned, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Now, those are the words of conclusion that
Paul was bringing here to these Philippian believers. And I remember
something one time in listening to a preacher. He said that you
need to find out what the therefores are there for. Because when the
Scripture says, therefore, you have to look before it to find
out what the therefore is there for. And so he says to them,
as we looked at this passage of Scripture last week, he said, 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, now tell you even weeping, that they are the
enemies of the cross of Christ." Now Paul had set forth unto them,
he said, look at me and follow that which I have set forth before
you because I have not set forth before you a bunch of philosophy
and various ways and means of the flesh for men to come into
the presence of God or to make themselves pleasing unto the
Lord. But he said, walk as you have
us, for an example, because he says, I am telling you that there
are many. Now think about that. In those
days, This is the early days of the church. We think of the
early days of the church as being a time when everybody got along
and all the people were very zealous believers and there was
very little discord. But when you read the Scripture,
you find that that is not the case because men are men in all
generations and the flesh is always going to be the flesh.
And the flesh is always going to embrace religion. It doesn't
make any difference what kind it is. Now a lot of times people
like to think, well, fleshly religion is that which embraces
the Muslim faith, or it's a Catholic, or it's something, you know.
Religion is found in all places of whatever doctrine. It doesn't
make any difference what doctrine you've got. There's plenty of
religion among people that claim to believe what we call the doctrines
of grace, those things that we believe are the true things of
God. There's plenty of that. There's
plenty of those who mix a little bit of grace and a little bit
of works together to come up with a hodgepodge thing that
they call Christianity. Paul said this, I have told you
this and I want you to mark what I have said to you. He said mark
me, look at what I have said, look at what I have stood for,
look at what I have continually brought you back to. And walk
in this, as you have us, for an example. For many walk, of
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." Now somebody is not
an enemy of the cross of Christ simply because they disagree
with me or anybody else on just particular points of doctrine.
That is not the thing. A man is an enemy of the cross
of Christ who preaches anything else other than Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. No ifs, ands, and buts about
it. I mean, if you can come away from listening to what somebody
has said, believing that there is something you can do to enhance
your position with God, By the work of the flesh, I'm
telling you that that is exactly what Paul's talking about, and
those that preach such are enemies of the cross of Christ. Because
this is the thing that Paul kept coming back to over and over
and over and over again, that it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he said anything else is
done. It's not a matter of Some of it and some of this, because
you see what we have, and especially this is true today, there is
a lot of sound doctrine that is preached, but it is mixed
quite often with something else. And how much of, if I gave you
a glass of water, how many drops of raw sewage would you have
for me to drop in there before you would say, I don't want to
drink it? Huh? I mean, would one drop be
enough to make you make that conclusion? Well, of course it
would. You wouldn't drink the water. Why? Because that's tainted. There's something wrong with
it. Well, I'm telling you, anything other than Jesus Christ and Him
crucified taints the whole thing. I don't care what else they say.
It doesn't make any difference. You know, and that is what Paul
is saying. He said, many walk of whom I
tell you, I have told you and I am weeping about it. I am begging
you to listen to me, he said. They are enemies of the cross
of Christ. Because you see, the way of man
is to go away from the gospel. to go away from Jesus Christ
and Him crucified to some forms of religion. It's all right to
believe that's okay, but we need to add this to it, whatever it
might be. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. Religion is an earthly thing.
And if you have a mind to some sort of religious order or way
apart from Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the sole source
and basis of all that you have confidence in, then that is something
that is earthly. And what does He say? He said,
"...whose glory is in their shame." That's a shameful thing. that
a man should bring anything up other than Christ and Him crucified.
For, he says, our conversation, or our way of life, that is,
that upon which our thoughts are set. Our conversation. Now you can pretty well, if you
get around a bunch of people and you hear them talking, you
can pretty well find out after a while, if you talk with them
long enough, what the things that really they're about are. I mean, you get a guy that's
really politically involved and I guarantee you won't be around
him very long until he's telling you all the latest stuff. If
you've got somebody that is really into conspiracy theories, you
won't be around him very long until he's telling you about
the latest conspiracy and all of this stuff. And you can see
him coming down the road and you know what it is that his
conversation is, do you not? Now, he said, our conversation
is in heaven. Now, what is our conversation?
If it be in heaven, other than what he is speaking about here,
our conversation in heaven, it must be Jesus Christ. That is
the thing of which we are concerned. That is that which dominates
our thought. for our conversations in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are looking for Him. Now how
are we looking for Him? You don't look for something
that you don't expect. You are not looking for an elephant
to walk in this room, are you? Why not? Because you don't expect
that an elephant was going to walk in this room, so you're
not looking for him. But if somebody tells you that
they're coming and the door opens, you are expecting that it probably
is them, is it not? And so that's the same fashion
in which the children of God, they're expecting the Lord Jesus
Christ. I mean, why would they be expecting
Him? Because He said that He would come again. Now why would
they be expecting Him if they didn't want Him, His presence? Because you see, you don't expect
something that you despise. Now you might wait for it in
fear. But you don't expect it, because
you see that what you're expecting is something you're looking for
with a longing, and it's a thing that fills your desire. And that's
what he's talking about here. For our conversations in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body that it might be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able to subdue all things to Himself. Now, how is it that
the bodies of those who are dead and in the ground are going to
be changed? Now, why do you say our vile
bodies? Now, our body does not have to start rotting in the
ground in order for it to be a vile body. Our body is vile
to start with. Why? Because it is susceptible
to decay. And whether we like to think
of it or not, our bodies are decaying from the time that we
are born to the time that we die. We are moving towards a
certain end. For it is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this the judgment. There is no doubt about
that these bodies are vile bodies. They are corruptible. See, if something is vile, it
means it's corruptible, it's able to be corrupted. And these
bodies most certainly are in that way. But he says this, who
shall change our vile body? Now how can it be that the Lord
can change that which is decaying? Well, we've seen it manifested
in the natural sense in when he raised Lazarus from the dead.
But that's not what Paul is talking about here. Now, when the Lord
raised Lazarus from the dead, He raised him in a natural resurrection
because, you see, Lazarus died and was buried. Lazarus was not
taken into heaven in the body in which he was raised in. So
while that is a picture of the vile body being raised, it is
not a picture of the vile body being changed. Because what he
is saying here is, he said, he shall change. That word change
is metamorphosis. or the word we get metamorphosis
from, He is going to metamorphose our body. He is going to change
it. Now all of us have seen a cocoon where a larva, a worm, as we
call them, a worm, a caterpillar, he goes into a cocoon and then
he somehow or other when the cocoon opens up, guess what?
It is not a worm that comes out, is it? but it's the same individual,
is it not? The exact same one, but it's
not what was put in the cocoon. What was put in the cocoon was
vile. Nobody likes a caterpillar. But, oh, you see, what came out
is something which is metamorphous. It's changed our vile body that
it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Now this is
the hope of the resurrection. The hope of the resurrection
was not in What happened to Lazarus? Now that was a good thing. And
of course, in a natural sense, if we had a loved one who died,
we would like to see them brought back from death so that we might
visit with them again in this world. But that is not the hope
of the children of God, to be raised in a vile body. But the
hope of the children of God is to be changed to have the vile
body that went into the ground changed into something that is
not corruptible. And that's what the Scripture
says that the Lord Jesus Christ came to do. And that when He
comes again that He would perform and that we would be changed
and that this corruptible would put on incorruption and this
mortal would put on immortality. And what does the Scripture say?
And we shall be changed. and we shall be forever with
the Lord. It is exactly what he says here,
"...who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body." Now how is his glorious body?
It is that which is not susceptible in any fashion to death or any
of the things that these bodies are susceptible to. The Scripture
says, "...when we shall see him, we shall..." What? be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is. That is, we shall be in the same
fashion in which He is. We shall be together one in the
same sort of a body. But these vile bodies, that they
may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the
working whereby He is able to do all things unto Himself. Now how does He do such a thing?
It's not understandable in the natural sense. Now, we can understand
because we may not have literally each one seen it, but we've read
accounts of people who were pronounced dead by a doctor. He's dead. That's it. In fact, I read about
a guy the other day that he woke up and he was in a body bag. But He was alive. Now that's
a glorious thing, is it not? But that's not anything that
is subdued. That still comes forth in the
same fashion which it was. But you see, how does the Lord
raise His people? How can that be? We can understand
how a man can be dead for a while and then his heart all of a sudden
starts beating again. But that's not what the resurrection
is. It's not the heart that's just going to start beating again,
but it's that a body is going to be raised that's not susceptible
to that which this body is susceptible to. It's not dependent on the
heart beating and blood flowing through the veins. It's not that
type of a body. But it's still the same people.
It's still the same one. It's still our body according
to what it says here. He's going to change our vile
body. It's just not going to be a vile
body anymore. It's going to be changed into
something that does not yet appear. For it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But when we see Him, we shall
be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is.
And so, He says all of that. And then He says, therefore. So now we see what the therefore
is. If what Paul is saying is true,
and that is what he is setting forth before these Philippians,
if he says, all of these things that I am telling you are those
things upon which we rest. That is what he said up there.
He said, the truth that I have preached unto you is this, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, and that He will change our vile
body. to be like Him. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast, my
dearly beloved." Now, in essence, what Paul is
saying here is don't be moved aside from that which you have
been taught as being the truth. Now, why is it necessary to exhort
the children of God to remain steadfast, to stand fast? Because of what? Exactly, dear
brother. It's because we have a vile body. You see, our vile body has not
been changed yet. It's still a vile body. And this
flesh, in which we dwell, this flesh which wars against the
Spirit, it will indeed cause us to go astray apart from the
grace of God to keep us. Now, how does God keep His children?
Well, we know that primarily He keeps His children simply
because He keeps them from falling. But how does He keep them from
falling? put them in a box over here and set them over there?
And they are protected from all harm? Well, in a measure that
is true insofar as the ultimate place. I mean, Job was a man
who was protected by God, was he not? But look, what happened
to Job? Boy, if you had asked Job, if
you had said to Job, Job, the Lord has put a cocoon of protection
around you. And nothing can happen to you.
What would He have said to you? He said, well, now, you don't
know exactly what I'm going through right now. So you see, Job went
through all those things, but he went through it in a vile
body because, you see, it was necessary for the Lord to perform
those things in Job that He might bring Job to the place that He
wanted him to be according to the good pleasure of His will.
And so it is that the Lord keeps His children in a measure through
the exhortations that the Word of God gives. Because you see,
the natural man does not pay any heed whatsoever to the exhortations
of the Word of God. Now he might, in a religious
fashion, adopt a means and method type thing where he says, well,
I've got to do this and I've got to do that and I've got to
do the other, but he's doing it in order that he might gain
something. He has a vile motive. But you
see, the children of God are not motivated in a carnal sense
of doing a certain thing so they might gain heavenly things, but
rather, They are motivated by that which Paul says that we
are to love, that we will love by the work of the Spirit of
God, not as those whom he says whose God is their belly. Now, the religious man serves
God because his God is his belly. He says, well, I don't want to
go to hell when I die, so I'm going to do all these right things
and I'm going to follow the Lord and then the Lord will reward
me and He'll keep me safe. But you see, his God is his belly.
It's just natural preservation. But the preservation of the people
of God is not in a natural sense, but it is in a supernatural sense.
It is the manner in which God is pleased to work in us, both
willing to do of His good pleasure. And whenever the Word of God
exhorts the people of God to stand fast, they desire to do
so. Why? Because they are stirred
by the warnings that Paul says. Paul said there is a false gospel.
And they say, Lord, don't let me be found embracing the false
gospel. They want to be found in that
which is true. They want to be found walking
in that which is of the Lord. And so he says, therefore, here
is the conclusion of the matter. Here is the basis and the reason
upon which we stand fast is that which God has set forth before
us, that our vile body is going to be changed. Therefore, if
that be true, if we believe it's true, do you believe that's true?
Do I believe that's true? Sometimes I find myself in this
old evil heart of unbelief. It brings many questions into
my mind. I say, well, how could that be?
But at the end of the day, by the grace of God, I'm always
brought back to the place where I say, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. I want to believe. I can't help
but be drawn to you. I love those things that thou
hast said. I believe it. I stand upon it."
And that's what he says here. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved and longed for. Now Paul's not just talking to
just people that he met, but he's talking to those who among
these Philippians had embraced the things of the gospel. He
said, My beloved, my dearly longed for, those with whom I have had
fellowship and do presently desire fellowship. Now you see, that
is one of the bonds that God gives to His people is to love
one another. And Paul says, I love you in
the gospel. Now there was probably some things
that some of them did that he did not like. But is that I long
to be with you? Because we have a bond which
supersedes all of those things. All of the matters that occur
in these vile bodies, they are nothing. But therefore, because
we believe that we shall be changed, therefore, stand fast, my brethren,
dearly beloved, and long for, those with whom we desire. That's
who He's speaking to. He said, my joy, my crown. He
said in one place, I have no greater joy than to find out
that you're walking in the truth. Not because he would be able
to say, well, there's a notch in the handle of my pistol. I've
done that, you know. No, no, that's not what he's
speaking about. But he said, there's no greater
joy that I have to see that you are walking in fellowship one
with another. Because it's a glorious thing
when God gives men love one for the other. And that's what he's
speaking about here. It can't be duplicated. It can't
be faked. I mean, you can tell me you love
me. How do I know you love me? The only way that God's people
can show that they love one another is in the measure in which they
treat one another and they are desirous of being together with
one another. That's the only way that you
can know. I mean, people that you love, you desire to be with,
do you not? My dearly beloved and longed
for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord. Now, standing fast The word fast,
of course, it doesn't have anything to do with speed. We think of
it. Most times when we use the word
fast, we're talking about something that goes from point A to point
B at a rapid rate. But that's not the fast that
he's talking about. He's talking about something
that stands firm. He's talking about something
that is fastened. That's where we get the word
fastened from is the word fast. That is, it is nailed down. And so the exhortation to the
people of God is to stand fast, firmly planted, put your feet
in concrete. He said that the children of Israel,
if they had been mindful, would have turned back to Egypt. A
lot of them wanted to, did they not? But Moses said, no, the
Lord told us to go on. See, Moses stood fast. Now, not
everybody of them stood fast. Why is it that we exhort the
people of God in general? Why is it that we exhort the
church of God in general? Because we are desirous that
those who are God's people would stand fast. Now, do we believe
everybody is going to listen to us? Unfortunately, no. A lot of people are going to
say, you know, that's not really all that important. They're going
to just go down the way that people go. But you see, Paul
is exhorting the children of God. He said, Stand fast. Nail your feet down. Tie yourself
to the - like in the - I've read books before where men were at
sea. And they were in a great storm, and they would take a
piece of rope and tie themselves to the mast. That's what he's
saying there. Tie yourself to the mast. Well,
what's our mast? It's the cross of Christ. Tie
yourself to it. Stand fast. Don't be moved about,
he says, in another place, whatever wind of doctrine. Everything
that comes along, there's always something that's going to be
more attractive to the flesh, is there not? The cross of Christ is not attractive
to the flesh. The works of the flesh are attractive
to the flesh. Whatever you can do. Well, it's
okay to preach on grace, you understand. You've got to also
talk about what people are supposed to do. That's important. Well, there's no question that
what people do is important, but I'm telling you this, when
it comes to spiritual matters, it's not about anything that
you do. It's about what Christ has done. And that's the place
to which we tie ourselves to the mast. And come storm, come
hell or high water, it doesn't matter. That's the place we want
to be. Stand fast, my dearly beloved. Don't be moved aside. It doesn't matter what somebody
comes. It doesn't matter how attractive it might be. There
are a lot more things that are a lot more attractive than the
preaching of the cross of Christ to the flesh. But brethren, these
are vile bodies, and the things done in these vile bodies will
pass away. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this the judgment. Everything that's done in these
vile bodies will perish. Everything. It doesn't make any
difference what it is. It's going to perish. But that
which is in Christ will stand forever. Oh, my dearly beloved,
won't you stand fast having this seal, Jesus Christ, the hope
of the saints of God. That which we come, that's before
us here this morning, the body and the blood of Christ. We don't have any other place
to stand. I mean, there's nothing else. I mean, you look at every, it
doesn't matter, you look at every religion in the world and they've
got something else. Do they not? It may be membership. It may be this. It may be that.
I don't know what it is. But I'm telling you that it's
one thing. It's Christ and Him crucified. Stand fast. Feet set in concrete. Don't be
moved. May the Lord help us.