Thank you. You may be seated. This is week 25 for our study
in Philippians. So we've been in Philippians
for 25 weeks, and we are finishing today, chapter 2. by going into
chapter 3. And so I'm looking that we're
halfway there, and so 25 plus 25 is 50, that doesn't necessarily
work like that mathematically for preaching, but I'll tell
you that it would be very, very common to see another 25 weeks
in this letter. For those of you who aren't used
to exposition, that's where we take the Bible and we think that
God's way of writing Scripture was better than my way of interpreting
Scripture. So I just preach it as God wrote
it so that we go verse by verse by verse. It doesn't mean that
there aren't times to look at different things. But for the
most part, to understand what the apostles write and what the
Old Testament, how it was written, especially the New Testament,
we are to go through the letter so that we can get the full understanding
of the Word. And so today what we see Paul
doing, look very carefully as we begin chapter 3 verse 1, look
at this. Paul says, finally, which I find interesting, because
usually when you hear the word finally in a letter, especially
a New Testament letter, the writer of that letter is closing it
out. And you usually hear, finally, brothers, be encouraged in the
Lord, be encouraged in the grace of Jesus Christ, be strengthened,
grace be with you, and all the brothers and everybody else say
hallelujah, amen, and then it's over, and we go to it, we see
another writing. But here, Paul, when he begins to look at chapter
2, verse 19, when he begins to finish up, you see, by talking
about the people that he wants to send to them, and Timothy
and Epaphroditus, he wants to send them to Philippi so that
they can be ministered to. A lot of scholars believe that
Paul intended to finish his letter, and they take verse 1 of chapter
3 and say, see, that was the end of it. So something's amiss
here. Something's wrong. But we understand as we've gone
through the last few weeks that Paul wrote about Timothy and
Epaphroditus going to Philippi for three reasons. Well, probably
for more, but for three that we've discovered. One is that
he wrote about them because they were important to his ministry.
in prison. They were ministering to Paul
during one of the greatest seasons of suffering that he ever knew,
and that they were there to work as a partner in the gospel. Interestingly
enough, Timothy was a protege of Paul. He was a mentee of Paul
since being a young boy. He sort of grew up under Paul
and was taught the ways of the gospel, taught the Word of God,
taught the work of the ministry. And Timothy ends up being the
chief elder, if you will, in Ephesus. So he was the guy who
was sort of planted in Ephesus to get all of the churches going
and to oversee all the work of the ministry there. And then
Epaphroditus was a Philippian. And Epaphroditus was sent by
the church of Philippi where Paul had planted the church there
in Philippi with Silas. And both of them suffered extreme
persecution there. They were beaten, they were thrown
in prison. That's the season of the ministry
that we see there in the book of Acts where they begin to worship
God after they were whipped. and their bodies were destroyed
and they were in chains and they began to worship God and pray
and celebrate through song and God shook the foundations of
the prison and released everyone and the doors came open and the
shackles came off and it was through that miraculous work
of God and the preaching of the gospel and the fact that the
prisoners did not escape, that the guards, the centurions, The
people who actually led, believe it or not, if you look at your
history, it was the army of Rome who decided who the Caesar would
be. And if the Caesar didn't fit the army of Rome, then they
would depose him. They would take him out and put
another man in. It was not a safe place. And so these men then
heard the gospel. And it said that the gospel spread
throughout all of the leadership of the Roman government and all
the leadership of the Roman guard and the imperial guard. And yet
now Paul is in a Roman prison. Yet again, and the Philippians
who were very, very thankful for the work of the ministry
there through Paul and through Silas and through the other apostles,
that they were discouraged because Paul was now imprisoned. And
he was not imprisoned just in a small stance for something
small that he did. He wasn't just put in prison
because he'd been preaching. He appealed to Caesar and now this
particular imprisonment would last 24 months. And I said this
three weeks ago, it's not like we have today. We have rights
and civil liberties and rights even for criminals. They have
to be fed, they have to be maintained, they have to be clothed, they
have to get medicine, they have to have the proper opportunity
for education. In these early days of Roman
prison, you were thrown in a block cell and you fended against the
vermin that would come in and try to eat what they might have
given you. But if you were to eat and be
taken care of, especially if you got sick and you just died,
if you did not have friends and family who would come in and
minister to your aid, there was never an opportunity except by
the kindness of a specific guard where anybody in a Roman prison
during the first century would ever be given any essentials
for life, water or food or clothing. They did not care about these
prisoners. So this is not an opportunity where Paul is just
sort of sitting back there unable to go preach. He actually had
opportunity to be fearful for the fact that he could die in
prison if no one came to his aid. So this is the discouragement
or the fear or the frustration that the Philippian Christians
had. Paul's in prison. Oh my, that's terrible. Let's
do what we've got to do to get him out. No, Paul's in prison.
That's terrible. He's never getting out. Let's
try to keep him alive. But Paul then says, I've appealed
to Caesar because he goes, and as we see later in the New Testament,
Paul tells the Caesar, the divine ruler of the world. That's what
the title is. The Caesar felt that he was divinely
appointed to be sort of like the pontiff, sort of like the
vicar, the replacement of Christ, but he wasn't Christian. And
so he felt, the Caesar felt he was divinely appointed by the
gods to rule over the people. And so to stand before the man
who felt that the gods of the cosmos gave him the authority
to rule and tell him he's not Caesar, he's not the Lord of
Lords, and he's not the King of Kings, two titles of which
the Caesar took for himself. which is why Jesus in the scripture
speaks of Jesus as the Lord of Lords and Jesus as the King of
Kings. The whole writing of the Roman church is an amazing treatise
about these particular ideals, these particular cultural issues.
And so here's these Philippians, they're concerned that Paul is
not only going to get the care that he needs, not get the care
that he needs, if they don't send him some money or some food
and some clothing, some resources, but that the church, the ministry
of the church is going to fail. Something's going to happen.
That's one of the other reasons. They're upset. They're a little distraught.
What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to the
gospel as it goes out into the world? What's going to happen
to the church planning the future of the church? What's going to
happen to us Christians? And then finally, when Paul,
if he does live, what's going to happen when he stands before
Caesar and sticks his finger in his face and says, you are
not the Lord and you are not the king, but there is one greater
than he and you crucified him and he is now alive. What's going
to happen to Paul? They knew what would happen to
Paul. Paul knew what would happen to Paul. He said that to live
is Christ, but to die is far better. And that he's prepared
to die, but he hopes and he prays that as he lives, he would live
in the body to give honor to Christ. And that if he died,
he would die in giving honor to Christ. He was well aware
and well ready to die well for the sake of the gospel for which
he was imprisoned. So then we've seen a lot of theological
teaching. We've seen a lot of teaching
that Paul gave us in this first part of this letter. It's going
to take a different turn here. And it's going to talk about
striving and focusing and running and pressing and winning. But
before that, what we've seen thus far, I find myself, if I'm
not careful, in a specific place. And maybe some of you are in
the same place, and that's why I feel pressed to do what I'm
about to do today in a recap and then an expression. I said
very, very clearly, and I said it several times, that I felt
like I need to preach on the idea of what it means to hold
fast to the Word of Life. And I think that today, as we
see verse 1 of chapter 3, Paul would recommend that. Because
He's given us a lot of tall orders throughout this letter thus far.
He's given us tall orders to pray, not just for each other,
but to pray in the midst of our suffering, to rejoice in the
midst of darkness, to understand that it's God's people, that
even the darkness is a gift from God, even the suffering that's
in our life is a gift from the Lord, and so that there is nothing
for the Christian that is outside the purview of God's supremacy.
and that God is sovereign over the suffering of His saints,
and that not one disease, not one stress, not one strain, not
one fear is outside God's absolute purpose for His people. I made the comment last week
about God knitting together cancer cells. It seems a little off
base and so maybe my words were a little too lenient into the
Proverbs as God knits together, but I so believe in the sovereignty
of God. Not that God's creating disease
for us, that isn't what my intention was, but that God purposed it
for us. He purposed it for our lives
so that when we find ourselves ill, it is for God's glory that
we are ill. Where do you get such craziness?
All throughout the Scripture. But let me go to a place in my
mind that is most precious to me. In John chapter 11 where
Jesus, whom He loved, was ill. Who is that? Lazarus, Mary, Martha.
And the Scripture says that when word got to Jesus that Lazarus
was ill, the one whom He loved was ill. The Scripture says,
therefore, Jesus remained where He was for three extra days.
Now there's a lot of doctrine there. There's a lot of awesome
stuff there. One of the things that we need
to understand about it is it wasn't, they didn't say, Lazarus who
loves you. They said, Lazarus whom you love is ill. This was
on Jesus. And because Jesus loved Lazarus
and Martha and Mary so much, He stayed His visit so that Lazarus
would die. Because He says right there in
John 11 that He is not ill. He is not dying. He is not experiencing
this except for the fact that the Son of God would be glorified. That's why. So friends, if that's
true for Lazarus, it's true for you. You whom Christ loves, your
darkness, your suffering, your engagement in the stresses of
life is not worthless. It is not wasted. It is not for
no reason. And it has great purpose. It
is not the fallacy and the heresy and the wickedness that we hear
throughout our airwaves where people will tell you and they'll
hold the Bible but never preach it. Or they'll mention it but
never understand it. It's like it says in 2 Peter,
those who are ignorant and twisted, who use the Word of God for their
own gain. Friends, there's nowhere in Scripture
that teaches that God has promised an earthly utopia or earthly
haven for His children. As a matter of fact, the world
in its large aspect, the world's ways, hates God. The creation
that He made, the hearts of most humanity hate Him. and therefore
they hate the gospel of Jesus. They don't want to hear that
Jesus Christ alone is the God who came from heaven and entered
the womb that He created and was born as a real man and lived
and learned obedience and lived in this world holy and obedient
to the will of God and followed the purpose for which He came,
which was to seek and save the lost as a sacrificial lamb that
God would place His judgment on Jesus Christ instead of on
me. and instead of on you, and that
there is nothing that we could do except by the mere pleasure
and grace of God to receive or to be given that grace, that
God in His mercy, because of the great love with which He
loved us, because we are in this world that God has created, He
has loved His children and therefore He has stayed His wrath because
He has satisfied it on Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That
is the good news. That's what it means to be born
again. When you see that, and you hear it with ears that God
gives you to hear, and your heart is transformed, and your life
is made free, and you realize that, wow, had God not come to
me with the gospel of Jesus, I would have perished in my ignorance,
I would have perished in my blindness, I would have perished in my sin,
and justly stood in judgment, and deserved of all the wrath
of God for all of eternity, with the greatest of fury. But He
didn't give you that, beloved. He gave you Christ. And the world
hears that. And they hear this, I will not
have someone else tell me how I will be saved. And they hate
Him. And the Scripture says because
they hate me, they'll hate you, Jesus speaking. The Scripture
says because they hate God, they will hate God's children. in
history from the very beginning days. Look at Cain and Abel. What does the Apostle John say
about Cain? Why did Cain kill Abel? Because
he hated God. He hated God and he saw Abel
and the Bible says Cain murdered Abel because Abel's deeds were
righteous. And in reflection or contrast,
Cain's deeds were wicked. Why? Because he hated God. He
refused to see and savor the glory and the greatness of God.
And so from the very beginning days, from the first family,
God's people have suffered because they reflect the light of the
righteousness of God. Friends, you want to be liked
in the world? You just become a worldly person. They'll love
you forever. You want to be loved by God?
It's going to cost you your love in the world. There's no way
around it. There's no way around it. We
cannot have both ways. There's no such thing as that
proverbial fence that we can set upon and wait until the day
that we have to make a choice to move either passionately in
the Lord's direction or passionately in the world's direction. We
can't sit with our feet dangling on the right side of the fence
and wait for that day. Friends, when God saves us through
the Gospel, when Christ enters our lives and recreates us as
a new creature, we are changed. And there are some things that
change gradually, but there are many things that change immediately.
And what those are is our hearts, our affections change, we no
longer love the world. Our joy is no longer set on earthliness,
earthly power, positions, people, prosperity. None of it. None
of it. And our place, we no longer want
to be here. We want to be with Him. But as
we are here, we live with Him. So therefore, we are with Christ. And there we are. And Paul is
suffering that way because he is in Christ and Christ is his
and he is Christ's. And he's taught all this stuff.
And he says, you're going to suffer. But there's examples
and there's things that you must do. You must be a light in the
world. Your attitude must be like Christ.
You must give of yourself. When you are persecuted, you
let it take place. When you are condemned, you just
rejoice. When you are beaten, you are
not crushed. You are not perplexed, you are
not driven to despair. Hold fast to the Word of Life
as you shine as a light in the darkness of this world against
a crooked generation that you live among. Many of whom take
the name of Christ who are not in Christ. See, these are the
contrasts that Paul... Paul wasn't talking about the
pagans when he gave the contrast over in chapter 2. That there
are many who selfishly preach. for personal gain or for self.
When we see the apostolic writing of the New Testament, and we
see those who come against the church, nine times out of ten,
it is well-meaning people who claim to be in Christ. They're
not from without. It's not the Roman government
coming in and really persecuting Paul here, is it? He's not worried
about the persecution of Rome. He is not even worried, but he's
not concerned with the persecution of Rome. The Philippians are
concerned with the persecution of those who claim to be in Christ.
who were talking ill of Paul, who were taking the Lord's work
and trying to make it profitable for themselves. And so we see all these tall
orders, we see that we should be like Christ, we should love
each other, we should pray, we should rejoice, rejoice, rejoice,
rejoice. And I don't know if it's been
like you, but then I thought, okay, the examples, we're going to
see Timothy. We've seen Paul, but that's Paul. Paul can stand
under pressure. He's an apostle of God. So Jesus
is with him in a greater measure, we would say, but he's not. If we have all spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus and Paul had them all, he says to the Ephesians
church in chapter one, verse three starts there. Blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us
all spiritual blessings, the heavenly realm, all of them. And then
he explains what they are, and they're all that. We've been
adopted. We've been elected. We've been
made to be holy. We've been destined to be like
Christ. We have all of these things. We're beloved. And then yet, we could say, well,
Paul must have an extra grace, but he doesn't. And so to prove
that it's not just about him, he says, I got Timothy who is
my partner in the gospel, the person who I put everything I
have into that he might do what I do when I'm dead. to teach
other men, what? Teach reliable men to learn and
to teach the Word of God, to teach others. That's the first
epistle of Timothy to Timothy. Teach others, to teach others,
to teach others, to teach others the true gospel of Jesus as they
live it out, running the race, preaching the gospel, in season
and out of season. I know some hunting season came
in yesterday, but friends, I've never seen an open season on
the gospel except from the contrary. There's an open season on the
gospel right now in this country by people who are well to do
Christians. And I say well to do, I mean,
not in their financial position, but in their religious position.
And they hate the gospel. And they will hate you. And Paul says, well, here's Timothy,
he's come. He's an example of what I'm showing you. God has
done the work in him and he is faithful to complete it until
the day of Christ. He'll continue to do that work. Here's Timothy,
look at his example. And everybody said, well, Timothy's
your guy, man. You've taken Timothy. I mean, if you hung out with
me all day, Paul, I'd be like you. So what does Paul say? Well, how about the one you sent
me? Who got here and I haven't taught him anything because he's
almost died. You sent him here. You couldn't minister to me,
but you sent him here. And now he's doing what you couldn't
do because you sent him to do it. He's doing your ministry
because that's what you sent him to do. And then he got here
and he almost died for the sake of the gospel. And I'll tell
you what I'm going to do. Epaphroditus is an example of
the work of God. And I'm going to send him back
to you so that you may rejoice. I'm going to send Timothy to
you. I'm going to send Epaphroditus to you. Now you can see what
God does in the lives of people. And you can benefit from it.
That's why, beloved, it is so imperative. It is so imperative
as someone who is born of God, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
that you be in the local fellowship of believers. Not busy with stuff
to do, but busy about loving and praying and tending to each
other, spiritual well-being, and the fact that when our joy
wanes, we know we've got brothers and sisters in the Lord who are
not only going to pray for us, but are going to preach the gospel
to us so that it may be the joy of Christ. And we stand wringing
our hands time and time again and we wonder, why do I feel
so down? Why do I feel so angry? Why do
I feel so out of touch? Why do I feel so forgotten? Because we divorce ourselves
from the grace of God when we leave the beloved body that we
are a part of. It's like cutting off our finger
and wondering why we can't dial the phone. It's worthless. If you are the finger and you're
not here, then the whole body can't do it. not to count what
you feel. And it puts me, it puts me as
a Christian, as a child of God, in desperate need of His grace,
it puts me as a Christian wondering, how am I going to find my joy?
in this season. Okay, I hear you preaching, and
it sounds good, and I well up with emotion, and I'm great.
Yay! But when I walk out there, by the time my meal is digested
from lunch, I'm back to where I was. Where is the power of
the gospel in my life now? I hear the teaching, but where
is it? It's in the teaching. And Paul says in verse 1, Finally,
my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. This isn't the first time he's
said that. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. This is the 8th time Paul has
said that. The 8th. And he's going to say it three
more times before he gets through chapter 4. Rejoice. How do we do it? Well, I think
there's a clue here when he says, to write the same things to you
is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Think about it for a second.
Paul sums up all this instruction, all these examples, all this
teaching. Be like this. Live like this.
Expose yourself like this. Pray like this. Rejoice like
this with another command to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord.
Do you know that that is not a suggestion? It is not even
the fruit in this particular sentence of the gospel. It's
a command by God. Hear that, church? This is a
command by God. Finally, my brothers, rejoice
in the Lord. You hear it? It sounds different,
doesn't it? He doesn't say, I wish that you
all would be joyful. Or I pray that you would rejoice.
Or I pray that God would give you a rejoicing heart. He says,
I command you, the Lord of Heaven, to rejoice. He commands us to
rejoice. You say, why do you keep saying
God commands it? Because God's Word is His voice. Paul wrote it. God said it. It's on the back row. Sola Scriptura,
one of the pillars of our faith as Protestants, as Evangelicals,
as Baptists. By the Word of God alone, the
authority of God's Word, listen, will rise and follow your life. God's Word is the only way you
are going to be able to obey that command to rejoice. I had
a conversation with some of my children yesterday. It's bled
over into a brief thought or dialogue this morning. How am
I able not to be angry like some people that they see being angry? Now, what they're saying is,
Daddy, you're never angry. They're not saying that. But
they're looking at some people who are always angry and they're
thinking, how are you not angry? like they're to the only the
only answer I have to say is if I'm not in God's word, I would
be just like them. Maybe anger isn't your issue.
Maybe it's worry. Worry doesn't fit with rejoicing. So to worry is to disobey God
when he says to rejoice. To be angry is to disobey God
when He says to rejoice. To be burdened or bitter, depressed. Wait a minute now, I can't help
that. You're right. But the Word of God can. Because let me tell you what's
impossible for me. You ever been there where you could just choke
a guy? Can I be honest, can I be real?
You ever been in that place, whether it be the gas pump, supermarket,
front porch, wherever it is, you can just choke a guy. You're
thinking, and you're standing there like this and you're looking,
so I hear what you're saying, but you're thinking, I could choke
him. I could choke him. Now that's not often, because
if it were, we'd have problems. I'd have to take some season
to go get some help. But you've been there. If you
haven't been there, you will be. And if you don't want to
choke somebody, maybe you just want to run away. Maybe that's
how you deal with things that anger you. Maybe you just want
to run away, just want to run screaming in the woods, never come back. Well, let me tell you, when you
go inside your house or inside your car or inside wherever you
are, and if you've driven down I-16, you've thought that. Don't
lie. But when you remember, when you remember that Christ
was reviled and He did not say a word. When you remember that
Christ did not return reviled with reviled, but entrusted Himself
to the One who is faithful, the Judger of all men, the righteous,
holy, right Judge who will give recompense where it is due absolutely
perfectly. When you know that, when you
know that your sin, that my sin, when I, let me turn it back on
me, when I know that my sin is so much worse against God's holiness
than that cat on my porch who I want to choke, aggravation
is to me. I have nothing to do but rejoice. But you know what's crazy? I can't keep that in freshness
of my heart and mind if I'm not putting it in my heart and mind. We have a problem in our culture
that when we have a problem, the first thing we want to do
is to call and complain about it. And I really believe this
is a root problem in the body of Christ. So I want to go back
to chapter 2, verse 14. To write the same things to you
is no trouble to me, Paul says, and is safe for you. Now he's talking about something
else, but I'm going to use the apostles' reasoning here and
I'm going to do something else. In chapter 2 verse 14, there's
a command here that says, do all things without grumbling
or disputing. Some translations say complaining.
Same thing. So that you may be, you see why
we don't do it? So that you may be blameless
and innocent, okay? Children of God. So that means
in the antithesis, you see this is what rhetoric is, it gives
a statement and the statement by the syntax, by how it's constructed,
provides an alternate option. I command you to do all things
without grumbling and disputing so that you may be blameless
and innocent children of God. So let's take it there. So that
as we complain and grumble and dispute, we're not seen as blameless,
innocent children of God. And if we can't stop complaining
and disputing and grumbling, then maybe we're not innocent
and blameless children of God, okay? This is a repeat. Without blemish, in the midst,
And see, what we see in the New Testament, there's always two
groups of people, never three, always two. There are the sons
of disobedience, the world, all in the same package, the sons
of disobedience, the world, the dead, sinful, the wicked, the
evil, the reprobate, the ones who've been turned over the reprobate
mind, Romans 1, dead in our trespasses and sin, and the saints, the
church, those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no other group.
And so if we know what Paul, especially to the letter of the
Ephesians, if we know what Paul teaches in chapter two there,
that we were once just like the rest of the world, sinful, depraved,
unable to see good, unable to do good. We were just like the
rest of humanity, sons of destruction, sons of disobedience, objects
of destruction, but we're no longer that way. So here then
we could, We can imply that, or that is implied, because the
doctrine is the same. Do all things without grumbling
or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent children
of God without blemish. Look, in the midst of a crooked
and twisted generation. And in contrast, among whom you
shine as lights in the world. Now I'm going to get into some
really happy, joyful, pet theology. But everywhere I see the word
light in scripture, I just get giddy, like the first computer
I ever got. I ran down the hall crying, I
was so excited. Now I wish I'd never gotten one. When I see light of the world,
I hear the words of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. God's Spirit was hovering over
the waters of the deep and the darkness. And God said, what? Let there be light. That was not the creation of
the heavenly bodies. That was not the creation of the stars.
That was not the creation of anything that can be seen or
touched with matter. That was the creation of the
exposition of God's Word. And the reason I know that, if
all I did was study the Old Testament, I wouldn't know that. But because
God has given us Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, we know,
as John's Gospel says, in the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word is the light shining in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it. And this light is the life
of men. And then this Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. In John 3, Jesus says, this is
the judgment, that the people of the world love the darkness
because all of their good works are evil. All of their religion,
all of their Bible study, all of their stuff, not counting
all the heinous stuff that they know, but they love the darkness
because they can hide behind the darkness. But they don't
come to the light because it will be seen that they were living
in darkness and they don't want it to be seen. They care more
about the glory that comes from men. The shining on their accommodations. The shining on their accomplishments.
The shining of light of men. The spotlight. Look at this guy.
Look what he's doing for the world. Look what he's doing for
the Lord. Look what he's doing. They love the glory that comes
from men rather than the glory that comes from God. That's chapter
12 of John, right after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
And the high priest that year and council decided that Jesus
must die and Lazarus. But Jesus says, all who come
to the light, do so that it may be clearly seen that their works
have been carried out in God. That's the close of John 3. John
3.16 points to every bit of that. The light. of the world is Jesus
Christ. And if we are the body of Christ,
then we shine as Jesus shines. That's as simple as it is. That's
how Jesus can say we're the light of the world. It's not us. It's
not in us. It's not for us. It's for Christ.
It is Christ and Christ alone. Solus Christos. That is it. In Christ alone.
It is about Christ. And if we don't shine by contrast
to the crooked and twisted generation, then Christ isn't in us. This
is the dichotomy that is continually created here with Paul. And it's
frustrating for us because we as the children of God, we sit
here going, I know I'm in Christ, but this just, what is he saying?
That if I ever complain, that if I'm ever angry, no, because
if that's the case, then we're in all condemnation. Romans 8, 1 says, Therefore now
there is no condemnation, but those who are in Christ Jesus.
We also have seen Paul say, Work out our own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God who wills and works for His pleasure.
Works in you. God is doing the work. God has
begun the work. God will completely do the work.
But how do we do it? Look at verse 14, 15. I'll read
it again. Do all things without grumbling
or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children
of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation among whom you shine as light in the world. Holding
fast. You see that verb there? As you shine, you're holding.
Holding fast. to the Word of Life. So there
we go. This is the point. That was the
introduction, by the way. I want to show you what it means
to hold fast to the Word of Life. Holding fast to the Word of Life
so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not
run or labor in vain. That's Paul saying that as we stand together
in Christ, you'll be there with me. We'll stand together as the
body. And I'm going to be looking and
going, We're the Philippians. Oh, Lord, I preached, I prayed,
and they rejected the gospel. We're all Philippians. No, you
hold fast to the Word of Life. What does it mean to hold fast?
I talked about this a little bit weeks ago, but let me focus
on it for a moment, and let me give you what I think Paul wants
us to remember in verse 3 of chapter 1. Chapter 1 of chapter
3. You've got to stay on your toes.
When he says, I'm going to repeat myself, It's no trouble for me
to do it. And it's safe for you. You see
that it's safe for us church to hear the same thing over and
over. I've heard stories about pastors who preached a transcribed
sermon. In other words, they pretty much
read it. You don't really know we're reading sometimes, but
sometimes they transcribe the sermon so it could be verbatim.
If they ever did it again, it could be verbatim. And this one
pastor that I talked to said he went in and for one Sunday
morning he preached the sermon, and the next Sunday morning he
went in and read the sermon again, and the next Sunday morning he
went in and read the sermon again. At the end of that service, somebody
came up and said, you mentioned some things you mentioned last
week. So he did it the next week. And
then about five people called on him. Didn't you preach that
last week? He said, for four. And they were flabbergasted. Really? I don't know. Maybe there was
carbon monoxide leaking the church. Maybe it was really hot. Maybe
they had a fellowship beforehand. They were all full. I don't know.
But we don't know. But we do know this. Friends,
I've studied and taught a lot of Philippians many times for
many years. And God shows me something every day. Not new.
He shows it to me again. So that it's new. The mercies
of God are new daily. That means what you learn today
about this text is not going to carry you to next week. You've
got to continue to revisit it. You've got to put it in your
mind and in your heart. And it's got to be focused on. So to hold
on means to like a laser precision, you look at it. So the Word of
Life is that we look at it, we look for it, we try to find it
in the midst of everything. If we're going to hold fast to
the Word of Life so that we can rejoice, so that we can stop
complaining, so that we can shine as the light of the world, then
we've got to know what that means. We've got to put energy into
looking to find the Word of Life and that we already have it,
it's ours. We've got to put energy into holding fast and focusing
on it and meditating on it. Do you know what the Word of
Life is? The Word of God. The Word of Life is the Word
of God. Christ, who became flesh. The
Living Word. I quote this text way too much,
some people say, but I don't know any other text in the Bible
that explains it as much as Paul does in 2 Corinthians when he
says in chapter 4 that there are the people of the world who
have been blinded, unbelievers have been blinded by the God
of this world to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel. In verse 6, he says, But God,
who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Word of God is all we have,
folks. Holding fast to the Word of Life
is holding fast to the Word of God. Proof that you're holding fast
is joy. For 15 years now, almost 15 years
now, I have measured spiritual maturity,
spiritual growth, no, spiritual health, all of those things in
myself and in the people who I talk to and hang around and
shepherd by how their joy looks. How their joy looks. You want
to see somebody spiritually mature? They have no joy. You want to
see somebody spiritually mature? They're suffering greatly, but
they have joy. And you know the difference between the people,
some of which have probably been Christians for 30 years or longer,
50 years or longer? The difference in the person
that has joy and the person that doesn't is the person that doesn't
is focused on everything that's wrong, everything that's happening,
everything that they need in themselves, and the burden that
they carry for others. And the person that has joy is
focused on the Word of God. in order to understand the outcome
of joy. Just listen for a second. Paul,
in this letter, chapter 1, verse 4, I'm not going to read them
all, but he says, Always in every prayer of mine for you all, all
making my prayer with joy. He says in verse 18, What then? Only that in every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. He's in prison so he's praying
and praying for others while he's in prison gives Paul joy.
Verse 18 says that there are those out there who are rivalries
of his who are talking bad about him and defaming his ministry
and trying to ruin his reputation and they're preaching for their
own gain but in the fact that they're preaching the right gospel
message he rejoices. That even in their greed and
hatefulness and wickedness that God's using them to preach the
right message. Scripture says in verse 25, Convinced
of this, that he's gonna remain in the flesh, he says, convinced
that I'm gonna live. I know that I will remain and continue with
you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in
me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus. In chapter
two, verse two, we continue there, and what do we see? Complete my joy by being of the
same mind. Complete my joy in chapter two,
verse 17 and 18. We've read all this today. Even
if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon a sacrificial offering
of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should also rejoice
with me and be glad. By the way, be glad and rejoice
with me. Verse 28, chapter two. And I,
the more eager to send him, Epaphroditus, therefore that you may rejoice
at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. Verse
29. So rejoice, so receive him in
the Lord with all joy and honor such men. And then in verse 1
of chapter 3. So it's about joy. Paul will
go on to say in chapter 4 that the Philippian church are his
joy. He will go on to say that They
should, by command, rejoice in the Lord. And again I say, rejoice. Twice. And Paul then closes out his
time in Philippians with the letter here and saying that he
rejoices in the Lord at their concern for him. So think about
it. Paul's focus in seeing these
people mature is that they have joy. And the only way to have
that is to what? Hold fast to the Word of Life. And the question still remains,
doesn't it? What does it mean? What does it look like? Friends,
I can simply say this. Holding fast to the word of life
would be like every day reading the letter to the Philippians. Of which I ask of you every week.
Just read it. Read it with intent. Read it
with purpose. Read it with focus. Read it with affection. Read
it with expectation. Think about it. Mull over it. War with it. Soak it in. Eat it. Forget that you had to
go to lunch because you're so in tune with the Word. Have you
ever done that? Have you ever been so embroiled
in the Bible that you forgot to eat? No? What keeps us from eating? I would suggest to you that holding
fast to the Word of Life is a better opportunity to skip food than
whatever keeps us from eating. Well, in Psalms 1, I'm just going
to give you some thoughts. We're not going to go to every
one. In Psalm 1, it says that the
righteous man is planted like a tree by the water. and has
all the nutrients it needs for growing. You know what it says
about that man? In the law of the Lord, he meditates
day and night. So there's one example. How do
I hold fast to the Word of Life? Meditate day and night. Do you know one of the greatest
tragedies of us as the church of America is we have access
to everything. We can see anything at any time,
anywhere. And I will tell you that the
world weighs against our affections and tempts us to look at things,
not that they're bad, but that they're idolatrous. Let's even
use a better word, they're adulterous. Christ is our bridegroom. His Word is time with Him. See,
we forget that. I just want to see Jesus, then
look at the Bible. I just want to be with Jesus, then be with
the Bible. I just want to hear the voice
of Jesus, then read and listen to the Bible. The Word of God
is being with Christ. And it's all we'll have until
He comes and we see Him face to face. That's why it's so troubling
to see so many people of so many different sects of so-called
Christianity who are having experiential things happen to them. Oh, I
died and I came back to life. And they're saying things that
aren't even in the Bible. Let me tell you something, if I died
and came back to life, I'd be the most bitter man that ever
walked the earth. And I'd have to tattoo 2 Corinthians
chapter 14, 15, 16 on my head and hands and feet. So every
time I put my socks on, I'd do everything without grumbling
and complaining. By God, I was standing with Jesus and now I'm not. And I often like to say, especially
at funerals, if my loved ones are between me and Jesus, they're
going to get tackled in heaven. Not because I want to hug them,
because I want them out of my way. and they can stand behind me.
You see the point. Now, I'm not saying that's what
the Bible teaches about heaven. I'm just talking about our affection
for Christ. The Bible says that holding fast
to the Word of God is meditating on the law of God, eating it,
digesting it, working it in us. Friends, the Bible given to the
saints, given to the church, the New Testament especially,
given to the body of Christ is Christ with His body. Maybe it's
the first time you've ever recognized that. That's why if you want
to meet with Jesus and worship Jesus as Grace Truth Church,
we're going to put an hour in the Bible. Well, maybe 40 minutes
in the Bible and 20 minutes of me talking about it. Maybe probably not that. But
you get the point. We're going to talk about the
Word of God, not what I'm doing, not what I've done. Not what
you're doing. Not where we're going. Not where
we've been. Nothing cool. What's cooler than
Jesus? What's greater than the gospel?
What's more intimate than the Bible? Nothing. Jesus Himself
in Matthew 4 after being tempted for 40 days and 40 nights with
no food. Now keep in mind, He was a 100%
pure, real human being. Jesus wasn't a spiritual man. He was a human with a divine
nature and a human nature. That's what the incarnation is.
First of October, we're going to start on Tuesday nights a
class on the Trinity. And we're going to talk a lot about how
that looks. And we're going to realize that
we don't really know a whole lot about that. But we can know
what the Bible teaches us about that. But Jesus gets through
starving for a month and longer, a month and a week. And He comes
out of the wilderness and the enemy of God, Satan, Lucifer,
finds Him and says to Him, You are hungry. You're starving. Just turn these stones to bread
and eat. You need to eat, Jesus. It's
important you eat. He was truthful. Jesus was hungry. It was not a sin to eat. He needed
to eat, and He could turn those stones to bread. But what did
Jesus say? Man does not live by bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Do you
know? You know where I'm going. What comes to your mind when
you hear that? Jesus and John 6. After He fed 5,000 men and
their children and wives, They follow him all the way to
Capernaum, staying up all night trying to find him so they could
get more food. And then when he tells them that he is the
bread of life, or that he has the bread of life, that would
not perish in their stomachs, they say, give us this bread
always. After they say, what sign do you bring? They'd fallen
into myths. They'd fallen into the myth that
we see in the Jewish writings, that the person who would come
would actually find the Ark of the Covenant, and then out of
it, it would have a piece of manna that perished by, really,
by mid-morning. You couldn't store it. But some
miraculous way, they thought, in a mythical way, that there
was a piece of manna in the Ark of the Covenant, and that the
One who came, who claimed to be Messiah, would bring that
bread and say, see, I show you manna, so I'm really Him. What
sign did you bring? After he fed them from a sack
lunch the day before. He says to them, do not labor
for the bread that perishes, but labor for the bread that
endures to eternal life. I am the bread that comes down
from heaven. And if you don't eat of me, you
will not live. That's a paraphrase. Jesus understood that. Jesus
understood that the Word of God was the bread of life. How did
Jesus overcome temptation? By the Word of God. How am I
going to not be angry? How am I going to deal with this?
How am I going to deal with my sin? How am I going to deal with temptation? How
can I walk in the light? By the Word of God. There's no other
explanation. There's no other counsel. There's
no other therapy. There's no other psychology that
can help you in your walk with Christ except the Word of God. See, what happens when we don't
hold fast to the Word of Life is we become in bondage to our
flesh. We're not walking as a light in the midst of a crooked. We
walk like the crooked generation. Angry, selfish, bitter, frustrated,
worried, fearful, forgetful. No, wait a minute, that's not
it. That's just mine. Forgetful. We forget the Gospel. We forget the glory of God. We
forget the Word. And somebody will say, you know
what? You need to get in the Bible. Go read John 1. And you're like,
I've tried that! It's not a recipe, people. I
mean, I've even tried recipes and it comes out of the oven
like, I can't eat that. I wouldn't even give that to
my dog. What is that? It's being with Christ. And we
labor for many things in this world. We work hard to hone our
talents and our treasures. We work hard to manage our time.
We work very hard to think about tomorrow when today we ought
to work harder than anything to be with our Lord. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. By holding fast to the Word of Life, you
will be a light to the world in the midst of a crooked generation
and you will rejoice in the midst of the darkness that will not
overcome you. And Jesus says that we find freedom
from all of this through the Word. In John 8, He says these
words in 31, If you abide in My Word and My Word abides in
you, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Abide in the Word of God. Holding
fast to the Word of life is holding fast to Christ. Holding fast
to the Word is holding fast to freedom. I just can't stop. I just can't quit. I just can't...
You're right, Christ and His Word will work His power in you. See, if I were a faith preacher
right now, then we'd pass a plate and you'd plant a seed, but that
ain't the way it works. Christ was already planted in the ground
and He rose victorious. We don't need any more seeds.
We need to eat of Christ and His Word. And I said, well, I'm
doubting, I'm frustrated. Paul says to the Romans who thought
the same way, how can we be so Christian like y'all? Y'all fought
with God for thousands of years. And Paul would say, no, we didn't.
We had the oracles of God. I was like PhD, a PhD, PhD in
theology. I had it all. I had everything.
I was part of St. Hendren. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. He's going to get there in a
minute too. And you know what? You Romans
that think you're subpar Christians, you're greater Christians than
we. Because faith comes by hearing,
and hearing comes by the words of Christ. Romans 10, 17. So you doubt, you worry, you
feel worn out and wiped out. Oh, my faith isn't what it used
to be. Because we're not holding to the Word of God. We're substituting
Oswald Chambers or Charles Spurgeon or John Piper or whoever it might
be. For Jesus. Let dead men speak, but let a
living God speak louder. You want your faith to hold,
you've got to be in that which gives you faith. Hold fast. Because without the
Word of God, friends, we cannot walk as light. Light reflects
the nature of who God is, and that's holiness. We see that
in 1 John. If you say you have fellowship
with Him, you walk in the light. But if you walk in darkness,
you lie and you don't practice the truth. The light of God, the light of Christ
is reflective in description of His holiness. It is good.
It shines. It's pure. It's righteous. And
friends, you might say, well, my personal holiness. Well, I
say personal holiness. Because we're accountable for
our righteousness. And if we're working our righteousness
to please God, then guess what? We don't have the righteousness
of Christ. But if the righteousness of Christ is ours, then we have
the holiness of God, and we fight the good fight, and we run the
race, and we strive to press toward obedience. And God works
in us to make it easier as we stay in the Word of God. I promise
you, I promise you, if you are disciplined and habitually in
this Bible, your sins will be so hidden that you will have
to pray that God will show them to you. And you will know they're
there. And when you confess that, you'll
be just laboring over a specific sin in your life, and somebody
who is a brother or sister in the Lord will come to you and
say, how can I pray? And you'll share with them your
need for prayer, and they will laugh. They will say, I haven't even
thought about that in my life. Why are you concerned with such
a simple, minuscule issue? Why are you doing it? Because
you have gotten yourself so in love with Christ, so in tune
with His Word, that the sins that normally plague you aren't
there anymore, so that all these little things start to become
aware. Much like Paul's covetousness,
and I won't argue the timeline in which people like to argue
what he's talking about there. Either way, covetousness was
part of Paul's art. And he recognized it even as
a Christian born of God on the road to Damascus. And so, can
you see it? It can flesh itself out, but
I don't think it did. Paul confessed it. Somebody would
say, That's just so simple to worry about. I mean, you're not
murdering people. You're not killing people. You're not doing all this. You're
not cursing and throwing things. You're a pretty good guy. Quit
worrying about it. No, that's what happens. You know why? Because
it keeps us holy. The Bible teaches us that Jesus
prays in John 17, 17. You can remember that, John 17,
17. Jesus says this to God the Father, sanctify them in your
truth. Sanctify them in Your truth."
And you might think, well, what's the truth? He says it. Comma,
Your Word is truth. You want to be holy? You've got
to be in the Bible. And ultimately, and I put this
last on purpose, we hold fast to the Word of Life because Jesus
says in John 15, these things I've spoken to you that my joy
may be in you and that your joy may be full. Do you hear that?
Your joy, my joy is in you so that your joy may be full because
I have spoken to you. He's speaking to you. He's speaking. He's speaking. What difference does it make?
What if we don't ever grow like this? Well then, the whole body
of Christ hurts. We hurt each other. We see failure
in our commitment, we see failure in our prayer, we see failure
in our intimacy, we feel failure in our worship, failure in our
hope, failure in our joy, failure. And you know what's the remedy
of failure? The word of life. Christ alone is life. And friends, You don't have to
say, you can say right now, I have heard the gospel of Jesus. I
have heard the words that give life and joy and holiness and
hope and peace and power. The question is, do you believe
the gospel of Jesus? Are you at the place where you
can see? Do you want to see? My prayer is that God would help
you see, that you would see and that your joy would be full.
And that you would see the word of God, not just as a compilation
of letters and stories, but as God himself speaking to your
soul this very second. Let's pray. Oh Lord, I thank you for your
burden. It is so light and so easy because
you put the burden of judgment and wrath on Jesus. Help us to
hold fast to you by holding fast to the Scripture. Not just individually,
Father, but together. And Lord, we pray these things
in the name of Jesus. Amen.