Hold firmly. Firmly. We think of holding firmly, and
as we've looked at Paul's writing to the Philippian Christians,
it's very important that we take a moment to see what it truly
looks like for the church to hold firmly to the Word of Life.
Listen to the Word of the Lord in Philippians 2. Verse 14. through 18. Do all things without grumbling
or questioning so 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 lights in the world, holding
fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be
proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am
to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering
of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise,
you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Before we close this little section
of of the text out next week, I feel it important to focus
on the phrase, the theology, the expression, the the teaching. As you hold fast to the word
of life. We see that he commands the church
in Philippi to do all things without grumbling, without complaining,
in order that the world that is dark and dead and dying may
see that there is a difference. may see that there's a light
of hope, that there is something shining against the darkness
of depravity and death and destruction and judgment. And that the church
is the only light through which the gospel of Jesus may shine.
This text is highly evangelistic. It's driven from the core of
the heart of Paul in that he was pouring out his life as an
offering for the sake of the souls of the lost, that the saints
may be drawn in to the body of Christ and he is willing to die
for that purpose. Oh, what things the church today
does. For which I would never be willing
to die. May the heart of the gospel of
Jesus Christ be that which informs and instructs and injects the
courage and the focus and the purpose of the church forevermore.
Without which the world dies in a happy place only to see
the wrath and the judgment of holiness. It goes far beyond the reach
of just expressly teaching theological terms or application in a pragmatic
way. Paul's writing to the Philippians
is a way of seeing that it is absolutely imperative that the
gospel of Christ get into the world and that if the church
is like the world, there is no hope for the world. That if there
is not a level of holiness amongst God's people, then God is a liar,
for he himself says that he has created a people for his own
glory by the power of his own glorious grace. And in that it
produces a zeal and a passion and a holiness that is unparalleled. In the world's glimpse, in the
world's eyes, it is unparalleled. that the world looks upon the
church in either two ways, in awe or wonder, in amazement or
bewilderment or in hatred and disdain and disgust. Church, it is not our problem,
either one, as we are viewed, it is our purpose that we be
viewed as the product of God's grace. It is the power of God
at stake. It is the name of God in question. It is the fact that Jesus Christ
has suffered and bled and died. He has imparted himself as creation
so that he might save those who are his. In such a way that when
we as the church who profess his name live not with the passion
of the gospel, not in a path of holiness that we defame his
glory. Oh, that ministry would be a
reflection of such truth. That as we thought of the word
ministry, it would be an absolute sacrificial expression of what
Christ did, of what Paul did, of what we should be doing. And
that the world would know that when they heard ministry, it
meant a giving for the sake of the gospel. As you hold firmly. That would
be a better way of writing this if you were to understand it.
If you looked at the construct of the syntax there in the original
language, it would read this way in expression. Do all things without grumbling
or questioning so 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 lights in the world as you
hold fast. And it's not a commandment to
hold fast. It's as you are shining, as you
are walking, as you are living, as you are doing life, you are
holding fast. It's an expectation. It's a generalization. As you do this, you're holding
fast. It is what you're doing because holding fast is how you
walk through this life without complaining. Holding fast is
how you walk in this life separated from the world. Friends, we should
not be seen as just good, moral, Christian, church-going people
who gather around with the rest of the good old moral Americans.
Christians should be seen in such a way that people have to
turn around the corner and whisper, hey, don't tell that joke around
them. Hey, shh, shh, shh. Close your
screen. Turn that off. Don't show them that. Well, it's
just a guy falling down the stairs and breaking his neck. It's not
funny to them. They don't think that's funny.
Because there's there's change in us. There's power in the church. It's not it's not a bad thing
to be looked at as a righteous person. It's not a bad thing
to be looked at as someone who has joy. It's not a bad thing
to be looked at as someone who does not find pleasure in the
stupidity of life and the mundane things that we call entertaining
in this world. I find them exclusively boring. I don't want to be known as the
guy who's cool and fun and hip and happening. I don't want to
be known and I don't want you to be known as the church that's
got it all and it's the place to be. I want you to be known
as the people who stand apart in such a way that the world
hates you so that God may say, blessed are my children. Blessed
are the sons and daughters of my possession whom I've bought
by the blood of my Son. We've come a long way, haven't
we? We've come a long way from being able to say, it is well. With our first world complaints
and our first world fodder and our first world attitudes and
relational, our social atmosphere, our blogosphere, our issues that
we call pain and suffering that really are not pain or suffering,
but just niceties. Gone astray. As you hold firmly. Beloved,
I preach because there is nothing else I desire to do. We planted
this body, God started this church that we may be a light to the
darkness. in everything we do, not that
you as an individual believer would fulfill your obligation
in finding sound teaching by the Lord's grace in a place in
an environment that's not hostile towards such. The church doesn't
gather that each individual one may find the appeasement of his
or her own conscious to say, yeah, I've done the church thing. We ought not to be in a place
where we could leave this gathering and go and do what we do this
afternoon without contemplating how what we are and what we do
and what we say and how we pray and how we engage would affect
each and every person among us today. Because it does. If I'm praying for you and you
engage in sinful things, then my prayers are affected by your
unwillingness to obey the Lord. And if something that I do today
disregards your interest and it hurts you, then why would
I do it? We must always be mindful of
the purpose of the church, that it is a body, a living being,
and to which we are connected to our only single head, who
is Jesus. So as the world sees each of
us by ourselves walking in our way, they see our Savior. And a lot of us are grouped in
together that we might be one spirit, one mind, one soul. Hold firmly. We approached the
subject a little bit last week. But I want you to see how this
text unfolds and that I think it is the pivot of the entire
first chapter. I think it's the pivot of the
entire first chapter as you hold firmly to the Word of Life. Let
me show you how that looks. First, as you consider the Word
of Life, what comes to mind? What is it that just engages
your soul and your thoughts? What floods your heart as you
think of the Word of Life? My prayer for you is that you
would see the word of life as we see in John's epistle, that
he is the word, John's gospel. And then in John's epistle, that
which we have seen and we proclaim to you the word of life that
was manifest, made visible, made perfect, made about you, that
you might see it. And indeed, our fellowship is
with the son and with the father. And our joy is complete when
we are in fellowship with the father and with the son. This
Word is the source of eternal life, the eternal life that was
made manifest to us. Now we proclaim to you that your
joy may be complete. Paul says the same thing. He
hold fast to the joy, to the word of life that was manifest
to us that we proclaim to you, that you would not grumble, that
you would have one mind, that you would be on mission, that
you would partner in suffering, that you would live a life exuding
the perfection of the grace of the glory of God, so that you
would rejoice with me as I rejoice with you, for that is the purpose
of our being, that we would rejoice together in Christ in all things. not complain as the world does.
The word of life is the source of eternal life. The Word of
God as it is written in whatever language we read. The Word of
God is not just words on a page, but it is the supernatural, absolute,
guaranteed revelation of God Himself. You cannot know God
apart from His written Word. You cannot worship Him. You cannot
pray to Him. You cannot sing praises to His
name. You cannot share your faith. You cannot even know how to gird
your faith, or stand in conviction. You and I can do nothing apart
from God's Word, because without God's Word, we are without God.
Without God, we are without Christ, who is the living God. And when
pulpits are pathetic and puny and not preaching the word of
God, they are starving the people, giving them seeds of terror and
giving them opportunities to find a false Jesus with a false
hope, saying all is well while they send themselves on to the
judgment of Christ. We must know that the word of
God is Jesus. Jesus is revealed powerfully
by the Holy Spirit, supernaturally and divinely through the words. That some may hear the words
with their human ears. And they hear the words and they
do not hear them. And they say, I don't grasp that.
I don't see Christ there. I don't see glory there. Let
me play my phone. Let me watch my show. Let me go do something else. But oh, for us who see, because
Christ has given us eyes to see, because we have been given the
word of God, we see God, we see Christ. We see the fullness of
the glory of God face to face in the scriptures, and it is
powerfully effective. It is powerfully fulfilling.
It is powerfully moving. And nothing we do to add or to
illustrate this word can hold a candle to it. God doesn't need
us. to add things, to draw people. He doesn't need us to add illustrations
to entice our psychological makeup. He doesn't need us to do that.
God just needs his word. And let me back it up. God just
puts his word out there and people are born again. So the word of life is the source
of eternal life. It is the power of life in Christ. As we walk in this world, we
saw Paul all the way throughout this chapter talking about all
that he is, all that Christ is, all that the ministry is, all
that the suffering is, who Christ is, what kind of mind he had,
what kind of mind is ours in Christ, how we are to engage,
how we're to relate, all of these things right here in the introduction
of this letter. It is powerfully engaging for
the church. And you say, how are we to live
this way? We hold fast to the word of life. We hold fast to
the source of life. We hold fast to the power of
life as we live in Christ, in this world. And in doing so,
the word of life is not just the source of life or the power
to sustain us in this life, but it's the presence of God in this
life. It is Christ with us. If you want to understand what
John means by the fact that Both and he says in the word became
flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory
as the only son of the father, full of grace and truth. This
is where this church is named from that text. And from his
fullness, we all received grace upon grace, upon grace, upon
grace, the effectual grace of God is absolutely certain to
create a people that is transformed. Not churchy. That is righteous
and zealous for holiness, not moral. That are students of the
word of God to their to their distraction and destruction,
not just Bible study people. Prayer warriors. Not just blessing
askers. And when we see the presence
of God, this word became flesh and Jesus left his word with
us that we might have him with us always. That's a stretch,
Pastor. How does Jesus leave this world? He says, go as you go, making
disciples by teaching them what all that I have taught you. Did he say, show him my picture,
show him my video, show him the show on the YouTube, show me
walking on water, show him that. Show him Lazarus coming out of
the grave. Better yet, show him the stone being blown away by
the by the angel Gabriel. You know what? People witnessed
those things and still didn't believe. He said, show my words that I
left you and show them the words that I am going to give you through
the apostles. These are the words of Christ.
They may have been penned by Paul and John and Peter and Luke,
but they are Jesus speaking. It is Jesus with us. Paul is
so certain of that, certain of that, that when he writes to
Timothy, he says these things, Grace be with you. And then he
fills the pages with the text of Scripture, and he says, now,
or he says, grace to you, and then he closes it out, grace
be with you. He even further tells Timothy to be strengthened
by the grace that is yours in Christ Jesus through the Word
of God. Preach it in season, out of season. Preach it. Live it. The word of life is that which
brings the birth of the church. Let me tell you. Just in. It's not a new discovery, but
it was refreshed in my memory this morning with Brother Levi
at breakfast and the devil tempts God's people through preaching. One hundred percent of the time.
The devil is preaching. Sometimes in our consciousness,
no wonder that God is like that, I saw this or I heard that or
I read that, let me let me think about what I think it means and
let me just make it my theology, let me make it my let me apply
it. And the devil preaches from pulpits
every minute. The devil tempted the very living
word of God with the word of God. You're hungry. You can turn stones
to bread. The Bible says you can. But the
Bible also says. That man does not live on bread
alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Live. The word of life gives
birth to the church, the enemy is teaching as much, if not more
than God's people. Why? Because they're more abundant. And I will tell you that the
enemy's churches, I am beginning to believe and see and experience
that they are mostly Baptist. Satanic spiritualist pastors
who are Baptist, who are Methodist, who are Presbyterian, believe
it or not. Or Anglican or whatever you might
say, and we know the cults are the devil's churches, but they
don't influence us. They're out there to tempt the
world with a false gospel that's so false. The church goes, no,
that's false. But the church today that we
see. so easily led astray by the enemy,
even if those who are leading those churches are born of God,
when they lose sight of the word of life and they start grasping
at straws to grow their church or to grow their numbers or to
grow their baptisms or to grow their missions giving or to grow
their their status. They change the message. I've
never even the worst seminarians, even the worst ones. who are
called to the preaching ministry have such zeal when they get
out to preach. They just they're on fire, even
when they're just burning themselves alive and not doing anything
right. They have a zeal. To which you see 10, 15, 20 years
later, it just sort of goes out and then they're worldly. Or
worse, maybe they're graduating from seminaries or being trained
by churches or being mentored by men or women in their own
congregations and in their own lives that are leading them down
a liberal, wrong. Dynamically evil. Theology. Man centeredness, now it's OK
to say that the gospel is man centered. Can you believe it? I don't. But Paul says, don't
be surprised. Don't think it's strange. There'll
come a time when people will not endear sound teaching. It's
true for his day. It's true for our day. Friends,
there are people who can never sit under the teaching of the
word of God because they hate it. It conflicts with everything
they know about religion, everything they know about the gospel, everything
they know about their own eternal life. Well, let me ask you something.
What proves that we are truly the children of God most, except
our humility and hunger for truth? Do we want to stand on what we
think is right or do we want to know the one true God and
the son of yes. The word of life is the source
of power, the source of life, the source and the presence of
God, the birth of the church. And most importantly, here in
this context, the word of life is evangelistic power. He says you are lights shining
in the darkness, the scripture, Jesus himself in Luke's gospel
says this, that let your light so shine before men that they
see your good deeds and what give glory to your father who
is in heaven. And where do good deeds start? Good deeds don't
start from without and move in. Good deeds start from within
and move out. What do you mean? Well, very
clearly, anybody can join an effort. Anybody can work toward
a common goal. God even uses the reprobate and
the lost and the evil to do what He wants to do. He uses people
like Pharaoh and like Judas to bring about the glory of His
absolute, divine, providential predestination. So anybody can join the game
of ministry. From the outside, but when it
gets to the core, when we start moving in to the church growth
movement, starts from the middle, from the center and goes out
and produces that which it starts with worldliness. What we want
to do is grow a bunch of people, worldliness. We start with the core. Of what
the true church is. And when we start seeing people
on the peripheral, because that's how Jesus' ministry looked, isn't
it? He walked around and millions of people followed Him. And then
as He talked, they left. They left. Oh, we love what they're
doing down there at the first church of Jesus. Look at him,
he's walking, he's giving his life away. He could be a rabbi
in the synagogue making head over heels a bunch of money.
He could have sheep on a thousand hills and he could be really
prestigious. Look at what he's doing. He's
giving his life away to come feed the poor. Let's follow him
and get a sandwich. Fishermen who probably did very
well some of them maybe not so well doesn't really know though
All we know is that Jesus commanded them to follow him and he did
and they did they acted in obedience Just like the pool the guy to
pull the Bethesda said stand up take up your man. He just
stood up and took up his man He obeyed him because he's God
he he he requires obedience and he can affect obedience So As they walked and walked
and some of them got to know Jesus, some of them started looking.
Some of them came after the signs and wonders. Some of them believed,
but Jesus did not entrust himself to them, for he knew the heart
of man like Nicodemus. He knew the heart of Nicodemus.
He was in the inner circle of the most prestigious and elite
theological circles. He was the teacher. Jesus calls
him the teacher of all Israel in John 3. But yet he was. He was baffled. Born again. I got I got the Bible. That's good. I know you're from
God. Great. So does the devil. So you're
in good company. You believe the gospel is true.
You know, Jesus is really the son of God. You know everything
about the word of God and you practice morality. Well, so does
the devil. Well, that's a stretch. No, he's
the angel of light. Who do you think worked in Judas?
Did Judas walk around sacrificing children to idols? No, he preached
and he healed and he cast out demons. Possibly. But he hated Jesus. He loved
working for him. He hated Jesus. When the circles
come in, when it gets to the core of Sola Scriptura, When
we get to the word of God alone and it shakes every foundation
that we know, the groups get small. But the word of life is evangelistic.
Shine a light. Friends, we're not talking about
relational evangelism here. We're not talking about fishing
with a guy for 10 years, hope you can get a Jesus conversation
in. We're talking about the word of life. What's more important,
giving someone the cure for cancer or escape from judgment? Giving someone a million dollars
when they have nothing so that they might eat. Or giving them
the bread of life that never fails. Quenching their thirst
and the point of dehydration and death as their organs are
failing and their body is withering away or filling them with the
fullness of the living water of Christ that wells up to eternal
life. Oh, what does she say? What is the woman at Sychar say?
Give me this water. Always give me this bread, they
say, oh, I want it. And she says, I am that bread,
I am that water. I provide a water that's greater
than this well, I provide a bread that's greater than that of the
days of Moses, where all of your forefathers ate and died. You light, you shine in darkness,
and the Word of Life, holding fast to the Word of Life, is
knowing the Word of Life intimately as He knows you. And then it
is also evangelistic because we proclaim this Word. We proclaim Christ, not just
in our lives, but with our mouths. Friends, I promise you, you need
to take everything you've learned through the programs of evangelism,
and you need to pray that God would just make it part of your
trivial segment of your brain. That you could use it in a time
when maybe it's time to make a joke, or maybe remember something
that might be beneficial, maybe a method, but it's not essential.
It's really not essential. I have never met someone who
had to go take a class to learn to share the joys of their grandchildren. I've never met anyone who has
ever had to take a class to share about how awesome their children
are doing in their academics, or in their efforts at military,
or in their sports, or whatever it is, their music. I've never
met someone who had to go through training to sell somebody, tell
somebody about how awesome the shoes they're wearing are and
what a good deal they got on them. And I've never met someone
who had to have training to tell you about how horrible a restaurant
experience was. Why do we need training? Because
we've got to be pumped full of trivial knowledge that we can
have the answers because we don't even know Jesus. If we know Jesus,
we have no problem sharing. If we know the gospel and the
power of God that gave us life, we have no problem. Now, we may
be scared, true, but we share it anyway. Why don't many Christians share
their faith? Because they're not taught the
faith. They have nothing to share. They have nothing to give. You
want an elephant and you ask me for one? I'm sorry, I don't
have one. Can't get one. Don't know where
to begin to look. Maybe I could draw you one. It
won't help you. I can't give you. You can't give
me what we don't each have to give. Evangelism. The sharing of the evangel, the
English word for that is gospel. Good news is the purpose of the
church, one of the purposes that we shine as a light. The primary
purpose of the church is to give glory to God for his glorious
grace. That the purpose of the church
in existence proves to the enemies of God and the cosmos of the
heavenly places that they have lost. Because Jesus has won. And so we. In our evangelism,
holding fast to the word of life, we proclaim the word word, we
shine as light in a dark and crooked and depraved world. And
what we do is we appear. In contrast to the world, in
our minds, our attitudes, our affections, our behavior, and
most certainly the power that we hold. What kind of power we
see, we're thinking to America. We think power means the ability
to do something extraordinary. You're right. What's more extraordinary
than walking through a life of suffering with joy? When most
people find a false joy through some kind of a substance, or
false relationships, or materialism, or power, prestige, self-esteem,
that's the false drug of joy. We appear different in power
before the world because when we have conflict, it's resolved.
We are able to forgive the most heinous of offenses because we've
been forgiven the infraction of falling short of the glory
of God's holy command. And the word of life. Ultimately,
is glorious, it's a glorious existence. in proclaiming this
Word, and most importantly, as we've seen Paul talk, in defending
the Word. Defending the Word. I want you
to understand, we don't need to get stirred up in trivial
controversies, as Paul would say, in genealogies, and on words. But we must stand firm and teach
what is right, especially when many are teaching what is wrong.
And not just teaching, proving they are not of God by the way
they act when called out in their wrongness. Did you hear that? The word of life is glorious.
We defend the Word of Life. How do we do that? We maintain
a grip on it. Let's back to the point. We maintain a grip on
Christ. We maintain a grip on the Word.
We maintain a grasp in our hearts and with our minds. In other
words, we're observant of the Word. We contemplate what the
Word might say about every emotion, about every circumstance, about
every conflict, about everything that we think. that our minds
are captivated by the power of the gospel, that we are absolutely
consumed by the love of Christ and his word. So that we may stand firm and
follow Christ in all that we do. When the world says this
way, when our flesh said this way, when our neighbor says this
way, when our brothers and sisters in the faith say this way and
Christ is over here, it's a lonely place to be, beloved. But let
me tell you something. It is the most joyous place to be. How do we stand firm? Well, there's
some illustrations that Paul's already given in chapter one,
verse twenty seven. He says these words only let your manner of
life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that the result
of being worthy so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
I may hear the testimony of that you are standing firm, you are
resolved to not move, you're not swaying, not being tossed
to and fro by every sound wind of doctrine. You're not like
children in the sea. You are standing firm, speaking
the truth in love. And you have one spirit and you
have one mind and you're striving side by side for what? The faith
of the gospel, not just with us and among ourselves, but for
others who need to hear the gospel. And you're not frightened. You're
not fearful by anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign
to them of their destruction and of your salvation. And that
is from God. So we stand firm in that way. And now Paul says without complaining
with the mind of Christ. How does that work? Well, In
review, it works this way. I've just said it today. We stand
firm, holding fast to the word of life by telling Christ, teaching
Christ. I just don't have those opportunities.
Yes, you do. Don't raise your hand. But how many of you have
had someone complain to you in the last 24 hours? If Paul says
do all things without complaining, questioning, grumbling, aggravation,
all this stuff, then how about that as a starting point for
gospel proclamation? The next complaint you hear in
your own mind or in the mind of someone next to you, preach
Christ. And for years I'm thinking, you
know, I just got to stop complaining. All I do is stand around complaining.
I just can't get my mind straight. Can't stop fussing about stuff.
Then I'm complaining about complaining. One thing leads to another and
I'm complaining about my children, complaining about me complaining,
about them complaining. Then I'm aggravated. And one thing,
you know, it's just a cycle. Well, guess what? Instead of
complaining at all, when we hear complaints, let's preach the
gospel. Let's stand firm by holding fast and tell the word of Christ. Give the gospel. Jesus, what
does it look like? Well, if someone's spilling themselves
out all over you and they're complaining about everything.
Now, I'm not talking about subtle things. I was hot. You know what
a complaint is. And you know what it means for
those people who are cantankerous, they're constantly complaining
about everything. Nothing's right. Nothing's going their way. That's
just not true for the Christian. Because the power of the cross
says that everything from the outside looking in is going to
hell in a handbasket. But we're OK with it. Hallelujah. Praise God. Let's go study the
word and pray and share the faith. Oh, you don't want to suffer
like me. You better stay away from Jesus. Because you will partner
in his suffering. It is a guarantee. If we are
not suffering, if we are not being disciplined, if we're not
being pressed into holiness, if we're not, we are not legitimate
children, according to Hebrews, we are not the children of God.
So these happy go lucky kick my heels up. Hallelujah. I just
bought a Toyota. I had a V8. Everything's great.
Those people who have no burdens whatsoever, scare me to death,
especially when they stand in pulpits. I just think the good
liars. Because I've never met a person
that's never had a burden lost or saved. We tell about Christ. And when
we do that, how we stand firm and hold fast as we see that
Christ gospel, we see that good news about Christ bring to life
those who were previously dead. We see someone complaining about
the despair of their life and frustration and the agony and
how nothing's going right and how this is happening and that's
happening. And we share these words that Christ stepped out
of His glory and created a womb through which He was born. And
the Bible says that He who had no sin became sin that we might
become the righteousness of God. And though you can't see Him,
though you haven't seen Him, you can rejoice with a joy that
is inexpressible, filled with what? Glory! As we peer into
the salvation of our souls, those things in which angels long to
look into, so that God may be seen for His glorious grace in
which we who are then saved by Christ are rejoicing forever
in the fact that He has saved us and He is glorious. We can
see Him as He is, face to face, for God who said that light shone
out of darkness has shone in my heart You've given me the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
And you, beloved, you, lost person, you, you suffer, you, you complainer,
you can experience the fullness of joy in Christ that satisfies
every hunger, thirst, need, pain, desire, and everything if you
just would see and come to Christ. There's about 14 texts encompassed
in that. some of which are memorized,
some of which are combined, some it's just spontaneous. You know
why? Because it just comes out because
it goes in. And it's not there from three
weeks ago, it's there from yesterday or not yesterday, but the day
before yesterday. Where is the gospel coming in? Where's the word of God coming
in? To our hearts. And we see the
birth of new converse. Don't disciple lost people and
teach them to walk a certain way in a worldly way, just preach
the gospel. That's discipleship. The obedience of faith is step
number one. Don't worry about cleaning up
your sin. Don't worry about cleaning up your face. Don't worry about
getting the trash out of your house. Don't worry about all
this other stuff. You don't have to say Hail Mary's
or repent in certain ways or certain bowing positions or pray
certain spells. You just believe in the gospel
of Christ and He wipes away the slate because He's already bought
it. paid for it and it's solved. There's no debt. There's no record. And when someone sees that they
have been born again. That's how they see it. So the attitude of the heart
and the mind is driven. It's not purpose driven, it's
Christ driven and it's focused. It's focused so that the lives,
as we hold on to the word of life, our lives are in a manner
worthy of the gospel. You see that. I guess the question then for
me is, how does my life really look? How does it really look? Now, here's an opportunity to
preach the gospel to yourself, to hold fast to the word of life,
to stand in Christ while I'm really failing. I just don't have zeal, I'm just
a terrible Christian. How about when I get over it,
I'm not saying this to be ugly or condescending. And just say,
yeah, that's right, the Christ is sufficient. It's like a mentor
of mine used to say, when he got the blues spiritually, he
would just walk outside and punch the devil in the nose. I'm like,
how do you do that? He said it several times. And
I said, how do you do that? He said, I just walk across the
street and share the gospel. When I'm pitying myself, he said,
I just walk across the street, I'd find somebody. It don't matter
who, where, what. First person I see, I just say,
hey, I need to talk to you. And they'd come over there and
he'd preach to them for 15 minutes. It's not about us, is it? We're
a reflection of God's power. We are the product of God's power.
We are the fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So therefore,
that when we mire ourselves in our self-contained pity, we are
not doing what is supposed to be done. We are not exercising
that absolute given mind that is ours in Christ. We are just
focused. We are putting blinders on when
we can see. I just got to see. And I know
it's not that simplistic for all of us. But I think we can
start sharing the gospel in our own hearts. We don't need to
go to the Bible. We don't need to try to piecemeal
the scripture and say, oh, Jesus, show me the answer in syntax
form so that I can see what I'm supposed to do about feeling
ugly. We're feeling unworthy or feeling depressed. What am
I supposed to do about my husband or wife or children? Where am
I? Where's the verse that says you should go and, you know,
put a rock under his pillow and he'll get better? It's not there. You know why? Because that's
not what the gospel is. That's not what the power of
that's not what being the church of Jesus Christ is about at all.
It's about looking for an answer to our problems and coming away
worshiping someone else, not ourselves. And when we do that, guess what
happens? No matter what tornadoes twisting up in our collar, we
minister to each other. through prayer, through meeting
needs, through discipling. And as we're along the way, and
as we're going, a lot of lost people are going to bump up against
us, and we just minister to them, too, by preaching the word of
life. Friends, we hold fast, and our
relationships with God are at peace, and our relationships
with each other are healed through the gospel. We are living, as
I've already said in chapter 1, verse 27, for the faith of
the gospel. And when we see this next section
here, what Paul does is absolutely amazing to me. And I think it's
really the key to it all. Is that as he holds fast and
he calls us to hold fast and he says that we are holding fast,
we are doing this in a way that's in contrast to the reality of
the world, that the world does one thing and we do another 100
percent of the time, that's the way it should be. And so when
we see this boasting of Paul, it perplexes me at first because
I subject a subject, the word of God to this worldly view of
boasting. And I look at it and it says
these words. Whole fashion, the word of life,
so that in the day of Christ. I should spend more time on that.
I may be poured, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or
labor in vain, Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering
upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and
rejoice with you all. So you see that I am proud. Let
me boast. Walk this way that I may be proud
that I did not waste my life in. Why, well, first of all,
let's deal with the issue of pride. Paul, in many ways, says
we ought not have pride. So now he said, I'm going to
be proud. You know, we automatically think in our flesh what Paul
just wants a good minute. He wants a success. I mean, we already
know that's not true because he's already said to live as
Christ to die as far better. I'd give my life up for the sake
of proclaiming Christ. I've been mocked and made a fool
of people accusing me of being an idiot and a false teacher. Some people out there who I brought
the gospel to and they came to faith are actually preaching
wrongly to hurt me because they don't like my ministry. You know what I believe about
that? God's using unregenerate, professing Christians. They're
not true Christians. They're unregenerate people to
preach the gospel. It happens. So Paul is not prideful. What
is the honor in that? Having your head chopped off. It's not there. So that's not
what he's talking about. Paul says that he wants to be
able to be found to honor Christ. He already said that. I want
to honor Christ in my body. Remember? Whether I live or die. For to live is Christ. To die
is far better. To die is to gain something.
So, I want to boast before Christ that He has done work through
me. That He would be satisfied for
His work in my life and that God would be pleased by revealing
and seeing the reflection of Himself in me. and in you. For I took the word of God and
through me God spoke and you believed and therefore now that
you are living in a manner worthy of the gospel, I actually can
stand before Christ one day and he looks to me and then he sees
you and then he sees him and he's pleased. So anyone who says that God is
not about his own glory and the paramount position of his soul
is really mistaken about reading the book of Philippians at all.
What does it mean? This is a creativity here. This
is black and white. The whole argument, maybe just
maybe it's because people don't know how to read. Maybe just maybe they love the
glory that comes from man rather than the glory that comes from
God. God have mercy on us and them that lest God invades us,
we would be like them. So Paul says, don't boast in
the law, Romans three, don't boast in the law. I can boast
in the law. I've obeyed it better than all
you Paul even boast in his work. But he says, don't boast in work.
He says of all the apostles, this is crazy. I've worked harder
than them all. But he didn't find pride in that.
He says in Ephesians that faith is a gift so that no man can
boast before God, I chose you, God. So context of the letter
to the Ephesians chapter two, what kind of God is he if he's
desperate to see us choose? When the Bible teaches clearly,
we cannot choose Christ except the gospel come to us by the
grace of God. I often get into debates with
people who are firmly against that reality. To which I said,
then give me the outline of Romans, not nine, all of it. One start
there. I'll prove to you that God's
grace is effectual all the time in Romans one. How about Galatians? Just keep on going. Do it all.
And that I say to them, well, how many people do you know that
are divorced? I guarantee you that at the moment
of that altar, at that wedding, their desire and affection for
that person that they left was greatly sincere. They meant with every fiber of
their being that they would be with them forever. Friends, we
will walk away from Christ if he has not come to us. As the gospel come to you today,
do you hear it? Do you see it? Do not leave this
moment untended. Believe in Christ, lest you perish
in your sins. And if you fail to believe, it's
your fault. Paul does not want to boast He
says he wants to boast in the work of God. He tells the Philippians in chapter
three, verse three, for we are the circumcision who worship
by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence
in the flesh. None. You know, that means it's
not a bunch of God and little me. It's all of God and nothing.
None of me. And there are many cross references
to that reality that Paul teaches. That's how you know you've come
to a false gospel when you can put your finger on what you've
done for your salvation. Faith that is living is a continued
faith that had a beginning and never has an end. And it's a
holding fast to the Gospel of Christ, to the Word of Life,
who is Jesus, so that in every moment of failure, you are not
coming back to this throne of grace trying to work yourself
in. You're coming to the throne of grace because it is a throne
of grace. Saying, Oh, Father, except You be with me and You
tend to me and You have paid my way through the blood of Christ.
There is no hope. You must be born of God. George Whitfield preached that
to his demise. Even frustrated the crown. Because
he preached it on. In the colonies. It must be boy,
the Puritans hated him. Hated him. Because it wasn't
the pious now who were part of the church, it was the wicked
who had become new. So we boast only in God. Paul
says that the Galatians boast only in the cross of Christ.
Paul says to the Romans, boast in your suffering for in your
suffering, you're a maid like Christ. He tells the Colossians
that I pray I may fill up what is lacking in my suffering. Lacking
in the suffering of Christ with my suffering. So holding fast
produces a praise. A prideful, not. Self-pride,
but a boastful praise toward God. A worthiness expressed to
the Lord, to the praise of his glorious grace, for the glorious
grace of God through the birth of his people. The Church of
Jesus Christ. Because God. Is has willed. And worked. For his good pleasure. That's a direct quote from just
a few words again. Has willed and worked. for his
good pleasure. Listen to that text. Therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, verse 12. So now not
only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who
works in you. Both to will and to work for
his good pleasure. You do not will. In your own
heart to love Christ, you know, not will in your own heart to
work for the sake of the gospel, you not will in your own heart
to establish a righteous standard that is given to us by Jesus.
Then God has not willed in you. To do so. You cannot act saved for long
and you cannot fool God. Boasting only in the wonder of
God's power, boasting only in the wonder of the worthiness
of God. This is not self praise, but
God praise Christ praise. It is the fruit of God's work
in our lives to the praise of his glorious grace, not the praise
of our good intentions. Not the praise of our religion,
which it should be there and not a praise of our righteousness,
but Christ's righteousness given to us. Is the fruit of God in
our lives, beloved? Are we proud for what we have
done or do we boast in what God has done? Are we able to show
the success of our ministry, the success of our lives and
the faith by what we have accomplished? Is it God's size or is it man
proven? Do we see change in all the areas
of our lives as we live out the gospel? And. Second Corinthians, I think
it is, let me look over here, this one didn't print out right.
Yes. First Corinthians. Chapter three. We hear this argument
by Paul. Paul says that according to the
grace God given to me. like a skilled, he's a little
boastful here, master builder, he laid a foundation. He says,
I laid a foundation like a skilled master builder because of the
grace of God, which he gave me. So he's not boasting. He's boasting
about God's grace. God did great things and through
God's hands and grace, I have been like a master builder. He's
not saying he's been masterful in the gospel. He actually tells
the Corinthians prior to this what he did not come with splendor
and eloquence, but fear and trembling, unable to speak or stand. He
came and he preached Christ and Christ crucified alone, lest
the cross loses power. So with that as a prequel to
this, we know that Paul is not boasting. He's just saying just
as a master. It's a metaphor. Just as a master
carpenter or skilled master builder lays a foundation, and if that
foundation is masterfully done, then what happens is everything
that's built on top of that stands. If the foundation is off or cracked
or weak, then no matter how good the building is on top, it all
falls down. That's the point. So Paul says
that someone else is building on the work of God through the
master building the foundation of the gospel, which I have laid
by the grace of God. What is he saying? I have made
no mistake. I have made no error. I have
preached nothing wrong. That which I've laid is absolutely
divinely appointed, and it is certainly true. So therefore,
build upon it with it or fail. That's what he's going to argue
in chapter three of first Corinthians. And he says, for no one can lay
a foundation other than that which is laid. And then he says
what it is, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the foundation.
Now, he supposes if anyone builds upon that foundation and he thinks
of the most precious thing that he could think of, think of Jesus
being the foundation. And let's build upon that foundation,
he says, with gold or silver or precious stones. Then he goes
to the more modern things. Wood, hay, straw. He says each one's work will
become manifest that it will be seen for what it is. This
is important. It'll be seen for what it is
for the day of Christ that Paul talks about in Philippians for
the day of Christ that I hope to stand before him and be judged
by the work of his hands will be found worthy of honor to my
Lord. When I see you living the gospel,
because God has saved you through my efforts. The day that all people's work
will be manifest, the day, and it's capital D in your Bible,
will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. What's he
saying? We're going to catch everything on fire and we're
going to purify and only the pure will remain. Well, you know
what? Even gold melts and evaporates. Well, not necessarily evaporates.
You know what I mean. It's destroyed. That which you build out of gold
melts. It's gone. And the fire will
test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone
has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. I'm
stepping into some of my personal... The reward of heaven at its foundation. is the rejoicing and the satisfaction
of one seeing the one that satisfies them the most. It's the more
we love. work, labor and are sincerely
satisfied with Christ, the longing that we have, the more desire
that we have. It is a reward to be with him,
not just in the presence, but in the product of our own working
and our own salvation and our own efforts on this world, that
our worship is made full and glorious in the day when we see
Christ face to face. Now, you follow me there. There's
seven and a half, eight years to get there. For me. So the reward that we receive
is the joy and the satisfaction of Christ's satisfaction with
his work in us. The Bible teaches in first country
history. You'll receive that reward, but if anyone's reward,
I mean, anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though
he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Think of
someone being rescued from a fire. Let me share something with you.
Paul uses the illustration a lot of farming and running a race,
soldiers and builders, because that's what people understood
there. But what we do incorrectly when we hear Paul talk sometimes
is we think about building ministry and we think about, we know,
but we know this is not the case, but we start to think about material
things. Friends, Paul's talking about people. If we build our lives and the
ministry of our lives. Apart from building upon the
foundation of Christ with Christ, Christ is the walls, Christ is
the doors, Christ is the roof, Christ is at all, then everything
that we've built that's not of Christ will burn. In other words,
it'll have no effect, no reward. No glory, no satisfaction, no
well done by good and faithful servant. Now, there's deep implications
from that which we're not going to go into today. But in context
of Paul's writing to the Philippians here, we need to understand holding
fast to the word of God at its core is, of course, in our personal
satisfaction with Christ and standing and proclaiming the
gospel. Why? So that so that our ministry
tests and maintains and succeeds. Through the judgment of Jesus
Christ, when he when he looks at. Woe to us who flippantly
approach anything as God's people. And do not consider that test.
May we really think on that as we leave today? Are we. Really, in Christ. Is our life,
is our legacy, is our purpose building upon the word of life? Has the word of life come to
you and changed you? And if you say no, well, you've
heard it today, it has come to you. Would you fall on the mercy
of our father? That he might give you eyes to
see. Then God will produce that fruit
as you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For
it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good
pleasure. Let's pray. All I know to do, Father, is
just be quiet. We rejoice in you. We rejoice in your gospel. We
rejoice in knowing that we are not able. And that when we do
strive, once you have saved us through your word, we are able. To hold fast to you. To Jesus,
to your word. As a God of it all. All in summary,
we pray these things. That you would effectively. Burden us to evaluate our lives
every moment, and when we find ourselves in a hole. We hold
fast to Christ. When we hear the complaints of
the world, we preach the gospel of Christ. We pray. We live for the purpose of honoring
Christ. That in his day, the day of his
coming. Our lives would be in a manner
worthy of his sacrifice, of the power of the cross, the power
of the resurrection, the power of the word of life, who is Jesus
in his name, we pray. Amen.