You know, sometimes when you
have a whole lot of stuff in your mind, it's hard to focus
on anything. And I would say to you, as many
of you probably are. In like manner. Overwhelmed by
the last few weeks events. It's very. Understandable. That. As we turn on the news
as we pop into our social media outlets as we. See the tweets. As we watch the papers, as we
hear our neighbors and those people who engage with us at
the gas pumps and the restaurants and the post office, city hall
or wherever we might be at work or at home or school, we hear
it. We hear everything that we could
possibly hear that is wrong with the world. And there's always
a problem. There's always an error. There's
always an evil. There's always something that's
happening in such a way that it seems devastating to the mind
of people like us who live in such a place as we have the freedom
to express ourselves in any way we like. And we think, wow, there
is something coming in our hearts that we feel like something's
coming that's going to take that away. And I would suggest that the
one response that we should have as God's, I can't say what the
world should say, but as God's people, we should rejoice. We
should look at the calamities before us and we should say,
praise be to God. But if it be your will, I perish
through this season, so be it for the sake of your name, I
perish. We see the horrors of murder and massacre, bigotry,
evil hatred, and we just praise God for it all. Lord, one day
you will be the justifier. Of all who have faith in Christ
and you will be the one who brings justice to all who continue in
their flesh and sin. He will set all things right.
The scripture says that Christ will set it all right. It will
be done. We see these things that have
happened in recent days. The law of our land being interpreted
in such a way that constitutionally now that which we know as sin
is is not just admittedly encouraged, but it is institutionalized and
made normative. When in 1976, that was even a
crime. To be engaged in that lifestyle
was a crime. And the cry that I see in the
world today doesn't disturb me. Let me tell you this. It doesn't
bother me when I see the world taking sides on these issues. When I see the world taking sides
about flags. When I see the world taking sides
about race. When I see the world taking sides
about love. When I see the world taking sides
about marriage. It doesn't concern me. It doesn't
bother me. Because the world is doing exactly
what the world is to do. And the world is acting exactly
how the world should act. The world is encouraging and
permitting and partnering in a way that the world is supposed
to do. Those who are dead in their trespasses
against God have been turned over to a reprobate mind, according
to Paul in Romans chapter 1, in order that they would do those
things that are unholy. In order that they would do those
things that are improper. In order that they would do those
things, to steal from Paul's words, that are unnatural. bigotry,
homosexuality, adultery, thievery, false witness, covetousness,
greed. And so it doesn't trouble me
when I see what the world does. I'm like, well, what else is
it going to do? What else would a dog do but get fleas, scratch,
poop in the carpet, and tear up the furniture? What else is
it going to do but bark when it hears a bump in the night?
What else? Should it write me a thesis?
Should it call the police? No. It's going to do what it's
supposed to do. What troubles me then is what
the church is doing. What troubles me is what people
say who are supposedly, who are by their mouths and their molecules,
professing to be born again of the living God through Jesus
Christ and His resurrection from the dead. It bothers me how the
church of Jesus Christ, or let me just say this, the so-called
Christians, Act and speak on these matters as though they
have no hope, as though we have no God in heaven who is sovereign
over such things. Now, we are in the letter to
the Philippians. We have looked in the last 14
weeks of this chapter one that we will finish today. 15 sermons in this first chapter. And then we moved to chapter
two. I wish I was in chapter two already so that I could move
into chapter three already because there's some relevant things
to us as a body in there. But in God's timing, that's the
one good thing about exposition. It's not up to me when it's preached. It's up to God. If it were up
to me, we'd be all over the place. You would have a journey that
was so schizophrenic, you would not know where you were. You
would be turned around looking at the wall going, are we started
yet? But praise God that he wrote these letters and not me. Thank
God they're not outlines or little snippets in a bowl that I just
pull out every week and go, OK, that's pretty cool. We'll preach
on that. We preach the word of God in its context. And we've
looked in the last 14 Sundays about Paul and his rejoicing
in the midst of his suffering, which was caused because of the
gospel. And I'm going to focus on that
suffering today. Verses 27 through 30, we're going
to revisit and we're going to end. There's a lot here and I
thought as I reworked for last week, I thought, you know, I
want to do something with two or three of these things. But
the reason I want to do it is because I don't want to be in
a hurry. And at the same time, I don't
want to drag it out. And Paul deals with it already
in chapter two. So let's just get through it.
Let's just get to it rather. So in this, look at verse 27
through 30. And I am going to speak very
quickly today because I'm extremely excited about the fact that God's
grace is sufficient in these days. I'm very excited that no
matter what we're encouraged, what we're being discouraged
by in our lives or in our culture, in our community, our governments,
that God has given us the courage to stand fast with all hope,
with all consistency, with all unity and with all rejoicing
through these words that he says today. Let's look at them. Verse
27, Paul says, only let your manner be worthy of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. so that whether I come to you
or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in
one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of
the gospel. I really want to preach that.
And not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a
clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that
from God. For, for, For it has been granted to you
that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him,
but also suffer for His sake, engage in the same conflict that
you saw I had and now hear that I still have." So there we are. And it's very interesting that
I believe this text fits perfectly with the context of our country.
in every aspect of it. There are nine brothers and sisters
murdered because they were black in Charleston last week, week
before last. And then the United States Supreme
Court said that from the 14th Amendment's ratification, that
that ratification 135 years ago included same-sex marriage. That it was a constitutional
right. And Christians are upset. The church is aggravated. Because
in the name of unity, people are taking down icons of heritage. I hear that word a lot. In the
name of love, people are saying that marriage is a universal
institution. No matter between what party,
how many parties, we don't know. And it's very frustrating. I will tell you what frustrates
me is that when we're done with our service today, there will
be hundreds, if not thousands of pulpits who are preaching.
Not the word of God. But who are preaching politics.
And who are preaching issues. And I have been told even recently
that pastors should take up the banner of political platforms
for the sake of changing our nation. And I say to them, get
behind me, Satan. The world is starved enough with
pundits, they need preachers. The world is starved enough with
so-called churches assembling in the name of a so-called Christ,
not producing anything but worrywart Republicans and Americans and
patriots. Friends, we need to be patriots
of the cross. I'm not anti-American. I am thankful
every day that God birthed me into this nation. And I love
the liberties that are afforded to me. But I do believe that
that is secondary to everything that the gospel is. And I would
give up every freedom I have for the sake of the cross of
Christ. So this issues, these issues
are answered here in the text that I just read, they're answered
there. Last week, we looked at verse
27 specifically, through 27-28. In a way of review, Paul says, Only let your life, only let
your life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So in this singular,
myopic, focused, driven way, we are to live as citizens of
this land in a singular way that the manner of our citizenry,
of our living amongst this people is supposed to be worthy of the
gospel of Christ. Secondly, We are to live as though
we are not of this land. For we are citizens of another
kingdom. It's both and in this context. Paul is saying that
we live worthy as citizens. Paul lived worthy as a citizen
of the gospel as a citizen of Rome. He lived worthy of the
gospel of Christ as a citizen of Rome. He exercised his rights
as a Roman only so that the gospel would be seen
or revealed or exercised in doing so. Why did he appeal to Caesar? So that he could tell Caesar,
Christ is Lord. That's why. Not so he could get
his freedom. And he expected fully, as we've
seen from this text, that he would die. and that he would
honor Christ in his body in death, that he would be willing to die,
just as brother prayed, for the sake of the gospel. We also see that Paul is saying,
let our lives be worthy. Let their lives be worthy of
the gospel as they live in this world and as they live as citizens,
not of this world, so that it will be surely heard an absolute
thing that he would hear that they are standing firm in one
spirit. And what I intended to do today
is really focus on that. But as I looked in last week,
I think it was sufficient. I think it was sufficient. And
then I was going to focus a week on the faith of the gospel. But I think
it was sufficient. I think we should move to where
we are today for the sake of our moving and our growing and
our going together. Why do we preach? Why do we assemble? That we become cohesive as a
body. That we become a people for God's
glory. That we become united in understanding
our mission and our vision and our purpose and our praises and
our praying. Let your life be worthy of the
gospel of Christ. And then he told three ways in
which that was to take place. And they were as a reminder that
we are to stand firm in one spirit, the spirit that has saved us,
the spirit of Christ. We are one in Christ. We are not disjointed individuals,
objects of salvation to be just this scattered multitude. that God could say, look at this
collection that I've acquired. But we are all individually gathered
by the gospel and saved by the gospel so that we can be the
body of Christ. unified. We are saved by the
spirit of grace. We are saved by the spirit of
God. We are saved by the gospel, which is the power of God. We
are one in spirit. So therefore we stand firm. Paul
says that he will hear that these Christians are standing without
shifting. They are standing on the rock
of salvation. They are standing on the gospel
of truth. They are standing on this reality that is theirs in
Christ Jesus, as we'll see in a little while, that God has
done the work of redeeming them. Therefore, they are on a solid
foundation and cannot be moved. They are one people bought by
one God. And so on. Secondly, he says
that the life will be worthy and that they would have one
mind as they strive for the faith of the gospel. And I still think
it would do well for us to consider what that means. In a very quick
way, last week I mentioned that what Paul is saying is that we
are to have one mind and that our focus, our attention, our
purpose as a church is to be striving for the faith of the
gospel. In the context of them as the church, they live in the
faith of the gospel. They live for the sake of the
gospel. but also that they are going
out into the lost world for the sake of others hearing and coming
to faith in the gospel. It is evangelism. I've often
found it strange that there are schools of evangelism of which
I've attended and employed many of those things that I've learned
through the years to find that they don't produce new birth.
They produce results of human affection. They produce results
of human motivation, but they don't produce the new birth.
They just produce people doing different stuff that looks a
little bit godly. And then in the end, if those
people are born of God, then they move into the things that
God has called them to move. But if they're not born of God,
they fall away. And then we call them backslidden. But the Bible
says they never were. So We live a life worthy of the
gospel because we are in one spirit saved by one God. We are
unified as the body of Christ. Secondly, we have one mind in
pursuit of striving for the faith of the gospel for ourselves and
for others. And finally, thirdly, this is review. We are worthy
as we live our lives in this manner, worthy of the gospel.
We are not afraid of our enemies. We're not afraid of our enemies.
And we talked just a minute, I briefly just gave some exposure
to what the enemy of the cross is. Yet there are people who
are enemies of the cross that are easily seen. They reject
the gospel. They scoff at the church. They
laugh at the Bible. They hate the people of God.
They try to, in every turn, manipulate the truth so that it makes us
look like villains. Those people are easy to see,
but there are others who are enemies of the cross who are
among the people of God. And we are to not fear them. And in some sense, I believe
that we misunderstand what that means, I think I close with the
example of how some people tell their children about boogeyman
and as they get older, they roll their eyes at such arguments
as such ridiculousness because they know there's no boogeyman.
And in a sure way and in a more grave way, there is a boogeyman. His name is Satan, but he's powerless
against us. And every enemy of this world
that hates the gospel of Christ, that hates his people are powerless. Every enemy is powerless against
us. We are not to fear, but stand
firm in one spirit with one mind for the sake of the faith of
the gospel. We are to rejoice. We are to pray. We are to pursue
holiness. We are to press into He who is
Christ. We are to press into each other
as we endeavor to support each other and encourage each other
because we have received such from Christ as we'll see in a
moment. So our life should be worthy. Our life be worthy. That means
that our lives should reveal the gospel. What does it mean
for our life to reveal the gospel? Our life should reveal the gospel
and that people can see the gospel's power in us. We should be. Photographs of Christ, we should
be images of Christ, we should be pictures of Christ's work
and heart and mind. Paul says that. In chapter two,
we'll see it in a minute, just a few minutes. Paul says we ought
to be just like Christ, that our minds, which are ours in
Christ, should be just like Christ, who gave himself up and made
himself nothing for the sake of those who hated him. So our lives, if we live worthy
of the gospel, should reveal the gospel. Let's ask some questions
just in contemplation and reflection. What do we do throughout our
day? What are we engaged in? Is it gospel reflective? What
we say with our mouths or our fingers, is it gospel reflective? Is it showing that God is indeed
the power of our lives? All this Lordship salvation stuff
that I learned as a child, you know, you've got to make God
your Lord. You know, that kind of stuff. You've got to put Jesus
on the throne of your life. Now, Jesus is on the throne of
your life, either as your as your judge. Or as your savior. The question is, is our life
showing that Christ is the Lord of it? A savior. Is he our savior? Do is what
we do and what we live for shown as though we are somebody not
of this world. You see how close that lives?
Do you see the edge? I saw a sign years ago as a child
on my grandfather's office wall. It says if it's almost right,
it's wrong. And I envision, I see that in
a picture of a very short, mended, blended line that people say
is what? You got white, you got black,
and it's what? Gray. My friends, gray is wrong. The
absolute certainty of what is true with a tiny inclination
of possibility of what is false is now false. I use the example
when I'm counseling people to try to help them understand when
they say, what's wrong with this guy teaching? Why can't I sit
under this teaching? Though everything else he says
is good, but this little one. I said, would you like to go
to a restaurant and know that when you get your food, there
is no bugs in it? Yes. And when it comes out, it
looks great. It tastes good. You see no bugs
on top of your food. You know why you didn't see any
bugs? Because they flipped them off before it came out of the
kitchen. They thumped them off. They let them get a little bit
and then they cleaned the bugs off and brought you out a perfectly
clean plate with no bugs. But they've been there. Do you
eat it? And of course, this these most
people go, absolutely not. I would call the manager. I would
get a free meal. And I'm like, why would you want a free meal
from a restaurant that gave you bugs? Listen to what you're saying,
you're saying that you would. No, you wouldn't need it, would
you? You wouldn't want a replacement either. And if you're so particular
about what you eat, then why are you not more particular about
the bread of life? Truth with a hint of falsehood is falsehood. And I'm not talking about misspeaking
or missteps or just immaturity, which I am guilty of all. You go, I took a bunch of sermons
down years ago. I'm like, man, this was some
good sermons. Listen to them. Oh, my gosh,
they should hang me by my toes. Take that stuff down. This is
not even true. Remove it. Hope nobody downloaded and it
pops back up somewhere. That happens to all of us, but
I mean people who are continually pressing in. To false teaching. People who are living false lives. If you say you have fellowship
with the With us, if you walk in the light, but yet you say
you walk in the light, but you walk in darkness, you lie and you
do not practice the truth. Friends, the gospel must be revealed. In our lives and what we believe
and what we stand for and how we respond to things. Now, here's
the kicker. How is it that we have so many
opinions of so many things about everything in the name of Christianity? And they're all counter contradictory. Because we're not in one mind.
The church by large doesn't walk worthy of the gospel. Because
I believe that if we really evaluated what was being taught to the
church and expected of the church in most circumstances, it would
not be gospel centered anyway. It would be man centered. Your
life is worthy of the gospel because it reveals the gospel.
And it's also it's because it is the result of the gospel,
the power of God. And this kind of life resounds
with the gospel. It it proclaims the gospel, not
just within what people see, but with who we are. With what
we love. It is the power of the fruit
of God. And I believe in recent times living a life worthy of
the gospel. Is. Challenged mostly because of
what we consider suffering for the sake of the gospel, and I
want to I want to say that and then I want to explain it so
that I can even understand what I'm trying to tell you. That
makes sense. If we all, as we hear these things, we go, OK,
this is sort of a review from last week. Yes, I want to live
a life worthy of the gospel. How does that happen? How does
it work? What am I supposed to do differently?
Some people would say, well, I'm going to live a life worthy
of gospel. I'm going to stand for this. I'm not going to put up
with that. I'm going to make myself known
on this issue or that platform or that. I think all women ought
to wear long skirts. I think all men ought to wear
ties in church. That's there we go. That's something
to stand. Then people will know we're godly.
I'm using it as an absurd example. But there are those who stand
on that and go look at what we're doing for the kingdom of Christ.
Or put the dry cleaners in business. I don't believe it happens that
way. I believe in recent times we have opportunity to live a
life worthy of the gospel in many areas. One is with our lusts
and our affections and putting them to death. The world says
it's okay to love things. Let's look at it for a minute.
It's just a little transition, a little segue into the meat
of this text. The world says it's OK to strive for this and
strive for mansions and strive for retirement and strike. And
I'm not saying we don't plan for these things. That's also part of being
good stewards. So that's when you hear these
things, you don't go radically crazy and just burn it all down
and walk out in the streets with just a loincloth on screaming
and yelling. Yeah, I love for Jesus. I mean, we've got to be
wise. And even when God gives some
of us wealth, we ought to be wise as stewards of that. not
hoarding and and and we got a, you know, 10,000 square foot
house that we live alone in. Why did God give us this house
so we could share it maybe or use it for a church plant or
something, you know? But what are we what are we loving? That. We have an opportunity
when we start to evaluate these things to live worthy of the
gospel and who. Are we investing in? Who is it
in this world that we get up every day and are concerned with
in our prayers? I'll be straight with you. When we pray for other
people, we have a lot less time in our own lives to consider
our own problems. And our idols go way away when
we're starting to pray for other people. We don't really care
about that antique lamp that we're trying to get restored.
We don't really care about some of these other things that are
spending so much time on. Because we want to invest our
prayer and our time with people. Who are we making as a disciple
of Christ? Who? What are their names? And
this is just this is just chatter right now, just questions for
for me and for you, for us. Who are we investing in for the
sake of the kingdom of heaven? Or are we are we just selfish
Christians that we're just digging in? Maybe it's because we're
in a season of growth and we're digging that God would prepare
us then to give. That's OK. But the opportunity will come
that we might invest what we are and who we are and what we
know and the one we know into the life of someone else. Are
we doing that? Friends, this time, this moment
in history, there has never been a better opportunity in our lifetime
as we've been breathing oxygen than now. Because there are so
many things being said in the communities that we live in on
many polarizing, frustrating, political things that people
are confessing false hope, false frustration, aggravation, anger,
exposing themselves for what they really are concerned with.
And we, as the people of God, have every answer they need.
We have an opportunity now to live in a manner worthy of the
gospel. But it's not even in those areas. I think the main
way we get opportunity to live in a manner worthy of the gospel
is through suffering. Suffering. Yes, there's suffering
in this world that happens. I mean, I could become sick and
die or be told I was going to die and it has nothing to do
with my ministry or has nothing to do with the result of my preaching
or sharing the gospel. Jesse could break his leg coming
out of his van from work, packing sodas at Walmart, not have anything
to do with his preaching ministry. And he would be suffering, I
would be suffering, you would be suffering in the same manner for just this
thing that just happens. And that's not suffering for
the sake of the gospel, but yet it is an opportunity still to
live in a life, to live a life worthy of the gospel. To live
in a manner worthy of the gospel. How we deal with our suffering
that's not even directly related to the gospel is powerfully indicative
of how powerful the gospel is in our lives. Isn't that the
whole of what Paul is saying? Isn't that the whole idea that
it has been known throughout the whole imperial guard to all
the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ? Now what if Paul
just got arrested for jaywalking? Could he not say that for the
sake of Christ I will rejoice in my imprisonment? I mean, he
was arrested for the gospel. He was killed eventually because
of the gospel. But yet there's the type of suffering
that. Doesn't come because of the gospel, it's just because
we live in a world that's fallen, that suffering is a common thing
to all men. But then there is the type of
suffering that comes because of the gospel, for the sake of
the gospel. There's a type of suffering like
Paul. There's a type of suffering like all the apostles that dealt
with all of this persecution, with all of this anger, with
all of this hatred, with all of this bitterness. There are people
who actually suffer right now in other places of our world
because of their faith in Jesus Christ. There are people before
we finish our service today who will cease to live in this world
because they're being tortured, being told that they would not
be tortured if they relinquished their faith in Jesus, and they
will be dead before we finish our service. There are people who are martyred
every hour of the day. There are people who are arrested
for having services in their homes. There are people who are
being raided, whose businesses are being taxed and whose whose
whose livelihoods are being encroached upon by the government because
they are Christians. And now they have an opportunity.
To prove that they are indeed. The body of Christ. Friends. Suffering for the sake of the
gospel and living in a manner worthy of the gospel go hand
in hand. Paul clearly has argued for that. Now, the stress comes
for all of us, well, well, I'm not suffering for the gospel.
You probably are, you just don't see it. And if you're not, you
will. You will. And even if you're not, you can
still suffer worthy. You can still live in a manner
worthy until that day comes. Well, have you ever parted ways
with family because of your faith in Christ? Have you ever had
people inside of a church or congregation and they call you
the zealot? Because you're always talking
about the Bible? Because you're always wanting to pray for people?
Because you're always wanting to know, what has this got to
do with anything? Hey, y'all, let's look at the Scriptures
on this matter. You ever been ostracized or talked
about? You ever walked into a room in
a Sunday school class and people just stopped talking? Yeah. It happens. It happens because when God saves
us, Imparts in us a zeal that's unparalleled. We are transformed and listen,
God doesn't transform. Over millions of years, his people. God immediately and miraculously
and supernaturally changes His people. When we are saved, we
are new creatures that moment, that instant. Our heart has been
changed. Our mind has been changed. Our
affections are now new. Our souls are cleansed. Our eyes can see. We look at
the world through a lens that we've never ever imagined. We
see the wickedness of the world for the first time. We go, oh
my goodness, I've been a part of that. And the testimony that everybody
loves to hear is about the dope dealing, woman trafficking, you
know, drag racing, alcoholic that just stops in his tracks
and gets saved. Well, you know what? I love to hear the story
about the nice, young, well-mannered Christian boy who grows up and
goes to school and graduates and gets a good job as an accountant
and gets radically saved at his desk. Because that guy sometimes can't
see his sin. It's both an incredible miracle. And I'll tell you something. When God saves us, we are absolutely
different. And that means everything. Years ago, I had a mentor in
my life for about four years who was astronomically helpful
to me by pushing me away. Because what I wanted was him
to give me something that only Christ could give. You ever had
that person in your life? One of the first things he ever
said to me, in a way of a story, not directly to me, I have a
lot of young men that tell me they want me to mentor them in
the faith, and the first thing I tell them that I want them
to do is go outside and eat dirt. And driving in a car, this man
would stop, get out, and eat dirt off the side of the road.
And then he'd say, now you do it, and I'll mentor you in the
faith. I'm like, this is the weirdest guy. I've ever seen
in my life. And the point that he would make
is that until someone's ready just to die to themselves, they
can't grow in Christ. It's not about eating dirt, it's
just about being humble enough to do it. You want to grow in
Christ enough to eat something, somebody should probably spit
on. Licked the bottom of his shoe.
He took his shoe off one time and licked, I'm not doing it. And I told him, I said, I have
phobias that the gospel has yet to overcome. And looking at the
bottom of the shoe is in the number five position. Just don't
think I could do it. Where's KB this morning? She
wouldn't do it either. She'd probably run out and wash her hands because
I said that. The reality though is that people
used to call him radical. Radical. Everywhere you go. He
worked with a football team. University of South Carolina.
He was their chaplain. He loved football. He played
for University of Florida or Florida State or somewhere. He
played football with Jim Kelly and some of those guys back in
the day. Just big. And God saved him. I'm using
this testimony because, I mean, he's a man in my life that radically
got my attention. And people would say he was radical.
People say I was radical. People say some of you are radical.
Oh, that's radical Christian. No, that's normal Christian. And the way you feel right now
is exactly the way I felt the first time he said that. He goes,
you know, who I am is what God does when He saves everybody.
Why aren't you that way? If I had a bat car, I'd just
chuck him right out. Ejection port. But he's right. Why are we not radical? What
are we radical about? Some people just don't have any
kind of radical nature in their being. There's a hurricane. All right, everybody just be
calm. That's okay. Your temperament
can be calm. I think Martin Lloyd Jones' temperament
was calm. If you don't know who that is,
look him up. He's dead now. Well, I know he's alive, but
his body's gone. James Montgomery Boyce was a
calm man when he preached. But I've had to stop the car
many times and get on the side of the road just to deal with
what I just heard come out of his mouth. Some people think preaching,
and it should be passionate, is passionate when it's loud
or boisterous or exciting. My friends, my temperament is
exciting. And if I see a polka-dotted unicorn
outside, I'm going to go, oh my gosh, what's that out there?
I'm going to say it the same way. But that's boring in comparison
to seeing the glory of God. So if I'm not excited about a
unicorn, then I better be way more excited about Christ. How do we deal with not seeing
that transformation? Well, I think we don't see it
because we're so bound up in worldly pursuits. I think we
don't see it in our own lives because we're so bound up in
religious things like being at church in the right time rather
than being the people of God as the church or finding that
thing that makes us feel not guilty about the sin in our life
rather than having the power of God together as a people to
overcome that sin, knowing that that guilt has been paid for
by Christ. And I think we need to get to
the place where we're understanding. that there will come a day only
when we are zealous, only when we are passionate, only when
we are radical about Christ, because he is the greatest treasure.
He is the most beautiful thing we know. He is the only thing
that matters. And that all we want is for everyone
else to have that utmost and fullest joy with us, that only
when we live that way will we see the suffering for the sake
of the gospel. Suffering for the sake of the
world is not a gift of God, though it is. It's not. It's a gift
of God and that God and his gift and his providence and his sovereignty
can use it for our good. It's always for good. It's always
to bring us to a place of holiness. But suffering for the sake of
the gospel, the scripture says, is granted. Look at that. For
it has been granted, verse twenty nine. To you. You know what that
means? You see that where people go
before the king and say, King, we're starving. We have no food
and our people, our villages are dying. Our children are dying.
And we don't we don't have any money and the weather has destroyed
our crops. Oh, but you King, you have grain
galore. You have bins and storehouses
that are massive and you could feed all of us for 200 years. Oh, God. Oh, King, in your great
mercy, would you give us just enough food to live? And he said
it has been granted you. What you've asked for has been
granted to you. Or the prisoner who falls on the mercy of the
judge and says, oh, please, I know that what I've done is wrong.
I deserve to be punished, but please have mercy. Please do
not execute me. Please give me mercy. Let me
serve my time and live. And he said it has been granted
you. In the same way, the scripture
teaches that God has granted us repentance. In John chapter 12 we see Jesus
saying that the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of
Isaiah have come to pass in your hearing this day. That though
they wanted to see and they say they could see, they were blinded.
Though that they had the opportunity to believe and in all cognition
understood Christ as Messiah, they could not believe for they
had been hardened. That's difficult. And then Timothy says to Paul,
pray that God may grant these unbelieving people repentance.
In the same context where he says for us to pray for kings
and leaders. Here, Paul says, For it has been
granted to you. What? What has God given us?
Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. Come
on. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Tell me what it is. Can you imagine if
I were reading this to the church at Philippi? I'd pause right
there. It has been granted to you. Drumroll. And everybody
would have been on pins and needles. And then the guy reading would
have said, for the sake of Christ, oh, this is going to be good,
that you should not only believe. Yes, we are believing. It's been
granted that we can believe. but also suffer for his sake.
And the fireworks go off. It's like fourth of July. And
then can you go, Oh, really? You know, fireworks go off. Everything's
excited. So suffer, suffer. Yes, and you know what? They
wouldn't have paused. They would have wept with joy
and fallen on their face in glory at the awesomeness of knowing
that their suffering was a gift from God. Listen to what happens
in Acts chapter 5. The disciples were arrested for
what? Preaching in the name of Christ. People didn't care if
they preached, but they didn't want to preach in the name of
Christ. And preaching in the name of Christ is not saying
in the name of Christ. Praying in the name of Christ
is not tagging that at the end like a hashtag on our prayers.
In Jesus' name, I said it, lock me up now. When we preach and
pray and live and speak and proclaim in the name of Christ, we come
through the authority of Christ with His words alone. So that
when we expose Christ to the nations, we are teaching the
Word of God in such a way that there is no way to hide our ears
from it. That the lost who run and stand
behind the mountainside cannot escape the authority of the words
of God through the hearing of the Scripture, so that it does
either one of two things. It actually breaks their heart
and brings them to repentance because they've been made alive
through the hearing of the Holy Spirit. Or it hardens their hearts
and it brings them to a place of corruption that they may be
justly seen as an object of wrath and destruction. The Bible says
that the Word of God does not return void so that it goes out
and does all that it was intended to do. So when we preach the
Gospel of Jesus, we preach in the authority of God. The reason
people spend more time for their whole lives developing their
ideas and philosophies to sort of underscore and tear away the
reality of the Scripture and of the Gospel is because they
are convicted by the authority of the name of Christ who is
God who created the world and subjected Himself to be like
creation so that He could die to propitiate for our sins and
be raised to life to receive glory forever. This is the authority
of God's Word. And there is no escape. So... When these disciples preached
in the name of Christ, they were arrested, detained, and beaten
by the Roman guard. They were put into chains, and
their arms were wrapped around a staub in the center of a court. And they took a cat and ninetails,
which is a leather scourge, and on the end of that scourge are
pieces of shard and shrapnel and stone. And they would wrap
that thing around the side of their back and swing it pull
it so that it would rip the flesh off their backs. And they had reason to pout.
And in Acts chapter 5, they were released after being beaten and
imprisoned and they were told, we will let you live and we're
going to let you go. But we forbid you by the authority
of the emperor to preach in the name of Christ. And in chapter
5, verse 41, then they left the presence of the council rejoicing. Why? Rejoicing that they were
counted worthy of suffering, dishonor for the name of Christ. Hear it. Hear it, church. They walked
and lived and spoke and taught in a manner worthy of the gospel. And they suffered for it. And
it was granted to them to suffer for the sake of Christ. It was
granted to them to believe so that they would suffer. And they
suffered. The Philippian people were suffering. And Paul said it was a gift.
It was granted to them to suffer. Because it was evidence of their
election, of their salvation, of their regeneration, of their
faith, of their believing in Jesus Christ. It was evidence. And not just that they suffered,
but then when they got out, they rejoiced. And you know, what
would have happened typically is that we would see people sort
of, oh, let's let's just let's walk carefully. Let's walk very
carefully. We're excited. We were chosen
to suffer, but let's walk carefully. No. And it says in Acts chapter
five, verse 42, and every day in the temple and from house
to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the
Christ is Jesus. They didn't go underground. They
went into the synagogues of Israel. Roman guards at the door. Sanhedrin
at the door. And they went in there when the
rabbis would teach and they would say, Jesus is the Christ. All
that you've looked for, all that you've longed for, all that you've
worshipped, all the sacrifices that you've made has shadows
of the One who was to come and now He's come and you've crucified
Him on a cross, but He's been made alive that you might live.
Repent of your religion. Repent of your morality. Repent
of your self-righteousness. And know that Jesus Christ is
the God of heaven. He is the Christ, Jesus. And He's alive. Serve Him. Love
Him. Follow Him. Come to Him. Obey
Him today. That's not hiding. They went
into the temples preaching that. Loudly. Interrupting. Do you
know it's against the law to do that in California? I got
a band of brothers together. We were going to go and there
was this conference going on less than a mile from our congregation
there in Newark. And it was a horribly evil, wicked
thing in the name of gospel ministry. People were showing up and paying
an entrance fee to hear from a prophet their future. So about five or six of us, we
got to get in there and say, you know what we're going to do? We're
going to go in there and we're going to go in and we're going to pay, we're
going to get in line and when we get in there, we're going to start preaching the
gospel. That's what we're going to do. Dave Hanson starts to investigate
and he goes, it's a class one felony to disrupt a religious
service of any kind in California. It's 25 years in prison. I thought,
well, let's just put flyers on the windshield. But it was a 25-year death sentence
in Israel for these guys. And they kept doing it. They kept doing it. Every day. In the public square,
in the temple, and then house to house. Well, there were some
people who weren't in worship today. Hey, we want to talk to
you about Jesus. Get out of my face. Hey, we want
to tell you some good news. Get out of my face. Hey, come
on in. How many snitches opened their
doors and had them arrested? I bet you a bunch. Because not
only was it illegal to preach in Christ, it was illegal to
cohort in some ways, eventually, with people who also proclaimed
Christ. And we see in Acts chapter 6, or Acts chapter 7, where they
dragged them house to house. Saul of Tarsus, the very man
that's writing these words is suffering in this way, led the
charge to drag Christians out of their house and put them in
chains, separating man and wife and children from their families
and putting them in prison camps and selling them off into slavery
because they affiliated with Christ. Why can't we rejoice this way?
Why can't we have that type of zeal? Well, I believe we're unable
to rejoice for several reasons, but three main reasons that Paul
gives right here. And it's just a rewind. We cannot
rejoice that way when we fear our adversaries. We fear them. We fear our adversaries, our
adversaries can be the government. Our adversaries can be our neighbors.
Our adversaries can be a community of people who live in a lifestyle
that's against the gospel. Our adversaries could be people
who are bigots. And they could all stand and
say, we are Christians and you need to be loving. Well, let
me tell you what love is. Love is when Christ died for
those who hated him. As he proclaimed, I am the way
and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father
except through me. Repent, believe the gospel, Christ would say. Christ does say, Christ is saying. We are unable to rejoice when
we fear our adversaries. We're unable to rejoice when
we are not one in spirit. We're not the church. We're unable to rejoice. We don't
have the same mind and we're not on the same mission. Why?
Because I have what I love and I want us to do what I want us
to do. And you have what you love and you have what you love
and you have what you love. And we're all working to the
different ends of the world, to different focus, to a different
affection, to a different passion. And it's not unified. Well, we
need to be a church that's about this. We're good, but not at
the cost of what Christ has commanded us to be about. And I'll be honest
with you, in our contemporary culture, especially in these
days. The church needs to be unified
more than ever. And the church is not supposed
to be known for what it stands against as much as it's known
for what it stands for. You want to you want to show
the world what sin looks like, then let's reveal the righteousness
of God through Christ Jesus in our lives. Will be hated. And when people hate us and sue
us and arrest us and kill us, we rejoice, we pray over them,
we give our lives away for them. And this is a tall order. The problem is we don't understand
the mission of the church. The mission of the church is
not these subsets of benevolence. It's not the mission of the church.
It's just things we do because we're godly. We love people who
are suffering. We encourage them. We give them
hope. We give them water when they're thirsty, and clothes
when they're naked, and food when we have it, and they're hungry.
We do that. That's not the mission of the church. That's just normal
humanity. Ungodly people do that, Jesus said. Normal people have a concern
for people in need. Now, there are wicked people
who hate everybody and love themselves, but the church does that because
we're human. We don't see people in need and
not help them out if we can't. But we're not going to eradicate
poverty. We're not going to eradicate homelessness. We just have to
show people that this temporary suffering. Even if we help one
person, one family, great, but what about the millions of others?
It doesn't mean we don't do something, but it's not the mission of the
church. The mission of the church is to praise God in Christ. First
and foremost, we are to worship God to the praise of His glorious
grace. The reason God created the church
through Christ Jesus is so that He would receive all the honor,
all the glory and all the praise forever and ever and ever. Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. This is why the church exists
to display the manifold wisdom of God and worship Him in Christ
Jesus. Secondly, because of that, the
church then rejoices and enjoys God in such a way that we proclaim
Christ. We are always defending and giving
reason for our hope. We love, we become apologetics
in everything we stand for. We become evangelists with everything
we love. If the church is truly the church
of Christ, we will love Christ and His church above everything.
When my family falls apart and crumbles, when I have to have
a come to Jesus meeting like I did last night, and even when
we see sin in every single one of us, the reason we want to
rectify that is not for the sake of our image in the community,
not for the sake of our unity in the home, but for the sake
of the church of Jesus Christ, that it might grow wholly every
moment to prove that God is the Lord of it all. We must proclaim
the gospel. The mission of the church is
to praise God, is to proclaim Christ, and is to produce God's
power through Christ. How in the world is that seen?
We see a lot of people say, well, we've got to have signs and wonders.
You know the biggest sign and the biggest wonder I've ever
seen in my life? Is when someone offends a Christian and they
forgive them. When someone steals from you and you let them have
it. When your spouse runs around on you and you forgive them. When people say you'll do this
or go to jail and you say, I love you, take me in. Producing God's power through
Christ. We're able to pray for our enemies, we're to pray for
people like who are involved in organizations like ISIS. Who
are murdering people. We're able to pray for them.
We can't pray. What do we want to pray for?
Will God please stop this heinous wickedness? Yes. But these individuals
or they're lost. Save them. And if they be not
saved, stop them. And maybe God will save some.
I don't think you'll see ISIS become Christian, but you'll
see some of those who are there saved. It's all about the heart. And the mission of the church
then continues in that way as God's powers produced through
Christ in us. We then put to death worldly matters. We put
to death worldly passions. And then we can understand what
is worldly and gospel centered suffering. Remember. The mission of the church, as
Paul would say here in Philippians, is to strive side by side for
the faith of the gospel, to the praise of its glorious grace.
This reveals the manifold wisdom and power of God to the enemy
of God and to the world. The suffering. Is sort of compounded. We who
try to live for Christ, we suffer in a compound way. We suffer.
Because of the enemies of the cross. But we also suffer for
the faith of the gospel. Let me explain that. In other
words, we ought to be fighting, as Paul prayed over here in verses
four through 13. As Paul prays, we ought to be
fighting, taking up arms, which is the Word of God in prayer
and unity in ministry and partnership in the gospel and in the suffering.
We ought to fight. And in everything we fight for,
it ought to be centered on the gospel. Is this a battle that
we should take? Is this a front line issue that
we as the church should stand on? And if so, how? Are we fighting
for the sake of the gospel. If yes, hallelujah, do it in
a biblical way, do it with one mind. If not, dump it. Dump it. Secondly, everything
that we fight for, that is not centered on the matter of the
gospel, on the proclamation of the gospel, is sinful. For example, somebody might say
abortion should be something the church stands against. I
don't disagree. But how? How do we argue that
abortion is evil? Well, let me tell you how you
don't do it. Just go on the Internet and look
for some arguments. You'll never find a good one.
How should we argue that homosexuality is actually sinful and destructive
to our nation, to our communities? Well, we surely don't want to
actually look at even the theologians of our day answering this question
because they do it from a political point of view, from a cultural
point of view. What about the Word of God? Why is marriage
so important to begin with? Because the only reason marriage
exists is a shadow of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Colossians 3
and Ephesians chapter 5. That's it! So that when marriage
is anything but what God had created from the beginning, then
it is a mockery of the cross of Christ. It spits in his face. The world wants to do that. It's
not about rights and liberties, and we should care about people's
rights, we should care about people who are persecuted, we
should care about those no matter whether they're in Christ or
not in Christ. But the church must take up arms so that the
gospel is proclaimed, not so that we can try to write through
philosophy and argument, rhetoric or law the things that are wrong
with the world. And had we been doing this for
the last 200 years, we would not be where we were today. But
America was founded on a pluralistic freedom of religion from religion.
You name it. That's OK. Praise God for it.
Let's take full advantage of these freedoms. Proclaim the
gospel. And thirdly, I want you to understand
that when we suffer, in taking up arms when we fight for things
that are that divide the body of Christ, we most likely are
fighting incorrectly. Let me give an example. The rebel flag no matter what
you feel about it, no matter what argument you come from.
And there's about 22 different angles in which people are arguing
with that thing right now. And most of them are contradictory.
It's really frustrating to me. I hate that stuff because I stay
up all night trying to put it together. But why is the church
dividing over it? Why? Why does the, if we are, as Christians,
supposed to take up arms on that issue, then the Bible would speak
to that end. The Bible would speak on how,
and you know what it does. I have the liberty to do many
things, but when my eating of meat offends you, I quit. What's
more important? Yeah, do I think sometimes people
are offended by the most ridiculous things? Yes, but not necessarily
in that case. You'll hear what I think about these issues soon
enough. Just read. But we ought not to divide on
that when we divide as the people of God on issues that are non
gospel centered issues that are non mission centered for the
church. Then we're disproving the power
of God, we're saying that the gospel isn't big enough for us
to be in unity and put these things to the side. How much
time do people spend in these discussions and these arguments
and these sharing and this focus and this conversation on issues
of politics, issues of economics, issues of government, issues
of community, issues of council issues and property. And yet
they haven't spent one stinking minute praying or proclaiming
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Friends, we are all guilty of
it. Let us today resolve that it shall be no more. That if I spend an hour dealing
with something that is non-eternal, may I spend 40 hours dealing
with that which is absolutely sublime. I'm not saying we turn a blind
eye. I'm not saying that we don't speak. I'm not saying that we
don't have a position. But friends, it must be for the
sake of the gospel that we fight. And I think we can do it. No,
I know we can, for I will hear of you when you stand in one
spirit with one mind for the sake of the faith of the gospel
and having no fear in anything against for from you, for your
from your enemies, for your fearlessness is a sign of their destruction
and of your salvation and that from God. So. In closing this. If there is any encouragement
in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit,
any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind,
having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition. Do nothing from conceit, but
in humility count others more significant than you count yourself. And this is where Paul lands
this thing, as he jumps in then to say, because Christ has this
mind which is yours. Here's the practical application
of walking in a manner worthy of the gospel as a people of
God, citizens, not of this world, but of one another, waiting for
that day where this temporary hour gets over, that it never
stops in eternity. Therefore. If so, therefore,
so all of this that I've just said, if this is any encouragement
in Christ, if there is any encouragement in Christ. What's that mean? That means if you have ever received
comfort. And if you receive comfort in
what I've just shared with you, if the gospel gives you peace,
if the gospel empowers you to speak boldly, if the gospel gives
you hope, if the gospel satisfies your thirst, if the gospel of
Christ is your treasure, if you are in Christ, if you are comforted
by being united in Christ, if you have received any comfort
in Christ, Complete my joy. In this way. Have you received comfort
from any love, from the love of Christ, from the love of Christ,
through Christ's people, have you participated in the spirit?
Have you received affection and sympathy? All this points to
the divine personal experience of the new birth in Christ. First,
and secondly, if any of you have ever had any of these things
given to you by Christ through His body, through His Word, through
His ministry, through His Spirit, then surely, and hear what He's
doing, if there be any comfort or encouragement in Christ, any
love, any comfort in love, any participation of the Holy Spirit,
any affection and sympathy, if you have received any of that,
beloved, Have you received any of that from Christ? If you have. Then surely you will have the
same mind. You see what he's saying. You
have received the ministry of God through Jesus Christ, through
his people. You have received comfort, love,
affection, encouragement. You have seen the power of the
Holy Spirit at work. You are the result of God's spirit
bringing you to life. You have been given affection. You have been given sympathy.
You have been given ministry. And if you have been given any
of these things, then be of one mind, for all of you have been
given these things. This means that Paul, now what
does he say there? Complete my joy. Guys, we could preach two more
hours on that. I promise you. Paul is suffering. rejoicing, praying for the Philippians,
knowing that God will do the work that he began, knowing that
they are already producing the fruit of righteousness that he
prays for them to have as they seek knowledge and understanding
and discernment to approve what is excellent, knowing that they
are partnering with him in the grace of God, in the suffering
of the gospel for the advancement, the proclamation of the gospel,
knowing that they are partnering with him in the context of seeing
people being emboldened and preaching. They are partnering with Paul
because they have partnered in Christ. They are of the same
fruit, of the same vine. They are the same thing. They
have received the same blessings. They've received the same power.
They've received the same treasure. They've received the same gift. And if there's any encouragement,
My joy will be complete. I live for you. I'd rather die
for it would be better for me to die, but I know that I will
remain in this body for it is better for your sake. My joy
then will be complete as you grow in the faith that you would
what? Grow deeper. that your love may
abound. This is what Paul has argued.
We've looked at it for 15 weeks, that Paul is saying, this is
what gives me joy. My greatest joy is to be with
Christ, but my greater joy now is to remain in the flesh that
you may receive the same joy that I have, so therefore I work
and I suffer for the sake of Christ, for the fruit of the
gospel, so that I can see you become that which God has created
through Jesus. Now, Paul says, if any of you
have experienced any of the ministry of Jesus Christ in any way through
each other, through His Word, through the prayers of the saints,
through the Spirit of God, then it makes my joy finished, full,
complete, that you are of one mind. Paul tarried and prayed that
God would tarry his absolute goal to die and be with Christ
so that he could have a fuller joy before he died than he had
then seen a unified mind in the church of Philippi. Folks, no
pastor should ever leave a church because of frustration after
reading the book of Philippians. It cuts your legs off. You're
like, I'm not going. Think about it. Paul's entire purpose and
his entire being in relation to the success of his ministry
was to preach God's gospel so that the reality of the truth
of Christ would be evident in the lives of God's people. Therefore, any time that the
church is divided against itself, listen. The power of Satan and the power
of the flesh is at work against the gospel of grace. And I say
that lightly because it's not effectual against it, but it
is against it. And when we are divided, we are
not living as one mind. We ought to have the same mind.
What's that mean? Reminder, we are focused We believe
we understand, we see the same thing, not just seeing and believing
and understanding, but we own it. We have we own that mind,
which is Christ's. Same love. It's what Paul's saying
here. We have an affection for the
same things. We own the same affection. We have the same love. We have the same things that
causes what causes us to do what we do. An affection. A passion. We are in full accord, one accord. We're united. Intertwined. Koinonia. Life together. We possess the
same thing. We are the same body. This is
the mystery. Paul says this mystery is profound.
And I say that the mystery of Genesis where God says, let the
man and the woman leave their father and mother and the two
shall become one flesh and so be one. Let no man separate.
This is what Paul is saying in Ephesians 5. He says, I say this
mystery is profound. But it is the Christ and his
church. One accord, Christ is one with
his body, we are one body. And he reiterates one mind. We
have one mind. And the importance of having
one mind. This is seen ultimately as a result of being in Christ. This is the result of proof or
this is what it means to prove that we are indeed in Christ.
And it's seen in small, little ways that have great implication. And we won't go there today.
And he says, do nothing. From selfishness. Do nothing
from selfish ambition. Do nothing out of conceit. But
in humility, count others as more significant than ourselves. We'll see that next week. But
in a nutshell, it means we lay down our rights, we lay down
our desires, we lay down our affections, we lay down our habits,
our treasures, our prayers for the sake of each other. because
we count each other more significant than we count ourselves, because
we live if we live as Paul, who lived as he follows Christ. So
we follow Paul. So we do the things they did.
Paul laid his life down and lived not for his gain, but for the
gain of the church. We do the same. Jesus laid his
life down for the church. Are you the church? You may be
with the church, but are you the church? Are you born of Christ? Have you seen the sin of your
life and its obstacle as it's fallen, as you've fallen far
from the glory of God? Do you know that God is just
and holy? Do you know that every human
being is wicked and deserving of eternal justice and judgment? Do you know? that God alone provided
the satisfaction of His wrath against you through Jesus Christ
who created a womb and then was born from it and created His
own body, that He might live as fully a man and fully God
at the same time being obedient throughout His entire life, satisfying
the command of holiness that God has given unto all humanity. Do you know that Jesus is holy
beyond all measure and that He willfully and purposefully went
to the cross and suffered death in His human flesh so that God
the Father could be satisfied with His wrath for His wrath
against us? Do you know that Jesus rose from
the dead? And do you know that your only
hope is Christ? You cannot work to be righteous. You cannot live to be moral.
You cannot be a religious person and expect to stand before God
just. Only Christ can make you just. That's the gospel. The bad news
is we are doomed. The good news is Christ has set
us free. Do you believe in Christ? Are
you holding fast in Christ? It has been granted to you. I
skipped it, didn't I? to suffer, but first, he says,
to believe. Friends, if you hear the gospel
today and you turn your heart away, you reject the only hope
you have in salvation and joy and perfection. but O to the
sinner who comes and sees and embraces not just now but forever
the absolute certainty that Christ alone is his only hope. He has
life and it begins by faith. Let's pray. Lord, do that which
you are going to do. Envelop your purpose around us,
in us, through us. Satisfy our longings in Christ
alone. Lord, those who may be uncertain
of their eternal place, show them clearly. They are either
in Christ or in this world. Father, we who are in Christ,
fill us with all your fullness. developing us one mind and one
purpose and one vision and one focus that as we traverse this
wicked world that you will one day correct, help us to be seasoned
with grace, help us to be. Listeners way more than we speak,
and that when we do respond to this world and to our own temptations,
we do so by the power of the gospel of Jesus and in the name
and the authority of his word. and the effectiveness of his
crucifixion and resurrection. That we might be seen as an alien
people. And God, I pray for this country
and this world. I pray that we as a church, as
the body. Would spread the gospel like
there was no tomorrow, for there may not be. and that our heart
would be more to see the gospel spread than it would to correct
moral issues. Help us, Father. Because it is
very easy for us to get lost in the mire and get lost in the
fear and get lost in the hopelessness of this day. But we have hope
and we have a certain absolute joy with no movability because
you, our father, never change. We pray this in the name of Christ,
our absolute king in Jesus name. Amen.