Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the
overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my
prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that He
who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this
way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are
all partakers with me of grace, both of my imprisonment and the
defense and the confirmation of the gospel. For God is my
witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ
Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and
more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what
is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
to the glory and to the praise of God. will be in this portion
of text this week and next week. And there's a few things that
I need you to understand as we go forward today. Namely, a lot
of times criticism can come from some people who'd say, well,
this is laboring over this text too much. There's it's not really
necessary for you to continue to point out these things. But
I would remind you to remember that which we've learned over
the last few years together. That remembrance of these things,
that the reminding of these things, especially in Paul's letters,
we see the recapitulation continually over certain aspects of doctrine.
most of the time because of the argument that's being built.
And there's also a great assumption by the writer with his listeners
that they understand and grasp the depth of everything that
he's meaning in the context of the writing that he's giving.
So in other words, if we want to really focus and receive the
Word the way it was written, we must really dive into the
Word as it is written and not skip over things that are seemingly
already known. For example, if we look next
week at justification, we see the righteousness of Christ.
We've already talked about it last week. We're going to talk about
it again this week, but next week we're going to focus on
it very specifically. Because in the introduction to
this letter, everything that Paul teaches from this point
forward is going to center on and hinge upon this introductory
statements. And so as we look at some of
these things, I want you to be patient. I want you to be patient
because I want you to understand that it is for our good that
we look at these things in depth. It is also for our good that
we understand them in the context of how Paul has written this
to the Christians at Philippi. And most importantly, the outcome
of our understanding of Scripture is an intimacy with Jesus Christ
in such a way that, as Paul would tell the Ephesian church, we
exist and we exude a praise to His glorious grace. So for that
point, for that reason, we will look a little bit deeper at verse
10 this morning. Verse 10 is One of these things that you
see so that, one of these phrases that gives us sort of the outcome. In other words, Paul is praying
as we looked last week that the love of these Christians may
abound more and more. And that was the crux of our
teaching last week. We looked at what that meant.
We saw the reality of how though the Philippian church had great
love, Paul prayed that their love would be greater and that
their love would abound. and that the love would never
end and would continue more and more in abundance. And so, we
learned last week also that the idea of God's love as a gift
and the idea of God's love as a command is the heartbeat or
the foundation then of our search for wisdom, of our ability to
discern, of our ability to come and understand as verse 10 says,
so that we may approve what is excellent. And that's really
the phrase we're going to look at this morning. So we may approve what
is excellent. Because I know if you are like
me, and you're probably not as bad as I am in this way, but
if you're anything like me, when you think about what is excellent,
we have a list, do we not? We have a list. Oh, these are
excellent, this is excellent, this is excellent. You know the
old adage that cleanliness is next to godliness. Well, I don't
think John the Baptist got that message, and so it must not be
true. I can't find it anywhere in Scripture,
but that would be on my excellent list. Cleanliness is on my excellent
list. You know, articulation is on
my excellent list. I like that. I was listening
to a gentleman this morning as I was coming over here just on
XM Radio, and he was preaching, and I couldn't understand what
he was saying. It was really hick. I mean, you're talking about
The dialect was, I mean, Brother Luke, I'm sorry to call you for
some translation, but it's, it was difficult. And I'm like,
really, did he just cut the first three syllables of that word
off? You know, and so we're, I'm arcing now. We hear things
and we're coming to a place where We need to discern if what we
list as excellent is truly excellent. In the context of what Paul is
saying, that we approve what is excellent. What is excellent
in the Lord's eyes? I mean, we can give our Sunday
school answers. We can give our theological answers.
But in the heart of our heart, if love that God has given us
and the affection that we have, Paul expresses it in this way,
that as God is my witness, how I yearn for you with all the
affection of Christ Jesus. And so now we see that there's
an example of this affection in the life of Paul as he shows
them even throughout this book that his affection runs as deep
as his willingness to lay down all that he has and all that
he is and all that he ever hopes to be for the sake of their salvation
and for their joy and satisfaction in Christ. So this is the excellence
that Paul is showing that comes from the gift of God, which is
the love that we have in our hearts, namely, for each other. Because if we know that we have
a love for Christ, But if our love for Christ is not coupled
with an absolute, supernatural, divine, spontaneous affection
for each other, there is something amiss in our applied theology.
There is something amiss in the application of what we say we
know versus what we say we will do or versus what people can
see us doing. And so, what is excellent in
the context of Paul's writing here? How are we to have discernment
and approval of what is excellent? You know, we, in our culture,
We think that coming to church is excellent. And some of us
yesterday, as we met about Grace to Russia, we had that conversation
that, you know, in the Bible Belt, everybody goes to church. I think it was you, Brother Dave,
that said that somebody had said to you that it amazes them that
so many non-believers come to church in the South. Because
it's what we do. It's our culture. We say that
being in the church or among the church is excellent. But
it's not excellent. It's not excellent. I thought
about this yesterday as I contemplated so many things. Is that if everyone
who did not have a love for Christ stayed home today, many a seat
would be empty as well as many a pulpit. So is the question then, What
is excellent? Or is the question in, am I approving
what is excellent? Or is God approving what is excellent? What is excellent? Well, I'd
love to sit down and take a time and go through the entire Bible
and talk to us about everything that we can see that God loves. Everything that we can see that
the Scripture has taught us that God has said is excellent, is
far better, is good. But let's remember a few things. First, that Paul, as he speaks
these words, he prays to God in these words. He prays to God
in these words because he knows that prayer, remember, is the
effective river producing the outcome of this
affection for them. What do I mean by that? That
Paul depends upon God more than the Philippians. to abound in
love, and that Paul depends upon the power of God's Spirit and
His Word to work this in and out of them more than he does his ability
to instruct them in it. As we considered the idea of
getting a thousand copies of this in Russian,
And this is one of a hundred titles that they want to accomplish
this year. Or not this year, but soon. This
year would be great. It would be good. I thought it
was overwhelming. There's nothing I can do to make
this happen. But God can do all things. And
so I think there's no better place than we see Paul in right
here than knowing that the only thing he knows he can do with
absolute certainty is pray to His Father in heaven for Him
to do the work that He said He has already begun and is faithful
to complete. Keep in mind also, church, that
this is not written to me. And it's not written to you.
It's written to the saints in Philippi. So if we're to apply
this even in audience, if it's for us, and it is, we need to
understand that it's not about James, or Josh, or John, or Tim,
or anybody else. It's about us. We, the body of
Christ. Not just Grace Truth Church,
but the Church of Jesus Christ. And how do we engage in that
understanding? We live out the teaching of Scripture,
especially in this letter, as a people, not a person. So we're
not looking to make, I'm not looking to make my love abound.
Because if I make my love abound, then I can get my list of excellent
things and I can put my affection there. Paul says it's the other
way around. Paul says that the affection
that God has given to the church creates such a list of excellencies
that their affection is, that their love, if we could use Paul's
language there, is what creates that list. That their love that's
within them for Christ and for each other is what purposes their
priorities. That their love is what drives
their doctrine. That their love is what drives
their wisdom. That their love is what drives
their motives. It is my prayer that you love
me abound more and more with knowledge and discernment, so
that you may approve what is excellent. And by approving what
is excellent, as we saw then, and so be pure and blameless.
The outcome of approving what is excellent gives us purity
and blamelessness before Christ. And that's why we have to talk
about that next week, what justification really is. in the context of
this writing so that we don't all go home and think, well,
I've got to get this right so I can be right before the Lord.
It is by faith alone. It's by grace alone. It is God's gift of salvation
effective in you because God grants you repentance. He grants
you the gift of faith. He grants you the heart of seeing
and savoring Jesus Christ in such a way that the whole world,
to steal away from an old hymn, grows strangely dim in the light
of his what? Some music has truth in it. So Paul is confident that God
is going to do this and it causes him to know in his heart that
they will have love. Paul knows that these Philippian
Christians will have an excellent discernment. Paul knows that
because of the love of God in them and his prayers to God who
had began the work and is competent to complete it, they will stay
in wisdom. They will stay in affection.
They will stay in being able to discern and approve what is
good and excellent. Remember, Paul prayed for these
people to abound in what they already possessed. Love is the
effectual agent in their wisdom. Love is the effectual agent in
their discernment so that they may approve what is excellent.
So now on to the task at hand. What is this approval of what
is excellent? Well, if you ask yourself this
question, Where in the Bible does it show a list of things
that God says is excellent? Well, you just have to say, well,
in the Bible, in the scripture, all of that which is shown to
us. I mean, we see just in the creation account, what does it
say? God said, let there be, and there was, and it was good. So as God has shown us even before
there was anything to behold His glory, His self-sufficient
joy in His own self, all that God does is good. So that work
that God does is excellent. So therefore we approve that
which God is doing, very much like Paul is approving of the
Philippians' ministry to him and their partnership with him
to contend for the gospel. This is good and excellent and
you have love for Christ and love for me. I'm speaking as
Paul now. So because of that, I know that
God has worked in you mighty, powerful affection. You are the
product of his grace. And because you're the product
of his grace, you are approving what is good, which is the gospel
ministry for which I am in chains. You see? Well, it doesn't just
end there. We can look and see what God
even said to Adam and Eve. What did he say to Adam, actually?
He says, take the world. It's yours. Subdue it. Eat of
anything. Drink of anything. It's yours.
Just don't touch this tree. Don't eat of this tree or this
tree in the center of the garden, lest you die. So all that I've
made is good, even this, and it is good that I tell you not
to eat of this because you will die. See, there's an expectation
of obedience because God is holy and all that He is is good, all
that He is is righteous, all that He is is loving, all that
He is is just. So because of that, then God
expects all that He's made to fall in line with the reflection
of His own nature. It's one of the things we'll
talk about when we begin our Doctrines of God class in two
weeks, on Tuesdays. We will look and see that God,
because He is holy, or one of my really entangled things is
his immutability, I believe paced over the entirety of his character.
And because God is God, therefore God demands holiness. And it's good. It's excellent.
Holiness is excellent. Paul even argues to that point,
that your discernment of what is excellent produces the outcome
of the holiness of Jesus Christ in you. that you are found blameless. Do you know the outcome that
the world has begun to listen to? As Paul would tell Timothy,
people would gather teachers to scratch their itching ears.
Do you know what it looks like in contradiction to what I just
said? It looks like this. You're saved by grace. Forget
about it. That's what a lot of people are
teaching now. Don't worry about sin. God will work that stuff
out of you. You just enjoy your life free
in Christ. Oh yeah, you're an addict. You
beat your wife up. You know, you do all these ungodly
things. You haven't been in church in 16 years. It's alright. You're
fine. Where is that? Where do we get
that type of thinking? We get that type of thinking
the same way Adam and Eve got that same type of thinking. I'll
keep going back to creation because that's where it began. God said,
this is good. I've given you all that I have.
The fullness of my glory is with you. I walk with you in the flesh.
Jesus walking with his people. Just do not eat of these two
trees, lest you die. And the devil, I guess, can come
in the sign of a turkey, too. He comes and he speaks to Eve
and he talks to her based on what she desires already. That
fruit. And he twists God's Word. Did
God really say you would die? And then he gives a half-truth.
You'll be like God and you're no good and evil. Does it tell
of the fullness of it? And that's what's happening in
our world today. We see the Bible. We have an idea of what we want
to find. We find something that fits it and we hook on to it.
And we let the Scripture, we let our desires and our hearts
define the Scripture. instead of allowing the Scripture
to define itself. The Scripture is teaching us
here that we must look to approve what is excellent and that our
love is going to be the effectual agent in giving that discernment. God gives this ability. Think about it for a minute.
God has given grace and peace. God has given Jesus Christ. God has given faith. God has
given love. What does John teach us? We love
because God first loved us. What does John even go on to
say? That the way, one of the primary ways of testing the genuineness
of one's faith, which we see in 1 Peter, which is the same
word as discern, is to what? See if they love
the brethren. He goes on to say that if we
say we walk in the light but hate our brother, we are a liar
and we do not practice the truth. We do not have the light of Christ. We do not have the love of God. If we have the world's needs
and see our brother in need, but we close our heart toward
him, we are what? We're liars. So it's a big deal. And I think because love is a
big deal, and because affection for Christ and affection for
each other is a big deal to God, that it's easy for us to just
grab hold of that and hook it and say, that's my thing. This
is where I want to go. This is the hanger in which I
want to place myself in the closet of Christianity. And I want to
just focus on God being loving. Friends, God is loving in this
way that He crucified His Son. Is that a warm fuzzy puppy fuzzy
love? No. That's an act of divine justice
placed on Jesus Christ that He did not deserve. that Jesus faced
the wage of sin, which is death, so that we could stand forgiven. The love of God is a gift. The
love of God is also an expectation that we have the love of God
in us because we have received the love of God from Him through
Jesus Christ. We are to exercise such gifts. We are responsible for such things. But at the same time with our
responsibility, we know that it depends fully upon God. And
here brings us to a dichotomy. Well, if it's all about God,
then I'll just say, well, God, you do it when you're ready.
You make me loving when you're ready. You teach me discernment
when you're ready. You do this when you're ready.
That's not what the new man does. The new man, what am I talking
about? Paul says that we are new creations
in Christ Jesus. The new man suffers under the
actions of putting to death what is already dead. What does he
mean? What do I mean? Here's what I
mean. I mean that the war against the flesh that is already defeated
is not easy. So it causes suffering. You know
what's not suffering? Scratching an itch. Quenching
a thirst. And for us who are in Christ,
we don't quench the thirst of the flesh. We don't fill up the
dead man with fluid. We do not feed that which is
no longer living, for it has been killed with Christ. So if
that is true, then we are the children of God. The opposite
would be if we say, well, it's all about God's work, and it
is, therefore I will sit happily in my sin. Where is the power
of Christ? Paul nor I am speaking of sinless
perfection. It's not possible, but it is
the drive. It is the day when we're glorified,
which is why Paul regards it in such, for the day of Christ
we shall be blameless before Him, if we approve what is excellent
by the fact that we have the discernment to do so because
we've been given the wisdom of God, who is Jesus Christ, because
we have the love of God in us, which is abounding more and more
and more and more and more. So ultimately, We need to realize
that this is so much more than just an introduction. It's really
a doctrinal treatise about the effectiveness of salvation. It's
really showing us that just as Christ did in love, we also will
and can do in love. Just as Christ laid down His
life, was the cross excellent? That's a trick question. The
cross in its, I can't say glory, can I? But it's glorious. It's macabre. It's death. The cross in itself as just an
act without Jesus being on it is sinister. Thieves dying like
that? What is that? The cross in itself,
not seeing the sovereignty of God in His hand and the purpose
of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, when you see innocents die that
way, it's wicked. But yet, it's excellent. What
would be, it wouldn't have been excellent had Christ stayed in
glory and submitted himself to the eyes of humanity and said,
you're all guilty, condemned. Would have been excellent. But Christ himself had to learn. I want you to understand about
the hypostatic union. That's an asoxymoronic. I want you to think about this,
consider this, and skip lunch if you have to, that Jesus Christ
is God, yet He had to learn. He
had to learn because He's man. one and the same at the same
time all the time. He didn't become divine after
the resurrection. The Spirit of God didn't enter him and make
him holy at the baptism. When Christ was a zygote in the
womb of Mary that He created, He was God. And He had to learn. And Christ
having the love of God in him abounding more and more, had
options. Look at it for a second. And
the options he had, even after his baptism, was to worship the
enemy, to submit to the will of Satan, and to be given the
world. How do you give someone that
which is already theirs? Just find that irritating. It's
like them trying to kill Lazarus and Jesus after Lazarus was raised
from the dead. It's irritating. It's silly. How did Jesus know not to turn
those stones to bread to satisfy His hunger? Because He was full of love for
the Father. And He was full of love for His
enemies, for whom He would suffer their justice. That's wisdom and then discernment. If I had been Jesus and the devil
tempted me, I wouldn't have turned the... This is silly now. I wouldn't have turned the rocks
to bread. I would have turned Him to bread. Oh, you want to tempt me? Poof!
Pillsbury. And then I would have risen up
and said, I'm done with all y'all. See, Jesus is wise and discerning. Nothing wrong with bread, nothing
wrong with using his creative power. He's God to do what he
wants with the rocks he created. They're his. But he had the wisdom to know
the greater good. God expects such love. God expects
such wisdom. God expects such discernment
in us. How are we to do it? We cannot. But we must, for every fiber
of our being and every second of our day, we must work toward
it. knowing that our only hope is
truly in Christ. This discernment, this approving
what is excellent. And I've sort of tricked you.
You were waiting for a list of excellencies, but friends, what
is excellent is all that God calls excellent. It's ridiculous. Some of the
things that God has called his people to do throughout time.
Abram in the land of Ur, worshiping the moon. And God speaks to him
and tells him to go and he goes. Doesn't know where, doesn't know
how, doesn't know why. He just obeys. Why? Logically, rationally, no reason
for it. It would be far better for Abram,
his family and his herds and his wealth and everything that
he needed to continue in the life of peace that he had. It
made no sense that he would go follow this voice, this feeling,
this spirit, and just leave. For what? To be a nomad. and still didn't trust the Lord.
But he did trust the Lord. See how that looks? It would
have been far better for him. But God in His work of salvation
for Abram gave him the wisdom to look at everything that seemed
right and go, this is wrong. I'm out of here. I'm walking
away from everything. I had a thought yesterday evening,
actually on my way back from Statesboro. I thought, I wonder
what it would be like if we didn't feed our children for three days. And I started to post that on
Facebook and I figured I'd probably get in trouble. But what would
it be like if they knew hunger? What would happen? All of a sudden
I saw the comments in my mind. You're a horrible father. How
dare you call yourself a man of God? What if I couldn't feed
them? What if we lived in a place where
our call to the gospel ministry cost us everything, and the only
thing we could eat was that which we scavenged? Would it be horrible that my
children die of starvation for the sake of the gospel? No! No! Let us starve for the sake of
the gospel. Jesus says that if you seek to
find your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life
for the sake of my gospel, you will find it. What is better
to starve together for the sake of the gospel and be ridiculed
for it? And have the fullness and the
satisfaction of the bread of life or to be full, happy, content
with a barbecue grill in the back? And go to hell. Or worse, stand before our risen
king, having done nothing. but satisfy our own flesh. I
don't think we can do that as His people. Love, as we see Paul teaching
the Corinthians, looks out for what is best, doesn't it? Not
does it just look for what is excellent. It looks out for what
is excellent. It has oversight. It gives instead
of takes. It lays down instead of trying
to snatch and build walls and receive for itself. Paul says
that it never fails. Paul says that it does not envy.
It is not proud. And that's the same love that
Paul is expressing to the Philippians here that they have, and he's
praying that they have more of, that results in their wisdom
and discernment and approval of what is excellent. And so
let's put this in application for just a moment. Maybe we can
see it. If we look at it from this point
of view, If I have the love of God abounding in me, I pursue
the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, and out of that, and
I will insert, comes, because it's affection that produces
this, it's a worshipful outcome, not a worldly outcome. It's a
worshipful outcome of adoration, not a worldly outcome of academics.
And so, if this is true, and I have this, then what the outcome
will look like in my life right now would be this. My love for
Christ produces my love for others, and I will look out for what
is best for them. Okay? This is true. Because the Philippians
were not thinking of them, were they? Themselves. They were thinking
of Paul. And Paul was not thinking of
himself, he was thinking of them. Even in the reception of their
gifts and ministry, he refused it for their sake. So love looks for the best for
others and at the same time, but not in a selfish way, love
looks for the best for ourselves. What is best for me? That I lay
down my life for another. What is best for me? That I walk
in the path of my way, or that I walk in the way of death, which
is eternal life in Christ. And see, we don't even have to
make these decisions. We're thinking, are we going
to have to go do something in an odd hour of the night, or
are we going to have to be aggravated by someone who's hard to love? You ever had those people? Or maybe there's a government
or a city official or some kind of thing going on that sort of
prohibits us from getting a building. Familiar? We don't have to deal with that
to these extremes. And so when we're batting back
and forth the options of being discerning and approving what
is excellent and thinking through the lens of love, we're thinking
that we're really suffering because we have to put up with people
taking away from our quiet time. Listen. We're thinking that we're aggravated
because we've got to get our lawn done.
And the weeds are just bad. While our neighbor is starving,
not just physically, but she's dead in her sins. We're thinking, well, I've been
saving up for this boat motor versus printing Dr. Carson's stuff in a language
where people can come to know Christ. And this is sharing with you,
not preaching to you. We are together in these things. There's no journey that I call
before you that I'm not right there with you. Most importantly, love looks
out for the best of God's name. We see the prophets in the Old
Testament. We see what God says to His people through Ezekiel.
What did they do? They forsaked Him. They entered
into relationships with godless cultures. They stopped worshipping
Him and worshipped false gods. And He came to them and said
what? Not because of you, not because
of your name, but because of My name, I'm going to restore
you. I'm going to take this wicked,
decayed self that you've become, you're rotten, and I'm going
to make you alive again, because I am going to restore my name
that you defamed among the nations." Friend, let me tell you something.
We look at Israel and the history of the prophets, and as Americans
especially, We come to think of them as this gross, apostate,
idol-worshipping, belligerent people. And I would say that
even in the grossest rebellion of Israel, they were more pious
than we are. Because we think idolatry is
about burning something to a god on an altar. Like our time, the
god of our hobbies, like our treasures, the God of our bellies. I mean, we could all leave out
of here convicted. John says, keep yourself from
idols. Oh man, I've only got one more line to write. Keep
yourself from idols. Idols, what does Calvin say? In the kiln of our heart. We
crush this one, two more are coming out. How do we have a
heart of affection for God's glory and a heart of affection
for idolatry? And like I tell ourselves, I
tell us often that sometimes our biggest idol is our doctrine.
Sometimes our biggest idol is our library. We fight that. We've got easy
things that we can see, easy peasy stuff, simple things. Oh
yeah, I'm not doing this and doing that, I'm not doing that,
I'm not depraved, I'm not this, oh yeah. That's easy stuff, but
do you see the more intimate, troubling things? See how we
make much out of something that shouldn't be made much of at
the cost of the glory of God? We must discern and approve what
is excellent. You say, well that's not bad,
it's not bad to do these things, it's not bad. Let me tell you
something. It's not bad to have and do what
is good. But when those things that are
good come before the great and the call of God, they are not
wise. Because love looks at the best. Love drives wisdom. What does that mean? That means
it's in the seat with the steering wheel, with the throttle, with
the gears, and love, the love of God in us drives our wisdom. The scripture teaches us that
wisdom, Corinthians 1, is Christ. Christ is our wisdom. In fact,
it even says, where are the wives of your age? Where are you? God's made the nothings of this
world to bring to nothing the things that are, the lowly things.
to tear down the great things. He who is great came to earth
to become nothing. Philippians. To become a slave,
obedient unto death on a cross. Obedient, not guilty and worthy,
but obedient unto death on a cross for the sake of the greater glory. Love drives wisdom. And so part
of approving what is excellent is most certainly, in the context
of Paul's writing here, is that we approve what is wise. What
is the wisest of choices? What is the wisest of time management? What is the wisest of investment?
What is the wisest? What is the goal? What's the
end for us as God's people? And is what we're about to do
today better spent doing something else to that end? Friends, if theology, if doctrine,
if teaching doesn't have a personal, intimate application, it's not
going to have effect on you. It's very easy for us to make
application and go, yeah, we're not living sinfully. These Philippians
were living holy lives, given of themselves. Do you know what
it cost them to send messages and money to Paul? People died. People went to prison. People
lost everything they had so they could get word to Paul. Don't
forget what it cost Paul to take the gospel to Philippi. Prison. Love drives wisdom to know the
best even among the good, the right even among the difficult.
Testing all things through the lens of divine love. That's really
a way you should put it in your own mind, that the love of God
is a lens through which we test everything. Everything. I made
the comment years ago with a mentor of mine, and I said, we should
even be considering how we can put on our socks for the glory
of God. And after I got through saying
that to a small group of people, he's brought me to the side and
says, I disagree with that statement. It's a little bit hyperbolic,
really. You think we're supposed to be
concerned with God when we're putting on our socks or brushing
our teeth? And I was surprised. You know how it is when your
mentor says something that shocks you? Not that he wasn't wise and great,
but he did not receive what I said and did not understand. And I
said, well, let me put it this way. You're thinking in the context
of just the task. I said, but why do we put our
socks on anyway? We have a day planned. We have a presence that
we're going to establish in the world that day. We're going to
go somewhere. We're about to put our shoes
on so that we may carry our way into the world. And I said, as
we do all of those things, we are to be absolutely certain
that God's glory is at the precipice of it all, is at the front of
everything. And even if we're not mindful
of these things, we are either going to fame Him or defame Him. We are going to give glory to
Him or we are failing to give Him glory because we've forgotten
Him. How do you forget? Those of you
who've had children, do you just wake up one day and leave the
house and go, oh, I have children, I forgot them. No. I did have a friend one time
that told me that When her son was three months old, she left
him in the parking lot of a shopping center and drove off after she
loaded her groceries. He was in the buggy. And then
turned around and, you know, the crowd that had gathered to
see this infant. Thank God that was in the early or the late
60s. It wasn't as horrific. But that's the one example. True story. But we don't forget
about our children. We don't forget about ourselves.
We have nightmares that we show up to class with our pants off.
We have nightmares we show up to work and our shoes are miscolored. But it doesn't happen. We don't do that. So we're mindful
of ourselves. We're mindful of our appearance.
We're mindful of our children. We're mindful of our pets. We
feed the fish. We throw some food out for the
dogs. We kick the cat. Whatever it is, we do what we're
going to do because we're mindful of those things which are prevalent
and important. Is the glory of God not more
important than all of it? So I suppose then that you must
put on your socks for the glory of God. You must brush your teeth
for the glory of God. At the bare essential, God gave
you teeth. Take care of them. See how silly? We've got it made,
y'all. We have it made. The love of
God drives our wisdom to know what is excellent and approve
of it. The love of God does not love the world. I've landed in
1 John a lot this morning. 2 John 15-17, Do not love the
world or the things of the world, for the things of the world,
the pride of life, lust of the eyes, pride of possessions, are
not of God, but are from the world, and all the world and
everything in it is passing away. So if you love the world, then
the love of God is not in you, is what John says. So the love
that is abounding more and more in the Christians of Philippi
produces in them a desire for the knowledge that gives them
the wisdom to understand how to discern what is excellent
and approve of it and live it. So that their lives are a model
of Christ's likeness. so that their lives, their lives
together, the body of Christ, the life of the body of Christ
is an example and is a testimony. As Paul would say to the Ephesians
in chapter 3, verse 10, that the manifold wisdom of God is
displayed through the church to the authorities and the rulers
and the powers in the heavenly places. that the church exists, truly
the devil knows God is victorious through Christ Jesus. So what's the game here? I believe the game is that doctrinally
the enemy has taken good-hearted, benevolent people with a pious
cultural bent He's called them Christians. He's placed them
in pulpits. He's assembled them with others,
entitled them as churches, and continues to perpetuate and multiply,
like gremlins in a swimming pool, like-minded people. I'll call
it that reference. the way this body, not individuals,
but the body looks. You can go anywhere and find
the remnant. You can find the zealot. You
know what I'm talking about? You know what would be a better
test? To find the one who's not. To be a Christian, the normal
outcome is zealousness, is zeal. is fire, is passion, is affection,
is drive for wisdom and discernment, is complete separation as much
as possible from the world's ways. Why is that? Why don't we find that one or
two people who are just wildly in love with Jesus and always
talking about Scripture and always pressing to do whatever they
can do every day for the sake of the gospel. Oh, they're weirdos.
They're radical. No, they're normal. That's normal. The enemy says, well, we'll make
them look spiritual and they'll love the world and they'll give
a false gospel to the world. Let's go. You know where the health and
wealth gospel came from? Evangelicalism. crazy stuff, hyper-grace, all
of it comes from just good-meaning people doing good-meaning stuff
in the name of Jesus that they've created. God's love does not love the
world, but it presses into righteousness as opposed to worldliness. And
how are we to do that which is right if we don't discern that
which is right? You know why? You know how we
do it? We want to find, as somebody told us this past Friday about
a Ten Commandments that wasn't in there. We want to look at a list of
doing this way and not doing this way. It's what the world
wants. I want to be right with God,
so give me a list. When I was a young man, younger
man, child, if you will, I used to think that if we could get
our children in our culture to obey the law of God, they could
be right with God. And then I understood depravity.
And I realized it's not possible.
And even if a man did fulfill the law, he'd be no better than
the Pharisees. Paul himself said, according
to the law, I'm blameless. In some of the same breath he
says, a wretched man that I am, who will save me from this? Christ
will save me from this. So the love of God
presses into the righteousness of God, not worldliness. Divine
love seeks to edify, I want you to hear this, edify, encourage
and exalt not just God, but each other. We are to edify each other. We are to build. We are to grow. We are to, in all ways, at all
times, be teaching and reproving and correcting and instructing
and encouraging patiently, kindly, gently, calmly, knowing that it is only God who
is going to let that sink and hook and grow. But we have an
obligation at the same time as we do for one another does for
us, corrects us and encourages us and grows us. And we who are in Christ, we
love what is honorable, we love what is excellent, excellent,
we love what is it was to say what is praiseworthy. I oftentimes say this in a semi-gesting
way to my children. Would you invite Jesus to do
this? It's a weak test because if we're
not discerning or if we're immature, we go, oh yeah, that would be
fun to hang out with Jesus doing this. Not that this would be
inherently wrong, but is it best? What do we do with our lives? Anyway, love, divine love, in
order to be approval, give approval of what is excellent, this love
that Paul is talking about guides us. And it guides us and measures
all that we see. I want you to picture that for
a minute. a robot that could have something
in its mind or its eyes, and as it looked out, it could see
something and tell the temperature of it, the height of it, the
weight of it, whether somebody's like a RoboCop or something. We ought to have those types
of eyes. We ought to have those types of hearts that we look
at everything and we measure it. against the worldview that
God has given us through the power of His Spirit, as taught
in His Word, that we know that what we are doing is pleasing
to Him. And the greater thing is, is
that when we see that there are areas in our life that may be
good, but are not best, and especially that they contradict that which
God has called us to do, and we throw them away, it gives
us joy. It gives us joy because we now
are doing what we want to do intimately, which is to give
glory to God through Jesus Christ. So the love of God, the divine
love that He gives us, that we hold, that we have, that it guides
and it measures. If you might say, well, it's
not, it's not what I do. I don't, I don't feel this way.
If Christ is your treasure, you will. Can you hear that? If Christ is our treasure, we
are partakers of grace. And the evidence of that is immeasurable. It's overflowing. It's abundant. It's more and more. We receive grace upon grace. We don't have a grace access
card that we stick into the port and walk in when we need to get
a little more. We have it. And the ultimate end of this
is worship. Worship. Approving what is excellent. Loving what is excellent. Striving
for what is excellent is because we understand as God's people
that our lives are an instrument of worship to Him. Do you believe
that, church? Yeah, we know it. Romans 12,
right? And even in Romans 12, it has
the same recipe, that we are transformed by the renewal of
our mind. We learn Christ. And because
we are Christ's, as we learn Christ, Christ becomes, or we
become like Christ. And we receive the things that
Christ would receive. We approve the things that Christ
would approve. We reject the things that Christ
would reject. If nothing else, this sermon
is a test of our affections, isn't it? This introduction is a test of
the affection of the Philippians and an encouragement to them.
And most importantly, Church, we need to be encouraged, not
condemned. It's easy to say, oh, woe is
me. I'm not worshiping the way I ought to. I'm not loving the
way I ought to. I'm not being discerning the
way I ought to. I'm not doing any of this way I ought to. I'm
through. I'm just going to go home and
die. Friends, it's the fruit of righteousness that comes from
Christ. Verse 11, the fruit of righteousness that comes from
Christ. So when we find ourselves waning in this product, or in
this production, we fall into the grace of Christ. And because of this, we press
into holiness. Christ's wisdom instead of the
wisdom of man. We have affection over law. Do you see how the Jews of Jesus'
day, what they tried to do to justify their actions? Well,
the law says. Well, the law says. Well, the
law says. Well, the law says. We're obeying the law. Jesus, according
to them, disobeyed the law. Especially the Sabbath. Paul says the letter kills, the
Spirit gives life. Our love and God's love for us
effectually produces the works which God has created for us
to walk in. It establishes something in us which we see here as a
holiness, as a blamelessness, as a purity, the righteousness
that comes from Jesus Christ. And that's why next week is so
imperative that we look at justification. as it is shown here in this text,
because as we test ourselves today, we need to put our hope
in Christ as well, not our hope in our own efforts. Church, we
will never be the people that God has called us to be if we
continue to try to do and work these things out without God's
glorious grace. And we will not accomplish any
of it for the sake of His name if we try to accomplish it individually. We don't preach to give everybody
here something to take home with them. We preach God's Word so
that we will grow as a body. And then we take that home with
us. Our ecclesiology is really screwed
up in this country. The purpose of the church is
community. We looked at Koinonia a few weeks
ago. Community, one body for the sake of God's glory. You said that 15 times in the
last 10 minutes. Paul says it. The outcome is the glory and praise of God. And friends, there is not going
to be a skybox in heaven. There's not going to be an elite
section of worshipers over here. And I know our eschatology may
be different, but our understanding of the
gospel is not. And God has saved His people
for the sake of His praise by His Son to establish divine fruit
in our hearts and our minds and our will. and our ministry, and our actions,
and our motives, so that when we stand before Christ, He's pleased with His work. He's pleased with His glory. I want you to hear that, and
then I'm done. The reason we strive the way
we do is because at the end of the age, God is greatly pleased
with His work. God looks at His people, and
as we see in Scripture, can say, well done. That well done comes
at the cost of Him. So it's gratifying. It's vindicating. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
vindicated Christ. But the holiness of the Church
does as well. For He's ransomed us. He's paid
for us. He's purchased us, Church. And I think for we, as Grace
Truth, one of the hardest things that we are going to have to
confront is individualism among the body. What have I got to do? What's
it going to do for me? How am I going to fit into this?
When am I going to get this? When is this going to happen?
You see what I'm saying? It may not be for every congregation,
Pastor Dave may probably agree, individualism amongst the body
is a harsh reality. And the fruit of God's righteousness
in approving what is excellent, friends, that's what's excellent. That we are a people. That we are one body. just causing this baffled confusion
when the world looks in and goes, how? That's the wisdom of God. That's the wisdom of Christ.
That's the mind that we have. Christ died for himself or for
his body. That would give you the foundation
of the love of God for you. Let's pray. God, I cannot do what you will not permit. And at no time, Father, will
you ever permit our human efforts to overcome your divine providence, your decrees, and your purpose. And Father, in your great wisdom,
you purposed to save a people for yourself. And as we've come today, some
of us fatigued, some of us distracted, Some of us disinterested. We know that you and you alone
will land and plant and produce a crop out of all your people. Father, help us to see what is
excellent. Help us to approve what is best. And Lord, protect us from thinking that we must be wise enough and
smart enough and strong enough to stand as we do these things. Give us a great dependence upon
you, Father, just as Paul depended upon you to do the work and to
continue the work. We must also recognize that as
our greatest need. Father, my heart is heavy. There are so many needs and brokenness
even amongst our own congregation with people who are suffering
in flesh, suffering in their hearts, suffering in their homes. Father, help us to be there as
a people, to meet their needs, to preach to them the gospel
of grace. Father, our hearts should be
burdened for those who are lost, many of whom are in church services
right now. God, send us to proclaim the
truth of the gospel. Father, we thank you for those
who give their life to the call of missions. Lord, I thank you for the ministry
of grace to Russia. And as they are with us today,
Father, I pray that you would do what seems impossible. That your name would be made
great among the people of those countries. through the publishing
and the sending of the books and the doctrine and the teaching. Father, I pray that we would
be very mindful of our call as a people to support such ministry. Lord, with the greatest and the most bodacious and most
extravagant ministries of the world, we don't hear them doing
much of anything. But you take the nothings and
the small and the lowly and you do great things with them. So would you do great things through this ministry? Would you give the funds that
are needed to publish more books? Would you prepare the hearts
of many believers and non-believers to grab them and read them and
share them? And Father, would you, as we
leave this place today, just bring those among us who
are downtrodden high Lift them. Give them joy. And those who
are among us, Father, who do not have joy, would you bring
them to repentance? Would you save them? Those who do not have eternal
life. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.