You know, you have to wonder
sometimes if the mood of music is music or if it's the message.
It can easily sway us. As I thought about that song
and all the songs we've sung this morning, you know, it's
the power behind the truth. Even if we were to read those
lyrics, would we see the truth of Scripture there? If not, we
should throw the song away. It's worthless. And it surely
isn't an offering to the Lord, but thankfully, by God's grace,
we can see. And I'd say that as we look at
the letter to the Philippian church, that the same would be
true in our understanding of God's Word, that when we see
it, and then we think about it and then we interpret it in our
own personal way that it doesn't apply to the body, that it's
not biblical in its understanding, then it's not right. It's not
true. And oftentimes you wonder, why
do we make it so difficult? Why not just keep it simple?
In my study in First Baptist in Newark, California, I had,
as you walked in the door of my study, it had simplify over
the window across the room. Because we have a tendency in
our world and in our lives to overcomplicate everything. But simplicity is a matter for
which the human race has been known to be ignorant. And what
we do In trying to take something that is simply stated, we try
to make it sound more creative. We try to make it do something
that it wasn't intended to do. Such is the case for music, such
is the case for art, such is the case for how we interpret
and teach and understand in grass scripture. We often do that with scripture.
We overcomplicate it. rather than simply seeing what
is written there, not in pretext but in context with that which
is written there. And therefore, God helps us understand
what we see. And we see it. And it's simply
positive. It's simply understood. It's simply directed. It's simply
interpreted. But we don't do that. We have in our culture today
what I would call a broad, to be kind, misapplication of the
Word of God. And what we've done is we've
terminated that broad misapplication into the corner of, quote, my
theology, my faith, my belief, my church, my Jesus, my Savior,
me. And when we do that, we are not
only broadly misapplying Scripture, we're putting words in the mouth
of God that are not there. So we will be held liable for
saying God said and God did not say. Not only will we be liable
for saying that God said what He did not say, we will be liable
for sending people to where God did not send them. we will be
liable and accountable for telling people to do certain things in
their lives that God did not prescribe for them. We will create an action and
a culture in which breeds a continuation of unbiblical ideals, philosophies,
and realities, and structures, and say that it is biblical and
we will be held accountable for doing such. For the fruit of
all that which we say is God's Word. And it's not a thing to
just consider and go, well, I lost a penny in the pool. It's not about pennies, it's
not about buildings, it's not about ministries, but it's about
the very souls of humanity. Philippians chapter 1, I'm going
to read down through verse 11 again, and we're going to talk
about verse 6. Paul and Timothy, slaves 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 in my
imprisonment and in the defense of the confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you with all 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 Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God. Let me pray. Father, help us to see in the
mirror of our soul that which is not pleasing to You in regard
to our understanding and application of this text. And most importantly,
Father, awaken us and revive us with a vibrant zeal, with
a fire that burns without any stopping for your gospel and
for your glory and for your church. God, let us not become aggravated
or bitter when our views are wrong, but let us celebrate that
your grace has caused us to walk rightly. We pray this in the
name of Christ, in Jesus' name, Amen. Remember last week when we talked
about Paul and his letter here and that his remembrance of the
Philippian church and their partnership with the gospel is the purpose
of his joy. It's the purpose of his thanksgiving.
It's the purpose of his writing in that he could show them that
their slavery with him as a slave to Jesus and the slavery of the
gospel, and I'm overemphasizing that, gave him great joy. To the praise of God's glory,
he thanked God for their partnership in the gospel. He thanked God
because God had done the work in them that caused them to be
born again to a living hope, evidenced by the fact that their
main concern was the advancement of the gospel both within and
among the church and without for those who are lost. Paul said that their partnership
was that, as we'll see as we move through chapter 1, their
partnership was part of the koinonia, all things in common, part of
the fellowship of the church. It's not compartmentalized. Fellowship
is not, we have fellowship around this. We have fellowship around
that. We are in fellowship together
in all things, not just some things. We are all partakers
of the grace of God. We are all participants in the
suffering of Christ. What does Paul tell the church
at Colossae? I pray that I may fill up what is lacking in the
suffering of Christ for your sake. That is the church. So we are in fellowship together
for the good, the bad, and the ugly, for the glory of God, which
is always good. and our partaking in the Gospel,
our partnering in the Gospel, is not something that we have
accomplished. And that's what Paul's going
to say with verse 6. He says in verse 6, and I am
sure of this, for this I am certain, I am sure of this, that He...
Who is he speaking of there? See, he's talking about God because
he says in verse 3, I thank my God. And I am sure of this, that
He, my God, who began a good work in you, will, He, my God,
will bring it to completion. Now there's a little bit of a
misnomer here. We read this out of context.
We're taught to memorize this verse. It's a good verse for
memory. We're also taught to memorize chapter 4, verse 13. And that's a good verse as well.
But what happens when we memorize those verses out of the context
of the letter, we personalize these verses apart from everybody
else. We stand in a field of billions
and we say, that's about me. Is it? Let me give you some precursor
thoughts about this verse. That verse is only about you
as it relates to you working in the body collectively. That verse is only about you
when you are obediently doing that which God created you to
do for the sake of the body of Christ, collectively. That verse
is only about you if you are part of the local church, collectively. That verse doesn't apply to you
in any other way. See, that's frustrating. Oh,
now you've made me angry. You frustrated me. Since I was
two years old, a pea in a pod, I've been told that God began
a good work in me. God began a good work in you
for the sake of His body, not for you. God began a good work in you
so that you get out of the walls of your holy huddle and invest
in costly investment of your lives and of your children and
of your spouses and of your time and of your treasures and of
your talents for the sake of the body of Christ. You want to know some of the
greatest frustration that I've had in my life? Is when I found
that I gave my life more for the work of a program than I
did for the people of God. Or when I gave my life more for
the dollar, earning the bread to feed my family than I did
for the sacrifice thereof for the gospel. The wickedness of
Satan will tell you, you don't worry about that, you know, before
you accept that call to that ministry, you find out what they're
going to pay you. You know what? That's Satan's tongue. I'm not
saying not to use common sense. Maybe we want you to move to
Taviti and plant this church. And you get halfway across there
and your boat runs out of gas. I mean, have some common sense. Calculate the cost, but don't
expect somebody else to pay the ride. I've thought that way before. in some sense of the idea that
ministry, God began a good work in me and He was going to do
that with me despite what other people did. Let me tell you something
when it comes to the church of Jesus Christ. We are either in
it as a part of it or we're not. And there is a phenomenon that's
been going on for 25, 30 years of people thinking that they
can get what they need by watching a sermon on television. That
sermon ain't even written to them. That sermon wasn't even
preached to them. Just like the sermon today is
God's Word from Philippians, the same sermon that should be
preached to any other pastor who preaches anywhere else in
the world, the same text. There's no different sermon.
I mean, maybe different application or different misogyny or different
words or communication styles, but it's the same message. The
message doesn't change. But today, this message is for
Grace Tree Church. Today. And it may have impact
on others who may listen to it from other parts of the world.
But ultimately, God prepared this day for you as the body,
as this local fellowship, so that this sermon would be preparation
for your heart to do the work of the ministry. Sometimes we also think this
text means that God has begun something in me and He's not
finished. Oh yes he is. God is finished
with the work in you, Saint. He's finished. Now there is some
sanctification that is progressive. But let me tell you something.
God's recreation of your mind, of what you look at and the way
you see the world, is transformed in an instant when the gospel
saves you. You don't have to sit here and
work through philosophical debates of the world. You don't sit around
and we don't have to figure out, well, I wonder if this really
is the way God is. We know our Father. We also don't have to worry,
sit here and learn to love people. Though we may really not like
them, we love them. And when we choose not to, it
is an extreme rub against our soul. How should we love people? Well, let me give you something
that really irritates a lot of people. We ought to pray for
those people who are being used by the devil as ISIS. That God would save their souls
from damnation. For there is no justice in this
world that could top the justice of God. And I think we ought
to think about the work of Jesus, who said on the cross, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. You think ISIS
is more wicked than the crucifixion of God Almighty? Heavens, no. You think there's injustice in
this world when people are burning children for the sake of profit
in a furnace? It's injustice, but there's no
injustice like the injustice that was set upon Christ when
He took the cross. But yet God said it was just
because He had already forgiven many. So for Christ not to have
died, it would have been unjust. But He did not deserve it, but
He did it for His enemies. And in the same way he did it,
as Paul will teach us in this letter, we should not should. Paul does not say that. He says,
have this mind among you which is yours already in Christ Jesus. So in this, I'm sure, He that
began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the
day of Jesus Christ. It does not mean that God is
working out your mind to know Him or working out your heart
to love Him or to love each other. Now, we do grow in that love.
It's deep. It gets deeper. It gets more glorious. But we
don't just work for ten years to get it started. It doesn't
happen. And friends, the fellowship of
the church, I want you to hear me. The fellowship of the body of
Christ, not in an Americanized, worldly, programmatic, academic,
administrative way. In a supernatural, life-together,
all-sacrificial way, the relationship we have in Christ is greater
than any blood relative we will ever know, have, or experience.
Greater than even the temporal shadow of our marriages and certainly
greater than the exponential love we have for our children.
Because all that goes away. It's worthless in the context
of eternity. It has no eternal value except
that it points to the temporalness of this world and to the eternity
of the life to come. And that's tough. No, you shouldn't
sacrifice your marriage for the sake of your men's ministry. But you can let that unbelieving
spouse hit the road when they try to step in the way of the
gospel and its power in your life. And you plead with them
and you beg them to come to Christ before they come back to you. I wish I had time to go into
that more, but it wasn't the point. Paul, in this verse, chapter
6, has a certainty. He has a confidence. He has an
assurance that is unwavering. And the unwavering assurance
that Paul has here is not in the hands of the Philippians.
He says, I thank my God in all remembrance, all my remembrance
of you, and always in every prayer, I am making my prayer with joy
because of your partnership with the gospel. So we see that the
identifier of these people show that they are partners. He says, your partnership in
the gospel. It was the Philippians and their
actual work with Paul. And for the sake of the gospel,
this is what gave Paul joy. You remember last week? It was
because of God's work. And that's what verse six proves. That's why Paul could praise
God for the Philippians ministry and not them. I thank my God
in all remembrance of you. with joy. That's how Paul's joy
never ceased, because it was a joy from the Lord. It was a joy by the Lord's hands.
It was a joy from the Lord's fruits, from God's fruits. And
we're going to bust all into some of that in a minute. Paul was grateful for the work
of God in them. not John or Sue or Betty or Ramon
or whoever else was in Philippi. Paul did not write this letter
to specific people. Those specific people were surely
in his mind. Okay? Paul wrote this letter to the
saints, all the saints who were in Philippi, and the elders and
the deacons. All of them. not just that congregation
or that congregation. So therefore, Paul's theology
says this, all those who are born again, no matter what congregation
they are, affiliated with are indeed the body of Christ. Thus, they are subject to the
authority of my apostleship as a slave of Jesus to understand
that which I am saying to them and obey that speech, obey those
commands. Because this is not as much as
an obedience that's required as an observation. That's expected. I could probably say that a little
better. Paul is saying, I'm not telling
you that this is what you need to get into doing. I'm telling
you this is what you are. And you're doing it. And I thank
God when I remember what you're doing. Because I praise God,
it's God's work. You get no credit for the work
of God. None. We get no credit. That's why it's hard for people
when they think of these saintly, loving individuals who live in
this earth with great benevolence in their heart. Philanthropy. Out the wazoo. And then they
die and they want to say, oh, look at Satan. He's such a wonderful
man. Such a wonderful woman. Loving.
David gave their shirts off their back. Great. That's awesome.
That's what's expected of us as human beings. To love the
Lord our God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor
as much and equal as we love ourselves. But it doesn't give us eternal
life. It doesn't make us right with
God. We are not justified before God because of our works of righteousness. Because Jesus himself says that
the works of righteousness are wicked. Now you're putting words
in his mouth. Does the Old Testament not say that the righteousness of man
is like filthy rags? Is the Old Testament not the
words of God, the Logos? Is the Logos not Jesus Christ
who is God? That Jesus said it. But Jesus said it even clearer
in chapter 3 of John. You knew I was coming to John,
didn't you? When he says these words after
talking to Nicodemus, Nicodemus says, I know you are from God.
I've studied you. I've loved the coming of you.
I knew that you were coming. I know you have come from God.
For no one can do the things that you do except God do with
them. And Jesus rebukes him sharply, tautly. You cannot see the kingdom
of heaven except you be born again. So your confession of
faith in Me is about as worth as much as the sandal on your
left foot. It'll get you about as far as the toenail on your
pinky toe. You must be born of God. It baffled and confused Nicodemus
because Nicodemus was a holy man. He was part of the Sanhedrin. He had a zeal for truth. He had
a zeal for Yahweh. He had a zeal for the law of
God. He had a zeal for the hearts of the people that they would
turn and worship God, Jehovah. And Jesus says, look, just as
you were helpless in the wilderness and Moses had to lift up a snake
so that you might have faith in the One who could save you,
God alone can save you. It isn't the works that you do
that saves you. It isn't the knowledge that you have that
saves you. It isn't the study that you have, the ministry that
you have, the works that you do that saves you. But Moses said to the serpent,
and I must be lifted up, and you will have eternal life if
you believe on Me. For God loves the world in this way, that He
gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him has eternal life
now. But whoever does not believe
in Him is condemned already. For he has failed to believe
in the Son, the only Son of God. For this, and this is the point,
this is the judgment. You see this? All of a sudden
now, we switch gears in John 3, don't we? We switch gears
there and we're thinking, well, Jesus is teaching something different.
He's talking to Nicodemus. He's talking about Nicodemus'
works. He's talking about the judgment
that rests upon Nicodemus' head. He's talking about the judgment
of the Father that's going to pour His wrath upon all unrighteousness
and all suppression of the truth. Romans 1. All the wickedness
of humanity. God is going to pour His judgment
and His wrath on all wickedness. Nicodemus, you are standing in
the judgment of God and this is what it looks like. You don't
love the light because I'm the light. You love the works of
righteousness that you do and you perform. You love your Bible
studies, your church services, your teaching. Your prayer time,
your phylacteries, you love all of these things, but this is
the judgment. You don't come to me because
it will be clearly seen that the works that you do that you
call righteousness are darkness. It's got a different flavor,
doesn't it? It's not about the works of the
Philippians that give them light. They have come to the light and
the light is clearly seen. But what does Jesus say in John
3? So they do not come to the light,
lest their works be exposed. But all who come to the light
do so, so that it may be clearly seen that their works may look
exactly like Nicodemus' works. Their works have been carried
out in God. Wow! We miss the context sometimes
of Scripture. We think, oh, that's about those wicked, evil sinners.
Those are the people that are doing all kind of this hellacious and
awful stuff. No, it's about people doing righteous
stuff. People in churches and pulpits preaching and praying
and laying hands on people and weeping with them over their
deathbeds and reading Scripture to them who have their hope in
that. God began a good work in the
Philippians. And God saved each and every one of those who He
saved in Philippi for the sake of them being the body to do
the work of the ministry that they give Him glory completely
and collectively, not individually. It's beautiful. So God began this work of grace.
They did not. That's point number one. Long
introduction. God gave them this work of grace.
They did not do this work. They did not get motivated, assimilated. Let me use a lot of these sinful
words. Motivated, assimilated, acclimated. I don't know. What else? Anything else that
you've probably ever heard about how you need to get involved
in ministry is probably incorrect in a biblical stance. Paul never
taught leadership principles to the Philippian church. Are
they important? Yeah, they're important. Just
like etiquette's important for your kids. So they don't look
like a pig when they're sitting in public. But at the end, you
know who did look like a pig sitting in public and had bugs
in his teeth? John the Baptist. Why? Because the entire nation
of Israel was looking to see what this man would become. Look
at Luke. Look at Luke's gospel. And they just wondered. They
were in awe. They couldn't believe it. And then he came out wearing
skins, looking like a homeless man with his hair all napped
up, bugs and lugs in his teeth. I mean, it's not like you got
some pepper right there and you got a little bit of cheese. No,
this fool had like bugs in his mouth. Bugs. I've been around some nasty people
with some nasty stuff in their mouth. They've been chewing tobacco. You know what I'm saying? I'm
like, ooh, but I ain't never been around anybody with a bug
leg or a wing in their mouth. The point in all that? No point
at all. Just popped in there. The point is God gave the work
of grace. He didn't teach leadership. He didn't teach these people
to come and do all the things that they needed to do. We talked
on Tuesday night about the book of Acts and its narrative, that
we do not take anything out of the book of Acts and learn to
apply it as how we function as a church. We learn the principles
thereof, but every aspect of the book of Acts we see in many
different congregations, many different ways in which the church
interacted with itself. interacting with the culture,
interacting with the people. If we want to know how the government
of the church should look, we look at Titus and Timothy. That's
it. We don't go into other places. We see examples of it in the
book of Acts, but we don't just say we want to be an Acts 2 church
without saying, remember this, Tuesday? Without saying, hey,
we're going to be all encompassing in this way. So God did not teach them. Paul
did not go to Philippi and teach them that stuff. He didn't say,
alright, now you need to get this, and you need to do this, and this
is how you do it. What did Jesus say in John 6? He says, what
must we be doing to do the work of God? He said, this is the
work of God, that you believe on Christ. Paul preached the same thing
in Philippi. When the world around him went, well, we've got to
really get our stuff together and work and do the things we
need to do and organize the way we need to organize and establish
and do all this kind of stuff. Maybe we can't get that brother
in church, but he's a good bass player. Maybe we'll get him into
church if we let him play the bass. Well, is he a brother? I suggest
he's not a brother if you don't want to be in church unless he's
got a place to play. I say he's a bassist who wants to be around
cool people. It's God's work of grace. They did not do this.
God did this in them. And Paul says, I am sure of this,
that God has done something in you. I am certain that God has
given His grace and established peace through our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and that God is your Father and that you and
I are all slaves together. Love one another. Just like Tom
would say in his first epistle, I know that we have fellowship
with you and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with the
Son. And our joy is complete. Paul not only said God has done
something, but Paul said God will continue to do this in you. He didn't say God lit a fire
and He's going to put it to a blaze at the end. At the end, it culminates. It ends. At the day of Jesus
Christ, our ministry like it is today stops. You don't have
to hear me anymore. We don't have to question things
the way we do anymore. Christ will teach us. Whereas holy,
holy, holy, glory, glory is the Lamb who was and is and is to
come. I mean, that is the crux and the future of the church.
We are going to be worshiping Christ non-stop, hitting the
high notes, singing the low notes. We're never going to quit. No
time for anything else because everything else is boring. Boring,
worthless, wasteful. And that hurts people's feelings,
especially children. Oh, I want to play baseball when
I get to heaven. Well, you're not going to be
there if that's what you want in heaven. And that's a child's mindset
now. Don't throw me under the bus and run me over twice. You
know what I'm saying. But when we're grown in the faith,
we ought not to have that mindset. We ought not to go seek out teachers
who will tell us what we want to hear and say, oh, see, somebody
else is wrong like me and now I feel better. God will continue to do the work
that He's already doing in you. Your work will continue because
God will continue it. That's what Paul's saying. God
will hold this work and there is no confidence in the flesh.
Paul says do not put confidence in the flesh. Make no provision
for the flesh. So in the work of the partnership,
of the fellowship, of the ministry of Philippi, Paul is saying there's
no way to even praise you in your flesh because God has done
it and God will continue to do it. God began the work of grace,
and He'll continue to keep them in the work of grace. God began
the work of the covenant of peace, and He will keep them in the
covenant of peace. God began the work of making them a slave
to righteousness rather than a slave to wickedness, and He
will keep them in the slavery to righteousness. God made them
a partner in the gospel, and God will keep them as a partner
in the gospel. God made them saints to work and strive for
holiness, and God will keep them in striving for holiness. That's
why it is always disciplinary in nature when people just leave
the church without any shadow. And it boggles my mind the way
people can just, oh well, where'd John go? He's been gone two years.
Why'd I miss that fella? I wonder where he went? What
is that? I mean, the families that we've
seen God move in and out of our fellowship just in the last three
years, it brought us to tears. We wept. Lock them up, tie them
up, put them in a trailer and not let them go. Feed them. I'd
like to see us do what Brother Zeke thought of that. Take four
or five of us and tie him up. But it should hurt when some
of us, even by the call of God, move on. You see Paul there in
verse 8, we're not going to be there today. He says, For God
is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of
Christ. You yearn for the body with the
affection of Christ. The Bible is clear that if we
don't yearn for the body with the affection of Christ, we have
no affection for Christ. Why do we want a head on a platter? You can't have the head without
the body. You can't love Christ without
His body. Without loving His body. God did a work. He began this
work. And God's beginning is a good
work. Keep that in mind. We're moving
more to an idea of just understanding the doctrine of God and His goodness
with that statement. He who began a good work. Understand that it's a good work
because God began it. The ministry of the church in
Philippi was good because God produced it. It's not good when
we produce it. One of the greatest and most
one of the most intense moments in elders meetings in my ministry
was not in trauma or division or all that. But it was when
I sat there after months and months and months of wringing
my hands, wondering if everything that we had done as a church
was fleshly in its ability. And I measured it all and I thought,
this happened because I'm good at this. And this happened because
he's good at that. And this happened because we
know how to cast a vision. And there were two ways to juggle
that. One of them would be arrogance, like, look what we did, and not
give credit where credit was due. And I examined that. I didn't find that to be the
case. What I found to be the case was I was giving God the
credit for what man had done. Calling it God. And that bothered
me. And I mentioned that. And that
was a very intense meeting. And the twelve of us men, we
went around for years on that. Three years. Because here's the reality about
the work of God. It doesn't stop when the man
fails. Churches that just dissipate,
just burst. People just go all sorts of ways.
I'm not talking about location. How do we just walk away without
some tearing? And it happens. Churches dissipate. Congregations fail. But is the
work of the gospel still active in the life of those people? God's work that He began is a
good work. And what is it that caused the
ministry that gave Paul so much joy and so much gratitude to
God? What was that ministry? What
was the good work of God? The good work of God and the
people of Philippi was that they had all things in common. They
were partners. And he doesn't say it yet, but
he's going to say it. Partners in suffering. Partners
in grace. Partners in the gospel, he's already said. Partners in
prayer. Partners in ministry. Partners in being hated. It's all here. Partnership, koinonia,
fellowship. God's work is good work because
it creates a people who have nothing in common, have no affinity
apart from being human. And He puts them together and
they exist with an absolute fiery, supernatural, spontaneous affection
that cannot be qualified in any human way. That's the purpose. That's what God has done. God
saved, God created the world and everything in it so that
He could create a people for His own glory. Not some peoples
or many persons, but a people. And you look at it and you go
over and you think about what we talked about in Jude and what
we talked about in Titus. And when we see this exclusivity,
this absolute explicit gospel that cannot be compromised and
we think about the idea that what we learned is that right
doctrine produces right living. And part of that right living
is absolute intimate fellowship around spiritual lives, around
personal lives, around finances, around health. suffering and
joy all together. And this is something the world
doesn't like, but this is what God has done in the gospel. We've
internalized and personalized the gospel so much that we've
melted it away and now it's another gospel. You, beloved, individually
are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ to be received
by faith. God has saved you because He
put His judgment and His just wrath on Jesus. And then He raised
Him from the dead. But He saved you unto good works
as the body. So that He could bring you in
to what? Graft you in. See this language? You don't hear personalized,
intrinsic, individualistic language anywhere in the New Testament.
Nowhere. Except when it's a rebuke of like a person talking. You don't see it. Even the personal letters, the
pastoral epistles to Timothy by Paul. He says, you take these
things that I've taught you and you entrust it to others in the
body who can teach others. God's work is good because it
created a deep friendship, a deep intimacy that is not common among
the world, even among families. I have you in my heart. I long
for all you. I have an affection. See, this affection for each
other in the church should be greater than anything the world
has ever seen. They should see it and go, y'all
are a cult. They should. Let me tell you what's hellish. Can
I use that word? as if it's from hell. I know
that's a misnomer anyway. Nothing's coming from hell. It's
all going to hell. But hellish is when we care more
about the work than the worship. Hellish is when we care more
about the program than the people. About the image of the church
rather than the holiness and intimacy of the church. This work of God put them together
so that they would share all things. I mean all things. The good things and the bad things.
Not just material things. That's a given. Jesus even said
the worldly people do that. That unbelievers take care of
their own. Everything. Everything. Suffering, rejoicing, thanksgiving,
and tragedy. Not only are they all together
and have everything in common with a deep friendship and a
deep intimacy in those areas, but the main point that Paul's
making is that there is a work of God that is good in them,
that they are in partnership with a deep intimacy with all
things together in a unity for the sake of the gospel. Now I'm going to tell you, the
applied theology portion of that, what I do with that, the question
is, so what? What difference does it make?
It's starting to make a bigger difference in my life now than
it's ever made. Because now I'm not seeing opposition in the
religious of our area. I'm seeing mission. What do you
mean? Well, just what I said. All these
people are stupid. They don't believe the way I
do. God, grant them repentance. That's a good prayer. Maybe not
saying stupid, but we were all stupid before God saved us. And we're still a lot stupid
even though He saved us. So we become wise and more stupid. But I see them not as those people,
but I see them as maybe God's people who are being mishandled
who are being abused by false teaching and brow-beating, hateful
preaching that serves an agenda for politics. What is that? What
is that? God is the God of heaven and
earth. He spoke, let there be, and it
said... He doesn't need my finger stirring
to keep it rolling. But these people are those who
are our mission field. Mission field. These so-called
believers who are really unbelievers, who may even be believers, but
may be weak and infantile and abused and suffering. with a
fake joy that if everything that they put joy in fell apart, they'd
lose it all. That's our mission, church. That's
one of the main reasons God placed us in this city. That's one of
the reasons you live where you live and drive to this location
so we can fellowship together and worship. So that as we grow
in intimacy with each other, we will seek out intimacy with
others to bring them into the fold of Christ. And to always give a reason for
our hope with respect and kindness and gentleness. To always give
an answer for the faith that was once for all delivered to
the saints. Always discipling and teaching. Discipleship is
not a system. I've read, I'm not lying, a thousand
books or more on discipleship. I've probably read 7,500 books
in my lifetime. Just this year I've read 30. Some of it's a waste. You just
have to read stuff. But when you get down to it, making disciples is about partnering
in ministry. And that is the good work of
God. Evangelism isn't something special that we organize and
go do. Oh, we did evangelize. Evangelism
is what we do naturally as Christians. How do we counter that? What
do we do? Well, when people complain, we give them the gospel that
there's no root for complaining except selfishness. That's the
root for complaining. Saying I'm cold is not complaining.
By the way, I see some of you wrapped up again. That's just
saying I'm cold. Complaining is I can't believe
they never turn that heat on and it's always colder, it's
always hot. You know the difference in complaining
and stating. Somebody is broken, you give
them the gospel. Somebody's high on life, you
ask them, how do you have so much joy? Who's going to ask
that? People ask me that all the time.
Not as much lately. In this locale, they're afraid
to ask me anything. What time is it? It's time for
you to hear the Word of God. But it is. And then when we get to the end
of the day, we look back and we go, man, I have just been
unproductive for the Lord today. And we lay down and we pray and
we go, look at all these people God has touched today through
His Word, through His Gospel. I wasn't even trying. And I'm
not prescribing, we don't try. But friends, it's not about our
try. What is a try? I had a psychic one day tell
me in a parking lot in Dublin, California, when he wanted us
to come, me and a kid that was interning with us that summer
from college. He said, I want y'all to come
to my show tonight. Here's my card. And this guy
goes, I'll try. And he goes, really? Show me
that. What does it look like? See, that's the kind of conversation
I like to get in. Wasting time talking about stuff that doesn't
matter. But in all reality, what is it? We can try all we want
to, but except that God do the work good in us, it's not going
to come. The good work of God for the fellowship and the partnership
of the gospel is a continual thing. It's always happening.
And that's one of the main things Paul is saying here, that He
is going to continue to complete it. He's going to bring it to
completion. In other words, it's not going to fail. It's going
to continue to run its course and fully be producing in us. Because God began this good work in the beginning
with God. And if we go all the way back and we think about this
verbiage, we ask ourselves, hey, guess what? God has actually
done the good work from the beginning. God, before the foundation of
the world according to the teaching of Paul to the church of Ephesus,
did all of this before there was anything. God developed. I hate to even say
that. That's so silly. God doesn't develop. God divinely
decreed. We're going to learn. In about
three weeks we're going to start a teaching class on the doctrines of God,
the attributes of God. We'll learn about the decrees
of God. It's important. Important. He divinely decreed to create
a universe in order to celebrate in order for there to be a celebration
of a people whom He would redeem by His own Son to the praise
of His glorious grace. And the Scripture says in Ephesians
2 He did that. In Ephesians 1 and 2, He did that before there was
anything. He declared it and decreed it
and chose to save a people. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, not of your own doing. This is not of works,
this is not of your own doing, lest any man should boast. For
you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. In other words,
Christ's work created you, and you're in Christ, or you're not
created in God. To do good works, which, what? He hopes you get around to. He
doesn't say that. He says, which He created beforehand
for you to walk in. And that's not a pair of shoes
sitting out on the table for us to go try on. It's a pair
of shoes that are fitted perfectly to our feet. The gospel of peace
that are there when we become a child of God. They cannot come
off. Jesus Christ perfectly came and
satisfied the wrath of God for all who believe or who will believe. All the believing ones are saved
in Christ, not the unbelieving ones. And in God's absolute wisdom,
he began that good work of creating a people before there was ever
people. And God created them in Christ. And before that, he created them
in their mother's womb. And it is good because God created
them. And they, the Philippian church, we as the body of Christ
today, are collectively, each part of the body, working for
the other parts. Not in ourselves, recognizing
our main significance apart from the body. We have a three-fold action,
if you will, in our church. A three-fold. Something simple.
Reaching in, reaching out, reaching up. Reaching in is that the purpose
of the body is to reach inward, toward itself. That we're always
consumed. with thinking and praying and
wondering and serving and doing and being obedient as God has
gifted us, some of us differently than others, thankfully, or we'd
be incomplete. And we serve and we act and we
give and we minister to each other inwardly. We are concerned
with us who are in covenant together as a local fellowship of believers
who say, this is my church family. I'm going to be accountable to
Christ in this local church. And then we reach out. We reach
out. We reach out. We go outside the
church. We don't give all of our time to each other because
there are others out there who need to become believers, who
need to hear the Gospel, who need to be told that if they
do not repent and believe in Jesus Christ, they will perish
in their sins. We must be about proclaiming the Gospel to the
lostness of the world, so we reach out. And by God's grace, those who
we reach out to will all of a sudden become part of those who are
reaching inward. And then ultimately, and we can put this first, but
we put it last for emphasis, we reach up. And as the church
does all of those things, inward and outwardly, it reaches up
in worship. It reaches up in focus. It reaches
up in power. Up meaning The metaphor or the
image of God being in the heavens, we reach upward toward God. So God began His work of grace
in the Philippians, that He began as a good work. And God's work,
as I've already said, will not fail. I want to emphasize that. It will come to completion. In other words, it will succeed
and continually succeed. Though it has ebb and flow moments, the work of gospel proclamation
doesn't stop. And the gospel isn't something
that's for the world who hates God. The gospel is for the church
who love God. And we once were part of the
world who hated God and the gospel came to us and now it applies
to us. It's good news for us. You're not destined for wrath,
but for life, an eternal life in Christ Jesus. You see that?
Because except God save the lost, they can't see the gospel. They
can't even hear it. How are they going to hear it?
By hearing it. And then when God decides to
open their ears to hear, they will hear. God's work will not fail. God
began the work of slavery to righteousness in the hearts of
the church. slavery and affection toward each other, and slavery
and affection toward the Gospel, and it will not cease. God began
the work of partnering in the Gospel ministry, and it will
not end. God began the work of overwhelming
power to live for the sake of Christ, and it does not stop.
God began the work of mutual living. not being overcome by
our woes, but we have overcome death by the power of Christ
who has been raised from the dead. And that does not end.
God will keep all those who are His. They will not fall away. They will not be plucked out
of the hand of Jesus Christ who bought them. He bought them and
He owns them and they will not fall away. God's work is eternal. And later in this letter, Paul
will say that time will come when every knee will bow and
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Friends,
listen. Paul has a good view of the future for the church.
What is it? That this good work, though it
may be on a temporal plane in this world today, it is eternally
sufficient. How do I explain that? that the
work we do now has eternal benefits. What are they? The worship of
God together. The praise of the glorious grace
of God. The adoration and affection of
the crown of thorns with Jesus Christ our Lord. It's eternal! So our work that
we do as the body of Christ is done by God's power that He planted
and started in us and He will sustain us. Church, we cannot
lose sight of that reality. We will then be blameless like
our Savior, His pure, white, holy bride. And finally, most disturbing
for some of us, God's good work is for God. It's for God. It's for God. The day of Jesus
Christ is for the glory of God's justice, and for the glory of
God's judgment, and for the glory of God's justification of all
who are in Christ by faith. It's for God. So the work we
do, even though for each other and for partnership in the ministry
of the gospel, it is for the sake of Christ. It is for the
sake of the glory of the name of God that he be praised and
the power that he's given the church so that he could be seen
as the one, as the only, as the truth, as the life. So we do not labor in vain. We
do not preach in vain. We do not pray in vain. We do
not worship in vain. We do it all for the sake of
the glory of God. And friends, I would say too,
as a way of just thinking through this, anything that we do in
this life that deters that. I'm not saying that we have to
sometimes do other things. But we know the things in our
life that actually distract from worship. We would not want Jesus
sitting with us in that engagement, in our minds, or our eyes, or
our ears, or mouth, or feet, or hands. We should put those
things to death. Because they do not give glory
to God. And when those things come public, it disgraces the
church, which disgraces Jesus Christ. God's good work is for the sake
of God's glory. And God is glorified in the fellowship
of the church because by grace, God has drawn them and secured
them in Jesus Christ. Through faith, the church holds
fast to their Savior. With prayer and thankfulness,
in mutual affection and they give to each other's needs. The
church is together in their fellowship and God is glorified in the fellowship
of the church because they alone stand unified against the entire
world. Hear that. People are not your friends if
they're not in Christ. Want to put it to a test? Begin
to press into them the necessity of faith. Press into their lives the necessity
of joy. Press into their lives the authority
of God and His Word on their lives. They won't be your friend
if they're not in Christ. They'll be your enemy. The world
says, well, it's legal, let's do it. The world says, it's okay,
we've got to change things, that's antiquated. The world says, well,
we don't understand the culture we live in. The world says, everybody
has a right to. God's Word says no. So the church
says no. And ultimately, God is glorified
in the fellowship of the church when we are in our spiritual
battle together. We stand together. I hate to
use a silly little illustration, but you ever watch the Mutual
of Omaha? I don't even know if it's still
on, where they used to get to see animals eat each other? The one that
strays off always gets eaten. Always. Like the t-shirts you
see. I don't have to be fast, I've
just got to be faster than this guy when a bear is after us. Can't outrun a bear, but I can
outrun you. But the devil's no different. The enemy of God is
prowling around. He's looking for those sheep who have strayed. And there is no confidence in
Ephesians chapter 6 for us as in fellowship together. There's
no confidence for any Christian who is not a part of a local
church on a continual basis. You cannot overcome the attacks
of the devil without being in fellowship with the church. And
we can pray for you, and God will move in you, and God will
help protect you, and He will keep you. But church, if you
forsake the gathering of the saints, you are fresh meat. God is glorified in that we are
battling together, not apart. And finally, as Paul has argued,
God is glorified in the fellowship of the church because it is through
that alone that the gospel advances. The Gospel advances to reach
more and more people. As grace reaches more and more,
it produces thanksgiving to God. And so for what it's worth today,
friend, my prayer for you is that you'd be encouraged that
God has begun a good work in us, and He's going to see it
completed until Christ returns. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful
that You are the God of wonders, the holy God of heaven. And we are so overwhelmed, sometimes
just struck silent when we think about the vastness of Your glory. Even that which we can see and
understand, Your church as we exist together in this world,
it blows our minds. And we're just, really? How does
this work? We want so bad to be in charge
of our destiny while giving You credit for it and walking in
our own way. But Lord, thank You for saving us from that.
Thank You for saving us to be a people, not individual persons. Thank You for putting in us a
heart to lay down our individuality, our prized uniqueness, knowing
that it has no value apart from the whole. One puzzle piece,
though may be beautiful, God, is not worth anything apart from
the rest. And the most beautiful puzzle
with one piece out is popped. A blemish. Help us to see that
which You've created in us to do as we partner in the Gospel
with each other. For the cities in which we live,
for our homes in which we care for, For those who are part of
our lives that we pray, we come to know Christ. Lord, go after
them and seek them and find them and bring them into your fold.
In Jesus' name, amen.