in our Bibles this morning to
Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and beginning
our reading in verse 17. Brethren, be followers together
of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are
the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able to subdue all things unto Himself. The title of the message
today is Citizens of Heaven. And I take that from the words
in verse 20. You know, in the King James translation
of the Scripture, the word conversation is found 18 times. And the majority
of those 18 times, it is the same Greek word which is translated
conversation. and it means behavior or conduct. Today, the word conversation
just concerns our speech. That certainly would be included
in our behavior and in our conduct. In fact, the scripture has a
lot to say about our speech, doesn't it? Especially the Apostle
James in his small epistle. If any man seem to be religious,
and bridleth not his own tongue. His religion is vain." So the
scripture has a lot to say about our conversation. But in this
particular place, the Greek word which is here translated conversation
is only used one time in all of the New Testament. And most
all of the writers are agreed, all of them as far as I know,
But a better translation would be citizenship. And some of the
newer translations, that is the way it is translated. For our
citizenship is in heaven. Citizens of heaven. In looking
at these five verses this morning, I have two main divisions in
the message. First, the lifestyle of the citizens
of heaven while in this world. And then second, the bright future
of the citizens of heaven when our Savior comes again. So first,
the lifestyle of the citizens of heaven while in this world.
The Apostle Paul deals with this in verses 17, 18, and 19. And in these verses, I want us
to see that Paul exhorts and warns those that he is writing
to, and he begins by addressing them as brethren. In verse 17, brethren. Now brethren
or brothers is a family name, isn't it? It is a family term. So we know he is writing to believers,
those who have been born again of the Spirit of God and who
are part of the family, the household of God. And he both exhorts and
warns. First of all, let's look at his
exhortation. And it is twofold. Follow and
mark. Follow and mark. Brethren, be
followers together of me. When you look at these words
and remember it is Paul who is writing. Brethren, be followers
together of me, then we might ask this question. Do these words
mean that Paul, the Apostle Paul, is setting himself up as the
head of some party, as the head of some group of people? Well,
we know that that isn't the case because in his letter to the
church at Corinth, he He called those who divided into various
groups as carnal, as babes. Let's look at that if you will.
Let's turn back to 1st Corinthians chapter 6. So Paul says, be followers together
of me. Is he setting himself up as the
head of a group of people? 1 Corinthians chapter 3, I believe
I said 6, but 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, and not
with meat. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For you are yet carnal,
for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions. Are you not carnal, and walk
as men? For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are you not carnal? Who then
is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor, for we are laborers together with
God." Now notice this next statement. You are God's husbandry. You are God's husbandry. The word husbandry has to do
with agriculture. And we know that the Lord God,
He is the one who plants every child of God. One day our Lord
was teaching. This is recorded in Matthew.
And after He finished teaching, His disciples came to Him. And
I believe he was teaching on the fact that it's not that which
goes into the man that defiles the man, but it is that which
comes out of the heart. And his disciples came to the
Lord and they said, Master, what you said offended the religious
people, the Pharisees. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
this. He said, Let them alone. Let them alone. Don't try to
argue with them. Don't debate with them. them
along every plant," now listen, "...your God's husbandry, every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up." We looked at the parable of the sower last Wednesday evening
in our service and we saw how that the sower is the Lord Jesus
Christ and those that he commands to go out and preach the gospel.
The seed is the Word of God, the Gospel, the Kingdom of God. And some seed fell into good
ground. And every good ground here that
received the seed brought forth fruit. 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. But the point is, what made that
good ground good ground? All of us are born, all of us
come into this world with an evil heart, a hard heart, a sinful
heart. covenant of grace to give His
people a new heart, a heart of flesh, and this heart receives
a seed, receives the Word of God. Every plant, our Lord said
this, every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. Are you trying to raise up a
following after yourself, the head of a group, a party of men? Of course not. I planted a pollis
water, speaking to the believers in the church at Corinth, but
God gave the increase. You are God's husbandry. I remember reading years ago
of a man, a pastor, a very famous preacher in England. And he was
walking along the street, and he passed by a saloon. That's
what they used to call them. Now they call them lounges. But
anyway, he was passing by, and this man stumbled out and recognized
the preacher. And he was half drunk, and he
said, Mr. So-and-so, I'm one of your converts. He said, I can tell that. You're
sure not one of God's. You are God's husbandry. I very
seldom ever use the word Calvinism. Those of you who have heard me
preach know that because I'm not ashamed of being a Calvinist,
but that word means different things to different people. And
I'd rather say I believe the word of God. I believe what God
teaches. What God says. We're not following
any particular man. We're following Christ. And that's
what Paul is saying here. We might ask another question.
Do these words mean, by Paul's telling this church, be followers
together of me, do these words mean that Paul is contradicting
Peter's words concerning ministers? Look with me, if you will, in
1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 through
3. The elders which are among you
I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
feed the flock of God which is among you. He's writing to ministers. taking the oversight thereof,
not of constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being examples or examples to the flock." Is Paul now setting
himself up to be a lord over God's heritage? Of course not. He was rather an example to the
flock. But what does he mean when he
says, Be followers together of me? Well, we know in 1 Corinthians
11, in verse 1, he qualifies that, doesn't he? He said, Be
ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Be followers of
me, as I follow Christ. But if I deviate, if I go astray
from following Christ, And don't follow me, follow Christ. And I encourage all of us, we're
still in the first month of a new year, read the gospels. I know we read all of the scripture.
It's easy to read through the Bible every year, and many of
us do that. But I encourage all of us, read
the gospels. Read the account of the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow Him, follow Him, hear
Him. To the Ephesians the Apostle
Paul wrote, Be you therefore followers of God as dear children. We're not to follow any man,
we're to follow Christ. We're to follow a man as he follows
Christ. Yes, the pastor, the man that
God puts in the place of leadership, the elder of a congregation,
but only as he follows Christ. Be followed. That's first exhortation,
be followers together of me. But now notice the second part
of this exhortation is Mark. Notice back in our text, verse
17, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk
so as you have us, for an example. Be ye followers of us, and mark
them which walk like Paul walked. Some people Because in the letter
of Romans, the Apostle Paul did say, mark them which cause divisions. He's writing to a church, and
you see there's some in the church, thank God, as far as I know,
there are none in our congregation. God has preserved us. But men
who would cause division. And in the church at Rome, evidently,
there were people like that, and Paul said, mark them. Mark
them. But now he says, mark, and I
don't think he says this in a negative way at all. I believe what he
is saying here is mark them which walk so as you have us, for an
example. In other words, mark those who
walk like we have walked, like Paul and Silas and Timothy, those
ministers who had been in that church at Philippi. Mark in Romans when he says,
mark them which cause divisions, it is look at them as not to
imitate them. You look at them, you mark them,
but not to imitate them. But here it is mark them so as
to imitate them who walk like Paul and these other men that
I just mentioned. If you look, if you want to turn
here, I want to read a verse from 2nd Timothy. But concerning
the apostle Paul, his life was an open book. His life was an
open book. Transparent. And this is what
he tells Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and verse 10. 1st Timothy 3 and verse 10. But
thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, charity or love, patience, persecution, affliction. You know my manner of life. You know my doctrine. You know
the way I live. You know my purpose is to glorify
God. You know it's faith, the faith
that I have, trusting in Christ, the long-suffering, and the love,
and the patience, and you know the persecutions which have come
upon me. Mark them, he tells the church
at Philippi now. Mark them which walk so as you
have us, for an example. But now notice his warning with
tears. His warning with tears. Verse 18, for many, the first
thing we notice is the word many, for many. In Matthew chapter 5, 6, and
7, we have the longest recorded message of Christ. It's referred
to as the Sermon on the Mount. And our Lord used that word many. He told us that there's two ways
Now listen to me, everyone here this morning. Pay attention. There are two ways. Our Lord
said one way is broad. Broad. And one way is narrow. And He said many go in the broad
way. Many go in the broad way. And
in comparison, few there be, our Lord said, who find the narrow
way. Now the narrow way is Christ.
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It's Christ and
Christ alone. The broad way You can believe
just about anything you want to believe in going this way,
and you can live in any way you want to live in going this way,
but the end of the broad way is destruction. Destruction. Paul said, for many walk. Many are in the broad way. Now
no doubt he is writing to people who profess to be believers.
He's warning this church of believers about some who would come and
some who might already be in their midst. And he says, for
many walk. And he warned them with tears,
with tears, the compassion that we see in the apostle Paul. You read his epistles, I don't
know of any apostle other than Paul that writes more about,
in the New Testament, about God's sovereignty and God's sovereign
election, God's particular redemption, about the love of God being particular
and special, and yet the apostle Paul was a man of compassion. In fact, he even said concerning
his brethren, his kinsmen, according to the flesh, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ. He had a love, he had a compassion,
even for these that he's mentioning now. He warned and he spoke of
them with tears. Sometimes we get so hard-hearted,
don't we? Compassion. Our Lord was compassionate. He was compassionate. I don't
read in the Gospels of anyone ever coming to the Lord with
a need. Christ did not meet the need.
And we read several times He had compassion on the multitude. His disciples said, send them
away. Let them go into the cities and see if they can find themselves
some food. Buy food. Send them away. The
Lord said, no, you feed them. You feed them. That had to come
as a shock. You feed them. And they did feed
them. When the Lord took the few loaves
of bread and the few fish and lifted his eyes to heaven and
blessed and then began to break and give it to the disciples,
and they gave, they fed the multitudes. Our Lord did not send them away
hungry. He had compassion upon them. Paul, writing now warning about
these, he says he did so with tears. And he labels them as,
notice, enemies of the cross of Christ. enemies of the cross of Christ. They did not deny, these men
that he has reference to, they did not deny that Jesus died
on the cross. They didn't deny that, although
there has been some in church history we read about who have
denied that fact. But that's not who Paul is speaking
of. They did not deny that Jesus
had died on the cross, but they denied what He accomplished on
the cross. What did He accomplish on the
cross? Is it just a display of God's
love? Just a display of God's pity
and God's mercy? What took place at the cross?
You know, there's three things every person here should ask
ourselves today. What happened in the garden?
When Adam disobeyed God, what happened in the garden? What
happened at the cross when the Lord Jesus Christ died there? And what happens in a sinner's
heart when God comes in mercy and reveals Christ in him? Every one of us, we should ask
ourselves those questions and know the correct answer. These
men, Paul says, they're enemies of the cross of Christ. They
didn't deny that Christ died on the cross, but they denied
what he accomplished there on the cross. They denied that he
had blotted out the handwriting of ordinances. That is the law
with its rites and ceremonies. They wanted to continue with
those Old Testament ceremonies, observing those feasts and all
of those things that that law commanded the nation of Israel. They wanted to continue with
those things. They denied that Christ blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and took
it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And I'm going to
use the word religion in a good sense. Now, I know some people,
they say, oh, this is not a religion. This is Christianity. This is
eternal life. Well, I know that, and I know
that's true. But the Bible speaks about pure
religion, doesn't it? It does, and I'm using the word
religion in a good sense, and I'm saying this, the religion
of Jesus Christ without the cross is nothing. It's nothing. This is the message of Christ,
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it is through the blood
of His cross. the blood of His cross, that
He made peace and He reconciled His people to God. Everyone that
He represented, everyone that He was given in that covenant
of grace, He represented. He took our sins upon Himself
and He, by His death, He reconciled us unto God. He didn't try to
do it. He did it. He accomplished it. These men are enemies, Paul said,
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, in our
country today, and I suppose even around the world, there
are church buildings one after the other, and they are purported
to be Christian churches, but you could attend there and you
would never hear the message of the cross, not of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're ashamed of the blood
of Christ. They're ashamed to talk about the blood of Christ.
When we speak about the blood of Christ, we speak about His
death, that He died in the stead and in the place He suffered
for His people, and He paid our sin debt. Paul said these men
are enemies of the cross. In many of these places, you
will never, never ever hear about His vicarious death or His sheep. If they mention the cross at
all, it'll just be as an example. As an example, that's all. In
fact, they deny it. If you look above this, chapter
3 of Philippians, we saw this several weeks ago. But in verse
3, this is what they deny. He said, we which worship God
in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. No, Christ died, but we've got
to do our part. You know, we've got to do our
part. No, Christ did it all. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now
let's move on to the second part of the message. The bright future
of the citizens of heaven when our Savior comes again. Verses
20 and 21. And I have two things to say
about this. Citizens of heaven. And we're thankful to be citizens
of the United States of America, aren't we? Sometimes I see on
the news, they're swearing in ceremonies, people that have
come into this country and they've gone through the process and
they've become citizens, and they're always so thankful, so
grateful. Some of us who were born here,
I believe we don't appreciate this country maybe like we should. But I know we're all thankful
to be citizens of this country, but how much more citizens of
heaven? Citizens of heaven. Our citizenship
is in heaven. Two things. First of all, citizens
of heaven look for their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come
from there. We look for our Savior to come
from heaven, and we do so for a number of reasons. First of
all, we look for Him to come from heaven because He said He
would come from heaven. That's what he said. In Mark
chapter 14 and verse 61, when he stood before the high priest
of Israel, the high priest asked him, are thou the Christ? He
said, I am the Christ, the son of the blessed. I am, and you
shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and
coming in the clouds. We look for him to come from
heaven because he told us he was going to come from heaven.
And we look for him to come from heaven because the angels, when
he ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, the angels
said this, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven
shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into
heaven. And we look for him to come from
heaven because the apostles wrote that he would come from heaven.
1 Thessalonians 4, Paul said, the Lord himself will descend
from heaven. And one of our favorite passages
of scripture, I believe I can speak for almost all of us here,
is found in John 14. And in that passage, the Lord
said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." You know, the early
church, it seems, they lived in great expectation of the Lord's
soon coming. They used to meet people with
that saying, Maranatha, the Lord cometh. They lived in great expectation
of our Lord's second coming. And this truth, and it is true,
He is coming again. And this truth has a special
benefit for all of God's people. Let me give us three. First of
all, it quickens our desire to be prepared for His coming. When
we think about the fact that He is coming, we believe the
fact He's coming, we meditate on the fact of His second coming,
It helps us to prepare for His coming. Now, when He comes again,
there's some places I would not want to be. And if He comes again
when the church is meeting for worship, that's where I want
to be. It helps prepare us, just the
fact, the knowledge, the truth of His second coming. It helps
to prepare us for His coming. And it also helps, number two,
it helps to put our earthly affairs in perspective. What will this
matter? Whatever it is that's perplexing
us, that's troubling us, that we're so distressed about, that
we are so engaged in, ask ourselves this question. When He comes, will this really
be that important? When He comes again, will this
really matter to me? This is absorbing all my time,
my attention, my concern. Is this really going to be that
important? The moment that Christ comes
again? It helps us to put our earthly
affairs in perspective. And number three, it also encourages
us to live above this present world. helps us to become dead
to this world. Remember the Apostle John said,
The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever. We lived in Mexico years ago
in Yucatan. There's many sites of Mayan ruins. And when visitors would come,
we always went out to the ruins. And I don't know that I ever
visited those ruins that I did not think of that scripture.
Because here was a civilization that flourished at one time,
and then it was passed away. And the jungles The jungles recaptured
all of those pyramids, all of those buildings that they had
built. What did John say? He said, the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof. And I know it's hard
for us to imagine, but our civilization, if the Lord doesn't come soon,
our civilization also shall pass away. You study in school about
the various ages, don't you? This age will be called something,
but it will pass away. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. And number two, citizens of heaven
look for a glorious body at the Lord's coming. Now Paul refers
here to our body as a vile body. A vile body. What does he mean
by that? He means it is a body of humiliation. And I suppose he means in comparison
with the body that came from the hands of God when God created
Adam in the beginning. That body, we can only imagine
what it must have been like. Perfect. Sin had not touched
it. Sin had not contaminated it.
Had not tarnished it in any way. The body that we have now, he
calls a vile body, this body of our humiliation. And you notice
he uses the word change. Who shall change our vile body? No doubt in reference to the
believers who shall be alive. And yes, there shall be believers.
There shall be faith still upon the earth. If it's a thousand
years from today, if it's ten thousand years from today, God
will still have his elect people on this earth. And when he comes,
Their bodies will be changed in a moment in the twinkling
of an eye. But the bodies of those who are
with the Lord today, saints who are there with Christ today,
their bodies have lain in the grave, turning back to the dust. What about them? They'll be raised. They'll be raised incorruptible. Sown in dishonor, raised in honor. Sown in weakness, raised in power. sown in corruption, raised in
corruption. Citizens of heaven have hope. We look for our Lord to return
from heaven. And when he does, we will receive
a glorious body. I wonder, I wonder if that body
that the disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, it
says his face did shine as the sun. And as Raymond, so white,
I wonder maybe if that is a picture of the body that we'll have in
that day that he'll give us. A glorious body. A glorious body. Fashioned like unto his glorious
body. Let's turn to 1 John 3 and I'll
be through. Citizens of heaven, we have a
bright and a glorious future. To be like Christ and be with
Him forever. 1 John chapter 3, the Apostle said,
Behold, and surely this should get our attention. Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we, you
speak for yourself. I want to speak for myself. Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon me, that I
should be called a son of God. A son of God, a citizen of heaven. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. May the Lord bless His Word to
each of us here today.