Two Journeys

We are looking this morning at Genesis 12:10-20.  Last week, we studied one of the more famous passages of scripture in the Old Testament, the call of Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to the Promised Land, and the statement that, "Through him, all peoples on earth will be blessed."  The ancient origin of modern missions is right there and a very famous passage.  This morning we study one of the more obscure passages of the Old Testament which brings to us the question, why would we want to preach on Genesis 12:10-20, and the larger question, why read the Old Testament at all?  Why should we read the Old Testament historical narratives that cover some of the more obscure events of the lives of people that we know only from scripture?  Why do the comings and goings of some kind of a nomad who lived 4,000 years ago, who lived in tents, dwelled near the Negev, went through a famine and traveled down to Egypt, why would that matter for us today?  We are a modern people, we don't live in tents and we work in air-conditioned stone, glass and concrete buildings.  We use the internet, we drive to and from work, as long as gas prices aren't too high, and we will continue to do so.  But we live in a modern world, so why would the events of 4,000 years ago matter for us today?

Why spend an entire message on a seemingly insignificant event in the life of a patriarch who lived four millennia ago?  Well, my first answer to that is a simple one, it's because it's God's word.  And if God thought it should be included in Scripture, it's worth considering, it's worth meditating on, for Scripture testifies about itself.  It says in 2 Timothy 3:6 that, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness."  We come to this Scripture as God-breathed, God-given, actually exhaled by God, that we might understand it.  The second reason for considering this passage carefully this morning is that it will, I think, set a pattern for how we handle the Old Testament from here on out, and perhaps will give you some insights into how you can handle the Old Testament as you read it for yourself.  Whenever I come to an Old Testament historical narrative, I ask three questions that will form the outline of the message this morning.  The first question I ask is, "What does this passage say about human nature and what can I learn about humanity from reading it?"

The second question, what does it say about God's nature?  What does it say about what He is like?  Those two questions came to me from considering John Calvin's statement at the beginning of the Institutes of the Christian Religion in which he says, "Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts:  The knowledge of God and of ourselves."  So those first two questions, I think, come from that statement and are reasonable.  We're going to learn about ourselves, about humanity, and we're going to learn about God.  What does it say about humanity?  Secondly, what does it teach me about God?  The third question, how does this passage fit into God's redemptive plan for the world?  Those are the three questions I ask with an Old Testament historical narrative, and they are good for you to keep in mind as well.  Now, my basic approach on the first question is that, yes, it's true that we wear different clothing, and it's true that we enjoy air-conditioning, drive cars and use the internet, and all that.  All of those things are true.  We are a modern people, but I believe that essentially, we are the same.  The same things that they struggle with, we struggle with.  And as we see the character issues unfolding, issues of faith or faithlessness, issues of courage or fear and cowardice, issues of marital purity or impurity, these issues are the same things we face today, and so people have not changed as much as we think they have.

Second of all, I know that Scripture tells me that God never changes.  And so, anything I can learn about God and His dealings with man 4,000 years ago, is exactly the same today.  Now, it doesn't mean He will deal with us in the same way.  God deals with different people according to the dictates of His wisdom and His plan, but God's essential nature and His character never changes.  And so anything I can learn about man, about humanity from 4,000 years ago, it's probably still true today.  And anything I can learn about God and His essential nature is definitely still true today.  And thirdly, I just want to know what His plan is, I want to see it unfolding.  As we study the life of Abram, we're going to see the unfolding redemptive plan of God.  

Now, as we set the story in context, we see already the call has been made in Abram's life in Genesis 12:1-3.  Look at that again, if you would.  It says, "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'"

Abram's faith has already been displayed at one level.  He had faith enough to leave Ur of the Chaldees, he had faith enough to leave his father, Terah, and the land of Haran, finally to separate from him and go on, on his own.  He had faith enough to enter the Promised Land, and in verse 7, to receive the promise concerning the Promised Land.  Look again at verse 7, "The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’  So, he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him."  Already we've seen his faith on display as he began to call on the name of the Lord, in verse 8, it says, "From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.  There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD."  And already we see him living in tents by faith like a nomad in the land of the Negev, in the Promised Land.

However, Abram's faith is immature, and God's redemptive plan is yet to be fully unfolded and both the faith and the redemptive plan receive a very stiff challenge here in the second half of Genesis 12. 

Now, as we look at this, the second half, let's look at some lessons concerning human nature.  What can we learn about humanity from these verses?

Look at verse 11, "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are.'"  And so, the first lesson that I want to take from this is the amazing power of female beauty.  I knew I would get your attention, as you're all looking up, what am I going to say about this?  Well, Sarai had an astonishing physical beauty, astonishing in that she is at least 65 years old at this point, if not 70, probably more like 70.  Many descriptions of her beauty abound, but this is one of the clearest.  As a matter of fact, Sarai's physical beauty is the hinge, humanly speaking, around this, on which this whole story pivots.  It really is the focal point.  If she were not so physically attractive, the events would not have happened the way they did.  And so, this is really a kind of central theme in this section.  Female physical beauty is a major theme in the Book of Genesis.  For example, when God brings Eve to Adam, you really have to know something of Hebrew poetry to know it isn't just a straight statement he makes when he says in Genesis 2:23, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man."  He is really excited and burst into poetry.  The first thing he says is a poem when he sees his wife and she is delightful to him and beautiful.

We have also seen female physical beauty at the core of the rebellion that led eventually to the flood.  Depending on how you interpret Genesis 6:2, "the sons of God."  Some think they were angels and some think they were just mighty powerful kings, but either way, physical beauty was at the core of it.  The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married any of them they chose.  Clearly, that was a major issue concerning the flood, because shortly thereafter, God resolves to bring a flood on the earth and this is going to come up again and again in the Book of Genesis.  For example, Rebekah, who eventually will be Isaac's wife, is said to be beautiful.  In Genesis 24:16, "The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever lain with her.  She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again."  Her physical beauty was enough to mention and made it into the text.  And again, we see it with Rachel, who will be Jacob's wife, one of his two wives.  In Genesis 29:17, it says of Leah that she had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.  And not just in the Book of Genesis, but throughout the Old Testament, for example, Esther's physical beauty was a major feature in that story.  If she were not as beautiful, I think she would not have been chosen as queen, as pointed out in that story.

It is openly discussed in the book Song of Solomon, in which the king is just praising his wife for her physical beauty.  Now, I find the descriptions interesting, and I'm not going to read them all, but in Song of Solomon 4:1, for example, "How beautiful you are, my darling!  Oh, how beautiful!  Your eyes behind your veil are doves.  Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead."  So, try that husbands with your wives and see what they say.  They may be blessed by it, they may not, but try it.  But at any rate, if that doesn't work, then find something to praise about your wife, but the physical beauty is a major theme in the book of Song of Solomon.  And then in Song of Solomon 7:5, it says, "Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses."  Now it's a very interesting expression.  Basically, you've chained me up with your beauty and therein lies the power of female physical beauty.  It's a power to hold in thrall, in thrall means in chains, the attention of a man, and so it's a major theme here.  Sarai's physical beauty openly stated in verse 11, "I know what a beautiful woman you are.”

This Hebrew phrase literally means beautiful to look at, outward beauty, physical appearance, especially in the face.  And it's stated again in verses 14 and 15, "When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman.  And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace."  Sarai's physical beauty was so astounding that it became in effect the talk of the land.  It started out just with commoners, as they saw.  He was just coming basically as a refugee because of the famine, and it became the topic of conversation.  Someone heard of it in the court and praised her to Pharaoh, and next thing she knows, she's drafted into his harem.  It doesn't say anything about the harem, but I imagine that Pharaoh already had a number of wives, as was the custom among pagan kings of the time.  And so in the spirit of the age, the tyrant King Pharaoh, says, "She's beautiful, I'll take her."  And she comes into his harem.  And therefore, physical beauty is a powerful force in the Bible and in human experience.  I'm going to say more about this topic later in the application section, but this is one thing I learned, and it hasn't changed, it continues to be an issue even to this day.

Secondly, we see concerning human nature, proper and improper views of marriage.  Look at verses 11-15, "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are.  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.”  Then they will kill me but will let you live.  Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.'  When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman.  And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace."  Now, Abram should have been protecting his wife, in effect standing in front of her with her behind and he protecting her from the dangers that would come in this foreign land rather than the other way around, him standing behind her physical beauty, so that her beauty becomes his shield of protection.  Abram was willing to put Sarai in harm's way to keep himself safe.  Now, some commentators feel that Abram never intended it to go as far as it did, I think that's probably true. 

Probably he thought, when he says, "I will be treated well for your sake," that he could play a kind of con game.  He could keep suitors at arm's length, they would bring him gifts, they would bribe him, they would try to get his attention and hers, and he say, "Well, we'll let you know next week. Don't call us. We'll call you."  And just keep the thing going for as long as he needed to, and in this way, he would benefit greatly.  I don't think he ever imagined that Pharaoh would get interested in her and probably went far beyond what he imagined.  What a gamble Abram was willing to take with his own wife.   God intended a husband to be willing to lay down his life to protect his wife, after the very pattern that Jesus Christ Himself set, where it says in Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."  Abram had an improper view of marriage.  Pharaoh also had an improper view of marriage.  Almost certainly he intended Sarai to be one of his harems as I mentioned, and he knew nothing about her whatsoever other than her physical beauty.  Now, physical beauty may be the spark that ignites some attention, but it's no firm foundation for a marriage.

Pharaoh, however, didn't look at marriage the way a Christian should, namely the bonding of two godly people together for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven and for procreation, for the birth of Godly children, but rather he just looked on her as perhaps a vessel for his pleasure.  She was pretty, and that was all that was required of the position of Pharaoh's wife, so he also had an improper view of marriage.  God alone upholds the view of marriage in this text.  Six times in the account, Sarai is called Abram's wife, lest you miss it.  You should go through and count them again and again and again, she's called Abram's wife.  No lie on Abram's part, no action or decree on Pharaoh's part can change that.  She is his wife, and that's the end of the matter.  God's judgment on Pharaoh and on his household shows the seriousness with which God upheld Abram's marriage.  We'll speak more about this in a moment.  

The third thing we notice about human nature comes from Abram's failings, his character flaws.  We see five things in him, faithlessness, cowardice and fear, lack of love, deceit, and poor modeling.  Now, it's somewhat with fear and trembling that any pastor would be pointing out the failings of a man like Abraham.  When you think about where his faith eventually will lead him, he's willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac on the altar by faith, trusting God to raise him from the dead, then it's hard for us to even question this man.  Yet, I believe that examples like this are given so that we can learn from their failings and from their moral weakness and be warned thereby and not do those same things.  First, we see in Abram, faithlessness.  At least this much is the case, God was able to keep Abram and Sarai with enough food during the famine so that they didn't need to leave the Promised Land.  Remember that God called Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to the Promised Land.  We have no word from the Lord that he is to depart the Promised Land right here and go to Egypt.  In one sense, if he had trusted God enough to keep him in the famine, to find food for them during the famine, which God is abundantly able to do, he never would have gone to Egypt to begin with, and would have avoided this whole problem.  But that's reading between the texts.  At least this much, we know.  He displays faithlessness in other ways.  His fear shows a certain kind of faithlessness, doesn't it?  God has already promised to Abram through his offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed, his seed or his descendants will inherit this land.  He has no seed.

Now, think with me, doesn't that make him immortal until he gets the seed?  Isn't it impossible for him to die until he has a child?  And so, he should have trusted God enough to say, "Nothing's going to happen to me here.  God's going to protect me.  He's going to keep me safe."  But instead, we see faithlessness and we see fear, very much like Jesus asleep in the back of the boat in the middle of a storm.  I've talked about it before.  How can He do that?  How can Jesus be asleep in the heaving waves?  Totally fearless in the middle of a storm because He trusted His Heavenly Father and knew His mission.  Jesus didn't come to drown.  He came to die on a cross.  So, therefore, He could lay asleep in the back of the boat and say, "There's no way that God's going to let me drown.  That's not why I came into the world."  When He woke up, He said to His disciples, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"  Abram's faith should have driven out his fear.  And we do see his cowardice and his fear here.  How unseemly it is for a man of God to be so craven and so fearful?  How ugly for a patriarch like Abram to have beads of sweat on his upper lip and a quavering voice and a darting eye and a palpitating heart as he was about to cross the border into Egypt?

We also see in Abram a lack of love.  How ugly it is for the future father of nations to think so little of his wife as to put her in such a dangerous course, in a dangerous position.  We see fourthly, of course, deceit, the one most obvious, "Say you are my sister."  It's a little bit of a half-truth.  We'll find out later in chapter 20, when this whole scene is replayed with Abimelech as Abram does it twice.  We will talk about that in due time but we see his deceit, his lying, his trickery.  And then we see also poor role modeling.  He's setting an example for his wife and for his household, eventually for his own son, because Isaac is going to do this exact same trick in Genesis 26, like father, like son.  It's not a good pattern that's set.  How effective a witness could Abram be with all of the Egyptians he's going to meet if this whole presentation of them is a lie?  

A con game really whereby he can plunder them for wealth based on this lie concerning his wife, and he does get wealthy.  You see the ill-gotten gains. What does he end up with?   Look at verse 16, "Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels." Camels.  He got camels out of it.  That's pretty good.  I wonder how many camels he got for trading his wife.  How could he lie in bed at night and think about those ill-gotten gains, what he was going to get and what he was going to do with all of these new camels?  And so, it's just another example, I think, of biblical honesty concerning sin, even of its greatest heroes.  To me, one of the greatest evidences of the Bible's truthfulness is how honestly it exposes the flaws of even its greatest heroes.

The Bible hides nothing.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through Jesus Christ.  Even Abraham, the forefather of faith, needed a savior and was, in his heart, a wicked man by the perfect and holy standards of heaven.  Now, if that word “wicked” causes you to catch a little bit as we consider this great man, Abraham, understand I said by the standards of heaven.  It was Paul himself that described the label to Abraham in context in Romans 4:5, "However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."

What does that mean for us?  There's no one righteous.  There's no one here in this sanctuary today, not the pastor, not the worship leader, not any in the choir, not any deacons or leaders or anybody in this room that's going to be able to stand before God based on their own righteousness.  Every one of us has sinned.  If a record like this were written of some of our worst days, too, how embarrassing and humiliating would it be?  And these are the lessons I take from this text concerning human nature.  What do we learn about God from this text? 

Well, first, we see God's providence.  We see God acting very strongly and energetically in this matter.  God is an active player in human history.  He does not merely lay back or wait for things to happen.  He is an active worker of His purposes.  He controls the outcome for his own ends.  Throughout the book of Genesis, we see God speaking, guiding, working, manipulating, judging, convicting, blessing.  Again and again, He is guiding and navigating the ship of history.  And so, is rebuked the false doctrine of deists that teach that God merely created the world and wound it up like a clock and it just runs on its own.  God interferes with history.  Benjamin Franklin, a noted deist, said this, "I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose that the Supremely Perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man."  Well, Benjamin Franklin, that sounds very pious.  In effect, God is so mighty to be even giving me a single thought, but yet it is not the God of the Bible.  For the God of the Bible is actively involved in the smallest details of your life.

He knows the course of your decisions.  He knows the track that you are following.  And we see this, again and again, as God regularly interferes, if we can use that word, in events to turn them the way that He chooses.  Now, what is God's providence?  Well, one defined it this way.  Providence is the almighty, everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by his hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so, governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.  And that includes the famine that led Abram and Sarai out of the Promised Land to begin with.  It was under God's hand that had occurred, providence of God.  God is actively involved in your life.  Nothing that's happening to you right now is happening by chance, but God is sovereign and rules over all things for His glory.  

Secondly, we see God's purity.  We've already covered this somewhat, but we see it in the way He upheld Abram's marriage.  We've already pointed out that Abram and Pharaoh had a faulty view of marriage, but God did not.  Upholding Abram's marriage, even when Abram did not.  You see, God never forgets that marriage was intended to be a picture of Christ and the church.  He never forgets that.  And so it says in Ephesians 5:31 and 32, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church.”  You see, God never forgets that.

He knows very well what marriage is.  Our society is getting a little confused, isn't it?  We're starting to wonder what marriage is.  I listened to a secular radio station recently as they were discussing the events concerning gay marriage up in Massachusetts and it occurred to me that they don't have the first idea how to define marriage.  They don't know how to define it and apart from God telling us what it's for, we can't define it.  I challenge you to give a good definition of marriage that will sustain this onslaught and stand up in court, have nothing to do with the Scripture or not come down from God himself.  You can't do it.  If you throw out God's right to define what marriage is, you end up with a morass, a sea of uncertainty, and anything goes.  I hope it doesn't happen in this country, but you can see it's already starting to happen.  Anything goes.  But God is pure in his understanding of marriage, and He knows that it means one man and one woman, one flesh, a picture of Christ and the church.

Thirdly, we see God's punishment chastening Pharaoh's house.  God's clearest act in this whole account, is his striking of Pharaoh with a withering disease.  The word in the Hebrew, usually translated as leprosy, and it could be that there was at least some leprosy, a dread disease perhaps, of the skin or something like that.  God's action here is much more serious than He will act in Genesis 20 with Abimelech, as we'll see in due time.  But we see God's punishment as he reaches out and interferes and brings a judgment on Pharaoh for taking another man's wife.  

We see also God's patience in putting up with Abram's weakness.  Aren't you glad that God does not deal with us as our sins deserve?  Aren't you glad that He waits patiently for us to repent?  Aren't you glad that He's willing to bear with our weakness and our failing and not throw us out the first time we make a mistake?  Praise God for that.  Think about Pentecost, God did not throw out Peter, even though he denied Jesus three times, but used him mightily.  Now, this is no excuse for sin, but at the same time, we rejoice in the patience of God in putting up with Abram and with all of us as we sin. 

We see God's protection setting a wall around Abram and Sarai.  This is a remarkable thing.  The devil, speaking of Job said he couldn’t get at him and asked God., “Have you not put a hedge around him and everything he has?”  Satan could not get to Job.  Exactly, exactly.  And neither will Satan get to any of us except with God's permission.  God alone permits the things that come to you and He has put a wall of protection on Abram.  How do you see that?  Well, let me ask you a question.  How in the world did Abram and Sarai get out of Egypt with all of the stuff they plundered from them?  I mean, what are the odds that Pharaoh didn't just give an order and have Abram killed, take Sarai into the harem and be done with it?  And yet, God sovereignly protects Abram and his possessions.  He even gets to keep the ill-gotten gains.

Now, we learned a bad lesson from it and say, "Hey, that's a good scam." but just do that again with Abimelech in Chapter 20.  I mean, you get wealthy that way.  Well, that's not what it was meant for, but God did put a hedge of protection around him.  And Abram should have trusted in that protection when he went into Egypt, rather than hiding behind his wife for his protection.  His wife was not a shield, God was a shield.  God saw to it that Abram and Sarai and everything he had be protected, as with a wall, until he got out of Egypt--an amazing thing.  And so, we've learned lessons also concerning the nature of God.

Now, what about God's redemptive plan?  Well, first of all, God's plan is an eternal plan and no changes are possible.  God is not going to permit somebody other than Abram and his seed to be the one through whom all peoples on earth will be blessed.  It's going to be Abram.  And before the foundation of the world, God had worked out this plan.  God had ordained to call Abraham to be the father of the Jews.  Like Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, salvation is from the Jews so the Savior would have a Jewish genealogy.   God ordained that and nothing was going to change His plan.  God's plan was perfectly worked out before the foundation of the world.  The prophet Isaiah put it this way in Isaiah 14:26-27, "This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.  For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"  That is the sovereign power of God.  His plan is an eternal plan, no changes are possible.

Secondly, His is a declared plan.  He's unfolded it to Abraham, to Abram at this point.  Leave your country and your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.  I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.  And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.  Abram already knew that God had planned, from eternity past, to bless all peoples on earth through him.  He also knew that he would do this through standard biological multiplication.  He would have a child.  "To your offspring I will give this land.” in verse 7.  And so, the end goal of worldwide blessing was already clearly revealed.

Thirdly, however, this is an unfolding plan.  Not everything in God's redemptive plan was clear at this point.  We know some things but other things we don't know, and so the thing is going to unfold.  It's only partially understood.  Abraham would come to understand that, in Genesis 13, his offspring would inherit the land, he already knew that, but they would be as numerous as the dust on the Earth.  Well, that was something new.  And then in Genesis 15, they would be like the stars in the sky, so shall your offspring be.  And then the covenant.  He tells him in Genesis 15, the exact extent of the Promised Land, “…I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates…”  and to the Great Sea.  And so, he unfolds it.

And then in Genesis 17, He gives them the covenant of circumcision.  That's something new.  It's an unfolding plan.  And then in Genesis 18, specifically that it would be through Sarah that the descendant would be born and that he would come in a year's time.  You remember when Sarah laughed when she heard that, but it was true.  God had ordained it would be through Sarah.  So this is in an unfolding redemptive plan.  God has already declared the end, all nations on earth will be blessed.  But step by step, he starts to unfold His redemptive plan.  It's an unfolding or a partially revealed plan.

Fourth, it's an opposed plan.  The devil nowhere appears here, but I see the devil's work all over this thing.  The devil's going to oppose everything that God tries to do.  He's heard already what God's promised to Abram.  He knows the promise, and he's going to try what he can to put a wedge between him and Sarah.  He's going to try to break apart their family and their home.  He's going to try to destroy it in some way, muddy the waters, stir things up, maybe even get Abraham killed if he can.  And so, this is an opposed plan.  He's going to fight it every step of the way, but he will fail.  He will fail because God has ordained that all peoples on earth will be represented at the throne and before the lamb.  Revelations 7:9-10, "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’"  The devil is going to fail, but he's going to fight, isn't he?  He's going to try to oppose Abraham and his seed every step of the way, to try to snip the genealogical line, if he can.  It's an opposed plan.

And finally, it's a prophetic plan.  One little aspect of this is very interesting to me.  God prophesies or predicts the future in two different ways.  There's verbally predictive prophecy, such as, "Through you all nations on earth will be blessed," or, "To your descendants, I will give this land."  That's just something God says straight out and that's the way it is.  But then there's what we call typically, or type-prediction prophecy, in which certain things are acted out in history.  In their acting out, they pre-figure something that's going to come later.  And so, Abram and Sarai leaving Egypt is a picture of the Exodus later on.  If you think about it, God, in a way, calls Israel His bride.  He does that in Jeremiah, "Like a bride, you followed me."  And he loved.  And there's that love relationship between God and His people.  Alright?  And He's rescuing his wife out of Pharaoh's household by means of these plagues that come on Pharaoh.  And as they come out, they plunder the Egyptians and carry all these possessions and they go out. It's a picture of the exodus, a little miniature one, but a picture of it nonetheless.  And so, we see it's a prophetic plan.

Well, how should we apply this?  We've looked this morning at three aspects of this Old Testament narrative.  What have we learned about man?  And we've seen that.  We've seen what we can learn about the unchanging God that we worship.  We've seen something of His redemptive plan and how it's unfolding and being fulfilled.  How do we apply this across 4,000 years to us today?  Well, let's start with the first thing that we learned about human nature, namely godly stewardship of physical beauty.  Feminine beauty is a great gift from God and a powerful influence as we've seen in Biblical history, but feminine beauty can also be a dangerous thing.  Such power wielded in the hands of a godless woman can destroy a man.  We see that in the Bible, don't we?

We see Samson brought low by his love for Delilah's beauty.  We see Solomon brought low by foreign wives.  We see David brought low and humiliated by his lust for a woman who bathed out in the open, named Bathsheba.  We see Amnon ruining his life because of his lust for his half-sister Tamar.  We see Herod inflamed by lust for a dancing girl order the execution of John the Baptist, the very thing he didn't want to do.  And so we see the incredible power there of feminine beauty.  As much of an issue as it was back in biblical days, it may even more so be one today, because of the technology for spreading images and pictures all over the world.  There are whole industries that exist to enhance the physical beauty of a woman.

Do you know how much money is spent on cosmetics worldwide in a year?  I was shocked by this, $112 billion.  The number one cosmetic purchasing nation on earth is America, Japan is second.  So whole industries exist for enhancing feminine beauty, but there are also whole industries that exist for exploiting feminine beauty as well.  Have you ever noticed in the magazine racks at the supermarket how many of them show just the picture of a woman on the cover?  Whether she's dressed in an honorable way or not, there's a woman on the cover.  Why?  Because of the ability of a beautiful woman to attract attention, to gain attention, to catch your eye and to hold it.  And this is the reason that they choose this.  And so, this is a very powerful force.  Therefore, a godly woman recognizes the power of her physical beauty and refuses to be a stumbling block to her Christian brother or sister.

Some forms of dress are openly designed to flaunt and to exploit and expose feminine beauty.  Some styles are called hot or alluring, or flattering, or enticing, or perhaps even just sexy.  I guess I would urge each Christian woman listening to me today to ask some questions of herself.  Question number one, what is my motive for selecting this style?  Why am I choosing this?  Secondly, what am I trying to accomplish by wearing this?  Thirdly, is it possible that this style could actually lead a Christian brother to stumble into lust?  Ask those questions.  Remember God's definition of feminine beauty in 1 Peter 3:3-6, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

This is the way the godly women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.  They were submissive to their own husbands.  Like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master.  You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.  Now, I think one of the great problems with this emphasis on external physical beauty is that a woman can be made to feel less and less worthy as she ages and loses some of her youthful, physical beauty.  I believe, according to 1 Peter 3 and the Scriptural emphasis on the internal godly, humble beauty of a spiritual woman, that you can be even more beautiful at age 95 in a nursing home, laying on your bed praying for evangelization of the nations or praying for your church or your family to walk with God.  You could be even more beautiful then, than you ever were at age 25.  Now, that's unheard of in the way we think in America.  You think the older you get, the less beautiful you are, but it's exactly the opposite.

You, as a woman, can become more and more and more beautiful if you understand beauty, biblically.  Concerning the men, realize it's not just the women that need to watch over this issue, but the men also need to guard their eyes.  It says in Job 31:1, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.”  And so. on both ends of the street, there needs to be help.  The Christian ladies need to be careful about what they wear.  I'm not saying in any way that we should go to the extreme that the Muslims go in covering up the women entirely.  I remember I wanted to get pictures of Muslim women when I was in Pakistan.  The only way I could do it without getting assaulted and arrested is by taking a picture of a friend of mine, and then they would be walking across the street over the guy's shoulder so I could take pictures.  There's an extremism there that is evil.  Nor do I believe that 1 Peter 3 says that women should never braid their hair or wear jewelry.  I don't think the Bible teaches that either.  It's just that's not the source of your beauty because those things can be taken away but an internal godly beauty can never be taken away.

Secondly, a godly view of marriage.  Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  Don't follow Abram's example in this.  Rather, you be out in front protecting your wife, not hiding behind her and let your trust in the promises of God be the physical, as it were, and even spiritual shield for your wife.  Understand marriage the way God did.  Understand that He considers her your wife, and He considers him your husband, if you're husband or wife.  Thirdly, let faith drive out fear.  It could be that some of you are facing something you're afraid of today.  I guarantee that there's some promise of God that your trust in, will drive out that fear.  If you would trust God concerning the promises, fear goes away. That's why Jesus was able to sleep in the boat, and you can, too.

And finally, trusting in God's unfolding redemptive plan.  God has a plan for your life.  He has a plan for the church, He has a plan for the nations, and He is unfolding that right now.  And we're not done being saved, are we?  God's continuing to work out His salvation in us, as we follow him through obedience, through sanctification, through putting sin to death, walking in a godly and upright way.  Trust in God's redemptive plan.  Trust in the fact that God sent Jesus to die on the cross for sins just like we've read about in this chapter today, and whatever sins there are in your life.  Trust in Christ and in Him alone as your righteousness, and you will never be put to shame.  Not today, not in the future, not even on judgment day.

This is an exciting Sunday for me in terms of preaching as well as the things that are happening here.  Five years ago, I ended a 12-week sermon series in the Book of Genesis right at this point in Genesis 12, and I am desiring to pick that up again as I planned weeks and weeks ago.  It just so happens that this morning we also get to commission two missionary families that are going out from our number.  Now, I think it is even more exciting when the pastor and the pastoral staff don't plan these kinds of things, but that God ordains and brings them together.  Amen.  And so, I am excited for this message and for this series as we are looking through the Book of Genesis, but also excited about the Maugers and the Collys as they go out from our midst to serve the Lord.

I want to begin by telling you the story of one of my favorite missionaries in church history, a man whose life and example are becoming in my mind more and more relevant as the events of this 21st century unfold.  His name is Raymond Lull.  Raymond Lull was born in the 13th century, in 1232, into a wealthy family in Majorca, Spain.  His home island had only recently been re-conquered from the Muslims, as the Spanish gradually pushed the Muslim influence back into North Africa.  He lived a life of utter decadence and immorality in the court of the King of Aragon, yet was known as a gifted scholar despite his decadence.  During his early 30s, he was born again through a mystical vision that he had of Christ.  He was engaged in immorality and immoral thoughts even at that moment when the vision came, and he was immediately struck by conviction of sin.  He was broken by it, gave his life to Christ, and decided to live as a monk.  He lived the life of a recluse as did many monks of his day.  Then another vision came and changed his life a second time.  He had a vision of himself in a forest meditating alone, far from all worldly distractions that was his desire.  He then, in his vision, met a traveling pilgrim who rebuked him for the self-centered life he was living even as a recluse and a monk, when there was a world that needed the message of Jesus Christ.

Now, understand the context.  This was the time of the Crusades when soldiers were being sent from Christendom, from Europe, to reconquer Jerusalem militarily.  It was this second vision that specifically led him to go as a missionary to the Muslim Saracen people in Tunis and preach the Gospel to them.  They were the most hated and feared enemies of Christendom and, at that time, the Crusade was going with full blood and vengeance to reconquer from the Muslims the Promised Land.  Lull wrote this, "I see many knights going to the Holy Land beyond the seas and thinking they can acquire it by force of arms; but in the end, all are destroyed before they attain that which they think to have.  Whence it seems to me that the conquest of the Holy Land ought to be attempted by love and prayers and by the pouring out of tears and blood."

You see, the Christian church has always advanced more by suffering and dying than by causing suffering and dying, and Lull saw this very clearly.  And so, he wanted to go forth and be willing to even be a martyr for Christ, to win some Muslims to him.  Lull was one of the most imaginative, courageous and faith-filled missionaries of all time, but he began his mission trip by being overwhelmed with fears and doubts.  As he was boarding the ship for Tunis, all of his luggage on board, everything ready to go, all of his friends and other monks there on the wharf to see him off, he was suddenly overcome by fear and terror of dying, suffering and persecution.  He ordered all of his stuff taken off the ship, disembarked and the ship sailed without him.  Can you imagine the conversations that went on between Lull and his friends at that point, and the shame he felt at turning his back on the call of Christ?

Abram, as we'll see momentarily, also had a false start in his call to follow God like Lull, who was on the next ship for Tunis with all of his equipment.  He arrived in Tunis in North Africa, arranged a debate with Muslim clerics and did an excellent job and, as a reward, he was thrown in prison.  He was then stoned by a mob and eventually disguised himself as a wharf-dwelling hobo, in effect, and witnessed quietly in the streets of the city of Goleta.  He believed that for every one Saracen he converted to Christianity, 10 Christians became Muslims, and yet he continued to witness and to preach the Gospel.  Eventually, after a lifetime of faithful ministry to Muslims, he openly sought martyrdom at age 80 and boldly preached in Bougie in Tunis until an enraged mob stoned him to death on June 30, 1315.

Now, Raymond Lull ventured forth by faith.  He got on board that ship by faith, and then when his faith wavered, he got off the ship.  When his faith was revived by the power of God, he got back on the next ship and he went.  He stepped out in faith, I believe, following in the footsteps of the faith that our father, Abraham, had while he was still uncircumcised, it says in Romans 4.  He ventured forth, as missionary after missionary after missionary has done since that time, boldly going out in the name of Christ because of a burning conviction inside his heart that apart from this message of faith in Christ, the world is lost and will perish eternally.  And so, they stepped out in faith.

Now, I believe the Scripture teaches that before the foundation of the world, the 4,000-year journey of this message of faith was ordained by God.  Before the sun or the moon or the stars were created, before any of us was born, before any of our ancestors was born, before the mountains took their shape, before any of it came to be, this 4,000-year journey of the message of faith in Jesus Christ had already been fully formed in the mind of God.  This is the eternal Gospel, namely the knowledge of God to the very ends of the Earth.  God had a timeless plan and I believe it began with the call of Abram to leave Ur the Chaldeans and go where God told him to go.  I believe that Abram stands as the ancient origin of the modern missions’ movement.  

Abram is our father in faith, because God has always chosen to advance this message through individual people who hear Him speaking to them and who venture forth in faith courageously to go where God leads them to go.

Now, there is somewhat of a modern hostility to missions, like a form of cultural imperialism, they think.  We are taking our views and spreading them around the world, as though we alone were right and they were wrong.  Whereas more enlightened people will come and tell us that comparative religion shows that we all have basically the same views, etcetera.  You have heard these kinds of things before.  And so, the modern missions’ movement is under attack, and it will be increasingly so in our pluralistic, our aggressively pluralistic country of America.  You'll be made to feel ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of its solitary saving power for the ends of the earth.  We must resist this shame.  It says in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."

Now, as we look at this call on Abram, we see it comes in a context and we are zooming through the preaching of Genesis.  I preached through the first 11 chapters before I preached this message the first time in Genesis 12.  And so, at that time, I think the context would have been a little bit clearer, but let's recapitulate and understand.  First of all, who is it that called Abram to leave Ur the Chaldeans?  Who was this God?  John Stott has a marvelous comment on this, "The Lord who chose and called Abraham is the same Lord who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth and who climaxed his creative work by making man and woman unique creatures in his own likeness.  In other words, we should never allow ourselves to forget that the Bible begins with the universe, not with the planet earth; then with the earth, not with Palestine; then with Adam the father of the human race, not with Abraham the father of the chosen race.  Since, then, God is the Creator of the universe, the earth and all mankind.  We must never demote him to the status of a tribal deity or petty godling like Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, or Milcom (or Moloch), the god of the Ammonites, or Baal, the male deity, or Ashtoreth, the female deity, of the Canaanites.  Nor must we suppose that God chose Abraham and his descendants because he had lost interest in other peoples or given them up.  Election is not a synonym for elitism.  On the contrary, God chose one man and his family in order through them to bless all the families on the earth."  Isn't that a marvelous quote?  This is the vision and the plan of the God who called Abram.

Now, he did not reveal all of this to Abram at that time.  He knew what he would do over the next 4,000 years, but he knew that this long journey would begin with this simple step of a call in Abram's life.  And so, we see the biblical context of this call:  Genesis 1, the creation of the whole universe; Genesis 2, the special creation of man and woman made in his likeness and in His image; Genesis 3, the fall of man through disobedience and rebellion, the first promise of redemption through the seed of the woman, and the serpent slayer who would come and crush the serpent's head; Genesis 4 through 11, the twin themes of the advance of sin and wickedness, along with the rising up of a chosen race of faithful people of Seth and Noah and eventually of Abraham; Genesis 10 and 11, the scattering of the nations after the flood; And now, in Genesis 12, the beginning of the regathering of the nations through faith in Christ.  That's the context of this call.

Now, what were Abram's circumstances?  He lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.  Nehemiah 9:7 says, "You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham."  Stephen put it this way in Acts 7:2 and 3, "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.  He appeared to him, ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’"  Now, Ur is in modern Iraq.  It's about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad.  What could be more relevant?  That's exactly where he lived, where many of our troops are stationed this morning.  That's where he lived.  Ur of the Chaldeans was the beginning place of the Babylonian empire.  It was a fertile area, a powerful region, it was a city, wealthy in trade and power, perhaps second only to Egypt at that time in development.  A powerful and wealthy area.  God said, leave it behind.  Turn your back on it.

Abram was a Shemite or a Semite, a descendant of Shem.  He is later called “the Hebrew” in Genesis 14:13.  He is part of that godly line that is following Shem, and yet there were problems, because Abram's father and his brother and his relatives were idolaters.  They were polytheists.  They worshiped many gods.  In Joshua 24:2 it says, "Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.”’”  Now, interesting, Joshua in Joshua 24:2, does not say that Abraham worshiped other gods, he may or may not have, but he doesn't say so.  But he does say that his father, Terah, was a polytheist, a worshipper of many gods.  Now, into that situation comes God's call.  God speaks clearly, but only the believers can hear.  It says in Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O heavens!  Listen, O earth!  For the Lord has spoken."

And, Jesus said in John 10:27 and 28, "My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them, and they follow me."  And so, God's sheep hear Him speaking, but Stephen says that He appeared to him in a vision in some way.  He appeared to our father Abraham before he lived in Haran in Mesopotamia.  Now, this call would shape the rest of Abram's life.  In fact, it would shape the rest of human history.  And yet, how quiet it must have seemed at the time.  I am sure there must have been big current events going on in Ur of the Chaldeans.  If they had had a newspaper, I don't think that the call of Abram would have even made any kind of mention at all.  Perhaps the notification of a yard sale or something like that.  But other than that, I don't really know.  There wouldn't be much of a notification at all.  It was just the internal call that he believed.

Now, notice that God, when He comes and when He calls you, He asks everything from you.  Look at the call.  He says, "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land that I will show you."  He asks everything.  Leave behind everything familiar, everything of value.  Become, as it were, a wanderer on earth.  Basically, I'll tell you where to go next, just leave.  You have no place to lay your head.  Follow the sound of my voice wherever I tell you to go.  Follow me and I'll tell you what to do.  Life of faith, following the sound of God's voice to regions unknown, trusting only in God's goodness to meet every need.  The Collys and the Maugers are trusting that internal voice.  They don't know what's going to face them when they reach the place of their service, they just know that God has called them. 

And frankly, God isn't in the business of telling us everything that is around the next bend.  He wants us to learn to trust His voice.  And so, Abram was called to leave behind everything, and thus began Abram's life of wandering.  Look at Verse 4.  It says, "So Abram left."  And then in Verse 6, "Abram traveled through the land."  And then in Verse 8, it says, "From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent."  In Verse 9, "Then Abraham set out and continued toward the Negev."  In Verse 10, "Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while."  In Chapter 13, Verse 1, "Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev."  And so, it continued.  Abraham himself talked about this in Genesis 20:13.  He said, "When God had me wander away from my father's household."  He uses the word wander, and so it was.  It was a life of wandering, without roots, a life characterized by tents.  That would be the symbol of Abram's experience, of Abraham's experience.

Hebrews 11:8-10 puts it this way, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."  So, he didn't mind living in tents.  He confessed that he was an alien and a stranger on earth with no deep roots, nothing to hold him, once he left behind Ur of the Chaldeans and his father's household.  And so, God asks everything of Abraham at this moment.  He asks it all, but He also offers him everything as well.  Look at the promise that He makes in Verses 2 and 3.  He makes three promises right away in Verse 2.  He says, "I will make you into a great nation," that's one, "I will bless you," that's two, and “I will make your name great." that's three.  Three promises.  That's what he gives Abram as an inducement to obey Him.  He could have just said, "Leave your country and your people and go to the land I will show you."  That would have been enough.  But instead, he sweetens and bolsters his faith with these three promises. 

First, I will make you into a great nation.  This is a tremendous promise, especially for a man whose wife was barren, who yearned for a son.  We know as we are going to continue to study, what a journey this would be even at this point until he finally has a son born of his barren wife, a son named Isaac.  This is an incredible promise.  I will make you into a great nation.  This was the deepest desire of Abram's heart concerning his earthly life.  Actually, later we'll see that Abram has his name changed to Abraham, the father of many nations, not just that he alone would be a great nation, but he would be the father of many great nations.

The second promise, I will bless you.  This is God's commitment to take his resources, his power, his sovereign kingly rule, his wisdom, and pour it down on Abram for his benefit.  Isn't that incredible?  The idea that God is going to take all that he has and just put it at Abram's disposal for his benefit.  That's a blessing.  I will bless you.  Later, Moses gave this statement of God's blessing in Deuteronomy 28 and I love it, 28:3 through 8, speaking to Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, "You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.  The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock−the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.  Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.  The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you.  They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.  The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.  The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.”  Oh, what lavish blessings, but notice how earthly they are.  Do you realize that we who are Christians have far greater blessings, promises of infinitely greater blessings than that, your basket and your kneading trough.  I mean, that's not bad.  But think about this, Ephesians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”  Full forgiveness of sins, adoption into the family of God, eternity in God's presence with God's people, free from all death, mourning, crying, and pain.  Living in the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness, being made perfectly righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ.  What incredible promises and blessings we have.  How much greater are they than what Abram was offered here in Verse 2.

And then Verse 2 says, “I will make your name great.”  Now, this is the very thing that people are always striving for, 10 minutes of fame.  Just to get our face on USA Today, wouldn't that be exciting?  The longer I live, the less I want that [chuckle].  It brings nothing but trouble but it's the very thing that the men before the flood in Genesis 6:4 stumbled over.  They were called men of the name, comes across in the NIV like men of renown but they were pursuing a name for themselves, they were empire builders.  And so, God brought the flood down on their heads and then it was the same stumbling block at the tower of Babel when they wanted to make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the surface of the earth, so they build this tower.  But here, God promises to do it for him.  He's not seeking it.  He says, I'll just do it for you and here, 4,000 years later, we're considering this man from Ur of the Chaldeans.  We still know his name, Abram, later changed to Abraham.  Still considering him.  I will give you a great name but, Abraham, I will not give you the greatest name.  There is going to come one after you whose name will be above every name, so that in the name of Jesus, your descendant, every knee will bow, including your own, and every tongue will swear that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.  So, I'll give you a great name, but not the greatest name.  We will hold that out for your descendant.  And so, we see these three promises.  I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and I will make your name great.  We also see the purpose of the blessing as well, Verse 2, in effect, so that you will be a blessing.

Many of us look at the blessings of life somewhat like the end of the line.  God blessed me so that He would bless me, and that's the end of it.  And then the blessings, which are meant to be a river just flowing through and blessing a whole region, instead, become like a backwater, like a swamp. It never moves anywhere, it just stays with us.  He said, I'm going to bless you so that you will be a blessing.  So, Abram's call was for a purpose.  His purpose, God's purpose, was universal.  He had his eyes on the whole world and all the history of the world.  Verse 3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  So God has his eyes on all nations.  He's not just calling out the Jews to bless them alone, but he intends, from the very start, to bless all peoples on earth through Abram.

Now, in your bulletin, there's an insert from the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptist Convention together.  It mentions right at the start the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula.  Do you see that?  If you look on the back side at the top, it says that all peoples may know him.  Well, John Piper was preaching a mission sermon recently, and a little six-year-old girl came up and corrected his grammar.  She told him that people is already a plural word, and it doesn't need an “s” on the end.  You don't need to talk about peoples, just people.  He had the pleasure of sitting down and explaining why there is an “s” on the end of the word people.

It would be similar to there being an “s” on the end of the word “group.”  Group is already plural, isn't it?  But there can be groups, you see.  And so, there are also peoples identified by their culture, by their language, by their ethnicity, by their physical features, by their heritage.  Now, we don't know how many of these peoples there are, but we know that many of them are unreached.  They've never heard the name of Jesus Christ or Abraham or any of this.  They are still living in darkness and God intended that all peoples, all peoples on earth, will be blessed through Abram.

And so, the Collys and the Maugers are going forth to find some of those unreached peoples and bring them to faith in Christ.  Amen.  A direct fulfillment of this command and this prophecy, really, all peoples on earth.  This is not a command, by the way, it is a prophecy.  All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.  I'm going to make it happen, I'm going to see to it.  He is called for that purpose.  Galatians 3:8 put it this way, “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’”  Paul also writes there in that same chapter, Galatians 3:16, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.”  He does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but and “to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.  So God, had in mind at this moment, Jesus Christ.  Through Jesus Christ, all peoples on earth would be blessed.

And so, it was that Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman at the well and ventured into that debate and argument between the Jews and the Samaritans back and forth as to where they should worship.  He said, “That is not the issue but I will say this, salvation is from the Jews.”  Salvation is from the Jews, Jesus was Jewish.  In Matthew 1:1, it says, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  Through Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham, all peoples on earth will be blessed.  Now, in verses 4 through 9, we see Abram’s delayed obedience and his walk by faith.  Now, faith and obedience are meant to go together.  Genuine faith results in a lifestyle of obedience.  Without the obedience, the faith is dead, it says in the Book of James.  And so, faith must result in obedience.  We see in Verse 4, Abram left, just as the Lord had told him.  Like Noah before him, he was living in moment by moment obedience to God.  Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went.”

If you have a faith that does not lead to obedience, you do not have saving faith.  Genuine saving faith leads to a pattern of obedience, but that lifestyle of obedience grows gradually.  Now, we are going to see over the next few weeks and perhaps months, in the life of Abraham, who became Abraham, a growth of this obedience.  Step by step.  It is not now what it will be 10 chapters later when, at last, he offers his son Isaac on the altar by faith.  So, the faith has got to grow.   He has got faith enough to begin, but he doesn't finish the journey.  He leaves Ur of the Chaldeans and goes up to Haran but he doesn't leave his father's household, the very thing he was told to do.  Terah and Abram go up and they kind of settle down in Haran.  God didn't tell them to go to Haran.  If you look at Genesis 11:31, it says, “together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.  But when they came to Haran, they settled there.”

The NIV translates chapter 12:1, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.’”  In this translation they are saying the call had already come before they settled in at Haran, and it makes sense.  Abram gets up, he and his father kind of go up the fertile crescent, begin that 1,000-mile journey to the promised land along the river, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and they settle down in Haran.  They are not there yet, and why?  I think it is because Abram can't leave his idolatrous pagan father behind.  Terah doesn't want to go, and Abram doesn't want to leave him.  It is what we call partial obedience.  He leaves the place, but he doesn't leave his father.  It reminds me of Matthew 8:21-22.  “Another disciple said to Him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’  But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’”  Later, Jesus said in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”  God had called him to leave his idolatrous father.  Abram wanted to wait till his father died.  Now, listen.  Finally, Abraham left and his father died.  Listen, in Haran, 60 years after Abraham left him in Haran.  Sixty years.  Isaac was born 35 years later.  Do you understand what I'm saying?  If he had waited for his father to die, he never would have gone.  He would have stayed in Haran and he would have died in Haran and, Isaac, the child of promise would never have been born.  He had to obey fully.  Leave your Father, the one who is worshipping the god, the moon god and all the other gods there in Haran, leave him behind and go to the land I will show you.  And so, he did.

Sometimes God calls you to make a decisive break, even with your own family.  That's something I faced when I went to Japan.  It was a challenge for me, it was difficult, but God called me to do that.  He's calling the Collys and the Maugers and scores of other missionaries, to leave behind both believing and unbelieving parents and go to the land that God is showing them to serve Him.  Now, as he travels by faith, he wanders.  Look at verse 6.  “Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem,” led step by step through the land, he was living in a tent.  The Canaanites were still in the land, still owning it, and they would still be in the land when Abram, rather Abraham, finally died.  But then God, now that he has arrived in the Promised Land, advances the promise.  Look at verse 7, “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring, I will give this land.’”  Now, notice he didn't say anything about that with the first call.  He said, just “go to the land I will show you.”

Once he got there, he said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”  We now have the two aspects of the promise to Abraham.  Multiple offspring, descendants and the promised land, we are going to see this repeated and enhanced again and again.  So then as a result of his faith, Abraham believed Him, he trusted Him, and he built an altar to show his faith.  Like his ancestor, Seth, he called on the name of the Lord and sacrificed to God.  

Now, what kind of application can we take from Genesis 12:1-9?  Well, I think the Collys and the Maugers are going to come up in a moment and talk about their call.  I already know what application there is in their lives.  They are literally going to leave and follow in the footsteps of the faith their father, Abraham, had.  They are going to leave this country and they are going to go as missionaries.

Well, what about we who are still here?  First of all, more than anything, I want to urge you to come to the faith of Abraham.  If you don't have the faith of Abraham, you are lost.  You are still under your sins.  You have to come to faith in Christ and trust in Him.  You have to hear his voice.  He may be calling you to do some difficult thing, to leave behind sin and leave behind friends and even family who are unbelievers, and courageously trust Christ, believe in Christ for your salvation.  But having already done that, then what?  Is your life of faith over?  Is that it?  The only journey of faith is walking the aisle and coming to faith in Christ in the beginning?  Not at all.  Now, step by step, God is calling on you.  Calling on you to follow in the footsteps of Abraham.  And what does that mean?  God cares still about the peoples.  Can I give you some specific things to be involved in?  First of all, look at the peoples.  How can you do that?  Well, when I was in college, I got hold of something called the Global Prayer Digest.  Global Prayer Digest, I am going to put information about this in next week's bulletin.  You can get it on the internet for free, or you can order it for $6.  Every day of the month, they give you an unreached people group.  They describe what life is like.  They tell you what the history is, and you can pray for them.  When I was in college, I adopted an unreached people group and prayed for them for 10 years.

There are now 30,000 or 40,000 Christians in that unreached people group.  Do I consider myself personally responsible?  Not in any way.  But I feel very much like I bought shares in Microsoft in 1984 because there were no Christians there, and now there's 30,000 of them.  And I'll tell you what?  The shares I have in that is far more valuable than any Microsoft stock I would have had, which I don't.  I bought shares in what God was doing there.  Adopt an unreached people group.  This is a direct fulfillment of what God promised Abraham.  Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.  Pray for the Maugers and the Collys.  They are going to tell you how in a few moments, but make a commitment to pray for them.  Maybe between now and the end of the year, and then if God calls you to re-up, then pray for them some more.  Consider going on a short-term mission trip.  We have missionaries going out to the far east very soon on short-term missions.  Consider going in the future and support them in prayer.  There's a bulletin insert where you can commit yourself to praying for them.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Psalm 8. The main subject of the sermon is how God has exalted man in creation.

We are looking this morning at Psalm eight, one of the most majestic Psalms in all the Psalter. Key moments in American educational history came when Charles Eliot, then President of Harvard University, was deciding how he would dedicate the Emerson Building of Philosophy at Harvard. And he needed a suitable inscription to put on the facade over the main entrance. Professor William James suggested a quote from Protagoras, a Greek philosopher, 490-420 BC was his life. And the quote was, "Man is the measure of all things." Put that right over the entrance to the Harvard Building of Philosophy, "Man is the measure of all things." The full quote is, "Man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, how they are, and of the things that are not, how they are not." 

Well, what do you think of that quote? I agree. But Eliot shocked the crowd at the unveiling. I think they thought that William James's suggestion would carry the day. But at the unveiling he shocked everyone by going 500 years before Protagoras to the words of a Jewish shepherd boy named David, whom God exalted to be king. And it says, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Aren't you glad that that's what the Harvard students look at every time they go in the building of Human Philosophy there at Harvard? "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Truly, this question has followed humanity throughout all of its history. How are we to study the topic of the doctrine of man? The 20th century exposed man at his best and at his worst; technological achievements that stagger the imagination and then were used for the destruction of millions of people, moral failures and atrocities that sear the conscience, and acts of great personal courage and valor that stimulate and inspire. That was the 20th century. And through it, the question, "What is man?" and the doctrine of man, how are we going to understand what we are? Science weighs in with the study of man called Anthropology, and given some help from Darwin's theories of evolution, says that man is nothing more than an animal. We're here to enjoy ourselves and procreate and die. Get out of the way for the next generation. That's what we're here for.

This has greatly affected our worldview on all issues, as you can well imagine. If we are just an animal, we're gonna behave like an animal, and we've seen that. But John Calvin in his opening lines to the Institutes of the Christian Religion, written in 1535, when he was just 27 years old and living in hiding in Basel, wrote one of the greatest statements in the history of theology. This is what he said, "Our wisdom in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves." So if we're gonna know who we are, we have to know God. And we know ourselves in relation to how we know God. I believe faulty understanding of who we really are is at the root of all the great heresies that there are in church history. In effect, Calvin is saying we cannot know ourselves without knowing God. For this reason, some of the most intelligent scientists in the world, brilliant in their fields and able to articulate their views, really are biblically fools groping in the dark trying to figure out, what is man, trying to understand as they look at little bits of bone found in a desert somewhere in Africa and try to piece it all together and come up with a theory as to what we are. "And that there is no such thing," said Watson, Watson and Crick who developed the DNA, "There's no such thing as the human soul or imagination, it's all just neurological chemicals in the brain." Purely a materialistic explanation, answering the question, "What is man?"

But scripture is the source of true wisdom on this topic, isn't it? If we wanna know, what is man, we read the Bible. And almost 3,000 years ago, I can imagine a humble little shepherd boy taking care of his father's small flock, playing on a grassy hill, and looking up at the stars and thinking, "What am I? Why would you even listen to me? Why would you pay any attention to me as I follow around this straggly little flock?" As he looked at the moon and the stars, the beginning concepts of Psalm eight were forming in his mind. And as he saw God be faithful to raise him up to the throne, it was established all the more. And he wrote it in an astonishingly brief Hebrew poem, 71 words in the original, in which he brought up the question, "What is man?" in the context of the majesty of God. "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Now, as we look at this today, we're going to look at it in three parts. First, we're going to look at David's prophetic meditation. We're just gonna go through the nine verses and understand them in their old covenant context. What was David thinking about and how was he meditating? Secondly, we're gonna see how Christ perfectly fulfills this prophecy and how He fulfills this meditation. And third, we're going to apply it to ourselves.

Let's look at the first part, David's prophetic meditation. I think the Psalm breaks well into four parts. First, in verse one and two, the majesty of God displayed. Second, in verses three and four, the humility of man contemplated. In verses five through eight we see the honor of man established. And then again in verse nine, the majesty of God repeated. Look at the first part, the majesty of God displayed in verse one and two. "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." Now, David begins with God's covenant name, Yahweh, we could pronounce it in our language. And he's referring to the name by which God revealed himself in the flames of the burning bush, "I am that I am." This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of the covenant, "O LORD." But then he says Adonai, “Our Lord”. That's a more personal title for God, the one who rules over my everyday life. You could have a human master over you, and you would call him Adonai, my master, or my Lord. And so he combines God's exalted covenant title with the everyday expression. And he says, "Our Lord," not just, my lord, but he has a sense of a collective experience, the Jewish people together. "O LORD, our Lord." This is the one he's speaking to.

And then he asks a question, "How majestic is your name in all the earth?" Now, we know in this kind of poetical speaking, this is not a question that's expecting an answer. It's really rather the question of a ravished lover that a lover would speak to his or her lover from the Song of Solomon, chapter 1:15-16. The lover says, "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh how beautiful!" Now, I don't think that the lover is expecting the other to answer, "Well, I'll tell you how beautiful I am." But rather, it's an expression of emotion, "How beautifully you are! How beautiful! How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how handsome!" It's an expression of worship, an expression of love, as David says it here in Psalm eight, "How majestic is your name in all the earth!" Just like the psalmist in Psalm 104:24, which we looked at two weeks ago, "How many are your works, O Lord; in wisdom you made them all!" He's not expecting an answer, just marveling over the wonders of the name of God. And he calls it majestic, "How majestic is your name!" The same word is spoken of jagged, lofty mountains in Psalm 76:4, of terrifying storms in Psalm 93, of lofty forests like cedars of Lebanon in Zechariah 11. “Majestic” means, in effect, the name of God takes David's breath away. "How majestic is your name!"

God's name is his reputation. It is his essential nature and being as it's played out in history, so that he's gained for himself a mighty name and a reputation. And he's saying, "How majestic is your name!" And it's in all the earth! This is accessible to everyone. There's not a people on the face of the earth that cannot see how majestic is your name. And why is that? Well, because God's glory is, as it were, hung out for all to see. "You have set your glory above the heavens," it says. Now, there are two ways to consider this; one, is just that God has woven his glory into the heavens. Like it says in Psalm 19, it says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

And so we can see God's glory just woven into the heavens, and so God's glory is in the heavens, somewhat like in the Middle Ages or later, even the colonial period, a craftsman would hang out a sign and you could see what he would make from the sign. Or you could, even better, you could stop at the window and look in and see perhaps some silver made by Paul Revere, a fine T service with all of its filigree work. You could see the quality of craftsmanship; it's set out for all to see. And if you have the money to hire such a craftsman, he'll make one for you as well. He set out the glory of his handy work, and God has done the same in his creation. But that's not actually what it says. In the Hebrew, it says, "You have set Your glory above the heavens." In effect, the heavens are just a dim reflection of the true glory of God. As immense as the heavens are, as glorious and majestic, God's personal glory is actually far greater than these, for God fills heaven and earth and then some. 

If you were filled with the Spirit and you could somehow by some power move through the universe, you would not feel any waxing and waning of the presence of God. He is everywhere all at once glorious, and then some. For if you could somehow go to the edge of the universe, God wouldn't run out there because nothing can contain God. His glory is above the heavens. Yeah, the heavens don't contain God, God contains the heavens. And so in Isaiah 40:12 it says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?" Now, we can't measure the cosmos. They think it's between 10 and 20 billion light years across. But I can tell you from a scientific point of view, that's based on so many assumptions that cannot be proven that we really have no idea how large the cosmos is. God says, "Well, I can tell you how large it is in my hand-breadth, if you'd like to know." He hasn't told us the number, but he has measured off the heavens in the hand breadth of God. This is the God of glory, and he has set his glory above the heavens. And then in verse two, it says that glory is declared by the weakest, most insignificant human beings, "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." 

We human beings were created for praise. Not that we would be praised, but rather that we would praise our Creator; that our hearts and our minds, our imaginations, would just be filled with the glory of God and that we would just overflow in praise and worship. And from the lips of infants, from the very beginning of life, God has ordained praise. We were created to know God's glory and then to put it into words and talk about it; that's our special job. The wind and the rain, and the oceans, and the sticks and rocks display God's glory in a mute way, but we observe it and we talk about it. We proclaim it. So also the animals, the fish, the porpoises, the flamingos, they display the glory of God, but they cannot know it. That's our job. From the lips of children and infants, God ordained praise. Children and infants especially set aside for this. Gurgling sounds of an infant, satisfied, nursing at his mother's breast? Well, this is great praise for God as that infant is getting ready for a far greater praise later on.

Interestingly, the word here is literally that God has ordained strength. The Hebrew word is “oz”. God has ordained strength from weakness. This is a deep theological principle, isn't it? God gets his greatest glory when we are in our weakest and humblest, when we are lowly like an infant, we proclaim praise. Now, it's a tragedy of this present physical universe that God has enemies because of the foe and the avenger. In his physical world, there is such, the foe and the avenger. But God is going to bring down the foe and the avenger with the weak infant. Isn't that fantastic? Through the lips of children and infants, he has ordained the final day of the foe and the avenger, because when we are weak, then we are strong, and the grace of God is displayed in the strength of those that will make themselves like little children. We'll come back to that later. I'm gonna go over in a new covenant quickly, if I don't keep on track here. But God has ordained strength and praise from the lips of infants.

Well, having gone from that, then he contemplates the humility of man in verses three and four, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" I find that meditation brings humiliation, if you meditate the right way. If you feel you're getting too lofty in your own estimation, meditate on the proper things and you'll be brought down. You know why you should do this? Because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And so meditation brings humiliation. In our natural selves we're very lofty. We wanna rise up like the Tower of Babel. We wanna go up to the heavens. But you know, we can't reach them. They humble us. And so, it is good for us to have this kind of humbling meditation, "When I consider your heavens." It's a meditation on the immensity of space. It makes you humble.

For David, this is a sweet form of death, the death of his pride, the death of his arrogance. He's made very small in his own eyes, and that's a good thing. He actively is seeking out this kind of meditation, "I wanna become small tonight, God. Make me small." And so he's meditating to that end. Meditates on the heavens. And notice he says, "When I consider your heavens. They're yours, for you made them." God owns them. They belong to him. God is the creator. He is the present ruler and he will ultimately be the destroyer of the present heavens, and the re-creator of the New Heavens and the New Earth. It's all God's. "When I consider Your heavens…" he says, the immensity. And then he says, "The moon and the stars, which you have set in place." 

There are two great realms of the physical creation. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And according to Genesis one, he set the great light in the sky to govern the day, and the lesser lights in the sky to govern the night. He has not put us over the heavens. Have you noticed that? It's the sun and the moon that rule up there. Now we can look at them and admire them and praise the God who made them, but we can't change them at all. If we were to get all of our ICBMs in one place and try to affect the sun, what effect do you think we would have on the sun? None whatsoever. We cannot give anything to the sun. We cannot take anything from the sun. It's far above us. It humbles us in its might and its power. God has set them above us. And he considers the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and they humble him, "Which You have set in their place. You've ordained them. You have appointed them." But notice that he says, they are the work of God's fingers. Now, this is interesting, isn't it? The work of his fingers. Now, in one sense, you could look at it and say the fingers points to God's immense power. 

You remember King Rehoboam, that foolish young man who took control of the throne, and then the advisors came around and said, "Look, you know, your father worked us really too hard, would you kinda give us a break, and if you do, we will serve you well." Do you remember after conferring with his other young friends, he was like, "Oh yeah? Well, this is what I wanna tell you: my little finger is thicker than my father's waist. You think you had it bad under Solomon? Wait till I take control." Well, that wasn't a good answer. It was a bad answer, and so the kingdom was ripped from him. But listen to what he says, "My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.” What I can do with my fingers is small compared to what I can do with my full strength. And so, when I consider the heavens, the work of God's fingers, this was nothing for God to create, the moon and the stars. It's a measure of his power. If that's just a moving of his finger, how great must his power be? But then fingers also point to meticulous and careful work, don't they? Craftsmanship. You think of a woman perhaps using her nimble fingers to do needle work, and that fine craftsmanship, it's done with the fingers. Or consider a pianist playing beautifully.

I love the description by Dr. Brand, Phillip Brand, of watching Arthur Rubinstein's performance of Beethoven's, “Moonlight Sonata”. This is a quote, "A piano performance is a ballet of fingers, a glorious flourish of ligaments and joints, tendons, nerves and muscles. I must sit near the stage to watch their movements. From my own careful calculations, I know that some of the movements required, such as the powerful arpeggios in Moonlight's third movement are simply too fast for the body to accomplish consciously. Nerve impulses do not travel with enough speed for the brain to sort out that the third finger has just lifted in time in order for the fourth finger to strike the next key. I marvel too at the slow lilting passages. A good pianist controls his or her fingers independently, so that when striking a two-handed chord of eight notes, each of the fingers exerts a slightly different pressure for emphasis, with the melody note ringing the loudest. The effect of a few grams more or less of pressure in a crucial pianissimo passage is so minuscule only a sophisticated laboratory could measure it. But the human ear contains just such a laboratory, and musicians like Rubinstein gain acclaim because discriminating listeners can savor their subtle nuances of control."

Now that's the skillful fingers of a pianist, so also are the moon and the stars the skillful work of God's fingers. Now, of course, God does not have physical fingers. Our fingers are dim reflection of God's capabilities, which we call his fingers. We speak in this kind of man-centered language so we can understand God's spiritual being. Our fingers are nothing compared to God's. That's what it's saying. And when I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers. Oh, what's the conclusion to this meditation? Well, it's been inscribed in the building at Harvard. What is man? What are we? We're nothing compared to such a God who could make these things. “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” David is suitably humbled. He's suitably laid low in his own estimation. Now he's ready for God to lift him up.

And in verses five through eight, that's exactly what happens. The honor of man is established. "You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, the beast of the field, and the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swims in the paths of the seas." The fact is, David says, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" But God is actually intensely mindful of man. He thinks about him all the time. In Psalm 139, David meditates on this, "How many are your thoughts about me, O God! How vast the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand [in the sea]." As a matter of fact, God's intense watching of us seems sometimes oppressive that Job said, "Will you never turn away for a moment, O watcher of men?" It gets intense, to think that this powerful, invisible, holy spiritual being is watching everything you do, thinking about everything you do. With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years. He watches you so intensely. 

Now you may think, and I've heard this said, "What are my little problems to such a mighty God? God can't be spinning the planets up there and still caring for my life." And that sounds so humble, doesn't it? But do you realize how much you've limited God as though he couldn't do both? You know the Chinese juggling troupe where there's that guy that's spinning the plates and sticks them up on the post then gets out to 30 plates, and he's running around like a maniac trying to spin the plates and he can do it? It's an incredible thing, but I think 30 is about his limit. I mean, they started to fall toward the end as he fatigued, and in a way, the person is saying that's kind of what God's like. He has his limits. He cannot both be spinning the planets and caring for my little life. Oh, really? He's able to do far more than that. 

And so God is very mindful of man. He's very mindful of you. He thinks about you all the time. And then it talks about God's positioning of man. A little lower than Elohim, is what it says in the original, the Septuagint, the Greek translation, brings it over into angels. You made him a little lower than the angels, it says there. The book of Hebrews follows that and says, “You've made him a little lower than the angels.” So we're somewhere, I think, between heaven and earth, as it were positionally. We're on earth and we're earthy, but we're looking up to the heavens and understanding them. We have a physical earthy side, but we have a spiritual side too, so we're not just animal, but we have a spiritual side too. We were a little lower than the angels. And we're cloaked, it says, with glory and honor, created to be like God with the image of God, able to reason and to dream and to hope, and to make plans and to rule, and to do these things over the earth that God has made.

In Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." And so God has put us in a position of power and authority in this world, and then he has given us that ability, the intellectual and the moral ability to rule wisely and well under him. That's the position he's given us. Now, David cannot end with man though, can he? We've humbled ourselves by considering what is man, and then we reflected on the Genesis command from God that we are in authority over the earth, we're ruling over it, but he's not going to end with man, he's gonna go back one more time in verse nine, to how he opened, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Well, that is the Psalm in its entirety, and we've understood it from its Old Covenant prophetic sense. What about Christ's fulfillment of that? First, Christ is the Son of Man. "What is man that you are mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him?" Jesus' favorite title for himself was the Son of Man. He was the Son of Man, and he was the perfect man, the fulfillment of what God intended when he created man. And we saw Christ become perfectly human, fully human, humbled to atone for our sins. Hebrews 2:9, it says, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." In taking on a human body, Jesus was able to atone for the sins of a wicked human race.

And so Jesus became a little lower than the angels in his incarnation. How did he become lower than the angels? Was he not lower than the angels when it was the mighty angels, an army for him, appearing the night of his birth and saying, "Glory to God in the highest," while he was a little gurgling infant in a manger? Who is the more powerful then? Or how about when Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and was weak and battled the devil and temptation, and at the end of that time, God sent the angels to come and minister to him physically because he was weakened and drained? Who is the powerful one there and who's the weak one? And how about in Gethsemane, when Jesus wrestled over drinking the cup of God's wrath so intensely that the blood came from the capillaries under his skin out of his pores? And it says that God sent the angels to strengthen him. And who was in the position of power and who the position of weakness when Jesus was on the cross, under the wrath of God, bearing our sins to the point of death? And when he died, who is powerful and who the very picture of weakness? God made Jesus a little lower than the angels, and he did that because we needed a savior, we needed him to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. 

We also see it in Christ's triumphal entry, the week before he died. He entered into Jerusalem and all the children are running around and they're proclaiming, they're saying, "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," they're crying out. Hosanna means, "Oh, save, save now," they're hoping for Jesus to be the mighty warrior King, and all the children are running around singing this. “But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ [the children just crying out], they were indignant. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ They asked him. ‘Yes,’ replied Jesus. ‘[I hear it.]’” Why were the children singing? Maybe the parents were too afraid, they already knew they're gonna get thrown out of the synagogue if they said that Jesus was the Christ so they're quiet, some of them anyway. But the children, they're fearless. What do they care? They just wanna say what's in their heart, and they're just singing and praising. "’Do you hear what they're saying?’ ‘Yes [I hear] … Have you never read “from the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise?"’” That's exactly the way I need to be to be saved. Forget about myself. Forget who I am and what my reputation is, and like a little child cry out to God, "Oh, save me! I'm a wretched sinner. Save me from who I am." Forget dignity. Be like a child. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, "I tell you the truth, unless [you're converted] you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." That's strength for you. Know that you're weak and know that you need a Savior, and cry out to him, "Oh, save." 

And we see also Christ's humility. He made himself nothing even to the point of death. And the Psalm, Psalm eight, we see the standard pattern, "Humble yourself and God will raise you up." And so those of you who have been studying in Philippians, you know how perfectly Jesus fulfills that pattern. He who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but made himself. What? Nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. Have you ever noticed that before? The very nature of a servant equals made in human likeness. We're made to serve, we're servants. That's what it is. He took on what it meant to be a servant, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself further, even to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because Jesus did this, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, all of us will someday bow before him and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Do you see the same rhythm in Jesus's life? You see, he who humbles himself low will be exalted. Jesus did that perfectly. Therefore, he was exalted to the highest place. 

And by faith, we can see his present glory. We're told in Scripture again and again, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. He's up there. He's in the position of power. He's exalted way up into the heavenly realms at the right hand of God the Father. But we don't see that, and actually we see a great deal of contrary evidence. Most of our neighbors, co-workers, many of our relatives, the nations seem in upheaval, many of them do not acknowledge Jesus and his rule. We see a world in upheaval and turmoil. We see a Iraq, we see all kinds of problems going on in this world and we see it seems no evidence that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.

We have to believe it by faith. But we have a promise that someday he will actively, openly rule over a perfected heaven and earth. He will be there, we will see him and he will be ruling over it all, and then Psalm eight will be perfectly fulfilled. He will be ruling over the new creation and the heavens too, and the two will become one.

It says in Hebrews 1:10-12, he also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment [they will perish] they will be changed. But you remain the same and your years will never end." And then in Ephesians 1:19-23, it says this, "That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age [listen] but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Someday, brothers and sisters in Christ, you will see Jesus fully exalted, not just over the earth as Son of Man but over heaven and earth as Son of God as well.

Now, what application can we take from Psalm eight? First, just worship. I've been looking for it all week to preaching this sermon. It's just worship to stand here and talk about this, and you know you can do this yourself, not preaching up here on Sunday morning, you'd probably have to talk to me first. I'd have to hear from the Lord. But you can meditate and work over the Psalm and think about it, and exalt God's glory and humble yourself under it, that he may lift you up in due time. Worship the Lord.

Secondly, salvation, I'm talking to you as though you are brothers and sisters in Christ, but many of you here today may not be believers in Christ, have never trusted in him as your Lord and Savior. In order for you to be saved, you have to become like the little child that said, "Save now," as Jesus rode by. You have to be willing to see that your sins condemn you and that you can't stand in front of such a mighty God whose fingers made the stars and who knows everything you've ever said and done. You can't stand in front of him on Judgment Day without Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. You can't stand alone. And so let today be for you the day of salvation. Trust in Him. Don't walk out of this place without having trusted in Christ, trust in Him now. Say, "Oh, save," to Jesus.

Thirdly, sanctification, how are you gonna grow in holiness once you've come to faith in Christ? Can I just say that you would just learn to say, "What is man that you're mindful of him?" Humble yourself. Make little of yourself. Realize that were it not for God making much of you, there's nothing much to make of. Be sanctified by humility, understand that apart from God's saving work in us, we are worms and we're heading back into the dust. But with his saving work in us, someday we'll be as glorious as God himself with the glory that's not our own, but that is his. And so delight in weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 12:10 says, "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 

Fourth, stewardship. It says, “You have made him ruler.” We must own up to our responsibilities. We are put in a position over this world, we are to care about the physical creation. That's not just for political, liberal, left-wing types and all that. It's for us. We are Christians. This is our world; this is our Father's world. We are to be stewards of it. We know that someday God will roll it up like a garment and change it, but we are still stewards.

Missions. Submit to God's worldwide plan, the majesty of his name in all the earth through Christ. God intends that the glory of his name be proclaimed by people like you and me. Nobody's gonna get saved by looking at the stars and the moon. Nobody. They may feel small, but they're not gonna get saved that way, they get saved when they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed verbally to them, combined with the inner working of the Holy Spirit. Finally, six, feed your hope by meditating daily in the glory that is yet to come. I love to think about this, I love to say it. If you're a Christian, most of your best stuff is yet to come, most of it. Isn't that wonderful? Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ appears.

Psalm 84 foreshadows the spiritual pilgrimage Christians make in their journey of sanctification.

I like to ask that you take your copy of the Word of God and look at Psalm 84. We're in between series right now, and I thought it would be good for us to look at some psalms, and Psalm 84 is one of my favorites. One of my favorite books in the entire world is Pilgrim's Progress. I know a man, my church history professor, who read it every year for 50 years. Now you might think what kind of book would be worth that kind of attention, but the beauty of the book is that it lays out the Christian life as a pilgrimage that just begins when we come to personal faith in Christ and then continues long after that until at last we cross the river and reach the Celestial City, and so there's lots of difficulties and troubles along the way. 

The idea of a pilgrim is a little bit foreign to us, it shouldn't be, but perhaps it is. The ideas of pilgrimage and the journeying or traveling, connected in some way with religious observance is known all over the world and to all different religions of the world. In Ancient Greece, the pagan religions had their pilgrimages. You remember in Acts 19, the big chant, 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.' What that meant was the temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was a great place to go worship. People would travel from miles away to go see this temple and to worship Artemis there. It was a pilgrimage. Islam has a pilgrimage, it's called the Hajj, and anyone that makes it is a Hajji. It's one of the five pillars of Islam, and if you're a faithful Muslim and you're able-bodied and have the resources to make it once in your life, you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Hindus travel to the Ganges River to wash or to bathe in what they consider to be it sacred waters. When Christine and I were living in Japan, we lived on a sacred Buddhist island of Shikoku, and there were 88 Buddhist temples. Pilgrims would come and they would be dressed in certain interesting clothes with these straw hats and  canes, and they had bells and little bags, talismans on the end of their canes, and they would go from place to place. Many of them were Westerners, as a matter of fact. 

Interesting, if you go to a search engine and type in Pilgrim's Progress, you're going to end up with www.dharmatours.org and it's a Buddhist pilgrimage that you can go on there. I was very distressed, so what you need to do is you need to just flood the sites that go to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and get it back up to number one, because I don't want Dharma Tours to be the number one “Pilgrim's Progress.” But pilgrimages are part of religions all over the world. Medieval Catholicism had their pilgrimages as well, as pilgrims would travel to relics and to Rome, for example, to see the Via Dolorosa or to climb on their knees up the holy staircase. Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is stories that are told along the road of medieval pilgrims as they traveled to Canterbury, so the idea of pilgrimage is really well familiar to us. The basic idea of a pilgrimage is the locality of deity. In some sense, the god that you're worshipping is more here than he is there, and you have to go to where he is and worship, or that there is holy ground or a holy place set apart by God, and you travel there and you worship.

Evangelical Christianity, after the ministry of Christ, has rightly rejected the idea that God is more here than there, and rejected the idea of a physical pilgrimage. But along with that, modern evangelicalism, I think in some sense, has lost the sense of a true spiritual pilgrimage. Christianity was originally called “The Way,” I think probably after Jesus' statement, “I am the way.” in John 14:6. But evangelicalism doesn't know much about the journey, it doesn't know much about “the way”, it seems static. The only journey that you make might be coming forward at a revival, you would come out of your pews and come forward, and once that journey has been made, there's no more journey to be made, you're saved and it's set, and there's nothing more. But we've learned  that salvation's far more than just the beginning of it, far more than justification.

I think the Puritans, of all the movements in church history, had probably the clearest vision of sanctification, of a journeying that begins with original saving faith with justification, but then travels on through sanctification, and thus Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress, I think stands picturesquely to talk to us about the Christian life, the pilgrimage, through many dangers, toils and snares. As Bunyan put it, Christian at last makes it to Celestial City, through the Slough of Despond, the Hill Difficulty, the Valley of Humiliation where he battled Apollyon, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, through Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle he fought his battles, also the pleasant stops of refreshment as well, and he made a journey. The Christian life is indeed a pilgrimage.

Psalm 84 is a pilgrim song,  and it's established within the Old Covenant shadow of the temple sacrificial system and the law of Moses. The law of Moses ordained a pilgrimage three times a year. The men of Israel would get up from their homes and  would travel to the place that God had chosen for them, the central place, the worship place, where they would all go. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest and Firstfruits, and the Feast of Ingathering, these are the three mentioned in Exodus 23:14-17. Deuteronomy clarified the need to travel to a specific place that God would choose from among the tribes that eventually came to be Jerusalem. At that point, originally it was a tabernacle, it was a movable tent, but that tent would find its rest in a certain place among the 12 tribes, the tribe of Judah in the end, in Jerusalem, the City of David, would be that place.

Eventually, the movement went from tabernacle to temple when David sitting in a palace of cedar, smelling the aroma from those freshly cut cedar panel said, "Here am I living in a palace of cedar, and God's ark is in a tent."  Nathan the prophet said, "Do whatever is on your heart." David wanted to build a permanent resting place for God, the Temple. Now, we know that Solomon was the one that built the temple. But the temple of Solomon was not imposing in its size,  it really wasn't that large itself, but it was exquisite in its quality, the finest craftsmanship and the best materials went into it. It was inlaid with gold and overlaid with gold and just meticulously crafted so much so that when the restoration temple was built after the Jews had come back from Babylon, the temple at Haggai, they were weeping and crying over how ugly and small it seemed to be compared to Solomon's temple, which was so ornate and lavish. So, it was an incredible thing, exquisite in beauty, and it had been supernaturally filled with the glory of God, when Solomon dedicated it in 1 Kings 8:11.

The glory cloud of the Lord came down, descended and filled the whole temple with smoke and with glory. It said in 1 Kings 8:11, the priest could not perform their service because of the cloud of the glory of the Lord filled the temple. So it was to this temple that the pilgrims made their pilgrimage. They were traveling from Dan to Beersheba, they would leave their farms and their villages, they would leave behind their work, and they would get on the road and start to walk. They would travel for these feasts, they would travel the highways and the byways of the promised land leading to Mount Zion, and because Jerusalem was elevated, physically elevated, it was a mountain, they were singing what they called Songs of Ascents, and as they were ascending the mountains, they would sing these. You might note in Psalm 120 through 134, these are all labeled a song of ascent, these would be psalms that they would sing as they would travel together. I think Psalm 84 fits in that class, in that category. 

Now, if we look at the Psalm, I want to break it apart into four parts: In verse 1-4, we see a yearning for the temple that is really a yearning for God; in verse 5-7, we see a pilgrimage to the temple, really a pilgrimage to God; in verse 8 and 9, we see a prayer for the anointed king that he would be blessed by God; and then verse 10-12, celebration of life at the temple, a life that is also blessed by God. Let's look at the first subsection, and that's yearning for the temple, really a yearning for God in verse 1-4. "How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-a place near Your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever praising You." 

You see the yearning there, a yearning to be at the temple. And more than that, not just because, "Oh, look at such magnificent stones, and look at the gold." No, the psalmist wants to be near God. It's a yearning to be near God. The psalmist remembers past pilgrimages, three times a year they would go up and the memory is stirred by the temple's spectacular beauty, by the memories of the past, and more than that the temple reminds the singer of the psalm of God, and just to be near God. The temple represents fellowship with the Lord Almighty, and so the psalmist's soul is deeply stirred with a hunger for fellowship with God.

Verse 2, again, "My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." I think at some point in his many pilgrimages up there, he noticed some details in the temple. He noticed that the sparrow and the swallow had made nests perhaps up in the rafter or some place, is nothing sacred. Well, of course, it's sacred but the birds, they're going to do what comes naturally and so they built a nest. But he looked at that very positively, even the sparrow and the swallow feel peaceful and comfortable to be here. No bird, no female bird is going to build a nest where she doesn't feel comfortable and safe and secure, and so it's a place of safety.

If you look biblically at the sparrow, the sparrow is, in one place, a symbol of worthlessness. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” said the Lord. “And yet none of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” They're a symbol of worthlessness, in one sense. The swallow is a symbol of restlessness as they are able to travel across the oceans. They're able to wing their flights for hundreds of miles without stopping, without resting. But here the sparrow feels safe and secure and finds her worth as it were, being with God, and the swallow at last has found a home, a place to make a nest, a place of comfort. In effect, as the psalmist looks at these birds, the psalmist is thinking, "Oh, I would love to be one of those, just here all the time, that I wouldn't ever have to go back. I wouldn't have to keep working the fields and doing my life; just to be near you O Lord, I would love to be near You all the time.” 

So the pilgrim began his pilgrimage and traveled up toward Jerusalem.  In verse 5-7, he's making his pilgrimage and thinking about it. "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion." Now, a pilgrimage like this is going to take physical strength, it's going to be a long journey, and it's going to be a journey up a mountain and so they've got to have physical strength. So he says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you,” and they go from strength to strength. There's a certain strength that's needed for the pilgrimage and this strength is coming from God himself.  

The commitment to the pilgrimage comes from the heart. Verse 5, “Blessed are those who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.” The Hebrew word for “pilgrimage” is really highways. They've set their hearts on the highways. The highways back then would be kind of curved with ditches on either side for the rain to run off. We have a far more advanced highway technology than they did, but these were good roads, and the psalmist is saying that the pilgrim has set his heart on the road. He's thinking about the traveling and the journeying, and all those roads that led up to the temple in  Jerusalem. Blessed is the one who set his heart on making that journey, not grudging, not irritated by it, for God loves a cheerful giver, “glad to go, looking forward to it.” Blessed is the one who comes at it with that attitude.

It says in verse 6, as they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs, the autumn rains also cover it with pools. The Valley of Baca is probably related to the Hebrew word for weeping, “boking”. They're going through the valley of weeping, and even there, they make it a place of blessing, they make it a place of springs, and the autumn rains covers with pool. So even as the journey is difficult, even if as it's trying, they're able, through their faith and their commitment to God, to turn it into a place of blessing.

The third subsection is in verse 8-9. "Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one." I want you to realize as they're traveling, of course, they're not going to be traveling alone, there's going to be a huge community of people going up. That's where Canterbury Tales came from because they were telling stories and exchanging anecdotes and singing songs together as they went. There's a real time of community building, you can well imagine. Look at verse 7, “They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.” Nobody gets left behind. You can imagine if somebody's getting a little weak, they might even be physically carried up. There's a sense of community there, a sense of togetherness, and as they're doing that, they must think probably about their nation and about what's going on, and they want to pray for their leader, much as we prayed for our President on Thursday, the National Day of Prayer, they would pray for their king. Look at verse 8 and 9, "Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one." Now, the word “shield”[magen], sometimes just means physical shield, but it is also frequently a metaphor for a king. It means a protector, a provider, a benefactor, who sets himself up in a position where he can take care of his people. He's going to protect them militarily and fight their battles for them, and with all the booty and the plunder that's coming back in, the people are going to get blessed. So a prayer for the protection of the shield, the king, is a protection, a prayer for protection for the whole nation. It says, “look with favor on your anointed one.” The word means messiah, or the Greek word would be the Christ. So it's really talking about the Davidic king who was anointed to take the place of his Davidic father, with the lineage going down. This is a prayer for the king.

The fourth subsection, we see in verse 10-12, is a celebration of life at the temple, blessed by God. Verse 10, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, Blessed is the man who trusts in you." This was just a celebration of the total superiority of a life near God, it's better than anything else. I'd rather be an hourly worker in effect on the temple, I'd rather just be a doorkeeper.  It's better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.  But it's saying more than that, it’s saying it's just a superior life to be near God, it's better than anything. It's better to do that than to dwell in tents of the wicked. We see also the overwhelmingly generous provision of God. In verse 11 we see the Lord God is really our shield.” I mentioned that word “shield”. God's our king, the Lord God is our protector, he is our benefactor. He's the one sitting up on his throne in heaven, giving us everything we need. "The Lord is a sun and a shield. He bestows favor and honor," in the NIV. We’ll talk more about that in a moment. But then it says, "No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." What a magnificent promise. “No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”  God is never stingy.

Later in Romans 8, the Apostle Paul would say, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him lavishly or graciously give us all things?” He wouldn't hold back Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, but gave Him up for us. He is generous, He's never stingy, and so no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Satan constantly temps those on pilgrimage to talk about how tough their life is, “think about all that you've sacrificed, all that you've given up in order to get on pilgrimage.” How can we ever say that? Like CT Studd said, "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice I make would be too great for him."  David Livingston said, "How can I talk about sacrifice, when I consider what Jesus Christ has done for me?" So, verse 11 is a reminder that no good thing does He withhold from those who are making His Pilgrim walk. Ultimately, this is a life of faith and trust in God.

Verse 12, "O Lord Almighty, Blessed is the man who trusts in you." Now, scripture is totally, and beautifully consistent, isn't it? What is going to save your soul? Faith in Christ alone. It is faith alone that has always saved.  Verse 12 is an old covenant shadow testimony to that again, as we get again and again in Scripture. It is faith. Blessed is the man who trusts in you. This is what justifies. 

Now, this is our Old Covenant understanding of Psalm 84. The pilgrimage is making it's way from the outskirts of the Promised Land, from Dan to Beersheba, as they're going up, they're in a community of other Jews, they're heading up to the physical temple, they're going to offer animal sacrifices up there, they're singing this song and other songs as they go, they're celebrating, they're praying for their Davidic king, they're praying for his health and well-being, they're celebrating their life together with God. That's the Old Covenant. 

But we've gone a little further, haven't we, than that? We've seen some New Covenant fulfillment, so that the Old Covenant is just shadow. We have the reality, and the reality is Christ Himself. So we come to Psalm 84 as Christians, not as Old Covenant Jews, but as Christians saying, "Tell me of the fulfillment of Psalm 84. Tell me of the fulfillment who is Christ." You see, Christ is the temple, and Christ is the sacrificial system. That was just shadow, the reality is Christ Himself.  Moses saw the original vision of the Tabernacle, and David later would see a heavenly vision of the temple. Both of them had a vision, and both of them saw a heavenly reality, and the temple was just a shadow or a dim reflection of that heavenly reality. It was under God the best they could do physically, and it was just how God wanted it to be, there was nothing wrong with it, but it was just a shadow. An earthly physical replica of the heavenly reality. Hebrews 8:1-5 tells us this, "Earthly High Priests serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven." Did you hear that? That's where they serve. They serve at a sanctuary that's just a copy, and it's a shadow of the true reality that's in heaven. That is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the Tabernacle, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." Did you hear that?  God showed Moses a pattern for the tabernacle, and later he would show David a pattern for the temple. Now, Christ's death, His physical death on the cross was consistently pre-figured by all of these animal sacrifices as those pilgrims would go up to the temple and then they'd offer their blood sacrifices when the priest would shed the blood of an animal, every time that happened, it was a shadow pointing ahead to the future death of the Lamb of God on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, when his blood was shed on the cross, He fulfilled forever all animal sacrifice, so we don't offer animal sacrifice here. It's been fulfilled in Christ. Because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but the blood of Jesus, the incarnate son of God could take away sins. He is the fulfillment of the temple, and He is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system. 

What do I mean when I say He's the fulfillment of the temple?  Jesus, after he cleansed the temple, they came and talked to him about it, and they said, "By what authority are you doing this? What sign can you give us so that we can know you have the right to cleanse the temple?" He said, "Here is the sign. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up." They said, "It's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it up in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of, was His body. Jesus's body is the temple of God. It's the place of meeting between sinners and a holy God. That's where we meet God, the body of Jesus Christ. So says Hebrews 10:19-22, which actually goes right into the Holy of Holies on the temple, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is his body, let us... And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith."  Jesus, His body is the temple, His blood fulfills the sacrificial system, therefore, we do not make a physical pilgrimage anywhere. We don't need to go to Jerusalem, we don't need to sing the song of a sense physically as we travel up to the Temple Mount, we don't need to do that anymore, it's been fulfilled in Jesus. As a matter of fact, he told us it would be. 

In John Chapter 4 as he's talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, he brings up her sin, she didn't want to talk about that, so she said, "You know, our fathers say that we should worship here on this mountain, Mt Gerizim, and you Jews say we should worship over in the Temple Mount, Mount Zion, Jerusalem. Now, which is right? Since we're going to argue together." Jesus as usual gave a shocking answer, He always went so much higher above the tough questions of the day.  He said, "Woman, believe me, the time is coming when You will worship neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know, but we Jews worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." You know what that means? There's not going to be one locus, one place of worship for Christians. God is everywhere, and He can be worshipped anywhere by somebody who's going to worship in spirit and in truth. It's no longer a single place for our pilgrimage.

The pilgrims of Plimoth Plantation, we call them the pilgrims because they were on a religious journey, but interestingly enough, they were traveling away from all the population centres. They were going away from all the shrines, and all the things. All they wanted was a howling wilderness, to just get away. Why? Because God is everywhere. They were  physically away, but  spiritually. toward. Do you see that? They were willing to set up shop on Cape Cod in December. Tough, tough Cape Cod in December. But they didn't care, because what they wanted was to get away from the harassment of England and the decadence of Holland. There's no physical place we travel in our pilgrimage.

But does that mean there's no pilgrimage for us? Does that mean there's no spiritual journey to be traveled? Listen to the words that Jesus spoke the night before he was killed. John 14, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me, in my father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you for I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I'm going." I'll say that again. "You know the way to the place where I'm going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Is that not a pilgrimage? Is there not a journey to be traveled? Is there not a destination? "My Father's house."  And even better destination, The Father Himself. "No one comes to the Father except through me." He is the destination of the pilgrimage. 

What is the way? Jesus said, "You know the way, you know it." He never misspoke. You know the way to the place. Jesus is the road to Zion, He is the road, He's the way that we travel along the way. The earthly pilgrimage is fulfilled, just as the temple and the animal sacrifice was fulfilled, all of it fulfilled in Christ. Now, there's still yet a future fulfillment, isn't there? Because both the physical temple, being a copy and shadow, and our present spiritual internal journey that we're traveling, both of them, are pointing ahead to something yet future, aren't they? Something that none of us has experienced except by faith by reading Scripture. Look at verse 11 in Psalm 84, the NAS has it this way, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield... ,the Lord gives grace and glory. Grace and glory. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." Now, this is a beautiful thing, isn't it? The perfection of the glory of Heaven is so radiant and so beautiful that words can't describe it, Solomon's  gold-covered temple could never adequately reflect the glory of God. Even as beautiful as that was, the Psalmist is saying, "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord almighty. Oh, just to see it again." That's still just a physical reflection, a dim reflection, a copy and a shadow. 

What does the heavenly one look like? Do you ever wonder about that? What does it look like? Just to see it. No earthly beauty could compare with the beauty of the glorified Christ. We were studying in our International Sunday school today, John 9, the man born blind. We brought up the story of Fanny Crosby, who was born blind as well, and they were asking her about the difficulty. She wrote all these beautiful hymns, she said, "I have one advantage over all those that have been sighted all their lives, and that is, that the first sight I see will be the face of Jesus Christ." Isn't that spectacular? But all of us who are believers, we all know that we haven't seen anything yet, and so we're looking ahead to a future glory.  Jesus in His earthly ministry was a kind of glory. It says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield.” Concerning his physical ministry, it says in Hebrews 1:3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being." 

But how much more will it be in the future heavenly Jerusalem? Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 21, "This is the heavenly glory of the future city of God and the future temple, such as it will be." Revelation 21:22-23 says, "I did not see a temple in the city." Stop there, "I didn't see a temple." Why? "Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." There's no need for a temple building, because God will be the temple. The Lord will be the temple, the Lamb of God will be its temple. Verse 23, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp." This is the perfect fulfillment of the Lord as a sun and a shield. Do you see that? Jesus will be the sun then.  

I've talked in apologetics to people that struggle with the role of science in faith and how old the universe is and all that, and they point out a discrepancy in Genesis 1, the six-day creation. They say, "Look, You know, God created light in the first day, but he didn't create the sun until the fourth day. Big problem." I'm saying, "I don't see the problem." You see, in the future, in Jerusalem, there will not  be a sun. God is able to do light even without a sun." Did you know that?  If man can do it down in a dark basement, turn on an electric light,  God can do light without a sun. So in the future,  the glory of Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, there'll be no sun. Jesus will be the sun, the glory of God will be its lamp. It says also, "The eternal dwelling place will be in perfect proximity to God." Remember the swallow and the sparrow, they're close to God. How good is that to be close to God? That's nothing compared to the future promise. Look again in Revelation 21:10-11, "And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal."

We see the heavenly Jerusalem and the earthly coming together perfectly, a perfect union of heaven and earth, a fulfillment of the Lord's Prayer. "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." A complete fulfillment of the kingdom of God yet to come. Then he describes the beauty of that place in Revelation 21:18-21, "The wall of the city was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass." Meditate on that. "The foundation of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The great street of the city was a pure gold like transparent glass." I can never stop being a scientist.  I just said, "Do we have all the colors of the spectrum here?" We do. Red is there in sapphire, orange is there in chrysolite, yellow in topaz, Green in emerald, Blue in beryl, Indigo is jacinth, Violet in the amethyst. So basically, the spectacular radiant colors are in the foundation of the walls of Jerusalem, and everything is transparent gold. Now, what is that? What is transparent gold? I don't know, but that's what it is, up there in heaven. Somehow the light from the glory of Christ just permeates everything, including you and me. It says, "The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." But notice, there is no beauty, no light, no color, apart from God and the Lamb. It's all His glory, and nobody is up there saying, "Hey, I look good today, don't I? Do you see my threads, these look good, don't they? Because everybody is going to be like that, and it won't be our glory. It's all going to be His glory permeating so beautifully through the whole thing. Go back to Psalm 84:11, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord gives grace and glory, no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless." First he gives grace. And then what? Then he gives glory. You don't get the glory without the grace. If you haven't come to faith in Christ, you're not getting any glory. But if you come to faith in Christ, you travel from glory into ever-increasing glory. And God gives it all. That's your pilgrimage, "From glory to glory."  All of it is by grace. The Lord gives it. He gives grace, and he gives glory. No good thing does He withhold from you as you're making your pilgrimage, you do it by faith in Christ alone. Verse 12, "O Lord Almighty, Blessed is the man who trusts in you from faith to faith." That's what we get. By trust in Christ alone, we make this pilgrimage. And ultimately better than the sparrow, and better than the swallow, and better than the door keeper at the house of God, and better than the sons of Korah who wrote it and sang it, better than all of those. We will not just be there as door keepers, and birds, and pillars and all that, but we will be there as beloved, adopted sons and daughters of God. Welcome into the very temple of God. That's our future. Proximity will be perfect. Revelation 21:3 says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God." Revelation 22:3-4, "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads." That, brothers and sisters is the destination of our pilgrimage. That's where we're going. 

What application can we take from Psalm 84? Very simply, set your heart on this pilgrimage. That's it. Set your heart on it. Let it be your hope, your desire, your dream, the organizing feature of your life, this pilgrimage, a pilgrimage characterized by a yearning for Christ's heavenly glory. John Flavel,a Puritan, put it this way, "Is Jesus Christ altogether lovely? Then I beseech you to set your souls upon this lovely Jesus. I am sure such an object as has been here represented would compel love from the coldest breast and the hardest heart. Away with those empty nothings, away with this vain deceitful world, which deserves not the 1000th part of the love you give it. Let all stand aside and give way to Christ. Oh, if only you knew His worth and Excellency, what he is in himself, what he has done for you, and what he deserved from you, you would need no arguments of mind to persuade you to love him. Esteem nothing lovely, except as it is enjoyed in Christ, or for the sake of Christ. Set your heart on a pilgrimage that's totally focused on Christ."  

Secondly, a pilgrimage characterized by trusting in Christ alone. We don't just walk the aisle, trust Christ and then never trust Him again. That's just the first day of a repentance and faith that lasts the rest of your life. We make this journey from faith to faith, to faith to faith, day after day, and that faith is sustained by Jesus Christ, our great high priest.  

Thirdly, a pilgrimage that is strengthened daily by Christ's power. Verse 5 through 7 says, "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who set their hearts in pilgrimage, they go from strength to strength, and each appears before God in Zion.” Does it take strength to lead the Christian life? Yes, it does. Do you ever get weary? You wake up and say, "How am I going to do it again today? Fighting sin, struggling with temptation, walking a holy, upright life in this sinful world. How am I going to do it?" The strength comes from God alone. That's the pilgrimage.  

Fourth, a pilgrimage characterized by persevering through Christ's sufferings. Verse 6 says, "As they pass through the valley of weeping, they make it a place of springs, the autumn rains cover it with pools." Some of you go through the valley of weeping, you lose a loved one, you go through physical trials unmentionable, struggling with sin, struggling with temptation, struggling in relationships, just struggling in life. As you go through this valley of weeping, you can make it a place of springs and pools by the grace of God. When Christiana, in the second half of Pilgrim's Progress was making her way through the Valley of Humiliation, Great-Heart, her guide, spoke this way about the Valley of Humiliation, "The Valley of Humiliation is of itself as fruitful a place as any the crow flies over. It is the best and most useful piece of ground in all those parts. It is a fat ground, and as you can see, consisteth much meadows; and if a man was to come here in the summer-time as we do now, if he knew not anything before thereof, and if he also delighted himself on the side of his eyes, he might see that it would be delightful to him. Behold how green this Valley of Humiliation is, how beautiful with lilies. I have known many labouring men that have got good estates in this Valley of Humiliation; for God resisteth the proud, but gives more and more grace to the humble." This Valley of Humiliation is a place where you're at your best, because when you're weak, that's when you're strong. This is a pilgrimage characterized by constantly growing in Christ's holiness. Verse 10, "I would rather be a door keeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 

Salvation is bigger than walking the isle and getting saved. It's a war in which you're putting sin to death every day, or you'll be wicked too. It's just the way it is.  Isaiah 35:8 talks about the highway, "A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it. It will be for those who walk in that way. Wicked fools will not go on it." The way of pilgrimage is a way of holiness, of personally putting sin to death. 

Sixth, a pilgrimage's characterized by being blessed daily through Christ's provision. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” You know the genius of Pilgrim's Progress is the rhythm of trial, refreshment, trial, refreshment, trial, refreshment. It's just the way it's written. You go from Hill Difficulty, to Interpreter's House, and then down to the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Valley Humiliation, and then you're  at the Gentle Harbor, or you are at the Place of Refreshment.  It's just the way it is. If it were all the one, you'd get discouraged, if it were all the other, you'd get fat, and lazy, and comfortable. There's a rhythm to the Christian life, and so also it is for us.

Then finally, seventh, this is a pilgrimage in which we don't have to, and don't get to, in fact, can't make it alone. Look around you. Brothers and sisters in Christ here making the same journey with you, just like the Jews of old, they didn't travel alone, they looked around and it was in community. Americans need to hear this more than any other group on the face of the earth. We think like individuals, but you're not traveling alone, you're with brothers and sisters who are making the journey with you. Lean on them, encourage them, pray for them, use your spiritual gifts in their lives, strengthen them as they go from strength on strength, just as you do.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Psalm 104. The main subject of the sermon is the glory God possesses as our creator.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 104. We finished our series in Philippians, and God willing, in a few weeks, we'll resume a series I began a number of years ago in the book of Genesis. But I thought I'd take a few weeks and just preach on a few Psalms, to take an opportunity to meditate on God in each of those Psalms. We're going to begin with Psalm 104. I look at Psalm 104 as a great meditation on the glory of God the creator. It's just my task to  stand before you and exalt all the verses of Psalm 104 and the truth of God, the creator behind each one. Look with me right at verse 34. Verse 34 says what I want to do with you today in this time of preaching, it says there, “May my meditation be pleasing to him as I rejoice in the Lord.” That's our goal. Let's let our meditation be pleasing to the Lord as we rejoice in Him. Meditation is deep thinking over something, chewing it over, mulling it over, feeling the sweetness and the delicious-ness of the idea, letting  the concept fill the mouth of your mind as it were, so that you can savor the truth.  

 I think that we are in too much of a rush to do it much these days, and I think we suffer greatly, as a result that we don't take the time to meditate on the word of God. But in Verse 34, it says, “May my meditation, be pleasing to him as I rejoice in the Lord.” It's interesting that the verse can be translated to two ways. You may have the King James Version in front of you today, and it would say, “My meditation of him shall be sweet.” The word “sweet” is wonderful, delicious, pleasing, enticing. What could be sweeter and more pleasing and more enticing than meditating on God? Most of the other translations go a different way, “May my meditation be pleasing to Him.” So there's pleasure on both sides, heaven on earth. God pleased at last, perhaps for the first time for you this week,  with what it is you're thinking about, I hope not, but that you can meditate deeply on something and God is pleased with you as you do it. Meanwhile, you yourself find the pleasure of the topic, the meditation on God to be pleasing and sweet to you, and so there's a two-way pleasure this morning as we meditate on God Himself, on God the Creator. May our meditation of Him be sweet to us, and may it be pleasing to God, Amen.  

As we meditate on God, there are three different broad categories of things that we can meditate on. We can meditate on His nature and His attributes. What kind of God is he? Secondly, we can meditate on His past actions, things He's done in the past, including creation and redemption. Thirdly, we can meditate on His future promises. What He said He will do in the future. All three are sweet, are they not? We could spend the whole time meditating on the nature of our God, on His holiness and His sovereignty and His power, and His compassion and His mercy, all of those attributes. We could meditate on those, we could meditate on God's future promises, what He is yet to do and bringing about a new heavens and a new Earth, and that would be sweet too, wouldn't it? We will touch on it a little this morning, but we're going to focus on the second kind of meditation. We're going to meditate on His past and present actions, what God has done and what He is doing now, specifically as God, the Creator. 

Now, I believe that God created us to wonder at Him and to be amazed at Him, and woe to us if we lose our ability to be in awe of anything, that we're so jaded and so hard and cold that nothing ever amazes us; the slogan of that is, “Been there, done that.” Oh, we're the losers if we come at life that way. May our meditation of God be focused on Him, and may we be amazed, and may it be marvelous, that is filled with marvel, and may it be wonderful, that is filled with wonder at what God has done. 

 God created us, specially in His image, with the capacity to see Him and His handy work behind the physical creation. John Calvin called the physical creation, the theater of God's glory. We could stand in physical creation, we can just behold His glory. God wove His glory into every single living thing, every animal and every fish, and every bird, and every blade of grass, every tree. His glory is woven in there, but as we've commented before, the other physical created beings cannot see God's handy work in it. That's our job. We were created that we may know His glory and that we may marvel in Him, the creator of it. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” So as we learn the Scriptures, and as the Spirit transforms us by the blood of Christ, and we come out of that darkness that sin produces, we can see God behind each of the created things in the world, and He gets the glory, and we praise Him for it, and we can say, “This is my Father's world.” We walk through it, and it's an act of worship, even on a rainy Sunday, and praise God for it. So we are pleased, we’re filled with pleasure. God is pleased in our meditation when at last the two come together, we are created beings but created in His image to see His handy work. We are pleased to do it, and God at last is pleased with our meditation.  

So let's do that together. Our focus here in Psalm 104 is God the Creator. And if you were to look through the Psalm and keep in mind the six days of creation, what God did in day one, what he did in day two and day three, four, five, and six, you're going to see each one of them reflected somewhat in a broad view in Psalm 104. For example, God created light; He said, “Let there be light.” If you look at at Verse 2, it says there, he wraps himself in light as with a garment. The second day, God separated the waters above from the waters below. It says again, “He stretches out the heavens like a tent,” in verse 2. In the second half of verse 2, he lays his beams on the upper chambers, on the waters, and he makes the clouds his chair, those are the waters above, and then the waters below. 

On day three, in verses 5-9, the water is separated from the land and vegetation from the trees. In verses 14-17, The fourth day, God created time keeping lights in heavens to keep the days and the seasons and the years, the sun and the moon and the stars in verses 19-23. The fifth day, God created creatures of sea and of the air, and we see that reflected in verses 25 and 26 with Leviathan, the great creature of the sea. Then day six, God created animals and man, and those are represented in verses 21-24, and then 27-30. 

So we see the six days of creation, that's really the structure of the meditation here in Psalm 104, God the Creator, day one, day two, three, four, five, and six, the six days of creation. The Psalmist is  meditating on that and thinking about it, we're really just following his meditation on creation. But it's not just the original creation in the first six days, but God's ongoing providential care for His creation. He hasn't just left it alone but He continues to care for it, continues to rule over it like a king, providing for each of its needs, and so frankly, most of the psalm doesn't talk about so much what God did in the past, but what God is doing now, today, with his physical creation, how He sustains it, and how He provides for it, and how He meets the need of every living creature, how He opens up His hand and sustains the needs of every living being. 

God provides daily. We're looking back in time at the six days of creation, but looking today at how God, in an ongoing way, continues to sustain and to provide for His physical creation. We also see His recreating work, His upholding and sustaining work in the Psalm. Look at verse 30, the psalm there speaks poetically about God's sustaining work in creation, when He sends His Spirit, He is  renewing the face of the earth. Do you see that? God sends forth His spirit and it becomes spring as it were. Spring doesn't just happen, not in the biblical view. Spring is created by God; we're not just running under blind laws of evolution, but God sent forth His Spirit and His work is being re-created. See what I'm saying, the New Testament, therefore, openly speaks of a sustaining work of God. God didn't just create it, He spoke it into existence, and that was sufficient. Now, it must be sustained and upheld every moment by His creative word, and so we are totally dependent on God, whether we acknowledge it or not. Moment by moment, we're dependent on Him. So it says in Hebrews 1:3, “The Son [speaking of Jesus],  is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” Did you hear that? He sustains it, He upholds it moment by moment, by His powerful Word. He sends forth His word and guess what, you get to keep existing, you get to keep existing because He sends forth the word. Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  Jesus is the Sustainer, the Creator and the Sustainer. So in Psalm 104, again, we're looking in a broad view right now, speaks of God as the original creator, but also as the sustainer, re-creator, upholder moment by moment of physical creation.   

We also see that God directly rules over every aspect of his physical creation, everything's touched on really in Psalm 104. We see Him ruling over weather, the clouds and the wind. We see Him ruling over the Earth in Verse 5, over oceans in verses 6-9, ruling over mountains and valleys in verse 8, ruling over thirsty wild donkeys in verse 11. when was the last time you gave a thirsty wild donkey a single thought? But God sustains them and cares for them at every moment; thirsty cedars as well, in verse 16, lofty cedars of Lebanon and storks, which nest in high branches, in verse 17, mountain goats and rock badgers, and the hyrax, we will come back to him later.   In verse 18, the sun and the moon, in verses 19, prowling lions, massive whales, both of them are hungry and He feeds them. That's what it says in verses 21, 25 and 26. Then man tills the ground and his heart is gladdened and his face shines with what God provides. So big picture, you can see God, the Creator, the Provider, the Sustainer.  

Now, let's look a little more in detail at this Psalm.  I've broken it into little nine subsections of what the Psalm says about God.  First is God's glory in self-revelation. By this, I mean light, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and the Psalmist talks about it. God's greatness is the theme of Psalm 104 in general, but we also see the personal relationship to God. He speaks of “my God,” and he begins by talking about light. Look at verse 2-3, “O Lord, my God, You are very great.” You see, “O Lord, my God,” the psalmist says; “He's my God, the God who made all that, He's my God.”  “Oh Lord, my God, You are very great, You are clothed with splendor and in majesty.” He wraps himself in light as with a garment. Now, all of the meditation that we're going to be doing in Psalm 104, how much of it could we not enjoy if God had never created light, if the universe were drenched in darkness, so much of this would be lost to us, but God created light that we might see the shimmering light on a bay, like the Chesapeake Bay if you ever see it at sunrise.It just shimmers and is so beautiful. Or the lights as it catches an eagle as it sores up on a thermal up over a cliff. You can see it by light, can't you. Or the beauty of your spouse's face, as you see that, the light reflecting and you look at the features, or of your child.  

You know God created light so that we could see Him, yet interestingly, God also conceals Himself by light.  “Immortal, invisible God only wise in light; inaccessible hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty victorious, Thy great name, we praise. Great Father of  glory, pure Father of Light,  Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight, all praise we would render; O help us to see 'Tis only the splendour of light hideth Thee.”  

So God's light reveals Himself, but it also conceals Himself too, and why? Because He is far above His physical creation. We see attributes in His creation, but we don't see Him there. That's the Judea Christian view, that God is not the creation. It's not Pantheism here, but He is high above it, and so we must live by faith and not by sight, but what we see helps our faith, doesn't it?  We cannot survive by the way, a full revelation of God's glory. Could you stand it if God were to fully reveal Himself to you today? 1st Timothy 6 says, no, you couldn't. It says, “God the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be glory and honor, and might forever and ever, Amen.” Just like God said to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see Me and live.”  So God begins by creating light, and light both reveals and conceals God.  Jesus Christ, as we studied in Sunday school today, is the light of the world [John 8:12], and He reveals the nature of God. When we look at Him, we can see the Father. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus said. We look at Him and we can see God.  

Secondly, we see God's glory in immensity, the immensity of God, and we see that in the expanding universe. You may say, "Now, where are you going to get the expanding universe in Psalm 104?" Well, it isn't just Psalm 104, but it's here. Five times in four verses, this truth is taught that the universe is expanding. In verse 2, it says, “He stretches out the heavens like a tent.” In Job 9:8, “He alone stretches out the heavens.” Isaiah 40:22, “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” Jeremiah 51:15, “He made the earth by his power, He founded the Earth by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.” That's enough for me, five times in four verses. Notice that in four of the references,  it is present tense, “He is stretching, He stretches,” not “He stretched.” So it continues to expand, it continues to move. Edwin Hubble in 1929, discovered that the universe is expanding, the further away a galaxy is from the Milky Way, the faster it appears to run away from us. This is confirmed by experiments on the red shift phenomenon, distant stars seemed to have a reddish tint to their light. In 1990, the space telescope, named after Hubble, the Hubble space telescope seemed to give evidence that the universe is flying apart at immense speeds, the universe is spreading itself out. Can I say that? No, God is spreading it out, He spreads it out like a tent to live in.  

Interesting in Genesis 1:6, it talks about the firmament. You remember that in the KJV? Do you ever wonder what a firmament was? Have you used the word firmament in a sentence any time in the last month?  It's not a common word. What is a firmament?  I don't really know what a firmament is any more than I know what the Hebrew behind it is, “rakiya” is what it is. It literally refers to the Hebrew word  to something spread out like on an anvil of a blacksmith- he takes a hammer and spreads out gold leaf or something like that. It's getting smooshed out. So the universe is spreading out. Why is that important? The immensity of space testifies to the immensity of God. I was on a tour of the capitol building in DC, and the tour guide had us stand in the rotunda. We were looking up at the rotunda, it was an impressive sight, and he said, “You may not realize this, but as you're looking up there... understand this, the Statue of Liberty could fit easily under the rotunda.” That was amazing, it was amazing before that, but then it kind of put in perspective because you can imagine how big  the statue is, and that could fit under the rotunda. Well, that's the way we get at the immensity of God, the universe is too small to contain God. Heaven, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him. So we worship God by His immensity, as we look at the immensity of the heavens. I know there's a risk for you to consider that because it may end up making you feel small. You may feel small by “considering the Heavens, the work of his fingers, the moon and the stars,” which he created Psalm 8, you may end up saying with David, “What is man that you even think about us?” But I actually think that's a good thing, to feel small, I think we think we fill the universe.  Do I not fill heaven and earth? No, you don't, but God does. He is immense, and He is powerful.  

Thirdly, God's sovereignty. God's glory in His sovereignty, specifically over weather and over angels. Look at Verse 3-4, "He lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, a flames of fire his servants." God rules over weather, He actively rules over weather. He rules over awesome hurricanes, He rules over gentle breezes, He rules over everything in between. He ruled over the rain that was raining on you when you got out of your car this morning and came to church. God rules over all these things. He's sovereign over weather. Every movement of the wind is directly under the control of God.  John Calvin put it this way, "God rides on the clouds and is carried upon the wings of the wind, in as much as He drives about the winds and the clouds at His pleasure. He says, Go left, go right, go straight. He's in charge." By these words, we are taught that the winds do not blow by chance, nor the lightnings flash by a fortuitous impulse, but that God in exercise of His sovereign power rules and controls all the agitations and disturbances of the atmosphere. Two-fold application negatively, when you look at the destructive power of a hurricane, when you see pictures of it, when you see it, or a tidal wave that overwhelms a fishing village somewhere, stand in awe of the power of God and tremble.  Secondly, thank God when He doesn't, but instead gives you the gentle rain for your crops, a breeze for your face. The weather patterns are under God's control, He rules over it all.  

He also rules over angels. Now you may wonder, "Where are we going to get angels here?" It isn't usually in the translation you work with here, but... Hebrews 17, quoting Psalm 104, translates it this way. "In speaking of the angels, He says, He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire." So God rules over the winds that are the angels, it calls them seraphim. The word “seraphim” means “burning ones.” The angels are like flames of fire, and He rules over them, they're mighty and powerful. If one of them would reveal himself in front of you, all of us, including me, would be trembling. One angel, but those angels, they tremble and hide their faces from God. He rules over them all, He is sovereign and powerful.  

Fourthly, we see God's glory in stability. We see it with the Earth, the Earth doesn't move. Look at verse 5, "He set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved." The earth here is pictured as completely stable, set as it were on immovable pillars. Critics say, you see right here... “You can't look to the Bible for science. If anything, the Earth is moving.” They say the Earth revolves on its axis at 1,050 miles per hour, that's how fast you're moving right now. I know you don't feel like you're moving that fast, but you are. You're moving at the rate of about 1,050 miles an hour. The planet itself is hurtling through space around the sun at 1,100 miles per minute. So I actually don't know if you're moving that fast or the other fast, but either way, you're moving really fast through space, spinning and moving.  And the Sun itself is moving through the galaxy at a rate of 150 miles per second.  

The Earth itself, plate tectonics tells us, is not as stable as we thought,  that's where earthquakes come from. So they tell us. There's no God in that theory. The plates are just rubbing against each other, bumping against each other, and that's where we get earthquakes. I actually had a friend in Massachusetts, an interesting guy. When you would call, on his answering machine, he would have an interesting message,"You have reached the Society for the Prevention of Continental Drift. If you would like to leave a donation, please," and then gave information. "If not, leave a message." 

What is continental drift? It's how the continents are drifting. There's a group of people that gather that would like to prevent that, they like to get together and stop that continental drift if they can. Will they be able to? No. Because God is powerful over the stability of the Earth, and as a matter of fact, the Earth is stable enough for human history to unfold on it. It's so stable that Jesus himself likened his own word to it when He said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn't fall because it had its foundation on the rock."  Stable enough, and most builders not saying, "Oh no, plate tectonics, we can't build anything. Oh, no, they know, stable enough. The Earth is stable. But you know, the interesting thing is, as stable as the Earth is, God is going to take it like a garment, roll it up and throw it away. Stable for us, nothing for Him. Some day He's going to remove it, and there will be in its place a new Heavens and a new Earth. It says in Revelation 20-11, "Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was sitted on it, Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them." Now, that's power, isn't it? The power of God. 

Fifth, we see God's glory and power specifically over oceans and smoking mountains. Look at Verses 6-9. God controls the oceans totally, there is more than enough water to cover the entire surface of the Earth, it's already happened once. But the oceans are limited, and they're not limited by the thin and fragile beaches that line the eastern sea board, you know the ones that you're not allowed to walk on the dunes because you might break them apart, they're kind of wimpy actually. You know what I'm talking about? Do you think that's protecting you from being inundated? What's protecting you from the ocean swamping over you, it's that God said, "Thus far and no further." And by the word of God are the oceans controlled, and they will not inundate you here, in land, they could, but they won't. God has power and He keeps them under control. Look at Verse 6 through 9, "You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder, they took to flight, they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, look, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth."  

Now, the deep that we're talking about, look at that in verse six, "You covered the deep as with a garment." The Greek word for that is “abyssos” from which we get the abyss. God rules over the abyss. In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigating the globe. He was out on the Pacific Ocean and wanted to find out how deep it was. So he got six of the longest lines he had on all of his ships, six of them, tie them together to a cannon ball, and he dropped the cannon ball until  he ran out of line. He was trying to find out how deep it was. It came out to 400 fathoms. 400 fathoms is 2400 feet. Running out of line, he concluded then that the ocean was immeasurably deep, or what we would call unfathomable. Based on his log, the log of his navigation, he would have needed 50 lines tied together at that point to hit the bottom, 50. God rules over the surface of the deep, He rules over it for His glory. It also says, [Psalm 33:7-8], "He gathers the water of the sea into jars, he puts the deep into storehouses, let all the Earth fear the Lord, let all the people of the world revere Him." God rules over the deep. We also see God's power in volcanic activity. Look at Verse 32, "He who looks at the Earth and it trembles... " By the way, that's where earthquakes come from. The earth is stable until God says so. And then he looks at it and it trembles. "He looks at the Earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke." This is talking about volcanoes, I think. God rules over volcanoes. They believe that the loudest sound in modern history was the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in the 1880s. It blew off the top two-thirds of the mountain, the sound was able to be heard 6000 miles away in Chile. That's double the distance from New York to LA. Can you imagine a sound that loud to be heard twice the distance of the US? God did that. He touches the mountains and they smoke.   

Sixth, we see God's glory in provision. He provides for things, and this makes up the bulk of the Psalm from Verses 10-30. He provides nourishment and fresh water, He provides proper work environment for each of his creations, He provides a resting place for them, and He provides for them satisfaction and joy.  First, nourishment in water and food. God knows that salt water will not sustain land-based vegetation, animals or birds, they must have fresh water, and so He provides for them day after day. Look at verses 10-13, "He makes springs pour water into the ravines, it flows between the mountains, they give water to all the beasts of the field, the wild donkeys quenched their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters, they sing among the branches, He waters the mountains from His upper chambers, the earth is satisfied by the food of His work." Do you see how good God is and just saturating the ground with water? He did it today. You should thank God for the rain. When you're driving in, just say, "Thank you, Lord." I read a great meditation recently on rain by John Piper.  Piper wrote, he said, "This is what happens when it rains. The sky picks up about a billion pounds of water from the sea, filters out the salt that would kill the crops, forms the water into tiny droplets by gathering them around dust particles 1/10,000th of a centimeter wide, carries the billion pounds of water 300 miles inland and dumps it on a farm." Well, it doesn't exactly dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on a wheat farm, it would crush and destroy the wheat, so the sky kind of drivels the water out in droplets big enough so that they don't evaporate as they fall several miles through the atmosphere, but small enough not to crush the wheat stocks when they hit the ground. Only God can do that. I guess I underestimated rain before I read that, and I said, "God is a great God, He knows how to do these things, and He does them all the time." 

Therefore, fresh water, which is absolutely essential to the life on Earth, flows exactly where God wants it to flow, not too much, not too little, right where He wants it.  In verse 14, "He makes grass grow for cattle." In verse 16, "The trees of the Lord, a well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted." A cedar of Lebanon may require as much as 900 gallons of water every summer day, and it pumps it up from the soil through these little root fibers that filter out harmful things, but taking nutrients and water and sucks it up, like a firemen bucket brigade, cell the cell, cell to cell, until the water reaches the top most branches. He does that every day for every tree that you see, even grass, which you also probably underestimate. But grass which He provides for cattle to eat is amazingly complex. Grass is the ultimate symbol of our mortality in the Book of Isaiah, "All men are like grass, it's here today and thrown in the fire tomorrow," and yet it's incredibly complex. Grass has an amazingly complex root system that can total over 400 miles in length, with as many as 14 billion root hairs, every root hair absorbing water and minerals from the soil.  God provides food, and the grass is for cattle to eat, among others.  

 He also provides a proper place for everything. Look at verses 17-18, "There the birds make their nests, the stork has its home in the pine trees, the high mountains belong to the wild goats, and the crags are refuge for the coney." Everybody sat in its place. There's a place for everything. Everything in its place, it was God that came up with that, he's got a place for everything. Jesus said it this way, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests." Everything's in its place. Now, what's a coney or a rock badger or a hyrax? They're cute little furry creatures, and they live up on rock ledges way up high. Way up there, it's very arid, and yet they get enough moisture by just eating moss and lichens, and that's enough for them. That's where they live. That's their place, their native habitat, and God ordained it. You couldn't live on a rocky ledge with the hyrax, but they can.  

Thirdly, God provides satisfaction and joy.  Look at verse 28, "When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things," so God provides or opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. He makes them happy. Do you see then the goodness of God in creation? Do you see how He gives them what they need and what they want? He provides for them. Verse 15 says, "Wine gladdens the heart of man. Oil to make his face shine and bread that sustains his heart." Notice that man is the only one that takes the things of the earth and works with them and transforms them into something else. Wine doesn't grow on earth like it is, you have to harvest the grapes and do something to it. Oil doesn't come naturally, you have to take the olives and press them and work with them and filter them. You're not going to find bread anywhere except at the hands of a human being who has harvested the grain and grounded and baked it. We are special in the creation and that we take things and work with them and make them better. But it all comes from God, God gave it all.  

Seventh, we see God's glory and creativity, in vegetation and animals. Look at verse 24-25, "How many are your works, oh, Lord, in wisdom, you made them all. The earth is full of Your creatures, there's the sea, vast and spacious, teaming with creatures beyond number, living things, both large and small." The immense creativity of God, everything from the tiny little plankton that the whale eats, tiny little things, millions and millions of them. The whales just open their mouth and eat them, all the way up to a 60-foot long giant squid, which if you saw it swimming by your boat, you would probably die of a heart attack, and God created them all. Have you ever been to an aquarium and, seeing all of the different varieties of tropical fish, wondered at it and thought, "God made all of these things, the vast numbers of creations?" Amazing.   

Number eight, we see God's glory in order, and that everything has its proper place and time. Verse 19, "The moon marks off the seasons and the Sun knows when to go down." Everything knows its place. The lions come out and they do their thing at night, and then they go back, and then man comes out and works at the day, and he works out in the field. Everybody knows where they're supposed to go. The lion has the jungle, the leviathan, he frolics out in the deep of the sea, and then there's man who's a special case. He watches leviathan by making ships that go to and fro. You see that?  And what is our place? Why did Edmund Hillary climb Mount Everest? Because it was there and because he was a man. We just go everywhere on this earth and we should because God created us to fill the Earth and subdue it and rule over it, so we make ships, and we can go out and see a whale.  We go all over the Earth; we have a special permission and creation from God to do that, but everything has its place. 

 And ninth, we see God's glory in the death and renewal of his creations. That's interesting here, the psalmist says, "When you hide your face, they are terrified, when you take away their breath, they die and return to the earth." Oh, how important it is for you to realize this. You don't need to wonder about God's role in the death of a loved one, or God's role in the death of a cat or dog, or squirrel or fish. This verse tells you, everything dies when God takes away their breath and they sink back into the dust. It is God who does it, God gives life, and God has the power and authority to take it away, and He has the power to send forth His Spirit again, and they are recreated and renewed. So the God who gave life, the God who has the authority and right to take it away, can also give it back in resurrection power. He can do all of that. He is a sovereign King and He rules over all things.  I know that human death is unique, the wages of sin is human death, that death entered the world through sin, through Adam sin, but all of it under the authority and the power of God.  

Now we could spend hours more meditating. What have we learned so far?  First, we've seen God's glory in self-revelation with light. We've seen, secondly, God's glory in his immensity with the size of the universe ever expanding. Thirdly, we've seen God's glory in sovereignty over weather and angels. Fourthly, we've seen God's glory in stability, the Earth, it doesn't move. Fifth, we've seen God's glory in power over oceans, He restrains them and over smoking mountains and shaking earth. He looks and they shake and they smoke. Six, we see God's glory in provision. He opens up His hand and provides every living thing with what they need, fresh water and food. We see, seventh, God's glory in creativity, the sheer variety of the animals and birds and fish and vegetation that He's made, we've seen God's glory in that. Eighth, we've seen God's glory in order, a place for everything and everything in its place. The universe well designed and put together. Ninth, we've seen God's glory in death and renewal, that God takes away their breath and they die and sink into the dust. God gives life again and they are recreated.  

 What should be our application? First, worship. Just praise the God that we've been meditating on. You are created to praise, you were redeemed to praise. The spirit within you is moving you to praise, you have enough ground and reason to praise, then just praise Him, make it a commitment of your soul. Look at verse 1, "Praise the Lord, O my soul." Now, who's talking to whom there?  You're talking to yourself. “Come on, soul. Let's get moving. Let's praise the Lord. Let's be joyful in God. Let's worship Him. Praise the Lord, O my soul." Then he says the same thing again. Twice at the end of the Psalm, "Praise the Lord, O my soul." Is this not enough for you? Praise the Lord. Worship Him. Let's commit to pray.  Look at Verse 31, "May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works." Verse 33, "I will sing to the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being." You see that? I'm committed to sing, I'm committed to praise and to give Him thanks, for that's what I was made to do, and that's what I was re-created in Christ to do.   

Secondly, witness. Can you use all that we've learned about God here to point to the creator and to the redeemer Jesus Christ? Start with creation, say, "The God who made all this, He wants to know you, He wants to love you, He sent forth His Son into the physical world, His son died on the cross, His blood was shed, that we might have eternal life, and He raised him also from the grave, trust in Him."  So witness based on physical creation that we all experience, go to the new creation that there is in Christ.   

Thirdly, winnowing. What do I mean by that? Winnowing is the separation of the wheat from the chaff. You know that this world will not rightly praise God until all the wicked are winnowed out of it. Look at verse 35, "May sinners vanish from the Earth and the wicked be no more." May I tell you there's two different ways that will happen.  One is, they hear the gospel and believe, and they're wicked no more. Isn't that wonderful? So let it happen, let the gospel be proclaimed so that the wicked and the sinners will vanish and turn into new creations in Christ. But there is another way that the scripture speaks of, God takes away their breath, and they die and sink into the dust, and then they stand before God on Judgment Day, and they're consigned to hell. Either way, God's physical creation will be cleansed, the wicked will vanish and be no more, and the universe, heaven and earth, will be one. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.  

And fourth, waiting. I'm waiting for that. Aren't you? We just have to wait for it. Hebrews 1, “In the beginning, Oh Lord,you created, you laid the foundations of the Earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish. But you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe. Like a garment, they will be changed, but you remain the same, and your years will never end.” And in Revelation 21:1, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. 

This morning is our last time to be looking at the Book of Philippians and my purpose today is to give you a big picture overview of the book. In 1987 I had the privilege of serving the Lord in Pakistan and I had a difficult decision to make at one point in the mission trip, and the decision had to do with transportation. Would I take the transportation through the Karakoram mountains on the road in a van and just see it from the ground or would I fly in an airplane into Gilgit, the North-West Frontier Province? And it was really kind of tough. I wanted both, and I couldn't have both, and it was hard but in the end I decided that I would go by plane. And so as we were flying into that incredible region, the second highest mountain range in the world, behind the Himalayas, the Karakoram mountains came into view, and the second highest mountain K2 also very remote, very difficult to reach, spectacular under the airplane. And as I looked over that entire expanse, I just, it was breathtaking, I'll never forget it. But as it turned out, Gilgit was in a tremendous cloud cover and they couldn't land, so they went all the way back to Islamabad and we had to go by ground travel. It doesn't always work out that way in life. But I got both. To be able to go, mile by mile and look at all of the terrain with my own eyes, in detail form and also to be able to look down birds-eye view at the whole thing. And that's my desire here as we finish our study.

We've been carefully through this entire book. My great temptation is to preach 20 or 12 mini sermons this morning. 20 would be fine but 12. But I can't do that. And if you want to unfold each of the sub-points I'm going to make, you have to go back and look at how I expound it on those passages. But what I want to do is go back through the book and pick out the major theme so that we get in effect, birds-eye view of the whole book.

The one overall purpose of the Book of Philippians, the same as the overall purpose of God in creation and in redemption, and that is the glory of God in Christ. Jonathan Edwards wrote a great work The End for Which God Created the World, basically, he argues in that book that God is his own end, he was his own reason for creating the world that He would be glorified in his physical creation, that God would be exalted, that's why he created the world. It is also the end for which God redeemed his people, out of the world, that He would be exalted and glorified, that he would be revealed to be a great and glorious God.

Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that people were God's ultimate end in creation and in redemption but we are not. God's own glory is the ultimate end, and so also, it is that the Book of Philippians portrays the glory of God in Christ, as his central purpose. If you look at Philippians 1, 9 through 11, we see Paul's prayer life and there we see his clear and central purpose for the Philippians, his prayer life for the Philippians. Certainly, it focuses immediately on their growth as Christians, but really ultimately it focuses on the glory of God, thereby, in other words, that their growth in Christ and their fruit bearing will re-down for God's glory. Look at Verses 9 through 11. "And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Well, there it is, that's the purpose. Our salvation both individually and corporately is to the glory and praise of God. Right there in Verse 11, Paul's own life, his life of suffering for Christ as an apostle was for the same purpose.

Look at Verse 20, he says, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." That word exalted literally means magnified or made greater. Paul wants the Philippians to know that he is facing his own death, but he also wants the Philippians to know how or with what attitude, he is facing his own death. And so he says, "I want you to know that there's one thing on my mind above anything else that whether by living or by dying that Christ may be exalted in my body either way." Now, the word means to make greater or enlarge or make bigger as the word is used of a child growing up. This word exalted or magnified. It's used of a king enlarging his territory through conquest. It's used of a man's fame and reputation, spreading far and wide. It's used of the size of one's opportunities getting larger. That's this word. And Paul's deepest desire, is that Christ would be enlarged, that Christ would be made greater, that Christ would be exalted, that Christ would grow immense.

Now when I began preaching in Philippians, many months ago, I asked the question, how can you make an infinite God bigger? Somewhat like asking how can you make the sun brighter or hotter. You can do nothing to the sun, you can add nothing to its glory. How then can we add anything to God? How can we make Him greater? Well, we can't. Our God is infinite. He fills having and earth. And yet the scripture says in.

Psalm 34:3, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." Oh, how then can we magnify the Lord? Well, I tell you, there is a place in God's universe where he is too small and that's in your mind, in your imagination, in your heart. And not just yours, but all of the fellow members of the human race. That's where God's too small. We think too small of him, he's too little, too light, too insignificant to us. And so he must be magnified, he must be exalted, made greater, in my heart and in yours.

And that's the purpose of the Book of Philippians. That's the purpose of God in Christ, that's the purpose of your salvation and mine, that he would be exalted, that he would be glorified, that he would be proclaimed and thought of in a great way. Well, that's the overall purpose. And frankly, if you get nothing else out of my message, that's enough. That everything that you do would tend toward the magnification and the glory of God.

But the Book of Philippians goes beyond that and it gives us these two journeys to accomplish this one glory. Two journeys to glory. We've seen the internal journey, a progress in the faith. Look at verse 25, Paul there is wrestling with whether he's going to stay or go, whether he's going to live or die, wrestling with what would be better. And there in Verse 25, he says, "Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith." So this word progress implies a journey, doesn't it? There is progress we can make in the faith. This is what I call the internal or individual journey, progress that you make in the faith. That word progress.

The external journey finds its origin in the same word. Look at verse 12, Philippians 1:12, "Now, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." That's the NIV. Let's do it in the NAS. Verse 12 in the NAS says, "Now I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel." Well it's the same Greek word, both in Verse 25 and 12, Prokope is the Greek word and that's where we get these two journeys, the individual or internal journey of sanctification, the external or corporate journey of the Gospel.

Now these two journeys have one goal in mind, and that is the glory of God in the perfection of his people, that we would be finished and be conformed to the image of Christ, that's what He's doing in the world. And it helps me to know that. It helps me to know, "God, what are you doing in the world?" He said, I'm glorifying myself by calling out a people for my own name and bringing them on this incredible journey from dead in transgressions and sins to totally conformed to Christ. And I'm doing it for people all over the world, in every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. That's what I'm doing in the world. And that's what you should be doing too.

Well, I think that helps me. So there's one major purpose, the glory of God. Two means to that end, the internal or individual journey in the faith, the external advance of the Gospel. Now let's see if we can describe each of these briefly from the words of the Book of Philippians, because Paul has much to say about both. And it's not easy to... They're very entwined and to unravel them and pull them apart is difficult. But let's see if we can do it a little bit.

First, the internal or individual journey described. The first thing I want to say, from the Book of Philippians, is that it is a journey begun and perfected by God Almighty. Philippians 1:6 teaches me this. Look at Verse 6, "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion till the day of Christ Jesus."

Now, I told you it's difficult to unravel these because that could be both individual in you singularly or in you corporately. Frankly, it's the same thing. And you should care very much about the worldwide church of Jesus Christ and whether it's growing. But I'm going to take it in terms of the individual journey. "He who began a work inside you, individually, he will perfect, it or carry it on to completion till the day of Christ." This is an internal journey that God began in you and he's going to keep working on it until it's finished.

A Journey Begun and Perfected by God

Now I'll tell you what, I'm not a great finisher. I have a lot of projects that I've started and haven't finished. I have a number of books that have bookmarks at various places, 10%, 30%, 60%. Even 85 or 90% and still not finished. Have been for about two or three years. I'll get back to them by and by. Or maybe I won't, I don't know. Maybe you can relate to the fact that we don't just really finish everything that we start. As a matter of fact, Jesus picked up on this very issue in Luke 14. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, he says, will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it. For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him saying this fellow began to build and was not able to finish.

Is anybody going to do that in your life on judgment day toward God? Is anybody going to say toward God, God started something in your life and was not able to finish it. And I say, No. He staked his personal glory to this matter and he will not rest till all of his people are finished. He will not rest. And so this is a journey begun, and carried on, and perfected by God. Therefore, you know what that means? There is an inexhaustible energy and drive inside a true Christian to finish this journey. There's an energy and drive that's inexhaustible. A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, runs on four nuclear power plants and with the new cores that they have in there, it can stay out over 50 years before it needs refueling.

50 years. Well, I'm going to tell you something, that is nothing compared to what the sun does. Every day the sun pumps out trillions of times of energy from its fusion power more than a Nimitz aircraft carrier does. Let me tell you, the sun is nothing compared to the energy of God. And that energy, that power is at work inside you, today, if you're Christian, and it won't stop till the journey is finished. Why is it you don't give up in the Christian life? If you think the answer is because you're such a good Christian, just keep growing, you'll learn. Eventually, you will see. It is not because you're such a good believer or such a determined person, but it's because God keeps getting you up out of bed and says, "Let's get going, let's keep moving, we've got a journey to travel today." The energy comes from God and it says it very directly in Verse 12 and 13, look at it. It says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," Verse 13, foreword is, "God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." So that's the first point is a journey begun, and completed by God Almighty.

A Journey Motivated by a Consuming Desire to Know and Be Like Christ

Secondly, the internal journey is motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. Let me say that again, this is an internal journey motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. Look at Philippians 3:7-11, there Paul says this, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which just through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." That's the nature of the internal journey. I want to know Christ, I want to be like him. That's what it is. It's an internal journey focused on the person of Christ, a passion to know Him better, a passion to be more like him than you were yesterday, a drive focused on the person of Jesus Christ.

A Journey Toward Total Perfection in Christlikeness

Thirdly, this internal journey is therefore I think clearly a journey toward total perfection in Christ. That's the finish line for us individually. We're going to keep going until we are just like Jesus. And that's why I could call it not so much or just an internal journey but an individual journey perhaps, because it's going to extend to your mortal body as well. It starts with your position, with your standing before God, a justification, at the moment, that you trust Christ, you are instantly made perfect positionally. Isn't that great? That you couldn't be more welcome or more received or more forgiven or more loved or more adopted than the moment you first trust in Christ. And so you were in a secure position the whole time that you're making your journey. Is that marvelous? Absolutely secure in your position and yet you're moving out. It's a journey toward perfection in every part of you. Toward perfection in terms of your attitude and your emotions. "your attitude," it says in Philippians 2, "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing." So you should have the same mind, the same attitude as Jesus.

And so it's a journey toward perfection, positionally first, and then in your performance and your attitude, your behavior, that you would in every way be holy and righteous and just like Christ and it will not stop until you're conformed physically even to him. Look at 3:20-21. That is the finish line for you. There, it says, "Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." That is for you individually the finish line of your race with Christ. That's the end of your journey When you are conformed inside and out, in every way to Jesus, you will have been totally saved. And that's what God means when He says through Paul, "I'm not going to finish what I began in you, until it is perfect in the day of Christ." That's literally what the word says in Philippians 1-6. He who began a good work will perfect it. We'll bring it on to perfection until the day of Christ.

A Journey Made Through Great Effort and Striving

Fourthly, this internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving. Now you may say, with all of this certainty language, with all of this sovereignty talk, with all of this sense that He who began a good work, "Hey, kick back, relax." What do you need to work for? God's going to do it. That is not the doctrine of the Book of Philippians, not at all. Look again at Philippians 2:12-13. We've already seen this, but look at it again. This internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving on your part. "Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." I don't see any laziness allowed there. I don't see any days off. I don't see a vacation in the summer from sanctification. I don't see any time off at all as a matter of fact. We're supposed to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling, every day of our lives.

Look again at Philippians 3:12-14, he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect." Paul says I'm not perfect yet. I know that's the finish line, that's my goal, but I'm not perfect yet. "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect but I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heaven-ward in Christ Jesus." I press on forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Do you see ease and comfort there? Do you see an easy life in sanctification there? Not at all. Look at the picture on the cover of the bulletin there, see a rock climber. Can you talk to him of ease and comfort? Is it easy for him? Can you say, "Well, at least I made it two-thirds of the way up."? My friend you don't live on a rock wall. Alright, it's no good to stay there, you got to keep on moving. You can't rest on your laurels in rock climbing. You got to keep on going until you attain your goal. And Paul in effect is saying, I strive and I pull and I strain, and I keep on moving every day toward my goal. There's no ease and comfort there. And so the internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving.

A Journey Made With Total Confidence in Christ But No Confidence in Self

This internal journey is made with total confidence in Christ and no confidence in yourself. Total confidence in Christ and no confidence in your natural ability, yourself. Now first confidence in Christ and in God. Look at verse six of chapter one again, Philippians 1:6, at the very beginning of that verse that we've already looked at several times? "I am confident of this," it says in the NAS, "I'm confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus." There's a buoyant confidence in the Christian life. But it's not, I am confident of this, that you folks, you Philippians are such great people. I'm confident of this, that based on your track record you're doing very well and just keep on going. No, I'm confident of this, that he who began a good... It's very God-focused, very God-centered this confidence. Philippians 3:12, confidence in Christ. Philippians 3:12 says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."

Jesus took hold of you in Christ and will not let you go. And so therefore you have great confidence in your Christian life every day to put sin to death, to make plans and goals for yourself internally to grow, to set goals. To do different things than you've ever done before: Memorizing scripture, learning to blunt a sharp tongue which cuts down loved ones around you, learning to put to death a lust habit or a laziness habit. You can do it because God's at work in you, but your confidence is in God, not in yourself. Philippians 3:3, says it very directly, look at Philippians 3:3 which John McArthur calls the best single verse description of a Christian. "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus." that means you boast in Christ. That's another way to translate that word. Our boast is Christ. "Who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh." Do you see that? That's who we are. We don't put any confidence in the flesh but we put complete confidence in Christ.

Our culture is big on self-esteem, isn't it? Big on the can-do attitude. If it's to be, it's up to me. Let me tell you something, it's up to you it's lost already. I'm not trying to be insulting. I am really, and I'm not thinking too lowly of myself I'm just saying if it's up to you and me, it's lost already. Martin Luther said, "If one thread of the cloak of my salvation depends on me, it's unraveled at the start." and that's true. But yet Christians are incredibly buoyant and confident. We can with William Carey expect great things from God and attempt great things for God both in the internal and the external journey. We can do that because God's at work in us to accomplish his ends.

A Journey in which Supernatural Joy and Contentment is Possible But Not Guaranteed

And then finally, number six, it is a journey, an internal journey in which supernatural joy and contentment are possible but not guaranteed. It is possible for you to go to heaven moaning, groaning, complaining and discontent, it is possible. A number have done it. And I've actually been with them for part of their journey. And it really doesn't honor God, does it? But you can do it. Do you really want to go to heaven that way? Five times in this epistle, the Apostle Paul speaks of his own joy. Three times he says he labors for their joy. Five times he commands them to be joyful. Look at Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice." And then in Philippians 4:10-13, we've seen even recently how it is possible to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, you can do anything and everything through Christ or through him who gives us strength. He gives us the ability to be joyful and content no matter what the circumstance but it is a secret. And it is very possible to go through this triumphant Christian life discontent and miserable, and not as fruitful as God would have you be.

So those are the six descriptions of the internal journey: Begun and perfected by God, motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. It's a journey toward total perfection in Christ, a journey fourthly, made with great effort and striving on our part. Fifth, a journey of total confidence in Christ but no confidence in the self. And six, it's a journey which is characterized, can be characterized by supernatural joy and contentment regardless of the circumstances, but not guaranteed. That's the internal journey.

What does this epistle tell us about the external journey? Well, first of all, the starting point for the external journey was clearly depicted in Luke 24. Don't turn there, but listen. Last week we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. In Luke 24, 46 and 47, Jesus told his disciples this, the risen Lord said this, this is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. That's the starting point for the worldwide advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the City of Jerusalem. And it started with the resurrection and the day of Pentecost.

The road map for that journey also clearly laid out in Acts 1:8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem," that's a starting point, "in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth." And so, we who live today in the 21st century can look back on a spectacular journey that God, the Sovereign God, has drawn the church through. 20, almost 21 centuries of success in the advance of the Gospel. Missionaries, beautiful feet, traveling across river and stream and mountain range and raging ocean to bring the message of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And there is no political nation on earth today where there is not a congregation of Christians, gathered today, 24 hours, circuit of the sun, worshipping Jesus Christ and proclaiming him to be there Lord. What an incredible record that God has done. But the journey is not finished yet, because there need to be representatives of every tribe and language and people and nation, around the throne and in front of the Lamb, praising Jesus for their salvation. So there's still work to be done on that external journey.

A Journey Carried On by the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Now, what does Philippians say about this external journey? First, it is a journey that is carried on by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When I say proclamation, I mean the speaking forth of the words of the Gospel. Look at 1:12-18. These seven verses make it very plain that the external journey is carried on by verbally sharing the Gospel or the proclamation of Christ, and him crucified. "Now, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am really in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." Do you see that? They've been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others, you could insert, preach Christ out of good will. The latter preach Christ in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. "The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains." Verse 18, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

Well, I couldn't be playing, or could it? The advance of the Gospel must be done through the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. No one is going to get to heaven by watching your life or mine. Again, I'm not trying to be insulting. I want you to imitate Christ, I want you to be a light shining in a dark place. But nobody's going to get saved that way. The only way people are going to get saved is if you open your mouth and speak the words of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel message, the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." And so the external journey, first, is carried on by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Journey Advanced by People who Model the Transforming Power of the Gospel

Secondly, it is a journey advanced, the external journey, advanced by people who themselves model the transforming power of the message that they carry. Let me say that again. It is an external journey that is carried forth by people who themselves model the transforming power of the message.

Now, God did not have to do it this way. He could have just had, like, you know the Voice of America, voice of heaven, everyday comes on at 3:00 to 5:00, voice from heaven preaching the Gospel. He could have done that. He could have sent angels, just pop into a village in Irian Jaya, preach, do a few miracles. Just being there would be miracle enough. Anybody and everybody would repent and believe. He could do that, but he chose not to. Instead, He has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. And we are those who have been transformed by its message. Apostle Paul is the best example of this. At one point, he was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, but now he proclaims the very Christ he once tried to destroy. How is that possible, except that the gospel has transforming power? And so God has ordained that we bring the message, we who have been transformed.

That means that your behavior makes a difference, doesn't it? If you don't model the gospel that you preach, then you will be ineffective in Evangelism. Look at verse 27 of chapter 1. Philippians 1:27, "Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Do you see that? Live up to the message you preach. "Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you." You see? Your behavior and how you carry yourself makes a big difference. Philippians 2:22, "You know that Timothy," he says, "has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel." So Timothy, a messenger who's living out the message and who's carrying it forth. Philippians 3:17, "Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." There's a pattern of discipleship, a pattern of mentoring. And that's God's plan for the world. You're going to hear the message, you're going to imitate the one who preached it to you, you're going to follow in that pattern, and then you yourself are going to make disciples and baptize and teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded you. It's a multiplication ministry, and that's the way the kingdom advances.

A Journey Opposed Every Step of the Way by Enemies

Thirdly, this external journey is a journey that is opposed every step of the way by enemies, opposed every step of the way by enemies. Paul and Silas had preached the gospel in Philippi and were bitterly opposed by enemies. The Philippian Church saw it. They saw them beaten in public, they saw them thrown in jail.

Now again, Paul is writing and he's in chains for Christ, it's happened again. So the Philippians didn't need to be persuaded about this, we Americans probably need more to hear about this, that the advance of the Gospel is bitterly opposed every step of the way by enemies. So the Philippians themselves were going through some kind of suffering. We saw it already in Philippians 1:27, he says... And 28, "Contending as one man for the faith of the gospel," Verse 28, "Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, this is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you'll be saved and that by God." So it's going to be a hard journey, it's opposed every step of the way by enemies.

A Journey of Great Suffering and Great Courage

Fourth, the external journey is one of great suffering and great courage. The external journey therefore is one in which it requires us to go through great suffering and have great courage. Again, Verse 29-30 of Chapter 1, "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for Him since you are going through the same struggle you saw that I have and now here that I still have." And so it's a journey of great suffering and great courage.

Look at Philippians 3:10. Paul says, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." That's the journey that we're on here, the external journey, it's not easy. There are enemies that oppose and therefore, it only advances by great courage and great suffering. The royal tapestry of church history made up of threads, brothers and sisters in Christ who are your family members and who laid down their lives so that other people could go to heaven, it's a glorious tapestry. And that's what God calls us to do in the external journey, great courage and great suffering.

A Journey in Which Enemies Amazingly Become Worshipers

Fifth, it is a journey in which enemies shockingly and amazingly become friends and worshipers of Christ. You never know who's going to get saved, you're never quite sure if the praetorian guard even might show some fruits of the preaching of the Gospel. Look at Verse 13 of Chapter 1. Philippians 1:13, he says, "So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard." So it says in the NAS, it's what it is, the praetorian guard and everyone else, and then turn over to the end, Philippians 4:22, I love this, "All the saints, send your greetings especially those who belong to Caesar's household." Whoa, where did that come from? Could that be some praetorian guard had come to faith in Christ? Could it be some of Caesar's own family, a sister an uncle? A niece, a nephew? Come to faith in Christ. Who would have ever thought it?

And so church history has again and again, shown surprising conversions of people you would have least expected. The Philippian jailer and his family, middle of the night, who would have ever thought that he would have gotten saved that night? You never know who's going to get saved and so be willing to pray for kings and those in authority, be willing to suffer because you're never sure about the one who's persecuting you today may end up your best friend ever in Christ tomorrow. That's the nature of the external journey.

A Journey Accomplished Best by a Unified Church

And then finally, it is an external journey accomplished best by unified church. It's accomplished best by a unified church. So Paul tells Euodia and Syntyche stop arguing with each other. Philippians 2:1 and following, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenders and compassion that make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain can see, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also the interest of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross. And therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." And so 2:14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." Do you see the connection there? Be like Jesus, be a humble servant, unite the church together. The external journey advances best when its co-laborers love each other deeply from the heart. Alright, now, having given you a sense of these two journeys, let me make a couple of comments and then application.

These two journeys are indissolubly linked. The internal journey of sanctification and the external journey of worldwide evangelization are linked together. You can't focus on just one and not the other. Many Christians and many churches make this error. There're some churches that are really strong in evangelism, they're really strong in getting people saved, strong in getting them to pray the Sinner's Prayer or walk the aisle. Strong in the evangelistic tent revival approach, but there's not much discipleship, there's not much patterning, there's not much transformation of the life. And so it fails. Then there are other churches that perhaps are a little more academic focusing on the greats of theological heritage and like to read and work inwardly, but they have neglected the external advance of the Gospel. I fear that we may be more like the second than the first and that we really want to know a lot about sanctification, but do we really want to share the Gospel? Are we really bold in witness, are we sacrificing for the advance of the Gospel? We can't just choose one or the other, they go together. Who is it that keeps witnessing year after year after year? But the mature disciple of Jesus Christ. Every new convert witnesses a little until they start tasting persecution. Alright, the question is, will you dig deep into Christ and Keep witnessing for 40 and 50 years? The only way you're going to do that is by growing into Christ-like maturity, these two journeys are indissolubly linked. We can't just choose one or choose the other, we've got to do both.

Now what application can we bring from this? Well, we've seen these two journeys to accomplish one glory. The overall purpose of God is the glory of God in Christ. There are two journeys to accomplish this one glory, the internal or individual journey of sanctification, we've described as a journey begun and perfected by God motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ, a journey toward total perfection in Christ-likeness, a journey made through great effort and striving, a journey made with total confidence in Christ but no confidence in self and it's a journey in which supernatural joy and contentment is possible but not guaranteed. The external journey is a journey carried on by the verbal proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's an external journey advanced by people who modeled the transforming power of the gospel, it's a journey opposed every step of the way by enemies therefore a journey of great suffering and great courage and a journey in which enemies amazingly can become worshipers of Christ and it's a journey in which the advance is best accomplished by a unified church following the pattern of Christ.

Let me ask some questions first of all, are you making any progress internally? Are you growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ? Do you have absolute confidence that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion? Are you discouraged in your Christian life? Are you growing more and more in Christ like maturity is Christ more and more the treasure and pleasure of your life or you're getting distracted and starting to love other things? Do you have a hunger and thirst to be perfect like Christ, to be free from all sin, to be conformed to Christ in holiness and humility and love and do you set your hope fully on the grace to be given to you when Christ raises you out of the grave and gives you a resurrection body or do you care too much about your present physical body which is already called in Philippians 3:21 lowly, in some sense contemptible? Are you working out your salvation with fear and trembling or have you gotten lazy in your Christian life and just accept certain things about yourself that God does not accept? Are you growing in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, fasting, service, evangelism? Are you doing these things are you growing in grace and have you learned how to be content in any and every situation? Do you rejoice in the Lord always or do you grumble and complain when things don't go your way? Are you making progress in the internal journey?

And secondly, are you doing anything in the external journey? When was the last time you opened your mouth and shared the saving gospel of Christ to somebody you thought was an unbeliever? When was the last time that you shared the gospel? When was the last time you risked a relationship to be able to witness to somebody? Perhaps at work, perhaps a friend or acquaintance, maybe a co-worker, maybe a total stranger in a public place, when was the last time you risked something? Are you discipling anybody or are you being discipled? Do you have a mentor in your life or are you being mentored? Are you involved in growing up in grace? Are you making disciples for Christ? Have you ever been persecuted because you are a part of the worldwide advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Has it ever cost you anything to be a Christian? And what about your financial life, did you make the pledges earlier or did you just not pass in the card?

I'll never know, it's not about me it's about between you and God and perhaps you've checked the boxes but are you going to be faithful to it? In our global priority mission fund consider giving generously to that rather than buying the next thing that you have in mind to buy. Give generously to that. Sacrificially are you storing up treasure in heaven? Do you really believe that Christ haters can become Christ lovers? Do you believe for example, that a leader of a terrorist cell group, a Muslim terrorist cell group could become a Christian someday? And do you pray toward that end, do you pray for Osama Bin Laden? Do you pray for Saddam or any of these other people that we think they're beyond the reach of the grace of God, no they're not amazing things happen with the grace of God.

And are you at peace with other Christians? Do you really believe that this church is united the way it should be or do you have something against somebody? Are we one in the way that Christ would have us be one? This is a great book isn't it? The themes in Philippians are incredible and deep and rich and it's been a joy and pleasure to be able to go through it with you however briefly. Let me close with Verse 23 of chapter four: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

Our God, the Eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, is a passionate being. He's nothing like the dispassionate machine, pure thinking that the Greeks thought of when they thought of God, but he's a passionate being. And therefore, it stands to reason that Jesus, the perfect representation of the father, the exact representation of him, it says in Hebrews 1, should also, himself, be a passionate being. Perhaps you would be surprised at the depth of his passion. Perhaps you'd be surprised at his emotional nature because his emotions were perfect and pure in every way, different from ours. They were tied to his nature and tied to his plan.

If you had been with Jesus moments before he raised his friend, Lazarus, from the dead, you would have seen him weeping. And you would have thought like the people who are with him, “Behold how he loved him,” and he did love him. But you would not have seen one-millionth part of the emotions that Jesus was feeling at that moment. As you look carefully at that account in John 11, there's a strange word there in the Greek, it says that Jesus “enraged within himself in his spirit.” It's an odd Greek word, but it's incredibly strong. It says it twice. The NIV brings it over very tamely. It says something like, “Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and troubled and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’” But the word is actually very strong. He was outraged, or I guess we really could put it, because it says he was outraged in his spirit, he was more enraged.

Why was he angry? Was He angry at Martha and Mary and the friends there at the tomb for weeping? No, not at all. He loved them dearly. That wasn't it. Was he enraged at the lack of faith? No. Was he enraged at the outcome? No, that was never in doubt. Lazarus was gonna be on his feet within moments. Why was he enraged there? Well, it's because in his holy nature, he hates death. He hates it. Death is the enemy. The grave is the enemy. And he will have a victory over that enemy.

Well, if all that's true, if Jesus was enraged over death at that moment, what must his emotions have been like when he came through the wall of the tomb? When he got to say it to his own beloved disciples,”You can see, it is I, myself, I'm alive. Come and see my hands and touch them.” The joy, overwhelming. Jesus predicted, “My joy will be in you. It'll be such a joy that no one can ever take from you.” What was the joy of Jesus when he walked on the earth again in that resurrected body? What an incredible thing. And the prediction of it that he made at the site there with Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” And then he asked the question: “Do you believe this?” And that's the question before you today. Are you sitting here in this church today as a believer in the resurrection? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross? Do you believe that he rose from the dead on the third day? Well, if you do, Jesus makes a promise to you. He said in John 14, “Because I live, you also will live.”

So I thought it would be good for us today to just study the nature of Jesus' resurrection. To try to understand it, not just as an academic or theological exercise, but as a prophetic one for you, personally. That through faith in Christ, you can say, “He is the first fruits of those who have been raised from the dead, and I am, someday, going to be part of the final harvest.” To me, that sounds like a wonderful way to spend our time. To try to understand the promise that Jesus made when he said, “Because I live, you also will live.”

Now, Jesus' resurrection had been predicted 1,000 years before he was born. David gave it to us in Psalm 16. It says there very plainly, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” Well, that was not fulfilled in David the prophet, the king. David's body decayed and awaited the resurrection, but Jesus fulfilled it. Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day in direct fulfillment of the scriptures. But Jesus himself had predicted his resurrection again and again and again.

He said in John 10:18, and this is the foundation of our hope. Jesus has absolute power over death. John 10:18 says in one translation, “No one can kill me without my consent. I lay down my life voluntarily for I have the right and power to lay it down when I want to, and also, the right and power to take it up again. For the father has given me this right.” Isn't that marvelous? Jesus has absolute power over death, and he will exert that power on your behalf if you are his child by faith.

And Jesus, as a matter of fact, staked his reputation, the reputation of his entire reign on his ability to triumph over the grave. He said in Matthew 12:38 the following, “Some Pharisees and teachers of law said to him, ‘Teacher, we wanna see a miraculous sign from you.’ He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth.’” Jesus staked his reputation, he staked his entire kingdom to his ability to triumph over the grave. No other religious leader in history has done that. What a bold thing to do.

But Peter told us why. It was impossible for death to keep its holds over him, and so it was a sure thing. “And when you see me rise, you will know that I am the eternal God.” This is not a matter of mere metaphysical debate. The fact of the matter is our entire faith and our future rests on whether this actually happened or not. 1 Corinthians 15 says so. “If Christ has not been raised,” it says there, “Our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But if he did not raise him, then in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins.”

Wilbur Smith put it this way in a book on apologetics. He said this: “The meaning of the resurrection, significance of it, is a theological matter. But the fact of the resurrection is a historical matter. The nature of the resurrection body of Jesus may be a mystery, but the fact that the body disappeared from the tomb is a matter to be decided upon by historical evidence; the places of geographical definiteness. The man who owned the tomb was a man living in the first half of the first century. The tomb was made out of rock in a hillside near Jerusalem, and was not composed of some mythological gossamer or cloud dust, but is something which has geographical significance. The guards put before the tomb were not aerial beings from Mount Olympus. The Sanhedrin was a body of men meeting frequently in Jerusalem. As a vast mass of literature tells us, this person, Jesus, was a living person, a man among men, whatever else he was. And the disciples who went out to preach the risen Lord were men among men, men who ate, and drank, and slept, suffered, worked and died. What is there merely doctrinal about this? This is a historical problem.”

And so Jesus staked his entire reputation to his physical historical resurrection from the dead. And he predicted again and again and again that he would be raised. Matthew 16:21, “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, that he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 17:9, Matthew 17:22-23, 20:18-19, 26:31. That's five different times in Matthew's gospel he spells out very plainly what will happen to him. He will be killed and on the third day, be raised to life.

Well, Jesus' death has now been accomplished. Good Friday has passed, his blood has been shed, and he is dead. He's buried. He's in the tomb. There's no doubt about his death. Romans executed hundreds, if not thousands, every year. They knew when someone was dead and they didn't break his bones. They put a shaft up in his side and water and blood flowed out. There was no doubt about his death. But there was great doubt about his resurrection. As a matter of fact, nobody on earth was expecting it, nobody. Not the women who went to anoint his body, not the guards that were there guarding, not the disciples; none of them were expecting the resurrection, but they should have. And so Jesus said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer and be raised from the dead on the third day?”

And so the resurrection has occurred early in the morning while it was still dark at dawn on the first day of the week. The women went and the stone was removed, and the body was gone. The resurrection has occurred. 1 Corinthians 15:20, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” And that's what I want to ponder with you this morning. If Jesus is the firstfruits, where is the harvest? When will the harvest be? At the end of the age, it tells us. And who will be included? All those who have trusted in him by faith. And what will the nature of that harvest be? Well, we will be made like him. Like him, we will also rise. This is the promise of our future resurrection.

Christ has an eternal purpose, and that is to save us from sin. From everything that sin did to us, from all of the ravages of sin, he came to save us. Our minds, darkened by sin; our emotions clouded by sin; our motives enticed by sin; our souls polluted by sin; and our bodies decaying and corrupted because of sin. He came to be a total Savior in every respect, and that extends to our bodies. He is going to be our pattern, and we will be conformed to his image in every respect. For this is what was worked out before the foundation of the world.

Romans 8:29-30, it says, “For those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.” Conformed to the image of his son equals glorified. It's the same thing. And therefore, Jesus' resurrection body is a pattern for our future. Christ promised very plainly, “Because I live, you also will live.” And so Jesus is the pattern for our future resurrection.

Jesus promised, in the Scripture, promised that some day, there would be a new creation. Isaiah 65:17 says, “Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” Well, what is that referring to? Well, at present, there's a cycle of corruption and decay in this biosphere, in this earth. Things live for a while, and then they die, and they fall back into the ground, and they are decomposed, they're broken apart, and then recycled again. Talks about this in Romans 8:20-21, “For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Jesus' resurrection body is the first fruit of that new creation, where there'll be no decay, no corruption, no bondage anymore, but glorious freedom.

Now, our present physical bodies are wonderful things, aren't they? David says in Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Clear testimony is given from medical science to the wonders of the physical body, the present physical body. Dr. Jerry Bergman put it this way: “Mankind has been fascinated with the form and function of the human body from the very beginning. For beauty and sheer simplicity of line, it is unmatched. As a machine, the human body is the very pinnacle of God's work, formed on the sixth and last day of Creation, after which God declared it is very good. Chemically, the body is unequaled for complexity. Each one of its 30 trillion cells is a mini chemical factory which performs about 10,000 chemical functions. And every cell has one trillion bits of data, equal to every letter in 10 million books. Each one also replaces itself every seven years. Each one is independent, yet cooperates with many millions of other cells. The body's billions of parts all work together as a team. Its 206 bones provide the framework, and its 639 muscles enable it to move with incredible split-second timing. Its skill to balance is such that we can perform feats of acrobatics, and yet, have such strength that official human weight-lifting feats abound. Our body is controlled and coordinated by over 16 billion neurons and 120 trillion connection boxes packed together into an unfathomably complex set of neuro-passways. The whole body system functions as a unified whole to enable a human being to run, sing, remember, create and achieve the myriads of other phenomenal tasks, which we usually take for granted.”

That's our present physical body. It's a marvel of God's creation. We are, indeed, fearfully and wonderfully made. And yet, we are corrupted by sin. Sin affects everything we do, physically. And for this reason, I think God established, in the Garden of Eden, a prohibition against eating from the Tree of Life that we may live forever. Can you imagine living forever in these present physical bodies? Thousands of years in a wheelchair? Thousands of years without teeth? Thousands of years with the humiliation of our bodies. And we all see the direction they're going. We know where it's heading. And so God, in his grace, ordained a better way. He said, “Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” We must be transformed. We must be made into his likeness. Charles Wesley said, “Made like Him, like Him we rise.”

Therefore, the Scripture gives various descriptions of our present physical body. Romans 6:6, it says, “The body of sin.” Romans 6:12 calls it “the mortal body,” that means the body is subject to death. Romans 7:24 calls it “the body of death.” Other scriptures call it “of the dust” or “earthy.” Genesis 3:19, God said, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it, you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” 1 Corinthians 15:47 says, “The first man, Adam, is from the earth;” earthy. “The second man, Christ, is from heaven." 2 Corinthians 4:7 calls our body “a jar of clay.” Philippians 3:21 calls it “a lowly body” or “a body of humiliation.” Another passage or two other passages referred to it as “an earthly tent.” 2 Peter 1:13, he says, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.” That suggests impermanence, doesn't it? Nothing that we're gonna live in forever. 2 Corinthians 5:4, Paul said, “For while we are in this tent, we groan in our burden because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

The Bible also says the body is a great battlefield against sin. Romans 7:22 and 23, it says, “In my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” So it's a battlefield. And yet for all of that, 1 Corinthians 6 says that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And in Romans 6, it says that we should use the instruments of our body as servants to righteousness.

And so there it is, a paradox, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” David says in Psalm 139, and yet the body is denigrated in many passages of Scripture, “body of sin,” “mortal body,” “humiliated body,” and yet this is all we have to serve God with. And so we're groaning, waiting that someday, we might receive something better than what we really have.

Meanwhile, we all are under the burden of aging. Some people feel it more than others. The seven patriarchs in Genesis 5 average 929 years of life before they died, 929. However, after the flood of Noah, the ages came down precipitously. Abraham lived only 175 years. Did you hear me? Only 175 years? Jacob, only 147. Moses, 120. King David 70. Modern times, average lifespan of a human being is, in the US, 77 years. Men live to an average of 72 years, women to an average of 79 years. In Japan, the averages are a little higher, as much as 80 years.

There's some optimistic statements based on science and modern trends. I found a website called The Immortality Institute, dedicated to infinite life spans through the advancement of science. I was intrigued. I like science, I really do. I think it's limited, but I'm interested. And so I read a book that they're going to publish. They have some excerpts there, The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans, publication date sometime this spring, so look forward to that.

But in 1796, they say, life expectancy hovered around 24 years. 100 years later, doubled to 48. In our modern world of air conditioners, hand washing and booster shots, you have a good chance of living 63 years, which is the world average. However, for those fortunate to live in a first world country, lifespan jumps considerably. Nick Bostrom, the founder of the World's Transhumanist Association, predicts in his article, “Case Against Aging,” “Aging is a biochemical process and humans will learn how to intervene in it and slow it down.” Optimistically, Bostrom sees the elimination of aging as theoretically possible. Please don't hold your breath.

God has ordained that we are under the humiliation of death, and aging is part of that. Why isn't Michael Jordan still playing in the NBA? Is it because he doesn't love the game anymore? Why isn't Ronald Reagan making lots of money on a traveling speaking circuit? Is it because nobody'd be interested in what he has to say? Why do female movie stars enjoy so brief moments in the public eye before they sink back into obscurity? Why is Hollywood the plastic surgery capital of the world? Why do many Americans dread their birthdays with dark humor? Why do nursing homes have railings and padded walls in the hallways? The answer to all those questions is the humiliation of aging.

And on the other side of the humiliation of aging, in which we are gradually little by little losing capability, losing physical prowess, gaining weight, losing hair, losing eyesight, losing teeth, on the other side of that, waits the grave. It says in Romans 8:23, “As a result of this, not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” And so groaning inwardly is part of being a Christian. Even we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groaning and waiting that some day our bodies will be made like Jesus'. 

Well what is the future of our physical body? Well, gradual aging under corruption, as we've said. There's an interesting account in 2 Samuel 19 of a man named Barzillai, who helped David when he was fleeing from his son, Absalom. David wanted to reward him and say, “Why don't you come with me to Jerusalem, sit at the king's table, eat and just enjoy the best that we have to offer?” Barzillai said this, “I am now 80 years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant then be an added burden to my lord the king? Let me go home and die at my ancestral property and be buried with my fathers.” He said, I couldn't enjoy that life. I can't taste much anymore. I can't hear much anymore, so just let me stay put. That's fine with me.

So that's our future. And Americans fight it, don't they? They spend lots and lots of money on anti-aging creams and surgical procedures and other things, doing what we can to fight the aging process, and that the other side of that comes physical death, the separation of the soul from the body. Hebrews 9:27, it says, “Man is destined to die once and after that to face the judgment.” And after that, what? Well, you were hoping I would stop there, but I won't. Because the scripture says in Psalm 49:14, “Like sheep, they are destined for the grave and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning. Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.” That's the future, decay and corruption in the grave. And after that judgment.

Well, that's our present physical bodies. We don't need to be reminded. Perhaps, we would just like to forget about our physical limitations, but the scripture doesn't let us do it. Instead, it gives us a better hope. It says that Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead. That he is the first fruit. His body is the first fruit of a future grand and glorious resurrection. And so let's take a moment and study that body. First of all, Christ's resurrection body was a physical body.

Look at the text that was read earlier in Luke 24:36 and following. It says there, “While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened thinking that they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I, myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ Jesus' resurrection body had flesh and bones. If you had been there at the time, you could have touched it. You could have done what Thomas did, put your fingers in the wounds. It's a physical body, not a Spirit or a ghost of some sort, so also will our bodies be physical bodies, real live bodies.

Secondly, Christ's resurrection body looked like a normal body to observers. The disciples on the road to Emmaus thought he was only a stranger to Jerusalem and knew nothing of these things. They thought he was just a regular guy. Interestingly, Mary thought he was the gardener. In John chapter 20, “Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, where have you taken him? And I'll go get him.’” So he looked like an average, ordinary individual human being.

Thirdly, Christ's resurrection body could eat food. He could eat food. Again, in the account in Luke 24, it says, “While they still did not believe it, because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.’” Interestingly to me, all told in all of the resurrection accounts, five of them center around food. I find that interesting. Five times. Once he's making breakfast for his disciples in John 21. The disciples on the road to Emmaus, it was when he broke bread with them that their eyes were open. They realized who he was, and here in this Luke account, he actually eats the broiled fish in their presence.

And so also we will be able to consume food at the banquet table of the great wedding feast of the lamb. And isn't that a good thing? How frustrating would it be to have the most sumptuous feast you've ever seen in your life and not be able to partake of it?

Fourthly, Christ's resurrection body had some continuity with his previous body. I get this out of the wounds that I mentioned in John 20:24 and following. It says, “Now Thomas called Didymus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into the side, I will not believe it.’ A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ And then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ And Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

There's some physical continuity between Jesus' life before death and his resurrection body. Now I believe that the wounds in his hands and his sides and his feet were a special case. Because of those wounds, we stand blameless before God on Judgment Day. But there is continuity. I think the continuity that Paul likens in 1 Corinthians 15 is between a seed and the final plant. The seed goes into the ground and what results out of it is the glorious plant, so it will be also with the resurrection of the dead.

Fifth, Christ's resurrection body looked different to people who knew him well. Mary Magdalene, as I said, thought he was the gardener, even though she was standing right near him. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus spent most of the day with him. And the scripture says, “They were kept from recognizing him.” Perhaps, God was doing something inside their minds, or only it’s when Jesus reveals himself, that they can see who he really is. But he looks somehow different to them. The disciples fishing in John 21 did not recognize him until he performed a miracle with the fish. In Matthew 28:16, it says, “When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.” In Luke 24, “Doubts were rising up in their minds.”

And so Jesus, in some way, looked different. Now, notice he doesn't have glory shining all around him in these post-resurrection appearances. Like in Revelation chapter 1, when Jesus appears before John and his head and hair are white like snow and his clothes are brilliant and shining. He looked ordinary, but somehow different and it was only when he revealed himself to his friends that they could see who he was.

And sixthly, Christ's resurrection body could do some amazing things. For example, suddenly appearing amongst a group of people. In Luke 24:36, it says, “While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” And I noticed every time he suddenly appears, he has to say, “Peace be with you.” I think there's both a practical side of that and a theological side. They were always startled when he would just show up. Suddenly he would appear. Sudden disappearance as well. In Luke 24: 30-31, “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.” That's astonishing.

And then there's the issue of traveling through walls. “Though the doors were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them.” A week later, they were there again. The doors were locked, and Jesus came and stood among them. Now, Wayne Grudem, who I usually respect and think highly of, points out that it never says that Jesus could pass through walls, simply that the doors were locked and Jesus came and stood amongst them. All right. Fine. It doesn't say he went right through the walls. But let me ask a question. If Wayne were here, I'd say, “Wayne, I love you. I appreciate your ministry. I really do. But could you please tell me how Jesus got out of the tomb? How'd he do that? How did he get out of the tomb? Did he wait until the angel came and moved the stone? Was he knocking and waiting for the angel to come, or was he already gone by the time the angel came and removed the stone?” Read the account in Matthew 28:1-6, and you'll find that the angel comes, removes the stone, and speaks to the women and says, “Come and look, you will find he's not here.” And so why was the stone moved? To let Jesus out? Perish the thought; he was gone. No, the stone was moved to let the world in, so that we could see that he was gone, that death had no hold on him.

And so Jesus could, I believe, pass through walls. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, “It is sown a physical body. It is raised a spiritual body.” What is that? I don't have any idea. And neither do you, but that's okay. It is a spiritual body, and it has special abilities. Finally, ascent to heaven. In Acts 1:9, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.” He's able to move from the physical realm on into the spiritual realm and still maintain a resurrection body.

And then finally, seventhly and best of all, Christ's resurrection body is free forever from death and corruption and mourning and pain. It says in Romans 6:9, “For since we know that Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.” Death no longer has mastery over him. “The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives for God.” And it says in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Seven good things about the resurrection body. And Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live.” 

Now, having done all that, I would like to urge you, if you can, please avoid speculation. Don't go home and go beyond what the scripture says, trying to figure out more. Will we get to fly? Can we be in two places at once, or any of these kinds of things. Can we eat as much as we want and never get full? What actually happens to the food when we chew it and digest it? What's going on with that? I don't know. I don't know any of these things. There's a great deal of mystery concerning the resurrection body.

Robert Wilkin, talking about the nature of the resurrection body said this, “The other day, I found myself walking behind two small children being followed by their grandparents. The little girl, perhaps five years old, was rhythmically hopping across the mall delighting in the quickness and flexibility of her body, oblivious to what was around. The grandparents were healthy, able folk, not elderly, and yet they moved more deliberately, prudently looking down, lest they slip. Later in the day, I watched a very elderly man with a walker shuffle into a hardware store, tiny step by tiny step, each made with a great active will. Thinking medieval thoughts, I wondered which body? That of the child, those of the middle-aged couple or that of the man with the walker, which one will be raised in the resurrection? The medievals asked, ‘Will there be differentiation by sex in heaven? Will we all be the same age? If so, what age?’ Will limbs that were crippled or amputated be restored? What of those born with deformities? Will we have internal, as well as external organs? Will a child that dies in infancy be raised as an adult? Will aborted fetuses rise?”

And then other people have questions about how can the Resurrection even happen? What if the body is ripped to shreds or exploded or eaten by worms? How can God do that? Burned to ashes? Augustine answered this, “The doubter objects, ‘But look what I see in the tomb are cinders, ashes and bones. How will this pile of dirt once more receive life, skin, tissues, flesh and rise again?’ I answer, at least in the tomb, you can see cinders. You can see bones. In your mother's womb, there was nothing. Before you existed, there were neither cinders nor bone, and yet you were made when you did not exist at all. Do you think it impossible that your bones will receive the form they used to have, when at conception, you received a form you never had before?”

Well, it is an ancient Christian sport to speculate about future things. And so we've got to limit our speculation. Augustine really enjoyed doing this, by the way. When asked what age would our resurrection bodies be at, I mean, where would the level be, he said this, “It remains therefore that we conclude that every man shall receive his own size which he had in youth, though he died an old man, or which he would have had supposing he had died before his prime. All shall rise neither beyond nor under youth. For even the world's wisest men have fixed the bloom of youth at about the age of 30, and when this period has passed, the man begins to decline toward the defective and duller periods of old age.” That's in City of God. So we're all gonna be raised up about age 30, said Augustine. Well, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

But I know this. Our resurrection bodies will be glorious, be free forever from corruption and sin and death. They will have amazing abilities, our mental abilities to concentrate. We will be able to do all the things that God wants us to do in the new heaven and the new earth.

What application can we take from this? Well, first of all, if you sit here today as an unbeliever in Christ, realize this. There is a future resurrection, both of the righteous and of the wicked. And Jesus said very plainly that the dead will rise. And those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. And so if you sit here and you've never trusted in Christ, can I urge you to not leave this room today without giving your life to Christ, realizing that his death on the cross, the blood he shed, is sufficient to pay the penalty, the just penalty for your sin before the holy throne of God? Trust in him by faith, and you will have eternal life to look forward to.

Those of you who have already trusted in Christ, rejoice and set your hope fully on the hope to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Don't fall into the uniquely American trap of trying to combat age. Realize that our salvation is ever nearer now than when we first believed. Don't regret the fact that the wages of sin is death, and that God has ordained the aging and death process. God is wise, and he knows what he's doing. And he has held out for you, through faith in Christ, a far better hope, a future glorious resurrection so that your body will be conformed to his.

We're looking this morning at Philippians 4:10-19 and zeroing in on the expression that Paul gives in verse 17, he's concerned about what may be credited to your account. Two men owned farms side by side, one of them was a bitter atheist and the other was a committed Christian. Constantly annoyed at the Christian for his trust in God the atheist said to him, one winter, "Let's plant our crops as usual this spring, each the same number of acres. You pray to your God and I'll curse Him, then come October let's see who has the bigger crop." Well, when October came the atheist was delighted because his crop was clearly larger than the Christians. "See you fool," he taunted, "What do you have to say for your God now?" The Christian farmer replied, "My God doesn't settle all His accounts in October." That's profound isn't it? If for this life only we have trusted in Christ we are above all men to be pitied.

God doesn't settle all His accounts here and now and that's especially true when it comes to the issue of money, isn't it? Every year billions and billions of dollars are invested in various retirement accounts by Americans who seek to be financially astute and lay up financial resources for themselves for their retirement. I thought about that recently and it occurred to me that in a spiritual sense I am a retirement counselor. I'm just looking further down the road than those retirement counselors are looking. I would like you to consider your eternal estate. I would like you to think about what you're doing with your money from an eternal perspective. Are you investing properly in your eternal retirement? Are you dealing with finances as a faithful steward of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the question before us.

Randy Alcorn in his book, The Treasure Principle said this, "What's the biggest misconception that Christians have about giving? That when we give money away to a church or ministry or to help the needy it's gone. While we hope others will benefit from it, we're quite sure we won't. We think we're divesting ourselves of money disassociating from it. Once it leaves our hands we imagine it has no connection to us, no future implications relevant to our lives, we couldn't be more wrong. What we think we own will rudely be taken from us, some of it before we die and anything that's left will be taken the moment we die. But now is our window of opportunity not to divest ourselves of money but to invest it in heaven. We don't have to have everything taken from us, we can give it before disaster or death strike, now is our chance to give what we can't keep to gain what we can never lose." Randy Alcorn is right. I think we have that sense that if we're going to give it away to the Lord we'll never see it again, quite the opposite is true, if we don't give it away we will never see it again.

I've been to a number of places on mission trips and one of the interesting rituals that comes is the changing of money, whether at the airport or at some bank in the country that you go to. Right after Jesus' triumphal entry immediately after Matthew's account, the first thing He did after the praise and Hosanna shouts, and people expecting Him to take up His throne immediately, He went into the temple and made a whip and drove out all of the money changers. Now, what are the money changers? So money changers were people who sat in the temple and exchanged different currencies for the temple shekel. The outlying currencies out in the other countries and districts could not be used in the temple, rather it had to be the temple shekel. There were a variety of currencies but only one could be used at the temple and it occurred to me that in the same way only one currency can be used in heaven and that's heavenly currency, this earthly stuff holds no truck there, we can't take it with us it must be exchanged.

How can we exchange our money? Well, we exchange it by giving it away by faith to the Lord's work and it seems to me that Paul is very concerned about that issue when it comes to the Philippians.

The Philippians have sent him some money through Epaphroditus, he is writing them here in Philippians a thank you letter, it's more than that as we have seen but it is at least that a thank you letter for the money that they sent through Epaphroditus. He wants them to know that he has received the money, he's very grateful for the money, he's glad to have taken it but he wants them to know as a good pastor and also the one who led them to faith in Christ, how he thinks about money, he wants to train them also to think properly about money too. He's concerned about their eternal retirement, I don't think he would have used that language but he is concerned about it. He's concerned about their eternal rewards, he's concerned about what may be credited to their account and so he says in Verse 10, "I rejoiced greatly in the Lord, that at last you have renewed your concern for me, indeed you have been concerned but you had no opportunity to show it." He says, literally, "I rejoiced" because he's thinking about the moment I believe, it doesn't come across in the NIV but in a sharper translation, it is a past tense. He said, "I rejoiced when I saw the money." But I want you to know it wasn't the way you would think, I'm not rejoicing because of the money itself.

Now, the last few weeks, we've looked in deeply into his attitude of abiding Christian contentment, it's not because he now has a bunch of money that he's happy and content not at all, he's got a more spiritual mindset than that. He knows enough that even this substantial gift will someday be gone, that's not what he puts his trust in. It's not like, "At least I'll eat well until it's gone," that's not his concern, not at all, because he has learned to be content whatever the circumstances, living in plenty or not, well fed or hungry, whatever, he can do everything through Him who gives him strength. And so the Apostle Paul says, "I'm not happy for that reason, I'm content for something else," and so we've seen Paul's attitude of Christian contentment. What he is concerned about more is what the gift signifies about the spiritual health of the Philippians, that's what causes him to rejoice. He's delighted in this, put simply, to Paul it was more than anything, proof that the Philippians were still walking with Christ. It was proof that they had been genuinely converted.

Basic Goodness and Generosity

Now, he talks about some aspects of their giving, and there's some general characteristics about it. He says, first of all, it was good of them. Look at verse 14, he said, "It was good of you to share in my troubles." The Greek word for good, "kalos", is a wonderful word, frequently translated, "Beautiful." Generous giving is ethically beautiful, it's attractive. Later, he calls it a fragrant offering to God. It's a pleasing thing to be generous. The act of sacrificial love was a good thing, it was morally beautiful.

Freedom From Materialism and Selfish Greed

Also, he sees in this gift freedom from materialism and greed, you can't be generous like this and give this kind of money away if you're enslaved to the idolatry of greed and materialism, and so their lavish generosity shows that they're free from these gods which so conquer so many people.

Concern for a Christian Brother in Need

Also, it shows that they have a concern, generally, for a Christian brother in need. It says in 1 John that if anyone sees a brother in need and has the material resources to help them, but has no pity on him, how can he say the love of God is in him? He's closed up his heart.

Putting it more positively, the evidence of Christian conversion, of regeneration, is an open-handed, generous attitude toward the brothers and sisters in Christ. And so Paul was in need. The way it worked back then is if you were in prison or in chains, those on the outside had to take care of you financially, they had to provide for you. You were somewhat like a beggar, even worse than a beggar, because you couldn't be out by the roads begging. And so you had to have a good family network, you had to have friends that would be concerned for you. If you didn't have that, you would starve. And they didn't care, your captors, whether you starved or not, it wasn't their responsibility to feed you. And so this is a practical concern, and the Philippians showed love for Paul in that they cared about his basic needs. And also we see a concern, generally, for a persecuted messenger of the Gospel, but it's not just general here, is it? He gets very personal. These are his friends, these are, in effect, his spiritual children, so it means a lot more to him than just the general goodness of what they've done. He reviews and renews the history of their relationship.

Look again at verse 10, he says, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it." He also goes over their past history in verse 15 and 16, "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the Gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need." So this is... These are close friends of his, this is the church that he's planted, and they have a long history of concern for him and love for him. But there's been a hiatus, there's been an interruption, they had no opportunity to help him, perhaps they didn't know where he was, or in what circumstance he was. Transportation and communication being what they were in the ancient world, it's very possible they had no idea that he was in chains. And then they finally heard, and immediately, they reached out and helped. So he says, "I'm glad that you've renewed your concern for me." He's speaking very personally about their relationship.

Proof of Ongoing Progress in Christ

But then he gets to the real issue, it has to do with their progress in Christ, it's proof that they are still in Christ. Now, I want you to understand carefully what I'm saying; it is impossible for somebody who is genuinely born again, who's regenerated by the Spirit, who's justified by faith, it's impossible for them to lose their salvation, it's impossible for that to happen. However, as a church planter, standing on the outside, like Paul was, looking in at the Philippians, he really doesn't know for sure if they have been genuinely converted. Remember that Judas Iscariot, for three years, deceived the other 11 apostles, they thought even the night that he went out to betray Christ that he was going out to buy more supplies for the feast. They had no idea what was in his heart, he deceived them all.

And so it is possible for the apostle Paul to be deceived about what's genuinely going on in the lives of the Philippians. As he stands on the outside looking in, he is unable to be sure that they are genuinely born again. And so he's going to be waiting for some fruit, he wants to see some things back from them over a period of time. Hebrews 3:14 says, to prove the genuineness of our faith, we must keep obeying day after day, as long as it is called today. That verse says, "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first." And so it is a long-standing perseverance in Christ that is the greatest evidence to somebody like Paul standing on the outside looking in. And so he has a great joy about this money, because it's more evidence that Christ has really worked in their lives.

Whenever Paul would leave a town like Philippi, all he could do was entrust those dear ones to the Lord, that's all he could do. And so many times, you see this kind of thing. Like for example, in Acts 14:23, the churches in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, "Paul and Barnabas," it says, "appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust." Paul was an itinerant evangelist, he couldn't stay in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch or in Philippi, he had to move on. The Lord called him to move to the next city, so all he could do was thoroughly preach the Gospel, get them ready, establish the church, and then move on, and entrust them to God. We see the same thing in Acts 20:32, "Now, I commit you to God and to the word of His grace which can build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified." That to the Ephesian elders, so he's saying, "All I can do, Ephesian elders and the Ephesian church, is commit you to God, because God is able to keep you safe, God is able to build you up." And so Paul is constantly concerned about the churches he's planted, he's wondering, in some cases, if he's wasted his time.

We see this very much in 1 Thessalonians. He doesn't know exactly how the Thessalonians are reacting to the trial they're going through. They're going through severe persecution, and he's not sure whether they're going to make it or not. Remember the parable of the different soils, when the sun comes up, the plants are withered and they die because they have no root. And so now is a real testing time for the Thessalonians. So he sends Timothy, and Timothy comes back and brings a report concerning them, 1 Thessalonians 3:5 and 6, it says, "For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought us good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us just as we long to see you."

Now do you see that connection there at the end? Because they, the Thessalonians, love Paul, and those who preach the Gospel to them, it's strong evidence that they're still continuing in the message, do you see? Because there's a connection between the message and the messenger. So, it works also with the Philippians and their love gift to Paul. It's evidence that they're doing well, It's evidence that they're Christians. We see the same thing negatively with the Galatians. There the news is not so good because it seems they're abandoning the true faith. And he says in Galatians 4:19-20, "My dear children for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you." You see how concerned he is about the Galatian Church because he doesn't know what's really happening in their hearts. And so this matter of the money that was given by the Philippians is a spiritual matter to Paul, because frankly, money is a spiritual. Yes, it's physical and yes, it's material, but it's spiritual too.

Ultimately: Love for Christ Himself

And how you spend your money says a great deal about your relationship with Christ and so he's glad about this money. Ultimately it points back to love for Christ Himself. If you look at Verse 18, there's a sense of a sacrificial offering here. He says "I have received full payment and even more, I am amply supplied. Now that I've received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, they are a fragrant offering and acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God." Isn't that beautiful, that Old Testament, sacrificial language. Please do not bring a bull or goat here to First Baptist Church. We wouldn't know what to do with it. I don't have any idea. If you were to bring your first from your flock, I would say, "That's wonderful. Take it on home. We really have no place for it."

But that whole language has been transferred now to the issue of money. If you want to make a sacrificial offering to God, you do it financially now. The time for blood sacrifice ended forever when Jesus gave His blood for me. But the time for sacrifice is not over. And so we have this kind of sacrificial language in verse 18. You want to make a sacrifice to God, give financially, give cheerfully, give generously, give in a faith-filled manner, that is a sacrifice. And so Paul is tying this gift ultimately back to the Philippians in their relationship with Christ, whether or not they are born again.

But then he goes beyond that. He says, Okay, "I accept that you're born again, grateful for it. But now I'm looking for something more." Look at verse 17, this is Paul's primary desire at this point, eternal rewards for the Philippians. Verse 17, he says, "Not that I'm looking for a gift, but I'm looking for what may be credited to your account."

Paul's deep desire here, and this is a strong word in the Greek, there's a strong desire, something he craves, something he yearns for. What is it you want here, Paul? You want more money? No, that's not it at all. My God is going to meet my needs. I don't know, I crave something for you. Like a good father, a good mother wants the best for their children, so also Paul is craving something for the Philippians and what is it? He says, "I want something credited to your account, I want you to store up treasure for heaven, I want you to be rich on judgment day, that's what I want, I want you to be lavishly supplied with rewards in heaven." Now, the word he used here is an accounting word, logos is the word, it's the record book. And so the cover picture on your bulletin there is a ledger with a pen and a number of numbers being kept up there. And that's the sense that there's a ledger book in heaven, that there's a sense of something that's been credited to an account. We get the same kind of accounting language although it doesn't come across in the English so well, in Verse 15, "Moreover, as you Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel when I set out for Macedonia not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving."

Those expressions in the Greek giving and receiving are accounting language. It's accounts payable and accounts receivable, that's what it is. So he's using accounting language here with them, the matter of giving and receiving. And so it's a matter of careful accounting. Now the language of Verse 17 is a little different than it appears in the NIV. Verse 17 says, "Not that I seek... " this is New American Standard, "Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account." The RSV actually has it closest to the original language in verse 17. "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit." The word is literally fruit. But everybody knows he's talking about profits like a business, he's talking about profits that increase to your account. What he seeks then is the result of taking a pear seed and putting it in the ground. He wants a tree that's going to bear lots and lots and lots of beautiful pears.

God’s Eternal Ledger Book

What is Paul talking about here? Well, God has in heaven, a ledger book. He has a ledger book and He keeps careful records in Heaven of everything that happens in His universe. He's actually very meticulous about His record keeping.

It says in Matthew 12:36, "I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Now, you may say, "I don't remember what I said earlier this morning." That's all right, God remembers. He's keeping a record of everything you say, and He will remind you on judgment day, so that you can give an account. Let me refresh your memory, what you said on Sunday morning, April 4th, you said this, and then she said that, and then you said this in return, Okay? Tell me about it, let's talk about it. I tell you, that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. Now, this is a logical argument if you have to give an account for all your careless words, would you not also have to give an account for how you spend your money? For every dime that you spend? Yes, you will.

It says in Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." Romans 14:12, says "Each of us will give an account of himself to God." Daniel had a vision of Judgment Day. That's what it says in Daniel 7:9 and 10, "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat, His clothing was white as snow. The hair of His head was white like wool, His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him, thousands upon thousands attended Him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, the court was seated and the books were opened." The books were opened. That is Judgment Day. The court is seated, the books are opened. John in Revelation had the same vision. Revelation 20:12, he says, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."

And so, you have in the one case, books that are opened, and there's a record of everything that we said and did in there, and then there's another book. Praise God for the second book, the book of life. Now, we're not going to get saved by anything written in the first books, are we? Nobody is justified by works, we're not saved by giving money to anything, never will be. We are saved by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And this week on Friday, we can commemorate it as we should, every single day of our lives that Jesus shed His blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and it's on that basis alone, that we'll stand before God on Judgment Day and if our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we will not be cast into the lake of fire, but we will be with Him forever.

I have to be so clear about this because I am enjoining you to store up treasure in Heaven, and you could misunderstand and think that you're going to be earning your salvation by how much money you give to this or that, nothing could be further from the truth. But there are those first books in Revelation 20:12, aren't there? And in those first books is recorded everything we've ever said or done, all stewardship matters recorded in those books. We are merely stewards in God's universe. Everything that we have is His. Now, the essence of stewardship is that we manage something belonging to somebody else. The faithful steward seeks to use his position and skill to benefit his master's affairs.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25, concerning this. Beginning at verse 14,

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'  His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'  The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.  For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" - Matthew 25:14-30.

That's a parable of stewardship, isn't it? It's a parable of accounting and our money is included. More than just money is included, but our money is included. The principles are clear. First of all, the property belongs to the master and not to the steward.

Secondly, the master expects the stewards to be wise with their money, with his money, and gain more interest. Growth, he expects them to be out and trading with it. Third, the do-nothing steward receives the harshest possible penalty for his failure to increase his master's wealth. And fourth, faithful stewards are rewarded in proportion to their faithfulness. Brothers and sisters, we are stewards. We are not owners, we're stewards. Stewards of God's earth. And God will ask, "What did you do with it?" Stewards of people and relationships and He'll ask, "What fruit came from them?" Stewards of God's time for this is the day the Lord has made. Stewards of days and years and months minutes hours. How did we improve the time? Stewards of God's possessions, of God's money. How do we use it for His Kingdom? Stewards of God's spiritual gifts, how do we use them to build up Christ's body? Stewards of the Gospel message itself. Did we use it to bring people into the kingdom?

Storing Up Treasure in Heaven

Now comes the call from the Lord that we might store up treasure in Heaven. Are you storing up treasure in Heaven? This is a command that God has given us. Jesus says in Matthew 6:19:21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." Do you realize that even the slightest act of faith, even the smallest act of giving the cup of cold water to a messenger of the Lord because he is the Lord's disciple, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42. As a matter of fact, God feels so strongly about this matter of rewards that He inspired the writer to Hebrews to use the word unjust concerning the failure to give the reward.

Says in Hebrews 6:10, "God is not unjust, He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them." Now don't misunderstand me, don't you have a sense that any reward we get is lavished beyond anything we could possibly deserve? Just to be in heaven would be enough, and yet God's going to actually reward us for things we did here on Earth. More than that, He's going to clean them up a bit. Have any of us ever done a pure work of graciousness and love for anybody ever? And so even our best works need to be purified and cleansed by God's grace. He's going to do it, He's going to clean up our works and He's going to reward them eternally. And so He has commanded us store up treasure in Heaven. This cannot be good works for justification, we've already said that. Nobody's going to be justified by good works, but after you've come to faith in Christ, He expects you to store up treasure every single day of your life, and how you use your money is a huge part of that.

What Is the Reward?

Now, what is the reward, what do you get? What's the reward going to be, a better place on Heaven Street? I don't know, I don't really know. I've meditated on this this week, and it's been a delightful meditation. I think there are at least three aspects of what the reward is. First of all, praise from God specifically tied to the good deed itself. Let me say that again, praise from God specifically tied to the good deed. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in the few things. I'll put you in charge of many things." Just praise from God. Could anything be more valuable than that? If you love the Lord, what could be more valuable than to have the Lord say, "I am pleased with you"? And I think it's meticulous praise. In other words, tied to each good deed. Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your room. Close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen," and your Father who sees what is done in secret will…" Do what? "Reward you." And so He will say, "That afternoon that you spent time praying for missionaries, I saw it. I'll never forget it. Well done." "And the time that you gave sacrificially to missions, I saw it. Well done."

I'm thinking I'd like to have lots of that, wouldn't you? I'd like to have lots and lots of that kind of praise. I think that's a good way to understand the rewards because it's not idolatrous. Its focused very much on the person of God. It's God saying to us, "I am pleased with you," and us being pleased with God's pleasure in us. That's a good reward isn't it? Secondly, I think it's increased responsibilities in the new heavens and new Earth. The parable of the Minas. M-I-N-I, it's a larger sum of money, in Luke 19, he says, "Because you have the 10 minas, I'm going to put you in charge of 10 cities." Now, I don't have any idea what life will be like in the new heavens and the new earth. I don't. We can speculate but I think there will be varying levels of responsibility. Jesus says in another place. "If you're not careful with money, who will entrust you with real riches or with treasure of your own?" It's a very interesting statement. And so there's I think a sense of increased responsibility in the new heavens and the new earth.

And third the shared happiness of the master. Just that you'd be pleased because God is pleased. Enter into the joy of your Master. Those are three good rewards don't you think? The praise from God, increased responsibility in new heavens and new earth, and shared happiness of the master.

 Now, along the way Paul helps us a bit. He promises us God's constant supply. Look at verse 19. "And my God will supply," this is the New American Standard Version here, "My God will supply all your needs, according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus." A great enemy of faith-filled giving is anxiety about what will happen to you. Right? "If I give all this money away, what's going to happen to us?" Concern and anxiety. Well, it's addressed very openly here. He says, "My God will supply all your needs," the word in the Greek means fill up amply, meet it completely. I'll give you absolutely everything that you need.

Hudson Taylor said, "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply," and so he says "I promise you I will supply all your needs." The Emperor Napoleon says... Said, "An army marches on its stomach." An Army marches on its stomach, what's that mean? You got to provide the basic needs of your soldiers. Or they can't do the job. Well, if Napoleon knew it, how much more does our Heavenly Commander know it? And He knows that you need certain things in order to do the job He's giving you to do. But notice it says "My God will meet all your needs." Oh, well, that's a little tricky, isn't it? I had bigger ambitions than that material actually. Yes, more than food and clothing. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, "If we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." Jesus taught the same thing in Matthew 6. So do not worry saying, "What shall we eat, or what should we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." These are basic needs. And He promises you here in Verse 19 that He will supply all of your needs, if you live a life of faithful generosity in service to Him. And look what it says too, He'll meet all your needs according to His glorious riches.

Now, if Bill Gates gives you 10 bucks, because you asked him for some money, he's giving you out of his riches. But what if he were to give you according to his riches? Shall I say, in proportion to what he has, I think you'd get more than 10 bucks. And so also, God has promised to lavishly supply you in proportion to how much He has available. And how much is that? How much does God have available? Well, you've heard it before, Psalm 50:10, Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Recently, I heard a wonderful story about that. Shortly after Dallas Theological Seminary was founded in 1924, it almost folded into bankruptcy. All the creditors were ready to foreclose at noon on a given day. That morning, the founders of the seminary met in the president's office to pray that God would somehow provide. In that meeting was a man named Dr. Harry Ironside. When it was his turn to pray, he said in his refreshingly candid way, "Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are thine, please sell some of them and give the money to us."

That's a great prayer, isn't it? Just about then a tall Texan wearing cowboy boots and an open collar shirt, strolled into the school's business office. "Howdy?" He said to the secretary, "I've just sold two carloads of cattle over in Fort Worth, I've been trying to make another business deal go through but it just won't work. I feel God wants me to give this money to the seminary. I don't know if you need it or not, but here's the check." The Secretary took the check, and knowing the nature of the business of that day, went to the door of the president's office and timidly knocked. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the Founder and President of Dallas Theological Seminary, answered the door and took the check from the Secretary. When he looked at the amount, it was for the exact amount of the debt, lined up perfectly. Then he recognized the name of the cattleman on the check, and turning to Dr. Ironside he said, "Harry, God sold the cattle."

I think it's a matter of principle that God will be faithful to meet your needs if you will step out in faith and seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, He will meet your needs. Now, what application can we take from this? Well, I guess it should be obvious, but I want to spell it out, okay. You need to give, you need to give generously. God doesn't need you to give, you need to give. And this church doesn't need you to give, ultimately, God will meet this church's needs. I'm not standing here so much as a pastor, you know that pastors don't like to preach on stewardship usually. I don't really feel that way about it, but I am protected from such problems by being an expositor, a verse by verse expositor. I can't help but preach about money today, because it's the next text, but I'm delighted to preach about it.

Randy Alcorn said to a group of pastors, he said, it'd be like a pastor saying, "Well, today I need to preach on adultery. Now, those of you committing adultery, this will be my last sermon on it for a while, so just relax and I won't be touching on this again for another year or two," like we're apologizing for something that Jesus taught a great deal about. He taught a lot about money. And we need to be generous, we need not just our hearts, but our wallets to be sanctified. We need to give generously. We live in a world with deep spiritual and material poverty. 1.6 billion people or more have never heard of Jesus Christ, they've never heard the life-saving message in this, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." They've never heard that message. 1.6 billion. More than one billion people live in absolute poverty. This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, 200 million children exploited for labor.

In the year 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income. Over the next 50 years, somewhere between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will pass from older Americans to younger generations, suggesting that roughly $1 trillion to $3 trillion in wealth will change hands every year. The average donation by adults who attend US Protestant churches is about $17 a week. Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations, the per capita giving by percentage of income was lower in the year 2000 than either in the year 1921 or 1933. In 1921 per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9%, 2.9%. In 1933 at the depth of the Great Depression, it was 3.3%. But in the year 2000, after a half century of unprecedented prosperity in America, giving had fallen to 2.6%. Overall only 3% to 5% of Americans who donate money to a church tithe, although a larger number than that claim to tithe. Tithe is one 10th of income given.

As I look at those statistics and I think about the need, I think about the resources in this local church and in churches like this across the country, I think that we're not being as faithful as we should be with our money. I think that we should be giving more sacrificially. I think that we should be sanctified in our hearts and in our wallets, I think we should store up treasure in Heaven. Randy Alcorn gave a great illustration about this. He said, imagine that you were a business man who regularly used Federal Express. And suppose you found out that the Federal Express man who came and picked up all your packages, was actually hoarding them in his home and using them for his own private use. I mean, the coat that you had given to your father for his birthday, he never got it, you wonder where it went? FedEx guy has it. The important business papers, the checks and other things that you had hoped to transfer, FedEx guy has it. And not just your stuff, but all the music and videos and equipment and all that, FedEx guy has it.

And you're shocked when you find out and you go and confront this guy, and he said, "Well look, if you didn't mean for me to have it, why did you give it to me?" I remember what Randy Alcorn said, "You're the FedEx guy for crying out loud. You weren't meant to have it, you were meant to pass it on." But could it be that we spiritually are the FedEx guy? And that we're saying in effect to God, if you didn't mean me to have it, why did you give it to me? I would like this church to be like a clear pipe, a conduit of water that just flows from Heaven through us to some need.

So what is the application? Give, give generously. Give to this church, give to the global priority mission fund. It's at its lowest level now since it started, okay. We use that money for sending short-term missionaries and from meeting other needs. Give to the Lottie Moon, start saving up now for Lottie Moon. Set aside a container or something and just give all year long to Lottie Moon, so that you can give far more generously than if you would if you were just looking at it in December.

In your bulletin, I've given you a financial covenant. Randy Alcorn wrote it, I changed it a bit, changed it a bit. I don't want to get into the issues of whether tithing per se is a new covenant issue. But Randy Alcorn does make a good point. He said, in every case of spiritual obedience, the New Covenant calls its covenant members to a higher level of commitment than the Old Covenant did. And the tithe was the basic standard of giving in the old covenant. Randy Alcorn calls the tithe the training wheels of Christian giving, the training wheels. And he said, people say, I can't tithe. He said, "Well, let me ask you a simple question: If you were to tithe over the next year, would you die?" That's a good question, don't you think? I'm not trying to be shocking, whatever, but would you die if you actually tithe over the next year? So what I'm asking you to do is take this covenant home and read it over in your home. Husbands and wives read it together, read it over prayerfully.

And if you feel in good conscience that you can sign this before God, I would urge you to do so, and get a witness. If you're a single person, get a Christian brother or sister to watch you sign it. And then put it up in your papers, important papers at your home. Two weeks from now, I'm going to give you a similar covenant which has no place for you to sign, but boxes for you to check. It'll be in the bulletin, and I'm going to urge you to check the boxes that you feel you can check, and then put it in the offering plate anonymously. I want you to understand we are not trying to have a pledge drive here. I want you to make a pledge between yourself and God. We will take those things out of the offering plate and put them in a box and keep them for a year, and we'll pray over them and pray that you'll be faithful to the covenant and the commitment you've made to God. But we're urging you, and why? Well, we're not looking for a gift, but we're looking for what may be credited to your account.

Okay, we're looking, for a second week, this morning at these incredible verses, Philippians 4:10-13. I love history, I love to study history, and I like to take a "you were there" approach to history and imagine what it would have been like if I had been there at this or that point in history. And one date in particular intrigues me, April 22, 1889, because that was the day of the Oklahoma Land Rush. Nearly two million acres of land had been recently made available for settlement, and so all of these folks were there waiting to settle that land. Of course, within such a large track, there were some parcels that would be better than others; everybody knew that. And there was going to be a race at noon that day, and you would get to certain marked out spots and you would claim them as your own, and they would be your homestead. That's where you would end up.

But as people lined up there that day at noon, on April 22, 1889, they didn't know that most of the best tracks had already been taken, because there were some Sooners that went out the night before and grabbed those plots and set up shop there. And so as they'd come over a hill or come to a little rally with a river or something, there was already a homestead there. "Boy, were they fast," they were thinking. And there was, I'm sure, a great deal of discontent over the plots of land, the tracks, and how they went out.

Now, in the Scripture, the Promised Land was given out in a more God-honoring way; they cast lots for it. In the book of Joshua, the stories are told and how the Promised Land was divvied up, and a lot was cast and that was your allotment. That would be your inheritance in the Promised Land.

And so the second half of the book of Joshua is just a series of the Providential casting of lots as each tribe would get a certain portion, and then it would be subdivided among clans and families. And I think it's exactly this process that David has in mind when he writes in Psalms 16:5-6, "Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely, I have a delightful inheritance." David's thinking about his life, isn't he? And he's thinking about the boundary lines of his life, the plot of ground, not just that, but all the things of his life, what's happened and how God has dealt with him. And he's saying, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places."

And I've picked up on that concerning this matter of Christian contentment. And it occurs to me that the secret of Christian contentment is being content with the boundary lines that God sets up in your life. Content with what's inside the boundary lines, and content with what's outside the boundary lines. Because inside the boundary lines, there's bound to be a mixture of good things and hard things, and outside the boundary lines also a mixture of good things and hard things. And the problem comes when you question the position of the boundary lines and wish that something that's good that's outside the boundary lines would be inside your territory, and jump the fence, as it were, or go early like the Sooners or whatever, and grab something that God has not apportioned for you, like David did the night he slept with Bathsheba. To jump the boundary line and go get something that God had not put in your inheritance.

But just stand at the fence of the boundary line and yearn for it. Look across at something that's not yours and say, "I wish it were." There goes contentment. Or to look inward and say, "Here's something I wish weren't in my inheritance. I wish it were out." There goes contentment because you're not satisfied with how God has set up the boundary lines in your place. Now, I feel that it would be a great gift of God for me to be content the rest of my life with my boundary lines. Wouldn't it be for you as well? To be satisfied with what God has apportioned for us here in this world, to say with David, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance." I'm satisfied with what you've given me."

That's my goal this morning. And if you come along for the ride, that's great too, but this is what I want for myself. I would like to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, I would like to be able to do all things according to the strength that Christ gives me, wouldn't you? That's something I want for myself.

Now, we talked about this last week, and just by way of review, I just went through Paul's credentials to be able to talk to us about this. Paul, a man who had seen great suffering in his life, a man who had seen great persecution and great opposition, and who could speak to us, I think, concerning this matter. He was able to be content having spent a day and a night in the open sea, or having been flogged with 39 lashes five times, or beaten with rods three times, or shipwrecked three times, or any of the other things he lists there in 2nd Corinthians, then I think he has the right to talk to us. He's an expert in this matter.

And he and Silas displayed it and put it on display when they sang in prison. After having been humiliated and beaten, they spent the night singing praises to God. And I think, "That's not me. I would love to do that, to learn to sing praises to God while sitting in a prison like that." That's something that I want. And so I think Paul has the credentials to speak of that. I talked about the immediate context; Paul is writing to the Philippians the whole letter on the occasion of having received some money Epaphroditus brought. Epaphroditus brought the money that the Philippians had sacrificial given, and Paul is encouraged about that, and he wants to write to thank them.

But being a pastor, he's not just writing, "Thank you for the money. Praise God for your faith," and whatnot. No, he's going deeper.

And so we have three marvelous chapters of theology, and then another half a chapter before we get finally to his point in writing, the immediate point anyway, he just wants to say thank you for the money. And so it's a glorious thank you letter, and it's a challenge to me because I'd like to do something like this. Of course, I'm not an apostle of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but he wanted to write and to lift their eyes up off their immediate circumstances, to instruct them and teach them. And his perspective on the money that they sent is so different from what ours would have been. He's saying, "I'm happy about the money, but not the way you might imagine. I'm happy about the money because it means that Christ is working in your life, and things are going well for you, spiritually. And I can say that because I'm confident that God will meet my needs. I'm confident, and I'm not concerned about myself. I'm not saying this because I'm in need or in want, which I am, but that's not why I'm writing it." "For I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want. I could do everything through him who gives me strength."

The focus on the foundation of this unshakable joy, this unshakable contentment, which seems to be impervious to circumstances is Paul's spiritual mindset. He's thinking about things spiritually. He's set his heart on things above, not on earthly things like he wrote in Colossians. He's focused on heavenly things, not on earthly things, so he can do that.

And last week we also talked about a marvelous work by a Puritan writer named Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Now, we are starting to branch out in our ministry and we want to make books available to you. And I had ordered these and they're not here yet, but if you want us to order a copy of this for you just go to the tape table after the service. We also got another book called The Art of Divine Contentment by Thomas Watson. And it's every bit as good and simpler to read. We've got 10 of those there which we'll sell at cost. We want to get these materials into your hands.

But in this book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Burroughs, he has a central doctrine, it's printed there in your bulletin. "To be well skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory, and excellence of a Christian." Now, what I said was, in an initial observation, Christian contentment is possible but not guaranteed. It is not guaranteed in that Paul says, "It's a secret to be learned." And he didn't always know it. But it is possible in that he says he has learned the secret of being content. I know that it's possible to go through many days as a Christian without knowing any contentment. I think we can even be fruitful for his kingdom, but we cannot maximally glorify him or be maximally fruitful if we don't learn the secret.

And I ask again, do you think the Philippian jailer and his family would have been converted that night if it had been you in that jail cell instead of Paul? I wonder. Because I think his contentment and his spirit-filled joy and his ability to sing and praise God was of the essence of his ministry to that Philippian jailer that night. And so I would urge us all to learn the secret of contentment so we can be more fruitful for Christ. Christian contentment is possible but not guaranteed. Then we gave a definition. I think that's what's printed in your bulletin.

Christian contentment is that sweet inward quiet gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise fatherly disposal in every condition. We went through that definition. It's an internal thing. Burroughs told us that if it were just an external presentation to the world, it wouldn't take much art to learn it, would it? Then we would all be actors, and actresses, acting happy and content when we really are miserable inside. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not what Paul is talking about. It's an inner thing, internal thing, and it's quiet. That means it's submitted, I think, more than anything, submitted and yielded. It's opposed to murmuring, and complaining, and moaning, and groaning like we do, griping, some might call it venting. Do you ever vent? You don't have to admit it this morning, this would not be a good morning to admit it, okay.

But it's a sin to be complaining against God, to say I'm not satisfied with what God's doing in my life right now. And though we can recover as Christians, and have to sadly frequently recover from that kind of complaining and venting, yet it is sin. For God said, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." So it's a quiet thing, it's opposed to murmuring; it's opposed to rising against God and rebellion saying, "Why are you doing this to me?" "It's a frame of spirit, it's a soul business," said Jeremiah Burroughs, a soul business, and it's lasting, it's abiding, and it's gracious. It's an act of God's grace; it's nothing you can drum up in yourself. Frankly, reading the books by the Puritans or even memorizing Philippians 4:10-13. These things will not guarantee that they will come to you. This is an act of God in your soul. Thomas Watson said, "It's like an offshoot from the branch of heaven implanted in your soul." It's something only God can do. Which brings us to a query then, why should we study it? Why preach two sermons on it? What's our role in this if it's something only God can do? Well, I think there are many things like that in the Christian life. Only God could make Nicodemus born again, but Jesus told him about it. "You must be born again." It's a mystery, isn't it?

And therefore, I think the issue is, it creates a hungering and a thirsting and then God meets it; he satisfies it. So we begin to yearn for this kind of Christian contentment, and then little by little he teaches us the secret of Christian contentment. It's a gracious work of God in the soul that results in ultimately that we are gladly submitting to God's disposal; we're not grumbling, we're not complaining, we're not murmuring. We are happy to see what God is doing, and why? Because he's a king, he's a father, he is loving, and we trust him. And we're glad to bow our knee to him. So, that's review from last week.

I want to begin this week's observations by saying that, first of all, there are two different skills to be learned here. Look again with me at the verses. He says in verse 11, " I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." So I think that there are two different skills to be learned here. How to be abased and how to abound. How to fast and how to feast. How to do both in the Christian life. That's what is in Paul's mind here. I can do either one actually.

Let's take the first one, to be godly while in need is a great spiritual skill to be learned, isn't it? Our natural tendency when we're going through suffering, going through struggle going through persecution, opposition, going through medical problems, financial difficulties is to complain. It's not to be content or joyful. The world is full of needy people. And at some point in our lives, we're going to play that role; we're going to be needy at some level, maybe frequently through our lives. And therefore it is a great skill to be learned to learn how to be content when you're going through a trial. Paul says, "I know what it's like to have nothing to eat and still be content." Wouldn't that be something? To be able to feed spiritually on Christ while having nothing to eat in your stomach, and to be content about that because God has so ordained. Paul says he knows how to be in need and how to be content.

The temptation to complain is overwhelming when we go through trials. If you look back at your own history over the last year, at difficult moments in your life, have you displayed this Christian contentment, like Paul talks about, or not? And if you would said, "Truthfully, no. This is not my usual way of reacting to trials," then praise God that there's still a work to be done in your soul. And that over the next year, and two and three, as you consistently make this a matter of prayer, you can see significant growth in your life. How much more content and happy would you be and more fruitful as a result?

So that's the one side. I know what it is to be in need and still content. I know how to fast and be content. I know how to be without and be content. What about the other side? You might think it would take no skill at all to be content in good circumstances. But remember how we define contentment. It is a soul business. It's an internal quiet yieldedness to Christ. It's not just like the pagans do, where they're happy when they have a good meal, "Whose God is their stomach," in Philippians 3. That's not the kind of contentment here. And so therefore, I think it is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever if circumstance are good that you are content, no guarantee whatsoever.

I found an interesting verse on this in Proverbs 17:1. And there it says, "Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting and strife." That's interesting to me on this topic, isn't it? You can have a whole household of feasting and still have strife and conflict and discord. You know what that tells me? House full of feasting does not necessarily equal Christian contentment. It's still a soul business. It still something that Christ must work in us.

When I was ministering a year ago in the Czech Republic, I met a pastor there named Ronnie Stevens, and he had been the pastor of an international church in Germany. Met a woman there, told the story, met a woman there who regularly handled the finances of some of the wealthiest businessmen in Germany. This was when she was a non-Christian and she was very ambitious financially herself, that's why she'd gotten into this world of high finance. And frankly, if you didn't make millions or whatever, of Deutsche Marks, or whatever it is they use there, you need not apply to work with her firm. I mean, this was for the wealthiest of the wealthy. And she said what was interesting to her, 100% of her clients had significant life problems.

I mean, not 90%, not 95, 100% of them had serious problems: Family problems, morale problems, problems with drug abuse and alcohol abuse, other issues. Doesn't that show how having everything you want and positive earthly circumstances does not equal Christian contentment, and frankly, can detract from it greatly. So there is a way to abound and still be content and godly. It can be done, but it's not easy to do. Asceticism, as we said, is not the answer. Turning our backs on all pleasure as though pleasure was somehow something to be suspicious of and negative toward. But rather, Paul says it's a secret to be learned. "I've learned how to feast and still be content. I've learned how to feast and still be godly."

Did Jesus know how to do that? Yes, he did. He knew how to fast like no one had ever fasted before; 40 days in the desert without eating or drinking, and he said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." "I feed on the Word of God, on every word that comes from his mouth, that's my meal here, so I'm not going to turn the stones into bread." So he knew how to fast. Did he know how to feast? Oh, scandalously so, because his enemies assumed that he was a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He was no glutton, nor was he a drunkard, but he did know how to feast. And frankly, he likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a feast, didn't he? But what is a feast? My son and I, Nathaniel and I, were talking about it, a feast is where there's plenty to eat, diversity of foods in high quality. That sounds pretty good, don't you think?

Quantity, quality, diversity, now that makes a good feast, right? And God knows how to put out a table, doesn't he? But there's a way to eat it in a godly way, and a way not to. And Paul says, "I've learned the secret of doing both." So there are two different skills to be learned here.

The question is, how shall we do it? What are some secrets? What are some insights? Well, let's turn to a lesser authority first, Jeremiah Burroughs, and then we'll turn to what Paul says. First, what does Burroughs say? There's a couple of good insights from Burroughs. First he says, "A Christian is somebody who's always satisfied, and yet always unsatisfied." What does that mean? Well, he's found Christ and Christ is enough for him, but he doesn't have enough of Christ. He wants more. "For me, to live is Christ and to die is what? Gain. So he wants more, he wants to be in the presence of Christ, he wants to see him face-to-face. He's hungry and thirsty for Christ.

And so, Philippians 3, "Forgetting what lies behind, pressing toward what is ahead." He's straining ahead in the Christian life. Why? Because he wants to know Jesus. He's a focused man, he's a focused or she's a focused woman. These folks are focused on the person of Christ. They're too busy with that to be concerned about anything else. There's an expulsive greatness to the focus of Christ so that nothing else really matters much. That's a good observation by Burroughs.

Not By Addition, But By Subtraction

Secondly, he talks about the principle of subtraction. Remember I told you about the boundary lines being pleasant places. I think what some people say is, "Hmm, there's something out there that I want and I'm going to get it and then I will be content, right?" It's called coveting by the way; it's against the rules, the 10 commandments. But it's out there and I want it, and if I can get it, then I will be content. Well, no, you won't. Frankly, if you're not content with what's already inside your boundaries, you won't be content even if that's added.

So the world says the key to contentment is accumulation. Two of my favorite words in 1st Kings, "Solomon accumulated." That kind of sums it up, doesn't it? Now there's more in the rest of the verse, but that's him. He's an accumulator; he's a collector. Okay. And I think it led his heart astray. Wasn't just his pagan wives, but I think it was his own idolatries that he was going after. No, actually Boroughs said, "I think the key is not so much addition but the principle of subtraction." Not by adding to what you have but by subtracting from your desires so that your desires equal God's providence in your life. Chop it down, chop it down like a jungle, cut down your desires until your desires equal what it is that God has given you.

How about this, 1 Timothy 6:6-9, "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." Isn't that what Christ talks about in Matthew 6? "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you." Does that include all the stuff you have in mind that's on your wish list? Probably not. I think it's talking about food and clothing there, basic necessities. So Burroughs says it's the principle of subtraction. Subtract your desires until you get to the point where your desires equal God's providence for you.

Any then he talks very interestingly about the principle of addition. Some people think, non-Christians or whatever think, "I've got this hard thing in my life, this trial, this difficulty, I'll be happy if it can ever get out. It's like a tumor. And if I can get this trial out of my life, whether it's unemployment or some kind of family problem or a health issue, if I could get that out of my life, then at last, I could be content." That's not what we're talking about here in this text. That if we could just have favorable circumstances then we could be content. No, Paul says, "I know how to be content even when facing a serious illness, for example. I know how to do it, there's a way to do it." Alright, Burroughs says it's the principle here of addition. Well, what is it we're adding? Well, he says, "Labor to remind yourself that you are a sinner saved by grace. Humble yourself under God's mighty hand. Remind yourself that anything hard or difficult you get in this world is less than you deserved, which is eternity in hell. And if you don't think you deserve eternity in hell then read the Bible again, it will remind you that that is in fact what you deserved."

And so if you get some hard thing, it's less than you deserve, remember who you are before God. I think we all have PhDs in self-esteem and kindergarten in humility. We have to kind of go the other way around. We have to learn more and more to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand. Charles Simeon 19th-century Pastor, godly man, spent each of his birthdays in self-humiliation and fasting. Now that's interesting. What do you spend your birthdays doing? Making much I would think of yourself. I do it. I admit it. It's kind of, "This is my day. I get to choose the dinner. I don't have to make my side of the bed." That kind of thing,  it's kind of exciting. So, I was convicted by that I said, "Do I really want to do that? I don't know." But Charles Simeon did it, and he actually found that he needed it more and more as he got older and older. He needed it more.

This is what Simeon said in one of his messages about self-humiliation. He said this,

" I do not see, so much as I could wish, a holy reverential awe of God. The confidence that is generally professed does not sufficiently, in my opinion, savor of a creature-like spirit, or of a sinner-like spirit. If ninety- nine out of a hundred, of even good men, were now informed for the first time that Isaiah in a vision saw the Seraphim before the throne; and that each of the Seraphs had six wings; and then were asked, ‘How do you think they employ their wings?’ I think their answer would be, ‘How? Why they fly with them with all their might; and if they had six hundred wings they would do the same, exerting all their powers in the service of their God.’ They would never dream of their employing two to veil their faces, as unworthy to behold their God, and two to veil their feet as unworthy to serve Him; and devoting only the remaining two to what might be deemed their more appropriate use... I confess that this is the religion which I love; I would have a conscious unworthiness to pervade every act and habit of my soul..." (Hugh Evan Hopkins, Charles Simeon of Cambridge, p. 157)

I think if you spent more time in that kind of meditation you would not be murmuring or complaining against God saying, "Why are you doing this to me?" Have you forgotten, have you forgotten that he is God and that you're a sinner saved by grace? So that's the principle of addition. Subtraction, get rid of your desires. Addition, remind yourself of who you are before God. And then he says change the affliction to something else. You know Michelangelo had a way with marble, that's an understatement, isn't it? To take a block of marble with a hammer and a chisel and be able to turn it as though it were living flesh, David about to face Goliath. You know, with the sinews of the arm and the veins and all that. It looks like there's actually blood flowing through the marble. How did he do that? Well, he just chipped away everything that didn't look like David. Does that sound easy? Could you do it?

What would it look like, I wonder? We each get a block and let's see what it would end up looking like. Well, that's his arm right there sticking out... That nubby thing sticking out there, that's the arm, it really is. You see Michelangelo was a master with marble, but God is a master with people and he's working on you and he's going to keep working until you're like Jesus. He's going to keep working on you and working on you getting rid of stuff that doesn't need to be in you until you're like Jesus. And frankly, it's not only going to be goodness, but it's going to be severity, a combination of goodness and severity that God mixes together in a wise way that will do the job. And so if you know that, that you're going through some things that God has measured out grain by grain, not one grain more than you need or less than you will be content and say, "You know God is working on my soul. I need this done. I need this work, do it to me."

Seek the Kingdom of God

And finally, think about the Kingdom of God above all else; think how is the Kingdom served by this that I'm going through? By this feast that I'm eating or this fast I'm enduring. How does the Kingdom advance? How? What's my duty or responsibility in this matter? And how can I, as it were, melt my will into God's? You ever heard of Psalm 37:4? It says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Well, early in my Christian life, I used that as a kind of a blank check. You know what I'm talking about? "Well, if I'm delighting myself in God, I can have anything I want," right? I don't really think that's what it says. I think it's this way "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will assign you the desires of your heart." He'll give them to you, so that they become your desires.

Well, that's a little different, isn't it? And in the end, even that's not enough. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will become the desire of your heart." That's what the first half of the verse says, anyway, isn't it? "Delight yourself in the Lord? Melt your will into his. Let your will and his be the same. Pattern yourself after Christ who said "Yet, not as I will, but as you will." Alright, that's Jeremiah Burroughs. What about Paul, what does he say is the secret here? Well, he puts it down into one verse, doesn't he? Look at verse 13. How do you do it Paul, what's the secret? The secret is "I can do everything through him who strengthens me." Now, some of the translations say Christ who strengthens me and I can't imagine a Christian person, not being delighted to see Christ's name in there.

So regardless of what the text say ultimately, I don't have any problem. I don't think the Apostle Paul, who's focused on Christ, so much in his life would mind us saying Christ if he even intended God as a whole. So I don't have any problem with that. So if some of your translations say, "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." It's a text issue and we don't have to debate it today, but let's focus on the person of Christ. He says my secret is that Christ gives me strength for contentment.

How Christ Teaches Contentment

Now the insight that I have here, first of all, is that Christ is the teacher of contentment. He instructs us in contentment; he teaches us frankly that we should be content in any and every situation. How about this one? Luke 6, "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you, and insult you, and reject your name as evil because of the son of man." I would think that would summed up be one of your worst days, wouldn't it? I was hated, excluded, and rejected as evil today. Other than that, it was a good day. That's a hard day. What does Christ say? He says, "Rejoice and be glad because great is your award in heaven," do you see that? So despite the circumstances, frankly even because of the circumstances, rejoice. He's teaching us a lasting contentment, isn't he? But then the flip side they come back so excited about their ministry because the demons are subject in their name or in Christ's name, and he says, "Don't rejoice because of that, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." You see how he's teaching a heavenly contentment; it's not tied to earthly circumstances.

John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." John 14:27, "Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid." And then John 16:33, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace; in this world, you'll have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world." So Jesus is a teacher of abiding contentment, but he has also taught us by example in how he died on the cross. How did Jesus die on the cross? Well, he was content to do the will of God. And so it says in Hebrews 12:2-3, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him…" That means meditate on him, focus on him, fix your eyes on him, "Consider him, who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart." Jesus exemplified contentment in adverse circumstances.

Contentment Takes Strength

Well, the insight I think more than anything I get out of verse 13 is it takes strength to be content. That's an insight for me; it takes strength to be content. Let me put it the other way. It is a weak person who is easily discontent. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's a sign of soul weakness to be easily discontent. And therefore if you want an abiding contentment Christ alone can give you the strength to do it. I think about David's mighty men in 2nd Samuel 23, there's this one guy Eleazar who killed 300 men, Philistines, with one spear. Wednesday night, I asked the Acts class, "Meditate. How do you kill 300 guys with one spear?" Answer: One at a time. Isn't that true? How else can you do it? If you throw it, it's gone; you just killed one guy but you're in trouble now, so you're holding onto the spear and killing 300. This man Eleazar took his stand in a field of barley and would not move, and he just stood there and took them on and he won the battle.

Everybody else had fled from him, but he took his stand. Well, I kind of apply that here. It takes strength to take your stand in your day and say, "No, matter what comes at me, I'm going to rejoice in Christ today." You have to be a warrior for joy. It's not going to come easily; you've got to have strength. Let me give you an example, alright maybe this example will help you, maybe it won't. Let's say you wake up one morning, you're contented, filled with the Spirit, you had a good quiet time, praising God as you get in your car and drive you've got an important meeting at work that morning. Okay, you're driving, suddenly as you're driving you hear a strange unfamiliar. Noise coming from under your hood. And as you keep driving it gets louder and louder. And so you have no choice but to pull over. And you know, you know what that noise is, you're not a trained mechanic, but you know that noise is money, that's what it is. No question in your mind that noise is money, and it's not just a little money, that's big money. Alright, it's going to take strength at that moment to continue in a frame of contentment in Christ. It's going to take strength isn't it?

And so you've learned the secret, you're going to focus on Christ; you're going to focus on his Kingdom; you're going to trust in him. You're going to say, "My car is yours Lord. If you want to take your money and use it to fix your car, you can do that." And so, you work it through, and you're content, but now you need to get your cell phone. That blessed invention. And you need to call your boss and say that you're going to be late to the meeting. And it seems that he's not learned the secret of Christian contentment yet...

When he hears that you're not going to be there and he chews you out and says that you need to be there anyway, and all this kind of thing and you say, "I don't see how I can," and, alright you hang up and now you have to take that thing on if you're going to maintain contentment. Right? Then you call AAA, whatever it is, and the tow costs $75 and the repair is going to take three times longer and cost twice as much as you thought. And then you call your spouse and it's maybe not her or his best day, even though they have learned the secret of Christian contentment maybe they're not using it at that moment, and so...

There's a struggle. Alright, and so you've got to take your stand in the field, just like Eleazar and that you got to overcome that one too. And so it goes. Do you see the strength it takes to be content as a Christian. It's not easy and, frankly, if you don't have this abiding connection to Christ, you will not be content in any and every situation. Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing." So, if you're in Christ, you will have the strength you need for contentment.

The Excellency of Christian Contentment

I want to finish by contemplating with you, the excellence of Christian contentment and the evils of a murmuring spirit very briefly, the excellence of Christian contentment. Consider with me please how excellent is the character of a man or woman who has learned this secret in Christ's school. Consider that this humble trusting constantly contented spirit is at the pinnacle of Christian character. By it we give God his due worship setting our hearts on him above all other things and by it, we say, "I love you Lord more than any of the good gifts you give me. If you take them away, I will still love you. I will still trust in you. I will still treasure you." By it the soul comes nearest to God, himself, who is ever at peace, ever serene, ever in control, never flustered, never anxious, never irritable. Therefore, this is a jewel of Christian character.

Consider with me on the other hand, the evils of a murmuring and complaining spirit. By murmuring we actually say the exact opposite. We're saying, "I love the gifts you give me more than I love you, Lord. I love the money. I love the car, the family, the good weather, the good food, the successful job, the comfortable furniture, the beautiful scenery, the pleasing entertainments, the good health and many other blessings. I love these things more than I love you, Lord. And if you take them away, I will murmur at you." By murmuring also, we behave least like Christ who was content to even take a cup of God's wrath from his hand and drink it to the bottom. So the beauties, the perfections of Christian contentment and the evils of a murmuring spirit.

I want to close with an illustration I heard from John Piper a while ago. John Piper was talking about a man in the early 19th century who was scheduled to receive a huge inheritance. He was on his way into New York City; he was just two miles out of the city, it was a driving rainstorm, when all of a sudden his carriage wheel broke. And he got out of that thing, and looked at it and realized there was no way that he'd be able to make the reading of the will, in time, by the carriage waiting for the carriage, but it was only a two-mile walk and he would make it by walking. But the whole time he was walking he was saying, "My carriage is broken, my carriage is broken, my carriage is broken, my carriage is broken." When he got in there, he stood to inherit enough to buy 10,000 carriages. But he's murmuring and complaining the whole way he goes in to receive his inheritance.

And Piper asks is that the way you want to go to Heaven? Wouldn't it be better to say, "Yeah, it's a driving rain, my carriage is broken, but I'm going to get an inheritance." I'm going to set my heart on things above, not on earthly things. I'm going to focus on the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. He shed his blood and so that means I don't have wrath waiting for me. I have a rich welcome from a Heavenly Father. All my sins are forgiven and I'm adopted into the family of God, and I don't even know what God has planned for me for that wedding banquet but I'm just glad to be there. And to take a place at that wedding banquet. And if my carriage is broken, who cares? Who cares, except that it puts on display a supernaturally content spirit so that maybe the Philippian jailer can get saved.

We were looking, this morning, at some magnificent versus in Philippians 4:10-13 and I have already decided there is no earthly way to get through this sermon and have you out at a reasonable hour and keep you content. So I'm thinking that I'm going to preach on this again, God willing, next week. I don't want to hurry through this, and I'll tell you why. I've come to the conclusion, just like it says in Isaiah 6, paraphrasing, in which the prophet says, "Woe to me, I am ruined." And then changing it slightly I would say, "For I am a man of a discontent heart, and I live among a people who are characterized by discontent hearts." And I want us all to see the Lord, the Almighty and be cured of this great ill. It's incredible how discontent we can be. Discontent while driving behind a truck that's going too slowly and there's another mirror truck in the next lane. Have you ever experienced that? And you just can't get by?

Discontent when the person at McDonald's is a trainee and takes an extra minute to find the button that corresponds to the meal you've chosen, so that you get out of there in six minutes, instead of five? Discontent when it comes time to pay the bills and you feel like you don't make enough money. Discontent when your boss doesn't recognize the stellar contributions you've made to the success of the company? Discontent within families, husbands discontent with their wives, wives discontent with their husbands, parents with their children and children with their parents. Discontent with the weather, maybe it's a little too hot, maybe it's a little too wet, a little too cold, a little too snowy, rainy, icy. Discontent.

And I'm thinking to myself that this is a great problem and therefore I run to this text and I embrace it because I want to know the secret that Paul learned. I want to know how to be content in any and every situation, well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, "I can do everything," he says, "through him who gives me strength." I want to know that. I want to know that secret, don't you? Wouldn't you rather have contentment than wealth? And if you wouldn't, I want to talk you out of it. I want you to set your heart on this rare jewel of Christian contentment; it's of great value.

One of my favorite stories from literature is The Count of Monte Cristo. Perhaps you've read that story by Alexandre Dumas. Two prisoners held for crimes against the French government are held at the Chateau d'If, of Rocky Island, and they get to become friends. What's ironic is that they... One of them was a rebel against Bonaparte and the other was suspected of being a Bonapartist and they're both in prison, because the times had changed and they were forgotten. And so Edmond Dantes, the younger man and Abbe Faria become good friends. And Abby Faria, an educated man taught Edmond Dantes everything that he knew about logic and history and languages and chemistry and other things. And the whole time he had a wooden cross around his neck with a leather thong around, and it held a secret. A secret, that the Abbe Faria was not really willing to tell him about until it became clear that he was not going to be able to escape, for he was old and sick and weak and it was impossible for him to make the perilous escape off the Chateau D'If.

And so as he was laying there, he took the cross from around his neck and slid the secret compartment and pulled out a treasure map, the secret to the treasure of the island of Monte Cristo. And as he showed him and explained the secret symbols on the map he said, "You're going to be a very wealthy man, Edmond Dantes, use the money well." So after the death of Abbe Faria, Edmond Dantas escaped from the Chateau D'If and made his way to the small island of Monte Cristo, off the coast of Italy, between Corsica and Elba; if you want to go there and try to find some treasure that's where it is. According to the story, he got it all, rare jewels, diamonds, coins, a thousand gold ingots each weighing two to three pounds, worth well over 13 million francs, and he was as the Abbe Faria had predicted instantly a wealthy man.

Now it all came from a secret coming from the cross. And I'll tell you what, as I look at it I think I would rather learn a different secret coming from the cross of Jesus Christ. My eyes really this morning aren't so much on the Apostle Paul, who resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I want to know how it is that Jesus went to the cross gladly and joyfully. I want to know that contentment of which Paul is a dim reflection, and we, almost no reflection at all. I would like to know the secret of Christ's contentment.

But I'm satisfied this morning to learn the secret of the Apostle Paul's contentment. Look at it again in verse 12, Philippians 4:12. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want." That's the secret he's talking about. Now, people all over the world can relate to a lust for treasure. That's why The Count of Monte Cristo kind of inflames our imagination; we think, "Wow, that would be something. Wouldn't it?" Riches beyond your wildest dream coming from a secret compartment in a wooden cross.

But Paul, I believe as a Christian, I believe points to a far greater treasure in this text, the treasure of lasting, abiding contentment. Paul says that it's a secret to be learned; what I would call a part of advanced Christianity, not basic Christianity. Now in order to learn this, I think it would be well for us to ask what are Paul’s credentials. If you were going to send your son or daughter to a sports camp, let's say, a basketball camp, wouldn't it help to know that the coach that was going to be personally tutoring your child had won five National Championships and been to the Final 4 fourteen times? There's no coach like that, so don't wonder who I'm talking about.

Wouldn't it help to know if you are going to learn... Send your child to learn piano or violin that the mentor and tutor had won numerous prizes and had made many CDs and their work was known all over the world? Or if you were taking a course on creative writing you'd want to know the credentials and wouldn't it excite you to know that the writer had won three Pulitzer Prizes? And so we want to come to Paul and say, "What are your credentials in this matter of a lasting, abiding contentment? What are your credentials for teaching us on learning the secrets of being content in any and every situation?" Well, the Apostle Paul was rejected and even hated by his own countrymen. Once he came to faith in Christ, he began a life of great suffering, just as the Lord had said to Ananias who was going to lay hands on him and baptize him, he said, "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

And some of that suffering came right away at the hands of his own countrymen, culminating in this great moment in Acts 22 when the Jewish crowd listened to Paul until he mentioned his call to the Gentiles, and then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him, he's not fit to live." I mean, have you ever had a mob shout that about you? That's an extreme form of suffering. And then he lists his credentials in suffering, and that's exactly what he thinks of them as in 2 Corinthians 11, "My credentials in suffering." And he's showing that he has been more of an apostle of Christ than any of those pseudo-apostles that were coming with the successful life to teach the Corinthians. He said, "Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one." And then he begins to list his sufferings. Now, I matched up Paul's list of sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11 with his claim here in Philippians 4, and this is what I came up with, "I have worked much harder but been content the whole time. I've been in prison more frequently but always content. Been flogged more severely, but it never moved me from being content. I've been exposed to death again and again, but I had a lasting, abiding contentment the whole time.

"Five times, I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one… But none of those lashes moved me away from Christian contentment. Three times I was beaten with rods but content. And once, I was stoned. Three times shipwrecked but still content. Spent a night and a day in the open sea but content. I've been constantly on the move but content. Been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers, and yet I've learned the secret of being content in all of those kinds of situations. I have labored and toiled, and yet I've been content. I've often gone without food, and I've been content. I've known hunger and thirst… I've been cold and naked, and yet, I know the secret of being content in any and every situation."

"Advanced Christianity"

Now, I believe this is a great overstatement. Frankly, I think that it was somewhere along the way, during all of this time that he learned the secret of being content. You see, I consider it to be part of advanced Christianity, and it's not learned primarily from reading the Scripture. I think it's helpful to prime the pump in reading Philippians 4, and it's not going to come from listening to this sermon today; although I hope that that will help too. It's going to come from living. It's going to come from being in these kinds of circumstances and learning, somehow, to thank God in the middle of it all; learning, somehow, to be content. And so these are Paul's credentials. And yet, for all of that trouble, he speaks lavishly of joy in this letter. Five times he says he rejoices, but three times he says he's laboring for their joy, and I think that's what's on his mind here in Philippians 4; he wants them to know it too. He wants them to be content as well.

And so five times he commands them to rejoice. Five times he says he rejoices; three times he says he's laboring for their joy, five times he commands them to rejoice. And so in the midst of his difficulties, which at that present time were in chains for Christ, going through more struggle and suffering again, he teaches them of lasting contentment. And finally, he has given them, before their very eyes, an unforgettable display of contentment in the midst of extreme circumstances. And we've talked about it before, but there he was in Philippi, rejected, screamed against, arrested, magistrates ordered that they would be stripped and beaten, how humiliating is that? And they were stripped and beaten, severely flogged; they were thrown in prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. And so the jailer put them in the inner cell, fastened their feet in the stocks, never imagining that that would be his last day as a non-Christian.

I've often thought about that. He didn't anticipate he was going to become a Christian when he locked these men up, shut the door. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Let me ask you a question, is that you? Is that you? Are you like Paul and Silas? And if not, I think it would be good to sit at Paul's feet and learn his secret, don't you? I'm convinced he's got the credentials. Well, let's learn what he has to say.

Well, the immediate context here in Philippians 4:10-4:13 is of a thank you letter that he's writing for the money. And now he's finally gotten to that. We've had three chapters of his attitudes toward all different kinds of things, but now, at last, he's getting to his immediate point of writing; he has received a financial gift to help him in his imprisonment. From that, he's going to be able to survive; he's going to be able to eat and have his needs met. And so like, I think, is reasonable to do, he sits down to write a thank-you note; he wants to thank the Philippians.

But his eyes are on more than just that he would kind of reach out to them and say, "Thank you," however good manners that is. He's a pastor, and he wants to minister to them and to strengthen them. And so he says, in verse 10, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you've renewed your concern for me. Indeed you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. But I'm not saying this because I'm in need.  I'm not writing this right now so that you'll send me even more money, that's not what I'm at. My motives are different than that. I want you to know what I have discovered, the secret of being content. I want you to have that too." More than that, he's going to talk later in this little section about how he wants them to give more money, whether to him, to others, so that they can store up treasure in heaven, that he wants what may be credited to their account.

And so there's two messages here, a message of Christian contentment, abiding Christian contentment, and of lavish financial generosity so that we can store up treasure for the glory of God and for our own joy in heaven. These are things that are on Paul's mind as he sits down to write. It's an uncommon thank-you letter, wouldn't you think? And so he wants to share with them the secret.

He wants them to know this abiding contentment, and the key for him is his spiritual mindset. He's thinking spiritually; he's thinking like a subject of the Kingdom of Heaven. He's not thinking just like a regular person; his mind is always on Christ. And so, he says, "I rejoice greatly that your concern is renewed, not so that you'll send me more money, because it gives me evidence that Christ is still at work in your lives and that your conversion is genuine." It's never clear when a church planter leaves an area, whether the work that was done there was a genuine work or just a deception. We don't know for sure; we can't read people's hearts. We know that we were faithful in preaching the word, we have discharged our duty, we were faithful, we prayed, we labored, we cried, we planted, and we left.

But Paul's not sure what was left behind, was it genuine? And so, he is greatly encouraged when the money keeps coming, the prayers and all that, not because he needs the money, and he's very clear about that here. That's not it; it's because he's concerned about their spiritual welfare. That they are Christians now, genuine Christians, and even more, that they are storing up treasure in Heaven in an ongoing way that glorifies God. So that's what he's writing about, that's what he's concerned about here. It's a spiritual mindset. Paul is always operating at a higher level than we are. Do you notice that? "I'm writing you a thank you note for a different reason than anybody else would." And that's the level that he's working on. So he rehearses their history; he goes over it, in verse 15 and 16, "You Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance with the Gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only.

For even when I was in Thessalonica he says, you sent me aid again and again, when I was in need." And so he says, "This has been the way you've been, and now you're continuing and I'm so encouraged about that." And he says, "I have received the money. I want you to know that"; verse 18 and 19. "I got it. It wasn't stolen. I got it and I'm going to put it to good use, so mission accomplished, but think again about your souls." That's his whole approach.

Now, in the midst of this come these statements about Christian contentment. I've just set the context for you. And in the middle of that he says, "I want you to know, I'm not worried about me. I'm not. I'm not concerned about whether I'm gonna get enough, because I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Some time ago I came across one of the books... Do you know... There are occasional books that just change your life. And this book by a Puritan, 17th century Puritan, Jeremiah Burroughs changed my life. It was called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. It's a timeless classic really, and I would urge you to get it. Jeremiah Burroughs, Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. He was a Puritan minister in the first half of the 17th century, and he'd seen his share of suffering and the persecution of Puritans under Archbishop Laud. And in the late 1640s, he wrote this classic meditation, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. And what do you think his focus verses were? Well, it was Philippians 4:12 and 13, the very ones we're looking at here, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

And the central doctrine of Burroughs' book is the following, "To be well-skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory, and excellence of a Christian." Let me read that again, "To be well-skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory, and excellence of a Christian." Now, I want to make an initial observation about this whole topic. Based on Paul's statement, "I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation," I'm going to say two things: Number one, Christian contentment is possible. Number two, Christian contentment is not guaranteed. Christian contentment is possible but not guaranteed. Now, Paul says it's a secret to be learned and therefore a Christian contentment is not guaranteed. I know many Christians who go through their whole life it seems, never having learned the secret. And I think you can go to Heaven that way. I just think you can go to Heaven more fruitfully and joyfully and in a way that glorifies God better if you learn this secret.

I wonder, if we had been the ones jailed there in Philippi and had reacted the way we usually react during hard times, if the Philippian jailer and his family would have been saved that night. I wonder about that. Just put yourself in the stocks based on your past performance. There you are in the chains, you're chained up, and you react the way you usually react when difficulties come in your life. Would the Philippian jailer have been saved that night? And you can say, "I really don't know." Well, hypothesize with me, think. It says all the other prisoners were listening to them, I would contend they'd be listening no matter what you did. And if you decided to complain and murmur and groan and whine and all that kind of thing, they'll hear that too. And then eventually, they're going to tell you to be quiet because they want to get some sleep.

But if on the other hand like Paul and Silas you are praying, out loud so everyone can hear you, and then singing praise songs to God, I don't read in the text that anybody asked them to be quiet. There was such a compelling witness, and the Philippian jailer was drawn in by it. And so therefore, Christian contentment is possible, but it's not guaranteed. It is a rare jewel. Now, what is the Christian contentment we're talking about? How do we define it? Well, Jeremiah Burroughs helps us very well. He gives us a good definition here, "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to, and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition." Okay, give it back to me now, I've just given you the definition. Did you hear it? Alright, I'll repeat it again, I'll say it a little slower, "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to, and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Christian Contentment is Inward

It is inward, it's an internal thing, inside you. Burroughs says this, "If the attainment of true contentment were as easy as keeping quiet outwardly, it would not need much learning. Now, would it?" God is not calling on us to be actors and actresses. That's not it. We're talking about a heart work here, a gracious work of the Spirit in our hearts, an internal work.

Christian Contentment is Quiet

Secondly, Burroughs says it's quiet. What does that mean? Well, it's opposed to murmuring and repining at the hand of God; it's opposed to vexing and fretting and the tumultuousness of spirit that characterizes us. It's opposed to the unsettled, unstable spirit which distracts from spiritual duties. It's opposed to heart-consuming cares, sinking discouragement, sinful shirkings and shiftings to get relief. And it's opposed to rising against God in rebellion. It's a quiet spirit. It's a yielded spirit. It's not a fighting spirit.

Christian Contentment is a Frame of Spirit

And it is a frame of spirit. Contentment is a soul business. It's an inward quiet frame of spirit; therefore it's not merely an act or a flash or a mood. That's not what it is, it's a quiet frame of spirit.

Christian Contentment is Gracious

And, he says, it is gracious. What do we mean by that? It's got nothing to do with natural temperament. Have you ever seen the kind of even-keeled person, male or female, you look at 'em and say, "Boy, that's admirable," and all that? That's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about a natural tendency. We're talking about something that is supernatural. It is an act of God's grace. Only God can enable somebody to do this.

Christian Contentment Freely Submits to God’s Disposal

And he says it freely submits to God's disposal. It is a matter of submission; submission to the king. It's a matter of us realizing, again, what Jesus said when he said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Accept what I give you. Yield to my wisdom. Let me decide what's best in your life."

Burroughs writes this, "A contented heart looks to God, to God and to his disposal, and submit to God's disposal." That is he sees the wisdom of God in everything. In his submission, he sees God's sovereignty, but what makes him take pleasure is God's wisdom. The Lord knows how to order things better than I; the Lord sees further than I do. Therefore there's not a reluctance here; there's not a grudging, foot-dragging submission, but a glad submission. And not by constraint, it's not like we're forced to be content. Is anybody ever gonna put a gun to your head and say, "Be content"? It doesn't work that way. It's not by constraint, it's a glad thing of submission to God. "And it's not from stupidity or ignorance," says Burroughs, I like that. Paul says, "I know I'm in chains and I know that I don't have a lot, but God will meet my needs." It's not like Paul doesn't know where he is and that he doesn't know that he needs to keep on eating.

Christian Contentment Glady Submits to God’s Disposal

And it gladly submits to God's disposal. It's rejoicing. It's not irritable, angry, or frustrating. And it does so, it says, in any and every situation.

Now, my question to you as we close for today, does this characterize you? Is this who you are? I wrote down some diagnostic questions. Have you learned the secret of true contentment? Are you characterized by consistent joy in Christ, regardless of the circumstances? What does your reaction to trials and adversity reveal about what you consider to be your true treasure? Is it necessary for God to feed you constantly with good circumstances, or you will growl at him? Think about that. There is a verse in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah, in which God speaks of his people, "She growls at me, and therefore I hate her." It's in the Book of Jeremiah. Do you growl at God when hard things come?

If you are more characterized by discontent, by complaining and murmuring, are you willing to repent and begin a new life of contentment, submitting to Christ? Do you desire a mature Christian character in which this rare jewel of Christian contentment is a visible, radiant display of God's glory? Is this something you want? And are you willing to pay the price to learn the secret of true Christian contentment? Because I believe the secret is only taught through a coupling of a concept, "I can do everything through him who strengthens me," with a series of circumstances that God wisely measures out in your life, everybody gets their own, in which you learn the secret. Are you willing to pay that price and you're willing to ask God to do that work in you?