Two Journeys

We're looking this morning, as we return to the book of Philippians after a little time away, at Philippians 2:19-30, so I think you'll be helped if you open in your Bibles there and look along. Shortly after I came to Christ, over 20 years ago, I was given the gift of a mentor. His name was Tim Schuman, he was on staff of Campus Crusade for Christ when I was a student at MIT, and he taught me many things. He knew the Bible much better than I did, which was saying absolutely nothing at that point in my life, but he was a good mentor to me, but more than his biblical knowledge, much more than that, it was just the way he lived his life. It was the fact that he was a role model for me, and a mentor. Now we're going to look much more carefully at the issue and the theological necessity of role models in chapter 3. And again, in chapter 4, we'll see it. But here in chapter 2:19-30, we see three role models for our lives, Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus. Now, as I went on in my Christian life, I found a great interest in church history, and I found that role models don't have to be living; they can be dead. We can learn from people who've gone before us.

And so therefore, in this text, we have three men who are with the Lord now, and who can be for us role models. We also see another thing in this text, and that is that God ordains the passing on of the torch from one generation to the next, when Paul speaks of Timothy, laboring with him as a son with his father. Now, we get the sense of the generational passing on of the torch, from one to the other, and the awesome burden of following a man like the Apostle Paul in ministry. Can you imagine being Paul's protégé? I don't think he had just one, I actually think he had a number, but Timothy certainly was following Paul in ministry, and that's a great burden, picking up where the master left off.

With what trembling do you think Joshua was told in Joshua 1? "Moses my servant is dead. Now then… you, Joshua, get up and lead this people." Can you imagine what must have gone into his mind? If he had any humility at all, I'm sure he was overwhelmed with the crushing burden. He saw what it did to Moses all those many years, and now he was called upon to pick it up and to take it along. We've seen this again and again in Scripture and also in church history, the young inexperienced being trained and prepared to take on that torch, that mantle, on into the future. David and Solomon, David, speaking of his son, not disrespectfully and not without love, but saying, "My son, Solomon, is young and inexperienced, and this temple that is to be built will be a great and majestic temple for the glory of God. So my son needs some help," said David concerning Solomon.

And then there's the Elijah and Elisha relationship, where Elijah is called by God to go put his mantle on Elisha and call him as his successor in ministry. And that was the very mantle that was left behind when Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire and in a whirlwind. It was with that mantle, the mantle that had been passed on to Elisha, that he struck the river and was able to cross through on dry ground and continue the ministry in the power of the Spirit. This is also a recurring theme, not just in Scripture, but also in church history.

A little while ago, I was reading about the end of Augustine's life, and four years before he died, he handed over the administrative duties of the church in Hippo, in North Africa, in Hippo, to his assistant, Eraclius. Imagine being Eraclius at his own installation ceremony, as the old man is sitting on the Bishop's throne just behind him, and he's preaching a sermon. This awesome presence of Augustine, listening to your first sermon in that post. Overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy in Augustine's presence, Eraclius said, "The cricket chirps, the swan is silent." So he felt himself to be a cricket, a grasshopper in his own eyes, while the swan sat back there, so majestic.

Again and again, the great men of church history have passed on to those that follow. The great women of church history have trained another generation of godly women to take up after them. Again and again, it's been seen. When William Carey died at age 73, a young missionary who was just beginning his ministry was overcome with grief, but remembered again the sovereignty of God, and remembered again the timelessness of God. This is what that missionary said, "And what shall we do? God has taken our Elijah to Heaven, but we must not be discouraged. The God of missions lives forever. His cause must go on, with our departed leader, all is well. Amen and amen. He has finished his course gloriously, but now the work descends on us."

And G. Campbell Morgan, who was a pastor at Westminster Chapel, handed over in July of 1943 the reins of that ministry to a young preacher from Wales named Martin Lloyd Jones. And in his resignation letter, G. Campbell Morgan wrote, "I have to place in your hands my resignation to take effect at the end of August. It is not an easy thing to do. On John Wesley's monument in the Abbey, the words are found, 'God buries His workmen, but He carries on His work.'" And so it is. God ordained 20 centuries of church history at least after Christ. And so the torch must be passed on, the next generation must be prepared. They must take up where the mentor has left off. They must pick up this work. And what an awesome burden it is, that both the old and the young have to face. That the aged have to be worthy of being mentors. They have to have lived lives worthy of emulation, and they have to be willing to say, as Paul will say later in Philippians 4, "Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it in practice and the God of peace will be with you."

But yet, with all of that, there's the humility of recognizing, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants, nor he who waters, is anything, but only God who makes things grow."

And so here is Timothy, this young minister in training, being prepared by the Apostle Paul, groomed, as it were, for taking on the torch. And Timothy himself will pass it on to others. As it says in 2 Timothy 2:1 and 2, Paul speaking to Timothy, "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others also." So there's that four generations of spiritual heritage passed on, one to another.

Now Timothy's been carefully groomed for success in ministry. He was evangelized and trained by his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, prepared for a life of faith. The Apostle Paul came to town, Timothy's father was really of no account spiritually. We don't know anything about him, other than that, he was a Greek and probably not a believer or else he would've been mentioned more strongly in the Book of Acts. He was just not a presence. He was an absentee father for Timothy spiritually.

Timothy "Adopted" by Paul

But the Apostle Paul, in effect, kind of adopted Timothy. Took him under his wings. It says in 1 Timothy 1:2, and this is so precious, it says, "To Timothy, my true son in the faith." There's a sense of that adoption, the Greek word there is of children born in wedlock. "This is my genuine son." That's the way he thought.

Now, clearly, he's meaning "spiritually." Now, of course back then, it was possible as it is today, for a significant person like Paul to adopt somebody and make him his legal heir. That's how we get to go to Heaven, by the spirit of adoption. We are adopted into the family of God. God has one only begotten son, Jesus Christ, but we are His adopted children. And I think that's the way Paul felt toward Timothy. It was somewhat like an apprenticeship. And he was going to get him ready, he was training him for ministry.

Look at verse 22. He says, "You know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the Gospel." What an incredible discipleship opportunity have you fathers for your sons and your daughters as well. Parents have a great discipleship opportunity, and I would say more than that, responsibility to train their children spiritually.

Get them ready for their work. Get them ready for the good works that God has ordained in advance that they should walk in them, Ephesians 2:10. It's for you to shape them and to prepare them and get them ready. So also the church in a lesser way, but parents, first and foremost, to prepare that next generation and get them ready. He says, "As a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the Gospel." Somehow, I fear that we're losing that, the father-son relationship. I think there's so many forces pulling families apart so that they're atomized, and there isn't that quality time for fathers and sons to spend doing just simple projects. We could imagine... It's not in the Bible, but we could imagine Jesus and his earthly father, Joseph, working in the carpentry shop, because Jesus was called a carpenter, in Mark's Gospel. Where did he learn that skill? It's got to be from his father, Joseph, his earthly father. But how much more Jesus and his Heavenly Father? As we're studying in the Sunday school, in the International Sunday School, in John chapter 5, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. My Father is always at His work to this very day. And I, too, am working." And so Jesus is at work.

Whatever the father does, the son wants to do. He wants to imitate his father. He doesn't want to do anything that his father's not doing, and never was there a man who so perfectly met that criteria as Jesus Christ. Only did what His Father was doing, and never anything His Father wasn't doing. "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." I don't want to do anything that God's not doing, do you? What a waste of time to build up a whole structure and see it come crashing down, because it was not in God's will. But Jesus never did anything like that. He served perfectly, as a son, with His Father. And at a lesser level, so also Timothy served with his father, spiritual father, Paul, in the work of the Gospel.

May I say to you, fathers, take time to disciple your children. Redeem the time. Make the most of the days, they're so brief, aren't they? Our days are like a vapor. They're here for a little while, and then they vanish. Make the most of it. And younger folks who're just having new children coming in, realize what a great opportunity you have. Listen to what I'm saying now, and realize what an opportunity it is for you to shape and to train the next generation of church history. And those of you whose children are grown, realize you still have a valuable ministry here in the church to prepare young parents, to shape and mold their children as well. And even apart from the biological relationships within the family, we can mentor and disciple young spiritual children, as it were, bringing them along in the faith, just as Tim Schuman did with me.

Timothy’s Qualities for Success in Ministry

Now, as we look at Timothy, we see some qualities for success in ministry right in this text. First of all, a rare and genuine interest in the welfare of God's people. He says... He has a genuine interest in your welfare. The word "genuine" there means a true interest. He's truly interested, it's not fake, but it goes to the core of his being. And the word "interest" is, we're going to mention in a moment a little bit more, means he's literally kind of anxious over you. He's concerned about your welfare, spiritually. That's Timothy. He has a genuine anxiety, as it were, over how you're doing spiritually. And it's rare. He says, "I have no one else like him." Now this is very unusual, the spirit in this young man. It's an unusual spirit. "I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest…" And it also says, "For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." "I have no one else like him... Everyone looks out for their own interest." This is a rare individual, Timothy.

And so clearly, Paul, in this glorified thank-you letter, which is Philippians, is establishing Timothy as a key leader, because Timothy, I think, is going to go back to the Philippians with Paul's letter. And so he wants them to think well of Timothy and receive him so that they can benefit from his ministry. He has a rare and genuine interest in the Philippians.

Secondly, he has proven loyalty and dedication to the great commission. As I already mentioned, it says, "Everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself." What it means is that his mind is focused on the great commission. He's focused on the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He wants to build the kingdom. He's thinking Christ's thoughts after Him. What does Christ care about, except His own glory and the building up of His kingdom and the benefit of the people of God?

And Timothy thinks about the same thing. He's not thinking about his own thoughts, and his own career, and what he wants to do with his life; he's thinking Jesus' thoughts after Him. And he was, in this way, I think, very much like-minded with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul said, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace." They were kindred spirits, Paul and Timothy. Genuine interest. He also had a good reputation among believers. Paul says, "You know that Timothy has proved himself." A good reputation in ministry is vital for success. In Proverbs 22:1, it says, "A good name is more desirable than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold." In order to be an elder, you have to have good reputation with outsiders, so that the Gospel will be held in honor. This is required for being an elder. And if something were to happen in the life of an elder or a pastor which would besmirch greatly his reputation and there's truth in it and a reason for the reputation to be besmirched, then he can't continue ministering.

Now this is the kind of thing that is a challenge. The need to maintain a good reputation, an honorable reputation, before unbelievers in the outside world. Philip's book said that preaching is truth delivered through personality. It's not just an angel from Heaven or some person you don't know standing up in front of you, teaching you the Word, but it's somebody that you can know whose life you can observe. I think this is somewhat connected theologically to the issue of the incarnation, that Jesus lived among us and we beheld His glory. We could see the way He lived. And so, there was a mixture or a marriage, I would say, of a lifestyle of holiness and godliness with right doctrine. And so Paul commands Timothy to watch his life and doctrine closely. It's so vital that you watch both, not just your life and not just your doctrine, watch them both closely. And so, he had a good reputation among believers. And fourthly, he had a servant heart. He says, "You know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the Gospel." This is this man, Timothy, and well-worth emulating.

We also have another role model before us, and it's this man, Epaphroditus. We know a lot more about Timothy than we do about Epaphroditus, but Epaphroditus gets some attention here. Now, who was Epaphroditus? He was their messenger who was sent from Philippi with the money that they were giving. Paul needed money in order to keep living, really hard to make money while you're in prison. Very, very difficult to do. And so, there has to be an outside support system, and if Epaphroditus was chosen by the Philippian church to bring the money to Paul in prison. Look at verse 25 and following. Paul writes, "But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me."

Now, what was Epaphroditus' dangerous mission? You think, "Well, what's the big deal about taking a huge amount of money across roads in the 1st-century world to where Paul was?" Well, nowadays, we would hire Brinks or Wells Fargo in a truck to protect that kind of money. Of course, there was great danger. It was actually almost expected on some roads that you would be attacked by brigands. Paul was attacked by highwaymen numerous times, as he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 when listing his sufferings. And so, it almost was expected that he would have to fend off an attack or survive it, or somehow get that money through without being robbed. Very dangerous. It was also dangerous in terms of guilt by association. When he got to wherever Paul was, perhaps Rome, and he began to have commerce or conversation with him, the Roman authorities might assume that he was part and parcel with all that uprising, and they might very well arrest him and put him in prison. It took great courage to be with a prisoner who was under these kinds of charges.

But as it turns out, the real threat to Epaphroditus' life was neither one of these things; it was illness. It was physical illness. It was sickness. Could be just from the disease of being in a prison, I don't really know, we don't know that much about where Paul was. But we do know this, Epaphroditus was ill. And not just with any illness, but with a grave illness, serious illness, to the point even of death. And so he had a dangerous mission. Therefore, his mission, we could call a courageous gamble. He was willing to risk his life, that's what the text literally says. Verse 30, "He almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me." Now I want to speak very clear about risk in the issue of missions. There're some things that cannot be risked, because they are beyond our reach. You can "store up treasure in Heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal, and they will never be at risk." Isn't that glorious? There's no risk at all for heavenly treasure. But there are earthly valuable things, aren't there? Things that matter to us. Like our life, our health, our reputation, material possessions, loved ones. These things are actually at risk when you do missions.

When you're willing to step out in faith, for example, trying to lead some people at work, and the non-Christians there have a certain opinion of you, "Oh, he's a nice guy, likes to talk about sports," or "He's a good engineer," or "He's this or that," or "She's a nice lady, she did this or that. Nice person," you're going to risk that to share the Gospel with them. You got to be willing to trade it in. because it's not worth much anyway, to be honest with you. It really isn't, it's barely worth the paper it's printed on, but they think well of you, kind of, to the level that non-Christians think of you. You have to be willing to risk it, to trade it in, to get uncomfortable for the advance of the Gospel. You've got to be, kind of, in one sense, I want you to understand, a gambler, in order to advance the Gospel. It's not guaranteed that you'll get sick. It's not guaranteed that highwaymen will attack you and take your money. It's not guaranteed that you'll be arrested by the Romans, it's not guaranteed you'll be persecuted in those ways. But you have to be willing to risk them.

A year ago, when there was the big SARS epidemic, you remember that? Big story right after the second Gulf War was ended, and the voracious media vacuum was looking for a story, and SARS was it. And we were thinking this was going to overwhelm the world, I remember, the headlines and all this kind of thing. At that time, we were planning our mission trip to a large populous East Asian nation. And as we were preparing that mission trip to large populous East Asian nation, we had to decide, were we willing to risk the lives of those that would go? Now, we had some information from people that we knew that said it's not a major issue there, but it was an issue. There were people that were getting that illness, and we had to pray through.

And it was thinking about this passage and others that made me realize you cannot advance the Kingdom of Heaven without some risk. You have to be willing to die. Jesus said in John 12, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, [if it's willing to risk] it will bear many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it. But the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." That's risk. You have to be willing to say goodbye to some valuable things in this world in order to advance the kingdom.

Epaphroditus’s Rewards

Well, what are Epaphroditus' rewards? First, honor for men. Look at verse 29 and 30. It says there, "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor men like him." Honor him, "because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me."

Paul says it's right to give honor to people like Epaphroditus. Earthly honor from other Christians is a strong inducement to a life of faithfulness. It is a benefit, an encouragement in the ministry, but I want to give you some warnings about it. There are some warnings that come from this kind of earthly honor that church people give to other church people. Honors, number one, should recognize God's grace in the achievement. They should recognize that apart from the grace of God, that individual could never have done that thing.

Secondly, honor should not be done in an earthly or kind of pagan way, but in a very Christian way, an encouragement to greater service to Christ. Thirdly, earthly honor should not be the individual person's goal in service. Jesus covers that in Matthew 6, we don't do our good works before men to be seen by them. And if nobody ever honors you, God sees it all. And wouldn't you rather have God's reward than human honor? I would. And the fourth, honor should not be, therefore, a source of jealousy among church members. But yet, we should honor each other, shouldn't we? We should encourage, we should find the good things that brothers and sisters are doing in this church, and encourage them. This should be just a hot house of encouragement for greater service to God.

So let's find things that are worthy of encouragement and honor, and do it. But I'll tell you this, Epaphroditus right now isn't thinking a lot about the Philippians' honor, is he? He is thinking about a different honor that Jesus mentioned right after those verses in John 12:26. "Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am, My servant also will be." That's enough reward right there, just to be with Jesus. And then he says this, "My father will honor the one who serves Me." That's John 12:26. That's honor worth living for, isn't it? And so Epaphroditus is honored in Heaven now for his service to God.

Now the third aspect of this text that I find fascinating is a true insight into the Apostle Paul as a role model. It's easy to put this man up on a pedestal, isn't it? To say he was a perfect person, a marble saint. Had no flaws, no real struggles, this kind of thing. Everything he did was easy, but we see some paradoxes here.

Paul’s Earthly Hope in a Life of Heavenly-Mindedness

First of all, Paul has an earthly hope in the middle of a life of heavenly-mindedness. What is his earthly hope? "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon," he says. In verse 23, "I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me." There is the earthly heavenly hope that no one can take from us. It's kept in heaven for us. That hope is the anchor of our soul and it will not give way. But then there are earthly hopes along the way. And this was one of Paul's, he was hoping to send Timothy. No guarantee that it would happen, just hoping that he could do it.

Now, realize, back then, communication across the empire took a long time. I mean, as recently as the 19th century, missionaries like Adoniram Judson, he could write a letter and wait two years to get a response to his letter. Timothy was going to be the messenger from Paul to Timothy, and so he has an earthly hope that Timothy will fulfill that role. Lottie Moon, for whom the Lottie Moon Christmas offering is named, was starving and well near death before anyone really knew about it, because of how slow the communication was, even as recently is about 100 years ago. And so, communication was slow back in the 1st century Roman Empire. Timothy was, Paul hoped, going to be the messenger who would take this letter back to the Philippians.

Paul’s Anxiety in a Life of Faith

Now, Paul's desire is to be cheered by Philippians' spiritual health. He says, "I want to be cheered when I receive news about you." We see here then, I think, a vulnerability in Paul. And what I would call an anxiety in a life of faith. What kind of anxiety is it possible for a believer to have? The fact of the matter is later in this text or in this letter, Paul's going to say, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." But here, Paul is greatly anxious, isn't he? What's he anxious over? Well, he's anxious over the spiritual condition of the Philippian church. And so, he has great anxiety in a life of faith. The fact of the matter is, we have no guarantee, no guarantee, that this or that person that we're ministering to is going to end up in Heaven. We have promises from God that people who believe in Christ will end up in Heaven.

We know from Scripture that those who are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world will most certainly end up in Heaven, but are the Philippians in that category? Paul's not sure. He hopes so. Time will tell, but he doesn't know for sure. And so he's anxious. And he's anxious over the Galatian churches. Anxious like a mother in childbirth. He says in Galatians 4, "until Christ is formed in you," and he knows that they're believers. He's anxious over the Thessalonian church. In 2 Corinthians 12, he says, "I face daily, constantly, the pressure being worried about these churches that I've planted." The very thing that Timothy was also anxious over, the Philippians. He's concerned.

Parents, probably anxious over the spiritual condition of their children. Do you know for sure that your children are going to be with you in Heaven? I don't. I pray, and I yearn for them, and I train them, and I pray, and I desire. But I've said to them many times, well, I keep saying, "You can't go to Heaven on my faith. You must be a believer." And time will tell. So Paul has a godly anxiety in the midst of his life of faith. He's concerned. Look at verse 28, "I'm all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again, you may be glad and I may have," what? Look at it, "less anxiety." He's concerned, he's anxious. "Oh, you hypocrite, Paul. You told us we shouldn't be anxious for anything." Well, I think he means, be anxious for nothing in that you don't pray, and trust God over it. In the end, he conquers his anxiety by prayer, but he is anxious.

Paul’s Sorrow in a Life of Joy

Thirdly, we see Paul's sorrow in a life of joy. Philippians is rightly called an "epistle of joy" because of the number of times that Paul displays or commands joy. He says in Philippians 1:18, "Because of this, I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice." Philippians 2:17, he says, "Even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." And then in verse 18 of that same chapter, 2:18, "So, you too should be glad and rejoice with me." In Philippians 3:1, he says, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord." Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice." And then 4:10, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me." Chapter 4, he's going to say, "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 Christ who gives me strength."

However, in this section of the epistle, we get a glimpse into his true heart. And here he speaks about being spared sorrow upon sorrow. Do you see it? Look at verse 27, "Indeed, Epaphroditus was ill and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow," overwhelming sorrow. Hmm. Hmm, how can you have overwhelming sorrow and still live a life of joy? That's a big question. Is it possible to just kind of sail blissfully through this world, never being touched by sorrow or sadness? Do you really think that's even a Christian goal? Was not Jesus a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering? Was that not Christ who is weeping over Jerusalem? Was it not Christ who was sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane? Was it not Jesus who said, "I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed [as in a straitjacket] I am until it is completed"?

It is not a Christian virtue to be blissfully untouched by misery and pain as you sail through this world. That is not what "rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, rejoice" means. Philippians 2:27 gives me insight here. Instead I think what we ought to do is say, "This world is filled with pain and suffering and struggling, difficulty. And things that are precious to me, I may well lose, and I'm going to hurt over them. But I'm going to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning at shame, and sat down at the right hand of God."

Now that gives me the ability to rejoice in the midst of great sorrow and suffering. It's not in your outline there but you might want to take a pen and write down 2 Corinthians 6:10, in which these two come together. 2 Corinthians 6:10, Paul speaks of himself as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing, as poor and yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. So it's possible as a Christian to be sorrowful and yet always rejoicing. If your child is diagnosed with Leukemia this year, are you going to want somebody to come and say, in effect, "Don't worry, be happy"? Is that going to minister to you? For somebody to quote Philippians 4:4 and say, "Rejoice in the Lord always"? In the end, that will give you great joy, but realize, in this world, you will have trouble. But in Christ, you have peace. We don't have an ostrich joy, but we have one that faces the realities of suffering in this world and is able to be joyful anyway, and why? Because 2 Corinthians 4:17 says, "Our light and momentary troubles are working in us a glory that far outweighs them all."

Paul’s Weakness in a Life of Power

And finally we see Paul's weakness in a life of power. Do you realize that few people have ever had as powerful an impact on history as the Apostle Paul? How many millions of people do you think were saved through Paul's letter to Romans? Think about it. How many millions of people have been affected by Paul's epistle to the Ephesians or the Philippians? Perhaps as many as hundreds or thousands of people were saved directly through his ministry in his time on earth. How many miracles did he do? We don't know. But he did some. A powerful life, courageous and bold, a world-changing life, and yet here in Philippians 2, we see, really, a man of great weakness and dependency. He's hoping that he can send Timothy to the Philippians, he's not sure whether that will work out or not. He's dependent on the Philippians to send him money so that he can eat, ultimately dependent on God, but he is the picture of dependency and weakness. And frankly, in the end, I believe that was Paul's greatest sanctification lesson. He was a ladder-climbing Pharisee, he had the world by the tail, he was a powerful guy, he knew all the right moves to make, courageous and strong. God taught Paul to be nothing, to be totally dependent on God, so that he would realize that he only lives except at God's word.

2 Corinthians 1:8 and 9, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life, indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death. But this happened so that we might no longer rely on ourselves but on God Who raises the dead." And so we see in Paul a life of weakness in the middle of a life of power. Total dependence on God, a thorn in the flesh, teaching him every day, "My grace is sufficient for you, Paul, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

What kind of application can we get out of these three men? Well, first, honor godly role models. Honor Timothy's proven dedication, serving like a son with his father in the Gospel work. Honor Epaphroditus' courageous gamble, his willingness to die, even, for the advance of the Gospel. And honor Paul, so genuine, so dependent on God, so trusting. Secondly, learn the true Christian life. As we've just been discussing, it's not a fake life, is it? It's not a life of saying, "I'm fine, I'm a Christian. Everything is always fine for me." No, as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, able to trust in God even in the hardest times.

Thirdly, risk more for Christ. Next week, you'll have an opportunity to go out and witness. Every week, there are between 300 and 400 people that come and worship with us. Every month, we have an outreach in which between 30 and 40 people come. Now, I'm not really sure what God is going to call you to do next Sunday afternoon. I believe there will be callings for people who are sitting and listening to me other than going out and witnessing, but I want you to pray seriously about what that calling would be. Realize that our time on earth is brief, and God is calling on us to witness. This church is making available to you an opportunity to reach out to those who haven't heard the Gospel before. Pray through being involved, be willing to risk your Sunday afternoon. Be willing to risk not eating your favorite lunch. There will be food available, it just not necessarily going to be your favorite lunch, but it's very good, I enjoy it, I really do. And you'll enjoy it too, alright? The folks that put that together, we love them, okay? We are grateful for the food, it just may not be your favorite lunch. But you will be fed. But more than that, you'll be able to say with Jesus, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and finish His work."

And fourth, focus again on living for the reward of the honor from God. Paul, that baptism was powerful, and be able to think, "I want to know Christ, I want Him to be pleased with me at the end of my life." You brought me to tears, brother. I want us to live for the honor of God. That God would look at us at the end of our lives and honor us. I'm not so worried about whether the Philippian church honors me or not, but I am concerned about whether God is pleased with my life. And that matters to me.

Andy Davis preaches a topical sermon on Scripture memorization. The sermon explores scriptures that encourage memorization, common objections, and the benefits of memorization.  

This is an unusual Sunday. Ordinarily, I would choose a passage of Scripture and just preach through it. That's called expository preaching, and that's what I like to do, and that's my desire as a regular basis, but this is a topical sermon. You'll understand the significance of that. This is a topical sermon on Scripture memorization. But I'm excited and I've been looking forward to preaching this for a long time. I believe that, on Judgment Day, when I have the mixed experience of looking back over every moment of my life with Jesus as my guide, and my filter, and my Judge, I will look back on one particular time in the summer of '86, as one of the greatest days of my life. And it's funny how you don't expect when you wake up that morning, that that's going to be one of the greatest days of your life. And frankly, I didn't know it even when the sun went down that day, that something had happened to me that day, that would change the rest of my life. But I was on a mission trip in Kenya, and I was waiting for a bus. Now, in America, buses come at 11:14 or 10:17 or something like that. Same thing in Japan, the bullet trains come down to the 30 seconds. 

In Kenya, the buses come in the morning or in the afternoon. And when I tried to get more specific about it, the Kenyan pastor that I asked looked at me puzzled. He said, "In the afternoon, the bus will come." So I thought, alright. Being an American there, I appeared at the bus station at 11:50, just to be sure, in case it was a little bit earlier or their watches were fast. I didn't want to miss that bus. The bus eventually came at 4 o'clock, something like 4 o'clock, I don't know. I kind of got the idea around 12:30 or 1 that it was going to come in the afternoon and that was that. So what am I going to do? And I had with me a copy of the whole Bible, and I had done some Scripture memorization in college, but at this moment, the Lord gave me the idea of memorizing the book of Ephesians. I almost had enough time to do it that afternoon as I was waiting for the bus, but I just started with Ephesians 1:1, and I just kept going that summer, and I had six, seven weeks of mission trip left. I was there for 10 weeks.  

When I got back to the United States, I made a fateful decision, probably one of the most important decisions I've ever made in terms of spiritual discipline in my life. I decided to keep going. I was in chapter 3 or so, and I just kept going. And it was a big decision, because once I got sucked back into that American lifestyle with the busy-ness that we all know, it was very, very tough to make the sacrifices needed to keep that habit going. It was easier on the mission field, easier. But I did and God blessed. And since then, I've continued, and it was 1986 and that's, coming up this year, 18 years of Scripture memorization. And so, I'm standing before you today, in all, I guess, reverence, as a salesman. I don't get any commission for this, but I'm trying to persuade you to memorize extended portions of Scripture in the year 2004, and that's it. That's the message.  

Now, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to buttress it with ten verses that I've found, encourage the memorization of Scripture. Then I'm going to take ten of the favorite objections that I've heard from you and others of why this is not for you, and I'm going to take them on and try to refute them. And then number three, I'm going to give you the sweetness of the blessings, 10 of them, and they're far more than that, that have come specifically from memorization. So that's what we're doing this morning, and you have everything you need, I think, in the outline. You can take these things home and look at them.   

But let's begin our journey in John, chapter 15. And I'm not going to ask that you look at each verse in the Bible, but this one, I would like to ask that you turn, because I'm going to start with this one and spend more time here than the others. The others, you can look up at another time, but let's open up to John 15 and start with this.  

Now, as you're turning, I want to say this. This is an appeal for Scripture memorization, and these are verses that encourage memorization. You notice that I do not say that these are verses that command Scripture memorization. I have looked and I was trying to find but didn't find anywhere that memorization is commanded of Christians. You're not commanded anywhere to memorize the Bible. I believe you are commanded to meditate on the Bible, that is true. But I don't find anywhere directly where it says, "Thou shalt memorize Scripture," that this is something God definitely is commanding you to do. But I believe that you can come very close to that in some of these verses that we've looked at here. And if the command is to be fruitful and to be obedient and to walk with the Lord, etcetera, I honestly, in many ways, don't know any other way to do it than memorization. So that comes about as close as I can get to a command from Scripture, but this is just an appeal and verses that encourage. It is possible, very possible, for you to be a fruitful, mature, godly Christian and not memorize Scripture. I want to get that on record, that it's not something that's required. But it's such an incredible advantage that I don't know why you wouldn't want to do it. So that's where we're starting.  

Well, let's look at John 15. Now, John 15:1-18 are some of the most wonderful verses you'll ever find on the Christian life. There, we have that beautiful analogy from our Lord, that he is the vine, the living vine, and that we are the branches, and that if we remain in him, like a branch remains in the vine, we will bear much fruit. Apart from him, we can do nothing. Now, in these verses, I think, we're going to find perhaps the strongest encouragement to memorization, at least that I find anywhere. But let's get the context first. he says in John 15, verse 2, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit". So fruitless branches are cut off. It means they're not Christians. They're not bearing any fruit in life. "While every branch that does bear fruit", it says he prunes in the NIV, "He prunes, so it'll be even more fruitful". 

And then in verse 3 it says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." Do you see these verses? Now, this is interesting because the verb is the same in verse 2 and verse 3. Basically, he cleans every branch in me so that it'll be even more fruitful; you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Now, I believe verse 2 is talking about the process of sanctification, where sin and the evil stuff gets cleaned out of our lives, and also just dead-end things that we do that may seem like God's will but really aren't going to be very fruitful, he cuts those things off, prunes them like a gardener would prune a vine or a plant, so that it will be even more fruitful and more full in the end. he's cleaning your life up. And then he assures you in verse 3, "You're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you." Now, this is that great understanding of justification and sanctification that, positionally, you are already perfect in Christ. 

And yet, he's going to be cleaning you up as you go in your Christian life. Isn't that wonderful? "You're already clean". But I'm going to clean you up. That's the mystery here. Well, the point I'm making though is in verse 3. What is it that makes you already clean? "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you". Our being clean before God is directly connected to the Word of Christ that he spoke. Therefore, is it too much to think that also our ongoing sanctification, our ongoing cleaning, will be connected to the Word that He speaks to us? Of course it is. He's going to keep speaking words of cleanliness to us. He's going to keep talking to us, and as he talks and as we listen, we will be progressively made more and more like Christ. So that's the context. Already clean, but I'm going clean you up and I'm going to do it by the Word that I speak to you. 

Now, look down at verse 7. He said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be my disciples." Now, verse 7, I think, is the best single verse, command or exhortation, we could say, toward memorization. Why do I say that? Well, there's a double condition given here. My kids and I talked about this as we drove in. I said, "Now, suppose I told you, if you clean your room according to the standard," that's important, by the way, in our family, "If you clean the room according to the standard in the next 30 minutes and after that, in 15 minutes after that, you fold the laundry, I will take you out for ice cream."  

I said to them this morning, "What if you only clean your room?" No, what I actually said was taking them to the Durham Bulls game. They said, "No Bulls game." I said, "Alright, what if you only fold the laundry?" "No Bulls game." "What if you do neither? Fold the laundry nor clean the room?" "Definitely no Bulls game. Definitely." Okay? This is a double condition. Number one, you must remain in Christ. What does that mean? Moment by moment abiding in him, following him, thinking about him, in this example, keeping him in the forefront of your mind. The mind controlled by the Spirit is a mind saturated with the life of Christ. You're abiding in him thinking, following, obeying. That's the first condition. You're abiding in him. And what? My words, plural, abide or live or remain in you. That's the second condition. 

Now, I would just like to ask you, how can that happen apart from memorization? How are you going to have his words, plural, his nouns, his verbs, his adjectives, adverbs, syntax, train of thought? How are you going to have that living and glowing and growing in you if you don't memorize? I think you can, and I already said that, through deep meditation. But I just think a shortcut to that is memorizing the words.  

Alright, double condition. What then? Well, ask whatever you wish. In a way, that's a third condition. You had to have a prayer life, but you will. Ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. Well, what do you get? Well, "This is to my Father's glory." Stop there. That's the point. Not that you would be able to stand up and recite the Sermon on the Mount or your favorites. That's not going to get... Nobody's going to listen really. That's not why you would do memorization. You memorize so that you may glorify God, and bear much fruit for him and prove yourself to be his disciple. Prove yourself to whom? He already knows who his disciples are. Prove that to yourself and to the world by being abundantly fruitful. 

And so, I think that Christ's words, plural, should dwell or abide or remain in you. I think you should memorize them. So I think if you get no other verses of the other ones that I'm going to cover very quickly now, this is a very strong exhortation that Christ's words, plural, would dwell or live or abide in you.   

But there are others. Look on your bulletin insert, they're listed there. Colossians 3:16, for example. There in Colossians 3:16, it says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Just think about that phrase with me. Let the word of Christ live or take up residence in you richly. Is it possible for that to be done without memorization? Of course it is. But what I'm saying is that, the Word must come and just take over the place. Have you ever had a relative that came and just kind of took over the place? We haven't, but...That's on record. We have not had such a relative. But at any rate, I've heard that it happens. The word of Christ is supposed to come in and just take over the place. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Now later I'm going to talk about benefits, but you see the benefits here? Teaching ministry, mutual counseling and admonishing, and good solid worship all flow from letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. 

Third, Psalm 1, which Herbert read so beautifully. Psalm 1:1-3, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf never withers. Whatever he does, prospers." Now, that's a promise of blessing. Whatever he does prospers.  

People talk to me, as a pastor, about this church and say, "What is your strategy for growth?" I said, "I put all my eggs in one basket, Psalm 1:1-3." Whatever we do will prosper if we do this. God said so. If we meditate on his Word day and night. Now again, I want to ask you, how are you going to do that? How are you going to meditate on God's Word day and night? Now you can carry around that big King James Bible with you and whip it out and meditate on it, but I think you may have some problems. You may get fired, actually. But you can do that. And it is quite possible, but think, how would you do it as a Jew living around the time of King David? Now, if you were David, you would have a copy of God's Word. But other than that, if you're just a man living in Israel, you would not have access to the written w ord. You'd have to go to the synagogue or the temple and hear it taught. You must memorize it if you're going to meditate on it day and night. 

And what comes of it? Oh, abundant fruitfulness. You'll be blessed in everything you do. Everything you try, your family life, your marriage, your work life, your church life, and your service to God, your evangelism. In so many different areas, you're going to be blessed in everything you do, if you meditate on God's Word day and night. 

Fourthly, Joshua 1:8 is similar. It says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then, you'll be prosperous and successful." Here obviously, God has in mind, as he's preparing Joshua for entering the Promised Land and conquering, he says, "Let's start at the beginning, start with the Word of God, start with the law of Moses," which was freshly finished at that point. Book of Deuteronomy, just brand new. And he said, "Don't let it depart from your mouth." That's an interesting expression, but I think it means don't let it slip away from you, don't forget it, but speak it, talk it over, murmur it, meditate on it day and night. Again, I've told you that Scripture meditation is certainly commanded. But I think if you're going to meditate day and night and not let God's Word depart from your mouth, how could you this better than by memorizing?  

Look at number five, Psalm 119. Some people would say this is the best verse in the Bible on memorization. I think the Navigators in the Topical Memory System approach, they say this is proof that God wants us to memorize, and so it may be. But Psalm 119:11, it says, "I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." This will be one of the benefits I'll talk about in a moment. Protection from sin. But what does it mean to hide God's Word in your heart? Could it not be to memorize it, to take it in, to work on it until you can recite it by heart? Isn't that what we--When we say, I know something by heart, it means you have it memorized. You just love it and know it enough to go over it until you just can say it by heart. Hide God's Word in your heart. Psalm 119, verse 11, so that you might not sin against God . 

This is a new one. Number six, the book of James. It's not new in that I hadn't read James before, but in relation to Scripture memorization. Look at it. It says, "Do not merely listen to the word." This is 1:22. I had to cut these down a little bit, so you don't get all the verses in there. I wanted it on one page on your outline. But in James 1:22 and following, it says, "Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and then after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." Verse 25, "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does." 

Alright, now granted, James 1:22-25 has one main point, and that is, don't just listen to the word; obey. And so in your memorization and meditation and learning of God's Word, it is not enough simply to know it, you must obey it. You must do what it says. But look again at the words in verse 25. It says, "He looks intently into the law and keeps looking and then goes away and doesn't forget what it says." Well, that's kind of what I do when I memorize. I keep looking at the words and repeating them and reciting them until I don't forget them having gone away. That's memorization and a great assistance to a lifestyle of obedience.  

And then there's the parenting verse, one of the great parenting verses, in Deuteronomy 6:6 and 7. Number seven. It says, "These commandments that I give you today," speaking to parents, specifically to fathers, in Deuteronomy, it says, "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts." You're to take these commandments into your heart. They're to mean something to you. They are not just idle words for you; they are your life. So take the words, the commandments of God into your hearts, fathers. And then it says, verse 7, "Impress them upon your children." I've talked about this before. It means sharpen them through repetition into your children. Repeat them, repeat them, repeat them, repeat them, so that they know the Word of God. Impress them into your children. "Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  

How are you going to do that? You're going to have the big Torah scroll with you, at that point, carry it around with you at all times? No, you could talk about what you have meditated on and come to understand, and that's acceptable. You don't have to recite it verbally perfectly in order to get the point and have benefit. That's not needed. But memorization is a great assistance to this, isn't it? You're driving along the road, you're on one of those seven or eight hour drives around the holiday time, what better way to use the time than to recite Scripture and talk about it with your children? Talk about it when you're driving along the road. Transform your dinner time by making it saturated with Scripture.  

It was said of John Wesley that he read the Bible and meditated and memorized so much, that his blood was "bibling." his blood was made of Bible. If you pricked him, he bled Bible. He just spoke Bible all the time. Saturate your family life with the Bible, saturate it. Talk about these things all the time—sitting, rising, going, coming, eating, finished eating, doing the dishes, talking about the Word of God. 

Eight. Jesus is out in the desert in Matthew chapter 4, being tempted by the devil. He goes forty days and forty nights without eating anything. The devil comes to him and says, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written," quote. He didn't say quote but there it is. "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Do you see that? Okay, so he quotes Scripture. It's Deuteronomy 8:3. What are the odds that Jesus had the Torah scroll with him out in the desert? Would you put it about at zero? That's what I think. I think it's pretty much at zero. I believe Jesus was a great Scripture memorizer. I think he had the whole word in his heart. He certainly didn't have the Torah scroll or the Psalms when he was dying on the cross and quoting, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" What was true of Wesley was infinitely more true Jesus. He just spoke and exuded Bible all the time. And he gave us the way to fight temptation, didn't he? The devil comes, and you answer, "It is written, quote," and then out it comes, the Word of God, Deuteronomy 8:3.  

Furthermore, this verse teaches me that I believe extended memorization of Scripture rather than topical verses is best. Most every system out there is a topical verse system. I got one this week from John MacArthur. Excited to see it. I'm glad that he's exhorting people to memorize. And let me say very clearly, I would rather have you memorize topical verses, your favorite verses, than memorize no verses. But I would rather have you memorize chapters and books than individual verses. And why? Because some of the greatest things I've ever learned have been from unpredictable verses that I thought didn't say anything, or much. And they've given me a sense that the Word of God will never fail me to teach me new things about God. So, if you memorize whole chapters and books, you will gain an incredible confidence that every word from Scripture has come from God. No doubt about it. Your confidence will be so high and no Duke professor, or any other university professor can damage it in the least. Not even a small amount. Because you're absolutely convinced that every single word is God-breathed.  

Number nine and number 10, they kind of go together. Here, Solomon, a father, is giving advice to his son. But I really take this--I must tell you, when I read the book of Proverbs, I'm not listening to Solomon really talking to his son. Was it Rehoboam? I don't know. Rehoboam didn't listen very well, if so. The real deal is that my heavenly Father is speaking to me who is his son spiritually. And so when it says, "My son, listen to my words," I really take it that God is speaking to me. Because this is Scripture. And so it says, "My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you... " Do you see that? "Store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding. And if you call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding."  

In these verses, I believe, are hidden the reason I do memorization. I don't memorize that I may recite or be able to tell you what this or that verse says. I memorize so that I may understand the Word. And the understanding I never lose, even if I cannot recite the book in future years. And so I search for understanding. I want to know God. I want to know what he's like and what he wants me to do. That's why. And I'm building--or God is building within me a system, a city of truth, brick by brick, understanding by understanding, as I memorize. I'm hungry for those new insights. And so I just keep memorizing new books and keep memorizing new things. Not holding on to the old ones. There's a limit to how much this brain can hold on to at any one time, but I'm yearning for understanding. Alright, well then how do we store up his commands within us, except by memorization?  

 And then finally, Proverbs 7, same thing. "My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands, and you will live. Guard my teachings as the apple of your eye." Now, look at verse three, "Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart." I mean, that comes very close to commanding Scripture memorization. It doesn't quite get there. So I said, you know, definitely it doesn't say that you must memorize. But how are you going to write the commands of God on the tablet of your heart except that you memorize? There are other verses but these are the best 10 that I know. 

Let's look at some of the objections to Scripture memorization. Some of them have already been forming in your mind as you've been listening to this. You may...Yeah, I could say, "Alright, all of you number ones, raise your hand. Number sevens, raise your hand. Number fours, raise your hand." So you're looking for the way of escape. You're saying, "Okay, one of these doorways is for me. Okay? I don't need to memorize because of the following reasons." If I didn't list your reason here, will you please come afterwards and talk to me? Okay? If you've got reason number 11, I want to add to my list. Because I've heard a lot of these. Many of them. 

Alright, number one, "I don't have a good memory." I don't have a good memory; I forget things. Well, that is true, and that's it's a grievous thing that not everybody has an equally good memory. Some people do have better memories than others. And they will, quite frankly, memorize more Scripture than others, and that's fine. But you have a better memory than you think you do. You have memorized words to songs you don't even like. It's true. I mean, when you hear them, the words come in and you know the next verse. And you wonder, how did that happen? Well, it's in there. You have memorized more things than you really know. Your memory is better than you think. Also, your memory will improve with use. The more you do this, the better it'll get for you, the easier I'll get. It's been the case time and time again. People who have done this have said it was hard at the beginning, but it's a lot easier now. My memory is sharper. 

Secondly, "It will take too much time, and I'm just too busy." Too busy. Too busy. Are you too busy for prayer too? To busy for a personal devotional every morning? Are you too busy for a family devotional? Too busy to come to church? Too busy to witness and evangelize? Too busy to be a good steward of God's gifts to you? Too busy. Now, that may be, but then you're just too busy. These are the things of the Christian life, aren't they? Can I ask you a question? What is time for? Someday, you're going to, as I said earlier, sit with Jesus and review your life. You will. You're going to go over every decision you've made, every careless word you've spoken. Well, you'll talk about it. And you'll give an account to him. 

I want you to imagine on that day a conversation when you said, "Lord, I invested 20,000 hours in Scripture memory." And he said, "What? What a waste! Why in the world did you spend 20,000 hours memorizing Scripture?" Can you imagine Jesus saying that to you? But if, on the other hand, you amassed all of the time you've spent watching spectator sports or reading secular magazines or any of the other things, and you saw all those in that place, could you not imagine giving him an account, and he's saying at that point, "What a waste! What a waste!" Do you really think that you'll look back at the end of your life and say, "I wish I'd never memorized Scripture? What a waste of time that was!" I can't imagine that. I'll only wish I'd done it more. And so are you too busy to memorize? Well, I'm not saying that you won't have to re-arrange your life. Might have to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. You might have to change some habit patterns. That is true. But it's well worth doing. It's well worth doing. 

How about number three? "I'm too lazy, and it's hard work." Well, if you think I'm going to stand here and tell you that it isn't hard work, or I have found a system, the booklets are out there, which totally removes the hard work, and you don't have to do any hard work. What you want to do is put my booklet under your pillow and sleep for at least eight hours for seven consecutive weeks and all the verses will come streaming into your head. Do you think that's going to happen? No. Of course it's hard work. Yes, it's hard work, and frankly, that's the gift that we offer to God. That we do something diligently that's hard for his honor and his glory, that his kingdom may be advanced. That brings great honor to him. But, let's not forget what we've learned in Philippians. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who gives you energy to do his will." Do you think he will help you memorize? Will he help you get up a little earlier, maybe a half hour earlier than you're used to getting up? Will he help you to do this work? Yes, he will. And you'll find new things in your Christian life you never knew were true or possible. Yes, it's hard work. 

Alright, I want to tell you right now, I've been working at this for a long time. I'm going to tell you right now the secret to memorization. Are you ready? Because I've been doing this, I mean, this is my insight. The secret to memorization is repetition over time. That's it. Repetition over time. Just say it again and again, thousands of times over many months, and you'll get it. There you go. See? This is what you came to hear. These kinds of pearls of wisdom and insight. Repetition over time is the key to memorization. Can you do it? Yes. Can you do it without hard work? No. It will be hard work. 

Number four, "I'm not very interested. It seems boring." This is the one that scares me the most. Does the Bible seem boring to you? Do you realize that if you really believe this is, if this is really the case for you, what a great work Satan has already done in your heart? To make the most thrilling words of life boring to you shows how far gone it already is, and how much you probably more than anyone sitting in this room need to memorize, right now, emergency, if God's word is boring to you. These are not idle words; these are life. And the more I memorize and meditate and think about the Word, the more thrilling it becomes, the more exciting, the more truly the depths of the riches, the wisdom and knowledge of God, the unsearchable nature of his mind becomes clear to me. Boring? Never. Is Jesus boring? Oh, he was many things, but boring was not one of them. You're never quite sure what was going to come next. And so it is with the Word of God.  

"I've tried it before and it never really worked." Try it again. If the patient's laying on the emergency room table and they tried CPR and it didn't seem to work, do they say, "I tried it, it just didn't work." No, they keep working until the patient is resuscitated. Some things are just too important to give up on. And so, try again, please. Try again. 

"I'm too old. I don't have a good memory. I'm too old." Well, I do believe that as we age our memory, it becomes harder to memorize. But then we kind of just kick back into the "It's too hard" thing at that point. It is harder to memorize as you get older, and no doubt about it, but do it anyway. God knows how hard it is for you to remember. But do it anyway. Work at it. 

Now, what about, "I'm too young"? Well, this I don't understand. Young people memorize just by being in the same room. I mean, they just do. It just, they overhear while playing and they got it. My feeling is, I said this to my kids, "You've got years on me. I started when I was 25. You've got years on me. Do you realize you could lap me on this thing? You could go many more books than I ever got done." Okay? Take advantage of your youth. If you're a young person listening to me, if you're in middle school, memorize a book this year. Memorize Philippians, memorize Ephesians, 155 verses. Philippians is a 104. You can do it. You're not too young to memorize.  

Number seven. "I read the Bible every day, why do I need to memorize it?" Well, it is possible to read the Bible and get nothing out of it at all. Now, if you are disciplined enough to slow down and work over and savor every phrase and really work at your meditation, then you're fine, and I think you probably don't need memorization as much as somebody who just reads quickly through and gets nothing out of it. But frankly, I think they're almost two different things. You could read through the Bible in a year and get knowledge and breadth, and then you memorize one book and get knowledge and depth. Do you see what I'm saying? They're just almost to some degree two different things. You get the scope of the land, and then you get one book that just becomes your own. 

"I don't know what translation to use." Well, I think any good committee translation, like the NIV, RSV, NAS, any of these will be fine. Some have advantages and disadvantages, and you may have your favorite. You do not want to memorize paraphrase or like Living Word or something like that, that really is so far removed from the Greek text that there's no correspondence. You want to remember. But I'll tell you this, once you choose a version, you're married to it. Okay? I mean, you probably could learn a new book in it, but if you're changing versions all the time, you're going to have a hard time. 

Number nine, "I might become prideful." Well, that is always a possibility. The Scribes and Pharisees were very prideful of how much knowledge of the Bible they had. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." It is true that this might make you prideful, but I would submit to you that you are prideful already. You are. And so am I. I just think it's the native human state apart from God. The remedy for pride is Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. I think that the Bible has a great power to slay your pride, to humble you greatly. And not just because it's difficult to learn, but because it's difficult to live. How can you be prideful when you can memorize in two minutes, "Do everything without complaining or arguing," but you could live the rest of your lifetime trying to live it out? I think it actually tends to slay your pride. But if you're really worried that it might make you prideful, then memorize some scriptures specifically that have to do with human pride and how much God hates it, and it will help you in this area. 

And number 10, "I don't know how to do it." Well, now this, I might make a suggestion. Alright? There are booklets at each of the doors, one per family, and then if after 20, 30 minutes at the end of the service, there's still some left, then take them. We want them to be used. It is an approach to the extended memorization of Scripture. You may invent your own, but it's just basically an organized repetition over time, that's all. It's an approach. Try it. 

Now, what benefits, quickly, do we get? First, Psalm 119:11 already told us—protection from sin. "I've hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." The devil is constantly tempting you and pulling on you so that you would leave Christ and the Christian life. Be like Jesus. Fight temptation with, "It is written." Fight temptation with, "It is written." 

Benefits to Scripture memorization. Secondly, deeper understanding of God's word, as I've already mentioned. A kind of automatic meditation comes from memorization. You just know it better because you had to work on it enough to recite it. Meditation, a deeper understanding of the Word of God. You search for it as for hidden treasure, and for silver. 

Third, you're giving the Holy Spirit tools to work growth in you. Okay? I'm a guy. I love tools. I just do. I love to just walk through Lowe's and look at all the possibilities. Some things I know I will never own, but I just like to look at them and think of what I could do with them. Why I would ever need to join two pieces of wood with a kind of a biscuit thing, I don't have any idea. But I like to look at it. I like tools. Alright? And the more tools a guy has, the more damage he can do to his home. It's incredible. Especially with great confidence. If you have great confidence, you can just do amazing things to your home. Alright? Give the Holy Spirit tools to work on you. The Holy Spirit loves to speak his scripture to you. That's what he loves to do. People say, "I felt the Holy Spirit leading." The Holy Spirit mostly leads by speaking Scripture to you. I'm not saying he doesn't lead in matters that are not directly scriptural, like who to marry, or what job to have, or what church to go to. he does. But he mostly speaks Scripture to you to sanctify you. Give him tools to work with. 

Fourth, constant readiness for evangelism. You're giving the Holy Spirit, also, tools to work in somebody else's life as you're witnessing to them. I don't think I ever share the Gospel the same way twice. I just don't. It's, I almost do not do it the same way twice. It's different every time. They're basic ideas—God, man, Christ, response—that I get across every time, but the verses I use are different based on the conversation I'm having with a person. The Bible says that we should be ready in season and out of season. We should always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us to give us a reason for the hope that we have. We prepare ourselves by memorizing verses that we use in witnessing.  

Number five, redeeming the time and storing up treasure in heaven. Time's a ticking, folks. It's moving on. Alright? I look on my life as kind of like a brick wall with mortar in between. I've got these brick events that happen, and they just are what they are. But the Scripture memory fills in the mortar in between the bricks. I redeem every moment as I'm driving to and from... I shouldn't have said that, but I do. I actually mostly review while driving. I try not to learn new verses while driving. Those of you who know what it's like to memorize, you know how dangerous that would be. But I try to review. I try to make the most of my time. Whenever I have a free mind, I'm thinking verses. And that protects me from thinking bad thoughts that I shouldn't be thinking. Redeeming the time and storing up treasure in heaven. Like a four-hour bus wait. Or the plane is delayed, you're working on verses. 

Number six, material for deep teaching of the Word of God to others. It just makes you a better teacher of the Word. To your family, if you're a mother, training your children, you're just going to know the Word of God better to train your children. If you're a Sunday school teacher, you're just going to be able to explain those passages at a deeper level. You're always prepared to teach at a deep level.  

Number seven, rich, deep heartfelt worship. You'll come in through these doors on Sunday morning with a heart of fire for God, ready to worship. And I will sing corporately so much better then. I'm looking forward to that. Just improved worship. It just is going to get better and better in our church. And your own private worship life, you're going to be dwelling richly on the Word of God and singing praise songs to him. 

Number eight, your prayer life. From John 15:8, it says, "Ask whatever you..." In 15:7, "Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." You'll have an enriched and wise insightful prayer life, praying for God's things. You'll have a blessed home life. Marriage and parenting will be enriched by the Word of God because you're speaking Scripture to each other. You're training your children with Scripture. 

And then 10, you'll be able to bless other brothers and sisters who come to you for advice. And you won't just say, "Oh, this is my opinion," or whatever. You can say, "Well, the Word of God says this about that." We will be even more, Romans 15, competent to counsel each other, because of the training we've received from Scripture. 

I want to close with a testimony, and then we'll be done. And it's not my own testimony. It's a testimony that was given to me by Christy Wilson, my mission's professor. Some of you have heard me tell this story, but it's a wonderful story. It's of a man, a blue collar worker, a plumber, who wanted to memorize John 3:16. And that's all. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That's it. And he worked on it for two and a half months and still could not recite John 3:16 without looking at the Bible. He always would leave some phrase or some word out. I remember Christy Wilson, one of the gentlest men I'd ever known, said this man was so dense that after two and a half months, he still couldn't do it. Now that was saying something for Christy Wilson to put it like that. But then finally he got it toward the end of the third month. He finally got it, could recite it. An incredible joy. I really think what's amazing is not that it took him that long to memorize, but that he didn't give up. All of us would have given up after two weeks if it was that hard. He didn't give up. 

And then Dr. Wilson told me that over the next four years, he memorized over 2000 verses of Scripture. And you think, "How did that happen?" Well, I think that God was testing him to see if he really meant business. It was going to be hard at first. Would he really do it? And then in Luke 24, I think it's verse 45, it says of Jesus the resurrected Lord, "Then he opened their minds so that they could understand the Scripture." Can he do that to you? Can he open your mind, so that you can memorize? Can he give you a better memory? Oh, yes, he can do that. Ask him to do it. I'm going to ask you, during our time of closing and hymn singing and over the next week, to come before God and ask, "God, do you want me to memorize a book of the Bible in the year 2004?" And if he does, write it down on a card and put it on your mirror and say, "I am committed to memorizing Colossians or Philippians or Romans or something," whatever God leads. And it could be just a section. John Piper did Romans chapter 8, just Romans 8. I'm committed to doing this in the year 2004. 

Andy read the scripture beautifully for us. This morning, I came up to him during the break and asked if he would also add the John reading. I was just going to have him read Genesis, but we really have before us the Old Testament shadow and the New Testament reality. We have the Old Testament vision and dream fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and we had to read both of them, didn’t we? And to have a clear sense of how Jesus Christ is for us the stairway to Heaven. The ladder that Jacob dreamed about has come true. There is a way for sinful people like you and me to go to Heaven. Isn’t that the central message of Christmas? That people like you and me, sinners, we can go to heaven because Jesus descended from Heaven to lift us up. And to me, that’s the joy and delight of this season. And all the other things are either blessings or distractions, depending on how you look at them. I choose to look on them as blessings and they’re a delight and a pleasure, and that’s a good thing. But the center of it all is that people like you and me, sinners, can be lifted up out of the dust, really, end up in the glory of Heaven.

When I think of Christmas, I think of it as a season of dreams. I remember when I was a child, I had a hard time sleeping. I don’t know if you remember that. I was always waiting for Christmas. We were a home and a family that talked a lot about Santa Claus, I’m not speaking at all on that topic this morning, but I do know that I was wanting to be the one that would see him, and I had a hard time sleeping. I knew that I had passed on from childhood to adulthood when I collapsed in bed, Christmas Eve, delighted at last for a chance to sleep and didn’t want to be awoken early the next morning. Now I know I’m an adult, all I want is a good night’s sleep. But when I was growing up, it was just a time of dreams. And they weren’t sleeping dreams, there were wakeful dreams, excited to think about what the day would bring.

Now, the dreams were always materialistic, I have to be honest with you. There were things that I wanted, there were certain things, and also even now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. To be with relatives and friends, to have occasions together, memorable occasions, times with loved one, all of those things are good things. But I think that ultimately Christmas is a story of a dream fulfilled, and we’re looking this morning at Jacob’s dream, a vision of a stairway to heaven.

Now, to begin with, we have to understand why we need a stairway to heaven. Well, why is it necessary? And I think a good place to start is with the character of Jacob himself. Why was Jacob in that place that he eventually named Bethel? He was traveling through the desert, and he lay down on the ground with a rock for a pillow. Now, I’m going to say more about that in a moment, but he was literally running for his life. And why? Because he was a con artist, he was a schemer, a deceiver, and he had burned his bridges at home, and so he was running for his life. The name Jacob literally means one who grasped the heel, and in Jewish idiom, that’s a sense of a deceiver, a con artist. And his brother, Esau, had said, “Rightly is he named deceiver, the one who grasped the heel because he has swindled me twice.”

He swindled Esau out of his birthright when Esau was famished and he was willing to trade it for a bowl of stew, Jacob was more than willing to make the exchange. Actually, he somewhat goaded him into it, suggested it. But even worse, just before his flight that led to this vision, he lied to his father, his blind and dying patriarchal father. He lied to him that he might steal Esau’s first-born blessing. “I am Esau, your first-born,” he said to his father. That’s a lie. And as a result of that, his bridges were burned, specifically with Esau more than anything. Esau wanted to kill him, and so Jacob was fleeing for his life.

In Genesis 28:10, it says, “Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran, and when he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.” The big problem was not Esau, the big problem was his own sinfulness, his own wickedness. Michael Cardon, in writing a song about this, said, “A stone for a pillow as hard as his head, he lay on holy ground.” But I don’t really think that Jacob’s problem was a hard head, I think it was a hard heart. It was a hard heart. And Jacob was a sinner, and he needed a Savior.

The same is true of Nathaniel in the New Testament story. Now, Nathaniel is the best that Israel has to offer. Jesus said, “Now, here is a true Israelite in whom there is no guile.” He’s exactly the opposite of Jacob. He’s really the best that Israel had to offer. And yet he also needed a Savior. Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Come and see, he was told. An initial disposition of disbelief.

Now, I don’t blame him for it. There was nothing in the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah coming from Nazareth. But I guess my point is that even the best that Israel had to offer, he needed a Savior as well. And this is why we must have a ladder to heaven, a stairway to heaven, because God lives in a high and lofty place.

Look at the verse in your outline there in Isaiah 57:15, this is a magnificent verse. It says, “This is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy, I live in a high and a holy place.” I’ll stop there. The rest of the verse is magnificent. But this is a statement of God’s exalted nature. He is a high and lofty God, He is the God above all gods, the name above all names. And it says that he lives in a high and holy place. High and lifted up. That’s the way Scripture portrays our God.

Isaiah 6:1, “In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” This is our God, a high and exalted God. And the Scripture says He’s exalted far above all other gods, which we know are false gods, really demons masquerading as deities.

Psalm 97:9 says, “For you, O Lord, are most high above all the earth. You’re exalted far above all gods.” He’s an exalted God, and He’s exalted above all the puny nations of earth. Psalm 113:4, “The Lord is high above all nations. His glory is above the heavens.” And then Isaiah 40 makes this very clear,

“Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket. They are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands, as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires nor all of its animals for burnt offerings. Before him, the nations are as nothing. They’re regarded by him as less than nothing. To whom then will you compare God or who is his equal? He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people before him are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and lays them out like a tent to live in. He reduces the princes of the world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground than he blows on them and they wither and become like dust.”

Dust, dust, dust. That’s what the nations are to God. They’re nothing, they’re small.

This is our God. He’s a high and exalted God, far above all gods and far above all the nations of men. And he lives, it says, in a high and holy place.

Now, for myself, I love history. I like to read about exploration in particular. I like to read, for example, the journeys of Marco Polo as he went along what became the Silk Road. And I’ve been to Kashgar in China and some other places where Marco Polo traveled. Well, he ended up in the capital city of the greatest empire in terms of land mass that the world had ever seen, the grandson of Genghis Khan, the great Kublai Khan. And he ended up in a province in Northern China called Shantou, we know it is Xanadu, and there was this magnificent palace in which 6000 guests could come and have all their needs and wants met.

And this is what Marco Polo wrote. He said it was a huge palace of marble and other ornamental stones. There are fully 16 miles of parkland well watered with streams and springs diversified with lawns. Within the parkland grazed animals of all sorts, such as heart and stag and roebuck, which the Khan kept for recreation and sport. Musicians would play, entertainers, dancers. The palace hall was richly adorned with tapestries from all over the region. A magnificent place, the kind that just defies description. But if you tried to get in there without an invitation, those Mongol warriors would shoot you down. They were the best archers in the world. Impossible to get in and see it if you were not welcome.

Now, God regards that like dust on the scales. That’s nothing. How then will you, a sinner, get to heaven? How are you going to get there? He lives in a high and holy place. He lives, it says, in unapproachable light. You can’t get close to him. You can’t see his face and live. Now, how are we going to get close to this lofty God? How are we going to see him? How much more? If you can’t get to see the Kublai Khan, how much more can you not see the high and holy God? That’s why we need a stairway to heaven.

Now, the angels that were ascending and descending on that staircase, they were awesome, much more powerful than the Mongol warriors. Their arrows more deadly and more sure. But how much more powerful is God Himself? Look at the vision in verses 12 and 13. He had a dream, Jacob had a dream, in which he saw a stairway resting on the Earth with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord and He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac.” And so he had a vision and a dream of God standing at the top of the stairway to heaven, looking down at him. And this holy God looks on us sinners and sees us as we really are. God will not accept us just as we are. We must be atoned for. We must be cleansed of our sins. We must have a way to be lifted up off the dust and make it up to this high and holy place.

Now, we have this sense inside us, don’t we, of a separation between us and God? And along with it, an equally strong pride that we’re going to overcome that separation, we’re going to build ourselves our own stairways.

And so, we make these deceptive stairways. For example, human religion. Human religion, the essence of that is building your own way up to the holy God, a stairway to heaven made through your own good works and achievements and religious regulations and observances and duties and prayers, all of these things. And sometimes you can see it even in the architecture. Like in Central America, you look at some of the Mayan temples, they’re pyramids with stairs going really right up to the heavens, 91 stairs on a side, the top platform, four times 91 plus the last one, 365, one for each day of the year. They were great astronomers. And they were looking at the stars, which we are testifying to them of their own puniness, testifying to them of the greatness of God, and yet the priests, as they would go with every step, would offer a sacrifice to the serpent God that they were worshipping. They’re building a stairway to heaven, so they think.

Closer to home, something we would be perhaps more familiar with, Medieval Roman Catholicism, a system of works, a system of obediences set out by the Pope and by the councils that they would follow. In Rome, there was an actual staircase, the Scala Sancta, the holy staircase. Supposedly, Jesus had gone up these stairs to be judged by Pilate, and I guess the idea is that in the Crusades, they were actually removed to Rome, and you could go there. And the Pope offered an indulgence: Nine years for each prayer prayed on each step on your knees, and you could work your way or you could work your loved one’s way out of purgatory step by step. Perhaps some of you saw the Martin Luther film this summer, it was out, and Luther himself did it. He went up that stairway step by step, praying to God for the indulgence, to get the nine years for each step, and then he could go back and start it again and again and again, just like a machine reducing time in purgatory, a stairway to heaven.

Another stairway would be human achievements, accomplishments. It’s a different kind of heaven, the heaven of earthly pleasure and pride. Perhaps ultimately, heaven itself. As Psalm 73 says, “They lay claim both to Earth and to heaven, the wealthy oppressors.” But there was a stairway to wealth and riches during the Klondike gold rush in 1898. They called it The Golden Staircase. 1500 steps cut in ice and rock, very steep, very slippery. And these gold rushers were climbing up it step by step with heavy packs on their backs, hoping to make something of themselves, make something of their lives. Every step perilous. At any moment, they might slip right back down to the valley and be killed. A stairway, a golden staircase to a different kind of heaven.

Perhaps the most famous stairway to heaven of all in the Bible is the Tower of Babel. Human achievement and accomplishment. “Come, let us build bricks and bake them thoroughly, and make a tower that reaches up to heaven and make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the earth.” That’s what we’ll do. And so they made a stairway to heaven, so they thought. And God said, “Well, let’s go down and see that little tower that they’re making. Let’s go all the way down and see how much progress they’ve made.” Now, they never did reach heaven that way, and they won’t.

Or you could follow Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Start with physiological needs, and then your needs for love and belonging, and then your needs for esteem, and ultimately the highest pinnacle of that pyramid, self-actualization. Being all you can be. It sounds like the army, but that’s literally what it was, that you would be everything you could be. A stairway to a different kind of heaven. Or human experiences, just collecting them in life, whether religious experiences like meditation with Zen and all that kind of thing, or pilgrimages, you could do that, or just travel, been there and done that. Collecting a life full of experiences, a different kind of staircase.

Now, behind all of these false staircases is the ultimate stairway-to-heaven builder himself: The devil. Isaiah 14, he said, “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.” And he’s the one that’s suggesting all of these false ways that none of them will get us to Heaven. The true stairway to Heaven, the vision was had by Jacob himself.

Look again at the text in Genesis 28. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the Earth with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it, and there above it stood the Lord, and He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth.”

Interesting phrase, “And you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you, and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

Look at Jacob’s lowliness. He’s lying on the ground, on the dust of the ground. He’s got a rock under his head for a pillow. He is corrupted inside, he’s a deceiver and a con artist. He’s running from his own family, he has an uncertain future. And to this man, God appears. And it says that the stairway was resting on the earth right near him. It came right down to where he was, right down to the dust of the earth, that’s where the stairway reached. And it successfully reached all the way up to God, and there were angels ascending and descending, moving from the hidden heavenly realms to the lowly, dusty, earthy realm, and the Lord himself at the top of the ladder looking down at him. And along with it comes a magnificent promise, the promise of God. I am the God of Abraham and Isaac, I am the God of the covenant. I am the God who will give you a vast number of descendants, as numerous as the dust of the earth. But even within this, there’s a hint of Jacob’s lowliness.

Do you remember what God said to Adam in the curse? He 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 will return.” Moses said in Psalm 90:3, “You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men.’” In Ecclesiastes, it says, “Man’s fate is like that of the animals. The same fate awaits them both. As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place. All come from dust and to dust, all return.”

So we have a vision of a stairway that reaches from the dust and from a dusty man all the way up to the glories of heaven, but you know it’s just a vision. It’s just a dream. Interestingly in his dream, he doesn’t actually get to ascend the staircase, he wakes up lying on the ground because it’s not yet been fulfilled. The prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the seed through whom all nations will be blessed, He is the one who came to earth to Nazareth. He is the one who ministered physically, took on a human body.

Now, Nathanael, look over at John Chapter 1, Nathanael had utter disdain for Nazareth. He said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” This was a small precursor of the kind of reception that Jesus would get from the Jews, from his own people. “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” Phillip says the right thing, “Come and see.” So he’s doing evangelism, “Come and see, come and look at this one who we think is the messiah, come and see.” And so he came and saw.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Now, here is a true Israelite in whom there’s nothing false, in whom there is nothing false.” Not, “Here is an Israelite who is about 5 foot 8 inches tall,” or “Here’s an Israelite who’s wearing a red turban,” or “Here’s an Israelite who’s got three sheep with him.” No, “Here’s an Israelite in whom there’s no guile, no trickery.” Well, that’s rather striking. Nathanael doesn’t deny that it’s true. So Nathanael wasn’t that kind of guy. He wasn’t going to play a game saying, “Oh, it isn’t me, I’m not really like that.” He wasn’t that way, that’s exactly who he was.

But the question in Nathanael’s mind is, “How do you know me? How do you know me? We’ve never met.” Very much like later with the Samaritan woman at the well, He knew everything about her. He knew that the man that was waiting for her at home wasn’t her husband. He knew that. And Nathanael has the same question, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said, “I saw you, I saw you while you were under the fig tree.”

Now, we don’t really know, and Spurgeon goes on at length about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. We could sit down and kind of debate, “What was he doing under the fig tree? We don’t have any idea what he was doing.” It was a secret between him and Jesus, perhaps he was on his face praying that the Messiah would come. We have no idea. But he said, “I watched you while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Well, that was enough for Nathanael, and he gave him lavish praise. “Rabbi,” he said, “You were the Son of God, you are the king of Israel.” Jesus also is a true Israelite in whom there’s no guile. He’s not going to say, “No, it isn’t so.” He’s going to say, “I wonder how you believe with so little evidence. You believe because I told you I saw you while you were under the fig tree, you shall see greater things than that.”

What a magnificent promise, because Jesus has come to earth because of the miracle of Bethlehem, because of the incarnation, you believers in Jesus, you’re going to see greater things than you have ever seen in your life. You shall see greater things than that. He can say that no matter what you would say to him. No matter what your reasons are for believing right now, no matter what your testimony, you shall see greater things than that, no matter what it was that ultimately led you to faith in Christ, you shall see greater things than that.

You who believe, you shall see, and that Greek is plural, “you all,” all of you will see heaven opened, and you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. O come, Lord Jesus. Aren’t you hungry to see it? Heaven opened the veil between us and the invisible world removed, and the welcoming God at the top of the stairway, saying, “Come, enter into your rest. Enter into the joy of your Master. Come up here,” Revelation 4:1.

Enter and come in. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now gained introduction and access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:1-2).

And so, He says, you’re going to see greater things than that, you will see heaven itself, and so he makes this astonishing promise, and He speaks of heaven open and the angels ascending and descending. And so it was in Christ’s life, the angels were all over Christ’s life, just like they were all over the staircase. They descended on the night He was born, there were shepherds watching their fields out at night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord, this will be assigned to you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rest.” When the angels had left them and gone back into heaven, do you see the ascending and descending? When they had gone back into heaven, they said, “Come, let’s go see in Bethlehem this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

And so, the angels descended that night to announce Christ’s birth, the angels descended to minister to Jesus when He was suffering and tempted in the wilderness, the angels descended to minister to Jesus when He was wrestling, and great drops of blood were coming from him in Gethsemane. The angels came down and announced his great resurrection when He had risen from the dead, the angels were there, and then when Jesus ascended from his chosen apostles and was going up to heaven, and the cloud hid Him from their sight, the two men in white, two angels came and said, “Jesus will return in the same way you’ve seen Him go.” The angels were ministering all over the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, but the magnificent central truth is Jesus is Jacob’s stairway.

He is the stairway to heaven, the angels of God ascend and descend on the Son of Man, and they wouldn’t be coming if it weren’t for me, they’d be coming with judgment and wrath, but not as ministering spirits, because that’s what they are. What are Christ’s credentials?

Well, he’s heaven descended. He’s come down from heaven. It says in John Chapter 6,

“I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but shall raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Do you understand? Jacob’s vision, left him in the dust with a stone for a pillow, Jesus raises us up and takes us to heaven. “I will raise them up in the last day, I’ll take you not just from the dust of Palestine, I’ll take you from the dust of the grave. And when you see heaven open with your own eyes, no longer by faith, but now at last by sight, you will know how great I am, and then you will say, ‘Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel,’” and the evidence will be complete.

“You will know when I take you to heaven, that I am the Stairway to Heaven. When I lift you up from the very dust of the grave, when I give you resurrection bodies, and when you live with me forever, from the dust of the grave to the glory of Heaven, I am the Stairway to Heaven, I and no other.”

Hebrews 4,

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are. He came down to earth and walked the walk we walk in every way, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace.”

What was forbidden for us in the old covenant is now commanded in the new: “Let us approach the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Hebrews 10:“Therefore brothers, since we have confidence now to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way open for us through the curtain, let us draw near to God.”

But we’re not there yet, are we? We still got a journey to travel. We’re still more dusty than glorious.

The transition hasn’t fully occurred yet, and you feel the dust of Jacob, don’t you? You feel the sin and the pull downward, and Jesus knows all about that, and so He has ministered to you and He will continue to minister to you. As a matter of fact, he’ll even send the angels as ministering spirits to help those who will inherit salvation. And so, the angels will be around and they’ll ascend and descend and they’ll be busy around you your whole life, protecting you and keeping you safe, and he’s going to send them one more time.

It says in Matthew 24:31, “He will send His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.” And so the angels will be sent forth that final time to gather up his children and they’ll take you to heaven, and so then you will see that Jesus is that stairway to heaven. He is the way, He is the truth and the life, and no one ascends to heaven except through Him. And what are we going to do about it? How are we going to understand this?

Well first, trust in Christ, not in your own Stairway to Heaven. Can you build a stairway to heaven through your religious efforts, through your achievements, through your experiences, through all of the things you do? It’s high and lofty, you’ll never get there.

And the Scripture testifies that every building you do is a stairway down descending away because of arrogance and pride. Give it up. Through simple faith in Christ, trust in Him that you might have eternal life.

If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ today, can I ask for the rest of the holidays, focus on the promise that He gives in John Chapter 1. You shall see heaven opened. You’re going to be there. What was just a vision in the Old Testament, well, for you will be fulfilled sight; now we walk by faith, not by sight, but some day you will see with your own eyes Jesus sitting on his throne, and then just worship Christ, worship Him constantly as the angels do, that’s their number one job in heaven. And frankly, all their ministry to us is just a subset of their worship of Him, they love Him and they do what He says. And so focus on Him and worship Him as they do, make Christ the center. He is the only one who can take you from the dust of the earth to the glory of Heaven.

Okay, we're looking this morning at Philippians 2:14-18. And as you're turning there, I just want to tell you of something wonderful and remarkable that's going on in my family. For two years, we've had a kind of a mute observer in our home. His name is Calvin. He's been watching us, he's been observing. And now, he's ready to talk about it a little bit. More and more every week as a matter of fact. Just before I came up here, I asked my wife, I said, "Where's he at in his speaking ability right now?" And she said, "Well, he says, 'Mommy, have a question.'" So that means, "I have a question.'" I don't know what questions come after that, but he always has questions and he's thinking. But this is the amazing thing, what's remarkable, my wife and I were missionaries overseas in Japan, and we had the burden of learning the Japanese language. We had flash cards, we had grammar books, we had a tutor, we had exams, we drilled ourselves, and at the end of two years we were barely, I mean barely, conversational. And now it's all gone like the morning mist. I can remember how to greet, I can say a few other things but it's gone. This little kid, Calvin, a year from now will probably be conversational, no flash cards, no textbooks, no grammars, no audio tapes, no special tutoring sessions, nothing, just living.

The Magnificent Gift of Language

Because God has granted to us the gift of language. And his language will be English probably, I think it's going to be English. But he's not unusual, there's nothing striking about him. I'm not standing and proclaiming that my son is a super genius, he's not. But he's going to be probably conversational, if not fluent in English a year from now. And so will your children if they are at that same age and so will children all over the world in the corresponding languages that their parents are speaking to them, because God is a lingual God, He's a God of language, a God who speaks, and He has given to us the gift of language, the gift of words. Now, to me that's a phenomenal thing. Some of the best things in my life have come to me through words. If you think about history, you think about the great moments, like Abraham Lincoln speaking the Gettysburg Address and just understanding what that battle was about in just a few words. A Winston Churchill, inspiring a downtrodden nation to hope and courage at a low point. Speaking words into a microphone that just blessed. Or the poetry of John Milton, sonnets of Shakespeare. I think about these, this is high and lofty speech.

But then there's the beauty of everyday language, of a husband complementing his wife for a wonderful meal made, or wife complementing her husband for the good job that he does in providing a family. Simple words of thanks and encouragement that go from one to another. Common goodness, and that's every day goodness, every day blessing. Then there's the higher forms of speech that we're called to as Christians. The speech of prayer, being able to talk to God, to speak to Him. To memorize Scripture and be able to recite it, to speak the words of God. Be able to read Scriptures, we've heard done several times this morning in the worship service. To be able to speak the words of God after Him. Well, that's high speech, isn't it? And a great joy. And then there's just worship, being able to sing to God as we've done this morning. Being able to just communicate with God through words and say, "You are a mighty God and we love you". To speak words of thanksgiving and benediction, words of blessing. It's a great gift, that's language at its best. And perhaps the highest call concerning words is the call to preach the Gospel.

As it says in our text today, to hold forth or "hold out the word of life" in a dark and a crooked and depraved generation. To hold out the words of the Gospel. My salvation and yours are dependent on words, isn't that incredible? The words of the Gospel, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And so this is language at its best and highest but, words can also turn bad, can't they? Words can be used to devastate, to poison a relationship between a husband and wife, between good friends. Words can be used to ruin a church fellowship. Words can be used to rip and to tear and to destroy in so many ways. This is speech gone bad. And it's also mentioned in our text today.

Look at verse 14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." Those are two of the worst forms of speech. And they're so familiar to us that we just kind of almost, kind of laugh. "Oh yes, complaining my old friend, were constant companions complaining and I." And then there's arguing as well. But this is generally speech gone bad, truly. This is not what our mouth was made for. Now what's fascinating to me is that some of the weightiest things in life have no mass at all. Words have no mass and yet they're weighty and significant.

Light has no mass but it's weighty. And we have the weighty burden of bearing the light. As Michael Card put it in one of his songs, "This burden of bearing the light" to a lost, a dark generation. Of sharing the Gospel. And there are times I think, to me, it feels like an overwhelming burden. To think of the darkness that surrounds us all the time and to think that we have the only hope, the message of the Gospel. And that it's up to us, under the power of the spirit to go out and share that Gospel, it feels like a burden. And it is a burden. It's a great burden that He has given to us.

Now we've seen, in the Book of Philippians, two eternal or infinite journeys. An internal journey of holiness and sanctification, whereby we grow more and more like Jesus Christ, little by little. And, also, the external journey of salvation, whereas we are preaching the Gospel. We're communicating, sharing the Gospel to the ends of the Earth making disciples. Now, we've seen recently and been focusing on the internal journey, that working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Look again at verse 12. It says, "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."

We've seen that salvation is a process. We don't get it all at once. We don't. We get justification at the beginning, by faith alone. Apart from works, we get this. And that is, full forgiveness of sins, adoption into the family of God, standing in the righteousness of Christ, that beautiful robe of righteousness, perfect righteousness. Positionally, we get that, apart from works, as a gift. Well, that's wonderful, but salvation isn't finished yet. God intends in the end that you be every bit as perfect as Jesus Christ. Perfect in your emotions. Perfect in your thinking. Perfect in your will. All of the internal parts of you, in what you delight in and what you hate. He wants you to be just like Jesus. And He wants you to be perfect externally, as well. And that is, physically, He wants you to have a perfect body.

And so your salvation will be finished when you are perfect inside and out. And until then you're not finished being saved yet. Now, you can't be any more justified than you are today, if you're a Christian. You can't be any more forgiven. You can't be any more loved. You can't be seen any higher by God, but your salvation's still not finished. And so we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that internal journey of holiness that we've been talking about. We've seen that it comes from God's greater work in us. Verse 13: "It is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." 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."

And so we work because He first worked in us. And that's what we've talked about the last few weeks. Well, how does that relate to do everything without complaining or arguing, which is the very next verse? Well, I think they're intimately related. They're directly connected. The Philippian Church were having conflicts. They were having arguments. There was dissension. They were not living, in Philippians 1:27, up to the calling of the Gospel. They weren't living up to what the message that they were preaching. And so you cannot hold forth the word of life, if you're arguing and bickering among yourselves. That's how they join together. The internal journey of holiness meshes together with the external journey of worldwide evangelization.

In the juxtaposition of these two sections, Philippians 2:12 and 13, tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And then in verse 16, it tells us to hold out the word of life to a dark and dying world. They go together. And so He wants us to make moral progress. He wants us to be more like Jesus. He wants us to stop arguing and to stop complaining so that we can more effectively hold out the word of life. That's how they work together.

Now, verse 14. "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure." Now, complaining is really a very great sin. I know we don't think of it as a great sin. We think of murder or adultery, or embezzlement, or some of these other great sins as great sins. But complaining is a great sin. It's a great wickedness because God created us to receive blessings from Him.

Job put it this way, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart." So we are just in a total beggar position before God. Everything of value comes as a gift of grace. And so all of the things that come your way come from God. Complaining means, "I'm not satisfied with what you've given me." It really is anti-worship. It's exactly the opposite of worship and thanksgiving. We should be worshipping. We should be giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. But instead we're complaining.

We Complain About Everything

We complain about the weather. It's too hot, too cold, too foggy, too dewy. I don't know. I mean whatever. There's just something wrong. Too muggy. Too ice-ish a year ago. I mean just something to complain about. I saw a cartoon about this a number of years ago in which this little kid who's just nothing but a tyrant. It's Calvin and Hobbes. And this kid's sitting in the tub and his mother draws the bath for him, and he complains and says, "It's too hot!" So she fix it. He says, "Now it's too cold!" So she fixed it again. "Now it's too hot again!" So she fixed it again. "Now it's too deep."

But that's us. That's the way we are no matter what God does. If you have a disposition toward complaining, that's going to be you. It's too this or it's too that. We complain about our finances we don't make enough money. Complain about our job. Our boss doesn't see all that I am and all that I could be if I would just get that promotion. We complain about our vehicle, our car, it needs repair again. Complain about our spouse. Complain about our children or our parents. They don't really see me properly the way I should be seen. They don't treat me the way I should be treated. Complain about everything. Complain about our church.

It's a great sport of complaining about your pastor. It's a great disease. And I'm not just talking about... But it's endemic all over Christendom to complain about your church. We complain about everything. Now, we have great predecessors in this, Israel. The Israelites were great complainers. They really refined it to an art. Those of you that have been studying with us at night in Exodus, almost every sermon, it's about the same thing. What are they going to complain about today? Either it's water or it's food, or it's the Red Sea problem or it's some other thing. There are issues and they're constantly complaining. And they would not through... Because of their unbelief, they would not enter the promised land and so God condemned them to wander for 40 years in the desert and thereby, he condemned them to eat manna for 40 years too. Now, it's better than starving, it's better than dying. But they got tired of it, manna, morning, noon, and night for 40 years. Now, you probably would've gotten tired of it too, but it still was a great sin to complain, and so they did complain. In Numbers 21:5, it says, "They spoke against God and against Moses and said, 'why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There's no bread, there's no water, and we detest this miserable food.'"

Well, you know what the miserable food was they were detesting? Miraculous bread from heaven. Manna, they detested it. God responded by sending poisonous snakes into their camp and many of them died, and so someone once said, "God threatens terrible things if you will not be happy." And it's true. God wants us to be content and happy.

Two Reasons for Complaining

Now, what is the root of complaining? I think two things. Number one, we forget what we truly deserve. Number two, we forget who it is that gives us everything in life. Those are two things and they're theological. We forget what we truly deserve, namely eternal condemnation in hell. Just picture yourself standing before God on Judgement Day and saying, "God, just give me what I truly deserve and nothing more. I just want what I deserve. No grace, no mercy, no handouts, just what I deserve." Do you want that? No. So, we forget. We forget what we truly deserve. One pastor has made a habit when asked, "How are you?" Or, "How are things going?" He always answers the same way, "Better than I deserve." What a thankful spirit that promotes. It's better than I deserve, no matter what is happening to me, it's better than I deserve.

We forget that, we think we deserve better. "I deserve to be seen by this person better than they're seeing me." No, you don't. "I deserve better clothes than I... " No, you don't. "I deserve a better situation. I deserve better health. I deserve better health for a loved one." No, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. We deserve hell. And the irony is that that thought is the root of great joy and happiness in life, isn't it? Because you think that way, you just accept everything as better than you deserve.

Secondly, we forget from whom we get everything. We forget that God is a king providentially ruling over everything that comes our way. He has chosen this arrangement of circumstances for you today, much like a chef will choose what's on the plate that he sets before you. Some of those things will be sweet to your taste and some bitter, but God is the wise one who's chosen. And when we complain, we forget Him, we forget how much He loves us. So, we must do everything without complaining.

Why Do We Argue?

And what about arguing? Now, I know only some of you argue, but I'm going to speak to those of you that argue, okay? Those of you that argue, why do you do it? Is it because you have forgotten perhaps that the person you're arguing with will someday be as glorious as Jesus Christ? That someday, if you're Christians, that you will be perfectly one? Have you forgotten that? Have you forgotten the weight of glory? C. S. Lewis said that, "If you saw that person as they will someday be, you'll be as tempted to worship them, as John was to worship the angel that brought him the Book of Revelation." I know it's hard for you to think of your spouse that way, but think just with me for a moment. Think of your spouse as glorious and think of this person that you're having a hard time with, that there's broken fellowship, that someday they'll be glorious in Christ. They say, "Well what if they're not a Christian?" Well, do you realize there are far weightier issues then, than your little argument with that person?

You need to be holding out the word of life to them, not arguing with them. Do everything without complaining or arguing. And why? So that we can put moral purity on display. So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe. Thus, the internal journey of sanctification makes the external journey of evangelization possible. Pure and blameless. Now, this doesn't mean perfect. You're not called to be perfect in this world. We're called to be, but we won't be. You're not expected to be, because God has not removed from us our flesh. In the end, when God separates us from the body of death, we will be pure and blameless. But these are I think provisional words somewhat like when we're speaking of Zechariah and Elizabeth, that they were blameless keeping all of God's commands, that you can in a very conspicuous way be living up to God's standard.

Life a Life Worthy of the Gospel

Now, this is what you were chosen for before the foundation of the world anyway. Ephesians 1:4 says, "In Him, we were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." And so, we are called on here to live up to the Gospel that we're holding forth. That was the whole problem with the Philippians. They were under the pressure of persecution. They were called on to be witnesses for Christ. And so in Philippians 1:27, look back for a minute, it's just maybe on the same page. But 1:27 it says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ." Live up to your message. That's what it's saying. Live up to your message.

Now one of my great heroes from church history that I just love is John Huss, and I mentioned him this past week or Wednesday mission study. But John Huss was a great man of God. And as he was about to be put to the torch, he was going to be burned at the stake in the 15th century, about 100 years before Luther, he was offered an opportunity to recant and he said, "What I have taught with my lips, I now seal with my blood." Isn't that great? What I've taught with my lips, I seal with my blood.

Well, most of us probably are not going to be called to be martyrs, probably not going to be called to seal with our blood what we teach with our lips. But this Scripture here teaches us that what we teach with our lips we are to seal with our life. We're to live up to what we proclaim. Unbelievers can sniff out hypocrisy, can't they? They can kind of tell. I mean, here you proclaim a God of love and look how you treat your spouse. You proclaim a God of love and I've been to one of your church conferences. You proclaim to be preaching a sovereign God who's a king and yet you're complaining about your circumstances. It doesn't make sense. And they, I don't think, can articulate it but they just can smell hypocrisy. They know, and they'll tell you it's one of the main reasons they don't come to faith in Christ. "Churches are full of hypocrites," they say.

And so our lives must match our message or we'll make no progress in evangelism at all. We must also understand our generation. It says that we live in a crooked and depraved generation. Now they can smell our hypocrisy, but let me say back to the crooked and deprived generation. We Christians live constantly surrounded by the stink of their rebellion against God. We're infected by it every day. They pour forth stuff that lures us away from Christ, and we have to understand that that is the generation we're living in and it's always been the case.

It's the same every generation, crooked and depraved. Not essentially good, basically good. No, crooked and depraved. Crooked means they don't live according to the straight path, the righteous path that God has ordained. Depraved means or perverse means wicked to the core. Romans 1:28 says, "They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless" That's the crooked and depraved generation we live in. Oh they need the Gospel. They need the Gospel. And we are called on to give it to them. Our lives therefore must match our message. We must live up to the message that we preach. Jesus said, " "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

And so we're called to be stars, that's what the text says. Stars really. Mariners used to make their way across the ocean by star navigation. They'd be able to discern their position by looking at Polaris for example, the pole star that never moved. In the same manner, God is calling on Christians to be a fixed point of reference that doesn't move. We're just consistent. Our integrity speaks of truth that doesn't change. Or another illustration, the slaves before the Civil War used to work out in the fields and they would sing a song that contained code language for how to escape, "When the sun comes back and the first quail calls, follow the drinking gourd, for the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom, follow the drinking gourd." What's the drinking gourd? Well, it's the Big Dipper up in the sky and the handle pointed the way north. And there would be a guide in the Underground Railroad if they would follow the drinking gourd, if they would follow the line of the stars, they would know how to get north at night, and I think we're called to be that way. We're called to point the way to the truth by the way that we live so that people who are slaves to sin may find freedom in Christ.

Hold Out the Word of Life

Verse 16 it says, "As you hold out the word of life." Now here's the thing folks. I've been talking about living up to your message, but your lifestyle will save no one from their sin. I'm not meaning to be insulting. I'm not meaning to say you really won't do a good job. If you could just live better, people would get saved. I'm just saying no one will get saved by watching how well you imitate Christ. It's not God's way. God, rather, has ordained that the word of truth, the word of life will save. The Gospel message itself must be proclaimed. And so the lifestyle is really just the table setting for the real meal, and the real meal is the message of the Gospel. And so your lifestyle is the linen table cloth and it's the silver forks and knives and the best plates and goblets and all of these things set for the feast, and what is the feast? The feast is the word of God. People get saved as you hold out or hold forth the word of life. Now, there's something about holding forth in that.

The guy who led me to Christ, a guy named Steve, he shared the Gospel with me through great persecution, great persecution for 18 months. I abused him, I was rude to him, I insulted him and he never gave up. He just kept sharing the Gospel. He kept holding forth the word of life. That example of perseverance and communication convicts me. So often I think, "Well, I shared once with him, that's it." Check the box, co-worker, somebody that... And you had a sharing opportunity, it didn't go well and say, "Well, at least I shared with them." Well, it's true and something's been done there. But is it done? No. We're to hold forth the word of life. I mean, consistently hold it out, say, "Here is the way, walk in it. Here is Christ." Consistency, a willingness to reach out with the Gospel. Now Paul was an example of this. He talks about his own example.

He says, "In order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing," and then he says, "Even if I am being poured out like a drink offering, on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with all of you." He's putting himself forward as a role model.

Now, today I just want to touch on this lightly because it's a big theme in Philippians and it's better spoken of at 3:17. And there he says, "Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you…" A pattern of Christianity. But here he says, "See my example. I have run the race with endurance. I have labored and now I am willing to be poured out like a drink offering."

The image is, there's a good picture on the front of your bulletin there of just a pitcher of water being poured out. Drink offering is sacrificial language, and the priest would take a cup of wine probably, and poured onto the hot coals of fire of the sacrifice, and whoosh, up it would go. The fire here is the sacrifice and service coming from the Philippians faith. He said, "Even if I'm dying to help you grow more, I'm willing. I'm glad. I'm willing to die. I'm rejoicing." Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in effect said, "Though he slay me, yet will I obey him."

But Paul here says, "Though he slay me yet will I rejoice in Him." And that's our calling too. Verse 18, so you too should be glad in the same way and rejoice with me, be willing to be poured out for Christ, be willing to be poured out so that others maybe saved.

Now what application can we take from this? Well, first, my theology professor is talking about some of the difficulties and the depths of Scripture and how hard the Scripture can be to understand, and it can be. It's a very deep book. But he said, "I found the real problem with Scripture is not that it's too complicated, it's that it's too simple and I don't want to do what it says." [chuckle]

Look at verse 14, is that complicated? Do you have a hard time understanding verse 14? Do you need somebody like me to come explain the Greek or to get to a deeper level of exegesis? Do everything without complaining or arguing. You know what complaining is, and you know what arguing is. What do you complain about the most? Think about that. You don't have to speak out. We could have a time like that, but we're not going to do that. But what moves you to complain the most? Maybe it's financial issues, maybe it's health issues, maybe it's family issues, maybe it's the church, something. We need to repent from that sin.

Think of how sweet our fellowship would be with God if in the middle of one of those trials we choose instead to worship, just like Job did, instead may the name of the Lord be praised. May he be praised. I deserved hell, and God has chosen to give this to me and I will worship Him. I trust in Him. For me, I think it's the car, the automobile. I know there's not going to be any cars in heaven, or if there aren't there, they're not going to break down and cost $750. It's just not going to happen. Or if they break down and cost $750, they'll be right there, every time, and never a lack. But something better than the situation we have here. Right? I have to resolve the next time my car breaks down significantly, I'm going to trust in God and not complain. I'm not going to speak any negative words. I'm just going to trust Him. That's hard to do. And arguing, I don't want to do it anymore. It's an act of the will to not argue to say, "Our fellowship's too important for this."

Now, that doesn't mean we don't work through issues with the truth. You know I believe we do that, so we can come to a genuine unity, but we're not going to argue with each other. And then finally, hold out the word of life, hold it out, come with us to the outreach today. Maybe you're teetering on the edge. You weren't sure whether you're going to come. Come, if you can. Come, hold forth the word of life. But today's outreach isn't the issue, it's seven days a week. D. L. Moody resolved that he would not go to bed every day without witnessing to somebody that day. Now that's a challenge. If you don't think it is, try it. Try it for a week. Say, "For the next seven days, I will not complain, I will not argue, and I will witness to at least one person a day for seven days." Now that's a challenge. It's a challenge.

And finally, to you who are sitting and listening to me and you don't feel inside your heart that you are Christians, I can do nothing better than just hold forth the word of life to you today. It doesn't matter how much sin you've committed. It doesn't matter what you did last night. What matters is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Paul says, "Of whom I am the worst". And that is a trustworthy saying. He came to save people like you because He suffered and died on the cross for sins that were not His own, as a substitute, that we might have eternal life. Trust in Him today.

This is our second week of considering these two magnificent verses, Philippians 2:12 and 13. And as somebody who loves church history and also is called to preach, I’m always interested to know when there are sermons that change the course of history. I don’t expect ever to preach one, but I like to read about them. And there was such a sermon preached on May 31, 1792. Now, the preacher William Carey, could not have been a more surprising choice for a world changing sermon. A man born in humble circumstances and raised in rural setting, who had some kind of a rare skin disease so that he couldn’t be outside in the sunshine for very long. And so his parents contracted to have him apprentice to a shoemaker, and he learned that trade. He also was a teacher, and he would go from place to place, and he had made a leather globe. And he would show it to teach geography lessons to his students. 

As a child, he had enjoyed reading adventure stories, especially those of Captain James Cook, who sailed under the British flag to the South Pacific and found all of these islands that nobody knew were discovered and really advanced the knowledge of the world about that part of the world. And he loved to read those adventure stories, but it came to him, as he came to a strong faith in Christ and knew and understood the Gospel, that the people who lived out there in the South Pacific needed Christ. And so he would point to the leather globe to his students, and he would point to the other side of the world, and he said, “These all are pagans. They’re pagans,” and he would begin to weep. He had such a burning heart for the lost. That Christ’s Gospel would spread from shore to shore and that people would come to faith in Christ to the far side of the globe.

And this conviction only grew stronger. In 1787, he was speaking at a meeting when somebody who emphasized unbiblically and overemphasized the sovereignty of God to the point where this individual said it was not necessary for us to do anything to take the Gospel to the heathen, rebuked William Carey and said, “Sit down young man. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do so without consulting you or me.” Well, William Carey disagreed and strongly held on to the sovereignty of God, while at the same time writing a tract entitled “Obligations and Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of Heathens”. We must do something to advance the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And so it came about on May 31, 1792, that he was meeting with a bunch of missions minded Baptists in Nottingham. And he preached what has been called a deathless sermon, a sermon that changed the course of history. Because right after that sermon, with tears, he pleaded. They said, “Oh, what a wonderful message,” and they were about to depart, and he said, “Stop. Are we going to do nothing?” And that just broke their hearts. And they started a mission society, and they chose him as their first missionary. And he was sent to India, 1792. Now, in that sermon, he said this. This is just one of the great phrases from all the sermons that I’ve ever read. “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” Think about that again. This is a man that went to the other side of the world. And he said, “Expect great things from God. And attempt great things for God.”

 Now, we have seen in the book of Philippians that the Apostle Paul lays before us, in Philippians 1, especially, two infinite journeys. The external journey of worldwide evangelization, the advance of the kingdom of Christ to the ends of the earth. And the internal journey of perfection in Christ, that we would grow in grace and in godliness and become gradually more and more like Christ, until we are totally conformed to his image. Two infinite journeys.

Now, William Carey had in mind the first of those two. Worldwide evangelization. And concerning that, he said, “Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God.” And so he did, and did accomplish great things for God. An incredible life really. But what he spoke about the external journey, I want to apply now to the internal journey on the basis of Philippians 2:12 and 13. I believe that this text is calling you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

And so reversing the order, we would say, God is working great things in you by his power. And you should expect him to do that. You should expect great things inside yourself by the power of God because it is his purpose that he’s working out. You should expect that God is able, by the power of the Spirit, to put to death any sin in your life. You should expect that God is able to do the great things of transforming your character so that you’re more and more like Jesus Christ. You should expect that, and that is a great thing. Expect great things from God when it comes to the internal journey of sanctification. And back to the first, attempt great things for God because he’s going to do great things in you. Work it out. Be energetic. Be bold. Be courageous, just as Carey was for the external journey, you should be also for the internal and the external, we’ll get to that in due time, not this morning. The two are internal, are totally connected, the internal and external journey, they are. But Carey said “I’m going to attempt great things for God and missions” and so he did.

We must also do the same when it comes to sanctification. Now last week we saw that salvation is a journey. We talked about how Baptists can slip into a kind of a set way of thinking by asking questions like, “When were you saved?” “And are you saved?” And once saved, always saved, as though that idea is a set thing that you get at some point like a golden certificate, and not something to be worked out, not a journey. But it actually is a journey. And we talked about how salvation comes theologically in three parts, justification and then sanctification and then glorification. At the beginning of the Christian life, justification not by works at all, not by any effort of yours, but simply by faith, you are adopted into the family of God, forgiven of all your sins. The robe of Christ, perfect righteousness put on you and forever you’re seen that way by God. Amen and amen. What a gift.

But after that comes this journey of sanctification, of growing day by day more like Jesus. Consummated in a moment in which you will see Christ face to face. And at that moment you’ll be instantaneously transformed to be just like Christ, glorification. Your works are not welcome in justification, not possible in glorification, but they are required in sanctification, so this text teaches us. And so we looked at this last week. We talked about the deep mystery of God’s sovereignty and of human responsibility in the matter of this journey of salvation. We’ve talked about how there’s been a struggle or battle in church history back and forth between the “God’s sovereignty” and “human responsibility” people. Some have gone too far toward the side of God’s activity. The Quietists who just sat and waited for God to work, and the Victorious Higher Life people who thought sanctification could be given in an instant and from then on there was no struggle. And I told you I wish it were so but it isn’t. This verse says instead we have to work at it with fear and trembling.

And we talked about so called hyper-Calvinists that just sit there and say, “God is going to work it, so you don’t have to do anything”, just like that man who criticized Carey saying that means did not have to be used for the evangelization of the heathen. Oh, yes they do. Yes, they do. And then just the lazy mainstream evangelical who says, “I walked the aisle, I was baptized. I remember distinctly I was 12 years old. I don’t need to do anything, I’ve been saved. I don’t have to work at anything in my Christian life.” Well that’s false. But those are all the people that emphasize too much the God side. 

Then you’ve got those that emphasize too much on the human side. Like anxious Arminians that think at any moment you can lose your salvation. You can slip off and God will lose you and you’ll lose your salvation. And so the focus is always on what you do and what you must do to keep on being saved. And that that’s unbiblical and wrong. So there has to be a right way to understand these two verses. 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.

Now, last time we saw our lesser work, namely we are called to work on our salvation. We’ve seen the nature of our work, that it’s consistent faith filled obedience to Christ. Again, verse 12, “Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed.” It’s an issue of obedience to Christ, growing in obedience to Christ. As you’ve always obeyed, a consistent obedience, and “not only in my presence but in my absence.” It’s a faith filled obedience. It’s not an eye pleasing thing or man pleasing thing. We are pleasing God who sees everything we do. A faith filled consistent obedience and it’s done with fear and trembling. Not fear of the wrath of God, we’re delivered from that, 1 John 4, “Perfect love casts out fear.” Romans 8, we don’t have again the slavery of fear to condemnation, we’re not condemned in Christ. We’re free from that but yet, fear and trembling. Fear of what sin can do to you. Fear of the discipline of the Lord. Fear of disappointing Christ. So that we have to give an account before him of many failures in life and what a grievous thing that would be to have to do that. John Wesley said, “Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergyman or layman, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.” That’s a great quote, isn’t it? But “fear sin,” said Wesley, “be concerned about what it can do to you.” Alright so that was last week. That was our lesser work.

Now let’s talk about God’s greater work. God working in us, verse 13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” We see here the primacy of God’s work in us, remember always that God’s work comes first. If you are a Christian today, you are so because you were born again by the power of God. Something happened to you, something supernatural, something you did not manufacture. You were born again. You were regenerated. You were made a new creation by God’s power. God looked into the darkness of your soul and said, “Let there be light” and there was light and you were saved. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, like Lazarus, and Jesus the Son of God spoke and said, “Lazarus, come forth” and you did. You came forth by the power of God. And so we see the primacy, the priority of God’s work in us. It is God’s greater work and so therefore from that moment on you understand apart from him, you can do nothing. John 15:5, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing,” he said. And so we do all of this growing in union with Christ. And apart from him nothing will happen. Now, what God began in you by his Spirit, he means to complete. Isn’t that wonderful? “He who began a good work in you will most certainly carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6. He’s going to start but what I’m saying to you is the way in which God began it in you is the same way in which he’ll carry it on to completion. The Galatians struggled with this. They started out by grace and then turned back to human effort by means of the law apart from the Spirit. And Paul had to write the letter of Galatians to correct this grave error. And he said in Galatians 3:3, very critical statement. He says, “Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” It can’t be. And so the very same way that God began in you is the way he’s going to keep on working, namely by his powerful Spirit inside you. And so we see the primacy of God’s work in us.

Spiritual energy for the journey

We also see God’s awesome energy in us. It is God who works in you. Energeia is the Greek verb. You get the word energy. God is pouring forth spiritual energy into your soul at every moment. There is a work going on in you. Now the great problem in this journey, for me anyway, is that it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Day after long day of standing firm against temptation and battling my own nature. And battling the world and the devil. It’s wearisome, isn’t it? And it can get you down. It can get you discouraged. It’s just another day. Another day. And it can wear you out. There can be a weariness in the journey, a sorrow in the struggle. You find that a year later you’re about where you were spiritually or even worse off. And it’s painful and it wears us down. And we are tempted to give up and to cease the pilgrimage once and for all.

God will never let that happen. And why? Because he is giving you spiritual energy for the journey. Isaiah 40, “Even youths grow tired and weary. And young men stumble and fall But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.” And so this word, enérgeia, gives you a sense of spiritual energy coming into your soul. Get up, my son, my daughter. Get up. It’s a new day. God’s mercies are new every day, get up. Let’s go at it again. And so you’re refreshed, you’re renewed. Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the quiet waters. And He restores my soul.” I’m ready again. Thanks be to God, ready to fight another day. 

Where did that energy come from? I was so low yesterday but I know where it came from. God is at work in you. He’s given you energy for another day. And he leads me, or “guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.” So let’s get up and let’s go at it again says the Lord by his strength and his power. God wisely energizes us every day for the journey. And he works perfectly with our wills, to rouse us to action for his glory. He works perfectly within us. Now I think the great need in this journey is to understand just how powerful God is in you. That you would have a great confidence in God, a great confidence in his power. So much of the New Testament is written to give us that confidence, like Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” He wants you confident. He does. He wants you confident so that you’ll do your part. So that you will work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You won’t be a defeatist and pessimistic. You’ll be at it. You’ll be energetic. And so much of writing in the New Testament is to make you confident in God’s power. Like, for example, Ephesians 1:18-20, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” That’s heaven, perfection. The hope to which he has called you. “The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” That God himself is your inheritances.

And thirdly, “His incomparably great power which is at work in you who believe.” He wants you to know just how much power is energetically working inside you. “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.” The same power that took Jesus from low in the grave, all the way up to the right hand of God, is at work in you, Christian. Isn’t that wonderful? And so, we have to be confident in that. He wants you confident in that power. Not in your own power. No, in God’s power, confident in what he can do. He wants you to know the energy that’s at work. Now that energy has a purpose. God isn’t just into explosive destructive energy, him blowing things apart. His energy always accomplishes something purposeful.

And in us, according to these verses, it accomplishes two things. “It is God who is at work in us to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Those are the two things God’s energy is doing in you. God is making you willing and he is making you active. Now, concerning the first of these, this is very interesting to me. God works in me to will? Yes, he does, that’s what the text says. Look at it again, go ahead, use your own eyes and look down at the page, there it is. “It is God who works in you to will.” Do you see that? I just want you to know I’m not making this up, it’s right there on the page. It’s in your very own Bible. Maybe your grandmother gave it to you, maybe you got it when you were baptized, maybe you bought it at the Zondervan sale or maybe you got it at the local Christian bookstore, maybe it’s the pew bible. But there it is, it says, “It is God who is at work in you to will.”

The heresy of Open Theism

Now free will theology folks are going to say, “This is the one thing God will never do. He will never do this, he will not get involved in your will, that yours, it’s up to you to be willing. God leaves it alone.” Now, mind you, the good ones will say, “God could do it if he wanted, but he chooses not to.” Listen to these quotes. “Another self imposed limitation to the power of God is the human free will. God never interferes with the free will of men. He always respects the human will. So, there is no pre-determination of human actions as Augustine and many other theologians after him said. Human beings are always free.” Or this one “While God may call sinners to repentance, he never interferes with man’s free will, with his ability to choose between good and evil. God always respects man’s decisions even if the result is disobedience and sin.”

The extreme form of this teaching is called Open Theism, which I’ve talked about before. Greg Boyd wrote in “The God of the Possible,” that God cannot know the future, because he cannot know free will decisions of human beings. Does that sound like a heresy to you? Because it sure does sound like one to me. God is all over the future in the Bible, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s really into the future, not just the future of inanimate objects, future of people, especially that. So God somehow does know the future. People too often say that human free will, so called, and I say so called because that phrase isn’t in the Bible. Look it up. But human free will is treated as a Holy of Holies into which God will never enter. Well, what are you going to do with this verse?

It is God who works in you to will

You know what I’m going to do with this verse? I’m going to rejoice in it. You know why? Because I was willing to go to hell for years and years and years and God loved me too much to let that continue. Instead he wants me “to will to do according to his good purpose.” And I praise God for that. It is God who works in you to will. Now, I believe the human will is an immensely complicated thing, it’s not simple. I do make real choices in my life. I really do. But at the same time, I believe that the God who designed the will understands it better than any of us ever will. And he knows what makes you willing in every case. 

And not only that, but the promise of the New Covenant is that he’s going to take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And what is that, but a willing spirit toward God, right? Ezekiel 36, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you, your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you,” listen, “and cause you to walk in my statutes.” That sounds like Philippians 2:13, “Cause you to walk in my statutes and you’ll be careful to observe my ordinances.” In many prayers in Psalms, the Psalmist asks God to do that very thing. Listen to this one, Psalm 119:36, “Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain.” What is the inclination of a heart but will? “Make me willing God, please.” That’s what he’s asking, or Psalm 119:133, “Direct my footsteps according to your word. Let no sin rule over me.” 

Now, imagine how complex this is, because the guy’s already willing to be made willing, because he’s praying the prayer. I told you it’s complicated, but he is saying, “God, get involved in me, get into my heart, get into my mind and change my will, make me willing.” Or this one, 2 Thessalonian 3:5, “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” Isn’t that wonderful? 

God’s first step: His good purpose

Now, what is God’s eternal first step in all this? Well, he made a plan, before the foundation of the world. It is God, who’s at work in you to will and to act according to what? His good purpose. Does he have one of those for you? Oh yes, he does. He had it before the foundation of the world, he had a good purpose.

Listen to Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that in all things, God works for the good,” I love that word, “for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Do you hear the word “good purpose” in there? A good purpose for God.

But what is a good purpose? Romans 8:29, “For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” Stop there, that is God’s good purpose for you. Isn’t that wonderful? That you are someday going to be conformed to Jesus, you are going to be like him. Now, God has an eternal plan, a big picture plan, he sees the whole big thing, he sees the whole world and all history.

And his plan is that all of his chosen ones shall end up absolutely perfect, morally, like Jesus. Absolutely perfect, spiritually, like Jesus. Absolutely perfect in their thinking patterns, like Jesus. Absolutely perfect, physically, like Jesus. Absolutely perfect, emotionally, like Jesus. That’s his good purpose for you. Perfection like Christ, that’s a big picture.

Small things matter

Now, not only is God a big picture God, he’s a small picture God too. The God who made the universe, decided to make it out of atoms. And the God who made history, decided to make it out of moments, out of minutes. And so, therefore the God who sees the big picture knows what this moment right now is doing to you. He knows how to work in you, to will and to act. Now, I don’t understand ultimately God’s relationship with my will and I don’t think I ever will. I think I am more complex than I am able to understand and so are you. But I keep some things in mind when I think about the relationship between God’s will and my will. Remember that Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your ways higher than our ways and your thoughts higher than our thoughts.” He’s doing something at a higher level than you even imagine and nowhere is that more true than in human salvation.

I keep four things in mind:

Number one, God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what all of your motives are. He knows why you make every decision you ever made. He knows what tempts you strongly and what tempts you weakly, He knows what repels you and what attracts you. And He’s very up to date in his knowledge of you, I mean up to the moment. Alright? Because every one of your decisions and all of your experiences have had some impact on you, And so he’s not operating on yesterday’s news. He knows right where you’re at at every moment. He thoroughly completely knows you and knows what will motivate you to do this or that. He knows you completely.

Secondly, he knows the devil and the devil’s wicked evil world system better than the devil does. And he himself never tempts anyone to do evil but we know he controls and uses evil for his own glory, like the cross for example. Now that was evil and yet God used it for his glory. And so, he is able to control the things that come to you, and to really just kind of play the devil and all of his temptations like a concert pianist plays his instrument. And so, he’s able to just work that situation.

Number three, God is not passive in this whole process, not just sitting back and knowing. He is actively doing things, creating circumstances that come to you at certain key moments in your life. Closing doors and opening other ones. Corridors are opening and you just see that, that’s the way, walk in it and off you go. He is active. 

And fourth, God takes every decision you make and He then instructs you based on what you did. Suppose you have a chance to go into sin or to do righteously. No matter what you do, God knows how to respond. If you choose to sin, he will rebuke you, he will correct you, he will discipline you and he’ll get you ready for the next one. If you choose to obey, he will encourage you, bless you, commend you and get you ready for the next one. And so, Jesus said in John 5, “My Father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working.” He is working in you to will and to act, according to his good purpose. Do you understand that? Neither do I. But that’s alright. These are the things that we’re trying to wrestle with here, the deep relationship between God’s will and ours.

But I keep these things in mind and God is working in me to make me willing to do what he wants me to do.

Now what is the relationship between our work and God’s work in us? Look again at the verses. Verse 12, it says, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” What’s the next word? “for” F-O-R. “for it is God, who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” That word is worth the price of admission. I don’t know how much you paid to get in here today, but that word is worth it. And why? Because it shows a logical connection between our energy and God’s work. We work, because he first worked in us. We’re energetic, because he’s energetic in us. At last, finally in our lives, we are not working at cross purposes with God, but at last, we’re lined up with the rushing wind of the Spirit and the sail is up and we are moving. Because we’re doing the very thing God wanted to do in us. God’s eternal plan and his purpose for us, becomes the ground of our planning and purpose for ourselves. His energy becomes the ground of our energy in our lives.

We work because, he first worked in us. You know what that means? You’re going to win. Do you realize that? You are going to win, you’re going to make progress. You’re going to grow and become more like Christ. You’re going to see sin dead at your feet. You’re going to see yourself a greater witness for Christ. You’re going to be stronger in prayer, as you obey and work out with fear and trembling. That’s what the call is in verse 12, continue to obey, continue to work and if you do I guarantee, according to this verse you will see progress, you will see fruit. Because God’s working the same thing in you and he’s not a loser. He’s a winner. And so, have great confidence in your captain. Have great confidence in your commanding general.

Robert E. Lee

I love to study about the Civil War and the magnificent army of Northern Virginia. They’re just, they’re just amazing, the things that they accomplished under the leadership of Robert E Lee. And they went through immense privations, physical struggles, suffering with a glad heart, because they were confident that their general could get them the one thing that matters to a soldier in the field and that is victory. It doesn’t matter if your stomach’s full and your feet are well shod and you have the prettiest looking uniform if you lost the battle. But, if all those other things are stripped away, if you can win the battle, then your confidence is great. And you’re willing to go through anything, because you’re confident, in the end, you’re going to be victorious.

Well, if the Army of Northern Virginia was confident in Robert E Lee, who lost significant battles, how much greater should our confidence be in Jesus Christ, our commander, who has never lost one? He’s never lost one of his children to the enemy and he never will. He knows how to save somebody like you and me. He knows how to do it. And so, therefore we should have a soaring confidence that we’re on the right side, doing the right things and in the end, it will produce good fruit in us. Now, I’m not standing here preaching perfectionism. Romans 7, is still true. There’s sin battling within us and we’re going to lose some. But we will not be lost and we can make real, measurable progress in sanctification by the power of God. And it’s well worth doing, to His glory.

God’s good purpose in us results in hard work for you and me

One final comment. What this means to me is that God’s eternal purpose, his good purpose in us, his eternal predestination, results in hard work for you and me. Do you see it? Work it out, because God is working in us to bring about his predestined purpose. Can you figure that out? Can you understand how God’s eternal predestination results in hard work for people like you and me? I can’t figure it out either, but it is true. These verses show it. God has an eternal purpose, he’s working it out and therefore, get busy and start working. Just like William Carey did for the heathen on the other side of the world, do it in your life. Do it in putting sin to death.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon was talking about the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, predestination and the effect in our lives and he said, “It can be daunting to consider that God, before the foundation of the world, predestined that I would be conformed to His image.” That’s daunting. It’s scary, actually. But he talked about this experience in which he was sailing around the west coast of Scotland. One night, they anchored off the New Hebrides Islands and as they approached this island, all they could see were great towering kind of cliffs. And the captain kept sailing closer and closer to the cliffs and he thought that they would be dashed on the cliffs.

But all of a sudden as they came around a little bit, they saw an opening between two of these massive cliffs and they sailed right through. And then suddenly, these cliffs, which had been so daunting and imposing and impressive, became their protection and their cove in which they could sail free from the danger of the storm. And so it is also with this concept of God’s predestination and also of our efforts and our activity. That which was daunting and terrifying becomes our greatest refuge and security. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling and yet, it is God who works in us and guarantees, in the end, that we will be victorious.

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, understood the relationship between God’s sovereign grace and its power to change our hearts and our need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Concerning God’s sovereign grace, he wrote, “Turn, turn us, mighty God, and mold our souls afresh. Break, sovereign grace, these hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.” Do you hear Ezekiel 36 in that? Isn’t that beautiful?

But then he also wrote this hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross”. Listen to these lyrics:

“Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follower of the Lamb,

And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His Name?

Must I be carried to the skies,

On flowery beds of ease... “

Do you see flowery beds of ease in Philippians 2:12-13? I don’t. I see a war. I see a battle.

“Must I be carried to the skies,

On flowery beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend of grace,

To help me on to God?

Sure, I must fight if I would reign;

Increase my courage, Lord.

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war

Shall conquer, though they die.

They see the triumph from afar,

By faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise

And all Thy armies shine

In robes of victory through the skies,

The glory shall be Thine.”

God gets the glory but we get the joy. 

Now, what kind of application can we take out of this? Well, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling in your quiet time.

Do it in your daily quiet time. Let’s start there. How can you attempt great things for God in your quiet time? Well, first, have one, okay? Is that a good starting place? Have one. Have a quiet time, okay? Get up in the morning, get the Bible and read it and pray. And if you’re already doing that, have a better one, okay? Read more. Pray more.  Set goals for Bible intake for yourself. Memorize a book of the Bible in the year 2004. Not the last time you’ll hear that from me. Memorize, perhaps, Philippians. 104 verses, 104 verses. Do you think that, with God’s help, you could memorize this whole book? Come on, nod your heads, “Yes, I can do it. With God’s help, I can memorize the book of Philippians. It can be done. I could do that.” Or another book that God would lead me to memorize. Expect great things from God and therefore attempt great things for God. Could you grow in your prayer life? Could you pray longer and more passionately and for more people and for more of God’s kinds of things according to Scripture? Okay, so, attempt great things for God in your daily quiet time. But as you do, remember it is God who works those great things in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling in terms of Christ-like character.

Look over a list of attributes of Christ’s character and choose one and say, let’s say compassion. Am I as compassionate on the poor and the needy and the lost of the world as Jesus was? We already know the answer to that question. Alright. Well then, how can I work out my salvation to grow in compassion? What Scripture verses can I memorize? What acts can I do, to will and to act according to His good purpose. And as I see myself growing in Christ-like compassion I will remember, it is God who is working that compassion in me according to His good purpose.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling in the battlefield of temptation.

Do you think you will be tempted today? Do you think the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life will come after you today? Do you think the world, the flesh and the devil will leave you alone for even one day? Then you will be tempted and that’s the moment of truth, isn’t it? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling when temptation comes. 2 Samuel 23, lists David’s mighty men, and one of them is this man named Josheb Basshebeth, a Tahchmonite. He killed 800 men with a spear in one encounter. I said, how do you kill 800 men with a spear? And the only answer I could come up with in my engineering logical mind is, one man at a time for a long time. How else can you do it? If you can come up with another way of killing 800 men with a spear than one man at a time over a long period of time, I don’t know. What that means is, enemy after enemy kept coming and he killed them, one after the other. Let’s spiritualize it. Temptation after temptation is coming after you. See them dead at your feet, by the power of God. Stand firm in the day of temptation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but as you do, remember, it is God who is working holiness in you according to his good purpose.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling in your family life.

Ask God, am I the father, the mother, the son, or the daughter that I should be? And if the answer is no, say what besetting sins are hurting my relationship with my family members? What kind of temptations am I giving into? Temptations to bitterness, or anxiety, or laziness, or argumentation, selfishness? God, make me a better father. God, make me a better mother. Make me a better son, or a better daughter. Help me to grow in these relationships. But as you grow as a father, a mother, or son, or daughter, realize it is God who is working it in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling in your church life.

Give your tides, your offerings. Pray in the corporate prayer meeting. Go to the outreach next Sunday. Put sin to death and grow in godliness. Use your spiritual gifts. Have a ministry here. Come to church every week. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Grow as a church member. Take an interest in the people who are sitting in the pews around you. Pray for them. Watch over one another in brotherly love. But as you do, realize, it is God who is working that in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

And finally, work out your salvation with fear and trembling like William Carey did in Evangelization and World Missions.

Ask am I the witness I need to be? Have I led anyone to Christ in my life? Have I even witnessed in the last year? Could I not set as a goal, that I’m going to witness once a month for the year 2004, if that’s the rate you’re at? And if you’re already at that rate once a week? Could you grow by working out your salvation with fear and trembling as a witness for Christ? And if you do and if you start seeing people you’re leading to Christ and you start being fruitful and your joy starts to soar, don’t forget, it is God who worked it in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

We’re looking this morning at Philippians 2:12 and 13, and I just couldn’t get it to work in one sermon. So I can’t, I just won’t. And so your outline is only part of what we’re going to say on these two verses. We’re going to, God willing, if God gives us time, look at it again next week. So rest easy as we move through this. And I was hesitant to do it because we have the perfect synergy, the perfect working together here in these two verses, of God and man. And therefore, it’s with some trepidation that I don’t want to do it all at once, but there’s enough of that working together in the first part of the message that I felt that you would understand, that we are called to work out our salvation because it is God who’s at work in us.

Now, I think that Christianity, our faith, our wonderful faith, is essentially mysterious. I mean, it’s a great mystery and it’s not just one mystery but it’s one mystery after another. And so it is in Philippians 2 that we leave one great mystery of Christianity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ and go to the next great mystery of Christianity, namely, the sovereignty of God and human responsibility working together on our salvation. And you know something? The fact that my mind cannot fully work these things out is not troubling to me. I accept fully that Jesus is God, the true God, the eternal God, and that he was truly man. He took on truly a human body. And I cannot perfectly work that out, and I just accept it.

Now, in accepting that, I don’t stop thinking about it. I think about it a lot, more and more actually, and the more I think, the more insights and the more appreciation I get. But I’m never going to take it all in. I’m never going to comprehend it, if that means to take it totally into my mind so that I’ve got it. No question about it. And neither can I do that with this issue here, the working together of God’s kingly sovereignty and my responsibility. God’s energy, his power, his work and mine, how they work together. And the fact that Christianity is essentially mysterious to me does not make it any less true. Actually, I think, the opposite would be true. If I could kind of figure it all out and say, “Listen, it’s really quite simple. It’s not as complex as you thought. Now, this is what you need to know… ” If I could do that then I would think it would be proof that this book, this Bible, is a human book. It’s not really what it claims to be, namely from the mind of God, because the mind of God’s far higher than mine, his ways are far higher than mine, his thoughts infinitely above mine. And so, it makes sense that there’s going to be one mystery after another. It doesn’t trouble me, but I don’t stop working on it either.

And so, as I come to Philippians 2:12 and 13, I just say with the Apostle Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and his path beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.” and Amen.

Now, as we come to this, we’re looking at the mystery of our salvation, our work and God’s. Look again at these two verses, Philippians 2:12 and 13. He says, “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.”

Now, we’ve been saying in the book of Philippians, that there are two infinite journeys. There is that internal journey of holiness, where a sinner is transformed from being rotten, and sinful, and wicked to being just like Jesus Christ. The internal journey of holiness. And then there’s that external journey of worldwide evangelization where lost people are brought into faith in Christ so that there is representation from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation on the face of this earth. Internal journey of holiness, external journey of worldwide evangelization. Now, here in these two verses, the focus is on the internal journey, isn’t it? That we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

 In the next section of the next message, with the next section, we have some of the external journey. As we’re told, you know, to hold out the word of life in a crooked and depraved generation in which we shine like stars in the universe. We hold out the Gospel; that’s that external journey. So we go from one to the other in Philippians again and again. And they are intimately related but I’m not going to say how this morning, that’s for another message. But here we’re looking very carefully at that internal, that journey of salvation. And having said that, we get right to some corrective doctrine right away, salvation is a journey. There I said it. It’s not heretical to say that salvation is a process, that if you’re here in this room listening to me right now, you’re not done being saved yet.

Now, I know you’re thinking, “Okay, he used to be Roman Catholic and he’s thinking of that, the old works thing. Are we going to get the works thing back in here?” No, I did used to be Roman Catholic, but I’m not misunderstanding. I’m just saying that salvation is a journey, and I think it’s because Scripture teaches me that salvation is a journey. Now, we Baptists, we evangelicals, will use this kind of expression, “Are you saved?” or, “When were you saved?” or, “Tell me how you got saved.” Or we might use this expression, “Once saved, always saved.” Now, I don’t reject these slogans as untrue, biblically. They are true, every one of them. We can speak in that language. The Bible does speak of salvation as a past event. We can say, “I was saved when I was 10,” we can say that. But the problem is that it starts to limit our way of thinking about salvation, thinking that it’s just a once for all instantaneous thing and in no way a process, and that is false.

And so, we would say something like, “Well, you’re not saved by works. Remember that, you’re not saved by works.” Well, that’s not entirely true, because if that were true, then how could we work out our salvation with fear and trembling? So, I think instead, we need to be a little more careful in talking about salvation. What is it? And theologically, kind of comes at us in three parts. First there’s justification, then there’s sanctification, and then glorification. 

First, justification. And in this I will say with all my heart in the good Protestant tradition that we are not in any way justified by works, by our works. Oh we’re certainly justified by works, but they’re all Christ’s; he did the work. And so, we are justified by works but by Christ’s work. When it comes to our works, in no way are we justified by our works. Perish the thought, that is the great Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. Your works will never justify you. You cannot stand before God freed from the guilt of sin because of some good thing you do, it’s impossible. And that is instantaneous. At the moment of faith, you are justified, you are declared not guilty. God sees you in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen.

And on judgment day, no matter how much you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, it’s not that righteousness you’re going to be standing before God in; it’s going to be Christ’s perfect righteousness, Amen, because you’re not going to get far enough in your journey. You’re not actually going to get very far at all. I don’t mean to be discouraging to you, but the standard is infinite perfection to be just like Jesus all the time internally and externally, in motive and in action, never leaving anything undone that he would have done, and never doing anything that he would not have done. Perfect conformity of the law of God, how much progress in that you really think you’re going to make?

Now, real progress is possible, and real progress is important, and real progress is glorifying, greatly glorifying to God, but you are not in the end going to be standing before God, in sanctification, righteousness, it will still look like a tattered robe in that holy place. Now, you’re going to be standing in justification and that is instantaneous not by works. Are we clear on that? We’re clear, it’s very important.

Now, sanctification is a gradual process whereby the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is perfectly ascribed to us, positionally is then little by little, gradually worked out in our actual performance, so that we start to behave differently. We start to think differently. We start to act differently. We are little by little changed, more and more to be like Christ. And it’s an uncertain process. As Chuck Swindoll said, “Three steps forward and two steps back.” Have you ever felt that? And that’s about what it feels like day by day. It’s a partnership where God works and we work, and the verses we’re looking at today and God willing next week are the perfect linked verses to show how the two go together. God works and we work, but it’s a partnership sanctification.

And the third, glorification. And this is also an instantaneous transformation by the power of God entirely apart from your works, because you’ll be dead. Entirely apart from your works and your effort where you will be made completely like Jesus, in body, soul, and spirit in every way. Glorification. Now, we are therefore saved by works in the middle section. Our works have no place at all in the first, justification, no place at all in the third, glorification, but we are called here in Philippians 2, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is sanctification.

Now, here we come to a deep mystery. We come to the relationship between God’s sovereignty and our human responsibility, and we are not finally going to solve it today; we’re not. I can assure you, I can make a lot of promises and one promise is that I will not solve this one today. It’s an ancient debate. It goes back probably further, much further, even than Augustine and Pelagius, but at least we know they debated over it. Martin Luther and Erasmus debated over it. John Calvin and Albert Pighius debated over it. The Dutch Reformed believers, and the Remonstrants debated over it. In the 17th century, George Whitfield and John Wesley debated over it. Jonathan Edwards and many of the ministers in New England who preached the doctrine of free will and Arminianism, they debated over it. Charles Spurgeon and the 19th century British Arminians, they debated over it. And in our era, James White and Norm Geisler, and many others have debated this topic. And we’re not going to solve it perfectly.

And the question is, how do we reconcile God’s sovereignty and human responsibility? Charles Spurgeon was asked that very question. How do you reconcile God’s sovereignty and human responsibility? And he answered, “I never tried to reconcile friends.” Isn’t that a beautiful statement? And they are friends because they’re side by side in these two verses, do you see it? They’re just side by side, “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.” They seem quite friendly to me, side by side, and so in so many other places as well. And so, we’ve got divine sovereign energy, we’ve got diligent human effort in working out salvation here presented as friends and allies.

Danger: Pushing to the Extremes 

Now, we have a danger here, and the danger is in pushing to extremes. We have presented before us the need for diligent human effort in sanctification to make progress as a Christian. And we have also presented before us God’s sovereign energy and effort in that matter. And in church history, some have pushed too far one way or too far the other way. Some have so emphasized God’s activity and sanctification, that they neglected the need for any human effort at all.

For example, there are the quietists, Madame Guyon and Bishop Fenelon, the 17th century mystics. They get their name from the need to be quiet, to just quiet yourself before God, to be totally passive in the Christian life. They sought to abandon self in the sea of God. Sounds a little like Hinduism and Buddhism, some of the eastern mystics, to just lose yourself in God, and lose any sense of self whatsoever. And some of the quietists went so far as to say, you shouldn’t even resist any temptation or lust because you might get pulled back into a self awareness. And so, some of them actually went into great immorality in following this quietistic approach, that they were not going to fight, they were going to be essentially passive. Some of the Quakers in seeking the inner light followed that same approach.

Perhaps, more familiar to you would be the Victorious Life people, who teach that in an instantaneous transformation, you can lose all your sin and immediately live the victorious and the higher life, and the essence of it is a complete ceasing of struggling and striving in the Christian life. Doesn’t that sound good? Oh God, do it to me today. I would like instantaneously to never struggle with sin ever again the rest of my life.

A simple solution?

I remember when I was about two years into the Christian life, struggling, wrestling with sin. And I came across, this in 1 John, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him.” Well, being kind of essentially logical and mathematical, I said, “Well point one, God wants me to be pure, and holy, and free from all sin. Point two, all I have to do is ask for what I want according to his will and he will give it to me.” I don’t know why I didn’t see it before! And so, in all reverence, I got down to my knees and said, “God, make me perfect right now. I mean, absolutely perfect, take away all of my sin, in Jesus’ name, amen.”  …It didn’t work. I rose up from that prayer about like I knelt down, and more curious to know what went wrong in the mathematics and the calculus of holiness. What went wrong? I was not praying according to God’s will. It was not God’s will instantaneously to make me victorious for the rest of my life. You know why? He wanted to see me work it out. He wanted to see me on 1,000 or 100,000 battlefields by faith conquering lust after lust, temptation after temptation, cowardice after cowardice. He wanted it done, yes,  and he was going to give me everything I needed to be victorious in each of those battles; that was his way.

Now, you say, but that’s so much suffering, it’s so much struggle. Yes, it’s the very thing the Victorious Life people tell you you don’t need anymore, just be passive, this is what they say. The essence is surrender, have you heard this before? You’ve got to just surrender to God. You’ve got to surrender all things to Christ. “We are to stand,” I’m quoting now, “We are to stand not struggle, the good fight of faith cannot be a struggle, the secret of victory is the indwelling Christ. Christ never struggled with sin,” they say. “So victory is in trusting not in trying. Victory over sin is a gift of God and not a growth.” Did you hear that? It’s an instantaneous gift, it’s not something you grow in. The victorious life is not secured gradually nor by effort and striving on our part.

The motto of this is, “Let go and let God.” Have you heard that before? Let go and let God. And the key to the Christian life then is learning just how to let go and let God do it. I read a poem about this, by Jason Ramer:

“As children bring their broken toys

with tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dreams to God

because he was my friend.

But then, instead of leaving him

in peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help

with ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,

“How can you be so slow?”

“My child,” he said,

“What could I do,

you never did let go.” 

Doesn’t that sound wonderful? It really does, but it doesn’t line up with the text we’re looking at today. Does God teach you to give it to him and let go, so that you stop striving? I don’t think so, you were told to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 

He wants you right in the midst of the battle. He has committed the responsibility to you. There are others that so emphasize God’s side. Hyper-Calvinists, who take the idea of God sovereignty so far as to say, “You don’t need to do anything in the Christian life.” Calvin never taught that, reformed people, the Puritans sure never taught that. And then, lazy mainstream evangelicals, who say, “Hey now, I walked the aisle. I remember it distinctly. I prayed the prayer. What do I need to work out my salvation with fear and... What do I need to do that for? Once saved, always saved, my pastor taught me that, I believe it. It’s a Biblical doctrine. So, what do I need to do?” And so, there is overemphasis on that idea, saying that, therefore, we don’t need to do anything in the Christian life. That’s all the one error.

But then on the other side, there are some that so emphasize human effort and human striving and human work that they forget that, “…it is God who works in you, to will and to do, according to His good purpose.” That the Scripture actually always gives the emphasis to God’s work first and ours second. And that’s why, when I get to talking about our work and God’s, ours is the lesser work and God’s is the greater work.

Among these would be anxious Arminians, who believe that at any moment, you can lose your salvation, so you better keep doing it and God is sitting back watching and seeing what you can do. And he’s not going to lift a finger. He’s done enough through providing the blood of Jesus Christ. The rest is up to your free will. And you better keep working at it, you better keep cranking it out, because if you don’t, you’ll lose your salvation. Some Holiness churches teach this. The Roman Catholic monks and ascetics, totally focused on themselves and their own works and what they could do, and not understanding God’s sovereignty in all of this. Let’s not make either one of these errors. There is deep mystery here. But let’s totally embrace the fact that the Christian life is going to be a hard-working, energetic battle the rest of your life, don’t expect anything else. But that it is “God who’s at work in you at every moment, to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Let’s hold both of them together. Now, let’s dig in and try to understand this in terms of its context.

Philippians was a thank you letter. You remember that Paul was in chains for Christ and the Philippian church was concerned and so they sent him some money with Epaphroditus, they sent him some money. Paul, just being an honorable person, just wanted to say, “Thank you”. And so, he wrote a thank you letter. But his thank you letters are just much better than ours, much better than ours. And so, we’re still reading his, two millennia later. Because he’s going well beyond just saying, “Thank you.” He’s concerned that they understand the Christian life. He wants them to understand his struggle and his being in chains, in terms of those two infinite journeys. The internal journey of holiness, the external journey of worldwide evangelization. Because you see, the Philippians were also going through struggles. They were getting persecuted, they were needing to stand up for Christ. And so, he wrote, so that they would have what they needed to stand firm in the day of testing. Also, it turns out that the Philippian church was being rent by divisions and by arguments and conflicts, they were not united. And so, in Chapter 2, he writes saying “Please, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then 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 conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” And then, he gives that beautiful, that soaring example of Jesus Christ, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. And He took His servanthood to the utter extreme of death, even death on a cross.” And so, therefore Philippians, “as you have always obeyed,” you see the link there, Jesus obeyed even to death on the cross. Now, “as you also have always obeyed, continue to obey.” To the point where in Verse 14, you “do everything without complaining or arguing.” You see how that works? And so the internal growth of holiness in Christ will enable you to stop arguing with each other. And that will enable you to hold out the word of life to a crooked and depraving generation.

That’s the context of Philippians 2:12-13. He wants them to be blameless. Now, let’s look at our lesser work, our lesser work. We will not finish contemplating God’s greater work. We will do that, God willing, next time. But let’s look at our lesser work. Now first, why do I call our work, “The lesser work?” Well, we know from this verse that we work in salvation, and God works. We work and God works. But what is the relationship between the two? Now, we’ve studied in 1 John, perhaps even this morning some of you looked at 1 John 4:19, which says, “We love because He first loved us.” It puts the priority on God’s love. That means that our love is a flower, like a harvest that comes out of the root and the seed-bed and the nourishing soil of God’s love for us. That’s where it comes. So, we put the priority on God’s love. “We love because He first loved us.” Well, I think Philippians 2:12-13 would then say something like this, “We work because God first worked in us.” Let me say that again, “We work,” in a Christian life, “We work because God first worked in us.”

Do you think you’re ever going to get ahead of God? Where he’ll... he’s praying, “I wish I’d thought of that, but I’m so glad he’s doing that.” I can’t imagine that. Could it be that you’re only ever keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. He’s leading out, you’re following? So, if you’re down on your knees praying, if you’re studying the Scriptures, if you’re putting sin to death, it’s because that is exactly what the Holy Spirit is working in you at that moment. And for a change, you’re not hardening your heart. “We work because he first worked in us.” And so, therefore our work is the lesser work. Now, what is the nature of our work? Look again at Verse 12. “Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue-”

Gentle encouragement

Now, first of all, I just want to comment pastorally. Do you see how sweet spirited he is toward these folks? Paul just has a sweet spirit toward the Philippians. He calls them his dear friends. He cherishes them. He loves them. And then he encourages them. “As you have always obeyed…” Isn’t that encouraging to hear that from Paul? “Just as I look at your lives, since the first time I knew you. And since the first day that you began as Christians, you have always obeyed.” And so, he’s very sweetly encouraging to them.

I think this is a lesson to parents and a lesson to disciplers. Be greatly encouraging to those entrusted to you. Growth happens in an environment of hope and encouragement, not in a harsh negativity of, “Look how poorly you’re doing.” But rather, Paul says, “Look how well you’re doing, but just keep doing it all the more.” He’s very encouraging to them.

Now, the focus then here is obedience. I asked what is the nature of our work? The issue is obedience. “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.” If you just put it together, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, is a matter of growing obedience. “As you have always obeyed,” continue to obey. That is, to work out your salvation.

Do you see the logic of it there? So the working out is matter of growth and obedience to Christ. Obedience to Christ is essential for salvation. Now realize the essence of sin is rebellion, transgression against the commands of God. And so, if God is going to save you, he’s going to get you out of that. You’re going to obey. You’re going to submit your life to a King. That’s what salvation is. To stop being a rebel. Christ saves us, by calling us back into his Kingdom. He says in Mark 1:15, “The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” What’s the good news? That the King against whom you have rebelled is willing to take you back and to transform you so that you are his loyal subject again. 

Christ has the right to demand faith filled obedience

Now, we’ve looked at this before in Matthew 11, but I can’t get over it. It was read earlier. Matthew 11:28-30. Every chance we get, we should look at it. “But there the King stands before us and says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” And then He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Do you know what he’s calling you to do? To bend that stiff neck of yours under his yoke and yield to him as your King. The Biblical image is one of yielding to, submitting to a King. So that he is your sovereign, he has the right to rule over you. And he’s a gentle and loving King. This is not a burden. And so, it’s a matter of obedience. It’s a matter of submission to Christ. And therefore, we must constantly seek to obey our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 12, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence.” Let me tell you something. If you have no desire to obey Jesus Christ, you are not a Christian. If you have no desire to obey the commands of Christ, you’re not a Christian. If you think it a light thing to obey Christ, you have not understood the Gospel.

The Philippians showed their faith by immediate and heartfelt obedience, not only to Christ but also to Christ’s messenger, the Apostle Paul. Now, what kind of obedience are we talking about? Well, immediate obedience. Look back at Philippians 1:5. There Paul speaks of their partnership. Do you see this? Philippians 1:5, he thanks God because of “their partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now.” Do you see that? Right from the start, these Philippian Christians were obeying Christ and obeying Paul, Christ messenger. They didn’t wait to obey.

Now, some people think “Well, I’m ready to accept Jesus as my Savior, but I’m not yet ready to accept him as my Lord.” As though he’s somehow schizophrenic. Some days he’s going to be Savior and some days he’s going to be Lord. Well, that’s not the case. He is Savior and he is Lord. Jesus called people to immediate obedience. “As he was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. And they were Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, they were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going a little further, He found James and John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus said, ‘Follow Me.’And at once they left their father and their nets and followed Jesus.” He found Matthew the tax collector the same way. “Come follow me,” And he got up and followed him and he obeyed him. One disciple said, “Lord first let me go and bury my father.” And he said, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.” To the rich young ruler, he said, “If you want to be perfect, sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you’ll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.” He called for immediate complete obedience. And faith filled obedience. “An obedience,” it says in Romans 5, “that comes from faith.” A faith filled obedience. Now, Paul points this out. He says, “As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence.” They seem to have grown in their obedience. They’re even more obeying Christ now than when he was there before. This is a great sign of a true living faith.

When it’s only you and Jesus: Consistent obedience

Early in my Christian life, when I was a college student, I had as a job, going around from place to place at the university and inspecting fire extinguishers. It wasn’t a living. I just made money, pocket money, wasn’t very exciting. But I would look and I would sign my name on the little tag. I went back there a few years later and actually saw one of the tags I signed, so it made me feel good.  Andy Davis was here, there it was. But I went into this little, kind of room, closet or something like that and went in, turned on the light, closed the door. And then, I turned and there on the wall was a poster. The only purpose of which was to excite lust. I was totally alone, the door was closed and I turned away. This is about six months after I had become a Christian, there was nobody in the room, except me and Jesus and that was enough. There’s an obedience that comes from faith and faith is measured by what you do when it’s only you and Jesus.

And so, he says, “Not only in my presence, but now that I’m not even there anymore, you’re obeying more and more.” And why? Because Jesus is still there, the Lord is still there. So it’s a faith filled obedience and it’s a consistent obedience. “As you have always obeyed, even now continue to obey.” What’s this going to lead to? Well, hard work. “Work out your salvation.” The word is related to “energy”. Show energy in your Christian life. Work it out, energy. He’s talking here, as we’ve said, about sanctification. Growth and godliness requires sweat and toil and suffering and hard work. You’re not going to grow without it. I know the victorious higher life people are promising you something, but you’re not going to find it. The Bible doesn’t promise it to you. The Bible promises you battle. But it promises you weapons and defenses that are suitable for the task. Just having a quiet time every day is a battle. Amen. Just getting up early in the morning and having a good time with the Lord is a battle. You’ve got to do it, work out your salvation.

Now, what does it mean “with fear and trembling?” Some of you I think studied in 1 John, where it says, “Perfect love drives out fear.” Romans 8 says that, “God did not make us a slave again to fear.” Well, what then is this fear and trembling? Well, it’s not the fear and trembling of a slave at Mount Sinai, thinking that, “If I don’t obey this whole law, I’m going to hell.” No, that’s not what it is. That’s not the fear and trembling here. I think it’s different. Paul uses the same expression in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5, when he talked about his preaching ministry in Corinth. He says, “I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling. My message in my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.” So, I think what it means is, you work out your salvation with a constant awareness that you can do nothing without Jesus’ help. “I am the vine and you are the branches, apart from Me you can do nothing.” A constant kind of trembling awareness of dependence on Jesus. “Taking heed, you who stand, lest you might fall today into sin.” Fearful of the devil and his temptations, fearful of your own sin and your own habits and patterns, fearful of having to give Christ an account for yet more sin. With fear and trembling, with the sense of the seriousness of this battle, we are going to work out our salvation. Now, that is our lesser work. God willing, next time, we’re going to see God’s greater work in us.

What kind of application are we going to take from this? First, accept the mystery. You have a responsibility in your Christian life, accept it. Accept responsibility. You must work in your Christian life. And you must work hard. And if you don’t work hard, you will not make great progress in your Christian life. You must do your part, your lesser work. If you want to grow in knowledge of the Bible, you must study. You must memorize. You must meditate. You must work at it. 

If you want to grow in your prayer life, like Ole Hallesby said, “Prayer is work.” That’s the name of his book. You want to grow, you have to work at it. Is it easy to kneel down and pray for an hour? No, it’s hard, it’s hard work and if you expect it to be easy, you’re going to be greatly disappointed. But if you know that prayer is work and growth in prayer is work, then you will know. That is exactly what I was told and so, I must work at it. Suppose you have bad habits present, like overeating, for example, it’s not going to go away without effort. You must work at it. Yes, you must work it by the power of the Spirit, but you must work to put sin to death. If there are good habits that are absent, for example, personal witnessing, you must be willing to work at it so that you became a better witness. Study, work at it, put yourself under somebody who is a good witness, so that you can learn how to be a witness. Suppose you have bad character traits present, like complaining. It’s not going to go away like the morning mist, “Then one day I never complained again.” 

Oh, wouldn’t that be sweet? But I don’t think it’s going to happen. As matter of fact, this verse gives me an indication that it is not going to happen. There isn’t going to be, “Then one day I never did such and such again.” It could happen statistically that from that day forth you never did. But it happens through hard work by the power of God working in you. And if you are quietistic and laid back, you will continue to complain. You will continue to be who you’ve always been. And concerning good traits, character traits, that are absent like compassion, you must work at acquiring Christ’s compassion for the suffering and needy. Now, if you don’t make progress, don’t get discouraged. Stealing some from next week’s sermon, “It is God who works in you so that you can work.” You will win in the end, you will be victorious. Just don’t give up. Don’t give up, keep working at it. Because God’s doing the same work in you that you are doing in yourself. So if you don’t see progress, don’t get discouraged. But if you do see progress, don’t get arrogant and start saying, “I have found the secret.” And sure don’t write the book called, “The Victorious Life,”  alright, thus discouraging generations of people who haven’t found your secret, whatever it is. Don’t get arrogant. And if you are not a Christian today, don’t work. Don’t work at all. Because all so called good works before justification are actually sins. You just need to humble yourself before the cross of Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior, that his blood will cleanse you from sin.

Ezekiel’s Vision of Christ

Philippians 2:5-11, we come to just one of the greatest passages in the New Testament, to try to understand the deity of Christ and the kind of life that we should live. We’re looking at Christ’s infinite downward journey of humility this morning. And I am brought in my own mind back to one of the darkest moments of Israel’s history, up to that point had been the darkest moment. The exile, that Babylon had already begun. Many of God’s people had already been deported. The King of Judah had been put in chains and deported. And many of God’s people, many of the Jews had been slaughtered for their wickedness, for their idolatry, for their sin.

And there on the plain of the River Chebar, in Babylon, by the rivers of Babylon, the people of God sat and wept, for all that had been lost. But God chose one man, the Prophet Ezekiel and filled his mind, with visions of glory. In Ezekiel 1, you get one of most dramatic pictures of the glory of God you will ever find. And it was at such a dark place, a light shining in a dark place. A vision of a wind storm and an immense cloud and lightning, flashing back and forth and heavenly beings, four living creatures with visual appearance that almost defies description. And with these monstrously, huge crystallite wheels, touching the ground and then rising above the ground, high and awesome they were. Filled with eyes, wheels intersecting wheels, we can’t understand what it would look like, but we get the sense of awe inspiring grandeur, of elevation.

And high above these living creatures, there was an expanse that sparkled like ice. And high above the expanse, there was a throne. And high above the throne, there was, it seemed, a man, sitting on the throne. It says that he looked from his waist up as if you were glowing metal, as if full of fire and from there down he looked like fire and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow and the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it I fell face down. I believe this was the appearance of the likeness to the glory of Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity. And if Ezekiel could have imagined what was yet in store for Christ, that someday he would not actually be in the appearance, as he was at that point of a man, but would actually be a man.

And that that lofty grandeur and glory would be the starting point of the longest journey in history. A descent of humility, all the way down to the humiliation at the cross, when Jesus Christ, betrayed by one of his closest followers, deserted by all his disciples, arrested, bound, tried like a common criminal. Mocked, spat upon, scourged, condemned to die by a Gentile governor, paraded through the streets, rejected again and again. And scorned by his own people, crucified with long spikes driven through his hands and feet, his blood poured out on the cross, surrounded by ravenous enemies, who are filled with blood lust and hatred and arrogance and insults and curses. Suffering intensely under the wrath of God for sins that he himself did not commit.

There on Golgotha, the hill of skulls, he would die. And that was the endpoint of his infinitely downward journey of humility. And from that low point, God exalted him to the highest place and that is the journey that the Apostle Paul traces out for us here in Philippians Chapter 2.

Ezekiel & Isaiah’s Vision of Satan

And that’s exactly the mirror image of the journey that Satan took, also described in the Book of Ezekiel. “For Satan,” it says, “was in the Garden of Eden, the garden of God,” Ezekiel 28, “every precious stone adorned you,” it says, “you were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you, you were in the holy mount of God, you walked among the fiery stones”. Filled with a kind of glory, a created glory, unlike that of Christ, but a glory nonetheless. And he looked inward and found that he was beautiful and that he was glorious and decided to make something of himself. He decided to go upward.

It says in Ezekiel 28, “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till wickedness was found in you. Your heart became proud, on account of your beauty. And you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.” And so, we get the upward ascent, described more accurately for us in Isaiah 14, “You said in your heart. I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself, like the most high.” And so, up he went until God threw him down.

Ezekiel 28 again, “So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God. And I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. I threw you to the earth. I made you a spectacle before kings.” What a contrast we have here, Christ downward journey of humility, downward journey to the lowest point, and then God exalting him to the highest place. And Satan, exactly inverted, rising ever higher, until God threw him down and humbled him. Satan’s upward journey of pride, his love of himself, his love of his own glory and his hatred for God’s people. Sadly, humanity joined in that journey. We joined with him in his rebellion. We wanted to be like God, we wanted to go up, up and ever up. And so we started to ascend with him, how devil like.

America is the land of upward mobility. The place where you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. The Horatio Alger story, from rags to riches. Well, in one sense there is nothing wrong with that, in one sense it’s a better culture than that which was found in Europe, where it was so set and there was no mobility possible. But could it be that it would corrupt our pride as well. And that we would follow after the same upward pattern, devil like. Sadly, the Church follows the same approach. Seeking selfish ambition and vain glory, always wanting to go up and up. And as we’re going up, we’re missing Jesus, who is going down the other way. Descending he is, to death on the cross.

Now, in this text, in Philippians 2, understand that these majestic verses have a purpose. Now, they teach you in seminary, you always want to try to find the central purpose of the text. Now, the central purpose of this text is to teach you to be humble and to treat other people better than yourselves, that’s it. But you know what’s funny, I think that the words, so outstrip and outshine that central purpose that they kind of take a life of their own. They become really a basis for glory in Christ, worshiping him. And by the way, we are ethically transformed to treat others better than ourselves. But I’ll tell you that the central idea here is that we should treat others better than ourselves. We should have this mind in us, which was also in Christ Jesus.

 Now we’ve talked in Philippians 2:1-4, of the unity which is the Gospel adorned. There’s a perfect unity that’s in mind in the Gospel, that we would be one, as the Father and the Son are one, perfectly one together, that is the goal of the Gospel. Now, sin has an, as we talked about last time, an explosive effect, fragmentation effect, it just blows things that were together apart, so that everything’s atomized into bits. And then Jesus Christ comes and puts it back together, draws all things together under one head, even Christ. That’s what the Gospel does. The perfect unity, therefore, is the final goal of the Gospel. An imperfect unity, an imitation as best we can in our sinfulness of the unity that the Gospel will eventually produce, it’s the Gospel adorned. As we treat each better than ourselves, as we are lowly and Christ-like and humble, we adorn the Gospel with the beauty the world cannot imitate and it’s very attractive, isn’t it? When churches really love each other, when Christians really treat each other better than they treat themselves, when families are drawn together with this kind of humble servant attitude, it is the Gospel adorned. And so, this is essential to the progress of the Gospel.

And so, in the midst of all of this, this exhortation to be humble and lowly and meek and treat others better than yourselves, the Apostle Paul brings forward and sets in front of us the perfect example of Jesus Christ. And that’s what we get in Verses 5-11. Now, the first thing we see in Verse 5 is, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” or in the NIV gives us, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” The focus here is on Christ’s mindset, his attitude, his way of thinking, that’s where we begin. Christ’s outward example flowed from his internal mentality.

Now, our imitation of his mindset is here commanded. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, it’s commanded. What’s interesting is that in another place, it’s already given to us. It says in 1 Corinthians 2, “You have the mind of Christ.” Isn’t that wonderful? So what’s commanded here is already granted to us. We have the mind of Christ. We don’t seem to use it though, do we? We have been granted a way of thinking that is Christ like, but we don’t seem to use it. And so, the very thing that’s commanded here, which is already given to us in the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 2, will someday be ours in perfection. When the church, in John 17, is brought together into the perfect unity, just like the Father and the Son are one, we will think like this, won’t we? Oh, I’m looking forward to that day. When I lose all selfishness. When any concern for self is gone and drowned in that vision of Christ that we have face to face, seeing him in all his glory.

 And so, this mind, which was in Christ, is commanded of us here. It’s already granted to us in the Gospel and someday it will be perfected in heaven. So all that Paul is doing is saying, “Please, act like what you’re going to be someday. Think the way someday you will spend eternity thinking, live up to the calling of the Gospel.” And then he gives us this example of Christ, “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 the cross.” There’s the downward journey. Now, the starting point of the downward journey in Philippians 2 is the deity of Christ. That’s where it begins. It starts with the deity of Christ. “Who being in very nature, God.”

Thomas Jefferson’s Bible

Now, the deity of Christ is greatly attacked by the unbelieving world. Greatly denied by unbelievers. For example, Thomas Jefferson went through the New Testament and removed all references to the deity of Christ, removed all references to supernatural actions on his part. They didn’t make sense to his rational way of thinking. And so, you can go to Monticello and you can buy Thomas Jefferson’s bible. I have one. It doesn’t make very good reading, it’s a very short book, very brief. And wholly without glory. It’s a bunch of ethical injunctions that have no basis. It’s like a bunch of cut flowers with no root-bed at all. And so you read it and say, “Oh, how much he missed through his unbelief.” But he could not accept the deity of Christ. As the Unitarians of his age could not accept the doctrine of the Trinity, it’s really one and the same thing. They couldn’t accept it. Well, let me tell you something, if Christ is not God in the flesh, you are still in your sins and you have no hope.

You must believe this doctrine, this is not an optional doctrine. Paul makes Christ’s deity absolutely clear in two amazing ways. First of all, he just says it. “Who being in very nature, God.” There, it says it. I don’t know how much more plainly we need it. But the Greek word here is “morphe” who in the form of God, the outward form, outward and visible form, corresponding to the internal reality of what he really was, that’s what the word means. And so, he says, “He was in the nature of God.” Very much, from the core of his being, in the very nature God. He says it directly.

 But he does it in another compelling way, which I think we would probably miss, compared to the Jews of Paul’s era. He does it in a second half in verses 9-11, when he says, “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.” Now, like I said, unbeknownst to us, who did not know, who do not know the Old Testament, as well as the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees of Paul’s age did. He is quoting the Old Testament here. He’s quoting Isaiah. Now, from Isaiah 40-49, Isaiah the mouthpiece of God, the Prophet of the LORD, is taking on Israel’s idols. God is speaking about the idols.

I, even I am the LORD

Now, Israel had a bad habit. They worshipped the LORD, they worshipped Yahweh, they worshipped Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But they also worship Moloch. They also worship Ba’al. They also worshipped all of these other little deities. They just kind of mixed it all together. They were polytheistic, they were synchronistic, they had a mishmash of religions. And then they said, this is the God of Heaven but then we’ve got all these other Gods, the God of the hills, and the God of the sea and all that. And God said, “No.” In Isaiah 40-49, he says again and again, “I am God and there is no other.” Listen to Isaiah 43:10-12, “Before me no god was formed, nor there will be one after me.” Is that clear. “I, even I am the Lord and apart for me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed. I and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord that, I am God.” Isaiah 44:8, “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” This is God speaking. He’s saying, “I know the universe. I made it. I’ve studied and scoured the universe, I’ve looked around and there is nothing in the universe like me. Not even close as a matter of fact. I alone am God and I alone am worthy of your worship,” he says. And he makes it clear, it’s really repetitive in these 10 chapters. Isaiah 40-49, and he comes to it again in Isaiah 45:5-6, “I am the Lord and there is no other, apart from me there is no God.” Alright, we’ve established the point, God’s message is clear, God is so exalted and unique and high and lofty that you can’t compare him to anyone else. There’s no one else like him. Alright, in the midst of this extended section, God speaks through Isaiah about the salvation of the whole world. Listen to this. It’s Isaiah 45:22-23, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; and by me every tongue will swear.” 

Paul knew Christ’s glory

Now do you think that the Apostle Paul forgot about that when he ascribed that to Jesus Christ? Was he not saying Jesus is God? He is the one before whom you will bow, he is the one before whom your knees will bow on Judgment Day. He is God. He was a Pharisee. He knew what he was doing. And as the matter of fact, if Jesus is not deity, then what Paul was doing here in Philippians is blasphemous. But he is deity. He is God in the flesh. He ascribes this to Jesus of Nazareth. That “In 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 the deity of Christ is established twice in this text, said straight out at the beginning, and then through the ascription of the Isaiah passage at the end. We have here, therefore, in these verses, the mystery of the incarnation. 100% God, 100% man. And no, Thomas Jefferson, you can’t reason this out. It does dwarf your intellect and your reason. You can’t figure this out, but that doesn’t mean we take it out of the Bible. It means we bow our knees before it and we worship. We worship this God man. This is a great stumbling block to those who do not believe, but it is the Gospel that we preach. That God took on a human body and died on the cross in our place. This is the starting point for the longest and greatest journey in the history of the universe.

Heaven, you know, is a place of perfect order. Everything focused on the glory of God. Heaven is a place where there is no death or mourning or crying, or pain. Heaven is a place where Christ is held in absolute honor, and reverence, and he is worshipped. Heaven is a place where Christ’s slightest command is immediately obeyed by the angels; the cherubim and the seraphim. Heaven is a place where everyone knew exactly who Jesus was, and they hid their faces in front of him. A splendor and a glory we can’t even imagine. Christ gave all that up to come to earth, gave it all up.

Earth is a place of death. It’s a place of mourning, of crying, of pain. Earth is a place of great injustice, and misery, and wickedness, and violence. Earth is a place where God is not known, not loved, not obeyed, not worshipped. Earth is a place of ugliness and disorder and hatred. All of it caused by sin’s disease. Earth is a place where Jesus knew full well he would be rejected, and despised, and spat upon, and murdered. He knew it. It was prophesied before he entered it. Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.” Oh, they hid their faces on earth because he looks so grotesque on the cross. Not like the seraphim who hide their faces because of his glory.

The downward Journey explained

John Chapter 1, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not know him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” And so that is the starting point of the downward journey, the perfect deity of Christ. And we see here the downward journey of humility in six steps. Satan simply says, “I will go up, up, up.” but Jesus goes ever downward:

Step one, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or seized. It’s a difficult phrase, the Greek word usually means robbery or plunder, maybe that some of you have KJV with you, you can see the word robbery in there. He didn’t consider it robbery. It’s an interesting word. If you can imagine like an eagle descending on a rabbit with talons extended and it seizes up the rabbit and takes it to itself. Or you can imagine a ravenous army descending on the plunder after the battle is won. That’s the word, “harpazo” is a Greek word, that’s the verb form. This is what it is. It’s the idea of robbery and plundering of grabbing and grasping, pulling to one’s self. But what does it mean? Well, first idea would be that Jesus did not consider equality with God something he needed to grasp. He already had it. It wasn’t necessary for him to grasp it, he already was equal with God. Well, that’s possible.

Another idea is that Christ did not think he had to hold on to and grasp to himself as with white knuckles, all the trappings of outward glory. The radiance and the bright shining glory and the throne and all the worship, he didn’t hold on to that, but was willing to let it go. And I think that’s quite possible, as well. Another idea is that Christ wasn’t in competition with God, the Father, so that he’s stealing something that doesn’t belong to him because he already was in very nature, God.

But I have a very different take on it. What I think is that Jesus did not consider his position as being equal with God, a platform for plunder in which he would come and plunder us. Now, think of it this way, how many kings or emperors or conquerors use their position of power as a place from which they would plunder other people? Well, there are bad judges or governors or others would take their position of power and go plunder the people that were entrusted to their care. Jesus never did this. He didn’t use equality with God a platform for plunder, but made himself nothing. He didn’t come to grab from us. He came to give to us, did not consider it something to be plundered.

Step two, he made himself nothing. He literally emptied himself. This is the idea of “kenosis” from the Greek word, to empty yourself. Earthly pride, by the way, consists of making much of yourself. Making much of yourself. “Let’s celebrate me.” “Well, enough about me, let’s talk about you, what do you think about me?” [laughter] That kind of thing. It’s very me focused. “Let’s make a lot about me.” Jesus emptied himself of me. He wasn’t focused on me in that sense. Kings always have a large entourage of people who tell them how great they are. The worst that I’ve read in history was Louis the 14th, the Sun King of France. What an interesting man. He called himself “The Sun King” because like the sun, he radiated to everyone who was around him with his glory. I mean, people have been telling him those things since when he was an infant. They’re saying, “Oh, you are the Sun King.” And around him he had all these counselors that would tell him exactly what he wanted to hear. Like he said to one of his ministers, he asked him what time it was, and he said, “Whatever time your majesty desires.” [laughter] That’s strange but that’s what we do. That’s what we humans do. We want to make much of us. Christ went exactly the opposite way. He made himself nothing.

A theological warning

Now, let me give you a theological warning here. There’s some bad theology around this phrase, the emptying one’s self. Some people believe that Jesus emptied himself of his deity. That he was not God while he was on the earth. When he was on the cross crying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That’s kind of proof that he was not truly God at that point. Oh, my friends, the Trinity is eternal. You don’t take off deity. He is forever God and will not, cannot, ever take off his deity. And this actually enhances the mystery, does it not? He was fully God while dying on the cross.

And it says in Colossians 1, “In him, all things hold together.” So Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, is holding together the nails that are holding him to the cross. Well, that’s a mystery. He was holding together Mary’s womb while he was growing inside of it. I can’t understand that. It’s mysterious to me, but he did not empty himself of deity. No, he emptied himself of the outer trappings of glory. And he chose not to use all of his capabilities, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his omniscience. He chose not to use them. That’s what “emptied himself” means.

Step three, he took the very nature of a servant. Now, this convicts me greatly because the exact same word “morphe” is used, “Who being in the form of God, became in the form of servant.” What that means is he’s as much servant as he is God. Now some of us are good at playing at servant for a little while. I’ve done it myself. And the proof of it- you want credit for it. Do you realize how much of a servant I’ve been this afternoon? I mean, this was hard for me to do these things, and I want you to know it. Not that you would give me any credit for anything. This is called “playing at being a servant”. Jesus really was a servant right to the core of his being. He was as much servant as he was God. And so he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work.” “I would rather die than disobey the one who sent me.” It’s the attitude of a servant. Hebrews 10:7 says, “Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, oh God.” That’s all. “I am the servant, I’ve come to do Your will.”

Step four, being made in human likeness. What a great humiliation for God to become man. What a step down. We’re always wanting to go to the next step and ever higher. He goes backward. Celsus talked about this, an ancient enemy of the Gospel, said, “Why would sublime glory want to become flesh?” It didn’t make any sense. But that’s what he did. He was made in human likeness. The immortal God kicking and crying as a helpless baby. Ultimate picture of humiliation. Totally God, yet totally helpless, concerning his human needs. He looked very ordinary. He had a face, hands, probably a beard. Mouth, feet, nothing unusual. Even more striking, he came to the earth as the son of a Jewish virgin living in an obscure town in the northern part of Galilee. All this came from the attitude of his mind, he made himself nothing.

Step five, as a man, he humbled himself. It’s how he lived his life. He obeyed every moment as a servant. Somebody came to him, he went with them. My daughter is sick, I’ll go. My servant lies at home, terribly suffering. I’ll go with him. Whoever came, he went and served. It’s the way he lived his life. But even that wasn’t enough. He became obedient to death. He became obedient to death, willing to die as a servant.

Step six, even to the ultimate humiliation of death on a cross. Josephus, the Jewish historian, said the practice of crucifixion was the most wretched and despicable of deaths. The Romans would never crucify a Roman citizen. Paul was not crucified. Probably executed by beheading, but Jesus, he was crucified. It was the death of slaves. But Jesus’ death, even death by crucifixion, wasn’t low enough, was it? Because there were two other people crucified that day. But only Jesus bore the sins of all of his people, for all ages, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Defiled to the uttermost by our lust, and pride, and selfishness, and greed, and anger, and all our wickedness poured on him. That is the lowest point, as he’s receiving the wrath of God. We’re at the bottom now. The downward journey of humiliation as Jesus is the sin bearer for people like you and me.

Now, I was considering preaching two sermons on this, but I couldn’t do it, because I can’t leave him at that lowest place. And so, “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 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Amen and amen.

And so it say, “Therefore, God exalted him,” That “therefore” is so vital, because it teaches us whom God exalts. It teaches us whom God exalts. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted,” Matthew 23:12. Jesus himself said in Matthew 20:25-28, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercised authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” You want to be great? Be nothing. That’s hard to do, isn’t it?

Every day say, “I’m nothing. I count my life worth nothing to me. If only I may do his will.” Do his work. This is a challenge for me. This sermon absolutely humbles me, because I realize how little I think like that. Every day, on a Monday, or on a Friday, or on a Saturday, or any time, morning, noon, night, be nothing, make yourself nothing. Be a servant. That’s what Jesus did. Now notice the contrast, the downward journey took six steps, the upper journey, instantaneous. “Today you will be with me in paradise,” he said to that robber who died on the cross. God exalted him to the highest place. There’s no waiting period there, he died and he was with God in glory to the highest place even.

There’s all kinds of delegated authority in God’s universe. He delegates to the sun rulership over the day, and to the moon rulership over the night, and to the animals over the... There’s all these circles of authority and there’s rulers, and there’s authorities and powers, and there’s people, and all that at the height of all of those circles of delegated authority is Jesus Christ. He rules over all of it. Ephesians 1, “God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all ruling authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only the present age, but also in the one to come.” And “God placed all things under his feet.” “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me,” said Jesus.

The highest place and the greatest name

A name is a reputation. Jeremiah 45, “Don’t make a name for yourself, Baruch.” Don’t expect great things for yourself, but how much we want to make a name for ourselves. Some people are even willing to do something awful to make a name for themselves.

 Genesis 11, the builders of the Tower of Babel, they said, “Come, let us build a great city and a tower that reaches up to heaven and so make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.” Let’s make a name for ourselves. It’s a very strong drive in us. Joseph Stalin had posters of his face all over the USSR. He had a city named after himself, Stalingrad. Chairman Mao had 2.2 billion little pins made with his portrait, given out all over china. The personality cult. And you say, “Well, I would never do something like that if I were put in a position of absolute authority over nation.” Oh, really? We have this tendency to make a name for ourselves. The highest name has been given away and it’s not yours or mine, it’s Jesus’. He has the highest name.

Now, God is able to take a name and make it great. He said to Abraham, Genesis 12:2, he said, “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.” God can do that. He did it to David. 2 Samuel 7:9, “Now, I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of earth.” And so, it’s not a bad thing to have a great name if God does it. But the highest name has been given away to Jesus. The highest name, Christ’s name alone has been proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Christ’s reputation alone is perfect. His character, also his deeds, his accomplishments, unmatched. Christ alone, has the right to open the scroll in the right hand of him who sat in the throne, Revelation 5. And Christ’s name alone is the only one by which you may be saved. 

Acts 4:12, “There is no other name under heaven, given to men by which you may be saved.” And so you’re commanded to call on the name of Jesus to be saved. This is the name that saves you. When I was a student at MIT, there’s a place called Killian court. And up around in the high places, like up around here, there were all these great names; Newton, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and da Vinci, all of these great names, and they put them up there because you want to aspire to go up. You look at those names. Let me tell you something. If you went to the gates of heaven and knocked, and the door opened, and you were to say, “I want to enter.” They say, “By what name will you enter?” Well, the name of da Vinci is not going to get you in, or the name of Beethoven or Napoleon. None of these great names will allow you entrance. 

Only one name will get you in, the name of Jesus Christ. It is the greatest name of any that has ever lived. The name that is above every name, and then the universal confession 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.” This is being fulfilled, but it’s not finished yet. Its perfect fulfillment will be Judgment Day.

Every knee will bow

Now, for you as a believer, if you’re a believer in Christ, that will be your moment, where you finally get to see Jesus face to face to and you get to kneel before him, and you get to love him and with glad submission, glad submission, consummate the faith that you had here while you’re on earth. In life, we gladly knelt before him in faith when we are saved. We kneel before him in prayer when we have needs. We kneel before him in worship. We kneel before him to consecrate our lives, to confess our sin. We kneel before him again and again.

We will be delighted to kneel before him then, as we are delighted to kneel before him now. But it says, “Every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” And that includes people who are not believers. They will kneel, too. The night that Jesus was arrested, Satan filled Judas, and Judas betrayed Jesus and brought a huge group of soldiers, 600 perhaps as much, and they went. And Jesus went out, in John 13 and confronted them and said, “’Who are you seeking?’ And they said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth,’ and he said ‘I am.’” And they all fell before Him, all of them, including Satan. All he did was say, “I am.” What will it be then when he is revealed in majestic and terrifying glory? What will his enemies do but melt in front of him, fall before him and confess that he is Lord, but it will be for them too late, because now, today is the day of salvation. Now is the time of faith and we are justified by faith alone. There will be no faith at that point, it will be sight. Time is over. This is not a universalistic verse saying that everybody is going to be saved, not at all. Just that everybody will kneel and every tongue will confess.

This is the confession of the entire universe, and that moment will be the fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” They’ll be all on the floor before you Jesus at Judgment Day. And every tongue’s going to confess. The devil will swear it. It’ll be interesting to hear him say that, won’t it? The devil’s going to swear it. All Muslims will confess it. In life, they had a different slogan, “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed as his prophet.” They won’t be saying that on that day. They’re going to be saying, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” All the Buddhists and the Hindus will confess it, all the Jews that could not bring themselves to accept Christ as their Messiah. They will do it at that point. They will acknowledge that He is Lord.

Jehovah’s witnesses will see too late the faults of their doctrine. Rationalists, atheists, agnostics, materialists, and just regular unbelievers will kneel before him and swear that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And that’s the final step of shared glory. All of Jesus’ glory is the Father’s glory. He is the radiance of God’s glory. There’s no jealousy in the Trinity, is there? Isn’t that wonderful? So all of the honor and adulation that will be poured on Jesus, the Father accepts as his glory for him.

 Now, what applications do we take?

First, stand in awe of Christ’s awesome humility. Do you realize this downward journey saves your soul if you’re a Christian? Stand in awe, worship him.

Secondly, have this mind in you, which was also in Christ, think about it. Are you a servant? Do you live for your own glory, your own pride? Do you consider other people’s needs better than your own?

And third, can I urge you to bend the knee now? While there’s time. In a moment, you’re going to have an opportunity to bend the knee. I mean, I would actually urge you to do it. Some of you may want to come forward and just kneel down here. You may already be Christians, but you just wanted to just kneel and just say, “Lord, I love you. I want you to be my King, I want to follow you.” It could be that you may want to just kneel before him for the first time as your savior and say, “Lord, take all of my sin on yourself.” Nothing magical about coming forward, you can kneel right where you are. And frankly, there’s nothing magical about physically kneeling. The question is what’s going on in here? But I’m going to kneel, and I’m going to give myself again to serving him and ask that he would work in me in a mighty way. Let’s pray, and then, if you feel comfortable coming forward or kneeling right where you are, bend the knee before Christ.

Let’s pray. “Father, I thank you for the time we’ve had to study your word. And I ask, oh Lord, that you would work in us, that we would not just bend our physical knees, but we would bend our proud hearts and yield ourselves fully to you and that we would therefore be humble servants of you first and of one another. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

We are looking this morning at Philippians 2:1-4, at the Christian unity that’s essential to the Gospel advance. Now, on December 2nd, 1942, President Roosevelt received this cryptic message, “The Italian navigator has landed in the New World.” Of course, that hearkens back to Christopher Columbus, but that’s not what the message meant. What it meant was that Italian physicist Enrico Fermi had been able to pull off the first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago. Now, this whole project had come about as a result of a letter from Albert Einstein talking about the incredible, powerful weapons that were just around the corner in physics, in the research of physics, atomic weapons, which were unknown before, the possibility was enlightened by the Theory of Relativity and other things at the beginning of the 20th century, and Einstein felt the responsibility to write to President Roosevelt.

And so the research was done. Now, the controlled nuclear reaction, what we call a chain reaction, fusion, was the breaking apart of atoms that God had put together, releasing little particles that cause other atoms to break apart and release more little particles with the tremendous release of energy, in line with the famous formula E=mc2, the energy that was released was sufficient to destroy an entire city. And so it did less than three years later, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, an entire city disintegrated because of this power. Now, my wife and I, and our two children that were born at the time we lived in Japan,visited the Museum of Peace and the Atomic Museum in Hiroshima. It’s really quite striking to walk through there as an American, I can assure you, and it’s very sobering, and to see the monument to eternal peace that’s set up there and to see photographs of the power of the atomic weapon.

But as terrible as the consequences were of that weapon, of the atomic blast, the disintegrating power of sin has proved far greater. Sin, in a kind of a chain reaction started in the Garden of Eden with Adam, has been working its disintegrating way through human history ever since. It’s been affecting relationships ever since. It’s been destroying things, and any of you who are old enough and have been alive long enough to feel the disintegrating power of sin, you know what I’m talking about, it affects everything you do, it affects every relationship. Everything that it seems God has put together, sin works to disintegrate.

 Now, the great glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of integration, of unity, is far greater than the sin power of disintegration. Amen and amen.

And God is putting back together and making even more glorious a universe, something that we can’t even imagine, which has been blown to bits through sin. Jesus Christ is doing that. Therefore the only true power for unity is not the United Nations, which was started in 1945 with the hope that there would never again be war on the earth. There have been 118 since then. Astonishing, millions and millions of people dying in those 118 conflicts since the beginning of the United Nations and the monument of peace at Hiroshima, however moving, has had no power to transform the hearts of people, none whatsoever, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ does. And therefore, the church of Jesus Christ and the Gospel that we preach is the only true power of unity in the human race, the only true power of unity in this dis-unified universe rocked by sin, and it will succeed. In the end there will be a glorious unity in Heaven. We can’t even imagine it. In the meantime, our practical daily expressions of unity, one with another, are essential to the advance of the Gospel. 

They’re essential, however imperfect, they are essential to finishing the task that Christ has given us of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Our practical daily unity, Christian unity and love adorns the Gospel and makes it look beautiful and makes it look attractive. In the end, perfect unity is the purpose of the Gospel. The perfect unity of the Trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the pattern for Christian unity. Before the universe was created God existed and has existed, eternally will exist in three persons: Father, Son and Spirit.

The three persons of the Trinity existed in perfect harmony. That means they never once had a different way of looking at things. Think about that. They never once had a disagreement. In matters of principle or strategy, never, and they never will. They see everything alike. There’s not a shade or shadow of disagreement, Father, Son, and Spirit. Not one, never has been, never will be, and they had no need. Father, Son and Spirit, they did not create the universe out of need, but rather as an expression of their perfect relationship, one to another. And so the unity that is reflected in the Trinity was also reflected in the creation. When God spoke over it after all of the ordering and arranging that had been done and said it was very good. And so it was, the universe was beautiful. But then came sin, the destructive, dis-unifying power of sin entered in.

Now, it started not with man, but with the devil. And I think it’s right to ascribe such passages as Isaiah 14 to his devilish ambition. We’ll talk more about that, God willing, next time that I preach. But I think it was the devil spoken of in Isaiah 14, when it says, “You said in your hearts, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned in the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.” That’s devilish ambition, isn’t it? And he sold us on it. “You will be like God, if you eat that fruit.” And so we became ambitious and sin entered the world and has been blowing to bits things ever since. Disunity and conflict soon characterized every human relationship. First, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. And it wasn’t long before every familial relationship and every relationship at all, husband and wife, parent and child, neighbor to neighbor, nation to nation was affected by this power, this dis-unifying power of sin and strife has been spreading through the world ever since, and it continues to this very day. Now, Christ’s redeeming work is to bring all things together under one head.

That’s what it says in Ephesians. Ephesians 1:10, it says that the Gospel in all of its power will be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment. Has that happened yet? No. The times have not been perfected yet. But this is the goal. This is what we’re working toward, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head. That is Christ. Speaking specifically of the saving work of Christ and dying for sinners, in John chapter 11, it says there that in verse 51 and 52, Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. And not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. That’s the Gospel work, to take the scattered children of God and bring them together and make them one. You see the unifying power of the Gospel, and therefore perfect unity is patterned after the Trinity itself.

The power of Christ’s prayer in John 17

Now, I want you to put your finger in Philippians 2, yes, we will get to it. Be patient, we’ll be there. But just take your finger or a pen, put it in Philippians 2 and go over to John Chapter 17. I’ve referred to this before, but I just really want you to see it right on the page. I have come to believe that this theme of unity, of Christian unity, is bigger than I ever thought it was. Very, very big. It is the goal of the Gospel.

It’s the goal of the saving work of Jesus Christ. It’s one way to state his ultimate final goal, that God would be glorified in our perfect community centered around him. And look what it says in John 17:11, he’s praying. Now, this is, what we call Jesus’s high priestly prayer. This is the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the Bible. And it has special interest to me, because I’ve said before and I’ll say again, theologically, I believe it is impossible for Jesus to ask for anything he doesn’t get. Let me say that again. It is theologically impossible for Jesus to ask outside the will of his Father. I can’t imagine that. And so therefore, I kind of get a pen and just go through John 17 and say, “Okay, you’ll get that. Yes, you’ll get that too. You’ll get it all.” “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory.” He’ll get it. He’s going to get it all. Does that mean he’s going to get unity too? It’s in the prayer. Look at John 17:11, speaking of those that were alive in his own generation, his own Apostles, he says, “Father, Holy Father,” John 17:11, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name. The name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” Do you see that? He wants his own disciples, his apostles, that are around him there to be protected from the devil and from all the attacks, so that they can continue on in their faith in Christ and not fall away, that they might be one as he and the Father are one. Their unity patterned after the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. Now, look down at verse 20 and 21. Now he extends his prayer out beyond those of his own time there who were sitting around him at the Last Supper, I think, extending it out to all people, all believers of all time. He said, “My prayer,” in verse 20, “Is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father. Just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me.” So you see the unity there is patterned after the Trinity, that our unity would be like theirs.

Now, I have heard such sad exegesis on this. “Oh, isn’t it sad that Jesus doesn’t get what he asked for? Now, come on, there are so many denominations we just can’t get along. And Jesus didn’t get what he prayed for, all of those generations of disunited Christians and he didn’t get what he asked for.” Oh, that is so false. Of course, he got what he asked for. He knew what he was praying for. All of those who are truly Christians then are perfectly united now in heaven, are they not? But what I want to tell you, though, is that Jesus’ view is beyond just final perfect unity in heaven. The reason I know that is the outcome of unity. Look what he says again in verse 21, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me.” That is powerful, isn’t it? Now, keep going. Look in verse 22 and 23, “I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one.” Again and again, do you see it? The Trinity is the pattern of unity, nothing less. “That they may be one as we are one, I in them, and you in me, may they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Oh, wow. I’m tempted to just preach on John 17 right now. Well, we’re just looking at it briefly. We’ll go another time but here’s the point, do you see that there is an earthly impact to a process of unification that goes on, which I call sanctification? As we grow more and more like Jesus, as we put to death our sin nature, as we put to death our own feeble and earthly understandings of various texts of the Bible, as we more and more understand the truth as it’s been given to us here, we will be more and more one, one with another. We will not disagree with each other about anything. Little by little, as that gets more and more, however imperfectly reflected here on this earth, it has a great power for evangelizing a lost world. A great power for that. And this is what he has in mind, he wants perfect unity. 

Now, we will not be perfect in this world. We will not, but we can strive for perfect unity as the scripture defines it here again and again, “As the Father and the Son are one, so may we also be one.” In our striving for a perfect unity, the world will sit up and take notice. And you know why? Beause the world doesn’t have anything like it. I don’t care how many resolutions are passed by the United Nations or how many peace monuments there will be built, they can’t do it, because they just essentially disagree with each other and are essentially selfish. And so are we, and therefore, only as the transforming power of the Gospel, through the power of the Holy Spirit takes us over, and as we submit our minds to the Word of God and begin to think like he thinks, then little by little there’s a unity that starts to grow up. “By this will all men know, that you are my disciples if you love one another.” There’s a deep love that has a power for unity.

Back to Philippians

Now, go back to Philippians 2. The Philippians had a problem with unity. Now, we’ve talked about there being these two great journeys, the internal journey of holiness, so that we become more and more like Christ; the external, a journey of worldwide evangelization. Well, both of those are greatly hindered by selfishness, selfish ambition, factions, dissensions, arguments, and all those kinds of carnal things. And the Philippians had it, they had it, sadly. Even though this was clearly one of Paul’s favorite congregations, he loved them, this is a tender letter that he writes to them, a great deal of love and affection for them, they had a problem. They had a kind of a tumor at the heart of their fellowship, they had disunity. I think that this entire section from Philippians 1:27, in which he urges them to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel, 1:27 on to the end of Chapter 2:18, that whole section is about unity. The whole thing. And I think they had a problem with unity.

In 1:27-30 he says, “I will know that you stand firm in one Spirit contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel.” This is what we talked about last time. He’s concerned about their unity. Now, here in these verses 2:1-4, clearly he’s just straight out urging them and commanding them to be one with each other, to be united. And so also we see in verses 14-16 of chapter 2. 2:14 and following, he says, “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” They were complaining and they were arguing. Now, I know that you have no problems like that, but this church at least had problems with complaining and arguing. And in effect, the two journeys, the internal journey of working out your salvation with fear and trembling, growth and holiness, together with the external mission of holding out the word of life as you shine like stars in the universe, can’t be done if you’re arguing and complaining. So cut it out, that’s what he was saying.

He’s saying, “You can’t grow in holiness and you cannot evangelize if you’re arguing and complaining with each other.” You can’t, so they’re having a problem. And also in chapter 4:2, we have these two ladies that we’ve talked about before and will talk about again, Euodia and Syntyche. And it says in 4:2, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.” So they’re having trouble. There’s a faction there, there’s division, there’s problems. Now, disunity was a constant problem. It’s constantly a problem for human beings, but it’s a problem for the church. It’s always been. The Apostles were always arguing with each other, they really were. You’d think that they would love each other and get along, but it’s so embarrassing when Jesus is right there in the boat and they’re arguing about who forgot to bring the bread. And they’re hiding it from Jesus, because they know in their hearts, their conscience testifying against them, that arguing is sin.

So they’re going to kind of turn their back on Jesus and go, “Da da da da. Jude, your turn to buy.” “Well, I got it last time.” And Jesus is off there praying or whatever he was doing and he says, “What are you talking about?” And they were ashamed because they were arguing. The greatest topic for arguing and conflict was which of them was the greatest. They hit that one again and again. A terrible thing. When James and John’s mother asks that her sons may sit at the right and the other left of Jesus in his Kingdom, the other 10 were indignant and very upset. They had selfish ambition, and then there are dissensions, and it happened.

Where is the end of the conflict?

Well, you think, “Okay, well, maybe after the cross and after the Holy Spirit, it will all end.” Did it? No, it didn’t. They continued to argue, even after that. Acts chapter 6, there was a dispute about the Greek-speaking widows and the daily distribution of food. We believe deacons and the whole servant structure got set up there. And then Acts 11, a dispute about whether Peter should have gone into a Gentile’s house. And Acts 15, a big argument about circumcision. Again and again, they were arguing in Acts. In almost every church you can mention, Galatians 5:15, it says, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you’ll be destroyed by each other.” That doesn’t sound good, does it? Whatever your exegesis is, that isn’t good, they’re biting each other, arguing. And Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1:11, “My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.” You’re bickering with each other. And then 1 Corinthians 3:3, “You are still carnal or worldly for since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?” You should be better than this.

2 Corinthians 12:20, he says, “I’m afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I want you to be and you may not find me as you want me to be. For I fear there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, faction, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.” There was terrible strife and conflict in the Corinthian church. But then there’s Paul himself, who just couldn’t get along with Barnabas over the issue of John Mark. And they had such a bitter dispute that they parted company, and that was it. And Paul was wrong. So it’s easier to preach it than it is to practice it, apparently. Very, very difficult, the strife and disunity that comes in through sin. And then there’s church history, did it end with the end of the New Testament? No. Bitter conflicts, divisions, startings of whole denominations and churches right across the street from each other, as a result of this kind of strife and conflict. Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli on the issue of the Lord’s Supper, bitter dispute over that. The meal that should unite became a source of conflict and division. Two of the greatest men from church history, George Whitfield and John Wesley, bitter dispute over predestination. Some harsh things happened, they just couldn’t get along on that. And around the world today, still, conflicts.

Now, we know the causes of disunity, the cause is sin. And they come at us in a lot of different ways, but James 3:16 says, “Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder...” interesting word, “and every evil practice.” It’s the atomization of the world, blown to bits by sin. Disorder comes in when you have selfish ambition. Things that were together, that were harmonious, that were one, get blown apart because of selfish ambition. Sin comes in and destroys things, what’s the cost? Well, it’s difficult to stand there like a star shining in the universe as you hold out the word of life to a lost generation if meanwhile you’re bickering back and forth in the church. And how tough was it for the Philippians in that they were being persecuted? And when you’re being persecuted outside in the world by the non-Christians, and that’s something that’s not going to go away, the more faithful you are in preaching the Gospel, the more it’s going to happen. 

What do you need, you need a united church, essentially united, not perfectly united, but a united church so that you can lick your wounds, you can be restored, you can be renewed. That’s what the church is for, not that this would be an even worse place of dissensions and trouble and arguing and conflict, never. This is the place where you come in and get recharged, you can go back out and face a pagan world. They needed unity and so Paul is pleading with them, he’s appealing with them.

 And so he says, verse 1, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then 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 conceit but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.” Now, he’s making an appeal here for unity, do you see that?

A. First basis for Paul’s appeal

He’s making a very strong appeal, and what is the basis of his appeal? On what is he building his appeal? A theological basis: unity in Christ. He says it right from the start here, in verse 1, “If you have any encouragement from being...” the NIV gives us, “united in Christ.” That’s not there in the Greek, but the theological concept is certainly there. “If you have any encouragement from being in Christ…” And anyone who knows anything about Paul’s theology realizes how significant the phrase “in Christ” is. That means to be a Christian but it means so much more than a shallow understanding of being a Christian. It means to be perfectly united spiritually with Christ. His death on the cross is your death. His resurrection, your resurrection. His powerful resurrected life in you. And the idea is that if you are united with Christ, I want to tell you, he is united with many other people too. You’re not his only child. And so therefore to be united with Christ, to be in Christ, means to be united with Christians all over the world, that we are one with another because we are united in Christ. And so our union with Christ spiritually, is the theological foundation of appeal to unity. Because we are one with Christ, we are truly one with another. Absolutely.

 B. Second basis for Paul’s appeal

So, he makes a theological basis, but he also gives us an experiential basis. They have a rich experience of the Gospel’s blessings at this point. He says, “If you have any encouragements, in Christ, if you have any comfort in His love, if you have any fellowship with the Spirit, if you have any tenderness and compassion…” This is an appeal to the good things they’ve already feasted on from being Christians. You’ve experienced these good things, haven’t you? Haven’t you experienced these things? And so we could really translate, “if you have any encouragement,” really, you could translate it a little bit better, “since there is so much of,” not translate it, but understand it. “Since there is so much encouragement from being united with Christ. Since there is so much tenderness and consolation in his love. And since there is so much fellowship with the Spirit and so much tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded.” You see that experiential basis, and he goes through those things. Encouragement in Christ is the same word from which we get the Paraclete, the Comforter, it’s to have the comforts of being in Christ through the Holy Spirit, I believe.

And then he uses the word “consolation,” really, the idea of, if you were deeply grieving and you had a dear friend who understood the situation well, they could come and put their arm around you and console you, and you would be comforted, you would be comforted, “consolation from his love”. The fact that Jesus loves you is a great consolation, isn’t it? And since you have so much of that, he says, and since you have such a perfect fellowship, a Koinonia, a sharing together in the Spirit, and since you have so much tenderness and compassion from Christ. Alright, so that’s the experiential basis.

 C. Third basis for Paul’s appeal

He’s given them a theological basis, because you’re in Christ, you should be one. He says, since you’ve feasted so much on the Gospel, experiential basis, part two, and then thirdly he makes a personal appeal, a personal basis. “Please, make my joy complete, by being like minded.” I have a joy, Paul is saying, I really do, I have a joy that I described in Philippians 1, joy in my chains, joy in Christ, joy in suffering. But let me tell you, my joy would be so much greater, if you would stop arguing with each other. Please make my joy complete by being like minded. So, that’s a three-fold basis of his appeal here.

D. The goal of Paul’s appeal

Now what is the goal or nature of his appeal? He says, verse 2, “Make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” This is unity, and it’s not a superficial unity. Not a superficial or surface unity. This is a deep unity of mind and heart. It goes right to what you really think, what you really believe, what you really love. You have those things in common. Be like minded, he says, have the same love, be one in spirit and purpose. Jot this down on your outline if you’re taking notes, 1 Corinthians 1:10, there is a great definition of unity, and as we’ve gone through struggles as a church, this church, to try to understand true biblical unity, 1 Corinthians 1:10 became just a beacon to me of what it means for a church to be united. 1 Corinthians 1:10 says, “perfectly united in mind and thought”. That’s where we’re heading, folks, the Father and the Son are that way, aren’t they? Perfectly united in mind and thought, no disagreements. They don’t look at anything from different ways. Perfectly united in mind and thought, that is the goal. We will not reach it in this life, as we have our deep-seated convictions that are wrong. It happens, we are absolutely convinced and you’re absolutely wrong and you’ll find out, later.

And I’m absolutely convinced about some things that are wrong. I was telling that to my kids and they said, “Well, why don’t you change, then?” I said, “Well,” I said, “I don’t know what they are. If I knew what they are I’d change them today with the Lord’s help.” But all of us are absolutely convinced about things that are wrong, all of us. And so then we will not be perfectly united in mind and thought, but it is a goal and we should be striving for it. That’s the unity that Paul has in mind here. Now, the focus is on the mind, isn’t it? It’s on the way we think. Everything follows this organ up here, this incredibly complex brain. The pinnacle of God’s physical creation is the human brain, immensely complex. You will not ever understand your own brain, you won’t. And he wants you to be perfectly united in the way you think, to think alike. Now, how can that be? Well, I think it happens as under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, with the theological transformation already occurring, we’re already in Christ, we’re new creations in Christ, we submit this brain constantly to the Bible.

We just say, “Teach me, I’m sure I’m wrong about some things, I want to learn.” And by the Spirit, we just little by little start to see strongholds of misunderstanding get overturned, all of us are doing that, and as that happens we’re all moving toward a beautiful unity of mind, as we submit to the scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. There is an agreeing, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.” Don’t just paper it over and not talk about it anymore. That’s not what he asks for. I appeal that you would agree, work on it until you do agree. “Do nothing,” Philippians 2:3, “from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, consider others better than yourselves.” This is going on in the mind, and therefore the only hope for true unity is the renewing of the mind in the pattern of Christ. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

It’s a battle for the mind, brothers and sisters. The big difference between a Christian and a non-Christian in their intrinsic nature, not in the way God sees them theologically, their position, that we can talk about, but I mean in who they really are. It has to do with how they think. It’s the big difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. “Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires, and those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” Now, if you’re a Christian, your mind should be, and it is in many ways, controlled by the Spirit. That’s the basis of the possibility of true unity.

 E. The practical steps in fulfilling the appeal

Now, what are the practical steps he gives in fulfilling the appeal? First, he gives them negatively things not to do. “Do nothing,” he says, “out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Now, selfish ambition is a desire for one’s own things, your own plans, your own goals, your own agenda, your own way of doing it. It’s pure selfishness. Also a desire for advancing your own position of power. That’s selfish ambition, just like the devil, and we’ll talk about that more next time.

There’s a story about a godly monk who had gone out in the desert to fast and pray and grow in godliness and holiness and fight temptation and just conquer the flesh. And he was out there and was doing very well, very well, until the devil tempted him with this thought. And he whispered in his ear, “I just thought you should know your brother has become bishop of Alexandria.” And immediately his heart was filled with jealousy and he was frustrated, “Why not me? I’ve been at it longer than him. I’m a better preacher and I can...” and just it started to consume, that jealousy, selfish ambition, “Why should he get that honor? That was for me. I’m wasting my time out here in this cave. I should get back, play the political game.” Selfish ambition. And vain conceit is vainglory, “I just want you to know what I’ve done for you. I want you to honor me. I want to you to put a plaque up for me or I want you to have... I want some honor, some earthly thing for me so that I could...” Now, nobody would ever just come right out and say that, but isn’t it in there? That vainglory, that conceit, wanting to be recognized, wanting to be esteemed for who you are and what you’ve done. Just that someone would know how good you are. It’s vainglory and it’s the seat of dissensions and factions. So, that’s negatively, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” Positively, be humble. “Consider others better than yourselves.” Seek the things of others. Again, the focus is on the mind.

Two wonderful illustrations of this 

First, again, from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the second half, Christiana and her fellow travelers have come to the Interpreter’s House and they are clothed each one with beautiful linen garments and they look so radiant and they look so beautiful. And Bunyan writes this way, “It was fine linen, white and clean. When the women were thus adorned, they seemed to be a terror one to the other, for that they could not see the glory each one had in herself, which they could see in the other. Now therefore they began to esteem each other better than themselves. ‘For you are fairer than I am,’ said one, and, ‘Oh, you are more comely than I am,’ said the other. The children also stood amazed to see into what fashion they were brought.”

Isn’t that striking? The more you know yourself, the better you know yourself to be the chief of all sinners, no one could sin more than you. Paul thought so. He said, “I am the least of all God’s people and I am the greatest of all sinners.” Do you think he was just posturing? I think he really believed it, because he was so well acquainted with his own wickedness. Meanwhile, the brothers and sisters in Christ were looking really good to him. They were role models, something to be esteemed, something to be patterned after. He loved them and just held them in honor. I think that’s what Paul’s saying here, “Consider others really to be better than you.”

George Whitfield

Another illustration, again from George Whitfield. I told you of the conflict he had with Wesley over predestination. It was bitter and difficult, because Whitfield had started preaching out in the fields, he had started field preaching, and had gathered a wonderful congregation of people to come listen to him preach. He went on a mission trip to America and entrusted that congregation in the field to Wesley. Wesley began to preach against Whitfield’s view of predestination and turned their hearts against Whitfield. Bitterness and problems, very public in ad hominem attacks, and it was difficult and it got difficult and it continued to be that way. And it hurt their relationship, as you could well imagine. At one point somebody asked Whitfield, “Do you think you’ll see John Wesley in Heaven?” He said, “No, I don’t.” “Really?” He said, “No, he’ll be so close to the throne and I’ll be so far away that I will not see him.” Now, if you read his journals and you read his letters, you realize that was not merely posturing on his part. He was genuinely a broken and humble man. And that’s what he felt. Now, I actually think he’s wrong. I think we’re all going to see each other in heaven. There’s going to be a perfect unity there. But I understand his point. The point is that this is a godly man, John Wesley, and he’s serving the Lord. Humility, “a gentle answer turns away wrath.” That’s the way to getting two brothers to be friends again. Humility, consider others.

And then he also says, “Think of others’ needs ahead of your own.” Use your time, your energy, your money, your abilities, your gifts totally at the service of others. Set your minds on what they need and what you need, like in Les Miserables when the thief, Jean Valjean, steals silver from the godly bishop. And he’s caught and brought back and the bishop is thinking at that moment, “What does he need?” Not, “What do I need?” “He needs forgiveness from Christ. He needs those candlesticks more than I do.” It’s a way of thinking, “What are your needs?” not, “What’s my need?” That’s the recipe for perfect unity.

Now, what applications can we take from this? First, can I urge you to not be deceived by fake counterfeit unity? Saccharin. I’m not speaking against saccharin, the little pink stuff in the packets, okay? Saccharin was invented about, oh, 100 years ago, maybe more, and became popular around World War I. It’s a sugar substitute. I did some research, apparently it does not in the end cause cancer in people, that keep on using it. The fact of the matter is, saccharin has become in writing and in prose kind of a symbol for a fake sweetness. You know what I’m talking? A saccharin smile. A fake love. Well, there can be saccharin unity too.

Well, if unity never gets farther than the following, you know it’s fake unity:

Therefore, genuine unity is the mirror opposite:

Will you pray with me for that in this church? For a genuine unity that adorns the Gospel? Will you search your own heart and ask if there’s any brother or sister in this fellowship that you’re out of fellowship with, that you’re feeling hard feelings toward. If anybody’s popping in your mind right now, it could be that the Spirit is speaking to you, that you need to pray through and bring reconciliation there. A final word to those of you who, there may be in our midst some who don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can’t do any of these without being first united to Christ through faith. Come to Christ, let him be your substitute to take away the wrath of God, which you deserve for sin. Let him make you one, perfectly one, with this marvelous, this beautiful body of Christ.

This morning we’re going to be looking at Philippians 1:27-30. And as you turn there, and as you begin to think about it, a double gift from the Lord, a double grant from the Lord, I did a little research on Carolina history. And the territory that we’re in right now, North Carolina, was once part of an immense land grant offered by King Charles II on March 24th 1663, to eight of his cousins and closest friends and advisers, who had helped him reclaim his throne after the Puritan era in England. I have my own mixed feelings about that, and kind of wish that era had continued. But at any rate, Charles II did get the throne back, and he wanted to say thank you to some friends that had helped him and some family members. And so he gave them Carolina which eventually became North and South Carolina.

 What an incredible grant, these eight men received. The grant reads like this, “All that territory or tract of ground situate, lying and being within our dominions of America, extending from the north end of the island called Luck island, which lieth in the southern Virginia seas, and within six and 30 degrees of the northern latitude, and to the west as far as the south seas and so southerly as far as the river St. Matthias which bordereth upon the coast of Florida. And within one and 30 degrees of northern latitude. And so west in a direct line as far as the south seas aforesaid, together with all and singular ports, harbors, bays, rivers, isles, inlets belonging to the country. Also all the soil, lands, fields, woods, mountains, foothills, fields, lakes, rivers, bays, everything within the boundary of these limits aforesaid. With the fishing of all sorts of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other,” this is my favorite phrase, “royal fishes, in the seas.”

He’s claiming all the sea, all the fish, Charles II is, and he’s giving it to these eight men. “All of the royal fishes in the sea, bays, islets, and rivers within the premises, and the fish therein. And more over all veins, mines, quarries, as well discovered, as not discovered, of gold, silver, gems, precious stones and all other whatsoever. Be it stones, medals, or any other thing whatsoever found or to be found in this territory, it’s all yours.” What a grant, what an incredible grant. Almost 100,000 square miles. Almost 500 miles of Atlantic shoreline and it’s yours. What will you do with it? Think about that.

The first grant

But the emperor of the universe, the King of glory has given to us in the text we’re looking at today, a two-fold grant. “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.” Now, most of my message is going to be on the second half of that, but let me say a word about the first half. It has been granted to you by the King of the universe, to believe in Jesus Christ.

If you’re a Christian today, you are so because of a grant from the Emperor. The King has granted to you the privilege of believing in Jesus. And how much does this sweep away, like a mist, any sense of boasting or pride we may have in our own faith in Christ, as though that were the one contribution that we were making to our salvation? It has been granted to you by the King to believe in Jesus. And part of that grant is not only initial movements of faith, but a sustaining faith throughout your whole life. Your faith will be nourished, it will be sustained through every trial you will face, until at last, you need it no more, for you will see Him face to face. Oh, what a grant! What a gift from the King! And it’s because of that grant we stand on good ground today as Christians.

The second grant

I could really preach the whole sermon on that, but we’re going to move on to the second half, because actually both of these grants are somewhat surprising to us. The first half is surprising, because we don’t think we need a grant to believe. We think this is something we do. It’s our work. Actually, it’s a grant from God. But the second is surprising in that we don’t think of suffering for his name as a grant, as something that is of his grace, a gift, but it is. It is a great gift from Jesus Christ. It is a great gift to be able to suffer for him. A great gift. Church history is made dazzling by the behavior of its heroes against all odds. Against great persecution, against great difficulties, to take the Gospel from that upper room in Jerusalem to literally at this point, the ends of the earth with great success, but at great cost.

In Colossians 1:24, the apostle Paul, speaking to a people he did not know personally, says, “Now, I rejoice in what was suffered for you. And I fill up in my body what is still lacking concerning the afflictions of Jesus Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Now, this is a striking statement. First of all he says, “I’m very glad about what was suffered to get you the Gospel.” And he’s not talking here about Christ’s sufferings in this first part, but those that brought the gospel to the Colossians had to pay a price to do it. And he says, “I rejoice, and I’m also paying a price, because I’m filling up in my body what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.”

Now, don’t misunderstand, there’s nothing lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions concerning our atonement. Jesus, when He died, said, “It is finished.” It is perfected, it’s complete, there’s nothing that needs to be added. But whereas the atonement is perfect and complete, the application of the atonement is not, and it’s going to take great suffering to apply it to the ends of the earth. It’s going to take people like you and me who are willing to pay a price of suffering to do it.

Every drop brings God glory

And so, Paul says, “I rejoice in that suffering. I rejoice in every drop of martyrs’ blood. I rejoice in every tear that they shed out of grief for the cost of the Gospel. I rejoice in it and I rejoice in all of the sweat of labor that it’s taken to establish the church of Jesus Christ for 20 centuries. I rejoice in it because it glorifies God in a mighty way. ”

When John Hus was being burned at the stake and he said, “I now seal with my blood, what I taught with my lips,” now that’s glory for Christ. It is glory for Christ when Polycarp stands and says, “Eighty-six years I’ve served Him and He’s never done me wrong. How can I deny Him, who has loved me and given His life for me?” And sealed his life for his testimony with his blood as well, it’s glory. It’s glory when Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries were willing to pay the price of martyrdom to bring the Auca Indians to faith in Christ, and when Graham Staines in 1999, the Australian missionary, who was burned alive with his two young sons by a mob of fanatical Hindus, his faith and his example shone far brighter than the flames that took his life. And Paul would say, “I rejoice in all of it…because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.”

Now, what is the context of this statement? Well, in Philippians 1 Paul has been talking about his own chains for Christ, and he’s been letting them know, “I want you to be encouraged, I want you to be strengthened concerning my chains because they have really served to advance the Gospel. The brothers are bolder, more courageous to share, and there’s been good fruit already. We’ve already seen some conversions among the Praetorian guard- members of Caesar’s own household coming to faith in Christ.” He’s doing all of this, this autobiographical rumination in chapter one for their benefit. And why? Because he says in 1:30, “You are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” They’re going through it too. They are being persecuted for the faith, and so he wants to sustain them. He’s not ruminating on his own sufferings so that they can have a pity party for him, not at all. He’s trying to sustain and strengthen them. He’s trying to give them what they need to get through their struggle, because it’s been granted to them too. We’re going through the same struggle. And so he’s been ruminating.

And as we saw last week, he’s dealing with the issue of, is it better to live or die? And not in any morbid suicidal sense as we discussed last week, but rather he is very attracted to life and very attracted to death. He’s attracted to death, because it is better by far and it’s glorious to be with Christ. And for me personally, Paul would say, much better to leave and to be with Christ, but he’s very attracted to life. And why? For their benefit. So that through his being with them again, he can help them in some way in their faith and help them to grow in full fruition.

 But now in verse 27, he says, “Whatever happens, I want you to conduct your lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” I want you also to be for His glory. I want you to live for His glory and I want you to be like me and like others, a drink offering poured out for the glory of Jesus Christ. He wants them to live a life worthy of the Gospel so that Christ would be exalted. In verse 27, the NIV gives us this, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” And that’s his goal here. And that’s going to be the organizing theme of the message today, to conduct yourself or to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. And he’s going to explain what that is.

The word is interesting in the Greek, it really means to carry yourself like a citizen, behave like a citizen, like a good citizen. Now, I really think he choose this word on purpose, because the Philippians were very proud of their status as a colony of Rome, so that all of their citizens, the citizens of the city of Philippi, were also by definition, Roman citizens as well, and not every city in the Roman empire had that advantage. This was a special gift from the Roman emperor. And so they were proud and they thought of themselves as Roman citizens. Paul himself was a Roman citizen. And there were certain rights and privileges thereunto appertaining. There were good things that came when you are a Roman citizen and they were proud of it. Paul picks a word that says, “Act like a citizen.” But of what city are you a citizen? He says in Philippians 3:20, “Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” So carry yourself like a citizen of the city in which you truly belong. You belong to heaven, so carry yourself that way. Live, conduct yourself like a citizen of heaven. That’s what he’s saying.

You’re not dependent on me

Now, at the beginning of our section here in verse 27 it says, “Whatever happens,” that’s the NIV translation there, “Whatever happens, either way, whether I live or whether I die. Whether I live and I’m able to come see you again and keep helping you or not, it could be that my last sermon to you face to face has been preached. My last time of council with you is finished face to face. It may be that you will never see me again. It may be that it’s the last time that I’ll ever be able to give you a hug or put an arm around you or to weep with those who weep. It may be done, it may be finished, I don’t know. It’s up to the providence of God, but whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel.”

I want to speak specifically to those of you that feel a sense of loss. Perhaps you’re bereaved and you wonder, “How will I go on without this individual?” Or perhaps there’s somebody in your family that has a grave illness, or perhaps you just live in anxiety that one of your children or your mom or your dad may be taken from you. A Christian should never say, “I can’t live without this person, so and so.” Never. We can live without any of the people in our lives and God may actually choose that we do so. And that is great suffering and in no way am I minimizing it. But your life, if you’re a Christian, your life is hidden with Christ in God. “When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:4. And so there is no person on whom you are totally dependent for your earthly life, no one. You are dependent on God and on Christ.

Now that doesn’t mean we don’t love and it sure doesn’t mean we don’t mourn and grieve, we do. But I was talking to my kids about this recently, I think specifically Nathaniel, I was talking about my death and I don’t know the day of my death. And I said, “I want you to understand that God has chosen for a time to give you many good things of His grace through me as though I were a pipe or a conduit, but he has the freedom any time he wants to close that pipe down. And if he decides to, he will be every bit as loving to you and you will get what you need for life and godliness some other way than me.” And so Paul says, “You’re not dependent on me, you’re not. You’re dependent on Christ. Now, it would be good if I could come back and minister with you again, but whatever happens, you conduct your lives or yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. ”

 Now, what does that mean? Well, he gives us four aspects of a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ:

Let’s look at each one, first one. First aspect of a life worthy of the Gospel is standing firm. The image is that we are in a great and immense struggle in which Christians must take the battlefield and stand firm. In verse 27 he says, “I will know that you stand firm in one spirit.” We are called to stand in the day of testing. We’re called to take a stand on the battlefield like those heroes in the Old Testament that are listed, this man or that, that took their stand in a field and struck down all these Philistines until his hand froze to the sword, this kind of thing. You’re called to stand firm in the day of testing, in the day of battle. He’s going to say it again in Philippians 4:1, “Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord dear friends.” I really believe from this point until the end of chapter three, he’s telling us how we should stand firm, what approach should we take.

The Gospel advance, is not a peaceful Sunday drive on a beautiful fall afternoon to look at the foliage. I love to do that and I would like to just talk about that. I just love the low humidity, the crystal clear blue skies, you know those fair weather clouds, the breeze, the vivid colors, shall I keep going? It is just beautiful. I love this time of the year, but the advance of the Gospel is not a Sunday afternoon drive on fall day. It’s much more like World War I, No Man’s Land battlefield, and we’ve got to stand or else the Huns are going to run over France.

It is a rigorous grim struggle to stand firm in the midst of all the beauty that I just mentioned. It is a battle, and we have to take our stand in the struggle, we’ve got to stand firm. We’ve got to stand firm in personal faith, it says in Colossians 1, that we should be established and firm, not moved from the hope of the Gospel. Colossians 1:21 and following, We have to stand firm, in Hebrews 10 in a great struggle, it says there, “Remember those earlier days after you received the light when you stood your ground in a great struggle in the face of suffering.” You lost your property. You stood side by side with men who were arrested. You stood your ground in a great struggle. And then more than anything, every day we need to stand our ground spiritually, don’t we? Because we have spiritual opposition in the heavenly realms.

Martin Luther

Paul says in Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand then,” he says it three times. It’s so clear that we are called to put on our armor and to take a stand, stand firm in spiritual warfare. Recently we saw the movie of the life of Martin Luther, and it was just very stirring to me, that climactic moment when they asked him, “Will you or will you not renounce your works?” His life was hanging in the balance just as John Hus had a hundred years before that. And he said, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant a thing, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe, here I stand. I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen.” Now, the historians tell us it’s not clear whether he actually said, “Here I stand,” He said it. He said, “Here I stand.” The devil takes all the good things away, alright? The historians that were writing and sympathetic to the Protestant Reformation said he said it. That’s good enough for me.

 But he said, “Here I stand.” And so the first aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel is to take a stand on the battlefield. Here I stand. To take a stand.

The second aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel is being united in spirit. Now I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this because it really is the theme of the epistle from this point until the end of verse 18 of chapter two. From 1:27-2:18 it’s all about what unity means. The whole section about Jesus coming down from heaven- he being in very nature God, yet not considering equality with God something to be grasped. That whole section is to get them to be united and serve one another like Jesus did. And so, this whole section is about being united in the faith. Therefore I think in general, the big picture of what’s going on here, is that he is trying to help the Philippians who are in the time of persecution, to realize that they’ve got to have a certain disposition to those outside the church who are attacking them, and a certain disposition to those within the church who are their brothers and sisters, who are causing them distress.

To those that are outside the churches, we’re going to say in a moment, they need to be bold and courageous and not afraid in any way, standing firm for the Lord. But within the church, they need to be united one in the spirit, not pursuing their own selfish gain, no selfish ambition, in love serving one another. That’s the disposition to those within. And so, the second aspect of a life worthy of the Gospel is united in spirit. There must be unity in the local church. As we were just talking at the men’s retreat, we had a great time on a Friday evening and then Saturday, a wonderful time. But what I said to them applies to the church as well. If it doesn’t work at home, why export it abroad? And why would the world want a Gospel from a church that doesn’t know how to get along? We preach a Lord of love and of reconciliation, and we don’t seem to get along? I think we ought to have the boldness to invite non-Christians to our church conferences. What do you think? See how we love one another. Could we do it? Why should those evenings be any different than any other time? Praise God, they’re much better than they used to be. And I think that the unity is an essential element to the advance of the Gospel through a local church, it is essential.

Now, the Philippian church had divisions and factions. And I’m not going to talk much about them today because we’ll have other opportunities. But they had problems, they had divisions. There was not unity. And so, Paul calls them to total unity. Look in verse 27 and following, it says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, 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.” You see that? He wants to know that they are standing as one man for the faith of the Gospel. There’s a complete concentration of will.

Pulling for one goal

When I was a college student, we had a sports day. And I was in a fraternity and we loved to take part in this sports day. And there was that competitive side that’s part of being a man, I guess. And we just enjoyed competing against the others and doing our best, and I was involved in a tug of war. Now, I had never really taken part in a tug of war before. A little bit with my sisters but this was a different thing entirely. Different thing entirely. We were gripping this big thick rope and when the whistle blew, we pulled on that rope with every fiber and sinew of our physical and non-physical being. And we pulled and it didn’t move. You know what I’m saying? And our legs were straining, our lower back, the thighs, everything, pulling. And then at last we felt the slight little give, maybe just an inch. And that encouraged us to re-double our efforts. And everyone of us pulling for one goal, to accomplish one purpose, and that’s to see that team in the mud. That’s what we wanted. It was one goal, and we’re totally focused to see the other team in the mud. And we accomplished that goal. But after we got done, there was a two minute limit and I thought, we must have been way over it. It must have been 10 minutes. Why didn’t they blow the whistle? It was 46 seconds. Longest physical 46 seconds of my life. But that is a picture of the kind of concentration, all of my efforts focused on gripping that rope and pulling it in one direction. And I think that is what he is talking about here. Total unity for the glory of Christ in the advance of His kingdom. Nothing else matters. And so, there’s a concentration there.

 Offensively

The third aspect is contending for the Gospel. Contending for the Gospel. The Greek word here is “sunathleó”, from which we get the word “athletic or athlete”. So these athletic images are coming really right up off the text. There’s a contest going on here and we are going to contend for the Gospel. So we picture the intense struggle of a Greek Olympic wrestler. Again, struggling with every fiber of his body against a skilled and strong foe. And so also we, struggling against Satan, struggling against our own fleshly lust and desires, struggling against a world that hates the Gospel, we are struggling, we are contending for the Gospel. Now, part of that contest, that contending, is the effort it takes to advance the Gospel as I said at the beginning. To overcome rivers and streams and the wild beasts of Ephesus namely, fanatical opposition to the Gospel. To be willing to advance the Gospel is a great contest of faith. So there’s a positive advance side to it.

Defensively

But there’s also a defensive side to the Gospel as well. We must defend the Gospel against attacks. Look at verse seven of chapter one here, Philippians 1:7 says, “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. For whether I’m in chains or,” and look what he says, “defending and confirming the Gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” What it means is that part of Paul’s job as an apostle was to defend the Gospel against the attacks that were coming at it. And they were arguments, is what they were. There was reasoning, it was a battle of the mind. There were concepts, there were false doctrines, there were false religions and ideologies. There were idolatries and other things coming at the gospel minister. And he had to stand firm and defend the message of the Gospel, to retain its purity and its truth. Jude 3 says, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you listen, contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” The faith. There is a body of doctrines that we call Christianity, and it must be defended in every generation. The devil will try to attack the doctrinal base of Christianity. Why? Because that’s the Gospel we preach. It is doctrine, and so we must ‘agonize’, is the word in Jude 3, agonize over the defense of the Gospel.

J. Gresham Machen

We must stand firm. Just as J. Gresham Machen did in the Presbyterian denomination, the beginning of the early 20th century when liberalism was taking over Princeton Seminary. And he stood firm and said, “This is evil. It is wrong.” He wrote a classic called Christianity and Liberalism. They are two different things. And he stood in the gap and defended courageously, wrote article after article, received slanderous accusations against him, just as it had happened so many, many centuries before with Athanasius on the incarnation of our Lord, standing firm and defending the doctrine of Christianity. So there was a positive side. The aggressive and courageous advance of the Gospel, there’s a defensive side protecting it against all of these attacks. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. We wage war with weapons not of the world but of spiritual weapons, and we demolish arguments. We blow them up! I said to the men yesterday, “It’s like we’re going out on a World War II mission at night with black stocking caps on our face and we’re blowing up false doctrine. We’re blowing it up! We’re blowing up false ideas because they destroy families. They destroy churches.” So there’s a sense of contending for the Gospel.

 And fourth, there is courage in the face of persecution, the fourth aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel, courage in the face of persecution. It says in verse 28 and 29, “Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you,” this, namely your courage, your supernatural courage, will be “a sign to them that they will be destroyed and that you will be saved and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, since you are going to the same struggle, you saw I had, now hear that I still have.” Courage, I would say, supernatural courage in the face of persecution, is a great sign of the Gospel, and that’s what he’s calling them to. Now, some suffering is granted to every Christian. It’s just the way it is. If you don’t suffer with Christ, you will not reign with him. And so there is some suffering that’s granted to all of us. The internal suffering of putting sin to death through the lust of the flesh, putting it to death, it is suffering, Hebrews 2:18. It is suffering to say no to your flesh. And if you don’t suffer that battle, you’re not a Christian, Romans 8 says so.

Some suffering is granted to all the faithful

But there’s also the suffering of persecution externally as the Gospel advances. And so 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So, there is some suffering granted to every true Christian. But there is a unique amount of suffering granted to some special Christians. Not all of us in this room are called to martyrdom, as far as I know. But some Christians are called to martyrdom. Not every Christian is called to be physically beaten for the faith, but some are called to that. And I think that Paul is speaking this way. Philippians, it’s been granted to you in a special way to enter into my public, potentially humiliating, suffering for the Gospel. It seems like you’re going through the same thing.

And the apostles, after they had been beaten for preaching the Gospel in Acts 5, they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing, Acts 5:41, “rejoicing that they have been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.” Isn’t that something? That God had chosen them to go through that. They rejoiced, because not everybody gets that privilege. And in effect, Jesus said “No one lights a lamp and hides it under a bowl. Instead he puts it up on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Those kind of witnesses, they are beacons of light to the glory of Christ. But they are only so, if they carry themselves in the middle of that suffering with great courage. If by the power of the spirit, they say things like Polycarp, “Eighty-six years, I’ve served Him and He’s never done me wrong.” What a great line! Only the Holy Spirit can give you that at that moment. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t write your own material ahead of time, the Father will give it to you at that point.” That’s my own rendition of Matthew 10. But you can’t write a line like that, that’s something the Holy Spirit gives you with great boldness at that moment.

And so, he says, “I want you to be eerily confident when you die, supernaturally confident, so that they begin to reflect as you are going up in flames you’re being ripped to shreds by lions in the Colosseum, what is different about these people? Could it be that we really are the ones under the wrath of God?” Polycarp said right before he died. He said, “You threaten a fire that burns for a little while and then goes out. But there’s another fire you seem to know nothing about that burns forever and ever. But why hesitate to go ahead?” And that’s Polycarp. And what Paul is saying here is that that kind of supernatural confidence and courage is a great sign that God is with us and God is not with the persecutor. And it will cause the persecutor to become reflective, perhaps even fearful and perhaps even come to faith in Christ. Courage in the face of suffering. So, we’ve seen four aspects of living a life worthy of the Gospel. First, standing firm, second, united in one spirit of which we’ll say more God willing in the next few opportunities, third, contending for the faith and fourth, courageously facing suffering.

Now, my application is to ask you to reflect on your own life. No advance of the Gospel, either in the internal journey of holiness, or the external journey of worldwide evangelization and mission work, no advance in the Gospel is possible without suffering, it’s impossible. Satan doesn’t give up any territory without a fight. And so, there is no advance possible without some suffering. The question is, have you suffered for Christ? Are you suffering for Him?

One of my favorite parts of Pilgrim’s Progress which I shared with the men yesterday is from the second half and Christiana is making her way also to the Celestial City, and we meet a man named Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, and Bunyan in his genius, you know where everybody stands by what name he gives them. Alright. And this is Valiant-for-Truth. He is a warrior for Christ. And he has fought many battles for the Lord, and the time has come for him to die. And this is how Bunyan writes about his death: “After this, it was noised about that Mr. Valiant-for-Truth was taken with a summons, and he had this for a token that the summons was true, ‘That his pitcher was broken at the fountain,’ Ecclesiastes 12:6. When he understood it, he called for his friends and told them of it, and then said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I’ve had to arrive at where I am. My sword, I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him who can get it.’ But ‘my marks and my scars I carry with me to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my Rewarder.’” That moves me. I want to be valiant for truth. I want my children to be valiant for truth. I want you, Christian brother or sister, to be valiant for truth, to stand firm.

Amy Carmichael, a missionary in India, wrote a poem and I’ve got it in your bulletin there:

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot or side or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land.

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star.

Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound?

Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent,

leaned me against a tree to die, and rent

by ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned.

Hast thou no wound? No wound? No scar?

Yet as the Master, shall the servant be,

and pierced are the feet that follow Me.

But thine are whole.

Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?

-Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

 Hamlet’s Depression

This morning we are going to focus our attention on one of the great statements that Paul made in his life, Philippians 1:21. “For me,” he says, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Now, one of the great moments in Shakespeare, I’m not a Shakespearian scholar. I wrestled with it as most of you did in high school literature and didn’t know what in the world that he was talking about, to be honest with you. But, upon more mature reflection, I’ve come to understand Shakespeare a little bit better. And one of the great and dramatic moments in all of Shakespeare’s works is Hamlet’s Soliloquy. As Hamlet faces the question of whether he should go on living or whether he should die by his own hand? Wrestling with that question to live or to die?

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep:

perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

You see, he’s wrestling with whether he wants to keep on living and whether he’d be willing to die. He’s wrestling with a simple question, “to live or to die?” And I find in Hamlet, repulsion rather than attraction. He’s repulsed by life and he’s repulsed by death. Both of them are repugnant to him. What makes life repulsive to Hamlet? The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. A thousand natural shocks.

Anyone who’s been living in this world long enough you know what he’s talking about. What is around the next corner? What’s going to happen to me next? How much more can a body handle? Some of you go through series of shocks, one after the other, and you begin to wonder, what have I done? There’s even a member of our church we were talking with this week and he’s wrestling with that, “Lord, what is going on? Why so many trials all at once?” A thousand natural shocks. The terrible ups and downs of mortal life, with all of its pain and disappointment and suffering. Well, that’s what repels him from life.

What repels him from death? Well, he says, to die to sleep. That sounds good. Perchance to dream, oh there might be something after death. Yeah, that’s the rub. There might be a judgment day. There might actually be condemnation. There might be hell, and that’s the problem. And so he is repulsed from death as well. And it leaves him morose and depressed, discouraged, suicidal. Repulsed by life with all of its suffering. Repulsed by death with its potential for eternal condemnation.

Now, it’s interesting in Philippians 1, we find Paul wrestling with the same question. But how different is his attitude? He’s neither repulsed by life nor repulsed by death. He is greatly attracted to life and greatly attracted to death. He wants to keep on living and he wants to die. He’s attracted by what an ongoing life of service to Christ will bring, and he’s even more attracted for himself to what awaits him on the other side of death. “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He’s not repulsed by life with all of its suffering. He has embraced it. He wants to know Christ in his suffering; he wants to sing with Silas at midnight in a darkened prison cell again. He wants to feel the presence of Christ no matter what’s going on.

It’s attractive to him to keep on living, even though he’s in chains for Christ, even though he might die a martyr’s death. He might be executed really at any moment because the emperor is capricious that way. At any moment, it could be over for him. He’s accepted it. He’s delighted in it actually. He’s wrestling with it. His is a joyful choice. He’s attracted by life because of all the fruitful labor that it will bring. But he’s attracted more by death. He says in verse 21-26, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I’m torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. But it’s more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and your joy in the faith so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.”

 A noble theoretical quandary

 You see him wrestling with life and death. Look, the life side of verse 21, “to live is Christ.” The death side, “to die is gain.” The life side, “If I’m to go on living in the body.” The death side, “I desire to depart and be with Christ.” The life side, “It’s more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” But this is not morbid introspection. You wouldn’t be depressed to be with Paul as he works this through. Actually, you’d be greatly ennobled. Greatly lifted up, greatly encouraged to be with Paul as he wrestles through. And that’s why he is doing this for the Philippians. That’s why he wrote it down. He wants them to catch his attitude. He wants them to be drawn into his heart, so that they also would come to the point that they can say the same thing, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Now, we know a profound theological truth is this: Man proposes, but God disposes. Paul’s saying in verse 22 and 23, “What shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two.” But then, in verse 27 he says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” Now what is he conceding there? He is saying, “In the end, Paul doesn’t know what’s going to happen, and it’s not been given to him to decide.” As he ruminates through, he knows that it’s not given to him to decide. He’s not the king of his life. He’s not in charge of the day of his death. Paul’s rumination is only theoretical. He has no power whatsoever to put it in the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “Who of you by worrying can add a single cubit to the span of his life’s race?” In other words, “You can’t push the finish line back 18 inches by anxiety. You can’t change it a bit because you’re not king. I am King.”

God has determined that day and that hour according to his wise plan. It says in Ecclesiastes 8:8, “No man has power over the wind to contain it. So also, no one has power over the day of his death.” Did you hear that? That’s profound, isn’t it? And so, we really don’t have the power to decide whether to live or to die, but we do have the ability to decide what attitude we would take toward life and death, and that’s the purpose here. What attitude do you have toward the remainder of your life, your years here on earth? What attitude do you take also to the inevitable day of your death? So Paul ruminates here, not because he thinks somehow that he’s going to seize control of the day of his death from the Lord, not at all. He doesn’t want to. He wants the Lord to be sovereign over that. But he ruminates for the joy of the Philippians, that they would have his joy in life and his joy also in death. I believe therefore that Christianity is the only truly healthy way to look at both life and death. I really think so. You want to have a healthy view of life, embrace this doctrine. You want to have a healthy view of death, embrace this. This is Christianity. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

The only truly healthy view of life and death

Islam does not give a healthy view of life and death as they submit to a tyrant called Allah, who is absolutely sovereign, accountable to no one, not even accountably consistent with himself. That’s no way to look at life and death. Buddhism looks on life as an endless cycle of suffering and misery from which we need to escape. There’s no purpose to it. The suffering on earth means nothing, and therefore, the only thing you can hope for is to escape from it. Hinduism sees it the same way, the endless cycle of reincarnation. And all you can ever hope for is escape; nirvana, emptiness, like a drop of water into an endless sea, so that you will cease being who you are; nothingness. Atheism holds out nothing for us. Nietzsche was constantly suicidal his whole life. He espoused suicide. He said this, “When one does away with one’s self, one does the most estimable thing possible. One thereby almost deserves to live.” What a horrendous way to look at life. How do you think Nietzsche left the world? By his own hand. God gave him over to it. Nietzsche had said, “The thought of suicide has helped me through many a restless night.” What a sick way to look at life. What a sick way to look at death. And how about Hedonistic Materialism? Everybody’s favorite way of dealing with life and death. “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow, we die. So let’s have a biggest party we can have.” Just like Belshazzar, the night that Babylon fell. “Let’s throw an even bigger party than ever before, and take our mind off of the inevitable.” Is it that a healthy way to look at life and death? I don’t think so.

I want to drink in Paul’s attitude. I want it to imbue who I am. I want to understand Paul’s way of thinking about life and death. I want to know what he meant by, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” So let’s take it in two parts. Let’s look at the first part, “To live is Christ.” What did Paul mean by that? Let’s start with our physical lives. Our bodies, our physical lives here on earth. First of all, we must understand that Christ is our physical life. We cannot take a single breath without Christ. As a matter of fact, we wouldn’t have a body if it weren’t for Christ. It says in Acts 17:28, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” And the book of Colossians speaking specifically of Christ says, “For by Him,” Christ, “all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.”

Now, you may not think that your body’s holding together very well, but it is Christ in fact, who is holding your physical body together, physically holding it together. So you would not have a physical life if it weren’t for Christ. Christ is your physical life. Furthermore, if you’re a Christian, Christ owns your physical body and your days on earth. 1 Corinthians 6 makes this very clear. It’s says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.” Now, I could focus on the first half with good effect, but there’s the second part. Your body was made for the Lord. It’s the Lord’s. He made it for himself. Your body is the Lord’s, and the Lord for the body. The Lord is for your body. He gave himself for your body, also. By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” And then later in that same section he says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price and, therefore, glorify God in your bodies.”

So when Paul says, “For me to live is Christ”, that means physically. Christ created my body, he redeemed my body, he constantly feeds and nourishes my body. It is his, for he bought it. And therefore, all of our days here on earth are measured out for a purpose and for his glory. Psalm 139:16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them came to be.” Well, they were there for a purpose. All of Paul’s days had been measured out. And they have a purpose and that purpose is to glorify God. We are therefore kept alive at his will, for his purpose, for his glory. That’s the whole reason.

And so it says in James 4:15, instead of saying, “Next year we’ll go to this or that city, spend a year, carry on business.” We’ll do all this in the future. Instead of all that, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that,” you see? If the Lord wills, I’ll stay alive, if the Lord wills, I’ll keep on living in the body. And therefore Paul was facing his own physical mortality, unafraid, for he knew he would not die until Christ said so.

John Patton

In the evenings, my family and I have been reading through John Patton’s biographies, a missionary in the South Pacific. And I’ve told some of this story before, but he was the man who went following a previous missionary who was eaten by cannibals on the beach. He was the next guy in line. Now, what kind of courage would that take? And he was absolutely courageous about that. But one night, he found himself literally, physically up a tree, as bands of murderous natives were roaming the island, looking for him so they could kill him. He had basically very few people who supported his ministry and they said, “You need to run for your life.” And so he spent the night in the tree. And as he said, it was the most spiritually enriching night of his life. He felt closer to Christ, up in that tree, than he’d ever felt his whole life. And he came to the conclusion and you’ve heard this before, but it was John Patton that said it, “The man of God is immortal until he has finished his work on earth.” And he knew he would not die that night.

And so, to live as Christ means, to understand that my life, my time here on earth, is for a purpose, Christ is my physical body. He redeemed it and I will keep living at his pleasure and for his will. And also, therefore, anything that comes to me, any of the circumstances that come to me, come to me through Christ. He’s the one that measures out the trials of our lives. Later in Philippians 4, Paul says, “I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I can do everything. I can feast, or I can have famine, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can face any trial or any circumstance in my life and even the good things in my life through Christ who strengthens me.” That’s what he means when he says, “For me to live is Christ.” And so all those thousand natural shocks that Hamlet was talking about, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Paul took them all as directly from God, from Christ himself, for a purpose. That’s the way he looked at his life.

To live is Christ, physically. But it’s also true to live is Christ spiritually, spiritually. Christ is our spiritual life. God sees us, in Christ if we are Christians. In Christ. Look at the very first verse of this book Philippians 1:1, it says there, “Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi.” That’s kind of interesting. Their physical address was at Philippi, Philippi was a Roman colony. They had, probably some kind of address system there. I don’t know what it was. But they had a physical address, but their spiritual address was, in Christ Jesus. That’s how God saw them. They were in Christ Jesus. And so he ends the epistle, look at verse 4:21, there it says, “Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus.” So all the saints, their address that you’re supposed to greet; their address is, in Christ Jesus, those who are in Christ Jesus. So at the beginning and the end of the book, he’s saying the same thing.

Ephesians tells us that God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be the holy and blameless in his sight. It also says that God will give us every spiritual blessing, in Christ. And therefore, in Christ, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. In Christ, we may call God, Abba Father. In Christ, all of our sins, all of them, are forgiven by his blood. In Christ, we are new creations. In Christ, we are dead to sin and alive to God. Therefore, “in Christ” means for us spiritually, what “in the ark” meant for those in the days of Noah. If you’re in the ark in the days of Noah, you’re saved from the wrath of God produced by a flood of water. And so spiritually, “in Christ” means you are saved in Christ, from the wrath of God brought on by a flood of fire; the lake of fire. It’s the place of safety and protection. In Christ, safety. Outside of Christ, destruction. And so that was their spiritual address. So when Paul says, “For me to live is Christ,” it means, “I see myself, spiritually, in Christ, and in no other place.”

John’s Definition of Life

Now, we’ve been studying in the international class the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is a masterpiece. It cannot be explained, humanly. And it has two purposes, I think, two main purposes. One is to prove to us, to give us good evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son, God in the flesh. But secondly, that by believing that, we may have life in his name.

And it goes through the whole book, to explain what that life is like:

That’s the summary of John’s Gospel. I know we’re doing Philippians here, but to me, I think this is one of the greatest, clearest descriptions of what it means “to live is Christ.” Go through John’s gospel and you will know what life is. It’s all of those things. That’s what Paul was thinking about when he was saying “for me to live is Christ,” spiritually.

But, thirdly, Christ is also our purpose in life. There’s a reason why we’re left here and we’ve already touched on it, but as soon as Paul trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, he also yielded to him, submitted, he knelt before him and said, “You are my king. Command me, and I will obey. Whatever you say, I will do.” The rest of his physical life, therefore, was spent to glorify Christ, to glorify him by growing up into perfect Christ-like maturity, to imitate his character and his nature in holiness.

That’s what it means to live is Christ. And I think one of the central lessons of all that is to learn, paradoxically, to live is Christ means to die every day like Christ. To die to yourself, to die to selfishness, to what it is you wanted to do today, to your own purposes in life. Paul says, in Philippians 3:10, “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.” I want to learn how to die every day, to die to myself. I’m so selfish. I’ve got an agenda for myself at every moment to learn how to give that up, for the benefit of God’s people and for the glory of God’s name. To learn how to do that, that’s what it means to live is Christ. And it’s ironic that, I think, here in Philippians 1:21-26, Paul is the most like Jesus you’re going to find anywhere. Jesus gave up perfect enjoyment of heavenly comfort and came down to suffer on earth for the benefit of God’s people and the glory of God’s name.

Paul is willing to forego, if it were up to him, and it isn’t, but if it were up to him to forgo heavenly enjoyment for a time, and to go through suffering on earth, even being chained like a prisoner, beatings, scourgings, rejection, whatever, for the benefit of God’s people and for the glory of God’s name. He’s very much like Jesus here, I think. Probably more than you’ll find him anywhere else. And so he says, “I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it’s more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 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 that through my being with you, again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” How selfless is that?  I’m willing to stay here and suffer for you, for your benefit. Oh, I’d love to be like that. Wouldn’t it be sweet to be that other-centered and how much is Jesus working that in our lives? And so therefore, he’s saying, to live is Christ means to think this way, to learn how to suffer and to die. And for nothing? No. Not for nihilistic, atheistic nothingness, not at all, but for fruit. This will mean fruitful labor for me, eternal fruit, good things. People saved, people’s lives transformed. Fruit for Christ. So what do we mean to live is Christ? Well, first of all, it means physically, to know that your body was created by Christ. It’s sustained by Christ for Christ’s purposes, and you will not die a moment before it is Christ’s will for you to die, to live is Christ. To live is Christ also means spiritually, to know that God sees you in Christ, if you’re a Christian. He sees you that way and every good thing you have in your life, all your blessings come because you’re in Christ. And it means that Christ is your purpose in life, that you would grow in Christ’s likeness, to be like him in his life and in his death, and also, to bear fruit for his glory. That’s what it means, in my opinion, “To live is Christ.”

 What does it mean then, “to die is gain”? It struck me how shocking this really is if you understand it. It’s really quite shocking. If you come at it quickly and lightly, you’re going to miss it. Imagine if it said this, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is something better than Christ.” That would be blasphemous. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine Paul saying that? For me, to live is Christ, and then finally, I get on to something better. That doesn’t make sense, but he said, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is something better, gain,” right? But it’s got to be Christ-centered gain. You see? Or else, it’d be blasphemous. Paul doesn’t want anything but Christ. If you don’t believe that, read Philippians 3. He wants Christ. He wants Christ all the time. He wants to know him. He wants to be like him. He wants to see him. He wants to be resurrected like him. He wants a body like him. He wants every part of Christ. So, for me, to live is Christ and to die is something different or better? No. Never. And therefore you should not think of death this way. 

For me, to live is Christ and to die is the pearly gates. For me, to live is Christ and to die is the streets of gold. For me, to live is Christ and to die is to see all of my loved ones that have gone before. For me, to live is Christ, and to die is to see these spectacular spiritual sites that you can’t even put into words. Oh, no, no. For me, to live is Christ and to die is more Christ. That’s what it means! More Christ! Now, Paul had already had some enticing glimpses, hadn’t he? On the road to Damascus, how would you like to be converted like that? A vision of the partial glory of the resurrected Christ. How do I know it was only partial? Well, flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Paul would have been incinerated by the full glory of Christ. And so, Christ turned it down to a low level and still it blinded him physically for many days. But he never forgot the spiritual light inside him. He never forgot the vision of Christ. It changed everything and it put in him a yearning to see it again. I want to see it again. And then, God, at some future time gave him another glimpse. He mentions it in 2 Corinthians 12, “I know a man in Christ who, fourteen  years ago, was caught up to the third heaven.” What is that? What does it mean to be caught up to the third heaven? Well, tell us more, Paul.

“Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know but God knows. And I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know but God knows, was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to talk about.” Now, that must have been something, too. Inexpressible means you can’t put it into words. Not permitted means you’re not allowed to try to put it into words. And so Paul said, “I’m just going to keep that one to myself. I won’t even tell you it’s me who saw it.” I know a man in Christ who went through this. No, it’s him because later he said, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations.” It was Paul, definitely. But it was just such an incredible experience and he tasted it and he wanted more. He wanted to see him. He wanted to be in his presence. He was so hungry and thirsty for it every day. 

Matched desires

And so therefore, Christ’s deepest longing has become Paul’s deepest longing. What is Christ’s deepest longing for you if you’re a Christian? John 17:24, “Father, I want those whom you have given me, to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you’ve given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” What is he asking for you? He said, “I want you to get all the way to the end and be glorified and see me like I really am. I want you to see me 100%. I want you to see my full glory. I want you to be with me forever and I want you to see my glory.” That’s Christ’s deepest desire for you. How long has he been having that desire? The way I read the Bible, since before the foundation of the world, he’s had that desire for you. Only recently were you let in on it, when you were converted. He set his love on you before the foundation of the world and late in time he brought you in on it, when you were converted at your Damascus road experience whenever that was.

Paul was brought in on this eternal love and little by little, Paul’s heart got transformed so that Christ’s greatest desire for Paul became Paul’s greatest desire for Paul and for Christ namely, I want to be with Christ and I want to see his glory. I want to be with him. Everything else doesn’t matter. Philippians 3:8, “I count it rubbish, [all of it rubbish,] that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own which comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, fellowship with sharing the sufferings.” I want him. And so Christ’s deepest longing for Paul has become Paul’s deepest longing as well. Totally matched.

What do we mean then, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain? Well, I’ve already tipped my hand when I said it means more Christ but I think, well look at it this way, freedom from imperfection, freedom from pollution. Freedom from imperfection, for example, do you realize you’re carrying around with you right now, a sin nature? Say, “Yes, I am well aware of that. I’m well aware of my sin nature. My sin nature and I are well acquainted with one another. And it doesn’t take much for us to get well acquainted again.” Unfortunately, it’s true. Paul put it this way in Romans 7:18-20, “I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out, for what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil, I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it but it is sin living in me.” Say that with revulsion, “it is sin living in me that does it.” He continues to explain in Romans 7:21-25, “So I find this law at work, when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For 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? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We see, but dimly

That is a victory cry of somebody not yet fully saved. That’s right. I said, not yet fully saved because our salvation isn’t complete until we have our perfect resurrection bodies. And so, when Paul says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, it means more salvation. Freedom from that wretched internal sin nature. Also, I said it’s freedom from imperfection, our relationship with Christ is imperfect. Now don’t misunderstand me. There’s nothing imperfect in the work of Christ and there is nothing imperfect in justification by faith. No, not at all. God sees you in Christ, holy and blameless, but there’s something imperfect that is incomplete in your relationship with Christ. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully even as I have been fully known.” Now, when he says, “Now, we see in a mirror dimly” he is saying we do see- we are not blind anymore. We do see, but we see poorly. We see just in part, we see in a mirror dimly.

In December 4, 2002, there was a total eclipse viewable in Australia. And the Australian ophthalmological, I have a hard time saying that, you’re going to have to work on me, but eye doctors said, “You should never, never look at the sun directly, you might go blind. So if you want to see the total eclipse, what we recommend is that you make a pinhole in a white card and get against another white surface and let the rays of the sun go through the pinhole and you will see the shape of the eclipse. Now, you are not seeing it directly, you’re seeing it indirectly and you’re seeing it 100% dimmer or more than it was but you will save your eyesight this way.” This is a little bit like 1 Corinthians 13:12. We see kind of indirectly and dimly because we can’t handle the full revelation of Christ but then we shall see face to face. We will lose our imperfect relationship. We have been given the Holy Spirit now, the indwelling Spirit as it says a deposit, a down payment, guaranteeing a full inheritance. That’s the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 4 and Ephesians 1 both teach the same thing.

An enormous inheritance

There is a webpage dedicated to Bill Gates’ net worth. That’s true. It is factually based but the whole thing seems to me to be a spoof. He is presently worth $36 billion. That’s hard to believe, $36 billion. He has three children, one of them is seven, and the others are younger. If he and his wife were to die tragically and if they were to leave their full estate to their children and divide it equally, each one of them would get $12 billion. Now what’s a seven-year-old to do with $12 billion? Probably not spend it well and frankly, I don’t even know how they would spend it. That’s an awful lot of money. And so probably what would happen is it would be put in trust until they reach their majority, until they reach to their full age. And they would be given a monthly stipend to live on and their monthly stipend, how it compares to your monthly income, you can ruminate on, probably greater. But at any rate, certainly enough to live on, absolutely enough to live on, and someday they will come into their full inheritance.

That’s what the Holy Spirit is for you and me. We get that internal spirit crying, Abba Father, bringing relationship with Christ to us all the time, but it is just through a mirror dimly. It is just a down payment. It’s a monthly stipend, the full inheritance waits. For me to live is Christ and to die is to come into my full inheritance. Face to face fellowship with Jesus Christ forever. And on that day, I will be perfect and so will you if you’re a Christian. We’ll be free forever from indwelling sin, our emotions will be perfect, our intellect will be perfect. Our bodies will be perfect, just like his resurrection body, and we will have the infinite gain of full salvation in Jesus Christ. Now physical death’s the only way. The only way is to be separated from your physical body, because flesh and blood cannot inherit all this. And so, we must die, and therefore for me to live is Christ and to die is the way I come into that gain. And so, I embrace it as a doorway into eternal blessedness.

Now what application? I guess I just want to ask you a simple question. What about for you? What about for you? Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” But it’s not necessarily so for you. First of all, if you’re not a Christian, it is not true that to live is Christ, not at all. If you’re not a Christian, you’re living to please your sin nature. You’re in bondage to sin and breaking God’s laws every day and you’re under God’s wrath. And neither would it be true to die is gain. It actually would be infinite loss, for you would lose your soul, and “what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose forever his soul?” So, I urge you today to come to Christ. I’m not assuming that every one of the number of people that are listening to me today are born again. And therefore it cannot be true that everyone who is listening to me today can say with Paul, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Don’t walk out of here without salvation through faith in Christ. Trust him now. Trust him in your heart for the forgiveness of your sins.

But if you’re a Christian, it may also be the case that you don’t think of it the way Paul did. Is your attitude the same as Paul’s? Do you think of your life to live is Christ? So that your physical body is his? When George Muller was asked the secret of his service, all the things he did for orphans in England in the 19th Century, he said this, “The secret is this: there was a day when I died, utterly died, to George Muller his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will. I died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends. And since then, have studied only to show myself approved unto God.” That’s a mysterious statement to me. What do you mean, “there was a day when I died”? Was it some kind of spiritual experience for him, maybe so, I don’t know. But the way I interpret it is this, you know the day George Muller died to himself is the day he became a Christian. Whether he thinks of it that way or not, that was the day he died. Because it says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Do you think of life that way? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And what about your attitude toward death? Do you see it as gain? Do you see it as gain for yourself, that you don’t need to fear death anymore. I have seen Christians face death with incredible courage and so be a witness to everyone that observed them. And I’ve also seen Christians face death in a very shameful faithless way that brought dishonor to their claim to be Christians. There’s no guarantee that you’ll do it one way or the other. Do you think like Paul for me to live is Christ and die is gain? Are you preparing for that day, the day of your own death? And furthermore, do you think that way in terms of your Christian relatives who have died, that they have come into infinite gain? And so your grief should be minimized somewhat by realizing that and that God will give you what you need to get through. Apostle Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Adoniram Judson

Carolyn and I are reading through a biography of Adoniram Judson, the great missionary to Burma. This was a man that suffered incredibly. He lost two wives in the mission field. He labored for seven years before seeing his first convert to Christ. And by the way, when he came to Burma, there were no Christians. 38 years later at his death, the government registered 210,000 Burmese Christians. Incredible fruit. But he suffered greatly. They thought he was a British spy and so they incarcerated him. He was under the death sentence and thought that he would be executed and he received a stay of execution. He saw something like seven years of labor on a Burmese New Testament, go up in flames when it burned in a fire. This is a man who suffered greatly for Christ and on his deathbed he was asked about his life and his view of death. And he said, “I am not tired or weary of my work and neither am I weary of the world. Yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school. I’m not weary of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and a thousand natural shocks, bring them on if Christ might be glorified. But I’ll tell you what? When he calls me, I’m ready to go”