Conduct worthy of the Gospel

Here I Stand Theology iconHere I Stand Theology

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As Christians our lives ought to glorify God and magnify the Gospel.

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to be here. If you would, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the book of Philippians. We're going to continue there.
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And in my notes, as well as from week to week, when we'll share the message, when
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April posts it, really there's not any really fancy title for this series of messages.
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Basically, it's just continuing on in Philippians. That's what we're doing, continuing on in Philippians.
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And just to bring us again, just a brief summary, as always, where we are.
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We're going to be picking up in verse 27 today. We've made it through verse 26, up to this point.
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And the Apostle, this book of Philippians is the
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Apostle Paul's letter, written by him and Timothy to the saints and the deacons, the saints which are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons.
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He's writing to them. This was written sometime around the year, I think, maybe 60, 63
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AD, in the year of our Lord. So about, somewhere about 27 to 30 years, probably, after Jesus was crucified, raised, ascended back to the
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Father. This is when this book, this probably, back over into Philippians, if you just want to have a running start at that, we're going to be looking at Philippians to compare the scripture with the scripture this morning.
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And we may even go over to the book of Ephesians as well. Corinthians and Ephesians were both written by the
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Apostle Paul as well. So we're going to see the same theme running throughout them. By the way, we're taught in the scriptures that, in the
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Old Testament, under the Old Testament, even the law, it was established that, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.
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So that's why we always go back to previous passages of scripture, because the scripture establishes itself in that.
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So when we look at that, that's going to be important. If you'll remember, down through verse 18, the
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Apostle Paul had pretty much made it clear the focus and the theme of this letter, as were all of the letters, it was
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Jesus Christ. Through verse 18, he had mentioned Jesus Christ by name, by Jesus Christ, God the
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Father, His Son, the Spirit, or making reference to Him, using the pronoun for Him, as speaking of Jesus Christ about 16 times.
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And then, when we moved on down last week, through verse 19 through 26, there was one, two, three, four, five, six more times that he mentioned
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Jesus and Jesus Christ, or the Christ, speaking of Jesus Christ. And all of these mentions were kind of wrapped around and encompassing the theme of this letter to the
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Philippians being the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the gospel is not in any other person.
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There's not a one of us who have ever been good enough to die for the sins of mankind. Can I get an amen?
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If you're still awake, that's good. It's early. I'm glad you're still with us. But listen, folks, today there is one who came, lived a sinless life, died on the cross according to the scriptures, raised again on the third day, ascended to the
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Father, where he ever lives to make intercession for us, and that is Jesus Christ.
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There is no other. And so, the Apostle Paul, in making reference to the gospel many times throughout just where we've been thus far, speaks of his sufferings for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the sufferings of the
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Philippian believers for the gospel of Jesus Christ, are for this purpose to further the gospel, to make the gospel go on, and so that in seeing the sufferings of Jesus Christ in the
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Apostle Paul, those who he is writing to are encouraged to continue in the faith.
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And he said, another place, Christ is preached. He preached and he spoke about, again, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's where we're going to pick up right here in verse 27.
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So Philippians chapter 1 and verse 27, this is what the scripture says, and we're going to read down through chapter 2 and verse 4.
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And it's important, I want to say this because some folks may get kind of thrown off when we read a couple of verses into another chapter.
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Originally, the scriptures weren't broken up into verses or chapters. They were just one cohesive thought.
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This was done throughout time to help us in our learning. So just so that you know, we're not going from one thought to another thought, but it's one continuous thought that runs throughout this passage of scripture.
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So verse 27, the Word of God says this, only let your conduct be worthy of what?
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The gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
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I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, or an evidence of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.
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For to you, unto you, it has been given or granted on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here is in me.
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Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
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Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.
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The King James, I believe, uses strife in vain glory. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
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Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer, please, for just a minute. Lord, I need your help today, dear
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God. I need you to help me today to not go further than what your
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Word says today, dear God, in communicating and in preaching this message, dear
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God. I pray that you would be glorified in this, dear God, and that throughout this, that your
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Holy Spirit, dear God, if I tend to drift one way too far or another way too far,
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God, that your Holy Spirit would reel me in, would guide me, lead me, dear
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God, to stick with the text and the context of this
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Scripture, dear God, and not to veer off into my own opinions or ideologies on any matters concerning the faith today, dear
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God. I pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be represented faithfully through me today, and if not otherwise, dear
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God, show us and grant us grace and mercy to repent, dear
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God, of that. For it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen and amen.
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I may very well today, and I'm just going to be honest with y 'all,
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I am intentionally slowing down on this today and probably, most likely,
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I would say from the way my thought process is going right now, that this likely may not be one of those loud preaching sermons like I usually preach.
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So you may have to, you know, focus in just a little bit more. It may be just more of teaching and going from one passage of Scripture to the next, because this passage is so very important, and I'm going to say this because of sticking with the context of this passage, what's going on, because what's happening within the text of this passage of Scripture is this, that the church at this time, that this is being written, was being persecuted heavily, and men and women were literally having to die for the sake of the gospel, for standing for the simple truth of the gospel message, and so Paul was writing to them, trying to encourage their hearts, trying to encourage their minds, trying to keep them focused on the main thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in doing that, up to this 27th verse, he's talked about how the gospel was misrepresented from time to time, and how it was abused, and how it's been used, and yet, that through it all, despite the way it's been presented, or the things that have been said, or even the spirit or the mindset in which it was presented, that nevertheless, that Christ was going to have his will, and Christ was going to have his way in all matters of life, so he says this, and then when we get to this verse 27, just before this, if you'll remember, just bear with me to look at that, verse 25 and 26,
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Paul said, being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress, and the joy of faith that you're rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
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They're rejoicing in Jesus Christ, and then he gets down to it, and he says this, and this is one of the points that we want to make to you today, that there is no separation, and we've been studying this in Thursday night
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Bible study, there is no separation, listen, by separation
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I mean you can't have one without the other, if a person says that they are saved by the grace of God, having been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, then that person in turn will also, on a consistent pattern and way of life, be sanctified by the
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Holy Spirit in our lives, and we will strive to live lives that honor and glorify the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So justification is the one -time act of God, the one -time legal declaration of God, declaring us who are sinners righteous, not based upon our own merit, but upon the merit of Jesus Christ.
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Everybody there? Sanctification is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, where God continually and regularly, on a daily basis, makes us more like him by showing us what is sin, what is right, and what is wrong, and empowering us to do the right thing according to his will.
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Everybody there? Everybody with me? So justification, one -time legal declaration by God concerning our guilt or innocence before him, sanctification being the ongoing process of being cleaned up and made into the image and the likeness of Christ.
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So there can be no separation. If you're saved, you're going to strive for holiness.
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If you're lost, it won't matter to you. That's how you can tell if you're lost or saved. If you're convicted about sin, the
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Holy Spirit lives within you. If you are not convicted about sin, the Holy Spirit does not live within you.
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That's the simple truth of the message. So Paul says this in standing for and in representing the gospel of Jesus Christ in this time that he's speaking to them of their persecution and of their trouble.
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He makes this statement, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Your conduct is how, meaning how you conduct yourselves, how you live your life.
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Let your life be a reflection of the saving work that Jesus Christ has done in you.
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So let your walk and let your talk line up with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And Paul said, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit.
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Stand fast means to be firm, to be unmovable, to be unshakable, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof or an evidence of perdition.
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Perdition means falling away, to fall away from the faith. Now, the scriptures do not teach that a man can be saved today and lost tomorrow.
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The scriptures teach the perseverance of the saints, to use a theological term, and it would be good for you to take that term in and to make it part of your theological vocabulary, the perseverance of the saints.
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Our perseverance, our continuance in the faith of Jesus Christ, is not in any way predicated or based upon the amount of willpower or the any amount of goodness within and of ourselves.
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Did you know that? It is the work of the Holy Spirit working in us to make us
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Christ -like. That is what it means to persevere, to continue in the faith. To continue in the faith is not something done in the power of the flesh, but it's done by the power of the
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Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. So, Paul says, don't be terrified when you have to suffer for the gospel.
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This is contrary to many of the messages that are proclaimed and taught throughout the church world nowadays.
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The church world will teach and say that God wants everybody to be happy, that God wants everybody to be healthy, and God wants everybody to be wealthy.
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Now, let me say this, there's not a one of us in here that don't like being wealthy, amen?
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But, it's not the matter, it's not being wealthy that is the sin, it's when you love the wealth more than you love
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God. That's what the Apostle taught. The love of money is the root of all evil.
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That is what's wrong. So, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with being wealthy. There's nothing, of course, intrinsically wrong with being healthy.
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None of us will walk around having been sick at any time for our lives.
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Men, we're bigger babies than the women are. The women are tougher than we are, amen? You men ought to say amen.
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The women all chimed in there, they wasn't afraid. We all want to be healthy, right?
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We don't want to get sick. The man flu is a cold, right? We get sickles.
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The actual flu is, you know, what our wives get when they can't even crawl out of bed, and yet they crawl out of bed and go about their business.
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Nobody wants to be sick, so it's not that being healthy is intrinsically wrong, it's when the focus becomes so much on the health and the wealth that it detracts from our attention from the
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Lord Jesus Christ, which is the giver of all things, amen? If we're going to be healthy, it's from the
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Lord. If we're going to be sick, it's filtered from and through the hands of the
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Lord. If we're going to be rich, it's going to be from the Lord. If we're going to be poor, it's because it's going to be from the
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Lord. So, there's nothing wrong with that. Now, happy. Happiness, I'm not talking about just the simple emotion of happiness.
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We can't be happy all the time. You walk, you see those people who walk around with a stupid grin on their face all the time.
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Let's be honest, and it bugs me.
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I'll be honest, and don't get mad if you say this on a regular basis. I'm just telling, I'm not speaking by commandment here,
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I'm just speaking by permission. I'm just telling you something on my own here right now. I don't normally talk about myself, but I'm going to tell you, them people, when you see them, and you say, how are you doing?
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And they just go, oh, I'm just blessed. And then they get in the car, and the first thing that the wife does is she starts cussing at the husband, or the husband starts cussing at the wife.
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Right? It's all a big put -on. It's all a big show. Nobody's gonna be happy all the time. Nobody.
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It don't matter who you are. But happiness, I'm not, when
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I say happiness, in reference to what I'm speaking of here, I'm not talking about just that emotion, or putting on a fake smile in the midst of the crowd.
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I'm talking about genuine joy that is found from having a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Real joy. And so Paul says, don't be terrified by your adversaries, because if you get terrified by your adversaries, when your adversaries come against you for the sake of the gospel, remember we're speaking of the context of this passage, what's going on literally within this passage.
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Paul said this, when they see you become terrified and back away from standing for the gospel message, they see it as perdition.
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They see you as someone who says they have salvation, but does not possess salvation, because the saving power of Christ does nothing to sustain you.
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But we know from the Scriptures that a man, a woman, boy, or a girl who is saved by the grace of God is not only saved from the guilt of sin past, not only saved from the power of sin present, but ultimately one day after a while will be saved from the presence of sin altogether.
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Won't that be a good day? So he said, but to you it is an evidence of salvation, and that salvation from God.
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For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.
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How's that for comfort? We'll continue just to... I'll be honest with you, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't see how it can gain a big crowd for very long when it's preached in truth, because we can tell people, come in and God's going to make you this, and God's going to do this for you, and so on and so forth, and that's all we ever told you, and we never told you, look, if you choose to live for Christ, you're going to have to do what
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Jesus said, and you're going to have to deny yourself, and you're going to have to take up your cross, and you're going to have to follow
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Jesus, and when you do that, there's going to be a whole bunch of people that are in disagreement with you, even those within the church world who will stand against you.
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You think the crowds are going to flock to that? No, because that's not easy, but the gospel message has never been an easy message.
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Paul said to the Corinthian believers that the message of the cross is offensive. Vodie Bauckham, a preacher, he's a good preacher, he spoke about how one time he was preaching, and after the service was over, that a
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Jewish lady came up to him after the service, and she was fully
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Jewish in her religion, and she just was praising him on how good a job he did in preaching the message of the gospel, and he said, having years been passed, he had to literally repent for a long time because he realized that if he was preaching the message of the gospel and no one was offended, he might not have been preaching the gospel the right way.
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Now listen, I'm not out to offend anybody intentionally just for the sake of offending you or making you mad, but the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive.
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Christ died for our sins, and what offends God is the sin of man, but God, through Jesus Christ, provided a means of salvation for men so that you and I, that recognize and testify to the fact that we've been saved by the grace of God, that we have the forgiveness of sins, and that when we do sin, that even today, as Christians, we sin every day.
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If a man says that he does not have sin, the scripture says he's a liar and the truth ain't in him, but we don't use the excuse of saying, well,
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I'm still a man, so I'm going to sin, so you know, God still loves me and it's okay.
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No, sin is never okay. But he said, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe, not only to believe savingly, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me.
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He went on to say in chapter two, verse one, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
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Spirit, so we have Christ, we have comfort of love, we have the fellowship of the
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Spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind.
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Now, here's where I'm going to say the challenge has been for me, just speaking, being transparent, being plain, being clear with you, we're not out to cause division just for the sake of being right.
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Does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying when we make a, when we draw a dividing line in the sand concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, concerning the message that is proclaimed and preached, rather than having the word of God preached eisegetically or reading into the word something that is not in the word, when we draw a line concerning the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than eisegetically being preached that it's, that we read out of the text what is being spoken and not reading into it what we wish it to say, what
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I'm saying is this, that many times the leaning is to try to make our point for the sake of us being right, rather than simply stating what the scriptures say and letting the scriptures stand and speak for themselves.
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Paul said when you are faced with this suffering, when you are faced with this persecution, he said if there's any consolation, consolation is encouragement, consolation is hope, and he said if there's any consolation in Christ, if there's any, because that's the premise, that's the basis, we've got to come to Christ, if there's any comfort of love, love is what we're called to have for one another as believers, as brethren in Christ, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, these are all, all words and phrases that go to the core of who we are, we, we, we cannot as Christians be, be mean and hateful to one another, as other believers, by the way we're taught from the word of God to do good unto all men, but especially them that are of the household of faith.
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We're to be good to one another, we're to love one another, and we're to have the, the same love, the same love based upon the love of Christ, being of one accord and of one mind.
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Let nothing, he said, be done through strife or vainglory or the new
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King James through selfish ambition or conceit. Selfish ambition is rooted in pride, desiring one's own way.
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Conceit means thinking that you're better than other people. The truth be told, there is,
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I am not any better than the, the, our brothers and sisters in Christ down the road either way here.
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Truth be told, I'm not any better than them. My views may be different than their views, but listen, when it comes down to it, at the end of the road, we're going to find something to be true that all of us have been wrong in some degree, one way, shape, form, or fashion when it comes down to it.
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There is one who is perfectly right. There is one who is perfectly true
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There is one who is perfectly plumb, it being a plumb line, that is
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Jesus Christ. So he said let nothing be done through selfish ambition, through pride, or out of conceit, thinking that we're better than one another.
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I believe it was Matthew Henry said this, we must esteem others in lowliness of mind better than ourselves.
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We must be severe upon our own self. We must be our own faults and charitable in our own judgments of others.
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We must be quick in observing our own defects and infirmities, but ready to overlook and make favorable allowances for the defects of others.
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That does not mean that we have to become tolerant of false gospel messages, but it does mean that we still somehow, someway, by getting alone with God, because ultimately that's where it comes down to, by getting alone with God, where we still have to learn to love those around us.
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J .C. Ryle said, do not be afraid of having too much religion. Settle it down in your mind that you will aim at the highest degree of holiness and spiritual mindedness and consecration to God.
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That you will not be content with any low degree of sanctification. Resolve that by the grace of God you will make
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Christianity beautiful in the eyes of the world. That is a tremendous statement.
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J .C. Ryle was a preacher who died in the 1900s at some point.
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Well, I think this was written around 1900, so maybe it was the late 1800s or so.
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But this was a tremendous statement concerning our love for one another as believers, our faith in Jesus Christ, and our view of sanctification.
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Because from the 27th verse down to verse 4, we see here in light of the text of this passage of scripture,
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Paul is addressing the process of sanctification in the life of the believers.
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Sanctification is and is not simultaneously something that happens automatically and yet without notice.
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God is doing His work of salvation in the heart and in the life of the believer as the believer.
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We are not ignorant to His work, but we are responsible to submit to His work of sanctification within our lives.
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He said in verse 4, let each of you look not out only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
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Last statement in verse 4, and actually we are going to close with that today. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
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It does not mean to be a busybody as the scriptures teach us in other men's affairs.
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It does not mean that you become so preoccupied with the faults of others because truly others do have many faults.
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Kenny did such a tremendous job this morning speaking to us and drawing our attention.
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We looked at Peter and he made reference in a funny way how that we are going to take our eyes off ourselves for a minute.
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We are going to look at the faults of Peter which we did this morning which was tremendous. But listen, he said look out each one of you not only for his own interest.
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We cannot be self -seeking, we cannot be conceited, we cannot be prideful, we cannot be arrogant, but we must look out for the interest of others.
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One person has said this, that the church of Jesus Christ when looked at as an army is maybe the only army who shoots its own wounded folks.
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There are a lot of wounded folks in the church world today. There are a lot of folks that just need as brothers and sisters in Christ for us to love them, to encourage them.
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Again, let me be clear, we should love and we should encourage one another, but we should be compassionately intolerant of false doctrine at the same time.
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I am not a professional. I do not have a three -step plan to say this is how you can do it.
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I am just stating what we read to you from the Scripture today and the premise, the thought from this passage is this, that through it all for the
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Gospel to be honored, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be magnified, for the Gospel to be exalted, we as God's people have the personal responsibility to become accountable for the sanctifying work that the
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Holy Spirit is doing in our lives and demonstrate that by showing love to one another in Jesus Christ.