Conduct worthy of the Gospel

To be here.

If you would, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the book of Philippians.

We're going to continue there.

And in my notes, as

well as from week to week, when we'll share the message when April posts

it, really there's not any really fancy title for this series of

messages.

Basically it's just continuing on in Philippians.

That's what we're doing.

Continuing on in Philippians.

And just to bring this again, just a brief summary, as always, where we

are.

We're going to be picking up in verse 27 today.

We've made it through verse 26 up to this point.

And this book of Philippians is the

Apostle Paul's letter written by him and Timothy to the saints and the deacons,

or the saints which are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons.

He's writing to them.

This was written sometime around the year, I think, maybe 60, 63

AD, in the year of our Lord.

So somewhere about 27 to 30 years, probably, after

Jesus was crucified, raised, ascended back to the Father.

This is when this letter was written to the church.

And we're going to be going probably back over into Philippians, if you just want to have a

run and start at that.

We're going to be looking at Philippians to compare the scripture with the scripture this morning.

And we may even go over to the book of Ephesians as well.

Corinthians and Ephesians were both written by the 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 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.

So that's why we always go back to previous passages of scripture, because the

scripture establishes itself in that.

So when we look at that, that's going to be important.

If you'll remember down through verse 18, the Apostle Paul had pretty

much made it clear the focus and the theme of this letter, as were all of the letters, it was

Jesus Christ.

Through verse 18, he had mentioned Jesus Christ by name, by Jesus Christ,

God the Father, His Son, the Spirit, or making reference to Him,

using the pronoun for Him, as speaking of Jesus Christ about 16 times.

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 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

Philippians, being the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the gospel is not in

any other person.

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?

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 Father,

where he ever lives to make intercession for us, and that is Jesus Christ.

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 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 Apostle Paul, those who

he is writing to are encouraged to continue in the faith.

And he said, in 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.

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.

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.

Originally, the scriptures weren't broken up into verses or chapters.

They were just one cohesive thought.

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.

So verse 27, the Word of God says this, only let your conduct be

worthy of what?

The gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am

absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you'll 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.

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.

Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any

comfort of love, if any fellowship of the 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.

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.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also

for the interests of others.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer, please, for just a minute.

Lord, I need your help today, dear God.

I need you to help me today to not

go further than what your Word says today, dear God, in communicating and

in preaching this message, dear God.

I pray that you would be glorified in this, dear God, and that throughout this, that

your Holy Spirit, dear God, if I tend to drift one way too far or another way too far,

God, that your Holy Spirit would reel me in, would guide me, and lead me, dear

God, to stick with the text and the context of this

Scripture, dear God, and not to veer off into my own opinions or

ideologies on any matters concerning the faith today, dear God.

I pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be represented faithfully through me today,

and if not otherwise, dear God, show us and grant us grace and

mercy to repent, dear God, of that.

For it's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen and amen.

I may very well today,

and I'm just going to be honest with you all, I am intentionally slowing down on this

today, and probably, most likely, I would say, from

the way my thought process is going right now, that I likely may not,

this likely may not be one of those loud preaching sermons like I usually preach,

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 main

thing being 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 and bear with me to look at that, verse 25 and 26, 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 your rejoicing for me may be more

abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

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 Bible Study, there is no separation.

Listen, by separation, 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 Holy Spirit in our lives, and we will strive to

live lives that honor and glorify the 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.

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.

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.

So there can be no separation.

If you're saved, you're going to strive for holiness.

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 Holy Spirit lives within you.

If you are not convicted about sin, the Holy Spirit does not live within you.

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.

He makes this statement, only let your conduct be worthy

of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your conduct is how, meaning how you conduct yourselves, how you live

your life.

Let your life be a reflection of the saving work that Jesus

Christ has done in you.

So let your walk and let your talk line up with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Did you know that?

It is the work of the Holy Spirit working in us to make us

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 Holy Spirit

in the life of the believer.

So Paul says, don't be terrified when you have to suffer for the

gospel.

This is contrary to many of the messages that are proclaimed and taught

throughout the church world nowadays.

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.

Now let me say this, there's not a one of us in here that don't like being wealthy, amen?

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 God.

That's what the apostle taught.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

That is what's wrong.

So there's nothing intrinsically wrong with being wealthy.

There's nothing, of course, intrinsically wrong with being healthy.

Nobody, none of us will walk around having been sick at any time for our lives.

Men, we're bigger babies than the women are.

The women are tougher than we are, amen?

You men ought to say amen.

The women all chimed in there, they wasn't afraid.

We all want to be healthy, right?

We don't want to get a, the man flu is, the man flu is a cold, right?

When we get sickles, the actual flu is, you know, what our wives get when,

when they can't even crawl out of bed, and yet they crawl out of bed and go about their business.

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 Lord Jesus Christ, which is the giver of

all things, amen?

If we're going to be healthy, it's from the Lord.

If we're going to be sick, it's filtered from and through the hands of the 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 Lord.

So there's nothing wrong with that.

Now, happy.

Happiness, I'm not talking about just the simple emotion of happiness.

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.

Let's be honest, and it bugs me, I'll be

honest, and don't get mad if you say this on a regular basis, I'm just telling, I'm, I'm not speaking by commandment

here, 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?

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, right?

It's all a big put on, it's all a big show, nobody's going to be happy all the time.

Nobody.

It don't matter who you are.

But happiness, I'm not, when I say happiness, in reference to what I'm speaking of here, I'm not

talking about just that emotion, or, or putting on a fake smile in the midst of the crowd, I'm talking about

genuine joy that is found from having a saving relationship with Jesus

Christ.

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.

Paul said this, when they see you become terrified and back away from standing for the

gospel message, they see it as perdition.

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.

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.

Won't that be a good day?

So he said, but to you, it is an evidence

of salvation, and that salvation from God.

For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him,

but also to suffer for his sake.

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

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 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.

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.

Paul said to the Corinthian believers that the message of the cross is offensive.

Voddie 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 Jewish lady came up to him after the service, and she was fully

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 past, 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.

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.

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.

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, I'm still a man, so I'm going to sin.

So, you know, God still loves me and it's okay.

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.

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 spirit, so we have Christ, we have comfort of love, we have the fellowship of the

spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like

minded, having the same love, being of one accord

and one mind.

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.

Does that make sense?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I'm saying 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

we read out of the text what is being spoken and not reading into it what we wish it to

say, what 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.

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,

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 words and phrases that go to the core of

who we are, we cannot as Christians 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, we're to be good to one another, we're to

love one another, and we're to have the same love, the same love

based upon the love of Christ being of one accord and of one mind,

let nothing he said be done through strife or vainglory or the new

King James through selfish ambition or conceit, selfish ambition is

rooted in pride, desiring one's own way, conceit means

thinking that you're better than other people, the truth be told there is, I

am not any better than the our brothers and

sisters in Christ down the road either way here, 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, there

is one who is perfectly right, there is one who is perfectly true, there is

one who is perfectly plum, it being a plum line, that is 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, I

believe it was Matthew Henry said this, we must esteem others in lowliness of

mind better than ourselves, we must be severe upon our own

faults and charitable in our own judgments of others, we must be quick in

observing our own defects and infirmities, but ready to overlook and make favorable

allowances for the defects of others, that does not mean that we

have to become tolerant of false gospel messages,

but it does mean that we still somehow some way 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,.

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, that you will not be content with any low degree of

sanctification, resolve that by the grace of God you will make

Christianity beautiful in the eyes of the world, that is a

tremendous statement,.

J .C. Ryle was a preacher who died in the 1900s at some

point in some time, well I think this was written around 1900, so maybe it was the the late 1800s or so,

but this was a tremendous statement concerning our love for

one another as believers, our faith in Jesus Christ and our

view of sanctification, because from the 27th verse down

to verse 4 we see here in light of the text of this passage of scripture,

Paul is addressing the process of sanctification in the life of the

believers, sanctification is and is not

simultaneously something that happens automatically and yet without notice,

God is doing his work of salvation in the heart and in the life of the believer,

as the believer we're not ignorant to his work but we are responsible to

submit to his work of sanctification within our lives,

he said in verse 4, let each of you look not out only for his own interest but

also for the interest of others, last statement and

actually we're 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, it does not mean to be

a busybody as the scriptures teach us in other men's affairs, it don't mean

that you become so preoccupied with the faults of others because truly others do

have many faults, Kenny did such a tremendous job this morning speaking to us and drawing our

attention, we looked at Peter and he made reference in

a funny way, how that we're going to take our eyes off ourself for a minute, we're 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, we cannot be self -seeking, we cannot be conceited, we cannot

be prideful, we cannot be arrogant but we must look out for the interests of

others, one person has said this that the the church of Jesus Christ when looked

at is at an army is maybe the only army who shoots its own wounded folks,

there's a lot of wounded folks in the church world today, there's a lot of folks that that just need

as brothers and sisters in Christ for us to love them, to encourage

them, 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, I'm not a

professional, I don't have a three -step plan to say this is how you can do it, I'm 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 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 Holy

Spirit is doing in our lives.

And demonstrate that by showing love to one another in

Jesus Christ.

Stand if you would with us please.