Book of Philippians - Ch. 2, Vs. 14-Ch. 3, Vs. 13 (08/05/2001)

Philippians 2:14–16: Doing All Things Without Murmurings or Disputings

Philippians 2nd chapter verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. What is the subject of that sentence? Doesn't it? No? No? What? That's right. You do all things. That means that you are doing something all of the time.

Fred, can you at any time in your life do nothing? Even sleeping, setting down? David, can you? Jesse, can you? So, we are doing something all of the time. Never a moment in which you're not doing something.

Now, do all things. Do all things. Joy, what does that eliminate? Eliminates everything? Do all things. But you didn't understand me. I said, what does that eliminate? All right. Everything you do. Everything.

Breathing. Without murmurings. What does murmurings mean? Roger, what's murmurings mean? Silently complaining against your fellow man. What gives rise to murmurings? No, you wouldn't be murmuring if that was it.

All right. Selfishness gives rise to murmurings. Opposed to the example of Jesus. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. Now, what's disputings mean? Questioning? Disputings with our fellow man in relation to whom we're called on to be blameless and harmless.

We're called on to be blameless and harmless. The disputings flow from what? What vain glory would cover it? That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. In the midst of crooked, of a perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

That you may be blameless and harmless. Greg, how can you be blameless and harmless? Harmless. Without rebuke. The sons of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. What nation is that, David?

Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Now, Joy, what does that mean? We are the great lights of the world. Holding forth the word of the life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

Holding forth the word of life. What is the word of life, Greg? Jesus Christ. Holding it forth means what, Greg? Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you.

What is a libation, Bill? What is a libation? It's a drink offering. Paul is comparing himself to a drink offering. If I be offered upon the service and sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy myself.

For the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your estate. It was important to Paul to know the state of people, and especially of the Philippians.

So he's going to send Timothy down, and Timothy will return, and that way he'll know what they were like, what they were doing, what they were undergoing. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your estate.

Now, for I have no man means Paul had no one else like-minded. What does like-minded mean, Greg? Alright, who will naturally care for your estate? Well, Timothy is the one he's talking about. Now, Clarence, who will naturally care for your estate?

What does that tell you about Timothy? Alright, how would he do this? Alright, he would do all of that, how? Now, Diane, but there's one key word here that we're overlooking. Well, that's all true, but Timothy does it how?

Roger? Naturally. It just comes natural to him. I wish that were true of me, that it would just come natural with me, but I'm not there yet. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.

For all seek their own. He's talking about everybody else now, and everybody else not seeking the things which are Jesus Christ means what, Bill? But you know the proof of him, that as a son with the Father he has served me, served with me in the gospel.

So you know the proof of him means what, David? Alright, alright, alright. The ones he's referring to are those that are with him. Demas was with him. He abandoned him, and he just didn't feel good about the rest of them.

So Timothy's the only one in this group. All the rest in this group I cannot vouch for. That's right. So all of those that are here, Timothy is the only one that I can send to you. That's right. He's proved himself to you.

He's talking about somebody they know. Yes, that's in his mind. Him therefore I hope to send presently, as soon as I shall see how to go with me. But I trust in the Lord that also myself shall come shortly.

Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Ephroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

What had happened to Ephroditus? Alright, when did his illness overtake him? Well, let's read on a little ways. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

What was he in danger of? Ephroditus was in danger of dying. That's right. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be of the less sorrowful.

Receive him in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation. Because of the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me. Is that all of it?

Israel’s Camp Around the Tabernacle as a Picture of the Cross

Now I want to take time and answer last week's assignment. How many of you forgot about it? How many of you remembered it, but you didn't find it? Well, good. Now you remembered it and found it. Where?

Greg. Alright, what did you find? While he's doing that, who else besides Nichols found it? Alright, Greg. Alright, did anyone else? June. Alright, what had you thought about the children of Israel? We're talking about two or three million people as they moved and as they settled down and then would move again and then they'd camp and move.

Did you think that it was just a bunch of people moving? Or did you think they were in some order? Alright. Alright. I had never really had a picture, but I just knew that the group. But we find something rather interesting.

The Levites, where did they camp? In the center. All around the tabernacle. And it was a square. What was the number of the Levites? Alright. Now, those on the south side were all as wide as the Levites were in a straight line.

Those on the west side were as wide as the Levites were on that side and in a line. Do you get the idea? All of those on the west and the north. Now, what has the directions got to do with it? Which way was, do you see it's across?

Do you see that? Which way, if you stood it up to the east, would it look like a cross? Jesse, you with us? It would face east. Now, who is it? First of all, Jesse, do you see that it's a cross? The people, they're not just scattered.

They're right where they're supposed to be. There was an address for everybody. In other words, you could call out somebody in the master address and look it up and go find them. Now, when you stood it up facing east, the long part would be down, would it not?

Who is it that could see the cross all of the time? Who? God. God can see the cross as it is laid out all of the time. When the people moved, they moved in their position. So we have the cross not only in lots of things, but we have it physically as they camped and as they moved.

I never saw that before. All right. Nobody saw it but God. It was, you were part of it, but you couldn't see it. Philippians 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

What's he mean, it is safe? Greg, what do you get from that? Did anybody get anything from that? Safeness? All right. What did somebody else say? All right. It's safe because of what he's going to say.

It's repeated. I repeat things I have said to you and I want you to listen to me. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Dogs. Greg, who's a dog? Jesse, who's a dog? All right.

Paul being the apostle to the Gentiles didn't mean Gentiles, but he meant false teachers of the Gentiles. Well, Jews too. Contentious, impure. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. I'm so glad that we don't have any evil workers today in the church or out of the church.

Well, I'm coming to that concision. The word concision means to cut. They had an awful time with people, with the legalist, telling them that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved. You have to keep this part of the law along with the rest.

Today we have people claiming certain things. You have to speak in tongues. You have to, which doesn't exist, you have to be baptized, several different things. The concision was in direct reference to those that teach that you must be circumcised.

Now, we are of the circumcised, but it's not made with hands. We've cut off the flesh by seeking to promote divisions among Christians, what they were doing. I heard a man, I can't call his name, even if I wouldn't, if I could.

Well, I can, I just thought of it. But he is a rather large TV personality, just moved to the Dallas area, and he was saying that if you do not send your money in, you have limited someone from becoming saved.

There's people that will not be saved because you did not send your money. So he's saying you have to send money in order to be saved. Now, that doesn't sound just right to me. Does that feed a dog? For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

We means we believers in Christ. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I have more. Paul was in a position that he could have trusted in the flesh more than anybody else.

Circumcised that the eighth day, this was keeping with the law, of the stock of Israel, what's that mean? Of the tribe of Benjamin, what's that mean? And Hebrew of Hebrews, what does that mean? As touching the law, a Pharisee, what does that mean?

He knew the law. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Now, where has he come to, Greg?

Where has he been and where has he come to? That's right. And this is what he puts his faith in. All the rest was for nothing. That's right. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may be, that I may win Christ.

Now, where it says, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, what did that include, David? All right. What things are on the periphery of this? What other things did he lose? All right. What else?

His family. If he had a business, he would have lost it. He lost his family. We don't know how much family he had, but whatever he had, he lost. Lost what? Who's talking? Okay. No, no, they put him out, out of the synagogue completely.

And that was a traumatic thing. Lost all of his friends, except those in Christ. And he, yes, yes, strong possibility. It happened, he never talked over once or twice, very short sentence, about his family, but I think he was married or he would not have been in the Pharisees, and he was very, very high in the Pharisees, therefore I think he was married.

He lost his family. They considered him dead. All of his friends, everything. Now, would we undergo something like that? Yes. Did his grandmother, who he called out second times for him to act in accordance with his mother, and who was his mother?

What else? I'm glad you mentioned that, because it does still happen. It is with us. The old-line Jew just won't acknowledge you at all. What? He could have been several times removed. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.

Now, under the law, you had your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of God by faith. From where does our righteousness come, Bill?

Comes from God. The righteousness which is of God by faith, not having his own. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

What does conformable mean, Greg? All right. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. What do we learn from that, Jesse? All right. You can know somebody and not really know them. To know this person of Christ meant that he was like him.

He was made in his image. That's right. That's right. Absolutely right. We have being made. Is that future or past? It's already done. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. What's that mean, Greg? Resurrection of the dead means what? All right. In the likeness of Christ would mean what? All right. Through that which he resurrected.

Not as though I had already attained. David, what does that mean? As though I had already attained. Either we're already perfect, but I follow after if that I may obtain that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Apprehended, excuse me. That I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now, apprehended. First of all, what's that word mean, David? All right. All right. Not as though what?

All right. Pursue and then capture. Not as though I had already attained, but either we're already perfect. What's he telling us here, Diane? He had already attained as much as we have, but we all should every day strive to be more like Christ was.

For which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. That's the reason that he apprehended us. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

Should you remember or dwell in the things that are behind? That means everything that's passed. Looking forward to that which is before us. What's that mean, David? I count not myself to have apprehended.

I don't count myself finished, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Forgetting those things which are behind. Now, God gave us a memory, but we're not to live in the memory.

What purpose is the memory? All right. That's right. We're going to stop here. We'll take up verse 13 next week. Greg dismisses, please.