Where Is Christ In A Time Of Crisis? Session 2

Good morning, everyone. Hope everyone got enough to eat and is ready to learn some stuff this morning.

We're gonna open in prayer, so let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we give thanks, glory, and praise to you for sending Brother Lance to us today to teach your word. We thank you for our annual Bible conference, and we thank you for your perfect and complete plan for our lives.

Lord, help us to cast out our own selfish desires that hinder our ability to rejoice in your hand and replace those desires with your desire. Lord, sanctify us by helping us to see your glory in every second of every day of our lives that you have given to us.

Lord, teach us to be righteous in our fear, suffering, agony, and worry by trusting and knowing that everything you do is good and for our own benefit. Lord, reveal to us the golden, radiant peace, rest, and joy that you extend to us when we are grateful and content with your sovereign will.

Lord, we pray and rejoice in.

Your Son's name, Lord Jesus Christ. I know you're distracted watching me walk in and walk out, but I.

Forgot a pen. All right. Well, Lance is gonna minister the word to us this morning in a couple sessions. I don't know about you, but last night I thought was encouraging and helpful, and I am anticipating that God is going to even teach us more.

So Lance, it's all yours.

Gospel Advance in a Hostile Culture

Amen. Thank you so very much. If you would turn in your Bibles back to Philippians chapter 4, a great letter of Paul to the Philippian believers. We know that some of the background in Paul's letter to the Philippians included his own writing of this letter from prison, and we also know that Paul was encouraging these believers to be all that they could be and should be for a watching world of pagans that they were all living around and among and with.

This, of course, was not Jewish territory, though there were some Jewish believers. This was Gentile area, and Paul, being called to the Gentiles, wanted to make sure that this group of believers were salt and light in.

An.

Arena of Gentile land that desperately needed the gospel. It would probably be true to say also that some of these who were coming to Christ.

Were.

Gentiles who wanted to go back into their own family contexts and speak a word of the gospel to brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles and cousins and others to whom they shared the same blood and even friends and others to whom Paul would want this gospel to go out.

And he was challenging the Philippians to make sure that this gospel was going to be preached both far and wide, but also in a near context with these additional family members who you and I know.

Would want.

To hear, want to see why their relatives were so radically changed. Now whether or not they would embrace the gospel of Christ is another matter, but if you were in a pagan area, if you were in a non-christian culture and you had been so radically changed for the sake of the gospel and you wanted to share that message with your family members, whether it was your nuclear family or your extended family or even just friends and associates in this area of Philippi, you were going to have a rough reception.

You were going to have people who could become quite hostile to your message. And this is where the Philippians found themselves. I know this because in chapter 1, notice what the Apostle Paul says in verse 27.

Philippians 1 27.

Only.

Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or and absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind. And then as I told you last night and read from Philippians 4 verses 1 and 2 that phrase side-by-side, it's mentioned here again.

Striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel.

And.

Not frightened in anything by your opponents. Now even the very fact of the mention of the word opponents means that there is a hostility. There is a kind of spiritual warfare, a fight for the sake of the gospel and there are people on the good side of the gospel and people on the wrong side of this fight for the sake of the purity of the gospel of Christ and it being communicated in a pagan culture.

And they had opponents. Paul had them and he's warning the Philippians that they will have them as well. He says don't be frightened by anything by your opponents. This.

Opponent.

Mentality of those who are hostile to the gospel, he says is a clear sign verse 28 to them of their destruction but equally as a sign to you, your salvation and that from God. And then notice what it says in verse 29.

For, that's an explanatory word, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. Engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Now do you see those supercharged words that are listed there in our Bibles? The word frightened, verse 28. The word opponents, verse 28. Destruction, verse 28. Verse 29 Suffer, that you will suffer for his sake and then engaged in the same conflict.

Those are all as they say in the South fighting words. Conflict, destruction, opponents. This is an amazing thing. You and I might not have the same kind of situation exactly where someone might be coming at you with a sword, literally speaking.

But we certainly have been ignored and there has been probably in your life and in mine some level of hostility toward the gospel. Particularly with family members. I remember that it was years and years, decades, in which I kept talking to my mother about the cult, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and how destructive their message is for the sake of the gospel.

And when you say those kinds of things because you love someone enough to tell them the truth, now you have to be loving as you communicate the truth. But when they respond to your attack, quote-unquote, about their doctrine, those are fighting words.

And when you, as Paul did, come and start a local church in Philippi and those believers who respond to the gospel begin to go outward from their small group of believers, they're going to experience hostility.

In fact, look at chapter 2 beginning in verse 14. Do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of, and notice how Paul characterizes Philippi and its surroundings, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

It's amazing that Paul is detailing how the Philippians are supposed to act and react to a hostile environment. They are to be blameless and innocent in the midst of a crooked and twisted or perverse generation among whom, Paul says, you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

Well, I should say that if you and I were in the exact same situation, and perhaps someday we might be, you and I have to rely on God totally and completely for the sake of gospel fruit, right? We're totally dependent on the Lord.

And if there are those cultures and those pagans, those non-christians who are hostile to our message, the number one thing that you and I have to rely on, it's essential. Is our prayers to God. Prayers for strength.

Prayers for hope. Prayers for effectiveness. Prayers for gospel fruit. Prayers for others, other men and women of the faith who are going out just like we are to be salt and light, to be lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

And we're going to need the power of God to survive. That's why I think, if you now turn to chapter 4, Paul says what he says in these concluding, staccato-like firing of commands about how we're supposed to live.

Last night, we looked at the first, the second, and the third of these seven commands. What are those first three? Chapter 4, verse 4 says rejoice in the Lord always. That's the first command. The second is like it.

Again, I will say rejoice. And the third is let your reasonableness or your gentleness be known to everyone. What I didn't say last night is what I want to say now, related to that phrase, let your gentleness or reasonableness be known, and then that phrase, to everyone.

I believe that that's not just a phrase to everyone that includes merely the Philippian believers in that local church. I believe it means be reasonable or charitable or gentle to literally everyone. Which includes the pagan world around which the Philippians were living.

So he's saying you need to be, you must be, you're commanded to be gentle or reasonable.

To.

Everyone. And that stands to reason, doesn't it? Because how are we going to be effective for the sake of the gospel if we are unreasonable or ungentle with the pagan world around us? Paul is calling upon us to be gentle to everyone.

And we need the Lord to make us gentle. We need the Lord to transform our wicked hearts, even regenerated by the gospel of God's grace, to learn progressively how not to be unreasonable, how to become gentle.

And that is a tall order. How do I rejoice in the Lord always? How do I continually, yes, saying it again, how can I rejoice in the midst of a challenging culture in which we live? And how can I be gentle and reasonable with everyone around me, including those who have conflict with me because of the gospel?

How? This is Paul's answer. Look at verse 6. This is command number 4. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's how you do it. You do it by way of.

Two.

Very, very clear commands in verse 6. Number one, do not be anxious about anything. And number two, pray about everything. That's how you do it. And could that not be more simple to our understanding?

Don't be anxious about anything. And also pray about everything. Now I say it's simple. It's simple to understand. It's very hard to do. Extremely hard to do. Why? Because you and I are saying, but they're coming at me.

They misunderstand my message. They don't like us. They're hostile to us. They think we're weird. They believe that we're using Christianity as a crutch. They assume that what we are is something on another planet.

That we choose to do things that are right and righteous and lovely and pure instead of doing the things that they do. And if they know us well from our former days, they're saying something like this.

Why don't you do the things you used to do? Why don't you continue to run with us? Why aren't you involved in the things that you used to do? And oh, by the way, this is probably just a small phase in your life.

You'll be back to doing what we're doing soon enough. Or maybe even something like this. Oh, do you think you're better than we are? Look, I know you. I know what you were like. And you're now judging me for my lifestyle.

Get away from me. Our friendship is over. It could be even happening, just as I've said, in the same household. I actually have some friends who for the sake of the cause of the gospel of Christ, and they're embracing that gospel, have no longer any relationship with their family members whatsoever.

That's hard. That's brutally hard. You love your mom and dad. You love your siblings. You want to have a relationship with them. You want them to come to faith in Christ. You want their lifestyle to be jettisoned for the sake of purity in the gospel of Christ.

You want them to respond to the message of the gospel, and they continue to trash you, trash your character, speak down about you, and want nothing to do with you. That's hard. And yet, Paul has an answer, and that answer is do not be anxious about anything.

Now again, better said than done, but this is a command, and it's a command that must be obeyed. Now one thing about this particular command that I think you and I need to understand is this. Words are important, and the way we use words are even more important, and this particular word, anxious, do not be anxious about anything, is actually a Greek word from this New Testament text that Paul uses elsewhere, and that sometimes gets a little bit obscured in our English translations, though it shouldn't, because when that particular Greek word is translated elsewhere in our New Testaments, it's usually using a different English word instead of the word anxious, and I think that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Why is it a good thing? Well, if we're being commanded not to be anxious in this verse, Philippians 4 .6, when the other passages that use the same Greek word are used, it's actually a good thing to be not anxious, but to be concerned.

Now this is not playing word games. It's taking each and every passage in its proper context and using an English translation of the same word because it carries a different meaning, and when it carries a different meaning, it means everything to us.

Why?

Because there are times when we're commanded not to be anxious, but we are nevertheless concerned, and that is a good thing, to be concerned, but to be anxious, that's a bad thing, and we should not be doing it.

Let me show you what I mean. Turn back to Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20. Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20, and listen how the word concerned is being used, and it's in a good context.

Verse 19 of chapter 2, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely, and then what's the next word? What is it?

Concerned. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. Guess what? That word concerned there is the exact same Greek word for being anxious, and being anxious, that's a sin.

Being concerned is not so. You see the difference? You can be genuinely concerned for somebody's welfare, but don't let it move into sinful anxiousness. That's the point. That's the point. You see, God is not commanding us to put away all kinds of anxiousness, but then have a little bit of a pocket of reserve of anxiousness as though it's okay.

He's actually saying to us all anxiousness is sin, but not all things that we're concerned about is sin. It's okay to be concerned, but not to be anxious. You say, well, what's the difference? It seems like those might even be synonyms.

They are decidedly not. To be anxious in the biblical sense means to be something like this. I don't trust God in the moment. I'm not trusting Him. I'm anxious. I'm worried. I don't believe God has everything under His control.

I think He may have slipped a little. I think that He may have forgotten us. I think that this anxiousness and worry is actually what I'm supposed to do so as to help God out, to help Him understand. If He sees how anxious I am, how worried I am, then maybe He'll start to wake up a little bit and do the things that I need Him to do.

And we all know that that's sin, but to be concerned is a kind of spiritual positive, not a negative. To be concerned is to be involved. To be concerned is to be helpful. To be concerned is to pray. And that's the difference.

Look over at 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. This is another use of the exact same word or a family of words that speak about this anxiousness, but here it is used instead in verse 28 to talk about concern in a good sense, in a righteous sense, in a non-sinful sense.

2 Corinthians 11 .28. Paul says, And apart from other things there is, speaking about himself, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. I actually don't think that's the best translation.

Anxiety. I think the best translation would be concern. There is the daily pressure on me of my concern for all the churches. Paul says, I'm concerned. I'm concerned for all the churches. But I'm not anxious about it.

You see the difference? You say, ah, it just seems like a word play there. It seems like you're saying, I don't want people to think that I'm sinning against the Lord by being anxious, so I'll just reverse it and use the term concerned instead.

No. The difference is this. You can be concerned in a godly way. You can be concerned about your brothers and sisters in Christ in a godly way. Like Paul is saying here in 2 Corinthians 11. I'm concerned about the churches.

There's pressure on me to make sure that the churches are doing well. But it's not all on me. It's all on my Savior. It's all on my Lord. It's all on the One who is in sovereign control of all things.

My concern is that you, as a body of believers, would respond to the Lordship of Christ. That you would do what the Lord commands. It is a concern to me, but I know He's in control, and therefore I will not be anxious about such a thing.

I think that's a good division of the two ideas. Same kind of thought, but the trajectory of that thought is trusting in the Lord, believing in the Lord, loving the Lord, going to the Lord in prayer, and not being anxious because God is in sovereign control of all things, right?

He's in charge. And He's a loving, gracious God who will ensure that His will reigns supreme. We don't have to worry about that. We don't have to be anxious about that. But in our concern for ourselves, and for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and their mutual ministry alongside us, and our concern about our pagan culture, and trying to penetrate that culture with the Gospel, we are going to trust God even in the midst of our concern about others.

That's a good differentiation. That's a good contrast. How about 1 Corinthians 12 .25? 1 Corinthians 12 .25. This is another word where that family of words are used, but this is the good use. Verse 25.

1 Corinthians 12. That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. There the word care is translated in our English text. Care or concern. You and I can have care and concern about others without dipping into the sinful realm of anxiousness and worry.

We can. And I would even say, that's a good thing. The good thing is to be concerned. The good thing is to be caring of others, but not slipping into sinful or fearful anxiousness. You say, well that seems to be a bit of a fine line at times.

Perhaps it is. Perhaps it is. Only you can know sometimes in your own heart whether you are at the care and concern stage and whether or not you're slipping into a sinful, fearful worry and anxiousness.

Sometimes it will come dribbling out. And with the words you say and with the acts that you're involved in, it could be that someone can say, at least asking the question and not presuming your motives, are you sliding into sinful worry and anxiousness?

It's a good question. We all ought to ask that. We all ought to be confronted from God's Word and from the concern of our fellow brothers and sisters about where we are in the sense of being careful and concerned about others and not letting that slip into sinful anxiousness and worry, which is a sin.

That's why, if you go back to Philippians 4, you have Paul saying, do not be anxious about anything. Now I know, you're just like me. When he says, do not be anxious, I would rather Paul stop right there and put a period at that sentence.

Right?

Do not be anxious, period. It's just that next set of two words that bugs me about anything. Do not be worried. Do not be anxious about anything. Why do I say that? Because you and I often have, let's call it a little grocery list.

And the grocery list has some acceptable things in it where we hold in our hearts against the Lord and against His plan and against His purpose that we think we have the right to be worried about. How about this?

How about the salvation of a loved one? How about the health of people we love? How about the financial ruin of somebody we care deeply about? What we want to do at times is to say something like this, I'm not going to be anxious.

I'm not going to worry. Except for a few of those things. So we gunny sack a few listings of things that we reserve for the anxious category. I'm very, very anxious about this. I want my child to grow up and serve Christ.

I want to have the financial wherewithal so that I am not hurting nor others whom I love. And I want to be able to have the funds to be able to help them and myself. And Lord, if I don't have those, or if I think I'm not going to have those funds later, that can make me very worried.

What's our economy going to do? What's our country coming to? I don't want to be anxious about a thousand things, but there are about three or four things that I reserve in my repertoire of anxiousness.

That's why that phrase means everything to the believer. Do not be sinfully worried or anxious about, and it's a 100 word, anything. You can't be worried about anything. You can't say to the Lord, Lord, I am so grateful that I'm not worried about anything, comma, except.

And then in your heart, you know that you are sinfully anxious about that thing, whatever that thing is. The Lord doesn't reserve us a little special parking place for the worry wagon. We don't have it.

It's not there. You take the worry wagon right to the spot where you think you have the reserved parking space, and yet, the Lord has the sign right there, do not park here. You say, but there's a whole parking lot here, and I could park anywhere.

But this one allows me some latitude to worry about such and such and so and so. That's why this is a 100 word. Do not be anxious about anything. And then the corollary response of the next command is this, but, notice the contrast, but in everything.

You see its opposite there? Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. 100 words.

No wiggle room. No worry wagon.

You can't have it. It's out of bounds. It's unacceptable. Now, it's unacceptable, yes. Will the Lord forgive if we do? Yes. He's a forgiving God. He loves His children. But there also could be fatherly discipline that comes to those who believe the worry wagon can pull up to that parking space and do its worry.

We'll be disciplined by the Lord. He'll make it very, very clear to us in the sermons we hear, in the relationships that we have with other Christians who lovingly confront us about our anxiousness, and by the circumstances of the fatherly discipline that we receive that the Lord will make it very clear.

You have a problem with worry. You have a problem with anxiousness. And you can't have worry at any point in your Christian life as a pattern of such a life because in anything you're concerned about, you can pray.

You can pray.

And you must pray. And you should pray. Should the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself be our guide? I think so. Look at Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Here's what Jesus says about worry. You know this passage, I'm sure, very, very well.

This is what Jesus commands us to do. This is what we are called upon to do. Look at verse 25. Matthew 6. Therefore, I tell you, Jesus says, do not be anxious about your life. Yes, Lord, but you don't understand that there's this situation.

Jesus, I know that's what it says, but you see, there is this... Do not be anxious about your life.

What you will eat,.

Or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, and here's the gut punch. Are you ready for it? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? In other words, anxiousness and worry will not help you.

Jesus is our Savior. He's telling us the truth. He's reminding us that worry gets you nowhere. It doesn't do anything for you, positively speaking, and actually what it does for you is a whole lot of negative stuff.

Verse 28. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith? Perhaps that's the problem with worry.

It's not married to faith. It doesn't do anything for us and it is not of faith. And if something is not of faith, James 4 says, it's a sin. So, if you have this little faith and you worry, I tell you, verse 31, do not be anxious.

Saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles, the pagans, they seek after all these things. Why? Because they don't trust God. They're not coming to God. They're not relying on God.

They're not dependent on God. And your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. He knows what your needs are. And here's that great command. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things.

All your clothing, all your needs, all your life, all these things will be added to you. Trust God. He knows what you need. He has every thought of yours in His mind. He knows exactly how your life ought to go.

Trust Him with it. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. That's from the very words of Jesus Himself. You say, well, what do I do?

I mean, how do I live? What's my life to be all about? How can I survive? What about this? What about that? And I tell you, pray about everything. Pray about it. That's not a throwaway phrase. That's not a neat little thing that we say as Christians.

Well, just pray. Just pray.

Just pray.

As though it's some kind of going to the shaman. Little spiritual whiffle dust.

No.

It's praying and it's praying to a person. In fact, it's praying to the person. It's praying to the God of the universe who created us and who knows everything about us. And He knows what we need. And He knows what we don't need.

And we are to pray. And how do we pray? In everything by prayer. That simply means talking to God. And supplication. What is supplication? It's just going to God with a need. It's a big word that means just that.

Just going to God with a need. And then He says thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. So, we pray. That means we talk to God. We bring our needs to God. That's supplication. And we do all of this in everything with thanksgiving.

And Paul reminds us that prayer is bringing your requests to God. He says let your requests be made known to God. I find that so fascinating. Let your requests be made known to God. Doesn't he already know them?

Isn't he omniscient? Of course he knows them. He wants you to bring them to Him.

Why?

Because He wants you to check off a list? He wants you to beg Him? He wants you to grovel in His presence? No, none of that. Here's what He wants. He wants you to come to Him because He's your Heavenly Father.

You're His child. And He wants you to come into His arms and ask Him, a loving Father, to supply your needs. That's what I call, friends, a relationship. A relationship. There may be in this life, and I've had eight examples of it.

There may be in this life no sweeter picture than a young child coming up into the arms of mom or dad because they both love their mom or dad, they love their parents, and they love the security of going to them in a time of need.

Isn't it true? Isn't it true? And there's probably no sweeter picture. There's probably no sweeter picture than God wanting us to come to Him. And when we come to Him, verse 7 says this, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now we've got to unpack that as we close this particular session because this is so very important. First of all, that phrase, the peace of God. Do not be under the illusion that every time the Scripture talks about something like the peace of God, that it's talking about internal, subjective peace of the individual believer.

Now it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean that, but don't think that's all it means. Because what it means in this context is the peace of God in the fellowship of the church. That's its primary meaning.

Why?

Because do you remember Euodia and Syntyche? Do you remember what was happening there? There was conflict. And you remember I just read to you that Paul says that if you go as the Philippian believers out into the world, there's going to be conflict over the truth of the Gospel?

And he says, if you're going out there and you are wanting to show non-Christians, pagan people, how to have a lack of conflict in your life, both individually and collectively, you ought to come to our church.

Because if there is conflict in the church, if there's conflict between Euodia and Syntyche, and if that's one of the big issues in the church, there's conflict there, don't go to that church. You see what conflict does?

A lack of peace? When, in fact, the pagan world says, why should I go to that church? They have the same conflict I have in my own life. Why should I go to that church? They have the same conflict that I'm having with my family members.

Why go to that church when I have the same conflict in my business that they do in that church? There's no reason for me to go there. They're no different than we are. And by the way, aren't non-Christian people almost always looking for hypocrisy in the church so they can justify their ungodly lifestyle?

Of course they are. I'm not compelled to go to that church.

They're as bad as we are.

No wonder Paul says, the peace of God, that means the absence of conflict, it surpasses all understanding in the sense of, wait a minute, it's going to stop unbelievers right in their tracks. You mean to tell me that they love each other with a kind of godly love in which there is a decreasing frequency of conflict in the church?

Is that what you're telling me? Are you trying to sell me a bill of goods that says that if I go there, my own life will be cleaned up so that I have less and less and less conflict over the years? Perhaps they're going to say, I should check that church out.

I should go there just to see what I've been hearing about. I've been hearing about this church that if you go there, there's love instead of conflict. There's joy instead of conflict. I should check that out.

I should try to go there to see if there's a solution to my conflict issues. That's how important this is. And what it does is it surpasses all pagan understanding about conflict, about the kind of fellowship that they enjoy there that I don't have in my heart.

That's what commends the Gospel to people. If you have a conflict with somebody in this church, deal with it today before the Lord's Day tomorrow. Get on the phone. Talk to them. It doesn't matter how much they've said to you, how much they've said about you, how much they've hurt you.

You go to them and say, I do not want to have conflict with you anymore. How can we work this out? Let's go to pastor. I'm willing to do it now. I wasn't then. I wanted you to boil in your own hypocrisy.

I wanted you to boil in your own lack of love toward me. And I realized that I wanted my pound of flesh. I wanted to make you pay for what you've done to me. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be such a growing Christian, such an ever-increasing righteous person in Christ that I want all conflicts removed in my life.