The Perfect Work of God

Laurel Bible Church

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Well, praise God, I'm really glad to be back. I've been following some of the preaching and I was grateful to see that the guest preacher from last week started

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Philippians. Just really grateful to be back here. Of course, it's a privilege and honor to open the word of God before you and really grateful to the

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Lord and his provision for this pulpit and a demonstration of his faithfulness toward you all as believers to provide preachers so that you can hear the word of God.

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So yeah, let me start with the word of prayer. We're gonna be in Philippians, so if you wanna turn to your Bibles to Philippians, that would be good.

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Thank you, brother, appreciate it. All right, let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, thank you, God, for this day. Thank you for getting us here to this church building and calling us together as a body of believers, as brothers and sisters in Christ, to come before you, to worship you, to magnify the name of Jesus Christ, to sing songs of praise and worship in these hymns.

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God, to hear the preaching of your word. And so I pray that you would bless the worship service this morning.

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I pray that you would bring supernatural enablement through the Holy Spirit. God, help me to preach the word clearly with boldness.

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I just pray that you would enable your slave today. Help me to glorify you with the sermon.

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And I pray that you would do that in the name of our great God and our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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So the title for today's sermon is The Perfect Work of God. And so we'll be in Philippians chapter one, verses six through 11.

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And we are familiar with this letter. This is the letter of Paul to the Philippians. It's often called the epistle of Christian joy, because joy is brought up so many times.

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So there is that theme. But I wanna kind of point you to something. And in these verses, we're gonna see that pretty clear, but there's another theme that is really the underlying theme in which all of the others really make sense.

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And that is that the return of Christ is a reality. Christ's return is a reality.

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The letter of Paul to the Philippians underlying issue. In the verses before us this morning, we'll see that.

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It's actually brought up twice in our passage about the day of Christ Jesus or the day of Christ.

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And even at the end of chapter one, Paul will say something. He says, for to me to live is

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Christ and to die is gain. So there's always this sort of forward looking perspective that Paul has.

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And writing from prison to a congregation of believers in which he planted this church, he wants them to get this.

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Christ's return is a reality. He says, for me to go with Christ, it's very much better.

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I don't know what I'm gonna choose to stay here with you or go be with Christ, because dying is a gain for me.

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I wanna be with Christ. So he's looking at being with the Lord and the return of Christ.

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Even in chapter two, he'll use this same term again in verse 16. He'll say, holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ I'll have reason to boast because I did not run in vain or labor in vain, referring to their salvation and their own earthly reward.

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He'll bring this up again in chapter three a few times. He'll talk about attaining the resurrection from the dead and living his life to gain the eternal reward, thinking about his own death, thinking about being with Christ and wanting them to be ready for Christ's return.

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He'll even talk about it in a way of pressing on toward the prize or the upward call in Christ or in the gospel.

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He actually will conclude his letter again where he talks about them receiving the reward.

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He says, I don't seek the gift, but I seek the fruit which increases to your account. So he's not only interested in what they're doing with their lives, but what's gonna happen to them when they get to meet the

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Lord Jesus Christ face to face. The return of Christ is mentioned or implied in every chapter of this letter.

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All of Paul's arguments and all of the different really practical issues and division that is going on in the church, it all centers around this.

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He starts the letter that way. He talks about it through the whole letter. He ends the letter that way.

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The underlying issue of the letter of Paul to the Philippians is

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Christ's return is a reality. And we need to think about that.

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That's gonna help us as we look at the verses before us this morning. Now for the sake of context,

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I think it would be wise to start back at chapter, start back at verse one in chapter one.

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So let's start there and we're gonna be looking specifically at verses six through 11 this morning. So let's start this letter and read and try to put ourselves in the shoes of those that would be receiving this letter.

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And so this is how it starts, chapter one, verse one. Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

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For verse six, for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

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For it is only right for me to think this way about you all because I have you in my heart.

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Since both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are fellow partakers with me in this grace.

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For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this

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I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and without fault until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

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What a strong way to start a letter. Christ's return is a reality. There's a famous illustration called the fishing fleet that I think helps us to think about this a little bit.

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In a city near Edinburgh, a large fishing fleet goes forth each year on a long expedition to the

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Newfoundland banks. And when the fleet returns, the whole town is notified and as the boats come over the horizon, everyone is at the dock waiting for their loved ones who have been away.

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They've been very far away for two, three months at a time. And on one such return as the fleet approached the shore, the captain stood on the deck of one of the ships and with his field glasses, he was reporting to the sailors what he saw there on the pier, the wharf.

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Naturally, they were all wondering about their loved ones. He told each man of his family and wife as they waited.

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He could spot the spouse or the family waiting for them and you can imagine the men's joy.

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As each man saw his wife or family, they were overjoyed. Each was relieved to know that all was well.

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There had been no sickness, no death. One man came to the captain and asked, do you see my wife there?

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The captain turned and said, I'm sorry, I don't see her. She's not there. The man began to worry because his wife was not in the crowd on the wharf.

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When the ship docked, the men greeted their loved ones, but this man moved through the crowd looking everywhere for his wife.

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He could not find her. He passed quickly through the village to his house.

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When he hurried to the door, he opened it with hurried expectation and urgent worry and there was his wife.

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She said, oh, you're home, my dear. I've been waiting for you.

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And he replied, the wives of the other men were watching for them. So we have to think about this.

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How do we live our lives? Are we merely waiting for the Lord to return or are we eagerly watching and preparing for his return?

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Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should not only be waiting, but they should be watching with expectation.

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And I think the way that you answer really this question of are you just waiting for the

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Lord to return or are you eagerly watching in anticipation is how you're going to live your life now while we're expecting the

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Lord to return. And it's helpful to think about this because of how strong Paul puts it in the beginning part of his letter, but it's also helpful to think about what was going on in the church?

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What was the bigger situation? What was the purpose of Paul's writing? In other words, why did

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Paul write the letter? Well, he wrote to express his thanks for the Philippians' gift to him during his two -year imprisonment.

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He wrote to inform the Philippians why he sent back Epaphroditus due to illness.

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He wrote to inform them of his circumstances in Rome. He wrote to exhort them to unity and obedience to the gospel.

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And he also wrote to warn them against false teachers and false teaching. But he wanted to help them to be watching and living their life based on the reality that Christ is coming back.

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We can see some themes throughout the letter. We've touched on one this morning, joy. It's a very strong theme.

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There's other things in there, unity because of the division in the church. He calls out some people by name.

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Christ -likeness. Of course, Christian joy because the Greek word for joy is used 15 times in the letter.

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So it's rightly, it has a good title, the Christian Epistle of Joy. But there were specific real -world things going on, and we can't detach that.

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We need to be in the letter and think about this as we're receiving it. Philippians was written by the apostle

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Paul to the believers in Philippi to communicate his thanksgiving and rejoicing in their partnership of the gospel, to exhort them to walk in unity in Christ -likeness, as well as to remain loyal to the gospel while defending it against opponents of the faith.

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Paul finished his letter with a final exhortation to the Philippians to live in unity, to be joyful in their circumstances, and to continue in prayer in all things.

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In verse one, Paul uses the Greek word for slave. Paul is a slave of Christ.

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The highest honor of the apostle Paul was to be the slave of Jesus Christ. He didn't start the letter by saying, it's me, the apostle

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Paul, writing this. He says, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. That's the highest honor he could have.

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He's not the master of a church, but the servant of Christ. Also notice that Paul is writing to everyone in the church.

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Another important observation is that Paul mentions the church before the church leadership.

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He says to all the saints. This applies to every single person. It applies to every single person in this room right now.

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He mentions the church first because the leaders are for the church, not the church for the leaders.

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The word overseer is the same word for elder or pastor. Sometimes it's used as bishop, and the word is used interchangeably to describe an elder, pastor, overseer, or bishop throughout the

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New Testament. The bishops or elders teach and oversee the body of believers.

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They are not only the slaves of Christ, but the slaves of the church in the sense that they're servants.

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Christ has given the church servant leaders to prepare them for present living, watching for Christ's return as a reality.

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The letter of Paul to the Philippians underlying issue, the return of Christ. And that's

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Paul's point in the passage this morning. In the passage today, the apostle Paul gives you three incredibly important examples of God's flawless work so that you are ready for Christ's return.

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Three examples of God's flawless work. Number one, perfect grace.

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We'll see in the first couple of verses here, six through eight. Number two, practical love, verse nine.

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And number three, praiseworthy living, verses 10 and 11. Three incredibly important examples of God's flawless work so that you are ready for Christ's return.

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Number one, perfect grace. And if we look again at this passage or this particular verse, we can see that Paul is confident.

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The root of this word is a verb meaning to persuade or to convince. The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something.

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Firm trust or the state of feeling certain about the truth of something. Paul is saying he is convinced.

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He is sure, he is certain. It is the idea to be so convinced that one puts confidence in something absolutely, to depend on it, to trust on it, or trust in it rather.

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The apostle's confidence is strong because the confidence is in God. He is confident that God's work will see completion in his beloved brothers and sisters in Christ that are in Philippi.

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God's perfect work of grace in their lives will be fully seen in the day of Christ at his return.

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Paul is confident. God's perfect work means guaranteed progress.

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But it doesn't always feel like that, does it? Sometimes we struggle with our remnant sinful nature and we just can't seem to get things going the way we would want them.

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Do you ever feel like that? Like you'll never make progress in your Christian life or your spiritual walk?

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Maybe there's a sin that keeps coming up again and again. You're good for a while and then you're just right back where you started.

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Doesn't always feel like there's gonna be guaranteed progress. That's life that we live. But be encouraged.

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This passage this morning is telling you that your progress is not up to you alone.

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God will complete your progress because his will is for your sanctification, for your separation from the world, for your increase in godliness.

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He started it and he's gonna finish it. He who began a good work and you will bring it to perfection until the day of Christ.

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When God starts a work, he finishes it. God will help you grow in grace until he has completed his work in your life.

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When you are discouraged, remember that God will never give up on you no matter what's going on with you, no matter the nature of the sin that you're involved in, whatever the struggles of life are, whatever the trial is,

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God will never leave you and he will never forsake you. He is for you.

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God promises to finish the work he has begun. And it's worth noting that the verb translated who began is only used twice in the

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New Testament. It's used here in this verse and it's also in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

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So we can look at our first supporting scripture. Oh, foolish Galatians, who bewitched you?

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Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing

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I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Did you suffer so many things for nothing if indeed it was for nothing? So then does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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He's saying you got saved. The Holy Spirit did this. Are you now saying that you're going to take it the rest of the way?

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You're the one that's going to make it right. You're going to work out your own salvation by works of the flesh.

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He says you got saved with the spirit and now the spirit of God is going to take you the rest of the way.

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Have faith. Yeah, I mean, pretty strong language here.

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I can just imagine from the pulpit talking to believers. Are you so foolish? We get this idea from the

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Greek. It's sort of like watered down. He's saying, are you so stupid that you don't see this? This is strong language he's using.

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That's just an example. So I'm not saying that to you guys. But let's think about it for a second.

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It's what we do. We forget that we were saved by God and then we try to live this life of perfect holiness and we forget that we need the spirit's help to do that.

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We forget that God said he's going to do it. So instead of really partnering with the spirit, cooperating with the spirit, having a responsibility on ourselves and using the word of God, we just kind of do our own thing.

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Perfect grace. Yeah, this term who began is referring to salvation.

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God's perfect work is salvation. What God starts, he finishes.

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The verb for will perfect comes from a word meaning to finish something begun, to end, to bring to an end, to finish.

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This is a perfect completed state. God started it with his free gift of grace and your salvation.

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But he has not done what God starts, he finishes. God is not finished with you.

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When you feel incomplete, unfinished, or distressed by life, remember

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God's provision and promise for your life. Don't let your present condition, whether that's sin, a trial, whatever's going on, don't let your present condition of sin steal the joy of knowing

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Jesus in your life. Don't let your present condition of sin cause you to doubt

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God. God will finish what he starts. God's perfect work means your eternal security.

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And we'll look at the meaning of the day of Christ Jesus in this verse as well as the day of Christ in verse 10 in the concluding comments of the sermon.

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We can move on to the next verse. Paul is referring to his imprisonment in Philippi in this verse.

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Wherever Paul was, even in prison, he had joy. Wherever Paul was, even in prison, he faithfully preached the gospel.

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Likewise, the Philippians have shared with him in suffering. Paul has them in his heart.

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The heart is the seat of physical, spiritual, and mental life. It is the center and source of physical life, the center and source of the whole inner being, the whole inner life, thinking, feeling, volition.

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This is the will. Paul is saying he has the Philippians in the innermost part of his being.

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They are a part of him. They are partakers with him of grace. And this is

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God's perfect work, the free gift of grace that leads to faith in Christ, the free gift of grace that leads to salvation.

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The Philippians shared in his suffering and they shared in grace. While Paul was in prison, the

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Philippians sent him money as a way to help him and they sent a fellow worker in the gospel,

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Epaphroditus. They supported the apostle's ministry and him personally, sharing in God's blessing of the apostle's ministry.

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Perfect grace. Paul's pure motive in yearning for them is demonstrated by invoking the divine witness of God.

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As he just mentioned in verse seven, the courageous witness before men in a court of law and change confirms the gospel is true.

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No sane person would go through what Paul was going through if they didn't believe 100%.

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Paul knew his feeling of intense longing for the Philippians was because of Christ's yearning for his own people.

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Have you ever yearned or longed to see a friend that you haven't seen in a long time?

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Have you ever longed to see a friend with whom you have fond memories? You know, you get so excited because you haven't seen them in a long time.

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You can't wait to see their face. You can't wait to hear the sound of their voice to look in their eyes.

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You wanna tell them what's been going on with you. You can't wait to hear what's been going on with them. There's a deep yearning and longing.

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It's like you're a kid before Christmas day. You just can't wait. The anticipation of seeing them again, this deep yearning and longing.

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And Paul had this kind of longing for the Philippians. His affection and love for them wasn't only based on past experiences, but on the unity that comes when believers draw on the love of Jesus, on Christ's love.

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The term for affection Paul uses here literally means the internal organs that react to emotion.

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The Greek writers of the time used it as a word to express strong compassion or love.

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The kind of love that involves the entire being or inner person. All Christians are part of the family of God.

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Believers share equally in the transforming power of Christ's love. Do you feel a deep love for other believers, friends, and even strangers alike?

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Let the love of Jesus motivate you to love other Christians and to express that love by the way you treat them.

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And we can think about this idea of God's perfect work. One more supporting scripture is helpful here.

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Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you who also will do it.

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The work of salvation and the work of being separated out of the world and an increase in holiness in your conduct over a lifetime, that's what

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God is going to do. Jesus saved you and through his spirit he will enable you to continue.

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And we can think about this idea of perfect grace. Perfect grace equals progress, but we can do some things.

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We can think about this first point in these first few verses. How do we live this out? Well, if you are stuck in sin or if you're finding it difficult to break old habits, the answer is simple, start a new habit.

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It's never too late to begin anew. Whatever you've been doing, stop doing it.

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Go to the word of God, pray to God, ask him for help. Understand that he is going to help you.

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He is the one that's gonna get you from point A to point B. Change up your daily habits.

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The cycle of sin does not have to continue. And maybe think about helping someone else grow in their own walk with the

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Lord. God is for your progress. Have you ever thought about it like this?

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Are you for the progress of another brother or sister in Christ? So when we kind of stop thinking about ourselves, this is one way to get out of those old habits.

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When you switch your focus from yourself, you may find you are too busy to feed the old habits.

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You know, those old habits sometimes bog us down. Get the focus off of yourself and get it on the progress of someone else.

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What are you doing to help somebody else in their life of sanctification? God is doing it for you, now do it for somebody else.

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You know, are there people in your sphere of influence that you could help out or benefit? You may find that going out of your ways to really like help others will also help your own spiritual life.

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Reach out to someone you haven't seen or talked to in a while. You know, if there's a brother or sister in Christ that you haven't seen or talked to in a while, give them a call.

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Check in on them, see how they're doing. Be concerned about their life. Be concerned about their progress.

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It's never too late to reconnect, to reestablish old relationships, to reconcile, reach out.

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Do that, reestablish old relationships. Pick up the phone and call somebody. And check in on them.

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God is for your progress because of his perfect grace. Maybe there's a thing that happened in the past and they haven't called me,

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I'm not calling them. Let it go and pick up the phone and give them a call. See how they're doing, see how you can help them.

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God's grace overlooked your sin. Stop focusing on yourself and start focusing on others.

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That's three examples of God's flawless work. We've looked at the first one. Perfect grace that guarantees the believer's progress.

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And number two, practical love. We'll look at verse nine. Practical love. Paul prayed that the

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Philippians' love might increase more and more. He's acknowledging it's there and he's saying, may it increase.

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This abounding is the idea of having in abundance. So it's the state or condition of having a copious quantity of something.

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Plentifulness of the good things of life. Love and prosperity. A very large quantity of love.

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Not just the quantity but the quality of the love. The quality of the love is knowledge and discernment.

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And this knowledge is recognition limited to transcendent and moral matters. It has the implication of complete or advanced knowledge.

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Christian love is different from the world. This love is anchored in the truth of the scripture.

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It provides stability or confidence in an otherwise uncertain situation. Christian love is controlled, maintained, and supervised by means of the rule and regulation of the truth of the

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Bible. This is not human love, this is God love. Paul is saying that Christian's love should be discerning.

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It is the idea of the capability of being affected by perception and sensation.

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Reasoning and appreciation of moral issues. A capacity to understand what is good or what is evil.

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What is right and what is wrong. Because those lines are blurring in our society today.

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They have been for 2 ,000 years from the time that Paul wrote this to where we are now.

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There's really not that much difference in the secular world that we live in. Yeah, we need to think very carefully about the moral issues that face us today as a body of believers.

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This is a capacity to understand what is right and wrong. This kind of love is a highly developed insight for each other's good based on biblical truth, not emotion or feeling.

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God love. Most times the best way to love someone is to pray for them. Paul prays that the believers in Philippi would be united in their love.

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The prayer for the Philippians' love was to result in a greater knowledge of Jesus and a deeper insight of moral discernment.

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As Christians grow in the love of Jesus, our hearts and minds must grow together.

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Are your love and your insight growing? How affected by the world are you?

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Discernment and knowledge is love. That's the kind of love that Paul is talking about here.

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I think as a supporting scripture, this is helpful to think about. He says, for this reason also, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the

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Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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I think that's a really helpful way to think about it. And of course, Paul wrote these words as well.

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You know, this is really important that we get this. Love is not whimsical.

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It's based on the truth of scripture. It's based on biblical principles. Let's try to think about this passage a little bit.

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Practical love will never cause a person to sin. And one of the things that I don't necessarily like to bring up, but it's something that is going on in our society.

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And when something is going on in this church, then

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I think I have to bring it up. And so part of my visit last time, I was made aware that last summer at the

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Montana Zoo during pride month, they had a drag queen day. I don't know how that applies to watching like animals in a zoo.

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Only the Lord knows the minds of the depraved. But as I'm thinking through this issue and how do

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I respond to that as a pastor, how do we respond to that as a body of believers?

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I couldn't help but think about this passage because while witnessing and doing evangelism out in the field or out in the streets, it's something that I've encountered so many times.

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Guys, I'm from Los Angeles. I live in a city called Downey. It's East LA. And I worship at a place in Long Beach.

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Those two cities are amongst the highest in the LGBTQ community and dealing with transgender issues.

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If you go out into a public area to proclaim the gospel, you're going to interact with people that are in this lifestyle.

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And I've heard someone say about same sex marriage, this is love, it can't be wrong.

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But we need to be careful about making this sin, homosexuality, a hobby horse.

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Because I've also heard Christians. So you'll meet folks, they say, yeah, I'm going to this church.

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You're talking to them. And as you get to know them, I've also heard Christians who are having sex out of marriage.

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And they say the same thing. This is love, it can't be wrong. We as Christians must not compromise.

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So calling out sin while overlooking your own sin should not define you as a

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Christian. A Christian can have a secret thought life of fantasy about someone other than their spouse.

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They can make it a habit of telling little white lies. We all have idols in our lives that we love in addition to God or more than God.

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But yet we're calling out those that are in bondage under this sin of homosexuality.

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But we cannot compromise the truth. It is loving to tell someone the truth.

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But the manner of delivery matters. However, it's not time to sugar coat things in our society that God calls an abomination.

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I was talking to a brother at the seminary and this issue had come up because he was an evangelist.

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And I said, you know, when I'm dealing with folks that are living this way, I just want to be sensitive to them and I don't want to tell the truth to them from the scriptures in a way that would, you know, like not allow me to share the gospel any further or kind of like cut the conversation short.

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So I want to be sensitive to that. I don't want to be overly offensive. I want to, and this is what

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I said to him, I want to be loving in the way I talk to that person who's living under this sin.

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And he said, Robert, and I knew he was serious because I go by Rob. And so he calls me, he says,

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Robert, if you're not telling them that this is an abomination and they're going to go to hell, then you're not being as loving as God.

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And you think about what that says and what it says in the Bible about this issue. We cannot compromise the truth in order to avoid offending folks.

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But it's important to remember, God does not wish for one person to perish, but that all would come to repent and believe in the gospel.

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Looking down on sin while overlooking the need for a person to be saved is not

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Christ -like. That's not Christ -like love. Do you have love for those that are stuck in sin and disbelief?

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Do you spend more time hating their sin than praying for their salvation?

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Having a heart motive of wanting a person to be saved, that's where you'll be able to speak the truth in love.

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And whether you offend them or not won't even be an issue because the truth is always based in love.

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Practical love is based on biblical principles. Three examples of God's flawless work so that you are ready for Christ's return.

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Perfect grace, and number two, practical love is based on biblical principles.

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And number three, praiseworthy living. Praiseworthy living. So we'll move on to the next few verses.

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Where one thing differs from another, Christians ought to be able to choose what is of superior quality.

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Paul is saying that believers should have a united motive before God without being the cause of stumbling to others or to themselves.

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It is impossible to establish the right priorities if you are unable to distinguish what is truly important from the unimportant.

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The term Paul uses here for excellent comes from a verb meaning to carry through or to differ.

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Paul is saying they need to differ one's advantage from someone or something. To be worth more than something, to be superior to.

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The apostle prayed that the believers in Philippi would have the ability to distinguish from good and evil.

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Excellent means extremely good, outstanding. To be able to differ what is extremely good from what is not.

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To differentiate what is vital versus what is trivial. Our decisions must be based on the

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Bible. How much of the world do you find yourself in agreement with?

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Do you agree with everything in the world? Is there anything that you see that is not right? And to a varying degree, we let our guard down and then we accept things that God hates as part of our daily routine.

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We must have the ability to see what is right, what is important versus what is not eternal.

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Believers ought to pray for discernment so that we can maintain our Christian morals and values.

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Are you able to recognize that many things today that the society calls good is actually evil?

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The ever -changing tide, the ever -changing flow of society, what the culture calls good is viewed as evil by God.

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Is there a discernment there? The idea of purity is here.

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The idea of purity in the moral sense pertains to being sincere or true, like without hidden motives or pretense.

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And notice Paul groups purity with the concept of being blameless. This is more than mindset or knowledge.

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This is a way of life. This is action, praiseworthy living.

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To be blameless in this sense conveys being without fault because of not giving offense, as in undamaged by sin.

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Paul is pointing out that good discernment leads to good decisions or living. Believers should be living their lives with integrity to glorify the

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Creator and the Savior. The Bible must be the one ruling, guiding principle in all of life so as not to cause us or others to fall into sin.

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You will not only be held accountable for your own sin, but also whether you caused others to stumble in their sin.

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And it's important to note there when I say accountability, you know, this is not judgment and wrath.

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There is no condemnation in Christ, yet there will be in accounting. We need to give an account in a reward type of a, you know, we wanna think about it like that, not eternal wrath or judgment.

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There is no condemnation in Christ, yet we will have to explain how did you live your life? Were you just waiting for the

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Lord to return? Or were you watching and living your life a certain way based on that reality?

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That's praiseworthy living. This righteousness that Paul refers to in verse 11 bears the fruit, but also the righteousness is the fruit itself.

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Righteousness from God that depends on faith. This God -given righteousness is the only adequate means to produce morally correct behavior or thinking in conduct.

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We are made righteous by Christ so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.

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In Jesus alone are we righteous, the righteousness of Jesus. The life of believers is to serve that ultimate purpose of supreme importance, which is the goal of Christ himself, the glory and praise of God the

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Father. That is a beautiful way of life. That is the Christian way of life.

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I mean, just ask yourself, what is the goal of your life? If it's just accruing more money or getting a bigger house or having a nicer car or having fancy clothes or having all the friends that you wanted to have, what are you doing with your life now on earth based on the reality that Christ is coming back?

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Having an eternal perspective, that's what Paul is talking about in this letter. He's only getting started.

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When he starts to ramp up, it's very convicting of what we have ahead of us. If you're not making decisions in your life and the goal of your life isn't to glorify

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God, then a beautiful life is not possible for you. I don't care what the size of your bank account looks like.

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You will be miserable. Without Jesus, life is meaningless. The fruits of righteousness are the perfect work of God that produces the salvation transformation.

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This fruit is provided by Jesus and is part of his ongoing work of setting believers apart, consecrating them, removing them from the world for increased godliness and understanding over a lifetime.

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This is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit with the ultimate result of glorifying

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God through Christ. The means the Spirit uses is the word of God.

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The weapon of the Spirit is the sword of truth. The sword of the Spirit is the

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Bible. That's the source. One supporting scripture might be from Ephesians, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. That's praiseworthy living.

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Praiseworthy living. And praiseworthy living is more than showing up on Sunday. It's more than just attending a worship service.

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We don't wanna have the attitude that because I can check the Sunday worship box, that excuses me from participating everywhere else.

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I'm doing this now so I don't have to do this later. Don't look at your schedule and then fit church around that.

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Make your weekly schedule around the life of the church. In other words, don't make excuses not to serve.

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Make excuses to serve and cut out earthly activities that have no eternal consequence.

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You can't practice the one another's by yourself. It doesn't mean that we're not gonna live life and enjoy hobbies and enjoy things that we do outside of church.

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Those are things that God has provided. Those are good things. But is the church the source and center of your life and then everything else branches out from there?

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That has to be the number one thing. Those other things are good, but they're not the number one thing.

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Sometimes we wear a sin blindfold because we're too busy in our own thing to think about how we might help another person out.

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What's going on with me is the most important thing. I'm not even thinking about so -and -so who's going through a very serious trial.

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Or we'd love to see past our own sin and point out other sins. One example might be a young conservative

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Christian who calls out homosexuality and is currently in a relationship practicing fornication with the girlfriend or with the boyfriend.

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Maybe an older saint who checks the Sunday worship box but intentionally decides to remove themselves from all other areas of the church.

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We need Christ's help to think correctly about our lives.

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And if we're not thinking very seriously about the reality that Christ is going to return, we are going to live a certain way.

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We're just gonna be passively waiting versus actively watching.

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Determines how we live now in this reality. Three examples of God's flawless work.

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Number one, perfect grace. Number two, practical love. And number three, praiseworthy living is the work of God's word and spirit.

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It's his work. But we need to think probably without closing, how does this relate to the gospel?

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Well, the day of Christ Jesus in verse six and the day of Christ in verse 10 are the same thing.

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But this should not be confused with the day of the Lord from the Old Testament. The day of Jesus Christ refers to the final stages of salvation and heavenly reward and the glorification of believers in Jesus.

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The day of the Lord refers to a day of judgment and God's wrath for the unbelieving world.

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The timing of the event of Christ's second coming, the rapture of the church and the great tribulation are issues of eschatology, the study of the last things.

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Christians have debated the timing of these realities for centuries.

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But what all Christians agree on is this, Christ's return is a reality.

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Believers will be held accountable. Unbelievers will be judged. The gospel is not optional.

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We can look at this passage. Now after John, referring to John the

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Baptist, had been delivered up into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

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Repent and believe in the gospel. We need to be careful using soft language when

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Jesus Christ didn't use soft language. When we want to think about the gospel as an invitation and we want to invite people in, that's not what

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Jesus said. These are imperative commands, strong imperative commands.

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The gospel is a command from the king that will either be accepted or rejected.

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Two very different realities for the believer and the unbeliever. One is eternal life and glorification with Jesus, a transformed, resurrected, sin -free, glorified body, just like Jesus has.

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The other is eternal torment and banishment. To reject

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Jesus is to reject your own life. It's like drowning and saying,

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I don't need a life preserver. I'll just be fine, I'll do it on my own. You're gonna be at the bottom of the ocean.

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There is no middle ground here. There's only one way.

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I just used this cute little meme here. I thought that was so cool. But look at it.

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There's only one way and it's the cross. It's Jesus Christ. There is only one way.

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The gospel is not one of many options. The gospel is the only option.

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To stay in the middle or think about it is to reject it. Let me just think about it.

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Maybe later I'll get right with God. No, too late. You've rejected the truth. But it's never too late.

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You can always go to God through Christ. And Jesus says, no one can come to the

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Father unless he draws them, but any who come to me, I will not turn away. There is no gray area here.

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Either you follow the command of King Jesus or you don't. Without Jesus, there is no life.

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And that's Paul's point this morning. Paul's point is this reality of Christ's return.

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But what Christ and what God is doing to the person that gets saved. The passage this morning reflects

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God's attributes and his work in the gospel on our behalf. Paul encouraged and exhorted the church at Philippi as partners with him in the gospel by conveying thanksgiving in their partnership and exhorting them to live in unity and to demonstrate

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Christ's likeness. The section today included Paul's greeting to the church and his circumstances in his ministry of the gospel.

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The perfect work of God seen in this passage gives hope in the security of eternal salvation.

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Salvation as a free gift of grace. Salvation from Jesus Christ and his perfect work on the cross.

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What God starts, he finishes. And Jesus is not done with you.

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Not by a long shot. Until you go home to be with the Lord or until the return of Christ, God is going to do what he said he was gonna do.

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And he's gonna complete what he started. God's perfect example of grace shows his loving kindness and mercy towards sinners.

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We should be gracious in giving grace when others are trapped in sin. Grace in granting us salvation through faith in the

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Lord Jesus. His example of practical love shows that love is not an empty sentiment.

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Love is a practical way of caring deeply for one another and others no matter the circumstances.

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We should be actively seeking to care for others. God's example of praiseworthy living shows believers the importance of distinguishing right from wrong.

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Praiseworthy living is seeking to live a life worthy of the calling of Jesus Christ.

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We should be making intentional decisions and choices for God's glory in our thoughts, words, and our actions.

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Grace produces love. Love is an action. Therefore, live a life worthy of the calling of God through Jesus Christ.

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I once heard a illustration, it's really a story about Skid Row, it's called Troubles of My Own. This picture is actually from Skid Row.

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They're doing an outdoor worship service. You see the pulpit there. It's called Church Without Walls.

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It's pretty close to the house. It's I think about 15 miles. And it's unbelievable the depravity.

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I believe it is a demonic area, really a dark area. But thinking about this story from Skid Row, a church layman wished to perform some kind of Christian service so his pastor suggested that he go to a rescue mission and help out.

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The man duly presented himself to the superintendent of the rescue mission shortly before a service for the down and outers, the ones who walked along Skid Row.

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The superintendent told the man to stand out on the sidewalk and invite passing men and women to come into the meeting.

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The church layman instead accosted the passerbys with his invitation.

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And in a mournful tone, he asked them to enter the rescue mission. Each person to whom he spoke glanced at him and just kept walking.

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He learned his lesson, however, when one person responded to this doleful invitation.

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The person said, brother, would you like to come into the meeting? Because cynically, this man didn't he was cynical, he had no joy.

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He looked at the person and said, no, thanks, I have troubles of my own. So he was so dour that when he invited someone to join, eventually somebody asked him, brother,

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I think you need to go into the meeting. And he said, no, I have troubles of my own. We are certainly not good recommendations for the

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Lord Jesus Christ. If we do not, if we have not learned this great truth that joy is one of the aspects of our

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Christian life, it's a primary requisite for our Christian life. When we consider that God saved us and God is going to help us to become more like the

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Son, Jesus, we should be filled with joy. When we think about the reality of Christ's return, a sin -free glorified body, that should give us such a joy that no matter what the circumstances of life are, it can't be challenged, it can't be checked.

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Our joy must be in Christ. God's love for us stirs a love for him in us.

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Paul's love for God stirred his affection for the Philippians. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi to communicate his joy, his joy in the gospel, his affection for them, and to exhort them to live a

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Christian life. Christlikeness is the goal. The pursuit of Christlikeness will develop unchangeable joy and natural affection for other believers.

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But Paul's point is the Lord's point. In the passage today, the Lord gives you three incredibly important example of God's flawless work so that you are ready for Christ's return.

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Perfect grace that guarantees the believer's progress. Practical love is based on biblical principles and praiseworthy living is the work of God's word and spirit.

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The theologian R .C. Sproul once said this regarding God's work. I love this example.

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He said, God just doesn't throw a life preserver to a drowning person.

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He goes to the bottom of the sea and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.

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Saving sinners is the work of the Lord. Preparing believers for Christ's return is the work of the

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Lord. May we not be waiting for Christ's return. May we be watching and ready and living for Christ's return.