The Gospel of Grace!

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Philippians 2:12-18 Check out the debate I recently did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj_JlmUqFqI&feature=youtu.be

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Well, good morning. It is such an honor to be with you all this morning.
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I wanna tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Jeremiah Nortier. I serve as a pastor at 12 .5
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Church. It's kind of by the hilltop area. We are a church plant, and I serve with Pastor Nathan Hargrave.
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And so I wanna tell you a little bit about why I'm here this morning. A little over a week ago,
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I did a debate with a Church of Christ preacher at ASU, and we had been kind of putting out this information for people to come be a part of, how we can lovely talk about things that we disagree.
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And Greg Smith reached out to me. He was like, hey, I know you, but you don't know me. I've known you, your family, since you were a baby.
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He said, I'd love to talk with you about all of these things. And he told me that he grew up in the Church of Christ movement, essentially.
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And I said, absolutely, let's have lunch. And I love Greg's passion and heart. And he was like, have you thought about this, this, this, and this?
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And I'm like, yes. And I would tell him what I thought. He was like, whoa, yeah, you have thought about that. And so we really started to talk about these things, and we talked about how we wanna be able to be there for one another in ministry.
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So I wanna encourage you, look up the debate. We actually filmed it. We have it recorded really well.
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You can look it up on my Facebook page at Jeremiah Nortier or 12 Five Church, because we really talked about the heart of the gospel.
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Is this a gospel of grace, of divine accomplishment, where Jesus Christ did everything?
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Or do you have to bring your works to the table? And so I was very encouraged about how everything went down.
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I think it was very obvious what one side was saying, that it's by grace alone, and the other side said, well, we actually have to do works of righteousness in order to be made right with God.
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So I just wanna encourage you all to do that. So I wanna begin this morning by talking about, there are actually two religions in the world.
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You have true religion, which is Christianity, where God accomplished salvation by his grace, and then you have false religion.
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All false religion fits in this category of works righteousness. And so all works righteousness systems basically are the same thing.
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They're saying that you have to get up and do X, Y, and Z in order to obtain favor with God. But Christianity stands alone and says, no,
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God accomplished everything on our behalf. It was God the Son, Jesus Christ, he took on flesh, he was sinless, he paid the full punishment of sin by dying on the cross, and he resurrected the third day, defeating sin and death.
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It is a beautiful gospel of grace. And so we have to understand that the works of Jesus Christ alone are righteous because he was without sin.
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And so Christianity teaches that we do not merit salvation by adding our own works to the already finished work of the
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Savior. We obtain salvation. We have our sins forgiven by the holy and perfect just God, and we receive forgiveness of sins by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone, amen.
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And so this morning I want us to talk about the contrast between false religion that says works, and then the true religion of Christianity that is by love and walking relationship with God.
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So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Philippians chapter two.
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We're going to be examining verses 12 through 18. And so we're also gonna be talking about how salvation is a process.
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Salvation is a process of God working in you. Earlier in the book of Philippians chapter one, verse six, we learned that it is
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God who began a good work in you, and he will bring it to completion. So when
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I say salvation is a process, some of you may think, huh, you know, I've never thought a bit like that. But what
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I mean is there is a sense in which we were saved, past tense, we were justified. We are being saved, present tense, that is our sanctification, and one day we will be saved from this evil, corrupt world and our flesh and sin, that is our glorification.
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And so salvation is a process that God is working in through his people. And so I really want to bring to the forefront of your mind the word sanctification again, because I want us to keep this in mind as we look at this passage, because Paul is talking about believers' sanctification.
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We are called to be set apart as lights in the world, and we are called to never complain about our circumstances, because God has appointed every moment of a believer's life to make us more and more like Christ.
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So with that being said, let's examine our passage this morning. Sorry, I gotta wet my whistle a little bit there.
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So Philippians chapter two, let's begin in verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
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God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless, innocent children of God, without blemish 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.
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Even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith,
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I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
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Let's pray again this morning. Heavenly Father, you are so wonderful. You are holy, you are transcendent, and God, you pour out your grace and your mercy on us each and every day, and we do not deserve it.
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God, I pray that as we spend time in your word, that you would give us wisdom by your spirit, that you would give us ears to hear and a heart to learn from your word, that we would leave differently this place to give you glory in light of what we learn from your word.
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Praise things in your name, Jesus, amen. So let me draw your attention back to verse 12, where I believe the heart of this verse is the part where we read, work out your salvation.
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Okay, so look back at verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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Now let me start by telling you what the verse is not saying. It is not saying that you must earn your salvation by working it out.
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In fact, the scriptures could not be more clear in Ephesians chapter two. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.
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It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so no one may boast. Now this is so important, because when we're talking about the gospel, you cannot think in any way, shape, or form that you are adding, getting up and adding your works to the already finished work of Jesus Christ.
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And I've met with cult members, I've met with people that are under this umbrella of false religion, and they will appeal to this verse and say, see, you have to work out your own salvation.
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But it's talking about sanctification. It's not talking about our justification, that is by faith alone.
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And so sanctification is so important to understand here. When I say sanctification, we're talking about being set apart for special use.
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I think about it in two ways. We are set apart from the world, and we are being conformed more and more into the image of Christ.
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So when we look at verse 12, there are five truths that I would like for you notetakers out there to jot down and remember.
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I believe Paul is suggesting five truths that believers must understand in order to work out their sanctification.
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Number one, believers work out their sanctification by understanding
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Christ's example. Now you notice the verse begins with the word therefore.
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Maybe you've heard someone say, why is the therefore therefore? That's always a good point, because Paul is building his case on a previous point that he has already talked about.
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He has already explained how Jesus Christ, he is our perfect example of humility, submission, and obedience.
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Think about this. We believe in the Trinity, the triune God, the second person of the Trinity God, the Son, took on flesh.
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He was a humble servant, and he was perfectly obedient to the Father's will, even to the point of dying on the cross as a sacrifice for sin.
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Now this is the whole essence of the Christian life. We pursue after Christ likeness.
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And friend, we do not look to ourselves and try to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. That will end in futility every time.
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Rather, we put our gaze on the Savior, and he transforms us from the inside out.
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And so that's why he begins with therefore. We look to Jesus as our perfect example of how we ought to live our life and give
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God glory. So number two, believers must understand that the driving force in our sanctification is love.
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This is so wonderful, because this really is the driving force. That's why Paul says, therefore, my beloved.
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I could ask the question, why is Paul so concerned with believers at Philippi? It's because he loves them, right?
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Why should we count other people's needs and interests above our own? Because we're called to love them. Why should
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I receive Jesus and follow after him? It's because he lovingly laid down his life so that we may believe in him and have everlasting life.
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Love is the driving force in true religion,
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Christianity. Over here, false religion is cold. It is legalistic, and it is devoid of any meaningful love.
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And so Christianity, we are called to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all our whole being, right?
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And so when we're being filled up in this loving relationship with God, then that love overflows to our relationships with other people, right?
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We can love our neighbor as ourself. And so the driving force in our sanctification is love.
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Number three, we must understand the importance of obedience.
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Now, this is where people that twist the scriptures, they will really go to this mindset. Yeah, you have to obey
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God. You have to obey this set of lists, right, of do's and don'ts, and you're in favor with God.
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You gotta obey. That's not what he's talking about here. Those of us who have already been justified by faith in the
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Savior, we desire obedience. We desire obedience to give God glory. Obedience is wonderful. We want our whole life to be a sweet -smelling aroma to God.
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That is our spiritual worship. So understand our obedience flows out of a heart that loves
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Jesus, right? It fits in our sanctification. And so I think in a single word, obedience means to worship
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God. We worship him with our entire life, with what we say and what we do, and we desire obedience.
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And with obedience comes great blessing. And so we must understand the importance of obedience.
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So number four, believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and resources.
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Let me say that again. Believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and resources.
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So I want us to think about context a little bit here because Paul, he's in prison, and he is writing to Philippian believers.
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The Philippian believers were called to work out their salvation. And he says, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.
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Now why would Paul say that? Well, it would have been so tempting for the believers at Philippi. They would have been developing a strong dependence on the apostle
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Paul for their spiritual happiness. It would have been tempting for them to begin to grumble and complain because Paul wasn't around, right?
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But he's in prison for preaching the gospel. They were developing a strong dependence on him.
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And I believe there is an application here that we can all learn. It's so wonderful that God gives us gracious means of being able to fellowship together here, to have pastors, teachers, wonderful commentaries to teach us about God's truth.
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But these things are never the primary source of our contentment in spiritual growth.
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As believers, we have the responsibility to always follow Christ's example. And we have the resource of the
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Holy Spirit, right? That's why we sing the song to invite the Holy Spirit here, right, to indwell us.
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That is our resource. We look to the Spirit in his life -giving word that he inspired. It's so wonderful that we have this fellowship, but we must never depend on someone else for our spiritual contentment.
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And so we have a responsibility to handle the word of God with care, to be filled up on the word of Christ.
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That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. So number five. Believers are to work out their salvation because of the consequences of sin.
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Now Paul says once again here, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We have to keep in mind that God is loving, he is merciful, and he is so quick to forgive.
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But nevertheless, he holds believers accountable for their sin. Now for believers,
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I don't believe that this fear is talking about, oh man, he may condemn me one day. No, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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We're not going to fear God that he's gonna punish us for our sin. No, he already dealt with that at Calvary.
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So the fear that's being talked about here for believers, I believe it's pointing us to have this ongoing awe and worship and reverence for the holy, holy, holy
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God that we serve. And so trembling here carries this idea that believers are aware of their own spiritual futility.
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We are weak and frail on our own. We depend on God filling us up.
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And so this fear and trembling will cause believers to pray earnestly for God's help in avoiding sin and praise
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God that he is a loving father and he will interrupt our lives to discipline us. Not as judge, but as father.
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And I find that to be wonderful. And so as we are pursuing our life, we want to go down the path of obedience and blessing.
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And we try to avoid going down the path of discipline, but praise God when we do fall into sin, we have an advocate, a paraclete that comes on our behalf and guards us and builds us back up.
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Now those are five truths. And you may say, Jeremiah, that was a heavy list. You're talking about doing all these things in our sanctification, there's no way
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I can do that. And you're right, you can't do it. You cannot look to yourself and in your own strength and your own might to possibly do all these five truths.
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But that is the point. This is an impossible task on our own. But I hope you're gonna be encouraged with me in verse 13.
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We're gonna see here that the source of our sanctification is not in ourselves, but in God.
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And so please don't miss this point. We are working out what God has worked within.
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God works faith in us as we work our faith out. Verse 13 says, for it is
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God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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So how are we able to live out our sanctification? Well, Paul is introducing a wonderful divine mystery, as I like to call it.
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We make decisions to follow after the Lord, right? We are the ones making this decision. But here we're learning that God is also the one making the decision along the way.
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I just say that is a divine mystery. I'm making decisions and God is making the decisions to work in me and through me for his good pleasure.
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And so I really wanna capitalize on the word God here. He says, for it is God. This is important.
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We serve the triune God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This God is personal.
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He has revealed himself to humanity. God the Son revealed himself within time and space.
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God has clearly spoken to us in these last days through his word. And we even look at all of creation that testifies to the handiwork of God.
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But the point is, is that God is personal. He has revealed himself. And so when we start talking about true religion and false religion, something else we see about false religion is their so -called deities are impersonal.
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They have not revealed themselves. And you know why? Because they are a lie from the devil. And so once again,
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I want us to really think about how God has personally revealed himself. For example, in the false religion of Hinduism, Hinduism says, there are scriptures teach that the absolute creator
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God is not a person, but is an abstract, unknowable reality. This God has no moral attributes, is neither holy or unholy, loving or unloving, fair or unfair.
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And let me tell you, that doesn't make sense. How are they able to tell us so much about this God if he is so unknowable and hasn't revealed himself?
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That doesn't make sense. It is a self -contradiction. And I just wanna encourage you, that is no surprise because the true
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God has personally revealed himself to us, amen? So verse 13 again says, for it is
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God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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Once again, we see the divine mystery. This willing and working is a reference to believers, but the source of our decisions come from God.
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Proverbs 21, verse one says, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the
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Lord. He turns it wherever he wills. And so God is personally working in us both to will and to work, why?
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Well, it's for his good pleasure. I love this because the chief end of man, our purpose in life is to glorify
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God and to enjoy him forever. This means that God is sanctifying believers.
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This sanctifying work in our life has divine purpose. God is conforming our will and our desires to be more like Christ.
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And so it brought the sovereign God, joy, who is working out all things together after the counsel of his will to lavish grace and mercy on rebel sinners.
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He not only began this work of salvation by changing our wills to believe in Christ, but he continues to move us by convicting us of our sin and making our hearts long for Jesus Christ.
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And God does all of this according to the purpose of his will. Ephesians says, to the praise of his glorious grace.
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And I love the person of the apostle Paul. I've told people that Jesus is the God man and in my mind,
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Paul is the man. And so Paul was in prison. He was going through so many trials and persecutions.
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He's chained up, but this sovereign God is where he found his strength. This was the deep well of strength that the apostle
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Paul would continually draw from. Think about it. Paul was in prison and yet he could count it as joy because God was working in and through his life to advance the gospel in ways that none of us could have imagined.
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And so I think by reflection, we too should draw from this same well, renewing our minds with God's sovereignty, how he is working out his plan of redemption and he will give us strength to be content in all circumstances because everything that's going on in our lives has sanctifying purpose.
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It is for our sanctification and for God's glory. That is beautiful.
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And so perhaps Romans 8, 28 is a verse that many of you are familiar with, but I hope you see it in a little bit fuller light.
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Paul says, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
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God, those who are called according to his purpose. Whose purpose? His purpose.
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And this good is not just you're trying to get wealthy or for your well -being.
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No, the good is explained in verse 29 that we are to be conformed more into Jesus's image.
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This is talking about a believer's sanctification. And so we just covered a lot of ground, didn't we?
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In two verses. That's okay. There was a lot of theology there and now Paul is about to make application in the rest of our text.
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So he laid that foundation of saying trust in God who is sovereign, working out all these things. And this is how believers should live in light of these theological truths.
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Look with me in verse 14. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish 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.
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Now he begins by saying do all things. In the context, he is referring back to the previous two verses where believers are to work out their salvation.
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We are to work out our salvation in all circumstances of life. And Paul gives the
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Christian a negative command here, doesn't he? He says do all things without grumbling and disputing.
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And so in my time of studying these two words, very interesting, grumbling and disputing. Grumbling in the
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Greek is gungusmos. Now that is a really weird word because it's automotopoeic.
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It means like what it sounds like. And so I was practicing this. It's supposed to be called gungusmos.
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Kind of blah, blah, blah. Kind of grumbly, kind of raspy. And the idea is if someone says something to you that you don't like, you kind of mutter under your breath, don't you?
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Whatever, I don't like the way you just said it. Start muttering, right? You start having these feelings of discontentment.
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And what I want you to understand is that grumbling is a sin. This is the sin of grumbling.
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It is an emotional rejection of God's circumstances that he has ordained for your life.
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Grumbling is this attitude of complaining and it's totally focused on yourself.
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And so disputing kind of carries another idea. Disputing is this idea of reasoning within yourself and then you start thinking things like,
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I don't deserve this experience that I'm going through. I do not deserve this trial in my life.
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And so think about this. Grumbling is essentially emotional and disputing is essentially intellectual.
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And these sins are dangerous but they are especially dangerous together because this will cause discontentment in your circumstances and this will lead you to have discontentment in God's provision in your life.
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You will begin to reason in your mind that you deserve better and this will lead to questioning and disputing against God's sovereign will.
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And let me just be quite honest with you and let me step on my own toes for a second. I consider myself to be a positive person.
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I really enjoy getting to know people, try to be positive. And yet, I was convicted by this passage.
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I'm like, man, I actually grumble in my spirit way more than I thought. But God is sovereign.
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God is the creator of the universe, isn't he? I'm reminded of one of my favorite psalms in Psalm 139.
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This is a beautiful psalm that tells us that we were formed and knitted in our mother's womb and he goes on to say that all the days of our life have been written and planned before any one of them came to be.
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Everything that happens in our life, God has specifically fashioned and formed for you to experience in his timing.
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Therefore, Christians, we should never have emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing.
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It is always sinful for the believers to complain about anything that the Lord calls us to do or any circumstance in which he sovereignly allows.
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Doesn't matter if we're going through an easy time or a time of great difficulty, a time of blessing or a time of trial.
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Negative attitudes are always forbidden. And I think about the apostle Paul. He was imprisoned at Philippi, right, in jail.
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You think he was tempted to have a few negative thoughts along the way? I know that that was a temptation. And yet, maybe this is the biggest point in the whole sermon.
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Paul was able to find joy in the joy giver. Isn't that beautiful? No matter what his circumstances, what he was going through, he was always looking to God, trusting in him, longing to be with him in glory one day.
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It was the apostle Paul that said, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Isn't that beautiful?
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When you're preaching the gospel to yourself, when you're going through hardship, you can find joy in the joy giver.
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We see this amazing example with the apostle Paul himself. That's why later in Philippians 4 .4, he exhorts believers to rejoice in the
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Lord always. Every circumstance of life, we are to accept willingly and joyfully without murmuring or complaining or to have disappointment.
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There is no exception. We are called to work out our salvation with a positive attitude.
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The book of Ephesians says, rejoice and give thanks always and for everything to God. God the father in the name of our savior,
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Jesus Christ. Now, God has to be sovereign and control of everything for him to say, give thanks always and for everything.
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Because you're gonna say, isn't there a lot of messed up stuff in this world? Yes, God has a purpose in that. Give thanks to the creator for the grace and the mercy that he has showed you in your life.
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Now, once again, you maybe say, Jeremiah, I know I'm gonna complain one of these days. It's inevitable to happen.
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I'm right there with you. It's going to happen. These are insurmountable tasks for us to try to achieve on our own.
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However, we're gonna see here that we have been given a new nature because we are the children of God.
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And so we perceive everything in this brand new light. Every moment of our life has sanctifying purpose.
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So let's look at verse 14 again. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish 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, Paul says,
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I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor. I believe the key to Paul's exhortation here is that we must stop complaining because of our new status, our new position as children of God.
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Now, you maybe have heard this old cliche saying, and I don't know where it came from, but have you ever heard someone say, aren't we just all
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God's children? Have you ever heard that? This is not biblical. I don't know how it crept into the church.
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I think the confusion is is that God created all of us and as human beings, we are created in his image.
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But the New Testament teaches us so clear about this. But to all who did receive
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Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
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When we are born into this world, we are not born as children of God. We are born physically and we are born spiritually dead in our sins and our trespasses.
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Do you know what the Bible tells us? That we are born spiritually as children of the devil. First John 3 .10
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says, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother.
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And so as children of God, we have this new heart. We have this new desire to follow the example of our
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Lord and Savior. So since you're in Philippians chapter two, look earlier with me into the context at verse eight.
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There we read, in being found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Jesus was absolutely submitted to the Father's will and he never grumbled. He never complained about his circumstances.
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Jesus' heart was set on obedience, righteousness, love, and humility.
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The scriptures teach us that there is no greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And so here we see the heart of God pouring forth with love while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. Friend, that is a gospel of grace. That is a gospel of love and that gets me excited.
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And that's because we are children of God. This should excite us to look to the example of the
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Savior. As children of God, we possess a new nature that compels us to follow
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Jesus' example. We walk in the light because he is in the light. We follow
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Jesus' example and we love to fellowship with one together, with all of us. I don't know many of you, but so many of y 'all were kind and loving and it's because we have a kindred spirit.
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We serve the same Lord, we've been entrusted, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's why we can have such a loving connection when we've not even met somebody before.
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We have the mind of Christ. This moves us to love one another, not grumbling or complaining about our circumstances, but rejoicing in the
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Lord always, submitting ourselves in all circumstances to the Father's sovereign will in our lives.
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So let's look back at verses 15 and 16. Here, I got another little list for you. I believe
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Paul is giving us three reasons why we should stop complaining.
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And so number one, believers should stop complaining for the sake of their own well -being.
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Let me say it again. Believers should stop complaining for the sake of their own well -being.
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So Paul says here, do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish.
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Every Christian is in the process of becoming more and more like Christ. Remember, sanctification.
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And so this includes becoming more blameless and innocent. And so we must forsake grumbling and complaining because this is so vital to this sanctifying process.
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Blameless means to be without defect. It essentially carries the idea of desiring holiness.
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Innocent is the basic meaning of the word unmixed. So believers' lives should be absolutely pure, unmixed from the sin and the evil in the world.
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As children of God, we are called to be without blemish. Without blemish could be rendered above reproach or faultless.
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And we have to understand, this is impossible on our own mind, but Jesus has told us that he is the one that will guard us from falling away, that he is the one that will present us blameless before the throne of God.
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He says this in Jude. Jesus, he is able to keep believers from stumbling and to make them stand in the presence of his glory, blameless, with great joy.
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Friend, since we know that this is our ultimate end goal, we should desire to pursue after being innocent, being without fault.
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We should desire after holiness because God is at work in our lives. And so that point, one more time, was believers should stop complaining for the sake of their own well -being.
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Number two, believers should stop complaining for the sake of the unsaved.
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As children of God, we dwell in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Paul says, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.
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Now, in my study here in this verse, I looked at the word crooked. The Greek word is skolios.
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And this means to be bent or to be curved or twisted. This is actually where we get the
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English word, skoliosis. Maybe some of y 'all are familiar with that medical term. Skoliosis means to have an abnormal curvature or misalignment of the spine.
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And so when we look at the whole phrase here, this crooked and twisted generation, this is referring to a fallen world that is curved away from God's law, has deviated from his righteousness.
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That's the world. Children of God are called to be set apart. We are called to shine as lights in this dark and devious world, amen?
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I love this. I couldn't resist reading from the Sermon on the Mount. I love it. The Sermon on the
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Mount is Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Meditate on this scripture. This is the most famous sermon ever preached where our
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Lord said, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
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And in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your
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Father who is in heaven. I love that. We do works of obedience to glorify
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God, to show the world the transformation that God has worked in our life. But please do not miss this.
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The only way for the children of God to be a shining light in this dark world is by holding fast to the word of life.
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Now the word of life, I believe this is referring to the transforming power of the gospel.
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But I would actually extend this principle to extend to all of God's word, right?
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God's word is like honey. It's sweeter than the honeycomb. And so we are filled up on the word so we can be filled up and show that out with other people.
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One illustration of this comes from John chapter six. Jesus says, it is the spirit who gives life.
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The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
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Now Jesus said some other things in this passage. And guess what, there was a lot of followers that did not follow him anymore.
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And Jesus turned back to the 12 and asked, do you want to go away also? And Peter, now
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Peter, a lot of times sticks his foot in his mouth. But this is one of those shining moments where I'm like, amen, Peter.
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He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. As children of God, we desire the pure spiritual milk of the word so we can grow in our sanctification.
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Hopefully you've experienced that. Once you've tasted the grace of God and his word, nothing else will do.
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We need it. We will be anemic. We will die if we do not have it. So Paul is exhorting
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Christians here at Philippi. He is saying, be shining lights in this dark world. If you have a good old
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King James Bible, I like how it renders this verse. It says, holding forth the word of life.
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My translation says holding fast, but I don't want us to get the wrong idea that it's up to me to hold fast.
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I don't want to look to myself. I need to look to Christ. And so the King James says, holding forth.
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Almost like this idea, like when you're being filled up, you can't help but to hold it out to the rest of the world. I love that. So now the wonderful truth, again, is that once we are born again, once we are legit followers of Christ, we cannot help but to store up God's word in our heart.
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So we may not sin against him, right? That's what the psalmist says. How can a young person keep his way pure?
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By treasuring up God's word in your heart. That same psalmist goes on to say that your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
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And so when the gospel light is shining brightly in our hearts, we cannot help but to hold forth that gospel light to a hopeless, dark, and lost world.
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So number three, we're getting closer to wrapping up here. I promise. Number three, believers should stop complaining for the sake of their pastors.
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Now I may step on some toes here, but that's okay. That's good, that's just the word doing its work in our lives. Look with me at verse 16.
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Paul says, so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
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Now here we see the heart, the pastoral heart of the apostle Paul. And he is longing to see the day of Christ when the people that the
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Lord entrusted to his care would have reached the pinnacle of their spiritual growth one day in glory.
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And so Paul says that he does not want to run in vain or labor in vain. And you may think, what is
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Paul striving so hard, what is he working so hard at? Well, a lot of people will say that a pastor only works one day a week.
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Have you ever thought that? And unfortunately, I think that truly is the case sometimes. You got a pastor that maybe he's gonna have a lot of free time to work on his golf swing, he'll put some notes together, he'll get up and shoot from the hip on Sunday, just tell a bunch of stories.
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I'm sorry if someone has ever done that to you because they have neglected the call that God has called them to do as a pastor.
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And we see this modeled with the Apostle Paul here in verse 17. He says, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith.
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When a man is truly called by God to be an under shepherd, to be a pastor for the saints, he pours out his entire life to this task.
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It shouldn't be about the money. It should be a calling, a burning in your bones to guard the flock of God from Satan's errors and for the edification of the saints.
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Biblical pastors ought to labor in the study of the word of God so that the preaching will renew our hearts and guard us once again from the lies of Satan.
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Pastors are called to rightly handle the word of truth, to equip the saints to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Pastors also understand the power of prayer.
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They will devote themselves to praying intentionally and specifically for the flock that God has entrusted to their care.
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Pastors ought to strive to have the mind of Christ and they will love God's people.
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They will strive to sacrificially minister to their needs. And so that's why
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Paul goes on to say, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Know what that means? The apostle Paul experienced the wonderful joys of pastoral care.
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He endured all things for the sake of God's children, especially those that have been entrusted to him.
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And so lastly here in verse 18, he says, likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
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Paul is not the only one that's experiencing joy, but he experienced joy as more and more people came to know the
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Lord and they rejoiced. He rejoiced at their sanctification. And all these saints, they rejoiced along with Paul.
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These saints are being put under his care and they are becoming partakers in the gospel of grace, in that ministry of shining forth as a light to a dark world.
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So there is so much joy, not only to pastors, but also those who have been entrusted to their care.
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And one of those joys is becoming a member to a local body. You are able to use your gifts that the
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Spirit has given you to serve others and you will rejoice with one another often.
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You will also be able to rejoice even through tears because when somebody else hurts, we hurt.
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When someone else goes through great blessing and triumph, we share in those victories as well.
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So my last thought, this is really more of an exhortation and an encouragement and a challenge to all of us.
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Let us strive side by side in unity, fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ who lovingly laid his life down for us.
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Let us keep this mindset and in humility, count others as more significant than ourselves.
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Let us be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the
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Lord, knowing that our work is never in vain. And by God's grace, I pray that we would work out our salvation in fear and in trembling, rejoicing in the
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Lord always, never grumbling or complaining about any circumstances in our lives because God is sovereign and he willed every moment of your life for your sanctification, for his glory.