WWUTT 003 Love Abounds (Philippians 1:7-11)

The Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippians that their love would abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that they were able to approve what was excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

And that should be the prayer for each one of us when we understand the text. Hey, this is

Pastor Gabe with When We Understand the Text thanking you once again for joining me for this broadcast and encourage somebody else to listen in as well.

Go to our website www .utt .com and subscribe to the podcast.

Watch our videos, submit a question that you might have about our videos, or a suggestion for a future video.

On today's broadcast, we're going to do the same as we've been doing the last couple of days. This is the pattern that we're going to follow for When We Understand the

Text. We'll spend the first little bit looking at Philippians chapter one. We'll move into our next section today.

Then toward the end, we'll take another viewer email about one of our what videos. But before we get started with that today,

I wanted to mention to you a conference that's coming up. This is the For the Church conference that's going to be in Kansas City on August 31st and September 1st.

Now, I'm really excited about this because we rarely get conferences this close to where we're based out of.

When We Understand the Text comes out of a local church in Junction City, Kansas. Kansas City is just two hours down the road from us, so we're excited to be able to see speakers like Russell Moore, David Platt, Jared Z.

Wilson, who are going to be there for this two -day conference. If you're close to Kansas City, plan on going, and know that I'm going to be there, and a couple of elders from my church as well.

We're excited to attend this conference. If we know that there are other When We Understand the Text listeners and viewers there, we'd like to be able to meet some of you guys.

So plan on attending August 31st and September 1st at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

You can find out more information about the conference or how to register when you go to mbts .edu.

And if you want to pay a little bit extra money, there is a Kansas City Royals game that you can attend on Tuesday night as well.

I'm still playing with that. Hopefully, I'll have enough money to be able to go to the Royals game for the church, the conference of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, August 31st and September 1st.

Maybe they'll pay me for putting that in the podcast. All right, here we go. Philippians 1 is where we have been, and we're going to read through verses 1 through 11 to kind of keep everything that we've talked about in context.

We're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. I read through verse 6, so we'll try to finish off this section today.

Philippians 1, beginning in verse 1, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Very common introduction that Paul puts at the beginning of his letters. I thank my

God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel.

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

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of our

God. Before we come back into the text today and start looking at these things together, why don't we pray?

Our gracious heavenly father, we thank you again for bringing us to a place in this broadcast where we can read through the word of God and talk about these things and rejoice together in the things that have been written down.

I pray that you would apply this on our hearts so that we may grow more and more in love with knowledge and all discernment so that we too are able to approve what is excellent and praiseworthy and help us to think about these things.

I pray and ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Such a delight and such a privilege to be able to read the word of God.

You know what an amazing thing it is that we can hold God's word in our hands. This is the mind of God.

Do you want to know the mind of God? Read the Bible. Justin Peters has said, do you want to hear

God speak to you? Read the Bible. Do you want to hear him speak to you out loud?

Read the Bible out loud. What a wonderful thing to have the mind of God that he would let us in on his will and his heart and his plan through what we read in scripture and his plan involves growing us more and more in love with knowledge and all discernment.

That's what we're reading about today. The verse that we finished with yesterday was Philippians chapter one verse six. I am sure of this.

Paul says that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We are going to walk in sanctification through our Christian faith. Sanctification is that word that is used to just say how we should be growing more and more in the knowledge of God and growing further in holiness as well.

Genuine spiritual progress that we make in our Christian walk is rooted in what

God has done, what he is doing, and what he will do.

And then his faithfulness ensures to us that all who are believers in Christ will remain in Christ until the day of Christ.

God is going to bring this work to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. And, you know, think about this.

As we grow in our understanding of scripture, we are actually perfecting the saints that have gone before us and the saints that are coming ahead of us as well.

Talking specifically about others who are going to be in Christ and others who have been in Christ. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 39, we in chapter 11 altogether, we read about heroes of the faith.

That's the heroes of the faith chapter of the Bible. That's Hebrews chapter 11. Then in verse 39, all of these, all these heroes of the faith, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

As we grow in faith, we're actually perfecting even the saints that came before us and the saints that are going to come after us as well.

And Hebrews 12 goes on to say, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So when we're talking about sanctification, Tim Challies, I've heard Tim Challies explain sanctification this way.

It is a community project. We do not grow in the righteousness of God and holiness on our own.

This is something that we do together as Christians. It is God who saves us.

It is God who keeps us safe. Now, as we grow in the knowledge of God, as we grow in holiness and righteousness, we do this together, perfecting one another, and at the same time, perfecting the saints that came before us and the saints who are coming after us.

Is your mind blown enough yet today? All right, we're going to keep going. Verse seven, it is right for me to feel this way about you all, that God has started a work in you and he is going to bring it to completion on the day of Christ, because I hold you in my heart for you're all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

Now, this is really a huge statement, because if a person was in prison, they were considered to be low on the status poll.

They're down there. They're among the lowest of the low. You don't associate with a person that is in prison, which is why there are some preachers that are out there.

We're going to learn more about this as we keep going here in Philippians chapter one. There were some preachers out there who were making things more difficult on Paul while he was continuing to preach the gospel from prison.

If you'll remember, he had been imprisoned in Rome. He was under house arrest. The Philippians had heard that he had been thrown in prison for sharing the gospel.

So they collected an offering and sent it with Epaphroditus who had taken the offering to Paul. And now Paul is writing this letter to the

Philippians, thanking them for that gift and also taking this as an opportunity to encourage and instruct them.

So these men, these other preachers who claim to be Christians, they're making things more difficult on Paul because he had been thrown in jail.

And likely the thing was they had disassociated themself from Paul because he was in jail. That was a shameful thing to associate with a person that was in prison.

They must have done something really bad to be thrown in jail. Paul was thrown in jail for doing the right thing. He was preaching the gospel.

That's why he was put in chains. The Philippians, however, did not forget Paul. They did not treat Paul that way.

They associated with the apostle, even though he had been shamed in this way by being put in prison and those preachers treating him the way that they did.

So he says to the Philippians, you're partakers with me in grace. The grace that is upon me is upon you as well, because you have participated with me in my imprisonment.

Remember in Matthew chapter 25, when Jesus says to those who are on his right, when the son of man is returned in his glory and all the angels with him, he sits on his glorious throne and before him has gathered all the nations.

You know what I'm talking about in Matthew chapter 25? And he says to those on his right, he separates the sheep from the goats.

The sheep go on his right. The goats go on his left. And he says to those on his right, enter into the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you were naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come and visit you?

And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.

Actually, the phrase goes exactly like this. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

Now that's not as you did to one of the least of these, comma, my brothers, comma, you did it to me.

He's talking about that. Those who are the least of these are the brothers of Christ. When we read that passage in Matthew 25, the least of these are not any and all, any and all poor.

They are specifically those that Christ associates with as his brothers, right?

When there were some that came to Jesus and said, Hey, Jesus, your mother and your brothers are here. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, here's my brothers right here, right?

Those who are in Christ are the ones that Jesus calls his brothers on the road to Damascus.

Saul of Tarsus before he became the apostle, Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of Christians.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, what did Jesus say to him? He said,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus associating himself with his followers in this, this close relationship that he has with those that he refers to as his brothers.

What was Saul's response? He goes, who are you? He's like, who is this that is talking to me that thinks that I'm persecuting him?

You know? Uh, so as Saul was persecuting Christians, as you did to the least of these, you did also unto me.

This is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25. Specifically, Jesus is referring to the brothers of Christ.

Now that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to reach out to the poor and love them. It says in Galatians chapter six, that we are supposed to show kindness to everyone, especially those of the household of faith.

So there the apostle Paul is talking about doing charity to everyone, but specifically one of the fruits that we will show that we belong to Christ is that we love the brothers of Christ.

And so Jesus will welcome into the kingdom, those that loved the least of the brothers, especially those that had been thrown in prison.

And that's, that's the apostle Paul in this case, the kindness that the Philippians are showing to him. And I don't want to miss the rest of that narrative in Matthew chapter 25, as Jesus is talking in verse 41, he says to those on his left.

So he's addressed the ones on his right. Then in verse 41, he says to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked. And you did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

And then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

The apostle John talks about this in first John chapter three, he says, if a person has the world's goods and sees a brother in need and does not help him, how does

God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed or in truth.

Again, one of the fruits that we will show that we belong to Christ is that we will love the brothers of Christ.

There are those out there who have claimed to be Christians and yet I have witnessed them slander their brothers in Christ.

And I think that whether or not they are Christians should be called into question because they do not love or defend the brothers of Christ.

They instead cause division. And we need to be careful that we bring the unity of Christ with us.

And, and we're going to disagree because we are given different spiritual gifts.

We all represent a different part of the body of Christ. So there's going to be differences, but we show the love of Christ in that we love each other.

Anyway, despite those differences, we can have those differences and not cause division. Okay? One of the ways that we show the love of Christ is that we recognize that everybody in the church is all sinners and we love them anyway.

Everybody that we worship with in church has given us a reason not to love them, but we love them anyway.

And in this, the gospel of Jesus Christ is displayed. So let us continue to show love for the body of Christ, the family of God.

The Philippians are showing this kind of love to the apostle Paul, and he is thanking them for that being partakers with Paul of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel of Christ.

Can you imagine being told by an apostle, one who is specifically appointed by Jesus Christ himself, that you're partakers with me in the same grace that I've been given.

That was an honor to the Philippians to be considered that way. Verse eight, for God is my witness, how

I yearn for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. These are not just words on a page that Paul is writing down.

God is witness to the ache that is in his heart for that Philippian church. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you are able to approve what is excellent.

And so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

In the book of Romans, we are told that we're depraved wretches, first of all, is what

Romans tells us. But as chapter three goes on to say, now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, meaning the wrath of God has been satisfied by the blood of Christ to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Christ's righteousness has been imparted upon us as a gift. So when we display righteousness, it is not by any power of our own that we are righteous because we are incapable of righteousness.

It is the righteousness of Christ. So let us abound more and more in his love with knowledge and all discernment so that we can approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

Paul really comes back to this again in Philippians chapter 4 when he says this, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.

Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. O sovereign

Lord, I pray that we will understand these words and that we will apply these things, that our love will abound, our love for one another will abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment as we grow in knowledge of the things of God, as we discern right and wrong, that our love would grow more and more displaying the love of Christ in the body of Christ and then we can approve what is excellent.

Help us to be pure and blameless because you make us pure and we will be shown blameless on the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

To the glory and praise of you God, it is in your name that we pray. Amen. All right, so now we get to a viewer email and this one has to do with the video that we produced entitled altar calls and sinner's prayers.

If you want to find a full list of our videos, it's on our website www .utt .com.

If you click on what videos, it'll give you the complete list of all the videos that we've produced, starting with the most current is listed at the top of that list.

And this is one that we did not that long ago. This is on altar calls and sinners prayers. Who's ready to get saved?

I see that hand. Come on down. You're the next contestant on the altar call. All you have to do is say this prayer and ask

Jesus into your heart and you will have everlasting life. Except that model for salvation is not given anywhere in the

Bible. It's believed that the altar call originated with the Methodist church in the 1700s. It was later picked up by Charles Finney, a

Presbyterian minister from the second great awakening who used the altar call to sign up converts for the abolition movement.

By the end of the 19th century, the sinner's prayer was incorporated. In responding to an invitation to come forward, a person would pray a prayer of confession and commit their life to following Christ.

Later wording involved asking Jesus into their heart. After the Billy Graham crusades of the late 20th century, the sinner's prayer has become so prominent in the church that many can't imagine doing evangelism any other way.

Some genuine conversions have resulted, but it has contributed heavily to apostasy. People are led to believe that just because they prayed a prayer, they're saved.

As if they came to a magic altar, recited a magic spell, and poof, they live forever. But that's not how a person is saved.

Repentance and faith are not momentary. They should be ongoing in the life of a believer. We should display an increasing love for others, holiness in our lifestyle, and belief in sound doctrine.

Jesus said, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

A person's walk of faith can begin with a prayer, but it doesn't save them. We are not saved by works, but by the grace of God when we understand the text.

So that was the video, Altar Calls and Sinner's Prayers. And our question comes today from Rose in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

And this is the second day in a row I've had a question from Pennsylvania. I used to live there, by the way, when

I was a kid. Lived in a little town called Milton. Milton, PA. And Rose is from the capital city of Pennsylvania.

She says, in the video about Altar Calls and the Sinner's Prayer, you end it by saying a person is not saved by a prayer.

I absolutely agree with you about Altar Calls and Sinner's Prayers. And I understand exactly what you're saying, that sanctification is ongoing and the truly repentant will bear fruit.

But would you agree that at the moment of true repentance for sin and looking to God for salvation and in brokenness, praying a prayer for salvation, is that person not then saved?

Thank you, Rose, for your question. Yes, in the midst of a person's brokenness, crying out to God and repenting of their sin, they would be displaying the fruit of their salvation.

But I would say that their salvation did not occur in the moment that they prayed that prayer. It was actually before that.

It is God who saves, not by the will of flesh nor of the will of man. That's John 1 .13.

The very act of repentance itself is something that God grants a person. As we read in 2

Timothy 2 .25, we repent because God gave us a spirit of repentance.

As I qualified in the video, a person's walk of faith can begin with a prayer, but the prayer itself is not what saves them.

If you're familiar with Paul Washer's testimony, Evangelist Paul Washer, he talks about how he was in his college library and there was this girl that came up to him and said, hey,

Paul, why don't you come to a party at our place? And Washer, knowing that they were going to be drinking and getting drunk at this party, he declined the invitation.

And the girl said, what's with you, Paul? You don't come to anything that we invite you to. And he said, well, it's because I'm a

Christian. And that was the first time that it ever really dawned on Washer as he said it. He's like, yeah, yeah,

I'm a Christian. And that was the first time he ever said the words. In his story, he's sure to say that repentance is not perfect.

It was as he grew in the knowledge of God that he became more and more aware of his sin.

And in the spirit of repentance that God gave him, he repented more and more.

And repentance and faith is something that is not momentary, as it talks about in the video. It is ongoing in the life of the believer.

And the apostles showed in their sanctification as they grew in the knowledge of sin. There was a saying that was common among the apostles.

I am the chief among sinners. As they grew in sanctification, they started becoming more and more aware of the gulf that is between Jesus Christ and man.

They saw the seriousness of their darkened hearts, and they were humbled before the Lord, realizing that he had chosen them for salvation.

And by no work of their own could they have been saved. Now, that's something else that we come to realize as we grow in our understanding of the faith.

Like I said, repentance isn't perfect. Some may have that immediate and broken attitude of repentance.

I was not one of them. I've had moments of brokenness in my

Christian walk, but when I first came to the Lord and when I confessed myself to Christ and wanted to be his follower, it was not a falling on my face and repenting of my sin sort of a deal.

Being broken in my sin was something that came as I continued to grow in the knowledge of God. Some people will have that brokenness, something that might reflect

Psalm 51, what David writes there, for example. But even then, I would say that the

Spirit had regenerated their heart before they came to that attitude of brokenness. And that's exactly why they were able to repent, because they were regenerated in the

Spirit. They saw their sin as God sees their sin. It is evident of the work of the

Spirit in a person's life when they repent. But that's not to say that we have to do repentance perfectly in order to be saved.

Even for the most mature Christian, repentance is not going to be perfect. And this is why I appreciate something

I've heard Jared C. Wilson say. I'm not going to be able to quote this word for word, but it's something like this. By the time we appear in glory, we're not going to have perfectly repented of every sin that we're guilty of.

And yet, God will welcome us into his kingdom anyway. Praise God for his mercy.

Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't strive for perfection. As we see Paul say later on, and we'll get to this as we study through Philippians, he'll say, not that I have attained perfection, but I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.

Christ, who is perfect, has made me his own. And by his power and his mercy, may we stay true to the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

Thank you again, Rose, for your email. And I've sent her a copy of the book 40 of the most popular Bible verses and what they really mean.

You can pick up a copy for yourself at our website, www .utt .com.

There, you can also submit a question about one of our videos, and we'll have it answered on this broadcast.

Sending an email is about the best way to get a question to us. So again, that website is www .utt .com.

May God bless you and keep you for the day of Christ, as we've read today, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through our sovereign

Lord and Savior, to the glory and praise of our God. And all

God's people said, Amen. When we understand the text.