Why Bethlehem Bible Church Exists (part 2) - [Philippians 1:27-30]

Now, most people ask the question, why do I exist? Pretty much everybody, eventually, they ask the philosophical question, why am

I on the earth? What's my purpose here? There's billions of people, and why am

I alive? But not so many people ask, in my opinion, the question, why does the church exist?

Why are we here as a church? Not many ask the question, what's the purpose of the local church?

Maybe it's just assumed, but not many people ask the question. And so, last time, two weeks ago, we looked at the question, why does

Bethlehem Bible Church exist? I'd like you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Philippians chapter 1, and we want to answer that question.

Of course, it doesn't exist because of a committee or a denomination. They're not determining the factor.

It's what does God say in His Word? He is the Creator. We are the creatures, and we are more than creatures.

We're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And we want to make sure that we do what the

Lord wants, and that is to understand what's the main thing when it comes to Bethlehem Bible Church.

Why do we exist? Now, we've been in the Gospel of Jesus. According to Luke, as you know, working through our passages, we'll be there not next week, because Pastor Phil will preach, but we'll be back in two weeks,

Lord willing. I want to take a short detour into the book of Philippians, because Philippians tells us explicitly why we exist.

Why are we on the earth? What's the purpose of Bethlehem Bible Church? And there are not ten purposes.

There are not seven. There's not four. There's one. By the way, whenever I hear child today,

I'm going to be thinking it's my grandchild. And so my grandchild gets to do whatever he wants, so all the children get to do whatever they want.

When I would say my son's or daughter's name in a sermon, I'd always give them a dollar.

But I think if I mention my grandson, he probably gets five, right? That's the way it works.

If I say the word Amos, he gets five dollars. Now, the book of Philippians, Paul is writing underneath the spirit of God's inspiration, and he's in a jail, most likely in Rome, and he's trying to encourage the church.

Philippi is a city, and he wants to try to tell the church there that God sprang up in Acts chapter 16 how to think rightly.

Now, some people think this book is only about joy. It is about joy. That would be a right way to think.

Some people think it's about unity. And since we're all so different, how can we strive together with unity?

That's good. It's important. It's part of the book. But at the core, at the center of this book, by the way, like every other book in the

Bible, it's about the Lord Jesus. The Sunday school answer is the answer.

What is this book about? It's about Jesus. The good question to ask after that is how is it about Jesus?

Right? If you ask yourself what Genesis is about, it's about Jesus. How is it like Jesus? That's true. But the book of Philippians, as we saw two times ago, it's much more than be joyful.

It's much more than be unified. Jesus Christ is at the center of everything. We have one goal, and that is found in chapter 1, verse 27, which is our key verse today, along with verse 28.

Philippians 1 .27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the

Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side, and here it is, for the faith of the

Gospel. Everything is revolving around the faith of the

Gospel. Paul writes this way in Philippians. He writes this way in Colossians. He writes this way in the book of Romans, where he said the

Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to flesh, who was declared to be the

Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Paul is consumed by the one who met him on the road to Damascus. Remember, Paul is off to persecute

Christians, ravish the church, destroy the church. That was his mission, and he is intercepted on that road.

The bright light, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul the persecutor, is now Paul the humbled one.

And it's been many, many years since Paul has seen the Lord Jesus face to face on that Damascus road, yet Paul is obsessed with the

Lord Jesus. And everything for Paul drives himself to not only

Christ's death and resurrection, but of course his life, his person, his character, his work, his soon return.

That was the dominating thing for Paul. And Paul, of course, if he, the apostle, is dominated with that thought, he wants that thought to be dominating every thought of every

Christian. And what I love about this book is Paul's kindness, Paul's pastoral heart.

He wants the best. I don't know what I've done in the past. It's my desire certainly now.

I want your best, dear congregation. I want you to excel as you walk by faith and not by sight.

I want to be for you. I want to be like a grandpa to say, way to go, keep going. Here's how you excel in the

Christian faith. And if I have just a little of that, Paul had a lot of that. Look earlier in chapter 1.

You can just sense his kindness. And of course, this is the kindness he received from the

Lord Jesus. Verse 3 of chapter 1. 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. 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's 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 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 God.

You can read that. You can sense that. Paul's love for these people. He has the love of God through Jesus Christ to him, and now he wants that for other people.

And so Paul in this book is one of those kind of fatherly figures wanting his children to do the right thing.

And what Paul does, which is kind of like a fatherly thing to do or grandfatherly thing to do, is he says, this is how

I do things, and so I want you to do that. I'd like to model my behavior. I'd like to model my attitude so you see in me what you should desire in you.

And does he not do that in verse 12? I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me, chapter 1, verse 12, has really served to advance the

Gospel. Verse 13 at the end, my imprisonment is for Christ. Verse 15, he's talking about preaching

Christ. Verse 17, proclaiming Christ. Verse 18, Christ is proclaimed.

What Paul says, if you watch my life, you'll see that I have a desire for the

Gospel of Jesus to be advanced. That I say to myself, whether I'm in prison or in a trial or a difficulty,

I still have a goal, and that goal is not released from the trial to get out of the circumstance, but it's the

Gospel needs to go forth. And then we come to verse 27, and it kind of sounds strange there, in verse 27, verse 1, only let your manner of life be worthy.

And so we come now to not Paul's autobiography, but what Paul says happened in my life, as I model it in my life,

I want to model in your life. So remember last time we asked four questions, four essential questions every church member and every church must ask and answer.

And so three will be some review with some extra stuff put in there. And then we'll have the fourth one today.

So four questions for your outline today that every church and every church member must ask and answer.

Question one, we saw last time found in verse 27, what should BBC be all about? What should

Bethlehem Bible Church be all about? People say, well, what's your mission statement at the church? What's your driving purpose?

What's your vision for the church? This is it. There are not two great commissions. There's only one.

There are not a dozen things that we're trying to do. There's only one. And he says right here in verse 27, only.

Take note it means. Pay attention. Here's just one thing. This is the one thing. This is at the top of the list by itself.

It's not three things at the top. Not five things. This is the one thing. There's nothing else. Vincent's Word Studies translates it this way.

This one thing I urge as the only thing needed. If everything else falls by the wayside, fine.

Whatever becomes of me, Paul says, this is the one thing I want in your legacy. Don't forget this one thing and this one thing only.

Because everything revolves around the faith and the advance of the gospel.

For the faith and the advance of the gospel. This is for believers.

This is for unbelievers. This is what the church is about. And this should dominate our curriculum for Sunday school.

It should dominate our songs as we sing them. This should dominate the pulpit ministry.

This should dominate everything we have and everything we do is proclaiming and preaching the gospel.

Remember I said last time, this means you don't even have to like everybody at the church.

You just have to love them. Did you know Paul knew that the Philippi church needed to proclaim the gospel and advance the gospel, but there's a couple of people that didn't get along.

Go to chapter 4 if you will. And if you say to yourself,

I'm not really getting along with somebody at the church, but we have a higher goal than me getting along.

So I should put myself to the side. I should put my disagreement to the side. It's minor anyway.

Probably in two months I won't even remember what it's like. Has that ever happened to you by the way? You get in an argument with your spouse or a friend or something and it's some big deal, pressure cooker, dealing with it.

And then three months later you go, I can't even remember why I got in an argument. It's crazy.

But if we're deferring to the bigger goal of the gospel proclaimed, then we need to all get along.

Chapter 4 verse 2, I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche. He could say

I entreat Euodia and Syntyche, but to make it firm, I entreat, I entreat to agree in the

Lord. Yes, I ask you also, a person who we don't know their name, true companion, help these women.

By the way, they're good, they're faithful. They've labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

If the mission is to advance the gospel, then everything has to be subsumed underneath that and then we need to get along because we need to win the

Superbowl and we might not like everyone in the locker room, but the Superbowl is the Superbowl. How much greater is the gospel than the

Superbowl? So that's the first question asked and answered. What should BBC be all about?

And that is the gospel. Question number two. Good question. Well, you say,

Pastor Mike, you made up the question, so you're going to think it's a good question. Good question. What's the gospel? I mean, we hear gospel -centered church, gospel -centered ministry.

We're all about the gospel. Together for the gospel. Gospel coalition. Gospel, gospel, gospel. What's the gospel?

That would be a good question to ask. Six times in chapter one he uses the word gospel.

Everything must be subsumed underneath the gospel then.

What is the gospel? You can keep your finger here in Philippians, but flip back to 1

Corinthians 15 and if you'd like a succinct definition of the gospel, of course, you'll see it in 1

Corinthians 15. When I hear the word gospel, it means good tidings.

It means good news. You put a smile on your face and say, I have good news for you. What could be the good news?

What's the good news? It's the free grace of the triune God for sinners. It is the personal work of Jesus sent by the

Father to redeem lost sinners, enslaved to sin. The good news of Jesus who is under the law, born of a woman, born under law, that He might redeem those under the law.

It's all about what God has done. Is there better news than this? Are there more glad tidings?

1 Corinthians 15 verses 3, 4, and 5, notice that the subject of almost every verb in this section is

Jesus. And instead of saying, He was buried, it says they buried

Him. So you see the focus of the activity of the gospel is

God's work and not ours. 1 Corinthians 15, 3, There's nothing more important in all the

Bible than the gospel. Everything's important, but this is the most important. No wonder the church is having a mission for the most important thing.

That Christ died, that's the Messiah died, for not His own sins,

He didn't sin, for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures. And of course,

Pastor Steve read chapter 52 of Isaiah today. We could get into chapter 53 and see that very thing.

That He was buried. Why does it say He's buried? Because He was really dead.

They buried Him. And that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the

Scriptures, and that He appeared to many, many people. There's more to the gospel than this, but this is at the essence.

This is the kernel. People say, well, what about Jesus' life? Of course that's there. What about His compassion? Of course that's there.

But Paul is focused right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, because his discussion is on the resurrection. Jesus really died,

He was really buried, and He was really raised from the dead. When I say the word gospel, I want you to think of kind of a zip file, some zip drive, something that's small and compact, but once you open it up, it just opens up.

Now, I'm tempted to buy one of these new beds that you order online, that just come to your house, all smashed down, pushed down, and all of a sudden, you just take your razor blade knife and open it up, and it just kind of unfolds.

So then, how do you get that thing back into that? That would be my question when I need to return it after I probably don't like the way it feels on my back, but my wife loves the bed.

You have something like this here, and it's a zip drive, the word gospel, it's a small little word, it just means good news, but all of a sudden, it takes

Genesis through Revelation to figure out, this is why it's such good news. It's such good news, because the bad news is we're so depraved, we're so far from God, we're so much an enemy of God, and yet God in His condescending love rescues us at His own cost.

So when I see the word gospel, I'm thinking triune God, I'm thinking free and sovereign grace,

I'm thinking Jesus paid it all, I think the Father sends the Son, the Spirit of God applies the work of the

Son, I'm thinking even though I was enslaved to sin, in some kind of straight jacket of sin,

God's rescued me. I'm thinking about the tears of sin and hell and judgment, and the bliss of God and His work.

And so the gospel is all about what God has done in Christ Jesus. Listen to Romans 8 that talks about this, "...for

the law was impossible in that it was weak through the flesh."

Here's some good news, "...God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and condemned sin in the flesh through sin, that the righteousness required by the law, perfect obedience, be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the

Spirit." So when I say good news, I'm talking about Jesus.

When I say Jesus, you think, who sent Jesus? You say, who applied the work of Jesus? Of course, when

I say good news, it's Triune manifested specifically in Jesus. There's a catechism that I like, it's by John Brown.

By the way, there are so many Scottish John Browns, you have to add their last names, via their city.

John Brown of Haddington. This is John Brown of Haddington. What is the gospel strictly taken?

Answer, it is the glad tidings of salvation to lost sinners through Christ. What parts of Scripture belong to this?

All these that offer Christ or promise any good thing through Him to sinful men.

Wherein do the law and gospel differ? The law requires good in us and from us, but the gospel declares

Christ has done and will do all for us and in us and freely brings all good things to us.

Question three. What's BBC all about? The gospel.

What's the gospel? It's the work of the Triune God, His person work, nature, essence.

Number three, what does the gospel do as we advance it? What does the gospel do as we advance it?

Back to Philippians chapter one, please. Now, when the gospel reaches the ears of the unbeliever and God is so pleased to grant faith to that person, that person receives this good news and God does many things.

He justifies. He declares not guilty. He begins to sanctify. And all kinds of things happen.

There's regeneration. There's redemption. There's propitiation. All these things for the unbeliever.

And so when we're preaching the gospel, remember, let's just step back for a minute. The number one goal of the church is to proclaim the gospel.

And so we go evangelize and we're out evangelizing folks. Kim and I went up to see the, there's so many things in the sky these days from Northern Lights to total eclipses.

We went to see the eclipse up in Vermont and the tire gauge on the car said, tire's low or whatever.

So I pulled aside, I'm filling up the tires and two ladies come over and they said, they're young, probably 30s with backpacks.

And they said, we notice your license plate, say Massachusetts. Can we get a ride to Boston? First of all,

I thought, you're doing something. My spidey senses are up. So we talked to them a little bit and eventually we said,

Kim and I said, okay, let's just give them a ride. And so I said, you know what? You're gonna be safe with us. I'm a pastor.

This is a pastor's wife. But we're probably gonna talk to you about the Bible a little bit. And if you wanna talk about the

Bible, I'll give you a ride, not to Boston, but to Burlington because there's a train station there, bus station there and I'm not going to Boston.

They said, okay, get in. I said, what's your background? She said, Muslim. What's your background? I don't believe in anything.

And so I'm thinking, what's the mission of the church? The mission of the church is when we go out, we evangelize.

We edify, we're edified here and we go out to evangelize. And so we got to talk a lot to them.

The one lady from a particular part of the world where I just think of terrorists, she put a backpack in the back of the car and I so stupidly said, is there a bomb in there?

Like, what am I doing? So for all of you, when you have that opportunity, you're thinking.

You know your spouse or your children or your friends or your grandparents, they're not believers and you're thinking, how can

I preach the Gospel? Because there's nothing more important than the Gospel. How can I tell them about Jesus because the

Gospel is about Jesus? It's in all of you. Sometimes we're a little more reticent. Sometimes we're a little more afraid.

But I know many of you, you'll tell me the stories about how it was your desire to proclaim the

Gospel. And so that's what we do. But I think sometimes while preaching the

Gospel to unbelievers is something we realize that's a priority, great commission. We sometimes forget that Jesus preached to Christians is part of that priority.

It's Christ proclaimed, that is to believers or to unbelievers. And so Christ isn't just for pardon, that is,

I'm forgiven. I'm an unbeliever. I'm ungodly. And now by faith and faith alone through grace and grace alone,

I'm a Christian. But Christians need the Gospel too. Christians need to be reminded of who

Jesus is. So we say, with the Reformation, it's not

Christ just for pardon, it's Christ for power for you to have the ability to say no to sin.

You're not meant to live your Christian life on your own. Horatius Bonar says in his wonderful book

God's Way of Holiness, the secret of a believer's holy walk is...

Now whenever I hear that, oh, I've got a secret for special Christian living. I've got a secret for obeying.

I've got a secret for righteous living. I always think, oh yeah, what's the secret? He's right though.

The secret of a believer's holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the

Lamb and his daily communion with the crucified, risen Lord.

All divine life, that means your life that you live, and all precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness spring from the cross.

All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of Christ is nothing better than being a

Pharisee. If it's just try harder. If it's just buckle up. If it's just we're going to do things on the external and we don't care about the internal, that's like being a

Pharisee. Did you know, dear Christian, that it's important for the pastors to preach to you who

Jesus is? For many reasons, obviously it's a biblical proclamation, but if I were only to give you practical sermons, better living, how -tos, and I don't give you the power to be able to do that, that is, who

Jesus is, it makes no sense. It's just sheer law. It doesn't help you at all.

That's why pastors have to preach who Jesus is, so you realize, I actually have the power to obey, because it's not

Jesus just for forgiveness, it's Jesus for power, because Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit so we can actually do those things.

For Paul here in 1st chapter of Philippians, he moves straight into chapter 2 and talks about who

Jesus is. When it comes to not being selfish and not being ambitious, who's our model?

Jesus, chapter 2, verse 6 and following. Who's our motivation? Jesus, chapter 2, verse 6 and following.

Did you ever think about it this way? What if you didn't know you were really forgiven? Wouldn't all your energy be devoted to that?

When I meet people who struggle with assurance, it's hard for them to do hardly anything else, because that's the dominating thing.

It just takes over, rightly so. But if you know you're forgiven because you've proclaimed

Jesus once again from the Christian pulpit, when Paul says in Romans chapter 1, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you, to remind you that you stand before God, this week

Christian, this day Christian, as sinless in Christ, even though you sinned this week.

You're okay. You're good with God. You may be disciplined for lack of obedience, but you're not going to be cast out.

I will never leave you nor forsake you, God says. That frees you now to live a holy life.

That frees you from saying, you know what? I can't really do much. I can't get along with people that well.

I'm having struggles in my marriage and I'm having struggles with this and that and the other. And therefore, if I can't just like perfectly obey, why even bother?

Well, we have the Spirit of God in us, and even though we should shore up those relationships, you are free to serve...

Okay, I'll say it. You're free to serve and even fail. You're free to serve and fail.

Because it's Christ for pardon and Christ for power. The Gospel sets you free to pursue

God and holiness. You have a safety net. I haven't contributed anything to my salvation except sin.

Now God's given me His Spirit. What does the

Gospel do? The Gospel saves unbelievers and it gives believers power. And now we come to the main part of our passage today.

And that is question number four. How do we respond? How do we live in light of the

Gospel and advancing it? So what? The Gospel is the most important thing. So what?

It's the main thing. So what do I do? And now we'll do a little bit more of dealing with the text at hand.

The first three questions were kind of theological and now we'll get into the exposition of the text.

How do we live? Let me read the verse again. Chapter 1, verse 27 and 28. The verses.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, so that whether I come or see you or am absent,

I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the

Gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

Okay, I've been saved. I've been redeemed. Now what do I do?

You know what Paul doesn't do? He doesn't give you a list of a hundred things. He doesn't give you a list of ten things.

He doesn't give you a list of anything except he says, see it early, live your life in a manner worthy of the

Gospel. That's it. Go. It's fine. Live your life in a manner worthy of the

Gospel. That's all he says. I mean, he expands it a little bit, but that's the main thing he says. Now, I don't know why most translations have a hard time with this, because it's not that difficult.

Literally, the Greek is, live your lives as citizens. It's got the word where we get politics, polity, police.

Live your lives as citizens. Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of your citizenship.

That's what he's saying. You're a citizen. Act like it.

You're like, why would he say that? Why wouldn't he say Ephesians chapter 4, live your life worthy of the manner of the

Gospel. Walk in a manner worthy. He doesn't say walk here. He says, have good politics.

Think politically. Why would he do that? How many people here have been to Philippi? Okay. A couple have been to Philippi.

A few. That's excellent. When you go to Philippi, you think you're in Rome. When you go to Philippi, you think you're in Rome.

You're like, what in the world? Because if you are a Roman citizen, if you were a

Roman soldier, and you retired, you would go off to a nice place to retire. You'd go down Cape.

You'd go to Martha's Vineyard. You'd go to Nantucket, where the millionaires work for billionaires.

That's where you'd go. But if you were in Rome, get out of Rome. There's only so long you can be in New York City, and you've got to get out of the country someplace.

But when you go to Philippi, you bring Rome with you. The architecture is like Rome. The language is like Rome.

The customs like Rome. And they were very proud of that. So now you're living in Philippi, which is like Rome.

And Paul says, if you're a Roman citizen, you would, in Philippi, act like a

Roman citizen. You would defer to the government. You'd pay taxes. Everything that a

Roman citizen should do in Rome, he or she would do in Philippi. So by the way, dear

Christian, bought by the blood of the Lamb, when you think about life, you ought to live like a citizen.

What kind of citizen? Of Rome? Sure, pay taxes. But can you not hear

Paul say in chapter 3, verse 20, what does he say? Your citizenship is in what?

Heaven. So if you have a duty to act a certain way as a citizen on earth, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, you pay your taxes, you show up to vote, you do this or do that,

Paul is basically saying, the gospel, the triune God, who's loved you and saved you and redeemed you, live in light of that.

You're a citizen now, not just of Rome, of Philippi. Your citizenship, chapter 3, verse 20, your citizenship is in heaven.

And you also, as a citizen of heaven, should await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That ties right into what Paul is saying in chapter 1, verse 27. If I'm there or I'm not there, here's how you live.

Because you're waiting. You're waiting for the Savior. And when you're waiting for the Savior, you're going to do the right thing.

Citizens have benefits and citizens have duties. The benefit of being a citizen in Lancaster, Mass.,

is I don't know. Clean water. Police.

Plow the roads. And more. Duties. Pay taxes.

Duties. Be a good citizen. You're a Roman citizen. You have privileges and you have duties.

How much more if you're a bud -bought son or daughter of the Savior, you have privileges in Christ.

Forgiveness. Can you believe you're forgiven for every one of your sins? Every one of your sins forever has been forgiven.

You say, that's not a big deal, then. You don't really think about your sin in a big deal. But then in light of that, how do

I live? So what Paul basically does is, he says, let me remind you of who

Jesus is. Let me remind you that I'm praying for you, chapter 1. Let me remind you that I'm here to advance the gospel even in jail.

And so, how do you live? Live like a citizen. Let your manner of life be worthy of your calling.

How would a gospel citizen live? Unholy. Unrighteous.

Grumbling. Factious. Ununified. Is that how a citizen should live? Of course not.

If the Holy One of God has redeemed you with His Holy Son, a citizen should live in light of that and be holy.

Spurgeon said, we must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. It never excuses sin. It pardons it.

But only through an atonement. If our life is to resemble the gospel, or walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, we must not shun merely grosser vices, but everything that would hinder our conformity to Christ.

And so, if I'm going to be a citizen of heaven, what does that mean? Well, live a holy life, that's true.

Live out of gratitude, that's true. But also, it's going to mean not living like the world.

Paul says, don't be a citizen of only Rome. Be a citizen of heaven.

By the way, that's why we at the church, and the leadership, and of course you, we don't say, you know what, how can we be attractive to the world to get people to come?

How can we kind of draw people in? No, no, that's not what we do. We say we're different than the world.

We're otherworldly, and we believe the Spirit of God will draw them in. You have a new citizenship in heaven.

That's amazing. And because of that, how do we flesh it out?

How do we flesh this out? And it's found in the rest of verse 27 and 28. Let me give you three ways this fleshes out, three components of this, walking in a manner worthy of our new citizenship.

Number one, stand firm. It's right there in the middle of verse 27.

I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit. This is military language.

Hey, there's a bunch of Roman soldiers at Philippi. Everybody knows the Roman soldiers. So he uses soldier language, and you stand firm.

There's not retreat. They're standing firm. This is dig in.

This is, I'm thinking of Gladiator, the movie, and Russell Crowe says, hold the line.

Hold your ground. Firmly. Determinately.

This word is used in John 8, verse 44, of Satan not standing in the truth.

The battle is going to be fierce. The opponents are strong. But living in a manner worthy of the

Gospel, if these Roman soldiers in Philippi are called to duty, they have been taught not to back down, not to retreat, not to put the tail between the legs and run, but to stand their ground.

How much more for us as Christians? The battle is raging. We stand our ground.

I think it's been said, we won't back down. We'll stand our ground. That's the idea.

Standing. Firm. You can think of the soldiers' cleats that they would wear, right? Meant to go that way.

Meant to be stable. If God loves, the

Father loves the Son. And if God loves the Gospel, He loves Himself as it were.

Don't you think Satan is going to attack? Don't you think there's going to be persecution? Don't you think there's going to be people like Paul who for a while ravaged the church?

The firm foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ unites Christians and they stand together with one goal.

Standing. Committed. With conviction. The world attacks. The world assaults. And we need to persevere.

Bethlehem Bible Church needs to persevere with the Gospel truth. We're not going to back down.

We're not going to say, in a pluralistic world with many ways to Jesus, we agree with that.

We're not going to. We're going to stand biblical ground. Well, there's many genders and there's this and that.

We're not going to believe that. We're standing our ground. Well, what about homosexual marriages? We're not believing that.

We're standing our ground. And the list could go on and on and on as the flood of sin imbibes churches.

Just this last week and last ten days, the Methodist church votes overwhelmingly against biblical marriage and biblical roles with men and women.

What's interesting, dear Christians, this isn't pastor to do this. He's writing to the church at Philippi.

It's the pastor and you. This is all you. This is not, well, I'm glad Abendroth's going to take the hits and we'll just sit there.

And by the way, most of you I know will stand for truth. And you'll stand for truth at the cost of your own job.

You'll stand for truth at the cost of your own reputation. And I commend you. And it's only going to get worse.

And how do we live in light of the Gospel? How are we citizens in Heaven? He says first, you stand your ground.

And by the way, it's a lot easier when other people are doing it with you. What's the text say? Standing firm in one spirit.

And that's easy because we have one purpose. And the purpose is the faith of the Gospel so we can stand together.

What are we fighting for? The Lord Jesus. At the very bottom line, that's it.

We're fighting for Jesus. Not the Jesus of somebody's own thinking, but the Jesus found in this

Bible. Whether it comes to women's roles, homosexuality, anything else, we are going to stand firm.

Locking shields together. Well, that's soldier language. He goes on, secondly, to use athletic language.

How do you become a person that walks in a manner worthy in light of the Gospel, to live a life worthy of the

Gospel of Christ? Well, one, you act like a soldier. Two, you act like an athlete. See it? With one mind, striving side by side.

Striving is where we have the word athleo in it. Sound familiar? Athlete.

With athleo. Sin athleo. Together. We talked about this earlier.

You've got a team. They work together for the purpose of winning the game. So we not only stand firm like we would in a military battle, it's like a game, like the

Ismuth Games, the Olympic Games, that these people in Philippi knew all about.

Standing together in the idea of unity. How do we stand together in unity?

Well, we know what our mission statement is, and we know what not to do after that.

No wonder it says in chapter 2, verse 14, for instance, hey, we're fighting a common enemy.

Let's not make the enemy us. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Verse 16, holding fast to the

Word of Life. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. Do you ever grumble or dispute?

Do you ever grumble about anybody at Bethlehem Bible Church? I know you have roast pastor for lunch every

Sunday. Besides me. We've got one goal.

The proclamation of the Gospel. And we're to stand firm and we're to lock shields and we're to have one goal on this team and that's to win.

I can't be bothered with grumbling and disputing and fighting and murmuring and bickering. We need to stand firm and we need to be unified.

And by the way, this isn't scolding. This is, Bethlehem Bible Church, this is what I typically see in you.

This is what I mainly see in you. Do we have our little skirmishes here or there? Yes. Get over it.

Build a bridge. That's what we used to say to our kids. One of our two kids would argue with each other.

Kim had this great idea, so I give her the credit. Things would die down a little bit. You have to stand face to face, nose to nose, and say,

I love you. I forgive you. I couldn't live my life without you. You're the best.

So if I see some people doing some Eskimo kisses after the church service, I know what you're doing. We are to greet one another with a holy kiss.

By the way, even that, doesn't that tell you something? When you're greeting one another and you're kissing one another with this embrace of 2 ,000 years ago custom and just closeness and unity, it's okay if we don't see eye to eye on everything because we see eye to eye on the main thing.

Over my dead body will we have moralistic, pietistic preaching coming from this pulpit. And over,

I don't want to say over my dead body on this one, but I don't want us to have factions because it detracts.

And I know you, if I stop preaching, you're going to say over my dead body while I sit as a congregant and just learn about other things and not

Jesus. Arguing, differing, fussing, feuding, fighting, warring, grasping, seeking.

No, no, no, no, no, no, and no. We're standing firm and we're in this competition together.

We need each other. Literally the text says right there with one soul.

It says one mind in English, but it's one soul. We're a single souled organism.

Not just the elders, not just the pastors, not just the elders in training, not just spectator sports. Together. We're locking shields.

I'll say more about this probably in weeks to come. But this does not mean I show up late to church and I leave early.

It says I'm involved in church, I have a ministry in church and we're together in this. Lord's Day worship is important.

It's the most important. But then you need to serve other people. Most of you have ministries.

Some, you just show up. And I say to those who just show up and only do that on Sunday, you need to lock shields.

You need to get involved. You need to stand firm with each other. We don't want to fight each other.

We want to serve each other. By the way, that's a good way to get along with somebody if you'll just sacrificially serve them.

That's a good way to have harmony in the church when you're serving because then you realize ministry is hard.

And then lastly, verse 28. How do you walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, this main thing?

Well, there's a military motif, stand. There's a sports motif, strive. And then it says in verse 28, don't be frightened.

And not be frightened in anything by your opponent. Satan is attacking.

Satan will attack. It could very well be the next pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church will be jailed.

Persecution is getting worse. How do we act? Well, Paul tells us, don't be frightened in anything by your opponents.

Remember chapter 3? He calls the opponents evil workers. They work evil against you. He calls them dogs whom you mutilate the flesh.

Don't be afraid of those people. They have power. They have influence. They have the government. They have jails.

They have resources. Don't be afraid. He says in chapter 3, verse 18, they're enemies of the cross of Christ.

And all who live godly lives will be persecuted. And so if they persecuted Jesus, the suffering servant, and he was perfect, of course, we are going to be persecuted as well.

Personally, I like to be liked. But I have to submit that to scriptures, knowing that when people might like me until they hear the words,

I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. He's the only way.

Then the hatred comes out. It's hard for us to think that way, but how could anybody hate the light of the world?

I told you, son, put away that flashlight. We're out in the desert and I can't see anything. Take it away.

Except that same flashlight that would light the way shows us our own sins. And so people hate the light.

Well, what do we do? We stay on target. If the main thing is the proclamation of Christ Jesus to believers and unbelievers, we're going to stand firm, locking shields, one with another, and when persecution comes, it will first start with no tax write -offs.

By the way, I always thought about that. If they said right now, IRS shows up right out the door and says, we need to have your social security number and you're no longer going to have tax write -offs and we're going to monitor you if you're going to attend this church.

I think most of you would, but I think some might leave. So to the ones that might leave, don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid. The Sovereign God who made you, the Sovereign God who had the Lord Jesus come and rescue you, will protect you.

This is language here. Don't be frightened. It's language of a horse that was afraid to run into the battle where the long spears and the javelins were.

Some horses are afraid. Many others aren't. Don't be reticent. Don't be reluctant. If we're going to advance the

Gospel, we can't retreat when people are mad at us and being frightened. Now, we don't want to be jerky about it, but we are going to push forward.

We're going to proclaim the Gospel. And whether that Gospel is at VBS, that Gospel is on the radio, the

Gospel is from the pulpit, the Gospel goes forth. I had a man, as you know, many, many years ago, during Awana, our children's program, came to me and he was causing a huge ruckus out front.

And somebody came and got me and said, could you please talk to this man? And I brought him into my study, into my office. I thought maybe he would take my church computer monitor and slam it on the ground.

By the way, the monitors back in those days were about this deep. I thought it was pretty heavy. He probably couldn't pick it up.

And he goes, I'm so mad at this church. I'm like, oh, okay. What about you're telling my daughter she's a sinner?

Because maybe SPARKY, the first S, the acronym was S for sinner. Is that right? I said,

I don't know. In my story it is. We had some acronym and it said sinner.

And he said, I don't want you to tell my daughter that she's a sinner. I said, well, sir, that sign out there called

Bethlehem Bible Church, we're going to teach the Bible. And deep down I think, you know, she's a sinner.

And so am I and so are you. Well, I guess I'm just going to let her find her own religion and I'll send her back next week.

I go, your stupidity in trying to let your daughter raise herself is actually working out for gain because she's going to come here.

But I didn't say that. The persecution is real.

It's not fake. The hatred is real. It's just underneath the breath because of etiquette.

And Paul says, don't be frightened. And also, dear church, don't think like Job's friend.

We must be doing something wrong because we're getting persecuted. No, it comes with the territory. This is not punishment.

This is not discipline. This is what God does. Government crackdowns? Christian, don't be afraid.

Assault on Christians in the media? Don't be afraid. Persecution in America?

Don't be afraid. Hate speech? Calling sin, sin? Coming your way? Don't be afraid.

We have each other. But more importantly, the Lord has... And by the way, when you get persecuted, it helps your assurance at the end of verse 28, and we're closing here.

This is a clear sign to them of their destruction. When you persecute the most important thing, Jesus, and the

Gospels advance, it shows you you're not a believer. And if you stand up for Jesus and advance

His cause, it shows that you are, but of your salvation and that from God. You want to know what a good sign of your salvation is?

It's to understand what the Gospel is, who the Gospel is, how firm you're going to be regarding the

Gospel, and that you've been persecuted. Somebody doesn't like you because you're...

What's Bethlehem Bible Church all about? Why do we exist? What's the purpose of Bethlehem Bible Church?

Why are you on earth? The answer is, for the faith of the Gospel, to believers and unbelievers.

And everything comes secondary to that. So therefore, we can get along with people we disagree with, and we can get along with other folks that we have little tiffs with, and we put those to the side, and we ask for forgiveness, and we cover sins, and we stand ready for the

Gospel, and we're not going to back down. We're going to be athletic -like and stand together and strive together, and when persecution comes, it comes.

What's Bethlehem Bible Church all about? Somebody says to you, tell me about your church, when you say, well, I'd love to have you come to church with me.

Please come. And they say, what's the church all about? What do you do?

You say, Appalachian music? Well, yes, we have some

Scripture reading, we have these other things, and we have these youth programs and a variety of things. But the songs, and the

Scripture reading, and the sermon, is about Jesus. And if you'd like to hear about Jesus, we'd love to have you.

Well, what do you do the next week? Because I already know about Jesus. No, the next week. Because remember, law is on our hearts.

The Gospel has to be proclaimed. Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for Your Word.

Thank You for our salvation. Thank You that it is You, God, who works in us, both to will and to work for Your good pleasure.

I would pray for Bethlehem Bible Church, that You'd help us to keep the main thing, the main thing. Jesus Christ, the risen

Savior. And I pray, that if there's some folks here today that are convicted that they might need to talk to one another, to get over certain circumstances, holding grudges or grumbling,

Father, would You help us to do that? And I think of them, just like Paul thought of Jodica and Sineke.

These people labor side by side in the Gospel. Their names are in the Book of Life. And I pray that You would just help them work out their differences for one cause and one cause only, the proclamation of the

Lord Jesus. And it's because of that that we can rejoice in the Lord always. And again