Sermon: Gifts of Faith & Suffering

Apologia Studios Sermon Introduction and the Call to Local Church Membership

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel. What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, if you would open your bibles to Philippians, letter of Paul, to the Philippians. We're in chapter one. And as I've said over the course of the last couple of months, this is sort of a sidestep series.

There's just a couple chapters here before us. We're really four chapters. And we're not approaching this so much as we've done how we've done the gospel according to Matthew, which has taken us quite a while to get to chapter 24.

But for the life and health of our church, we're doing a letter of Paul to the Philippians to focus in upon some core, powerful, important truths. Focus in upon our delighting in God, delighting in God's delight in us, and really finding out what was the core, what ought to be the core for us, of authentic joy for the apostle Paul.

You've heard me harping over the last couple of weeks as we've gone through this, as we talk about joy. I hate the plastic smile. And I think we need to approach this in a way that allows us to be cut and challenged and changed to really be exposed so that when we're really focusing in upon the joy of the Christian life and joy in God, it's not a.

Fiction.

It's not a fiction. It's not external. It's not something we sort of try to put on like a pair of pants to wear on the outside and to come into church or come into Christian gatherings with sort of the God face, right?

Like you're in your car on the way to church and, you know, you're swinging your hand back, beating your children. You know, you come in and open the doors and all of a sudden, smile kids! And you've got the hand on the back of the child's neck squeezing nice and hard.

So it's squeezing out a smile, you know. I'm talking about your experience. This isn't my experience. But authentic joy. Not the pretend joy. Not the plastic smile. So what is it? How does Paul have it?

What does he say? How do we find that? How are we transformed? That's the focus of this study. And again, today, a little section before us. We're in chapter 1, verse 27 through 30. But I'd love to, I really would truly love to, stay on 27 for two or three weeks.

That's not the purpose of this study we're doing right now. So I'm going to try my best to really focus in today upon two primary parts of this section. The first part in verse 27 and then the last about being granted faith and suffering as believers.

I think those are important elements to understand. So we're going to do it together. Chapter 1, verse 27. Hear now the words of the living and the true God. 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 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. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

Engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together as a church. God, I pray that you'd bless today as we open your holy and inspired word.

Help us to understand your word. Help me, Lord, as a minister, as a shepherd over these people that you've called to this task. Help me to be faithful. I pray, Lord, that you would speak by your spirit today through your word, that you would, Lord, teach, challenge.

Open our eyes. You know what's off. You know what's broken in each and every one of us. So we do ask God for your grace, for your mercy in this moment as we open your word. Whatever the condition, if someone here does not know you as Savior and Lord, Lord Jesus, I pray that this would be the day of salvation.

I pray, Lord, for those who are redeemed, who are trusting in you. I pray that you'd help us to be challenged and transformed by your word. Please convict in a way that only you can. Let this not be the words of a mere man.

In Jesus' name. Amen. So the Apostle Paul, again, go back and get those past sermons, the past messages on chapter one. They're on all of our platforms. So you'll be able to see those. I encourage you to do that to get an understanding because I'm going to assume a lot of the things we've already done and unpack thus far.

But the Apostle Paul, again, is writing this letter from the context of pain, suffering. From a human perspective, at any human examination, this man's life is a tragedy. It is totally broken. It's not the kind of life that somebody would sign up for and ask, say, that's the life I want, right?

If you had a spectrum of different lives you can live and property you can have and things you can have and you lay out the Apostle Paul's experience on a human level. It's the last choice. Who wants to be slandered?

Who wants to be vilified as a matter of regular practice and experience? Who wants to be gossiped about constantly? Who wants to have constant theological battles and concern for all these churches and other believers, the stress of that, the anxiety of that?

Who wants to be on the run for their lives and lowered out of windows? Who wants to be on trial and to have people actually conspiring to lie about you in court so that you die? Who wants to have people taking oaths not to eat food until you're dead?

Who wants to be in constant conflict with false believers, people who are challenging you? Who wants to live that life of poverty and shame and prison and all that? So again, from a human perspective, the Apostle Paul's letter is compelling.

It's powerful. I mean, I love this letter because it's four short chapters, but it is packed full of truths that you could dwell on for the rest of your life that can challenge you for the rest of your life, that will change you your whole life through it.

It really is. I mean, I think just in the first chapter alone, there are things that we could have hung out in for a year or two years and really truly benefited from as a church body. Really just open our eyes to our own pride, to how much we don't trust God.

And at moments, we don't really believe in him. We don't really believe that he is who he says he is. We don't believe his promises. So it doesn't impact us. So we live lives of really a core of depression, a lack of joy, no rejoicing.

We're mad at God. We're bitter because we don't see the truth of God, that he's the sovereign, that all things are towards his glory. So we go on living for some other glory, glorying in something else other than the true God.

We go against God's creative decree and purpose for image bearers of God. And so we fall apart. We live lives where we're lonely, we're depressed, we're anxious. And the interesting thing here is that Paul has an experience, and I've mentioned this, where he's got us beat.

He has you beat. He really does. He does. Think about it. I mean, we can't have legitimate things to complain about. I'm not saying that we don't have particular plights that we face as Christians, where we need to minister to each other, and we need to grieve with one another and hurt with one another.

You know, when someone's being slandered or lied about, or when you're being attacked in some way, or there's loss or pain or suffering or disease, yes, grieve, enter into that suffering with each other.

All of that is true, of course. But again, as we examine this and we think about our own plights and how we embrace things, depression, loneliness, sadness, anger, bitterness, whatever the case may be, I want to just argue with you that I think Paul has you beat.

He has you beat. I mean, if you're going home now to a place with a roof over your head tonight, if you've got relative comfort at home, you've got food in the cabinets, you've got people around you to love you, to keep you safe, you've got a job, you've just got relative ease around you, quick transportation, fast communication through the internet.

I mean, whatever your plight, I mean, I think again, Paul, he has you beat in terms of suffering. So why is he so full of joy? Why does he have such authentic joy? You understand this isn't pretend. Why pretend in these circumstances?

He really is delighted in God. He really is rejoicing. He really meant it through, of course, inspiration. You see the truth right there in his guts. To live is Christ and to die is gain, right? If I live on here in the flesh, it's fruitful labor.

It's more of Jesus. It's more experiencing Jesus. It's more God being glorified in the midst of suffering and pain and tragedy. He knows all that's part of the experience, but he knows also that like, I don't know, I'm hard pressed.

I don't really know exactly like which one, because to depart, to weigh the anchor and go sail away to be with Jesus, that's far better. It's so much better. Why? Because it's more of Jesus. If I go to be with him, it's more of Jesus.

In the end for Paul, the core here of all of life is Jesus. It's glorifying God, intimacy with the true God. It's living the life that God intends for you, which is not your best life now. It's God being most glorified in us.

That's the pursuit of Paul. You see it just pours out of every chapter. Just read through four chapters a day. No problem. It won't take a lot of time just to read through here and to see the constant marks towards because God, because God, because of what God is doing, because of Christ, because of his glory.

And then there's rejoice, rejoice, joy, joy. That's the center of it for Paul, the authentic joy. That experience of the believer that I do believe that God calls us to. I mentioned in last week's message some of what Dr. Piper has said.

And again, I don't know if I explained it well enough last week. I mentioned that Dr. Piper is known for, he calls it Christian hedonism, which people look at that and go, weird, that's odd, because hedonism is pleasure seeker.

So that usually is bad connotation and you go, yes, but the word hedonism is pleasure seeking. So it's Christian hedonism, seeking the pleasure of God, seeking pleasure in God. And Piper mentions at the start of, I think, Pleasures of God, a book that we're studying as a church in our reach groups that if, when he says, when I get to heaven, I'm going to owe Jonathan Edwards a lot of money in royalties because I've taken most of what I'm saying about Christian hedonism from him.

Seeking,.

Here's how Piper puts it. And I actually, I agree with what he says. He says that we should be seeking pleasure in God. We should be seeking delight in God. And you see that here with what Paul's talking about.

And we should be seeking delight in God's delight in us. Really stop and think about that. Find pleasure in God and find pleasure in God's delight in us. He is pleased in us because we are in his son.

So there's the source of that pursuit of pleasure and that real authentic joy. But Piper says, if you really want to get at one of those passages that expresses this, he says, Philippians chapter one, you see it in Paul all over this chapter and where we ended last week.

And I mentioned that Piper has a really well-known saying, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. I like that.

I think it's a great expression of a lot of truth that we can draw from scripture. But you see it again here all throughout. We did chapter one through and now we're at verse 27. And it's interesting because so much from this point, from the past to where we're at here, has been about his experience, joy, glory and praise of God, all this.

You see it in verse 10, 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. There it is again.

It's never us, never from us. We're never the source and the origin of this project. It's not my thing. It's through Jesus Christ. These things of righteousness, these fruits of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

There it is again, all him. Like do this, produce this which comes from Jesus for the glory of God. See, it just totally rips men and women out of the picture in terms of glory. Did you catch it? Just that one passage.

Just look at it before we go to verse 27. Look at it again so we can highlight it. So that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness.

Okay, we go. Okay, great.

There's obedience,.

Right? Producing.

Righteousness.

It says this,.

That comes through Jesus Christ. Right, do this. It comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Out of the picture. Who? Me. Right, my glory, my exaltation. This is all about Jesus. There's the answer for authentic joy.

Stop glorying in and worshiping substandard gods. Like yourself, like false pursuits of pleasure that will never satisfy. All bootleg worship will never satisfy real spiritual needs. All of this is directed towards back, is directed right back towards God.

By the way, that's the answer. You realize, I don't know where you're at right now. That's your answer. Coming into worship today, leave with that. The answer is go to God, glorify God, believe his word.

That'll solve the problem of your marriage right now, your marriage conflict. Really look inside. What's the source of it? Well, you want to just, you want to try to figure it out yourself or go to God for the inventory?

It's probably your pride. It's probably your anger. It's probably your lack of forgiveness. It's probably your rebellion against God, right? So there you go. Go to God, seek him, let him do the inventory, listen to his word.

What's the source of your pain coming in here today? Well, you feel like you're lacking in some way. You feel no authentic joy. What do you feel? What? Lost, lonely, depressed, darkness. Well, the answer is not going to be found in you.

It's going to be found in God and his truth, his word. So there's a simplicity of it all. It's God. He's the center. It's his word. There's the solution. There's the healing power. And Paul says here in verse 27, after glorying in Jesus and saying, I don't know what I want to do, live with you or be with Jesus, to live as Christ, to die as gain.

In verse 27, he says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the good news of Messiah, of the gospel of Christ. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

So again, here's what's interesting here. You're going to see in a moment that Paul gives all the credit, in a second here, all of it, every inch of it, all of it, to God, to his glory. Hey,.

Birds.

All of it goes to God, down to the faith, right? We say to somebody, you need to repent and believe in the gospel, right? But what do we know from God's word? It's only going to happen if God, in his grace, condescends, opens the eyes of the blind, gives a heart of flesh, and causes them to see their condition, right?

God opens their eyes and brings them to life so that they can believe. So even down to, like, salvation is a gift of God through faith in Jesus. That's an amazing gift. Apart from works of law, it's all God, to his glory.

But then you move even further back, and Paul's making it clear, even the faith itself is granted to you by God. Even that's a gift that you didn't conjure up on your own. You're in this room believing in Jesus now, because God was seeking you, not you seeking God.

You're seeking him now, only because you've been energized, empowered, and made alive by his spirit. But Paul's very clear, this is a gift, all from before the world began. He chose us in him. Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons. You see, it's all God. But what's interesting, it's very clear in Paul, and it's not just Philippians here, these four chapters, it's a part of his theology and his soteriology, that what happens is new status.

Pause there. Remember, just quick things to, okay, what am I to hang my hat on? That, that if God has redeemed you, if he has saved you, if he's done all this to his glory, the source of it is all gone.

But what's clear in Paul is that what happens to a person when they've been made alive, is now they have a new status. A new status. They've been declared righteous by God through faith. They've been given new life.

They've been united to Jesus. They've been given a righteousness that is not their own. It is from God through faith in Jesus. So there's a new status. Something significant has happened. Now pause and just stop for a second.

Because what we do have to face here is what Paul clearly says in verse 27. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Because we do live in a time now, I mean, it's, it's not like it's never existed before in the history of the church.

But we live in a time in the west where we have a particular slant on the gospel.

You can call it.

Evangelism. The evangelical church in the west. The idea is sort of like, I, I have like a a moment where I, I pass by Jesus, right? He's sort of the salesman on the street, right? Trying to, you know, deliver me something.

And, you know, I have a conversation. I acknowledge all the things. I punch the ticket and, okay, I'll see you. And if somebody asks you, are you a Christian? Are you a believer? You know, Jesus, the answer is, well, yes.

Why? Because I met him on the street once. Passed by that guy. Told me his story. I liked it. I acquiesced to those facts. He punched the ticket and I'm on my way, right? I'm going to heaven one day. Why?

Well, I prayed this prayer, you know, and, and then, well, that's it. Right? I mean, that's the thing, right? Like, believe these facts about Jesus. Just, just acknowledge that those are true facts, right?

No, no trusting in Jesus for forgiveness for me, but I just acknowledge those things are true. Well, the demons also acknowledge those things, but they never turn to Jesus. You see, we have this fictitious version of the, of the Christian faith that says, basically, nothing happens.

It's really suggestive. And this is pervasive today. It's pervasive. It's pervasive a lot in the independent fundamentalist Baptist churches. The idea, you know, we go door-to-door, soul winning. And by the way, we're all for winning souls at Apologia Church, but with the gospel, the real gospel, the call to come and die and believe in Jesus, to rise again, to repent and believe the gospel.

But you hear it, right? Like, you know, I've won 50 souls today. 50 souls? Whoa, that's amazing, right? I knocked on a lot of doors. Well, what's that mean? Well, I, I said some things and I had them, you know, pray this prayer with me and I walked away.

And then what? What? What? What happened? Well, nothing has to happen because they acknowledge these facts and they pray this magic prayer. You see, for Paul, it's not the case. If you've been saved, if you've been gifted faith in Jesus, if you are new in Jesus, there is a new status.

You're now united to Jesus. Something has happened to the person who has believed in Jesus. So Paul says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So I wanted to just unpack this today just a bit to show you it so you can get a fuller explanation from Paul elsewhere because we've dealt with it over here in verse 10 and now we're in 27.

And I thought, well, how do we expand upon that in terms of theme? And I thought what would probably be most helpful is to see it in Paul's systematic explanation of the gospel in Romans. So just go there quickly just to see it.

And I want, I want to circle, we're gonna make a circle here by the end. So just go to 3, just, I'm not gonna read all of it. I just want you to see in chapter 3 of Romans to see how Paul sees this consistently.

It's, of course, inspired by God. It's consistent with all the revelation, but we're looking at Paul's words here in Philippians. So we need to see how those actually coincide with the words elsewhere.

What's the gospel he's preaching? What is it? Well, in verse 9 of chapter 3, Paul is finished now taking down all of humanity. Everyone knows God. They don't want him in their knowledge. So they worship other things.

They go off and they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And the Jews saying, yes, get those Gentiles, Paul. Go get them. And he says, and you, you tell people don't lie. And you do.

You tell them don't steal. But you do. You think because you have the law, you merely possess it. That makes you right with God. If that was the standard, you got to do the things in the law, but you don't, do you?

And now we have everyone level at the cross, right? All dead, all lost, all sinners, all broken. And so Paul says in 3 .9, What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, Jews and everybody else, are under sin.

As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. This is really important. I'm gonna go really slow here because it's so important that we embrace what it says in terms of our condition. No one understands.

No one seeks for God. My fear is that many people who love the Word of God, profess to love the Word of God, love God, can see words like that on a page and can give a passing, yeah, I believe that. But then as you get further down the road and how they express what they believe about what God has done in salvation, you see that they really don't believe.

What Paul says here.

No one understands. No one seeks for God. No one. Ain't happening. All have turned aside. By the way, if you didn't know this, what Paul's doing here is he's taking verses from the Old Testament, and he's bringing them together in kind of a collage here.

And he says, all have turned aside, together they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one. By the way, Pastor James and I have another debate set for when we're doing conference in Utah. We're debating two people on does ethics depend upon God?

Does morality depend upon God? So I've been researching the opponents to try to listen to them and everything else. And I've heard that the constant expression and debate and lecture and all those different things, you know, people can be good.

People are basically good. You've got pagans that are basically good. They didn't need Christianity to basically be good moral people. And we would have an answer to that in terms of there's common grace and the image of God and us having the law of God in our hearts.

We know the true God. We don't live consistently with it. And that's why you have people all over the world that know you should love your neighbor rather than eat them. Right? Of course. But in terms of positionally and truly right, what is truly good, right?

In terms of like the absolute standard objectively of what is good, Paul says this, no one does good. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths of ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes. So there's Paul.

Very important. I'm laying this down because we're coming right back to it near the end here in terms of his identification of the condition of humanity, men and women, children, before the cross, before redemption.

This is who we are and it's consistent throughout Paul's writings. You can look at Ephesians 2. Dead in our sins and trespasses. By nature, children of wrath. Who? A fallen person. That's our condition.

Dead. Spiritually dead. Alienated from God. Not good. Not one. That's the condition. You have to see that. So then Paul moves. I'm not going to read all this here. In chapter 3 you can read through here.

How now the law cannot be used to justify any of us. The law was given, Paul says in verse 19, so that the whole world may be held accountable to God and everybody's mouth shut. What's the law do for every sinful person?

It shuts you up. It shuts you up before God's throne. It does. You see, you can criticize another image bearer of God who's a sinner for the sins that they've committed and we can say that's a sin. You ought not do that.

But in the end, before the throne of God, guess what? You can't take the standard of God's law and go, see God, look at me. Because in reality, all the law does for the sinner is it shuts your mouth before the Holy God and his throne of justice.

And so Paul says, verse 20, by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And then the but now, verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

See, there's the 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 have sinned 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.

You see, there's the essence of it all, not through law, not through works. This is a but God thing. God did this. You see what God's doing here in Christ, in giving Jesus as a sacrifice, in pouring his wrath out and fully exhausting it in the Son.

You see what he does? He's able to be just, Paul says, because he's a holy God and he hasn't let the sin just go. But he's now able to actually justify the one who has faith in Jesus because he's actually provided for their salvation.

And then Paul, of course, continues on in verse 28. Clearly, how he feels, he says about the law, he says in verse 28, We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Here's works of the law. Here's faith.

Faith.

Declared righteous in God's court, declared righteous by the judge, by faith apart from that, apart from the works of the law, faith alone. Do you see it? But watch, here it is. Look right below it. Verse 31, he already has to handle the objector.

He already has to handle the lie about true biblical Christian soteriology, doctrine of salvation, how you're saved. He says this, do we then, verse 31, overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Do you see it?

Faith alone, faith alone, apart from law, can do nothing. You're not righteous. You don't seek for God. No one does good. This is all Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, all God, God, God. And so people go, yes! So that means I can sit all I want.

And the answer is, you clearly didn't hear it. Clearly, don't understand it. You have not had your eyes open. Because if you heard the part of your sin and your brokenness and God's holiness and the propitiation that's in Jesus, the wrath of God, if you heard all that and you want Jesus, then that means now you come to him to be saved, trusting in what he's accomplished.

And that means a new status. That means new life. That means something new has taken place. So Paul has to already deal with it. Do we then overthrow the law? The law's done now? By this faith? By no means?

On the contrary, we uphold the law. What do people who have been justified do in reference to the law? What do they do? Throw it away? What do they do? Unhitch it? What do they do? Paul says they uphold the law.

There's a new status, a new position before God. Justified. Romans 4, read that about the glory of justification, God crediting to us righteousness apart from works, not counting our sins against us. But here's what I wanted you to see.

Chapter 5, Paul then goes on to say this, therefore we have been justified by faith. Have been justified by faith. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Stop. Talked a lot about this, right? Shalom, true peace with God. Christians have peace with God. They're not trying to get peace with God. They're not on the ladder, on the way up the steps, down the racetrack towards that finish line of, oh, I finally have peace with God.

Paul says this, we've been declared righteous through faith. We have.

Peace with God.

Peace.

There, there.

How do you have authentic joy, Paul? I think Paul would say, well, there's a lot of reasons I do,.

But I have peace with God.

No more conflict. There's no more war. There's no ceasefire happening here, right, where arms can be brought up again between, between God and I. This is true peace, real peace. Eternal peace with God.

So Paul then explains how. How does this work out? What's, I believe what he's doing here is demonstrating this new position, this new status, where you're at. And he explains now, all of humanity comes down to two representatives, Adam or Jesus.

Romans 5. Adam or Jesus. And he says, if you're an Adam, here's what you get. Death. Condemnation. And he says, and everyone's there, okay? Death and condemnation comes in, our first parent, all the way down the line.

By the way, I do believe this. One of the ways as Christians, as the people of God, that we can fight against the current trend that really has a lot of historical pedigree to it. Believe me, it does, in terms of Marxism, cultural Marxism, all the political stuff that's happening today.

You're hearing about racism, racism, racism, all this stuff. That the desire to try to split people apart by their skin color that is happening is pervasive today. It's happening outside the church. It's happening inside the church.

Romans 5. Romans 5. That's a distinctive part of the Christian worldview. If you highlight race and are obsessed with race, and you just love the color of your skin, and the color of the skin of the people next to you, and you want to highlight it and glory in it, I want to say, you don't know Romans 5, do you?

Romans 5 says, this is all of us. Same parents. Same parents. Racism is an abomination and is wicked and evil. And Romans 5 says this. Look, if you want to try to talk about categories, the only ones that really matter, there's really two of them.