Philippians 1:27b "Standing Firm"

The Worthy Life and the Call to Stand Firm

Thank you. You are the King of Glory, the Prince of Righteousness, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, God. And Lord, I just ask today that you would help refine our tongues and our hearts and our eyes and our hands to profess you as the Lord of Lords, our Lord and our God today, Lord.

God, help us see this text. Help us submit to your authority today that you have for us here in this text. Let us see this with a rejoiceful heart, Lord. And God, help us remove distractions that would take us from approaching your throne of grace in confidence.

And help us be ready to participate in this ordinance of the Lord's table here that we have set up before us, Lord. God, keep our eyes to your text today as we read these things. And it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray.

Amen. So, even before I read this text, you might be surprised because last week, if you were here with us last week, we were in Philippians chapter 1 verse 27. And I'm not going to lie to you, when I started writing this message out today and studying this week, I was really hoping to make it all the way to verse 30.

But then I realized that we needed to really study a little bit more in depth just this single verse as we only got through the first half last week. So, we are going to go through these things hopefully slower today and really hopefully take the meaning of these things and apply them into our lives and into our daily living.

So, let's go ahead and read verse 27 today. We might read some other verses around it later on, but verse 27. Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about your circumstances, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, contending together for the faith of the gospel.

Let's pray again over this text. God, I would ask you today, Lord, that even in the moments that we are reading this text now, in the weeks to come, in our business meetings, in our polity, in the way we operate as a church, in the way that we move on from today on, Lord, as we have done this in the past, and as I would ask again that this would be our present, current state, would be that we would act in one spirit, as one mind, and that we would do these things contending, not solely, but together for your gospel, Lord.

God, let us lock arms together as we do these things. Let us love one another. Let us find ways to encourage one another, Lord. And let us operate as your church, and as the way you have told us to operate, God.

And Lord, let us stand firm in these things. God, again, we say this in the only name that is above all names, the name that we approach your throne today in, and that is in Jesus Christ. Amen. So again, as the context, it goes as last week on Easter Sunday, we only covered the first half of this text.

And we spoke of really, ultimately, how Paul is not arguing for a Christian to live a life that is owing and deserving of salvation, but to live a life that already has salvation obtained for it in the gospel, and what that kind of looked like.

And we examined last week about how humility is going to be what goes on in this text. Humility, humility, humility is going to be what we see in chapter 2. And that's what it is to be worthy, to live your life worthy of the gospel, is to remember that you're not worthy.

It's to remember that you are saved through Jesus Christ alone, and that that's going to be the starting point that we are going to continue on in these following texts, is that we owe everything to Jesus Christ who died for our sins, and who rose again from the grave as last week was Easter.

And so we had a pointed message focusing on the resurrection and the glory it is to live in that resurrection. But last week, we also, as in just in general, just as a reminder for this book of Philippians, Paul's writing this again while he's in prison.

He doesn't know if he's going to live or if he's going to die, right? And so, again, this message is being written to this church of Philippi or Philippi or Philippoi, depending on how you want to pronounce it in the Greek.

There's different arguments on how to pronounce their individual church. But notice, as we just asked these kids in catechism, and the answer that we read together as a church is after you have been baptized, you are to be planted in a local body into a particular church where you can follow Jesus Christ and his commands, be encouraged in those ways.

And we need to remember this, that when Paul writes this letter to this church, this is a local body. This is a local body of believers that he's writing this to. And so it's very important that we take the same things that he's saying in here and we apply them properly to where?

The local body, us. We look around this room and we can often forget that this is the local body of Christ here in Hagerman, here on this street corner, here where we come to worship God together, and that's a great privilege.

So let us read again verse 27. In verse 27 it says,. So we really, that's the only part of the text that we really examined last week. We went into depth on what is the gospel and we sought those things out.

Standing Firm in One Spirit and One Mind

So today we're going to be examining, So looking at this, so whether I come and see you, what is going on in this text? Again, this is the reason that Paul is writing this letter is he doesn't know if he's going to live another day or not.

He doesn't know if he's going to make it out of prison. We know that this is not going to be the last day of Paul because hindsight is 20 -20. We know that Paul gets out of prison. He's going to go and be in prison again and die.

But in this time, he doesn't know about that. He doesn't know if he's going to remain or if he's going to die. And so he's saying that, Does that apply for us today? If Paul was alive today, should we be living our lives in a way that is only in the presence of Paul?

Or should we be living our lives in the way that he tells us to live it, whether he's here or whether he's not? This is very, this is why I felt it was very important that we stayed in verse 27. Because Paul is arguing in here and he's writing this message to this church saying, Look, the way that you should operate as a church, the way that you should be living as Christians, is not dependent on me being in the flesh with you.

It's not dependent upon me coming and seeing you this next week. Not dependent on me coming and sitting in the front seat or in the back seat of your local church. Paul is saying, this is the way that you are to live regardless if I'm there or if I'm not.

And he's saying that the reason I want you to do this is I hope that I'm going to hear about your circumstances. I hope that in the distress of my imprisonment, the hardship that I'm going through right now, I hope to hear, what?

That you are of one spirit. That you are one mind. That you're contending together. Paul wants to hear this report about this church that he loves. And brothers and sisters, I hope today, if any of us go and we are out of church for three weeks or anything like that, that you hope to hear Valley Baptist is standing in one spirit with one mind, contending together for the faith of the gospel.

That's what Paul is saying in here. I want you, church, to obey God. That's my desire for you, church, is to obey God. To live your lives in this manner. Now I want you to also take special note in here.

When he says that you, so he's saying I will hear, I want to hear about your circumstances and to know that you are standing firm. Standing firm. What does that statement imply? Well, first of all, this absolutely means that trials and challenges are going to be present within the church.

There would be no need to say to stand firm if there wasn't going to be present trials for that church in that day. And it still applies to today. We would not have a need to be told to stand firm if there wasn't going to be hardship and persecution that would follow us.

So the reason that this is so important is because oftentimes, and I think this comes because of a sin nature that's within us, is oftentimes we assume that because we go to church that nothing is going to follow us in or even affect us.

The truth is this, that the enemy is always seeking the life of the bride. The enemy is always seeking the life of the bride of Christ until he comes again. And that's the need for why we need to stand firm in the faith together.

I was greatly reminded of this last week in Bible study as we were looking at Hebrews chapter 10 and we saw in there the not forsaking your own assembling together. And the reality of this is oftentimes in the Christian body, in those that are professing Christians throughout history, when government starts pushing against you, when hardship starts pushing against you, oftentimes we have the knee jerk of reaction of, I better go and hide in my house and withdraw from worship, withdraw from fellowship, withdraw from all these kind of things that we're told to do.

But the reality is that we need to bear our feet into the ground and come to the local body of the church, bear harms that much stronger because we know that the enemy is on attack. All right, so we need to stand firm.

And what does this standing firm look like? Matthew chapter 7 verse 24 through 27 says this, therefore everyone who hears the words of mine and does them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And I want to pause there and remind us of the context. Who is the rock of scripture? The rock of our salvation, the rock that we hide in, the cleft that we hide our salvation in. That is Jesus Christ.

So build the house upon the rock. And the rain descended and the rivers came and the wind blew and fell against that house. And yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone hearing these words of mine and not doing them may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain descended, the floods came, and the wind blew and slammed against that house and it fell. And great was its fall. Anytime that an individual is not built upon Christ, they will fall.

They will.

And so when we look at the local body of church, are we to flee away from gathering together? Are we to flee away from that which God has told us to do? Are we to flee away to that which is sand?

Absolutely not.

We are to dig our feet in, be planted, pour cement on your feet upon that rock, right? You must stay firmly planted upon Jesus Christ in all things, in all ways. And that includes within the local body.

Stand firm in one spirit with one mind. We as a church must be built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. So here in verse 27 of Philippians chapter 1, Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about your circumstances, that you are standing firm.

And then it tells us how we are to do this. How are we to stand firm? In one spirit and in one mind. How is this done for us to behave in such a manner that it would appear that we act and operate as one spirit and one mind?

What that's saying for us here in this text is that the outside world, when they see us, they shouldn't see discontent or disunity or breaking at the seams. That's not what they should be seeing from the outside looking in.

What they should be seeing when they look at us is a body that's of one mind and one spirit. That everything that they do, it seems like they're in this unity and they do this with good cheer and good heart, wanting to progress the gospel for the glory of God alone.

That that's what they see when they look at us. So Paul's saying, I want to hear that you have this appearance that you should have as the very bride of Christ. That it doesn't appear that this bride is disjointed and have different cut-off limbs from her, but that she is united together and she's beautiful.

That she is this one mind and this one spirit. So how do we do this? How do we have one mind, one spirit in the local body? And this is not just rules for Valley Baptist Church. This is rules for any church that operates underneath the sovereign hand and kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must do this with humility. We must do this with humility. Humility, it is really hard, brothers and sisters, to sin against a person if you are truly seeking their betterment. We ought to seek the betterment of others around us and love them.

Not from a place of pride. Not from a place of a haughty spirit. Not from a scrutinizing and trying to ruin someone and not trying to seek to destroy them, but only from a place of humility should we be serving our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as they are some of the nearest neighbors to ourselves.

This can only be done from humility. If Christ is our rock that we confess Him to be, which He absolutely is, if Christ is our rock that we build our house upon, humility ought to be the mortar that sticks those rocks together as we serve the fellow bricks that are built upon this house.

Let me be the bottom one. Let me support the rest. I want to be the lowest of them all so I can help support you. I ought not to think of myself higher than one another. We have to have humility in all aspects of life.

And this word humility, when I was examining this, thinking about this text today, for standing firm in one spirit and one mind, I was thinking about all the other ways that Scripture tells us to have humility and subjecting ourselves to one another.

And there are so many examples of this in Scripture. So many examples of this. I want to explore just a few here for us today. And see, this is how God has set up created order to be. It's to have humility and subjecting yourself to others.

That is how God has set up all these different systems for us. Let's examine just a few. Marriage. Marriage, Ephesians 5, verses 22 -30. Wives, be subject to your own husband as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is also the head of the church.

So take notice in here. Church, do you lead Christ? Or does Christ lead you? Does Christ subject himself to you, or do you subject yourself to Christ? It would be backwards to say that Christ subjects himself to me.

But as the church is subject to the Christ, so also the wives ought to be subject to their husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives. Now notice this. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, are husbands to subject themselves to the example that Christ has given to us?

Yes. Subjection again, humility again, even there in the marriage. Subject yourself to what Christ has done as the example, husbands. So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it. So as Christ also does the church because we are members of his body.

Subjection and humility again, seen and created order of husband and wife in the context and bounds of marriage. Subjection and humility. Let's see another example of this. And there's several verses that apply to each one of these things, so don't think we're just looking at one chapter with one text on this stuff.

Employment and government. God's created order in these things. 1 Peter 2 13 -20. Be subject for the sake of the Lord in every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do good.

For such is the will of God that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as slaves of God. So as Christians, are we not slaves to God and subject to him as our master?

We are. Subjection again. That's created order for us. That we are to be subject to God. Let me pause here and let me just be very clear in saying this. There are times for rebellion. There's times for disagreement.

There's times to take arms even that we see done in our early United States fathers.

I totally agree with this.

But the point of this is if there's a human institution, a king in authority, that's doing things in a way that he's being subject to that which God has told him to do, we are to then be subject to them.

We are to be subject to them. Honor all people, love the brother, and fear God, honor the king. Servants. Now this is talking about employment. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked.

For this finds favor. If for the sake of the conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously, for what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure?

But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this finds favor with God. Let me give you an example of this. There might be a certain firefighter that doesn't like a policy that a fire chief gives.

Let's just say he's saying, I'll use Jonathan here because then it takes me out of the equation. So Jonathan here, let's say the fire chief of Hagerman Fire Department said, all the firefighters will wear pink t-shirts at work.

Jonathan, as the subject to his master, the fire chief, in this form of employment, ought to wear pink shirts. He can disagree with that. He can voice his opinion about it. But guess what? When he goes out on a call, the fire chief said, wear a pink shirt.

Would it be backwards for Jonathan to say, no, chief, you're going to wear the pink shirt. I'm not wearing a pink shirt. That would be pride and haughtiness. That would be going outside of created order that God has set up for Jonathan and the fire chief.

Again, there's examples of times to disobey, a time to not bow the knee. There's times for this, and we're not discussing that today, but we're just talking in general of created order. God has given us a design to be subject to others.

God has done this very clearly for us. Let's pause there and examine this. If we had marriages and government and employment that was following this, where employers were subjecting themselves to the law of God, employees were subjecting themselves to the employers, governments were following the lordship of Jesus Christ, marriages were honoring Christ in the church, all these things.

What bad things would take place in the world?

Nothing.

It would all be fixed if that was the case. If everybody actually obeyed what God had here, Christ would actually be present in the world right then, because that's the only time when we see in Scripture that that would ever take place.

We would all be glorified. I'm contending with you today, church, that a lot of the issues that we have outside, a lot of the issues we have within is because we violate what God has given to us as created order goes.

We don't want to subject ourselves to others. I think about even myself in my own employment. A lot of the strife that I have in my own heart is because I try to not subject myself to the laws and the rules that others have given to me.

That's what we see all the time taking place. It's always a starting place for sin and wrongdoing. So now let's look at the most important example of this for us as a church. We're here on the Lord's Day.

We just asked children, what are you to do after you are rightly baptized and you come to the local body? And it said in there that we're to obey and come underneath these commands of God, right? That's subjection again.

So let's look at what's most important for us today, and that's the church. 1 Peter 5 verses 1 through 11. Created order. Remember, this is God's created example for us as the church. Therefore I exalt or exhort the elders among you as your fellow elders and witnesses of the sufferings of Christ and to partake also of the glory that is to be revealed.

I want to pause there and notice. Well, let's read verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God among you. Is that a command from God? Shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Are the shepherds to subject themselves to this command?

Absolutely.

It would be wrong of me to say, or wrong of any elder in any church in any context to say, I'm not subjecting myself to the command of God. It would be going outside of created order in the bounds of the church.

Verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God among you. I'm trying to bring this out to show to you, everyone in here, that elders are to subject themselves in this way to God. Shepherd the flock of God among you.

Overseeing, not under compulsion, but willingly according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness. Yet not as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourself with humility. Take notice of here, in the correlation and discussion with subjecting it, subjection to another, we have the word humility.

Clothe yourself with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you at proper time.

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Brothers and sisters, I would argue that one of the ways the enemy prowls and seeking those that he can devour, one of the tools that he uses is causing discontent in the local body, in the church.

And this stems from a place of not wanting to be subject to one another. But resist him, firm in the faith. Notice the very similarity to the letter of Philippians. Resist him, firm in the faith. We have in Philippians, stand firm in one spirit, in one mind.

Knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you.

To him be the might forever and ever. Amen. Also consider Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 on this topic. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who give an account, so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you.

So, let's look at this, the examples that we just saw. So we see that wives are to be subject to husbands, husbands are to subject themselves to the example of Christ. We see that the people in society should subject themselves to the government, and the government will be subjected to God and his judgment.

Employees are to be subject to their masters that are in charge of them. And this is to be done even in times that are not the greatest, in times that Jonathan doesn't want to wear a pink shirt, he's still to subject himself to his master, his employer.

But this will prove to be beneficial to the employer and the master. Pastors and elders are shepherds who are under the severe judgment, the severe judgment from the everlasting shepherd to whom they subject themselves to.

Church is to be subject to those that God has placed over them to care for their souls. It is clear to see that in all these examples, God has created us with a created order and purpose, and that is subjecting ourselves to one another.

Why is our society out of whack? Because of a lack of humility and not being subjected to that which is a greater authority. Every broken marriage, every fallen government system, every disgruntled employee, every church split stems from a lack of humility and a lack of subjecting oneself to the order that has been given to them.

Recently I just had the opportunity, in fact I had people in this church praying for me during this. I was in an ICS class and it was miserable, I'll be honest with you. It was death by PowerPoint and I can't even tell you the redundancy of all the things I just learned these last couple of weeks.

But in this ICS class there's a system that the feds have come up with that every government system needs to operate under in times of emergency. It's called instant command system, NIMS, all these types of different wording on it.

Again, I'm probably boring you right now, but imagine this times 40 plus hours that I had to deal with. But in this system there's one person in charge and then there's delegated authority underneath.

And everyone in this system is being subject to another person's authority. It's interesting that the feds have found a solution to every time of emergency. Active shooter, COVID, all these types of things that we have that go on in the world, guess how the government handles them?

ICS, subjecting yourselves to the command and authority of another person. Interesting when we consider God has set this very picture up for us in the Bible. Subject yourselves to another person's authority.

It's not a bad thing, it's actually a good thing. It's a God glorifying thing. Is there a time for rebellion, as I mentioned earlier? Absolutely yes, there is. Is there a time for defiance? Absolutely yes, there is.

Is there a time for divorce? Absolutely yes, there is. But it must be done because of a lack of the other party not submitting themselves in the correct God ordained way. What if in all these things of our lives, what if all facets of our lives look like this?

If all creation adhered to the rules of God, it would look great, it would look marvelous, it would look wonderful. We are not to look to ourselves as greater than others, but we are to regard others as greater than ourselves.

That actually comes from the very next chapter in Philippians, Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. I'm going to read this real fast for us, but know we'll be here as a church soon. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection and compassion, fulfill my joy that you may think the same way by maintaining the same love, being united in one spirit, thinking on one purpose.

Now notice in here, this is the same author of chapter 1, is it not? And he's already correlated what he said here in verse 27 to these verses that we're reading right now. Same spirit, thinking on one purpose, that's one spirit, one mind that we just read about.

Doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves. Not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but for the interests of others.

The Great Commission, the Local Church, and Contending Together

So how do we as a church here in Hagerman, Idaho, how do we succeed as a church? How do we glorify God? How do we fulfill the Great Commission found in Matthew 28, that we are to go unto all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

How do we do these things? We submit ourselves to that which God has told us to submit ourselves to according to the Bible. If someone isn't telling them the Gospel, are they submitting themselves to the Great Commission?

If somebody's baptized and they don't seek fellowship in the local body of the church, are they submitting themselves to created order that God has put out for them? No. We see that a lot of the issues stem around this defiant nature that we have.

Why? Why ought we to have the appearance of one spirit with one mind that we see here in Philippians 1, verse 27? Why does it say that standing firm in one spirit with one mind, contending together? Does it say in this text contending as a solo Christian?

Does it say in this text contending just in your own home group and not ever going out into the church? It says contending together. The institution of even this little local body in Hagerman, Idaho in the year of 2023, we ought to contend together as a united body having the appearance of one mind and one spirit.

It applied in this day. It applies in our day. And guess what the ultimate goal of us standing together firmly contending, what is it that we are contending for? It says contending together for the faith of the Gospel.

It's to advance God's kingdom. It's to give him glory. It's to bring him honor. It's to seeing him praise. That's the whole purpose of us doing this. Again, the unpure motive would be seeking out your own vain glory.

The pure motive is pointing it to God, saying God is the creator and the sustainer. Let us go and do his work together as a local body. Us standing together, submitting ourselves out of humility to others and to God, the way we stand firm through hardships is the same way that we ought to stand as a local church.

When the evil forces come to break up the church, and I'm not just talking about our church, I'm talking about any church in the last 2 ,000 years, we must stand, they must stand, the church must stand, bearing the feet on the cross, ready to stand through all hardship because we have a God who has given us the perfect example of humility.

Christ, as Shepard gave in a praise this morning, Christ dying for our sins, the one that was not ever touched or stained by sin like you and I have been. He became flesh and died for us. Humility. Not my will be done, but your will be done, God.

The one who had all authority in heaven and on earth, subjected himself to the will of the Father. So if you want to sit and say, well, I don't like subjecting myself to other individuals, and I don't think that that's a very godly thing to do.

Christ himself did that, and it brought about your and my salvation. Do not think yourself more highly than Christ, who subjected himself to the Father. Christ died for our sins, and he rose again. So you, Christian Valley Baptist Church, beloved church of God, glorify God by living a life that was given for us as an example, and that is a life of humility seen in Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. Lord God, I would ask, Lord, boldly, that you would refresh our minds, refresh our hearts, refresh our spirits to contend eagerly for the faith that you've given to us, Lord. That we would go to your scripture for the example that we ought to live our lives.

That we would run away from this culture that is saying to not subject themselves to the laws, to even what gender that you have given to us. To run away from those things, and don't be subjected to what you have told us to be subjected to.

But Lord, that we would come with our knees bent before your throne, subjecting ourselves to that which is your mercy, God. Lord, you are perfect, you are good, and let us not ever forget these things, Lord.

For you are faithful when we are not. Lord, let us sing praise to you today, out of a place of humility, bending our knee for you today. We say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen.