Practical Christianity — Doc Greenway

Luke 2, 14 -16. Just a short passage. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, as sons of God, without evil, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, that I have not fallen in vain, that I have not fallen in vain, that I have not fallen in vain. And the word of life is a reminder of the fact that the truth is too idealistic, it's too other-worldly, it isn't related as it should be to our day and age, it isn't relevant to our situation.

The Practical Relevance of Christian Truth

It's not realistic enough. And actually, nothing would be further from the truth because it is certain that there is no religion in the world so captive as the Christian faith, the Christian doctrine.

We are going to take this one epistle, one to the Philippians, and make a study of it. We will soon see how practical it is in its application of truth. Even the chapter from which we have taken this passage contains some profound revelation.

As you know, in Chapter 2 of Philippians, you have the deepest and most challenging testimony in the Spirit to the absolute deity of Christ. And yes, although you have this profound statement of Christ's essential deity, yet you soon discover that the theology of it is expressed in practical terms so that we cannot mistake the real drift and objective which the Spirit of God has when it comes to these wonderful truths.

Unity Through Shared Experience in Christ

You know, of course, how the chapter begins with the character of Concord in the opening verses, how wonderfully the Apostle is led by the Spirit of God to show us what we possess in Christ and how it is our deepest experiences in the Lord that become the basis for our unity as those who love Him.

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfilling my joy that it be like-minded and so on. That's how it begins.

Then this is followed by an exposition of the life of lowliness, as God intended it should be lived, in verses 3 and 4, that nothing be done with strife for vain glory and so on. That's practical enough, isn't it?

And then when the Apostle unfolds the mind of the Master in verses 5 to 11, instead of a great doctrinal statement of argument we might have expected, what we have is the whole concept linked with a practical outworking of the purpose of God in the life of the believer.

So I say again that when you talk about a practical religion, you must think in terms of what Christianity really means. It's linked with our day, it's relevant to our age. In the Bible, as we know very well, the highest ideals in theology are always being interpreted in the most practical terms possible.

This is eminently true of this Philippian letter, which some call Paul's love letter, because it contains less of censure and more of praise than any other of his writings to the Church. Notice that having traced the seven downward steps that Jesus took in his self-emptying condescension, and then shown how the action of God was revealed in highly exalting him, from that point Paul links this deep truth of the Christian faith with a Christian's duty.

In verses 12 and 13, Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out means to carry to its ultimate completion or conclusion this salvation, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Providentially, this is the in-working of God which makes the out-working possible. Then in the passage we are looking at, verses 14 to 16, we are shown what makes the Christian's life balanced and distinctive from the standpoint of practical Christianity.

Gladness and Sincerity in Christian Service

The first thing which is brought to our attention is gladness in our serving. Verse 14, Do all things without murmurings and disputing. Without murmurings is really without grumbling. You've heard the proverb that the excellency of the work is always measured by the gladness and contentment of the worker.

This is how it should be in our serving God. Without murmurings, without grumbling. I believe that every believer has a work to do for God that no one else can do. It's uniquely and specially a vocation given to that believer.

We are certainly saved to serve. I said this at the Bible College the other morning. One of the students looked very puzzled and perplexed, and then he spoke up and said, Is this all that we are saved for?

He said, Not really. But this is part of our life as believers, the life of service. We are called to serve. We are chosen for a vocation. And so there is a service that we are to render to the Lord. It may not always be in the limelight.

It may not always seem very important in the scheme of things. But because God has asked it of us, then it should be done. First of all, I think, with sincerity. That's important to the Lord. Sincerity in our serving Him.

This surely will avoid the grumblings and the murmurs if we serve Him with sincerity. As I said a moment ago, our service for Him, or the action that we perform, may seem to be very small and insignificant.

But not in His eyes. It's important to Him. Sir Michael Cosser, the great conductor, was once conducting an orchestra. He stopped in the middle of the stage. He said, the piccolo, the man who was playing the piccolo, realized that he had a very small instrument.

Probably the sound of his instrument was lost from the sound of all the music that was going on around him. But when he ceased to play, once the conductor called out to him, and I'm sure that God knows and understands and can't be him.

We don't play the piccolo too, because it's so small and insignificant, what we can do for the Lord. Although Timothy, didn't he, told him in the first epistle, the 6th chapter and the 6th verse, Godliness with contentment is a great gain.

How true that is. Service with contentment is great satisfaction, both to the Christian and to the Lord. When service is rendered without grumbling, in sincerity, which is the first essential in a shepherd's service, the Lord sets a value upon it, far above our own understanding.

I was talking with Norma the other day about Mary bringing her box of ointments to the Lord. There you have a case in point. It was a very difficult occasion. The Lord there because Nazareth had been raised from the dead.

Then took Mary upon the ointment, and put the right valuation upon what she did. From her standpoint, a little of the ointment, but the Lord's power in this one, she breaks the ointment, and then she pulls it upon his feet.

Totally submissiveness. She had the true conception of what worship is all about in action. Then she wiped his feet with her head. And so the blessing she pulled out upon his feet returned upon her own head.

What is the outcome? A house. Then Judas began to interfere. Remember what the Lord said? Let her alone against the day of my burying that she kept this. Now she didn't know that. She had no knowledge of that.

But she was inspired and prompted to do something to the Lord. She did it. And he saw in it far more than she could ever have seen. And so his commendation was given to her. A simple act? Yes. But it was precious.

Spontaneity and Giving Without Counting the Cost

The second quality in acceptance of the service is spontaneity. Do all things without grumbling. Now I don't think it's possible for any person to perform an action complainingly and spontaneously at the same time.

More than a mule to kick and pull at the same time. For every one thing or the other. And so spontaneity is a quality in acceptance of service. We are told and we often say the Lord loved a cheerful giver.

And wherever the area of the giving may be whether it is money or time or strength or talent it's done spontaneously. It's an enrichment to the person who gives. It's a blessing to others who receive and it is glory to the Lord.

Spontaneity. We take out the grumbling, the murmuring, the spirit. Gwendolyn Wilkie, the American statesman once asked Franklin Roosevelt why do you keep Harry Hopkins that poor, frail, sickly man always at your elbow?

And Roosevelt answered him There's an incessant stream of people always coming to me and all of them want me to do something for them or give something to them. But Harry Hopkins isn't like that. He doesn't want a single thing from me.

All he wants is to serve me. That's why I keep him, me. What a testament. And I'm sure that this is what the Lord requires of us. There shall be in our service this element of spontaneity of giving and counting not the cost.

Then his heart will surely be pleased. The third quality in acceptable service for God is simplicity. And I think that this quality of simplicity is always present when love is the motivating force in what we do for them.

You know that great classic on love 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4 and 5 you remember we read. Love suffereth long in this time. Love envieth not. Love wanteth not itself. Is not cupped up. Doth not behave itself unseen.

Seeketh not her own. Is not easily provoked. Or really is not provoked. Thinketh no need. The S. W. translates this deeply. Love is long forbearing. Is all kindness. Love knows not jealousy. Love does not parade her gifts.

Swells not with self-conceit. She flouts not decency. She grasps not at her rights. Refuses to take offense. Has no memory for injuries. And this sort of service that springs from this kind of love will be stamped with a whole life of simplicity.

As I said a moment ago what we do for him may not seem very much in our sight or in the estimate estimate of others the estimation of others but in his time it is something far greater. Remember years ago in Australia there were a company of God's servants deciding upon commencing a mission among the Aborigines in the northern part of Australia in a place called Gigalop and there was a family in Melbourne Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and they had several children, grandchildren.

And one day while he was praying the Lord said to him what are you going to do by Gigalop? He said well I don't know much about the Bible. I couldn't preach or teach. And then the Lord reminded him yes but you can build you are a handyman and you can build.

So he went along to the leaders and he said well by the grace of God is it our gigalop that we are? And he went with his family and he built the houses of the necessary the school houses of the necessary.

And there with his family he stayed for many years and he did this work as unto the Lord and the Lord blessed him and blessed his family and certainly blessed the missionaries for what he was able to do.

He did it spontaneously. He did it with love. He did it spontaneously. He did it sincerely. He did it with unmoving without grumbling. And this is the kind of gladness in our service for which the Lord lives.

Serving Without Disputing

And then without disputing this the word here is Lord is almighty without discussions without debates without arguments serving God in mystery. The missionary in New Guinea who served God there for many years and when he returned a friend of his asked him several questions.

Fajal what did you find in New Guinea when you got there? What were the arguments of Christianity which you presented it? Missionary friends had arguments. I did the argument I lived before them. I saw either a child crying or a child in comfort.

And one day I found a man with a broken leg and I sat that man. Sometimes when people were in distress if I took them into my home they came to me and they asked me why do you do these things? Without arguing without disputing.

God asks you to do something for him. Don't waste time arguing with him. You don't know how to do it and you cannot do it. And you ask him how he wants it done. Without disputing without arguing let nothing be done.

To strive for vain words as Paul the Philippians in the third verse of this chapter. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Paul if you want it in a literal translation let there be no thought of righteousness none of empty arrogance but in the true spirit of humility still regard your fellows as superior to yourself.

We are not called to argue about the truth but to be an argument. So without dispute so often the right of truth is obscured. God wants us to look to him and to serve him in a way that is pleasing to him without murmuring without disputing.

Practical Holiness in Christian Living

The second thing that is practical in this passage is holiness in our living verse 15 that he may be blameless and harmless the sons of God. Without the practical holiness is not innocence it is conflict.

It isn't religion with a hero it is life with a purpose. Paul's description what kind of people as he expresses it here that he may be blameless. This means not deserving of censure. So deserving no censure.

It is possible to be blameless and yet not to be unblamed of this. Jesus was blamed although he was really blamed. But sure is a life lived out in the conscious presence of God with a conscience void of offense before God and man we are told that time heals all things but it does never repeat a sin.

Sure then is a life in which the problem of sin would be dealt with in conviction in contrition in confession where necessary in restitution in reconciliation. It may be that the problem of sin is dealt with in the life of practical holiness deserving no censure that he may be blameless.

Christian holiness is not the eradication of the sin principle. It isn't 1st John 1 .8. We read. If we say that we have no sin no sin principle we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. 1st John 1 .8.

It's not eradication but counteraction the counteraction of the Holy Spirit against the influence of the sin principle that he may be blameless deserving no censure and then possessing no mixture. You have the word unharmless.

This means unmixed unadulterated holiness in our living. Not only the question of sin that has been dealt with but the problem of self. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit has been resolved in this kind of living after the flesh as Paul in Romans 8 remind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit in verse 7 of that chapter because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be.

The Christian who lives a life of holiness has used his God-given prerogative to say yes to the Holy Spirit and to say no to the flesh. This is practical holiness. This is what Paul is contending for in Galatians 5 .16.

This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And again verse 25 if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit. I say to you again the literal translation order your lives by the spirit's guidance.

And there will be no fear of your gutty fire and the cravings of your sensual nature. Since it is by the power of the spirit that we have our new life. By the guidance of the spirit let us also order our conduct.

No mixed motives here none at all. No partial violence no confusion of prerogative. This kind of service this kind of goodness this kind of practical Christianity is dealt with a problem of sin and with a problem of self.

I heard of a young Christian girl who was talking to a minister some time ago and she was trying to defend her action in going to some place of amusement but she didn't feel it was quite right. So she just tossed her head at the young girl and she said I can take Jesus Christ with me anywhere.

And he said now isn't that remarkable. I thought that Jesus was the leader and that you were the follower. Not a question of taking him wherever you want to take but of following him wherever he is going to lead you.

And that's so that this is part of the life of holiness possessing no mixed and then displaying no failure. The sons of God without repeat. Or the children of God who are early approaching here the leading idea is that they are displaying no failure particularly in the area of relationship.

They are seen in their character as children of their heavenly Father. And so they are irreproachable when they exhibit their Father's likeness. Put it this way. My Father is righteous. If I am unjust I don't appear to be like him the child of God.

And so I am not irreproachable. My Father is loving. Do I bear his likeness. If I am unloving toward him or toward his children my Father is merciful. If I am unforgiving then my conduct is not unworthy of review.

I am not irreproachable in his sight. My Father is truthful. How can I be a child of God without repose. If I am harbouring or living. There is a question of relationship. How does John put it in 1 John 4, 20.

If a man say I love God and hated his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen. How can he love God whom he hath not seen. And here the word hated is a relative term because John defines it in this very verse by saying loveth not.

So he who loveth not is the one who is hated. It is not active hatred. It may not be conscious hatred. But if there is no love for your brother whom you can see then how can you love God whom you have not seen whom you can see.

This surely is a sound argument. Isn't it so to be children of God without rebuke in an irreproachable relationship in this context is to be displaying no faith. Then finally in this passage which is so practical there is faithfulness in our witnessing verses 15 and 16.

Faithfulness in Witnessing Amid a Dark World

And the location of our witnessing where is it, where do we witness. Here it is, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. The children of God are set right in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation or in the midst of a society morally war and spiritually perverted.

The word crooked means wicked turning away from the truth. The word perverse is distorted, twisted. A stronger word really than crooked because the God of this world hath blinded their eyes. And the world always bears the description of an evil generation.

Society is not getting better and better with the passing of time as some would have us believe. But the world as Jesus said is what's in worse and worse. Speaking of the former life of the Ephesians Paul could say of them.

For he was sometimes darkness not in the dark but darkness incarnate. He was sometimes darkness. Remember that Jesus uttered this in writing in John 3 .19. This is the condemnation that light is coming to the world.

And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So this world in which we live is the place of deep darkness. Right here, in the very midst of it God has set you and me. We might do something for him in our witness and testimony.

Herein is the location of our witness. The function of our witness among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life. This is the function of our witness the illuminance amongst whom you shine out clearly like stars in the world's sky holding out to it the word of life.

The same Lord who said of himself I am the light of the world said of his followers, didn't he? Ye are the light of the world. We are to let our light shine not make it shine in the world in the midst of the darkness not under the bush.

The challenge of the world's darkness as we maintain the vital glow in our testimony holding forth the word of life to hold forth so as to offer. That's the thought behind this work. So offering salvation to a lost world.

Offering the word of life to a world in darkness. This is the function of our testimony. And the lights must not flicker. It must not fade. The stormy nights are made eerie and calm. The ship was making for freedom.

The sky was pitch black. Someone ventured to say to the pilot are you sure that this is the harbor ahead of us? There's only one light shining. The pilot said yes. I believe that this is freedom harbor.

But there's only one shoreline burning. Because the others are the lower lights are not burning. They ventured forward. They found them. Many lives were lost. And out of this experience came the hymn of P .P. Bliss rightly being to our father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore.

But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning. Send a gleam across the world. Some fool struggling fading human luminosity. You may say father's light is burning.

But the lower the other ones are including. Let your light shine. Gladness in our service. Holiness in our living. Faithfulness in our witnessing. This is practical Christianity. Live like this Paul seems to say.

Contentment, Godliness, and Finishing the Christian Race

And then he adds the word thy may rejoice in the day of Christ. That I have not run in vain neither labor in vain. For so shall I exult in anticipation of the day of Messiah's coming. In the thought that I have not run my race for a phantom prize nor toiled for an amused good.

That's A .S. Ray's country. It's a beautiful country. As I said at the beginning I don't know why the Lord directed me to this passage. It is with God's trust of the Holy Spirit we open to our understanding the very things that we would have us see.

Because surely we have different needs and requirements. We have the same God the same Holy Spirit. Bless the Lord. And may God bless His word.