WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.439 We're calling it the hope of joy. 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:30.640 Philippians wrote a great letter written from a prison cell by the Apostle Paul, probably in a prison cell in Rome, probably so close to Caesar and the central government of Rome there in the Roman Empire during that time, because remember Paul had appealed to Caesar, so that the folks over the Jewish religious leaders back in Israel couldn't have him, you know, drag him before the local magistrates and have him put to put uh to death. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:31.920 He appealed to Caesar. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:33.600 To Caesar, he went. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:39.359 And so he's there and uh writing from this prison cell, writing to a church he founded in 52 A.D. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.079 roughly. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:45.679 And it is now 62 A.D., 10-year-old church, uh half the age of our church. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.320 And he's writing to them from his prison cell. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:56.159 He's writing to them, and he mentions joy like 16 times, or some form of the word joy, rejoice, that kind of thing. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:57.200 Fascinating. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:05.519 He spends zero time complaining about his own predicament, his own circumstances, other than just to inform them of what's going on. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:21.840 He'll close out this particular chapter with a little bit of a uh summary of what's been going on in the life of Timothy and Epaphroditus, two friends, uh Epaphroditus, who was sent to Paul, to where he is, by, evidently by the Philippian church. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:29.680 And uh they've had some concern about Epaphroditus, and so Paul is sending Epaphroditus back to them. 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:34.159 They're concerned for his well-being and what has happened to him and all of that. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.879 So this is incredibly personal and pastoral as a letter. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:52.239 Um it there are other letters where he writes to correct false teaching or to uh uh uh refocus people on uh one particular aspect of proper uh uh uh gospel teaching. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:57.599 And and he he certainly is reminding them and reassuring them in Philippians. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:10.319 But there's there's a sense in which you when you read this one, what you don't hear in the correction and all that sort of thing that he has to do in the other cases is you hear a pastor writing to a group of people he really, really loves, really cares about. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:17.759 Um there's a lot of uh first person uh pronoun, personal pronouns, and and he's I mean he's talking directly to them. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:21.759 They know him, he knows them, and I love that about this particular chapter. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:32.159 Last week, when we were together, we ended on um uh a statement which I didn't spend a lot of time on, uh verses nine and through eleven. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:45.280 I'll put it up on the screen so you don't have to uh turn to it right away, but it says, he's talking about Jesus, and at the very end of what we studied last week, he said, God highly exalted and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:59.680 That's in all caps because it's a it's lifted out of a passage, I believe, in Deuteronomy, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:09.680 And so it is in the context of that indicative that he now turns with some uh encouragement, instruction, and some imperatives. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.159 And a lot of his uh letters are like that. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:15.120 You get some indicatives that these things are true. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:18.319 If you believe these things, then here's how you should respond. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:19.280 You know, that kind of thing. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:28.000 So when he gives his imperatives in those in that context of indicatives and imperatives, it's not the requirement for salvation, it's the result of salvation. 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:30.560 In other words, if it looks like something, what does it look like? 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:32.240 Well, it looks like this. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:38.560 And he's already begun with some of that in chapter two, but let's pick up, look at verse 12 with me. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:47.919 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:52.639 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:57.360 You have probably heard that verse before, and what follows on its heels. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:06.400 For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:08.080 Now that's awesome. 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:13.039 That's a wonderful imperative indicative combination. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:13.599 Yeah. 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:20.079 So we work out he works in. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:21.199 That's very clear. 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:25.279 But then he goes on and it gets real specific here. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:30.000 Verse 14, do all things without grumbling or complaining. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:32.480 Okay, that wipes out half the room, doesn't it? 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:38.720 I mean, that's like, how many, any, did anyone here, you know somebody that's a that's a curmudgeon? 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:41.199 You know, you does anybody, don't raise your hand because you might. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:43.600 Are you sitting next to a curmudgeon? 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.800 Are they thinking of you, perhaps? 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:49.120 That might be true. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:50.160 It's easy. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.920 We get into the spiral, kind of the no-spiral and the curmudgeon spiral a lot, don't we, in life? 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:02.959 I think our culture does all things with grumblings and complainings. 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:04.639 But we're supposed to be different. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.160 We're supposed to be set apart. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.600 That's what holiness means. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:08.639 It means set apart. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:09.839 It means different. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:15.600 We don't look like the context of the world in which we live, the unbelieving world in which we live. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:18.800 So he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:25.920 Notice in verse 3, he had said, do nothing from selfishness and empty or empty conceit. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:31.279 Now he's saying, do all things without grumbling or complaining. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:36.879 Like a little sign, no whining, you know, no complaining, no grumbling. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:39.279 Um man, this is so not me. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.720 Um it's just so not you. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:49.759 And you can probably think of some time, maybe in the last week, even, when you got upset about something. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:50.560 I did. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:57.680 I was out in my, I have a, we don't have much of a uh in terms of our yard, we don't have much landmass. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:02.399 Uh, but what little bit we have, I take really good care of. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:03.839 Kind of enjoy. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:08.639 Anybody gardening, like gardening, or how about just landscaping and things like that? 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.439 See, I kind of putts around the old yard there. 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:20.079 I got my lawnmower, got my got my little weed whacker, and you know, I was out of line for my weed whacker for like a week and a half, and I was going through a real hard time. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:27.120 So I went and bought three rolls of that, reels of that, and I put that back in and got out there and did my thing. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:45.519 And then I'm out there and I'm you know looking at the little plants and things like that, and I walk around, and doggone, right behind, right parallel to our the back of our yard there, and we don't have a fence or anything, but but there's an alleyway, and there's a car sitting with two wheels on my grass. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:59.120 So Pastor Jim went over and gave that person a piece of his mind. 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:06.079 And I gotta tell you, I'm not, I'm not, I'm laughing about it, but I'm not really proud of it. 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:09.199 I think I could have handled it a little bit better. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:13.279 And uh, but I but I I I kind of grumbled and confused. 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:17.199 You know, I spent a lot of time working on this grass, you know, trying to keep it. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:20.639 You got you probably don't know, but you got two wheels right on my grass. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:26.319 That's not gonna go well, you know, for my grass, and I'm letting you know that, you know. 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.199 So she had her headphones on, stuff like that. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:37.040 She didn't say a thing, but she pulled off and kind of gave me a uh, you know, a little negative look, you know, and that sort of thing. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:41.759 But but I thought to myself afterwards, I thought, you know, I could have I could have done that in a nicer way. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:50.639 And and and the tone that he's looking for here is a tone that's almost foreign to us in this day and time in which we live. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.120 Uh we've said it before around here, man. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:57.040 Outrage is the kudzu of our culture. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.120 It's gonna cover us up and choke us to death. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.800 So are there some things that we should have righteous indignation about? 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:07.680 Sure. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:10.480 But should we always be in that mode? 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:26.720 Do we get drawn into that mode like addicts to a drug that we are now addicted to because we've been so programmed by it, by voices in our culture that want us to go that way? 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.160 It's a good thing to think about. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.600 Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:35.360 All things is all things. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:37.200 Walking around your yard. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:39.759 Yeah. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.039 Doing your work, whatever your job is. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:55.360 Um being the spouse you are, or the single person you are, the friend you are, or the neighbor you are being do that without grumbling or complaining. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:03.519 What if I started what if we, what if if village chapel five services is a thousand or twelve hundred people? 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:32.320 What if a thousand or twelve hundred people in Nashville stopped screaming and yelling and hollering and protesting everything and started, and again, there's there's stuff wrong in the world, I get it, but what if we all started living like Paul is suggesting here, so trusting of Jesus, so trusting of God, that no matter what's going on in the watching world around us, we're so focused on and trusting and secure and resting in his love, my beloved, my brethren. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:40.320 What if we changed the nature and tone of the way we do life? 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.399 Verse 15, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:48.639 So that's what it looks like to be blameless and innocent, and to prove it. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.240 That you prove yourself to be blameless and innocent, children of God. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:57.759 In other words, you bear the family resemblance, above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:02.720 Isn't that interesting that he thought the first century was a crooked and perverse generation? 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:05.759 Wonder what he would say about our generation. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.679 If that one was a crooked and a perverse one. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:20.960 And by crooked and perverse, I don't only mean issues that, you know, kind of get the the the top headline in in when we think of those those descriptive terms. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:30.639 I think it's crooked and perverse that human trafficking is so successful, that pornography is so successful in our world. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:32.720 That is just wrong. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:36.480 That there's so much poverty in our world, that is just crooked. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:38.000 Things are twisted. 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:40.159 Things aren't the way they're supposed to be. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.279 And uh I think that's what he's saying. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:54.960 We're supposed to do all things without grumbling or disputing, that we prove ourselves to be blameless in this sense, that we bear the family resemblance above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:55.440 Lights? 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:56.480 Lights, yeah, lights. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:57.600 What do lights do? 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:03.759 Lights warm, lights uh uh give us the ability to see, so they help us with direction. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:08.399 Lights give us the ability to see things so that we they help us with correction. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:09.600 Oh, this is the wrong way. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:10.480 I'm going the wrong way. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.639 This is netting the wrong result. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:17.440 I need to be able to see to know that that's the case. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:28.960 And we're supposed to be scattered like lights across the culture and uh reflecting, not not generating our own light, but reflecting the light of the gospel. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:36.399 And because Christ has changed us, we are children of God above reproach. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:37.200 Is that happening? 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.559 Man, I would like I would like that to be said about us. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:50.159 Um but we're supposed to be shining these lights and we're holding fast, and some of your translations might say holding forth the word of life. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:53.279 And that Greek word can be translated either way, so it's both. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:56.720 If you're holding fast, you're also holding forth. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.440 If you're holding forth, you're also holding fast. 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:02.320 And it's meant to be both. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:04.879 We're supposed to understand it that way. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:10.799 So that in the day of Christ, Paul says, I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:14.799 So there's a running and there's a toiling, and he doesn't want either to be in vain. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:22.080 But even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:31.759 All they used to pour when they when they would sacrifice an animal on the altar, um, the ancient Jewish priests, anyway, would also sometimes pour a drink offering. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.960 You've probably heard that phrase from the Old Testament. 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:40.720 And they would pour that right beside the animal sacrifice as they burned it in the altar. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:42.480 And so he's right beside them. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:49.840 They're they're together as an offering, a sacrifice to God and for God's glory. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:59.600 And he wants, he says, even if my life is being poured out like that, um, I uh I want you to share my joy. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:01.600 You too, I urge you, rejoice. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:03.759 There's another occasion of that word. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:07.360 In the same way to share your, and there it is again, joy with me. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.080 Now he talks about his two friends, Timothy and Epaphrodis. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:18.080 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.879 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:27.679 In other words, I really care about you, and I want to send somebody who cares about you. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:32.879 For they all seek, there's a bunch of folks who seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:40.399 But you know of his, that's Timothy's proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.120 He's certainly referencing 52 A.D. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:49.840 when Timothy was with Paul and Luke and Silas, and they established that church in 52 A.D. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:56.639 And they visited it twice more on the third missionary trip of the Apostle Paul. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:08.799 And so he's certainly referencing back to that time and saying, look how well we all know each other, and I want to send Timothy there because he loves you as well, and you love him and trust him. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:18.720 And he's been so faithful serving um uh serving uh me, but I but he would be very faithful in serving you as well. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:24.799 I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:26.720 But you know of his proven worth. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:30.080 He served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:34.000 I hope to send him to you immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:34.879 Again, he's in prison. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:36.720 Tomorrow he could be put to death. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:37.840 He doesn't know. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:40.240 But he goes on, there's a little bit more. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:44.399 And I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall be coming shortly. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:44.799 See? 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:47.039 He believed he would be released at some point. 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.639 He was hoping that that would happen. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:56.159 I thought it necessary to send to you Ephroditis, so that's who's gonna carry this letter, is this the implication here. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:00.159 Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.480 So he's a brother, he's a worker, and he's a fellow soldier. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:08.080 There's an intimacy of relationship, he's a brother. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.039 There is a partnership, he's a fellow worker. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:15.360 And they're fighting for the same thing: the furtherance of the gospel. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:22.879 And fighting need not mean that the negative aspect of that that might be attached to that in our own day and time. 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:26.799 What it means is there's a spiritual battle going on. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:29.440 And um, and it's real. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:40.960 And and uh so Ephroditis is a brother, and he's a co-worker, and he's a fellow soldier in the gospel, and he's also your messenger and minister to my need. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:47.039 They had sent him to Paul, because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:50.879 Indeed, he was sick to the point of death, Ephroditis. 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:56.000 But God had mercy on him, not on him only, but also on me, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.200 In other words, if he had died, Paul would have been so sad. 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:09.120 Therefore, I've sent him all the more eagerly, in order that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I be less concern, and I may be less concerned about you. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:16.320 In other words, I will know that I've sent a trusted fellow co-laborer in the gospel to be with you. 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:19.600 Therefore, receive him in the Lord with all joy. 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:30.399 There it is again, and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:38.960 That is, I I'm gonna assume what he is referencing there is that what's deficient is simply that their presence isn't with him. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:40.799 He's not with them. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:49.440 He and Epaphroditus came to be with Paul, and he made up the difference by actually being there and being present with them. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.159 So, great passage. 00:16:52.799 --> 00:17:05.359 I love uh when we're reading someone else's mail, which is what we've been doing, um, I love the fact that in this mail it's not just that sort of rubber stamp, you know, Merry Christmas 2019. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:14.960 You know, we we have a family member that sends us a Christmas card every year with just the rubber stamp signature. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:16.000 There's no, how you doing? 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:16.400 What's going on? 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:17.920 Hey, you guys cool, how's the church? 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:18.480 What's going on? 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:19.279 None of that. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:25.200 None of the here's my story, and unfold about a 40-page, you know, update on what's going on in their world. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:25.599 Nothing. 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:26.559 Just rubber stamp. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:29.279 Merry Christmas, 2019. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.920 And it looks like a card that was bought like a thousand in a box. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.839 You know, it's it's that kind of card, you know. 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:38.079 But it's interesting. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:39.440 He's not doing that here. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.839 This is very warm and personal. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.400 He's mentioning real people, Timothy and Epaphroditus. 00:17:46.640 --> 00:18:01.519 He's writing to a real city, Philippi, that we actually can know about because we can do some work even outside of our entire, outside of the Bible altogether, we can look at ancient history and see that there was indeed a city called Philippi. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:10.160 Ten miles inland, north, northern tip of the Aegean Sea, established 356 BC, named after Alexander the Great's dad. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.119 I mean, this is awesome. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:13.839 Your Bible said in space-time history, this is real. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:22.160 This isn't just a warm, fuzzy story that somebody ought to make a movie about and do a big soundtrack with and all kinds of hobbits and things like that. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:23.279 No, it's not that. 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:24.160 This is real. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:25.279 And I love hobbits. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:26.000 Don't hear me. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.079 I'm not I'm not down on that stuff. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:30.160 Um, but this is real. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.039 And there's a real guy named Timothy, a real guy named Paphroditus. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:37.599 And they all really love the church at Philippa. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.160 So I love that about this particular text. 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:43.200 Madeline Langell quote from up there, if you guys will. 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:55.839 We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:02.160 That from walking on water, she just dismantles me sometimes. 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:15.759 Some of the some of the things I've read by her, she just says things so beautifully and it makes me want to go back and find people that drive on my lawn and apologize to them. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:22.880 We're not really ever going to convince anyone of the gospel of Christ if all we're doing is screaming, get off my lawn. 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:31.839 Sweetie, what that is an amen cough. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:35.759 Okay, so that's what that's what that was, yeah. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:38.000 Um, what does he mean? 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:39.359 I mean, we've got to deal with a couple things. 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:40.240 First of all, what does he mean? 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:48.319 Work out your own, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who's at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:53.680 There's three different uh stages, if you will, in the in the Bible's account of salvation, anyway. 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.000 Justification, sanctification, glorification. 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.960 There are other ification words in theology. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:04.880 I mean, theologians work really hard at coming up with big words so that we, it's kind of job security for them. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:10.559 That way we always we always need to employ them to help us understand what in the world are you talking about? 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:15.599 Justification is this immediate uh salvation from the penalty of sin. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:17.200 You're justified. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:20.000 And this happens at the point of your conversion, okay? 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:25.839 Sanctification is this progressive salvation that happens, and that that aspect of it that's progressive. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:30.160 And it's from the power of sin in your life at work in your life and at work in my life. 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:33.680 Um, it is a present and ongoing process. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:34.880 It's progressive. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:45.039 Some of you, you know, you can look back over your life and go, I can see where it was progressing that month, but you know, out in my backyard it wasn't progressing so well, you know, or whatever. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:46.960 Um, glorification. 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:49.920 So there'll be some undulation, I should say, with number two. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:54.079 Three, glorification, the ultimate salvation from the presence of sin. 00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:04.880 And this, of course, is what the Bible points forward to in the return of Christ and as he establishes the new kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:15.759 The process that we call sanctification involves us working something out, we're told here in Philippians 2, but it's God who's working something in. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:17.680 Look at the next slide, if you will. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:20.079 There is a concurrence. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:28.400 Uh so there is a, we're we're both participating in this, not on equal terms, by any stretch of the imagination. 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:29.920 Please understand this. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:34.319 God's always the initiator, we're always the responders. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.079 That's a that's the big filter through which I run everything. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.960 He's always the one that started, that that initiated it. 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:45.839 And uh, and and and how do I know that? 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.359 Well, because the first verse of the Bible says in the beginning, God. 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:51.599 It doesn't say in the beginning Jim. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:59.839 And then God set everything else in motion with a view toward creating uh some some creatures, some part of his creature. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.599 Creation in his image, which is awesome. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:10.720 And then calling us, even after the fall, calling some of us back to him. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:13.920 He's looking for a people he can call his own. 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:17.920 And the question is, how do you respond to that? 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:20.480 This is the question we continue to ask ourselves. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:25.920 And so God works in, and we're to work out, okay? 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:28.480 And that's so there's a concurrence that goes there. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:29.759 Hilmer Kent Jr. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:36.319 is a Bible commentator and Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Greek at the Grace Theological Seminary. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:42.160 He says, working out salvation does not mean working for salvation, but making salvation operational. 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:44.160 And that's what we see here. 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:52.720 Justification must be followed by the experiential aspects of sanctification by which the new life of Christ is consciously appropriated and demonstrated. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:53.519 Isn't that great? 00:22:53.759 --> 00:23:00.799 So grace, while it is opposed to earning, is not opposed to effort. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:02.960 I'll say it again. 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:04.880 And this is from Dallas Willard. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:13.359 Grace is not opposed, or is opposed to earning, but is not opposed to effort. 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:19.599 And that effort is my proper response to God's grace, to God's generous grace. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:41.119 I mean, if I really appreciate what he's done, if he, a holy God, would smile upon a sinner such as myself or such as yourself, the proper response is humility and gratitude, and then responding by living in such a way that would delight our Father who art in heaven, as we delight in him. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:54.960 And so, as Hendrickson, another New Testament scholar and Bible commentator says, their salvation is a process in which they themselves, far from remaining passive or dormant, take a very active part. 00:23:55.440 --> 00:24:01.119 It's a pursuit, a following after, a pressing on, a contest, a fight, a race. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:22.720 You see how hard the New Testament is working at giving us all these different images so that no matter who you are, no matter which way you're wired and which way you think, whether you're poetic or you're an athlete or whether you're a thinker or whatever you are, there's some metaphor that will speak to you and will communicate to you that you're not to be passive in this whole thing. 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:25.519 You're to be engaged in this whole thing. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:34.480 And it permeates all of life, every category of life, all the longings of my heart and mind, all the longings of your heart and mind. 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:44.640 It speaks to and heals the brokenness that's in our hearts, in our minds. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:50.720 It gives us hope for joy, that there might be joy for us. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:55.519 This guy writing from a prison cell can write about joy. 00:24:57.039 --> 00:24:59.920 And notice what he doesn't write about. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.720 This is such a horrible cell, I'm in. 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:06.079 I can't believe food is always late and terrible, mushy. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:08.160 It's not warm. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:11.119 The ice in my coke is melted. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:13.759 I can't even get there's no sippy straws. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:21.359 I mean, there's just so many things I complain about that Paul doesn't spend any time on that. 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:29.519 And this is good, some of you are not gonna be happy about this, but the New Testament spends precious little time talking about how I feel. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:44.480 And I'm speaking this into a culture that is obsessed with the way it feels and how it feels about how it feels, and how it feels about how it feels, and how you ought to feel about how I feel. 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:57.519 And please, you know, understand Paul says very little about how he feels, other than I feel like I really love Christ and want to follow him. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:04.319 And I I love the thing, the only thing he talks about, the feelings are I long to see you, my beloved Philippians. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:05.839 He feels that. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:14.799 But he's not talking about much about his own inconveniences and things that are going wrong, so to speak, in his own life. 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:20.799 If sanctification looks like something, Philippians 2, especially verses 12 to 18, tell us what it looks like. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:22.160 Resting in being the beloved. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:23.519 Look at verse 12. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:38.559 He says, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, and he moves right to that, you are beloved, and just as you have always beloved, you've always obeyed, okay? 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:46.799 Not as in my presence only, not just because I'm there, but now much more in my absence, okay? 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:51.359 And again, he's Pastor Paul, Apostle Paul, writing to this church he founded. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:55.119 He has a proper claim to actually speak that way to them. 00:26:55.839 --> 00:26:59.359 Um he goes, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:01.920 Some of us stopped trembling a long time ago. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:08.480 Some of us are too sophisticated to tremble, or at least we think we are. 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:15.920 Some of us are too self-sufficient to fear, or at least we think we are. 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.240 And I would say in both cases, it's delusion. 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:23.039 I don't agree with Roosevelt. 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:24.960 The only thing to fear is fear itself. 00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:27.440 That's not the world I live in. 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:31.920 I mean, there's a lot of stuff out there to fear. 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:34.880 It's a crazy world. 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:43.759 And I'm so glad there's a sovereign God who has numbered the hairs on my head and is so aware of what's going on in my life, knows my deepest longings. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:47.680 Knows what I need. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:50.880 And how many of us could raise our hand if we if I asked the question? 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:59.920 How many of you have seen in hindsight so much clearer how God is working in your life than you can see right now, or then you can see forward into the future? 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:08.799 You you in hindsight, you have seen God proving himself faithful over and over again, even when you in the moment may not be able to see such a thing. 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:12.240 So rest in the beloved habitual loving obedience to God and his word. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:13.200 This is up there. 00:28:13.359 --> 00:28:15.200 Um, this is part of the response. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.319 Joyful fear and trembling, freed from grumbling and disputing. 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:20.559 Oh, may that be us. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:24.240 Freed from grumbling and disputing. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:25.519 How different we would be. 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:32.559 How how how God's people would stand out, even though there's much that's broken and wrong in this world. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.759 I agree with that. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.640 There are things I would change, there's no question. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:40.559 But Paul's writing from prison and saying we shouldn't grumble. 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:45.519 Paul's writing from prison saying we shouldn't be afraid of what's going on out there. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:48.559 We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:51.599 And we shouldn't be grumbling and complaining. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:55.119 And this is pretty amazing that he would think that way. 00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:00.400 Saved from the sin of acting as a murmurer. 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:01.200 Whoa. 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:05.440 Church people, church people, we need to hear this. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:08.079 I mean, there's one thing, you know, murmur is one of those words. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:09.440 I love the word murmur. 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:10.960 It sounds like what it is. 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:11.599 What's that called? 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:12.400 Onomatopoeia? 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:13.920 Is that is that onomatopoeia? 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:16.960 Let's all do, let's all say murmur about four times together. 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:17.359 Ready? 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:19.039 Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. 00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:20.480 That's what it sounds like. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:22.640 It sounds exactly like what it is. 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:24.640 Murr, murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. 00:29:25.119 --> 00:29:25.759 You know? 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:28.720 Stop it! That's what he says. 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:30.000 And he's saying it to us. 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:30.400 Why? 00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:36.960 Because for the glory of Christ, we need to be, we need to be lights shining in a dark, crooked and perverse world. 00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:39.759 And that crooked and perverse world, you know what it's stuck on? 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:40.960 Murmur. 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:47.759 It's not just stuck on drugs, you know, some of the common sins that everybody likes to list. 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:49.759 It's also stuck on murmur. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:56.079 It's stuck on grumbling and complaining and anger, uncontrollable anger in some cases. 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:04.960 Blameless, innocent, above reproach, shining as lights, holding faster forth the word, rejoicing and sharing in joy. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:11.599 Where are the folks who not only show up at church, but once they show up, they volunteer. 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:16.559 Not only do they volunteer to do what they like to do, but they volunteer to do whatever needs to be done. 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:19.599 You know, we have a few around here that are like that. 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:25.599 They show up and then they volunteer, and then it doesn't matter where you put me, coach, just put me in. 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:26.880 I want to play. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:29.359 I don't want to just own a jersey. 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:31.039 I actually want to be in. 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:37.039 And I'll give myself away in any way you want me to, you know? 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:43.839 I mean, it's true with every organization, every volunteer effort that 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:44.640 I get it. 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.559 Those statistics run true, sadly, in the church, though, as well. 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:50.319 And we need to reverse all of that. 00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:54.559 We need to be coming in here thinking like hosts, not guests. 00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:56.400 Each and every one of us. 00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:04.160 And if all of us did that, then every visitor that comes to Village Chapel would kind of be blown away as they're smothered in the love of God. 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:09.839 Not in the goofy, smothery kind of way that some church people can be. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:11.279 I'm not saying that. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:24.640 Um, but I am saying that if there were an eagerness on all of our parts to rejoice and share the joy, to hold forth the word of God's life and how that's available to us. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:30.799 Uh Jay Alec Motyar says, uh, the light of Christian character is an uninterpreted parable. 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:31.599 I love that. 00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:34.079 If we do not speak about Christ. 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.480 In other words, it's an uninterpreted parable. 00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:40.799 Nobody can figure out what it is, the light of Christ, if we don't live it out. 00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:48.240 Equally, speaking about Christ is futile if our lives do not back up what we say. 00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:52.480 And when we're kids, some of us remember growing up, does our walk match our talk? 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:52.960 That's all? 00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:54.319 It's that simple. 00:31:55.119 --> 00:31:56.480 Are we living this out? 00:31:56.640 --> 00:32:00.720 Is it more than just academic acknowledgement of the existence of God? 00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:01.839 Is it more than that? 00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:07.759 And is it more than academic assent to the doctrines of grace and the Westminster Confession or the shorter confession? 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:08.799 Is it more than that? 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:11.119 Has it gone from here down to here? 00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:17.359