An Appeal to Live Worthy of The Gospel

I want you to turn with me, if you would, to Philippians chapter 1. And follow along as I read. I'm going to go back away in the context where we've already covered, but I want to set up this context. Notice beginning in verse 19, as you know, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians from prison. In fact, he is chained to his guards and they are on duty 24 hours a day. And from that situation, in fact, the church at Philippi had sent a paparditis to him to be a personal minister to Paul while he was in this situation. And they're quite concerned about him. And they're concerned about the advance of the gospel because they have been partners with him in the gospel since they're being as a church.

And so Paul writes this letter to encourage them and to speak to them about some things that he's concerned about in the life of the church that would affect their effectiveness as partners in the gospel. And so notice his words beginning in verse 19 of chapter 1. Paul says, for I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance. That is, he is about to be tried before the supreme court and before Nero. And he says, I know this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

Even if I get a death sentence, I am convinced that Christ will be honored and glorified. For to me, verse 21, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which to choose. But I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desired depart and be with Christ for that is very much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. And convinced of that, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may have bound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

In no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you and that too from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear it to be in me. Notice something about this passage, and in fact it is true of this entire book that Paul highlights several things in this book, two in the passage we are looking at this morning, two things that are worthy of the gospel, and that is unity and courage and face of opposition. In other words, he is concerned that they live worthy of the gospel, that is his primary turn for them. That's what Christianity really means, it is living worthy of the gospel.

Christianity is not just a way of thinking and a way of believing, it is a way of living, but the order is crucial, the order of this is really crucial, the believing and the living. First of all, we are confronted, we meet Christ in the gospel. First we come to the gospel, first we come to understand that God has come in the flesh and the person of His Son, and He has come to where we are in our fallenness and alienation from Him, and Christ has come to reconcile us to God. The good news of the gospel includes His death on our behalf in our place to pay for our sins, and it includes His resurrection, the fact that He has been victorious over death, hell, and the grave, and that He is coming back.

But out of that gospel, out of believing the gospel, then a way of life that is worthy or fitting for that gospel, and that is appropriate for this great truth of salvation in Christ Jesus flows. There are both those pieces, there is the right belief and the right life, the life that reflects this truth that we have come to believe in Christ Jesus. What kind of life is that? What kind of life is worthy of the gospel? What is the way of life that really shows the worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, it is a life that shows that we are really banking our hope on the gospel and not on the world. In fact, look back at verse 21, where Paul says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gained.

This shows what it means to live worthy of the gospel. It is when I live in a way that manifests this attitude. If the gospel is true, and if we have put our hope in the promises of God in Christ Jesus, then to live is Christ and to die is gained. This is why Paul defines living worthy of the gospel as living in unity with each other and living with courage against those who oppose the gospel. So living worthy of the gospel means that to live is Christ. He becomes the center of our life and he becomes the center of our unity, the thing that gives us unity. If you look around, the thing that gives us unity is Christ. It is the fact that we have believed on the same Savior, the same person. And living worthy of the gospel means to die is gained.

You see what that does is it takes the major weapon out of the hands of Satan. It takes away your greatest and last fear, death, because to die is gained. To die is to enter into the presence of Christ. So these two things are at the heart of living worthy of the gospel. Being unified together, striving together for the cause of the gospel and fearlessness before those who oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ on every level. Notice in verse 28, look at the last part of verse 28. This is a sign that is your living in unity and standing courageously against the opponents of the gospel. He says, this is a sign of destruction for them. That is those who refuse the gospel, but it is a sign of salvation for you.

And that too from God. This, since we show the worth of the gospel in our unity, being unified together, striving together for the gospel and standing courageously against the opponents of the gospel. He says, this is a sign from God when we live in unity and when we live courageously as those who advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, courageously and unafraid and humbly trusting depending upon Christ. He says, this is a sign. It is a sign of the destruction of those who reject the gospel who refuse to think about living in a universe where God loves people so much He was willing to give up His own son to die for them. We don't want to live with a God like that. He said, it is a sign of their destruction, but it is a sign of a salvation of those who are believing in this Savior.

We are called to live worthy of the gospel. That is our primary calling. That is the message of this book that Paul wants us to live worthy of the gospel, to live in a way that shows the worth and value of the gospel. The word worthy in the New Testament is from a Greek word that means to balance the scales. It has the picture of a little, if you have ever seen these little scales on a desk that you have a pan over here and a pan over here and an arm. And when you put equal weights, that thing stays level. And that is what the word worthy means. It means that your life should reflect the worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It should reflect the truth of the gospel. Someone mentioned to me this morning that that had struck their heart when I was talking about prayer in the schools, why we are all up in arms about praying in the schools, but we don't pray in the church.

We don't pray in our homes. Why are we so upset about people praying in school when we won't pray in the church? It is a funny thing, isn't it? You see, that doesn't add up. It doesn't add up to say that Christ is worth this, and yet my life does not equal His worth. It's out of balance. And so what Paul wants is for them to live worthy of the gospel. It's what he wants us to do. It's what the Father wants in the life of this church. It's what Jesus Christ, the head of the church, wants in this church. We're called to show that our treasure is not the world. Our hope is not money and earthly security or IRA. Our treasure is not in this world or hope is not in money. It's not in security. Our satisfaction is not in power and prestige.

It's not making sure that our man is in power. Our contentment is not in the approval of other people and our happiness is not in avoiding criticism and slander. Our life is in Christ. Christ is life to us. Our treasure and hope and satisfaction and contentment and happiness is Christ and His promises to live as Christ and to die as gain. Some people wonder how to come to have assurance in the Christian life, especially this is especially true of those who grow up in the church. You hear the gospel very early in life and make a profession of faith and sometimes that profession is real, sometimes it's a true belief and sometimes it's not. But when you are like that and I was like that growing up in the church, you go through those periods of time where you really have questions about the validity of your Christianity.

Do I really know Christ? But one of the ways you can know for sure is when you're hard, it's so transformed by this Christ, by your eyes being open to who He is, that you could say with Paul, although I don't always live this way, I truly believe that to live is Christ and to die as gain. He's my treasure. He is the one who gives me the deepest joy. That is what Paul is calling these Philippians to live for, to live in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's look at his exhortation and what he is preaching this morning through the Philippians. Notice in verse 27, the exhortation, the first part of the verse, only conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. The word conduct yourself is an interesting word.

We get our word politics from it because it means to live as a citizen. It's not the normal word that Paul would use. In fact, I don't know that he uses this word, I can't remember if he even uses this word anywhere else in the New Testament. But he says, live out your citizenship in a manner that is worthy of Christ. Now Paul will tell us in this book in other places that we as believers have a dual citizenship. For example, Paul was a citizen of Rome, but he also was a citizen of heaven, the kingdom of heaven. And this is especially significant for these believers at Philippi because Philippi I boasted in their privileged status as a city made up of Roman citizens. Everyone who was a citizen of Philippi was a citizen of Rome automatically.

And so he is saying, live in the Roman colony of Philippi as worthy citizens of heavenly homeland. Because you are citizens of heaven. In fact, notice in chapter 3 what he says in chapter 3 verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so even though you have this great privilege and I could say it to all of you, even though you are all citizens of the United States, the greatest nation in the world, the most important thing about you is not that. The most important thing about you is that you are citizens of heaven. And so Paul says, live out your citizenship in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does he mean by living worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Well, this defines the parameters and nature of this new city, this new polis that we live in. It's a brand new city, a brand new citizenship and it is surrounded, it is defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ. What they do in the city of Philippi, what they do or what they suffer and they were beginning to suffer and they were going to suffer much more in the near future, they have to live in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It implies the gospel has known ethical implications. There are implications to the fact that Jesus Christ has come as the Son of God and become a man and died on a cross and was raised from the dead. The Apostle Paul says it changes everything as the way I look at people is completely different.

I don't look at anyone the same anymore. I look at everyone through the work, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through the death and burial and resurrection of Christ. You see, the gospel has ethical implications. In fact, a lot of people, when we have a lot of moral and ethical issues that are very dear to us and cause a lot of heat and a little bit of light sometimes, but you really do need to understand that the reason we are against abortion is not simply because it's a horrible thing to do to a tiny little unborn baby. The reason that we are against abortion is it is a violation of the clear ethical principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That every time you kill a little baby, you are killing someone in effigy of God.

You're killing God in effigy by killing that child and you are killing someone for whom Christ said, they're worth my own life and me out my life and shedding my blood to redeem them. That's an awesome thing to think about. The reason we're against abortion is we want to save people from an awful event that they are going to face. They're going to face the living Christ one of these days at the Great White Throne Judgment. And if I destroy the life of someone for whom Christ has died, can you imagine what it's going to be like to look into the eyes, the penetrating fiery eyes of Jesus Christ? See, that's why we are against abortion. The reason we are against so many things, so many moral issues, we have to realize we're not against them for the same reason the Mormons are against them.

We are against them. We stand for certain truth because of the gospel of Jesus Christ because of God's revelation of Himself in the person of His Son. He's revealed His character and His heart and His will through His Son. And so the gospel has known ethical content to it, known ethical, moral issues flow out of the gospel. It establishes a norm for our conduct. We live a certain way because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're sitting there thinking, well, I never heard such a thing and I can't, that doesn't ring true to me. I don't think in those terms. I don't think, I just think about the gospel being the good news that God saves sinners through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Then you haven't thought deeply enough about the gospel.

You need to think deeper. You need to think more profoundly about the implications of what it means for God to become a man to come into our situation, into our fallenness and alienation, and then for God to redeem us at the cost of the life of His own dear Son, has great implications. You will never face a person in this life. You'll never talk to anybody in this life that has not been affected by the death of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians, it's what he says in Colossians 1, that there's not a person living on this planet that has not been affected and their eternal destiny is affected by the fact that God has come into our fallenness, into our fallen situation. He's become a man.

If one person, a person who is truly God, who is now truly man, and he will be truly man and truly God throughout eternity, will always have this incredible connection to the living God. That God is not only eternal God, but He is truly man. He makes clear here notice that selfish ambition, vain conceit, grumbling, disputing throughout this book, these are the things that he mentions that are inconsistent with the gospel. Think about those for a second. Paul is going to tell us if we're motivated by selfish ambition in the church. It's inconsistent with the gospel. If we are motivated by vain conceit, by being worried about what people think of me. If that's the reason I do what I do, that is inconsistent with the gospel.

Or how about this, he's going to say in chapter 2 that grumbling and disputing is inconsistent with the gospel. He says that's the way the world does business. You've all worked in the world and you know what it's like out there, there's all kinds of grumbling and disputing going on. When grumbling and disputing breaks out in the church, we need to at least be aware of the fact it is inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is incontent to it, Paul says. We are to live in a way that is in keeping with our heavenly citizenship and with the gospel of Christ because we have to reflect the gospel and everything we do, everything we say, every decision we make, he says, live worthy of the gospel.

We always have to ask ourselves, is that worthy of the gospel? Some people are always trying to figure out how many things can I do without it being sin? How much wine can I drink without it being sin? How much can I do of this? How many things can I own or how much money can I swander without it becoming sin? The real issue is does it reflect the worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Does it reflect the worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? The gospel reveals that our sin is fatal, that God's love is infinite, that God, we hide and God seeks, that is what the gospel reveals and where to live a life that reflects those truths. Now notice the goal of this exhortation to live worthy of the gospel.

This is his message at the heart of his message is this, live worthy of the gospel, but notice the goal of it. Every sermon is supposed to have a tell us, that means a purpose, a goal. It's meant to accomplish something. When we preach the Word of God, we are to preach in such a way that we are seeking to accomplish a purpose, the purpose that the Spirit has given us in His Word. It's to produce certain kinds of changes in our thinking and our acting and our feelings. Every sermon is to have a tell us, and here he gives this one. In fact, it's a threefold tell us or purpose. He says, I am giving you this message. I want you to live in this way that I might hear these three things about you. First of all, that we might stand firm in one Spirit.

Secondly, that we might strive together for the faith of the gospel with one mind, in perfect unity, in other words, and third, that we may not be intimidated by our opponents, those who oppose the gospel. Notice the first one. He preaches this message so that we might stand firm in one Spirit. So I would say that's my tell us, too, that we would be a church that stands firm in one Spirit. Why is there a need to stand? Why would He say this? Why is there a need to stand firm? Well, the reason there's a need to stand firm is we are in a war, and we have opposition. Now, the opposition probably isn't who you think it is, but Satan, we are told in Ephesians 6 that Satan and Spirit beings are in opposition to the gospel, in opposition of us doing the work of the gospel, living out the gospel, living worthy of the gospel.

And so we are in war, and we must stand against these opponents who come against us and want to push us back. Whenever Paul says, stand firm in something, he always tells you the sphere in which we are to stand. For example, in chapter 4 of this book, in chapter 4 verse 1, he tells us to stand firm in the Lord. Or in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, he tells us that we should stand firm in the faith. But what does he tell us to stand firm in here? Notice in verse 27. What are we to stand firm in? So whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit. That's something that you'll notice if you pay real close attention in the translation, whatever translation you're reading, it either has a capital or a small s on the word spirit.

And that tells you whether the translators thought Paul was referring to the Holy Spirit or our human spirit or an attitude or some of the use of this word spirit. But I suggest that it would be most proper for it to have a capital s, even though the New American standard doesn't have that. Because he is speaking of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of unity. He is the one in whom we are to stand firm in this one Holy Spirit. If you remember back in verse 19 of the first chapter, he asked prayer for the supply of the spirit of Christ as he faces the ordeal that he was facing in Rome. He was about to go to court. He was going to stand before the highest tribunal in all of the Roman Empire. And his life was on the line.

This wasn't to decide whether he was going to be the president. This was to decide whether he was going to live or die. And so he says, in the midst of this ordeal, I know the one who was going to empower me to stand faithful. When the threat is, if you don't shut your mouth about Jesus Christ, we're going to take your head off. How is he going to stand firm? He says through the supply of the spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit is the one, according to 1 Corinthians 12 13, he is the one spirit that has baptized every one of us into the body of Christ. Or in Ephesians chapter 4, there's only one Holy Spirit that we all believe in and trust in and live in. He's the spirit of unity. So when we stand in one spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who is the key to unity in the church.

Now I'm sure the great majority of you who are here this morning understand that the unity of the church is always being attacked. It's one of the primary attacks of Satan. If you read the epistles of Paul alone, you'll discover that one of Satan's primary attacks on the church is to divide us, it's to bring this unity. Some of you are sitting here this morning who are part of this church and you've been thinking lately, you know, these people really don't care about me. If I was to leave, they would even notice it. It's a lie. It's a satanic lie because that's how Satan is. He wants you to feel unloved. He wants you not to believe the promises of God. He wants you to be divided from the body and he doesn't all kinds of ways.

I think Satan is so sly, so subtle as Paul describes it that in fact his attacks are never what they appear to be. He comes against us in ways we never recognize. We typically do not recognize that it's satanic and he comes against us and he wants to convince us that we should pull back, that we shouldn't be an integral part of the body of Christ. There are some Christians at home this morning, different places around the world who aren't worshipping with the saints and they never do, rarely do. And they don't understand that they are ensnared by Satan who wants to keep them from being actively participating in the life and fellowship of the body of Christ. That's what he's called us to. Satan is at work and I am convinced, I don't have, not that I've heard anything, it's just I'm convinced he's always at work, he's at work in every church, he's at work trying to so discord and division, cause people to pull back.

And so Paul says, I want to hear that you are standing firm in the one and only Holy Spirit and only in him can we hope to contend against our enemies. And like I say, our enemies, our greatest enemies are not people. That's not our greatest enemies. Even in other parts of the world where the church is being persecuted, the great enemy of the church in Mindanao, the Philippines, where there is some physical persecution going on, the Sudan, the greatest enemy of all is Satan himself who does energize the opponents, the human opponents of the gospel. But he's our great enemy and he is as active in the church in America as he is active in other churches, other parts of the church around the world.

And notice that this is the first appeal of to us that we would stand in unity, it's a high priority. In fact, from this verse, from verse 27 to the second chapter, up to about verse 18, he's talking about unity, the need for unity in the body of Christ. And you see, his primary concern, isn't that we're all happy, although we will be happy, it's not that we're all just feeling so tickled to be a part of a particular local church. That's not his goal, his goal is that we live worthy of the gospel, that we're a part of the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so talk about unity. We can't advance the gospel if we don't have unity. The reason we have unity in this church is because the Holy Spirit is at work.

And the reason that there are times in which individually, or in little groups, this happens in churches is because Satan is at work to destroy the unity of the church because he knows this is the way he makes the church ineffective in the work of the gospel, is bring division. The second purpose that he has is that we might strive together for the faith of the gospel with one mind. Why do we need to stand firm in one spirit so that we might with one mind be striving together for the faith of the gospel? We have to do this together. We have to be in this together. Striving together is the Greek word soon off loud, athlete, we get this word from, and soon means together. It means to compete together as a team.

It means to be shoulder to shoulder as a team. It's like a team sport where we have to work together in order to accomplish anything. Not one-on-one. Engaging side-by-side as team members, helping one another in the struggle. And here the struggle is for the gospel in Philippi. If he was writing to us, he would talk about the struggle in the gospel in Brentwood and Discovery Bay and Oakley and Antioch. Distribing together. Why are the stress on striving together side-by-side in the work of the gospel? You notice in chapter 4 verse 3, I think this is the reason, notice this. He addresses two leaders in the church. These are two women leaders. That's shocking to some people. But according to Paul, two of the leaders in the church of Philippi were two women, unless they're men around named Eudian, Suntayki, and I don't think so.

These are ladies' names. I urge Eudian and I urge Suntayki to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, through Comrade, I ask you also to help these women who shared my struggle. Soon off loud, they struggle alongside of me in the work of the gospel. In the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also in the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. You see, the reason that this is important, especially as he writes this letter, is that there is kind of division that's brewing among the leaders of this church, and so he's warning them, and he's telling them that you're just strive together to contend side-by-side in spreading the gospel. Don't divide. Don't pull back. The Philippians knew what Paul was alluding to in this passage.

They understood what was going on, and that's why he remembered we saw in the beginning of the letter. He keeps emphasizing all of you, every single one of you, all of you, be involved in this, because that's how the gospel is going to go ahead. Some of you are quite intimidated about being a witness for Christ, because the whole idea of actually speaking for Christ and articulating the gospel and talking to people about spiritual things. Some of you even are frightened and intimidated about just spiritual inquiry, talking to fellow believers and say, how's it going in your Christian life? What's the Lord doing in your life? What do you learn in the Word? You're afraid to even talk about those kind of things.

You'd much rather talk about how much rammed you got in your computer. When is your lease up on your car instead of how's it going in your prayer life? Well, you've been reading in the Word lately. You see, if we're so afraid to even talk about one another about spiritual things, you're never going to talk it to the non-believer about spiritual things. But here's some good news. The goodness, you may be the most timid person in this room, and you can still be effective in the gospel as a team member with the rest of the believers in this church. Because it is a team effort. The thing that hurts us that will keep us from being effective in the gospel is for us to lack unity. We have some in this church that are very outspoken, some who are very brave when it comes to talking to people about Christ.

We have some that have tacked and some who don't have tacked. And that's okay, because we are a team, we're a family. We do the work of the gospel together. And Paul says, if we're going to be effective, we have to have unity, and we have to strive together for the faith of the gospel. We are in a team contest, and we have to ask ourselves, are we functioning as a team? Does anybody here lost heart? Does anybody here become so distracted with other things that no longer is the gospel being a part of the advance of the gospel really important to you? And then, and the third thing he says is, I give you this exhortations, you may not be intimidated by your opponents. Who are these opponents? Well, Philippians, the Philippians, who Paul is writing to, and Paul knew who the opponents were, and he gives us several hints.

The emphasis on Christ as Lord in saving this book that he repeats over and over again, is these Lord and Savior, Kuryas Satere. The reason that has great significance is that those who lived in Philippi, who were citizens of the Roman Empire at this time in history, when Nero was the emperor, when he was the Caesar, you had, it was the law that if you were a Roman citizen, you had to bow the knee, in fact, even if you weren't a citizen, it was your responsibility in the Roman Empire to bow the knee to Nero and refer to him as Lord and Savior. So the loyalty of this colony, who saw themselves as having a high status in the Empire, was very significant to them. They honored the emperor by calling him Lord and Savior.

Now, Paul is calling that, has called him with a gospel. He has brought a gospel to them that says there is only one Lord and Savior. And that's Jesus Christ. And you can imagine the kind of pressure they were facing at Philippi, it's very likely that they were going through the same thing that Paul was going through in Rome. He was in Ohio because he called Jesus Lord and Savior. And they were beginning to be persecuted because they called Jesus Lord and Savior rather than Nero. And he says, I don't want you to be alarmed in any way. The word alarmed here is the word that we would use for spooking a horse, you ever spook a horse? It's a scary thing. And he says, I don't want you to be spooked.

I don't want you to be alarmed by what I'm going through or what you're going through. I want you to realize that God has in charge here. I have been really impressed, I'm not going to say how, I've been impressed by how we are so affected by this whole election thing. And how divisive it is, we have a divided country, don't we have two nations living in one nation. It's amazing. And how deep the division is. And I'm also impressed with how it affects believers and their happiness and their joy and their lack of joy and their worry and what we worry about. And what Paul is telling them is that the things that are going on around you as citizens of I don't let us spook you, guess who's in charge?

Guess who's going to be in charge if Bush comes to office? The same person who's going to be in charge, if Gore is the president, it's the living Christ who's the king and the Savior, we're going to worship and we're going to serve. And he is our only Lord in Savior. Now I know you have preferences, I have a preference too. But the important thing is that we're not spooked by these things. It doesn't affect us so that we pull back from being a part of the advance of the gospel. And the key is to have Paul's mindset, what's that, to die as gain? You're afraid you're going to die if somebody, some particular person gets in the office? Guess what? To die as gain. And once you've come to that realization, it doesn't matter what kind of opposition you face.

If to die as gain and to live as Christ, Luther said it well and Luther's life was threatened. He lived with the threat on his life for a long period of time in his life. And he wrote during that period of time, the by may kill God's truth of bite is still, his kingdom is forever. And we need to understand that. We are involved in the work of the kingdom. And we need to be mobilized mentally and physically and spiritually and to see ourselves as a team, as a family that is involved in the advance of the gospel. I don't think we should be distracted by trying to figure out everybody's psychological problem within the family of God. We should teach the word, preach the word, love people, embrace people, be a loving fellowship.

But what we should do is when those who just don't know whether they want to continue on this march, this advance of the gospel and they have shaking knees, we just need to say, we'll fall in behind this. Let's keep advancing the gospel. Let's keep living a life that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then notice, in verses 29 and 30, he gives us the reason for this exhortation. In other words, it's kind of a theological explanation. There's two parts to it. He says, first of all, the suffering, notice this in verse 29, for it has been granted. It has been granted. It's been grace to you. It's been given to you as a gift. To you, Philippians, this gift hasn't been given to us actually, most of us anyway.

We haven't experienced this, but he says to you, Philippians have been granted for Christ's say, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his say. In other words, he says, it's a grace gift. If you come to faith in Christ, that's a gift, but if you suffer for him, that's another gift. And so we need to understand, Paul wants them to understand that this suffering is a grace that is given to them to believe. And we all experience it to one love or another, but some to a much greater extent. It's a gift. It's a graciously given, a grace gift. It's the same word that's used of spiritual gifts. Some of you are worried about what your spiritual gift is. Well, one of them is to suffer. That's a gift.

Next time somebody asks you, what do you think your spiritual gift is? You can say, well, I'm sure it's suffering. I'm not sure what the other one is, but he's gifted me to suffer. Now exercise the gift. We bold about living in a way that's worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful phrase. It's totally, it's thoroughly Christocentric. He says, literally, to you has been graciously given on behalf of Christ to suffer on his behalf. In other words, Christ has given this to you because he loves you, that you suffer for him. And you know what? That's going to be a glorious thing when you get to heaven and you stand before Jesus Christ and you have suffered for him. Every moment you suffered for Jesus Christ, the fossil James says that when you suffer for Christ, you experience the fellowship of the Spirit like at no other time in your Christian life.

But imagine what it's going to be like to stand before Christ and to have actually took a stand for Christ and suffered for it. And you know, he's so gracious. He is so gracious that all those times that you refuse to stand because you were a coward because and I refuse to stand because I was a coward because I knew if I stood for Christ, if I spoke up and told the truth about my faith in Christ, I'd be ostracized or looked down on or persecuted and I failed. Those were all into the blood of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? But wouldn't it be wonderful? Stand before Christ and for him to say to you, you know that time that you took a stand for me and you knew you were going to be persecuted. You knew that they were going to treat you like you were dirt because you said you believed in me.

I want you to know that I highly honor you today. Every man is going to receive his word of praise from the Father. So he encourages us that this is a gift from Christ and that we ought to see it as a gift when he calls us to suffer for him. You know, some of the phenomena that we have in the church in America, they don't have in churches that are being persecuted. Some of us are struggling over things that people in the Sudan are in men and now they're not struggling with those things because they're being persecuted. And there are some things in our lives that we are going through, some of the things we struggle with. And to figure out a little persecution would go a long way to solving that.

Now, I hope we don't have it. I don't want to be persecuted to be honest with you. But it's amazing to me how bent inward we can get as Christians. What Calvin, Calvin's, our Luther rather said that one of our tendencies is to get bent inward, that the whole Christian life becomes about me, about how I'm doing, how I'm feeling. Instead of the fact that God has brought us together, what an incredible group you are. God's put you together, put us all together to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, to live worthy of the gospel of Christ and all these stories you hear. Every time you hear about people being just faithfully serving Christ by loving one another. You hear about how we are. I love the idea that God, what Jesus Christ has done is He has brought us right into this midst of the trinity, the triune God and we are caught in this crossfire of God's love, the Father loving the Son and the Son loving the Spirit and the Spirit loving the Father and the Son.

We're right in the middle of that. And when we manifest that in the way we treat each other, that is living worthy of the gospel. That's advancing the gospel. You mark my words. They're going to be people who come to faith in Christ simply because of the way God worked and He worked through you and how you responded to Stephen Vena's situation when she was going through such a dangerous time. You watch the gospel of Christ is going to be fruitful in people's lives. That's how God works. And you have to understand we're a team, we're a family that's involved in this together. And that's the second point in verse 30. This is a second theological explanation. We are in this together with all the saints.

We're not alone. We're in it together with all the saints around the world. We are shoulder to shoulder with those who are being persecuted in the Sudan. There are brothers and sisters and those who are dying and their blood is being shed for the cause of Christ. We are one with them. Whatever else we are in this thing together. And He draws in this reality in chapter 2, notice this, the first four verses, listen to this, if therefore there is any encouragement in Christ. If there is any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, have perfect unity, maintaining the same love, united in the Spirit, intent on one purpose, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another is more important than himself.

Don't just look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. See, we're in this together. We're a part of this army, this team that is advancing the gospel of Christ around the world today. You know, when you're in the Mully Grub's God, isn't. You get down and you're discouraged and all this stuff doesn't mean anything to you when you want to go sit on a bench somewhere and just kind of vegetate. Let me tell you, Christ is still advancing the gospel through millions of people every day. And that should be an encouragement to you when you're over there on the bench. When you get back up on your feet and you get moving again, you're going to discover the army has been advancing.

The gospel has been going out. People have been coming to Christ and you can get back in the battle. We need these truths to penetrate our hearts. We live in a post-Christian, post-modern world. The conflict, the spiritual conflict is much more immense than we realize. We sit and watch the enemy make inroads into people's lives, to hook people, to bind them up, to so distort their thinking that they are more resistant to the gospel than ever before in the history of the world. I was reading an article this past week by Rick Arias, who teaches at universities around the world, and he said he has never seen such strong resistance to the gospel as he sees today because of the atmosphere we are living in.

I want to tell you, this battle is real and you cannot sit on the sidelines. God has called you to be engaged in this advance of the gospel. Don't think this is reserved for some little group of clergy. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but in the New Testament, you are the clergy. That's the word that you choose in 1 Peter 5 for you. You're the clergy. You're God's allotted ones, and he has put you in the work of the gospel. And we live in a time where there's a great resistance to the gospel, and we need God to work in our lives, to make us effective in a time like this. How do you talk to people who believe there are no moral absolutes, who don't believe it is an evil thing? Robbie Zekorai said at one university, he was speaking to these students, and they were arguing that there are no moral absolutes, and he says there is no such thing as evil and good.

And he said, well, let me ask you something, he asked this young man, he said, let me ask you something. He brought a newborn baby here right before your eyes, and I took out a butcher knife, and I cut it up into tiny little pieces. Would that be evil? And he says, I couldn't say that's evil. I wouldn't like it, but I couldn't say that's evil. That's the kind of mindset that we face. We take the gospel into the world. Do you want to be alone in that? I don't. I want you all with me. And I want to be with you in the advance of the gospel, because we live in a time when we know we are dependent upon God to work in the hearts of men. How do you change a mind and heart like that? Nothing short of the power of the Holy Spirit is going to change that kind of heart, just like he changed yours.

And so like the Philippians, we need to stand firm in one spirit. Our new mentality, our doctrine of the Holy Spirit has to be experienced, not just studied. It's not just that you can articulate the works of the Spirit, that he's the regenerator and he's the baptizer, he's the sanctifier, he's the seal, he's the earnest, all those things. We have to live it. We have to experience it. We have to experience the unity of the Spirit. And if you're at war with somebody right now, this is the word of Christ. This is what Jesus said to do. Jesus said that when we come to this table by application, when we come to this table to take communion this morning, in your heart that a brother has something against you, you need to determine in your heart, you're going to go to that brother today.

You're going to go to him today. That's a high priority for us to have unity in the body of Christ. We're going to be affected in advancing the gospel. We have to stand firm in one spirit. We lie on the spirit. We need to be diligent in relying on the spirit, seeing the spirit produce unity among us. Supernaturally. I mean, people who don't naturally like one another. People who have different opinions, Democrats and Republicans. I heard Phil Howard was telling me, in fact, that he was at a church in Dallas, Texas, and the person who led the Sunday school class was a Republican congressman. Every week, he would start the class off, and he said he would always drift into this political stuff about whatever the Republican party was interested in that point.

He said, Dwight Pentecost got up to teach. One of the teachers at Dallas, he said, he got up to teach us, I do want to inform you that you don't have to be a Republican to be a believer in Jesus Christ. I want to make the same public announcement. The thing is, do you believe a mark of the covenant, and the new covenant is, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Because you're faith in Him. Now, that's going to have implications. You're going to have certain conditions that's going to cause you to live a certain way. And then secondly, we need to contend for the faith of the gospel as one person. There's a constant pressure to water down the gospel of Jesus, constant pressure in all kinds of ways. Not just liberalism, for example, blatant materialism can so dull our affection for Christ that it will seem like the gospel is not worth contending for.

When things become so important in your life, that the advance of the gospel is no longer important, then we have a problem. We're not contending for the faith as one person. And then third, we need to stop being intimidated by the opposition. That's Satan's strategy. He wants to intimidate, to get us to focus on our weaknesses, to turn you inward, to tell you 100 reasons why you can't be effective in the work of the gospel. You're going to be like Moses, one of the greatest leaders in the Old Testament. The Jews look to him as the greatest leader. But if you remember, Moses told the Lord, I can't do this. I can't speak. Get somebody else. And the Lord kept telling him, I'll be with you. I've called you to do this.

He's called you. You're a believer in Christ. He's called you to advance the gospel. And he'll be with you. That's the key. To return to Paul's emphasis for the sake of Christ, to live as Christ, and to die as gain. And that's truth. Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I don't feel like it's always the truth, isn't it? Amen. It's always the truth. And that's what he's called us to do. So I just want to encourage you. We're going to come to the Lord's table in a few minutes. But I want to encourage you that God wants to make us courageous. He wants to make you courageous in the work of the gospel. He wants to get you out of that pit that you perhaps have dug for yourself. He wants to get you on the road and moving along with the people of God and being involved in the work of the gospel.

Don't spend as an old man, as I stand here as an old man, I want to tell you, don't waste your years worrying about yourself. Don't waste your years being turned inward and worrying about whether God could use such a person you. You've got to, you know, so many things got to change inside of you. Let me tell you, he can use the smallest thing. He can use people who are struggling with all kinds of stuff if they are trusting him and believing in him and putting themselves in his hands. He'll use you in a powerful way, in a way that will affect people's eternity. So I just want to encourage you. I encourage you as a body, as the body of Christ, as the army of God, whatever is calling you to, whatever is influencing you to pull back, to distance yourself from fellow believers.

If it's your feelings that you're not really loved, you're not deeply loved. I want you to know that this is a loving church. You know what? I've never been in a church. I have never been a part of a church that wasn't a loving church. I don't mean that we always love perfectly, but that is the nature of the church. The church is a group of people who have been brought into fellowship with the living God, the greatest lover in the universe. And this is a loving church. And if you're feeling unloved, you're feeling uncared for, please understand. This is a satanic plaque. It's not because you've all of a sudden discovered that this church isn't everything it ought to be. I could have told you that three years ago.

We're not everything we should be. But God loves you and His people love you. And God wants you to be involved in the lives of His people and involved in this work of the gospel. And I appeal to you to take that exhortation to heart. Father, as we come before you, even as we prepare our hearts, quiet our minds and begin, Father, just to prepare our hearts to come to this table where we manifest the unity that you have created, where we manifest the fact that we are one body in Christ, where we manifest the fact that we have been purchased with one body and one blood that we are members of the new covenant through faith in Christ. Father, I pray that you would impress upon us even through the elements, even through our taking of this supper that you want us to be one, that you've made us one and you want us to live like it.

I pray that it helps us to be a forgiving people like you are. You've told us to forgive one another the way you have forgiven us for Christ's sake and help us to forgive each other in the same way. Father, I pray for those who are feeling downcast, for those who are perhaps feeling sorry for themselves. Oh, I know how that feels. I've been in that position so many times. I pray you lift our spirits. You get it? Help us to focus upon the living, victorious Christ. The kinsmen redeemer who came and became one of us so that he could redeem us from sin. Help us to get our eyes upon him. Help us father to remove all those obstacles that keep the love of Christ from flowing through us into the lives of other people.

Help us to stop lying to ourselves and start telling ourselves the truth by prayer. God do a deep and pervasive work in us even this morning we pray for the sake and glory of your Son. Amen.